_The Hon Mrs Reginald Fellowes, relaxing in a green-silk Paquin negligée at 34 Chapel Street in London, which she rented during World War II from politician Duff Cooper and his wife, Lady Diana. Image by Cecil Beaton for British "Vogue", June 1941.
In the coming year, I want my house, my rooms, my life, to be more comfortable. Not slovenly and careless, mind you, but definitely equipped with upholstery that invites coziness. Some benighted souls find cozy to be four-letter word in the world of interior design, but honestly, if you can't close your front door, curl up, and chill out, what's the point?
My living room is nowhere large enough to accommodate the vast sofa shown in the image above, but it's something to aspire to—so if you have the square footage, think seriously about incorporating a similarly beckoning behemoth into your environment. Long, deep, bedecked with cushions, and covered in flowered chintz, it graced a room in the London house where Franco-American fashion plate Daisy Fellowes lived during World War II, just off Belgrave Square. At the time this boldface Singer sewing-machine heiress was working as the first president of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers while her husband, Winston Churchill's cousin the Hon Reginald Fellowes, served in the Home Guard, and their only child, Rosamond, attended to injured citizens as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment.
If any interior decorator finds a client openminded enough to accept a stylish sofa this Brobdingnagian in scale, do let me know. I'd like to stretch out and stay a while
1 comment:
I love Beaton's images, always so evocative of a better era! You can always add a bit of 1950s couture glamour to your interior with a print from the Cecil Beaton Fabric collection, check out the fabulous designs on fabric and wallpaper at www.cecilbeatonfabrics.com
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