Hollywood Glam

Nothing says cinema style to me like the glamour and elegance of J. Robert Scott. Founded in l972 by Hall of Fame designer Sally Sirkin Lewis, the luxury manufacturer was born out of the need to provide her clients with well made, stylish and uncompromising contemporary furnishings. Since this time the company has become a major design force with showrooms and representatives all over the world.

One of my favorite distinctions of a J. Robert Scott piece is the couture quality, the dressmaker details and fine artisanship. The upholstery techniques, exotic veneers and hand woven fabrics are similar to those of a haute couture house. In an industry often filled with mass produced, quantity over quality items, it's nice to know American workmanship still exists. Made in their factory in local Inglewood, California, it's not uncommon to find a loyal craftsman of twenty years applying a finishing touch with a squirrel brush. Their credo is "each piece must be flawless" and it shows.

Whenever I visit their showroom, I feel as if I have stepped back into the Golden Age of Hollywood. Jean Harlow would have been at home with a box of bonbons and her feet propped on the Bijou Pouf and I suspect Garbo would have "vanted to be alone" on the Garbo Settee.

J. Robert Scott will be hosting a reception for my book  Designs on Film this Wednesday, March 23rd. If you are in the area, please drop by the showroom and see what I am talking about firsthand. Pure luxury! And who knows, if my feet hurt you might find me reclining on a chaise as well. With bonbons.

J. Robert Scott

8737 Melrose Avenue

Los Angeles

11:00 AM - 2 PM

Timothy Demi Lune

Garbo Settee

Georges II Console

La Camellia Fabric

Bijou Pouff

Art Deco Bench

Jean Harlow

Greta Garbo on the ultimate art deco set for The Kiss (1929)

On another note, for those of you who follow CBS's The Good Wife, check out set decorator Beth Kushnick's picks for Christie's Auction House series Arbiters of Style. Congrats Beth!

Photo Credits: J. Robert Scott, MGM

Design Inspirations: The Movie as Muse Part Two

There are people you meet in life that are instant kindred spirits, ones you feel like you have known forever. Usually there is a common link -- such as a love of design and movies. Such was the case when I met Joe Ruggiero.

I had the pleasure of meeting the multi-faceted interior designer and television personality at the High Point market last October and our paths crossed again at his lecture at my friend Donna Hysmith's Designers Gallery in Nashville recently. His incredible career has spanned a variety of multi-media disciplines within the design profession for the past 27 years ranging from design consultant on Good Morning America, host and producer of a number of shows and specials on HGTV (Homes Across America), Editor in Chief of Home Magazine and Director of Advertising at Ethan Allen -- and this list just barely scratches the surface. My favorite gigs are his HGTV specials on international design where he literally traveled the globe reporting on one incredible residence after the next based on the best of French, Italian, Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Mexican, Scandinavian and Spanish design. The ultimate dream job!

Today he designs the JR Home collection that includes the Domino line of all seasons wicker for Woodard,  an upholstery line with Miles Talbott, the Sunbrella  textile line, a wood furniture collection with Caperton and an outdoor furniture line with Terra Furniture. 

His Maxfield sofa is reminiscent of the classic Harlow movies of the thirties -- streamlined, modern and sophisticated while low to the ground and comfortable. The Bergen chair is influenced by all the twenties and thirties travel themed escapist films  where ocean liners played a predominant role. Art Deco, French Deco and Moderne ocean liners were notably featured as both a backdrop and plot device in films such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical  Shall We Dance (1937), The Big Broadcast of 1938, Transatlantic (1931) and Reaching for the Moon (1931). 

One of Harlow's most stylish films was the 1933 comedy Dinner At Eight

Harlow in Life Magazine

The Bergen chair was a Pinnacle Award winner in furniture
and as Joe notes, "inspired by French design but paired down to the bare essentials."

Ginger Rogers publicity photo for Shall We Dance

Barrymore Chair
(think thirties actor John Barrymore, grandfather of actress Drew)

Joe's travels have taken him literally all over the world and he was particularly influenced by his visits in Kyoto which later became the muse for his Geisha fabric as seen on the kimono and interiors below. While in Kyoto, he purchased kimono fabrics from garments of the early 1900's and a collection was soon born. "I have always loved the simple design principles of Japan and have been inspired in the design of all my home furnishings," he details.

His collection reminds me of the film Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). Production designer John Myhre (of Chicago fame) designed a section of the pre World War II city of Kyoto on a horse ranch near Los Angeles. Seen below is the tatami room for the geisha and the baron's lair. The geisha district was miraculously built in 14 weeks and strongly influenced by the novel of the same name, traditional dance and Kabuki theater as well as actual historical and cultural references.

The JR collection's Chop Block Mist Sunbrella fabric also found its way on the television hit Melrose Place. Seen below is the star Heather Locklear.

Chop Block Mist

For more on the  Joe Ruggiero Collection, see his website here.

Photo Credits: Architectural Digest/Columbia Pictures Company, MGM, Life Magazine.

Dinner at Eight

Eleven shades of white?

That is the exact number of shades used by art directors Hobe Erwin and Frederic Hope for MGM's film Dinner at Eight (1933). One of the first true films to chronicle the art of social climbing, director George Cukor cast John Barrymore as a washed up matinee idol, real-life brother Lionel as a shipping magnate trying to save his family's firm while his wife Millicent tries to throw the ultimate dinner party. Set against the Manhattan backdrop of a looming Depression, Jean Harlow (as a social climbing bimbo) lounges in bed, eats bon bons and along with the designs, steals the film in every scene she appears.

The thirties sets were significant as it marked a time in Hollywood film design known as the BWS - Big White Set. Also coined the "polar bear" or "white telephone look", white was the dominant color. The original design is credited to the Astaire-Rogers musicals where angles, glossy reflective surfaces and Streamline Moderne was the order of the day. The look was also the result of the development of incandescent lighting -- the use of stark white would have blinded the viewer otherwise.

The Platinum Goddess a.k.a. "High Priestess of White"

Harlow's Manhattan apartment utilized elements of art deco while playing up her trademark assets - platinum hair and white powdered skin. Costume designers clothed her in white satin gowns (the gown above was known as the Jean Harlow Dress) while cinematographer William Daniels used gauze on the lens to film the iconic star. It's been said the MGM chief Louis B. Mayer did not want Harlow for the part and had to be convinced she was a comedienne.

While the film is considered a romantic comedy, it was a telling tale of the times. Based on George Kaufman's hit Broadway play, it also dealt with suicide, financial ruin and alcoholism. Dinner at Eight received the Film Circle honor of being one of the best films of l934.

The Cast

The film was later remade into a "made for television" movie in l989 starring Marsha Mason, Harry Hamlin and Lauren Bacall. But like everything in life, nothing beats the original.

One of several designs for the movie poster and dvd

Photo Credits: MGM