THE WEEK IN REVUE: DESIGN WEEK EDITION
If you follow on Instagram, you know that last week was PaperCity’s Texas Design Week in Dallas, which brought together some of the interior design world’s best and brightest (and me). It was a privilege to attend and cover the five-day event, and as mentioned before, it is among one of the most enriching professional design opportunities of my year (even if the daily sipping and small-talking did leave me slightly bloated and hoarse).
Instead of the usual Week In Revue, the occasion demands a special edition covering the week’s notables and quotables: I present to you Design Week In Revue.
1. Martyn Lawrence Bullard. Name a more iconic duo: Billy Fong and Martyn Lawrence Bullard in conversation at the Rug Company were both hilarious and engaging. I was on the (literal) edge of my seat, which I only later realized was a stack of rugs from Bullard’s collection. Whoops.
“Kitchens are for making tea, opening wine, and storing face cream. And don’t ever offer to cook if you’re entertaining.” (Alex Hitz offered a somewhat different perspective later in the week during a discussion on his new book The Art of the Host: Flawless Entertaining.) Also need to know: what kind of face cream? I’ll have whatever Martyn’s having.
“Home environment really changes you mentally. Creating a beautiful space can really help with healing.” I’m guessing that’s where the wine-opening part comes in handy, as well? In all seriousness, though, I could not agree more. Our dwellings make such an impact in our daily lives, which is why I love learning and writing about design here on the blog.
2. Jeffrey Bilhuber. “My clients all want a built-in bar in their homes. And frankly, I’ve never used a bar cart because I’m afraid my alcohol will be able to follow me from room to room.” Touché.
“It’s more expensive to get it wrong than to get it right.” When it comes to interior design, and major life decisions, I think Mr. Bilhuber hits the upholstery nail on the head. Jeffrey, where were you and your pearls of wisdom when I was trying to decide whether to go to law school?
3. Amy Astley. “Deep dish feature.” Meeting Architectural Digest editor-in-chief Amy Astley was truly a highlight of my week and perhaps my writing career. As she walked us through 100 years of the best AD features, she wanted to remind us all that, haha, she wasn’t around for most of those years—as if anyone would think otherwise after taking one look at her royal flawlessness.
I hung on her every word and didn’t make a lot of notes, but you need to know that she is lovely, brilliant, and passionate both about Architectural Digest and good writing. She encouraged me to keep writing, keep writing, and shared a fun insider tidbit for us word nerds out there: at AD, they have all kinds of ways of talking about whether a design project is publication-worthy… “deep dish” means that it’s really, really good.
4. Alex Hitz. “The higher the monkey climbs the pole, the more it shows its…” Bananas? Duly noted. This Upper East Side parable was just the beginning of Alex’s charismatic conversation moderated by Chesie Breen. True to his subtitle, Alex was flawlessly entertaining, effortlessly keeping the audience laughing so much we were reaching for our (monogrammed, always monogrammed) handkerchiefs to dab the tears from our eyes.
Also words I needed to hear: “Don’t apologize for your food, and never stop smiling.”
5. Bill Hutchinson. There are words and then there are words. Everyone has been talking about The PaperCity Design Awards at the Joule Hotel hosted by Martyn Bullard and introduced by Hutchinson, the developer most recently known for Marrying Millions and pouring millions into a brand new, forthcoming Virgin Hotel in the Dallas Design District. No quotes to be found here, though. I can’t repeat most of what the charming, ambitious, and floral appliqué jacket-clad Mr. Hutchinson said on stage that evening, but short of turning a phrase, he did prove a talent for turning a room of faces as red as the carpet!
We’ll leave it at that. During a week where it often feels like the highest of design ideals is that cost be no object, the moral of the story is that there are still some things that money can’t buy!
Thank you to PaperCity and every presenter, sponsor, and showroom for making Texas Design Week 2019 such a wonderful and memorable experience!