Thursday, February 7, 2013

ZEBRA'S ON YOU CHINA: SCALAMADRE BY LENOX TABLETOP DEBUTS AT BLOOMINGDALE'S

Last night Scalamandre debuted their new tabletop collaboration with Lenox at Bloomingdale's. Just up the street from the Scalamadre townhouse, they debuted Scalamandre's classic textile patterns interpreted on Lenox, American-made china. Adapting 5 iconic patterns, including the jumping zebra we all know and love, they created fanciful dinnerware and accessories for the collection. To launch with a creative bang, they asked celebrated interior designers Bunny Williams, Charlotte Moss, Richard Mishaan, Kathryn M. Ireland (who is in the midst of creating a fabric collection with Scalamandre now), and Jamie Drake to create festive windows around the patterns. And that they did. The windows were fantastic; sure to stop passersby in their tracks.

 Photos and descriptions courtesy of Scalamandre/Lenox/Bloomingdales
Renowned designer Bunny Williams created an exuberant, tour de force homage to Lenox's Toile Tale. Adapted from Scalamandré's Pillement Toile, the pattern features a fanciful Chinoiserie landscape of enchanting flowers, fretwork, figures, pagodas and parasols. Framed by antique gilded palm trees, a carved and painted curio pagoda cabinet showcases a selection of Toile Tale’s captivating dinner plates, bowls and accessories. Suspended above, a host of multi-colored silk lanterns herald the Chinese New Year. Scalamandré's warp silk Paradiso covers the upper walls and the striped silk Sunset adorns the lower third, each anchored with elegant fretwork molding. Turkish floor cushions covered in Scalamandré's luxe Tigre finish this exotic, enticing meal for two.

Bouvier, based on a superb 18th century French design from Scalamandré and known as Jardin de Tuileries, has graced the homes of some of America’s great style doyennes, among them Jacqueline Onassis, Bunny Mellon and Marie Harriman. Designer Charlotte Moss took her cue from Jacqueline Kennedy's childhood in East Hampton and created an equestrian scene with boxwood hedges, pole jumps and an impromptu luncheon. Bales of hay serve as seating and are covered with tufted cushions of Scalamandré’s smart outdoor Boxwood Stripe. Miss Bouvier’s monogrammed quilted horse blanket is made of navy Guadeloupe with brown detailing and a monogram. An awning, also fabricated in the navy Guadeloupe appears above this sophisticated, sunlit setting. Placesettings of Bouvier and a complement of serving pieces, flatware and silver are displayed on a folding table.
 Bouvier

Richard Mishaan created a chic, urban dining aerie to showcase those iconic Zebras that once graced the walls of the late, lamented Gino's Restaurant in New York City. Lithely eluding arrows with grace, speed and endless charm, Scalamandré’s irrepressible Zebra wallpaper in the signature Masai red serves as dramatic backdrop for an intimate dinner. A complement of Zebra china, accessories and giftware is set on table with a red silk tablecloth of Scalamandré’s Shangri-la overlaid with the finely woven Herringbone di Lusso. Two cubes upholstered in the graphic Zebra linen emerge from under a console and a three-paneled screen featuring a dozen Zebra Accent plates finishes this dramatic and swank vignette. 

 Zebras

A painted English stately home with a requisite fountain and lake is the charming backdrop for Kathryn Ireland’s picnic vignette. Appointed with the enchanting Love Birds china pattern, this perennially fresh design is from one of Scalamandré's earliest and most cherished reproduction fabrics. Her inviting plein-air tablescape features pillows covered in Scalamandre's Love Birds, Bizarre, Sami Ikat and Lillian. A tablecloth in blue Serendipity is layered with a coral strié lampas, Uppsala and at the cloth’s edge, is a fetching parasol covered in Sami, in blue. A one-hundred-percent beautifully drawn linen, Baroque Floral is draped over the picnic basket. 

Love Birds

Jamie Drake selected Lenox’s striking Stravagante pattern, a hyper lush, ravishingly drawn Italian Baroque still life based on a document from Scalamandré's Medici Archives. In a distilled, graphic and dreamlike tableau, Stravagante imaginatively comes to life with five winding, serpentine stems, tendrils and leaves covered in Scalamandré’s Citrine Upcountry cotton velvet and Rasone, a solid cotton sateen. Five electric blue Morning Glory blossoms in the blue cotton Cento are adorned with butterflies and bear Stravagante plates. 

 Stravagante

No comments: