WHERE: Second Hand Rose

This wallpaper store is more than a vintage shop – it’s a treasure trove of wallcoverings featuring patterns and styles from chinoiserie to mylar and patterns dating back more than a century.  Though it has been a part of the New York design scene since 1945, Second Hand Rose is gaining a new generation of fans including Steven Sclaroff and other marquee designers, thanks to a renewed interest in unique wallcoverings. 

For more information, please visit secondhandrose.com.

Images (top to bottom): Second Hand Rose.

WHEN: Sourcing the Museum, Opening March 23 at the Textile Museum

Invited to participate by renowned textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen, 11 contemporary textile artists explored the Textile Museum’s historically and culturally varied collections.  An exhibit opening March 23 will display the eleven new artworks the artists created, alongside the fabrics that inspired them. The historical textiles highlight the wide scope of the Museum’s collections, ranging from rare Pre-Columbian and Late Roman weavings to Japanese kimono and Central Asian ikats.

For more information, please visit textilemuseum.org.

 

Images: The Textile Museum.

 

WHAT: That Zebra Print…

Scalamandre’s iconic Zebra pattern dates to the 1930s, when it made its debut at the late, great Gino’s restaurant on Lexington Avenue.  Though that establishment is gone, you can still catch a glimpse of the pattern on a wall of the Sprinkles Cupcake Bakery that now occupies the spot.  You can also find Zebras leaping through dressing rooms at Kate Spade and Barneys.  The original pattern was designed by Flora Scalamandre and is available in a range of colorways, including the iconic red that Anthony Haden-Guest described as "strawberry, a raw beefsteak, a Bloody Mary".

For more information, please visit scalamandre.com.

Images (top to bottom): Scalamandre.

WHO: Florence Broadhurst

In 1959 Florence Broadhurst established Australian (Hand Printed) Wallpapers Pty Ltd., which later became Florence Broadhurst Wallpapers Pty Ltd, advertised as "the only studio of its kind in the world". Her brightly-colored geometric and nature-inspired oversized designs were all hand printed. Technical advances made in her studio included printing onto metallic surfaces, the development of a washable, vinyl-coating finish and a drying rack system that allowed her wallpapers to be produced in large quantities.  By 1972, her wallpapers reportedly contained around 800 designs in eighty different colors and by the mid-1970s she monopolized the quality end of the Australian market and was exporting worldwide.

In addition to being a prolific and legendary designer, Broadhurst was a starlet, a socialite… and the victim of a murder that remains a mystery 35 years later.

For more information, please visit florencebroadhurst.co.au. or see “Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret and Extraordinary Lives” by Helen O’Neill. 

Images (top to bottom): Signature Prints, Chronicle Books, Signature Prints.

WEEKLY Ws: Textiles

Iconic textile designs are popping up all over.  From the pattern on a skirt to the walls of the dressing room, inspiration is all around. 

WHERE: West Hollywood Library

Why build a library today? In the case of the West Hollywood Library, that's literally the $64 million question. Answers are many and multifaceted. The facility itself is a hive of activity and bold design moves. Seen from the Pacific Design Center across the street, the flowing white three-story building, shared with the City Council, is already an ipso facto landmark. It's also part of a bigger picture, anchoring the first phase of Johnson Favaro's master plan for West Hollywood Park. Demolishing the former library, a 1960 structure by Edward H. Fickett, and appropriating parking lots essentially doubled green space to 7 acres in one of the busiest parts of Los Angeles. So, in the center of the community, Steve Johnson and Jim Favaro conceived, well, a community center. Books can create a public gathering place, an antidote to computer-generated isolation. They're anything but dated. "If we could build libraries and schools for the rest of our lives, we'd be thrilled," Johnson says. "They're the biggest investment a municipality makes." 

- “L.A.Story,” Interior Design Magazine, February 2012

Images via Interior Design.