Vogue Living Australia (November-December 2021)

Теги: magazine magazine vogue living

ISBN: 0042-8035

Год: 2021

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Текст

On
EXPRESS YOURSELF

How to inject colour and
creativity into your home
FRESH TALENT

New floral superstars
from around the world
TRAILBLAZERS

The Indigenous women
redefining contemporary art

the
bright
side

Award-winning Zaza
Raising the benchmark in contemporary style, the Zaza features
soft sensual curves, luxurious deep seats and sculpted adjustable
arms and backs for a supreme comfort experience. Designed by
acclaimed Australian designer Charles Wilson for King.

AUSTRALIA

AUCKLAND

KUALA LUMPUR

LONDON

SINGAPORE

SHANGHAI

VANCOUVER

L’ESSENCE FONDAMENTALE
AND LE BAUME
ULTIMATE REDENSIFYING AND REGENERATING DUO

Contents

A tactile arrangement crafted by The
Colourblind Florist, one of the creatives in
our showcase of new ﬂoral artistry talent.

40 THE VL EDIT

55 NEW BLOOMS

A curated hit list of new feature
pieces and accessories that have
caught our eye

Floristry today is more than just pretty
posies. From Sydney to Antwerp, we meet
a handful of the world’s most exciting ﬂoral
artists who are cultivating arrangements
and installations that will open your eyes to
the possibilities and wonder of ﬂowers as art

VLife
Upfront
22
24
26
29

CONTRIBUTORS
ONLINE NOW vogueliving.com.au
EDITOR’S LETTER
VL VIEW

VLoves
34 JUST FOR FUN
Steeped in nostalgia with a dash of
chic kitsch, Gucci’s lifestyle collection
charms with whimsy and elegance
in equal measure

46 MOOD ELEVATOR

65 ICONIC STYLE: OUT OF OFFICE

Avant-garde couturier Rolf Snoeren
of Viktor & Rolf places his Amsterdam
apartment in the hands of fellow
boundary-breaker Studio Job’s
Job Smeets to concoct this bright
confection

Louis Vuitton reinvents an iconic 1929
bureau for today’s remote-work era

52 JOIE DE VIVRE
The artistic director of Dior Maison
and Baby Dior, Cordelia de Castellane
understands the art of entertaining
better than most. Her exquisite
tabletop creations help transform
any meal into a memorable event

68 EDGE OF GLORY
Forget the macho posturing of white-boy
art taking prime plinth in established
Western institutions. The fresh face of
best contemporary practice is Black,
female and impervious to precedent

76 LEADING LIGHT
Reinforcing an intrinsic link to the real
value of gathering spaces has informed
MAP Studio’s illuminating MPavilion
Nov/Dec 2021

HERMÈS,,
BEAUTY IS A GESTURE

ROUGE HERMÈS,, SHADE 85 - ROUGE H

142

96
152

P HOTO G RAP H E R: AN SON SM ART. FLOWE RP OT VP 3 LA MP BY V E R NE R PA N TO N FO R &T RAD I T I O N F RO M C ULT; CU LT DE S I GN .COM .AU. C US HI ON S FROM PON Y RID ER ; PON Y RID ER. COM. AU

152
106

116

128

Our rugs lie lightly
on this earth.

A R M A D I LLO - C O.C O M

Contents

The signature Martini served up with
rakish style at Singapore’s Atlas bar.

VList
166 STRAIT AHEAD
With a travel bubble on the horizon,
Singapore slings to the top of our getaway
plans. With top-notch restaurants and
enticing bars, it’s time to rediscover the
Garden City’s perennial attractions

170 THE VL EDIT
A curated hit list of reﬁned accessories for
those who travel in style, from top to toe
18

vogueliving.com.au

78 SUBSCRIBE TO VL
Receive a print and digital
subscription for only $65 a
year and become a Vogue VIP

On the cover
The living room of the Garcia House in Los
Angeles, designed by John Lautner and currently
the home of John McIlwee and Bill Damaschke.
Photographer: Roger Davies. Story, page 82.
Subscribe to Vogue Living: page 78.
Be part of the conversation: #VogueLiving #loveVL

172 SOURCES
Contact details for the products, people
and retailers featured in this issue
On
EXPRESS YOURSELF

VLast look
176 FOREVER YOUNG
A modular favourite blurs the boundaries
between inside and out in a new iteration
ideal for all climes

How to inject colour and
creativity into your home
FRESH TALENT

New floral superstars
from around the world
TRAILBLAZERS

The Indigenous women
redefining contemporary art

the
bright
side

P HOTO G RAP H E R: LAU RY N I SH AK

166

Services

PERTH’S LUXURY HOME BUILDER FOR 40 YEARS | WBHOMES.COM.AU
BC5409

PUBLISHED BY CONDÉ NAST

Rebecca Caratti
EDITOR editor@vogueliving.com.au
ACTING EDITOR Jake Millar
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Natasha Allen
DEPUTY EDITOR Verity Magdalino
STYLE EDITOR Joseph Gardner
ACTING CHIEF COPY EDITOR Virginia Jen

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Roger Lynch
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IMAGES Jody D'Arcy, Roger Davies, Kasia Gatkowska, Armelle Habib, Timothy Kaye,
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EVENTS & EXPERIENCES
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Contributors

Leicolhn
McKellar
P H OTOG R A P HER
For Darwin-based Leicolhn
McKellar, a Budjiti woman from
south-west Queensland, taking
pictures is a way to channel her
natural instinct for storytelling.
“My career has evolved alongside
my conﬁdence and identity as a
First Nations woman,” she says.
“It’s evident in my pursuit of
recording my people and their lived
realities through a First Nations
lens.” She documented the Yolngu
women artists (page 68) for ‘Edge of
Glory’. “The Buku-Larrnggay Mulka
Centre is an emporium of cultural
knowledge but the highlight for me
is how lacking in pretence it is,” says
McKellar. “I was especially charmed
by Djerrkngu Yunupingu chuckling
in delight as she sang to me. These
Yolngu Elders are incredible women
with a wealth of knowledge and
stories to share. I delight in being
in their presence any chance I get.”
@leicolhnmckellar_photography

Ceri David
E DITO R A N D WR ITER
Welsh-born, Sydney-based
creative Ceri David calls herself
a writer and editor. “It probably
makes me sound ancient but the
term ‘content’ doesn’t feel right,”
she says. “It makes my career
sound like the stuffing inside
a cushion.” For our Optimism
issue, David poured her 20 years
of exceptional talent into crafting
our lead VL View essay, ‘Reading
the room’ (page 29), about
the shifting concept of home.
Interviewing psychologist and
associate professor Dr Kerry
McBain about the impact our
homes have on our wellbeing
— and discovering her penchant
for aquariums — was, she says,
illuminating. “She’s named all
her ﬁsh,” says David, “including
one called Sigmund, who lives
alone, pontiﬁcating about life.
I loved that.” ceridavid.com

Jody D’Arcy

P HOTOG R AP HER
When Jody D’Arcy was contacted to capture
the Marsala House — designed by the inimitable
architect Iwan Iwanoff — in her hometown of Perth (page 128), it was a dream made
reality. “The Iwan Iwanoff homes are design icons, all completely different and Marsala is
one of his youngest homes, built in 1976, and heritage listed,” she says. “The highlight of
this shoot was not only the home, but also hearing the story from designer Mariia Gabriel
about the curation of its interiors.” D’Arcy began her career as a photojournalist for The
Sunday Times (Perth) and has just launched Havenist, an online magazine showcasing the
creatives behind Perth’s thriving design industry. “I love design, especially interiors and
architecture,” she says, “and am very excited to be creating this community of incredible
designers, makers, builders and retailers here in Western Australia.” @jody_darcy
22

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E DI T E D BY V E RI T Y MAGDA L I NO. P HOTO G RAP H ER : BE L LE V E RD I G LI O NE (J O DY D’ARCY )

Chris
Pearson

EDI TOR A N D WR I TER
Chris Pearson started his career as
a business journalist but it wasn’t
long before the New Zealand native
and current Sydneysider decided to
pursue his true passion, design. “Design draws on not just my
passion for aesthetics but also the relationship people have
with their homes — we shape and are shaped by where we
live,” he says. “Language and design have always been among
my greatest loves and this way I can combine the two.”
For this issue, Pearson wrote the story on the renovation
of a 1916 Tudor Revival home in Sydney (page 152). It’s the
debut interiors project for We are Duet, a brand-new
practice helmed by designers Dominique Brammah and
Shannon Shlom. “It was a pleasure to write about the
ﬁrst project of a new design team that’s deﬁnitely one to
watch,” says Pearson. “They approach things in such a fresh
way — nothing routine here. And no two projects are the
same, so expect the unexpected.”

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Editor’s letter

In the living room of John McIlwee and Bill Damaschke’s John
Lautner-designed home, the Garcia House in Los Angeles (page 82).

vogueliving.com.au

PHOTO G RA PH ER S: G EO RG E S A N TON I (P ORTRA IT ), RO G ER DAVI E S (L I V IN G R O OM )

nterior design has never been more popular. From homewares
to home renovations, the whole sector has been booming
over the past few months. And the reason seems fairly simple:
so many of us have been stuck indoors, with little else to do
but stare at all the things we want to change. But I think
there’s something else to it, too.
After almost two years of chaos and confusion, our interior
spaces feel like they are one of the few aspects of our lives we can
control. Whether it’s a complete kitchen makeover or serving your
morning coffee in your favourite mug, design has the ability to affect
not just how a space looks, but how it makes us feel.
That’s what this issue is all about. We’re calling it the Optimism
issue not simply because it looks like there might ﬁnally be some light
at the end of what has been a very long, bleak tunnel, but because
we wanted to celebrate the positive power of design. As Ceri David
writes in VL View (page 29), great design is not just about surrounding
yourself with beautiful things — although it doesn’t hurt. It is about
considering our emotional connection to a space, the way it can help
to lift our mood and offer comfort in an otherwise trying time.
What unites the homes featured across these pages is the way
their owners have harnessed that ability of design to inspire and
uplift, in a way that reﬂects each of their unique personalities.
Whether it’s the exquisite details in the London home of Bollywood
star Sonam Kapoor Ahuja (page 106), the art-ﬁlled space of Sydney
architect Nick Tobias (page 116), the fun-loving owners of the Iwan
Iwanoff home in Perth (page 128), or the John Lautner-designed
Garcia House, perched in the Hollywood Hills (page 82).
I’m excited to have this particular home on our cover. Besides the
fact that it is such an iconic example of mid-century architecture
and design, LA feels like a good ﬁt for this issue. In many ways,
it is a city built on optimism. The ﬁrst time I visited years
ago, I completed that requisite hike up the Hollywood Hills and
I remember just being struck by that incredible panorama.
It seemed almost endless, stretching out across the whole city and
on and on towards the horizon. Standing there, it was easy to see
why LA has drawn so many people over the decades, many of them
arriving with little more than the hope of one day making it big,
and the conviction that bette
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VLview
a detail from
the Soft Serve project
designed by YSG.

T H IS PAG E

Reading the room
P HOTO G RAP H E R: PR U E RU SCO E . ST Y LI ST: FE LI C I TY N G

After so long stuck in the one spot, can the four walls we call
home ever be our happy place again? By Ceri David

nyone who’s witnessed their child building
a fort out of sofa cushions understands the
power of interior design. With just a blanket
over the top and a ‘keep out’ warning in crayon,
they’ve engineered the perfect space: bespoke,
adaptable and invitation-only. While the
form may be basic, its function is spot-on
but even more important is how it makes them feel: cosy,
independent, in control.
Our adult homes may be more complex of material and more
ruinous of budget, but Yasmine Ghoniem, founder of Sydney-based
design studio YSG, believes the desired outcome is no different. “For
me, interiors are emotions. They’re not actual spaces with objects in
them,” she says. “It’s that sense of warmth and safety that makes me
feel at home. I think it’s the same for everybody, subconsciously.”

Of course, the concept of ‘home’ has undergone a monumental
case of scope creep over the past 18 months, the original brief now
scribbled with extra clauses (gym, classroom, DIY hair salon).
Worse: we’re held in captivity with our nearest and (ﬁngers crossed,
still) dearest. Home, it’s fair to say, has strayed a long way from
cushion-cubby status.
“That’s a problem,” conﬁrms associate professor Dr Kerry
McBain, environmental psychologist and head of psychology at
James Cook University. “Our day-to-day habitat has a huge impact
on our mood, motivation, behaviour and how we feel about the
world in general, so we have to embrace that.”
The likes of Feng Shui and Vastu Shastra have explored the impact
of design and space on our energy and emotions for millennia.
Western society has been slow to join in, but now our hand has been
forced. “Thinking ‘I’m stuck and I don’t want to be here’ doesn’t ››
Nov/Dec 2021

a closer
look at the Fantales
kitchen designed by
YSG in collaboration
with Laminex.

T H I S PAG E

“For me, interiors are
emotions. They’re not actual
spaces with objects in them.
It’s that sense of warmth
and safety that makes me
feel at home”
‹‹ get us anywhere,” says McBain. “The best way of dealing with
it is to take control of what you can control, and that’s where you
live. Our world has changed forever, and our home environments
must adapt to suit.”
Right now, chez nous, we feel trapped, disorganised and crowded.
Can a spot of interior design really ﬁx such a forceful trifecta?
Let’s see.
First up: feeling trapped. Granted, it’s not possible to design your
way to freedom, Shawshank Redemption-style, but McBain says
the next best thing is change.
“Humans like dynamic quality in their lives,” she explains.
Usually, we’d get that from things like travel, social interactions and
eating out — but you can introduce this dynamic quality at home
30

vogueliving.com.au

by deepening your connection with nature. Officially branded
biophilia, it’s a desire to embrace Mother Nature via daylight, fresh
air and organic materials to name a few examples, and is proven to
boost physical and mental health.
Whether you do it with indoor plants, timber or a glimpse
of passing clouds, natural elements bring notions of evolution
indoors, disrupting your cabin fever. Chef Sean Moran of iconic
Sydney beachfront restaurant Sean’s paints vegetables on his
dining-room walls. McBain herself is drawn to ﬁsh. “I started
lockdown with one tank. I now have ﬁve, and I’ve learned
to landscape them, so they’re quite beautiful,” she details. “I can sit
for hours watching ﬁsh. It’s so relaxing.”
And it even works in abstract form. “It can simply be a
representation of nature,” says trend forecaster Philip Fimmano.
“A rounded edge that reminds us of a pebble, or the way some
ﬁnishes mimic the texture of stone. It’s also about touch, because
the more digital we become, the more we need tactility.”
As for pain point number two, the disorganised state of mind at
home is due to being forced to multitask. With a little help, you and
your home can rise to the challenge. Start by kicking out the kids
and converting their rooms into a yoga studio and a workspace.
Otherwise, try zoning.
“Do an analysis of what happens at home each day for a week
to see how your spaces are used,” says McBain. “From there you
can work towards developing rotatable work/life stations. When
the work day is over, elements can transition so an area turns
back into a personal zone.”
Ghoniem’s designs often include sectioning, a design tool that
works wonders on how a space feels as well as its utility. “We love
screening devices that conceal something and open it back up again,
or change the elevation of a room,” she says.
Consider ﬁnding a balance between positive and negative space;
a middle ground that’s neither hoarder’s paradise nor forensic lab.
Tipping points vary wildly vis-a-vis to clutter; exceeding your
own level of tolerance will induce anxiety, so box up anything
unnecessary and store it for a few months to make space.
Next on the agenda: the sense that we’re being crowded,
by having to share all of the above with other humans 24/7.
“We need time alone,” insists McBain. “Without it, your brain is
constantly moving, observing other people, trying to ﬁgure out
what they’ll do next and how it affects you. And it doesn’t matter
how much you love these people.”
The design ﬁx for this necessary me-time? Designated solitary
nooks. (Crayoned ‘keep out’ sign optional.)
“People are creating areas that are like a small set,” says Fimmano.
“An interesting lamp, a chair or a daybed, a side table. It’s a
harmonious composition that creates that little moment of ‘I’m
going over there to be alone,’ whether you’re writing an email,
reading, thinking about leaving your husband…”
Combine these last two solutions, and plan your day as you would
in a real office, booking areas to avoid colliding with your colleaguesslash-loved-ones.
If all else fails, move house. It may sound like an extreme ﬂex, but
it does offer a semblance of choice and action during these, yes,
unprecedented times. “We’re seeing a lot more of that with clients
we’ve just ﬁnished signiﬁcant homes for, where you’d think they
might stay for ﬁve to 10 years,” says Ghoniem. “It’s drastic, but
people want a new project. And it’s almost like travelling, moving to
a new suburb.”
The point is, home is your cushion fort. Whether you ﬁnd a way to
fall back in love with your current one, or ﬁnd a new one to nest in,
think back to how it once made you feel — safe, warm, in control
— and do whatever it takes to make that happen again. VL

P HOTO G RAP H E R: DE R EK SWALWE LL . STY LI ST: N ATA LI E JA ME S

VLview

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shop style

VLoves

Herbarium sugar bowl, $730, cake stand, $840,
and cups (part of cup and saucer set), $435, all from Gucci;
gucci.com. Cake from Added Sugar; @addedsugar_.
Turn the page for the full story.

T H I S PAG E

Nov/Dec 2021

VL PA RT N E R S H I P

Just
STYLE

FOR

F N
TH IS PAGE ,

Cauliﬂower
paperweight, $360;
small notebooks, $575
for set of 3; and Web and
Horsebit stationery set,
$515, all from Gucci;
gucci.com.

Steeped in nostalgia with a dash of chic kitsch, Gucci’s lifestyle
collection charms with whimsy and elegance in equal measure.
Photographed by Anna Pogossova Styled by Joseph Gardner

vogueliving.com.au

ST Y LI N G ASSI STAN T: L AUR A ALE X AN D RA

F R O M TOP

TH IS PAGE , ON CA B IN E T,

Herbarium teapot,
$935; dice set with Interlocking
G, $575; Herbarium cake stand,
$840; cloche with hand and ring,
$1575, and Geometric G pyjama
set, $4045, all from Gucci.
IN CAB INE T, O N LE FT cloche
with hare, $1575, and Centennial
mid-heel slingback with horsebit,
$1175, from Gucci; gucci.com.
Cake from Added Sugar;
@addedsugar_.
FRO M L EF T

Nov/Dec 2021

T H ESE PAG ES , O N S O FA , F RO M LE F T cushion
with Tiger Patch, $1650, and Diana mini tote bag,
$3300, from Gucci. O N F LOO R, F RO M L EF T
backgammon set, $5695; Floral Interlocking G
and Tartan cushion, $1205; and Radura card set,
$425, all from Gucci; gucci.com. Cake from
Added Sugar; @addedsugar_.

VL PA RT N E R S H I P

Floral Interlocking G and
Tartan cushion, $1205; Centennial mid-heel slingback with
horsebit, $1320; Geometric G pyjama set, $4045; Herbarium
cup (part of cup and saucer set), $435; Floral Interlocking G and
Tartan cushion, $1205; and vase, POA, all from Gucci; gucci.com.
TH I S PAG E, C LO C KW IS E F ROM L E F T

vogueliving.com.au

VL PA RT N E R S H I P

Nov/Dec 2021

VLoves

AB OV E

The Hermès installation at
Milan Design Week featuring
the Sillage d’Hermès armchair
by Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai,
POA, from Hermès; hermès.com

BE LOW

A BOV E

BE LO W

A curated hit list of new
feature pieces and
accessories that have
caught our eye.

vogueliving.com.au

A BOVE

P HOTO G RAP H E RS: SHA RY N CAI RN S (AR MA DI L LO ) . M AXI ME V E RRE T (HE RMÈ S ). STY L I ST: J OS EP H GA RDN ER (AR MA DI L LO ). E XCH AN GE RAT E CORRE CT AT TIM E OF PR IN T SU BJECT TO CHAN G E

AB OVE

VLoves
BELOW

Symphony sideboard by Emmanuel
Gallina, from $17,415, from Poliform;
poliformaustralia.com.au

AB OV E

R IG HT

RI G H T

vogueliving.com.au

P HOTO G RAP H E R: FI O N A S US AN TO (TO M FE R E DAY )

RIG H T

LEF T

Future is an attitude

Tomorrow made for today
The future is never certain. So we made one that is.
The ﬁrst, all-electric Audi is set to deﬁne a new era of mobility.

The all-electric Audi e-tron

Overseas model with optional equipment shown.

Handmade culinary architecture.
Designed and created for you in France, since 1908.
www.l acornu e.com .au
www.e ands .co m .au

Available at

P HOTO G RAP H E R: KASI A GAT KOWSKA. ST YL IST: BAR BAR A BE RE N DS

art design people

VLife

Nov/Dec 2021

VLife
TH IS PAGE, FR O M L E FT

a Playmobil-style door
marks the entrance to
the Amsterdam home.
Homeowners Rolf Snoeren,
couturier and one half of
Dutch fashion house Viktor
& Rolf, and his husband
Brandon O’Dell in the
bedroom lounge.
Details, last pages.

DESIGN

Mood
elevator
Avant-garde couturier Rolf Snoeren
of Viktor & Rolf places his Amsterdam
home in the hands of fellow boundarybreaker Studio Job’s Job Smeets
to concoct this bright confection.
By Mitchell Owens
Photographed by Kasia Gatkowska
Styled by Barbara Berends

musement parks are for the young.
At least that’s the conventional
wisdom. Job Smeets, however,
has never put away childish things.
For the founder of Studio Job,
the provocative product-design ﬁrm, youthful
recollections of Efteling — the largest theme park
in the Netherlands — form the DNA of his deﬁantly
kitsch creations. Imagine an armchair in the form
of a hamburger, a punching bag that appears to be
made of red brick, and a table lamp that mimics
a half-peeled banana. “If I can visualise those
memories, I can explore new shapes and forms,”
explains Smeets, who launched Studio Job in the
Dutch city of Tilburg, in 1998; it also has an outpost
in Milan, is represented by New York City gallery

vogueliving.com.au

R & Company while in Australia, its irreverent
designs for Seletti can be found at Designcasa
Australia. “Not everybody needs to live in a modernist
white box.” That would include Rolf Snoeren, one
half of Viktor & Rolf, the Amsterdam fashion house
famed for surrealistic haute couture that would not
look out of place in Efteling’s mock castle. “We try
not to lose the inner child,” Snoeren explains of his
and creative partner Viktor Horsting’s fantastical
ensembles. “What they do in fashion,” Smeets adds,
“I do in design.” The couturier’s American husband,
Brandon O’Dell, the director of the Amsterdam
Dinner Foundation, an NGO focused on the global
ﬁght against AIDS, calls the designers “cosmic
brothers”. Born on the same day in the same year,
Snoeren and Smeets grew up only 19 kilometres
apart and likely crossed paths at Efteling, though
they didn’t meet until they were in their 20s and
working as interns at the same company in Paris.
Snoeren also happens to be the godfather of Elvis,
Smeets’s toddler son with art and design consultant
Rebecca Sharkey. So when he and O’Dell purchased
a penthouse in an 1890s former bank building on
the Keizersgracht, or Emperor’s Canal, Smeets was
the only name on their short list, even though he’s
conjured only a handful of interiors. “It’s not really
something Job does,” Snoeren observes of his designer
friend. “He makes things. But when we were talking
about the apartment, he said, ‘I can do this.’ ”
The results? Call it a temple to tomfoolery. After
an 18-month renovation that was challenged by
nightmarish permit mishaps and discussions largely
conducted via WhatsApp, Snoeren and O’Dell ››

the couple’s favourite perch is a velvet
daybed from Studio Job overlooking Amsterdam; sculpture
by David Altmejd; bronze table with integrated Eiffel Tower
lamp from Studio Job. In the dining area, a mirror sculpture
by David Altmejd; chairs by Josef Hoffmann; table, wallpaper
and carpet, all from Studio Job; silk ﬂowers by Jim Jon.
TH IS PAG E, FR O M TO P

Nov/Dec 2021

vogueliving.com.au

VLife
TH ES E PAG E S, FR OM LE FT

‹‹ settled into a gleeful Gesamtkunstwerk where
nearly every element — from chequered glass panels
to the button-tufted daybed where Snoeren and O’Dell
like to gaze across rooftops with their miniature
dachshund, Little Rose — was conceived by Smeets.
“It’s a celebration of our friendship,” Snoeren says,
noting that the apartment was ﬁnished in March
2020, days before Amsterdam went into lockdown.
“We moved in, and then we couldn’t leave.”
Given the wonderland that Smeets wrought,
the couple were delighted to stay put. The front
door is made of shiny brown resin textured with a
generous three-dimensional wood grain, as if taken
off the hinges of a Playmobil fort. The living area’s
gas ﬁreplace is fronted by a gaping bronze mouth,
ﬂames ﬂickering behind bared teeth. A built-in
cabinet resembles a grinning robot face, and, à la
Studio Job’s punching bag, the kitchen appears to
be made of cartoon brick. “It may not be the most
functional kitchen, but for people who don’t cook,
it’s a beautiful kitchen,” Smeets says. Walls are
papered with a ﬂagstone pattern that Wilma
Flintstone would have adored, and a fabric bearing
a Dutch artist’s scribbles of pneumatic nudes dresses
Charlotte Perriand’s iconic chaise longue. The curved
staircase adjacent to the dining area leads to a ﬁreengine-red roof terrace shaped like a heart. ››
Nov/Dec 2021

T H IS PAGE in the main bedroom, custom bed from Tréca,
on turtle feet from Studio Job. OP POS I TE PAG E , TOP in another
view of the bedroom lounge, wallcovering and cabinet from
Studio Job; Balestra lounge chair with ottoman by Marzio Cecchi
for Most; carpet from Claudy Jongstra; artwork by Kara Walker.

vogueliving.com.au

VLife

‹‹ It’s invisible from the street, due to UNESCO
restrictions for Amsterdam’s canal area; Snoeren
wonders if it can be seen by planes passing overhead.
The wackiness is a purposeful rejection of the
ﬁve-storey canal house, just down the street, that
Snoeren called home for a decade. “It felt like I was
living in a status symbol,” he recalls. This largely
open-plan apartment, on the other hand, stretches
across one ﬂoor (“I didn’t want any more stairs,”
Snoeren says), is peppered with skylights, and offers
city views that take in the late-19th-century church
where the couple, who met at a yoga class, were
married three years ago. Guests included human
rights crusader Princess Mabel of Orange-Nassau,
who, at her own wedding to the Dutch king’s
brother, wore a Viktor & Rolf dress bedecked
with more than 200 crepe-georgette bows.
“I told Job we would give him carte blanche,”
Snoeren continues, though he admits to having
had second thoughts. The two designers can be
equally stubborn, “so maybe it might not have been
a good idea,” he gingerly allows. “Creating crazy
and stunning is easy for him, but creating warmth,
which Brandon wanted, is a bit more of a challenge.”
The process went much more smoothly than he
expected. O’Dell got the comfort and softness

“I told Job we would give him carte blanche… Creating crazy
and stunning is easy for him, but creating warmth, which
Brandon wanted, is a bit more of a challenge”
ROLF SNOEREN

he desired — “the lines are
graceful; the forms are rounded”
— but he remembers that as the
project progressed, “there were
a few moments of ‘Oh, my,’
to be very honest.” One was
Smeets’s suggestion, swiftly
rejected, that he design penisshaped light ﬁxtures. Another
surprise was a powder room
tiled entirely in yellow —
the colour of urine, Smeets
informed them. The primary
bath, on the other hand, is a
seemingly message-free
shade of salmon.
Smeets’s cheeky inspiration
for the powder room’s colour
scheme “never crossed my
mind at all,” says Snoeren, still
sounding a bit astonished. “All
I could say is, ‘Oh, Job, thank
you.’ It does make me laugh.
I’m not the happiest person in
the world, generally, so when a
house can bring you happiness,
that’s really something.” VL
studio-job.com

T HI S PAG E , F R O M AB OVE in the powder room,
mirror by Studio Job for Ghidini 1961; porcelain
axe (in hallway niche) from Studio Job. In the
main ensuite, vintage sinks; custom ceiling light
ringed with carnival lights. Details, last pages.

Nov/Dec 2021

VLife

T
Joie de vivre
PROFILE

The artistic director of Dior Maison and Baby Dior,
Cordelia de Castellane understands the art of entertaining
better than most. Her exquisite tabletop creations help
transform any meal into a memorable event.
By Jake Millar Portrait photographed by Matthieu Salvaing

vogueliving.com.au

his feature should probably come with
a warning. If you don’t want to be ﬁlled
with a sense of longing for the Before
Times, then you should probably look
away. Because even a cursory glance at
the life of Cordelia de Castellane, the artistic director
of both Dior Maison and Baby Dior, is enough to
inspire an almost Proustian wave of nostalgia.
Just look at her Instagram. There, well over 66,000
of her followers are treated to a joyful parade of
insights into de Castellane’s days at her countryside
retreat in L’Oise — parts of which date back to the
15th century — north of Paris. There are photos of
colourful tablescapes, images of food and family, and
snapshots from de Castellane’s travels to Greece or
Milan. None of this, of course, is meant to provoke
any jealousy. It is simply that de Castellane might
just be one of the world’s chief exponents for what
the French call joie de vivre.
So sure enough, as the world began to grind to
a halt, people turned to de Castellane’s Instagram
account for inspiration — and they began messaging.
“I was creating my collection for Dior Maison and
at night I would arrange plates on the table and take
photos for Instagram,” she says. “Suddenly people
were contacting me to ask where they can get things,
or if they could have a contact to buy them — I was
becoming a PR! And from that moment, it didn’t stop.”
In fact, de Castellane has never really stopped.
The designer began her career in fashion at just 15,
when she landed an internship at Chanel, working
alongside Karl Lagerfeld. “He had a total vision,”
she says. “He was a genius. And I was so lucky to
have such an experience in my life.”
From there, de Castellane went to work for
legendary French designer Emanuel Ungaro, whom
she counts as one of her greatest creative inspirations.
She stayed there for 10 years before branching out
on her own, with the launch of her childrenswear
line, CdeC. Then in 2012, Dior came calling.
“I had my little brand for children,” says de
Castellane, modestly. “And shortly after, Delphine
Arnault from [Dior owner] LVMH called me to
say that she saw my line of clothes and she wanted
to see if I could do something for Baby Dior. And
that’s how I started with the house.”
She spent ﬁve years as artistic director of
Baby Dior before being approached with a new
proposition: her bosses had seen how much she
loved collecting homewares. How would she feel
about designing her own range for Dior?
“Suddenly I started to put my designs on plates
and vases,” de Castellane recalls of her appointment
to Dior Maison ﬁve years ago, “and I loved it!”
For de Castellane, the creative process always
starts with history. “The one thing that leads me
is the life and archives of Mr Dior. He’s a man who
fascinates me, although he stayed just 10 years at
Dior,” she says, of the designer who passed away
in 1957 — just a decade after founding the house.
“He left nearly 100 years of archives. So I always
start from there, and I pick something from his life,
or a code of the house, and start my collection.”

T HI S PAG E, C LO CK W ISE
FRO M L EF T candlesticks and
vases from Dior Maison’s
7 Jules Sandeau collection.
The range of candlesticks
and wine glasses. A detail
of the collection’s plates.

T HIS PAGE , CLO CK W ISE
F R O M TO P L E F T the
wallpaper in Christian
Dior’s Paris apartment
informed Dior Maison’s
7 Jules Sandeau plates,
named for the residence’s
address. Flowers and birds
adorn plates. Glassware
draws on Mr Dior’s love of
the family villa’s garden in
Normandy. A beautifully
detailed place setting from
the collection. A striking
carafe holds a glass ﬂower
at its heart. O P PO S IT E PAGE
Cordelia de Castellane at
her L’Oise retreat in France.

Whether tableware inspired by the wallpaper in
Mr Dior’s Paris apartment or plates decorated with
lily of the valley (the couturier was said to keep a sprig
in his pocket as a good-luck charm before every show),
de Castellane manages to ﬁnd new ways to transport
the iconic designer’s spirit into the present day. And
while interiors have been booming lately, even de
Castellane has been taken aback by the demand.
“I think people are really obsessed with everything
about their homes,” she says. “We have had a huge
uptick during Covid, and Dior Maison is completely
ﬂying — it’s been crazy!”
When she is not designing for Dior Maison and
Baby Dior — or responding to her followers — de
Castellane has found time to turn her love of style
and entertaining into a book, Life in a French Country
House, released by Rizzoli this year. And even
though she is busier than ever, de Castellane says
there is still a lot in store for Dior Maison.
“We are going to launch something for the garden
— I’m obsessed with gardens — which is completely
new,” she says, “and we’re working to make a small
range of furniture in wicker. There is also a beautiful
collection for Christmas that I can’t say anything
about, but it is with a great artist who’s related to the
big opening in Paris where we’re restoring the store.”
It’s not the only store opening on the horizon,
either: Dior is set to unveil its new Sydney boutique
early next year. While a selection of Dior Maison
products was available when the brand launched its
online store back in September, this will be the ﬁrst
Australian boutique to offer a dedicated range.
“I can’t wait to have Dior Maison in Australia,” says
de Castellane. “I have many Australian followers on
my Instagram and they’re always asking me how
they can get things. So it’s great to be able to bring
a bit of Paris to your beautiful country.”
It might be just what we need. After all, we can’t
travel the world right now, so why not let the world
come to you. VL dior.com; @cordeliadecastellane
Nov/Dec 2021

VLife
Floristry today is more than
just pretty posies — it’s a
rich, creative and boundarypushing ﬁeld. From SYDNEY
TO ANTWERP, we meet
a handful of the world’s
most exciting FLORAL
ARTISTS who are cultivating
arrangements and
installations that will
open your eyes to the
possibilities and wonder
of ﬂowers as art.
By Amy Campbell

New
Blooms
TH I S PAGE

a bounteous
arrangement by
Portland-based
ﬂoral artist
Manu Torres.
Nov/Dec 2021

VLife
SYDNEY

@ t h e co l o u r b l i n d f l o r i s t

“Each
composition
is a little world.
An island
in the sea;
a cavernous
rock formation;
a mossy
outcrop;
mountain
ranges;
alien
terrain
or an entire
coral reef”

ACID.FLWRS

@acid.ﬂwrs

HATTIE MOLLOY

@hattiemolloy

BRÆR

@b.r.a.e.r

VLife

Mark
Colle in front of
a large-scale work
he created for
Festival Flora
2018 in Spain.
T HI S PAGE

@ uu nn aa m m

PORTLAND

ANTWERP

@ m a r k co l l e

TH I S PAGE ,
F R O M A B OV E

Manu Torres of
Florescent. One of
his hyper-toned
ﬂoral creations.

VLife

TOKYO

@e de nwo rks_

Living the good life outside, that is
the essence of Tribu.
Pictured: Nodi Sofa, Nodi Chairs, Shindi Rug, T-Table & Dunes Side Table.
Discover collections by leading designer brand Tribù at Cosh Living.

Exclusive to

Melbourne | Sydney | Brisbane | Perth
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BERLIN

VLife

@ a n a t o m ief le u r

Titus Lounge Chair

SYDNEY
02 9906 3686

BRISBANE
07 3252 8488
sales@cotswoldfurniture.com.au - www.cotswoldfurniture.com.au

MITTAGONG
02 4872 2585

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T HIS PAGE , F RO M TO P

Louis Vuitton’s Secrétaire
Bureau 2.0 (on left) with an
original version of its storied
predeccessor. A 1892 portrait
of master trunk maker
Louis Vuitton, founder of
his namesake luxury maison
established in 1854.

ICONIC STYLE

Digging into its archives, Louis Vuitton reinvents an
iconic 1929 bureau for today’s remote-work era.

I MAGE S CO U RTE SY LO U I S V UI T TO N

By Dana Thomas

n July 1929 — when the Roaring Twenties were still
roaring — celebrated British orchestra conductor
Leopold Stokowski commissioned Louis Vuitton to
design and produce a portable secretary. By then,
the Paris luggage company, founded
by French master trunk maker Louis
Vuitton in 1854, had produced an
impressive, if curious, array of specialty
designs. The Bed Trunk, which
contained a folding cot, was favoured
by 19th-century explorer Pierre Savorgnan de
Brazza; the Library Trunk was commanded by
Encyclopædia Britannica to deliver its 29-volume
11th edition to customers; and the Shoes Trunk
was requested by American opera diva Lily Pons
for her ample collection of pumps.
Upon receiving Stokowski’s order, the design
team — led by Louis’s son Georges at the
company’s original workshop in the Paris suburb
of Asnières-sur-Seine — set about reconﬁguring

the traditional malle, or travel trunk, to meet Stokowski’s needs.
When opened, a desk swung up and perched on foldable legs.
There were bookshelves, a typewriter compartment, and drawers
large enough to hold sheet music. (There was no need for a
baton; Stokowski famously started the trend of
conducting with his hands.) While the exterior
was enveloped with the luxury house’s traditional
Monogram canvas, an ecru–and–burnt sienna
jacquard with geometric and ﬂoral motifs and
the founder’s initials, the interior was lined with
soothing gray swallow Vuittonite, a waterproof
material introduced by Louis in 1854 and later
popularised for automobile luggage.
For many years, the Stokowski, as it became
known, was one-of-a-kind. But it was such a
smart and enviable design that the company
eventually made it available for special orders,
adding a compartment for a folding stool. It has
remained in production ever since. Versions
now reside in the maison’s archives and in ››
Nov/Dec 2021

‹‹ La Galerie Louis
Vuitton, located at
the Asnières-sur-Seine
compound.
Coinciding with the
200th anniversary of
company founder Louis
Vuitton’s birth, the
brand has introduced
the Secrétaire Bureau
2.0, an update of
the Stokowski with
modern needs and a
contemporary lifestyle
in mind. The desk is
larger, to accommodate
laptops, as are compartments for storage. There is a cable
passage for efficient wire management, a ‘smart top’ that
keeps the trunk organised when closed, and a lid lining
that can serve as a bulletin board. As with all Vuitton
trunks, carpenters craft a structure made of three types
of wood: poplar for framework; okoume — a light,
resistant African wood — for the body and lid; and
beech for decorative and reinforcing laths. The interior
is available ﬁnished with varnished beech or straw
marquetry. And like all specialty Vuitton trunks, it is
made to order, price upon request. Delivery time: one
year. At a time when remote working is increasingly the
norm, this reﬁned take is anything but ordinary. VL
louisvuitton.com

TRUNK SHOW
Louis Vuitton is celebrating
its founder’s 200th birthday
by inviting 200 visionary
creatives to re-imagine the
luxury house’s iconic trunk.
But it is far from the maison’s
ﬁrst collaboration over the years.
TH IS PAG E, F RO M LE FT Cocotte en
Paille by Adam Goodrum and Arthur
Seigneur of Adam&Arthur (2021).
Butterﬂy-adorned trunk by Damien
Hirst (2009). Supreme Boite skateboard
trunk (2017). Speedy 30 graffiti
handbag by Stephen Sprouse (2001).

vogueliving.com.au

P HOTO G R AP HE R: P IE R CARTHE W (ADAM & ARTH UR ) , I MAGES COURT ESY OF LOUIS V UIT TON

VLife

VLife
ART

EDGE

GLORY

Forget the macho posturing of white-boy art taking prime plinth in established
Western institutions. The fresh face of best contemporary practice is Black, female,
impervious to precedent, and painting on the perimeters of so-called civilisation.

By Annemarie Kiely Photographed by Leicolhn McKellar

PH OTOGR AP HER : (NON GG IRR NG A M ARAWIL I ART WO RK) CH RISTIAN MA R KEL /
NAT ION AL G ALL E RY OF VICTOR IA. A L L WO RK S, CO URTESY O F TH E ART ISTS AN D
BUKU -L AR RN GG AY MU LKA CEN T RE, YIRR KALA

TH ESE PAGE S, F RO M LE F T

one of the artists featured
in the Bark Ladies exhibition
to be held at the NGV
later this year, Naminapu
Maymuru-White, with
her work Milngiyawuy.
Djapu (2020) by
Nonggirrnga Marawili.

t the end of another
turbulent
year,
as
planet, pandemic and
disenfranchised peoples
continue to nuke all
concept of ‘normal’,
confusion over the what,
who and where of culture
is becoming the new
culture. Gone is the group-think of a privileged few
framing an ascendant view, and growing in its place
is the furtive want for revolution from within and
without the system. It’s a major conundrum for the
modern museum, which must deal with the widening
gap between old taxonomies and new art territories
without disaffecting a donor elite or audience base.
But here’s the thing: the chasms created by seismic
shifts in current thinking cannot be cleared in little
jumps. They call for the big leap of faith that has
formalised into Bark Ladies, the National Gallery
of Victoria’s front-and-centre showing of works by
Yolngu women artists from Yirrkala’s communitycontrolled Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre (Buku)
at the tip of the Northern Territory.
Call it an axiom ﬂip of the big-name, white-boy
blockbuster, perhaps a timely redress of representation
or a savvy pull from the NGV’s wealth of North-east
Arnhem Land art at a time when fraught logistics
favour local distances. Or call it exactly what it is —
a blow-your-socks-off survey of world’s-best modern
practice at the edge of the planet right now.
“I think this art is extremely important,” says
Myles Russell-Cook, the NGV curator of Indigenous
Art who, in collaboration with Buku, has honed two
decades of acquisitions down to 11 Yolngu women
whose masterworks will display, without resort to
rationalising chronologies or kinship structures,
in modernist grids and m
ﬁ ity rooms
deserving of Japanese conceptua
“The show is set on the ground ﬂoor a
International, which, in itself, tells that th
women are to be looked at on the international scale
as among the best painters in the world.”
But more than that, he says of the survey’s trenchant
start in Federation Court — where Naminapu
Maymuru-White’s ﬂoor-based depiction, Ringitjmi
gapu, (translating to river of heaven and earth) will
stream a river of stars and spirit into adjacent
galleries — it accords Indigenous creativity due status
and recognition “as the oldest continuing tradition
of art in the world; one entirely unique to Australia”.
Seeding out of the wild reception for Yolngu artist
Dhambit Mununggurr’s immersive ﬁeld-of-blue
larrakitj (memorial poles) and bark paintings, which
installed under the plaintive title Can we all have
a happy life (2019-2020) in the NGV’s era-deﬁning
2020 Triennial, Bark Ladies proves that brilliance
has no coordinates or colour.
It can bubble up in backwaters, on the edge
of the Arafura Sea which, part of the single,
symbiotic life cycle and law under Yolngu Land,
is a potent force in the art of women who only came
to painting in the 1990s.

“For many years the men painted in a way that was
very connected to ceremony, in a very ordered style,”
says Russell-Cook of a tendency towards ethnographic
documentation that likens to the Homeric epic —
stories transmitted for the purpose of preservation.
“When First women started painting, we witnessed an
incredible shift in innovation — a freedom of gesture
and a spontaneity that sparked a whole new style.”
And then came the quake in colour; the palette
challenge to the strictures of convention that
determined all Yolngu art be created from materials
found on Country. As Russell-Cook tells it, the
Richter scale began registering after Mununggurr
sustained critical injuries in a car accident in 2005.
“Wheelchair-bound and without the use of her
right hand, she could no longer collect and prepare
the essential ochres,” he says. “But Yolngu are a
compassionate people, so she was granted special
permission to use store-bought acrylic paints.” ››
Nov/Dec 2021

VLife

AL L WOR K S, CO U RT E SY O F T HE ART I ST S AN D B UKU - LAR R NGG AY MU L KA C E NT RE, Y I R R KA L A

VLife

TH E SE PAGE S Mulku Wirrpanda
(left) and Nonggirrnga Marawili
painting at Buku-Larrnggay
Mulka Centre, an Indigenous
community-controlled art centre
in Yirrkala, North-east Arnhem
Land in the Northern Territory.

vogueliving.com.au

‹‹ Leaning into her limitations and the lapping blue
of the Arafura waters, Mununggurr dipped her
vernacular into its ultramarine depths, producing
barks with a Yves Klein-comparable transcendental
intensity. Suddenly, her status as an art-prize refusée
ramped up to star as global curators came calling.
“Her work is spectacular,” says Russell-Cook,
advising that an important new piece will be included
in the survey. “Just when you think you know
someone, she goes and paints Julia Gillard in the
midst of these limp-faced politicians delivering
her misogyny speech. She cracks me up.”
Mununggurr’s radicalisation of palette was
foreshadowed by the art of Nonggirrnga Marawili
who, famed for her ﬂuoro-pink punking of funerary
poles and cross-hatched bark, sources her colours
from discarded printer-ink cartridges found on
Country. “A clever technicality,” says Russell-Cook
of her subversion of protocol in pink. “She’s simply
a star.”
And then there are works by the wildly talented
Yunupingus, who count among that family who have
produced musicians, community leaders and two
Australians of the Year. “I don’t know what’s in their
water,” says Russell-Cook, teasing out the intersections
of exhibiting art by Nancy Gaymala, Gulumbu
(Mununggurr’s late mother who left her starry marks
on the ceiling of the Musée du Quai Branly), Barrupu,
Nyapanyapa and Eunice Djerrkngu Yunupingu.
“Gulumbu’s younger sister, the late, superimportant Barrupu and painter of the Gumatj ﬁre
was the ﬁrst to transcend past efforts, but her younger
sister Nyapanyapa took it the next step,” he says in
nod to her reductive recollections of being gored by
a buffalo in a wild apple orchard in her youth. “The
apples became emblematic, she painted them over
and over again until the work reduced down to
circles, painting for painting’s sake; a contemporary
musing on rhythm, tone and shape.”
“But just when you thought no family could birth
another superstar,” adds Russell-Cook, declaring that
the barks by the youngest sibling, Djerrkngu Eunice
Yunupingu, will be in the show. “She does this wild
spiritual conceptualisation of her self as a mermaid;
one stemming from the stories she remembers her
father telling of spearing a ﬁsh when she was in utero.”
In light of the female-charged evolution of Buku’s
ethnographic visuals into internationally acclaimed
high art, the question asks about oestrogen being
a catalyst? Russell-Cook laughs and leaves all art
distinctions between women, the West, and the rest
for others to argue and instead shares a casual
remark he overheard when last at Buku.
“You know how growing up you’d hear that horrible
insult, ‘You throw like a girl’,” he says of the put-down
that frames female effort as never enough. “Well, in
Yirrkala earlier this year, I heard someone say: “That
boy paints like a girl,” which to Yolngu thinking
is the biggest compliment that can possibly issue.
Don’t you love that?” VL
Bark Ladies is on at NGV International from
December 22, 2021 to May 1, 2022; ngv.vic.gov.au
Nov/Dec 2021

A DV E R T I S I N G F E AT U R E

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VLife
DESIGN

Leading light
Reinforcing an intrinsic link to the real value of gathering spaces has
informed MAP Studio’s illuminating MPavilion. By Annemarie Kiely

TH ES E PAGE S , F RO M
LE FT Traudy Pelzel and
Francesco Magnani of
MAP Studio, the design duo
behind 2021’s MPavilion.
MAP Studio’s restoration
and renovation of the Porta
Nuova Tower in the Venice
Arsenale. The Apslund
Pavilion at the International
Architecture Exhibition of
the 2018 Venice Biennale.
A render of MAP Studio’s
MPavilion design for 2021.

vogueliving.com.au

hen Covid-19 called halt to the 2020 MPavilion,
the annual architectural commission conceived
by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation (NMF) and
birthed by big-note practices in Melbourne’s
Queen Victoria Gardens, the question asked:
does a temporary structure premised on congregation still cut it?
No one could have preempted a pandemic in the detail of the
design brief that issued in 2019 to Traudy Pelzel and Francesco
Magnani of Italy’s MAP Studio, the young Venice-based practice
tapped by the NMF to ground their “deeply site-responsive” oeuvre
in prime Melbourne parkland in 2020.
Back then, the constraining limits were measured out by building
codes, budgets and respect for the land belonging to the Boon
Wurrung people, not the growing rate of a contagion rapidly closing
global cities. But suddenly what had framed for six years as a ‘cultural
laboratory’ for the enrichment of community, slanted into the
potential incubator of deadly pathogen as pavilions worldwide
packed up their programs and reassessed the new ‘random’ as either
a testing ground for Darwinian adaptation or the death of a species.
Naomi Milgrom AC, CEO of fashion conglomerate the Sussan
Group, and the namesake foundation leader behind MPavilion, is
somewhat practised in balancing risk with fashion randomness and
the ﬂock’s need to commune. She didn’t pivot — “I hate that word”
— but forged ahead, eking the construct phase out to two years of
deeper design engagement to the architecture of gathering.
“After all of this, we will really need to come together in
environments that are not closed in,” she affirms. “Pavilions are the
perfect step forward into a safe and social future; they are the testing
ground of new ideas, new opportunities; they are the light of hope.”
And light, in both the physical and ﬁgurative guise ultimately gave
form to MAP Studio’s lattice framework — a ﬂoating grid of painted
tubular steel proﬁles propped with mirror-ﬁnish panels seemingly
fallen from the sky. The grid’s snag and skew of these super-large
‘looking glasses’ — a matrix of reﬂection and deception that easily
loads with metaphor about the vanities and virtues of man —
makes surrealist vignette of clouds, corporate towers, garden beds,
monuments and ﬂaneurs while functioning as shading elements.
It shimmers with kaleidoscopic ampliﬁcation of both its cultural
content and wider context, rising in right-angled resistance to
and reﬂection of surrounding nature above pre-cast concrete
supports that facilitate the ﬂow of foot traffic to an amorphous
event platform and petite kiosk. Call it a poetic lucidity married to
clinical permeability in a paradoxical construct that encapsulates
Melbourne’s rigorous grid planning and contained personality.
Pondering this reading of their “urban lighthouse” during the longdistance Zoom into their Venice living room, Magnani and Pelzel, who
partner in business and life, appear pleased that it loads with such
civic reference but claim that not enough time was spent in Melbourne
to build such a strong consciousness of city. There are always rules
guiding structure towards the rational response, asserts Magnani,
adding that for he and Pelzel, interest lies more in the liminal — the

PHOTO GR AP HE RS : CL AU DI O R OS SIN I (P O RT R AI T ), U DO MEINE L ( PORTA NU OVA TOWE R), FE DE RICO CE DR ON E ( ASPLU N D PAVIL I ON )

threshold between the rational, the
emotional and the experiential, which
no digital world can duplicate.
He bemoans the erosion of culture
and community that comes from
algorithms, declaring technology a
wonderful thing when it’s not working
to commodify every creative act. “We
cannot lose this idea of meeting each
other in a proper way — in this moment,
it is very important to keep things live
and communal,” Magnani says.
“But not only to meet; to exchange and
to experience, because even for things
like selling, I want to touch, measure, sit
and feel,” interjects Pelzel, who describes
a world craving physical sensation and
healthy contrariness, not cancel culture.
“It is so important now to be able to go to
a place and discuss and express opposing
ideas, not like the net where no one takes
responsibility for what they are saying.”
Identifying the pavilion as not only for innovative experimentation
but a potent re-imagining of the town square, where life’s chaotic
maze orders around the communal pause, MAP Studio add to the
miscellany of MPavilion precursors including Sean Godsell (2014),
Amanda Levete (2015) and Glenn Murcutt (2019).
The duo won acclaim for their Asplund Pavilion, commissioned
by the Vatican’s Holy See, at the 2018 Venice Biennale. Designing to
the theme of Erik Gunnar Asplund’s 1920 Woodland Chapel, they
responded with a timber-shingled tour de force that abstracted the
Swedish architect’s wayﬁnding beacon in a dark woodland.
Is there an uncanny symmetry of circumstance, the question
asks of their hark-back to an austere architecture built during the
Spanish ﬂu and this follow-on pavilion produced during another
pandemic? “There is a strange overlapping,” says Magnani. “But
this is life, what it means to be human, no? It is wandering through
the metaphorical dark woods towards the light of discovery.” VL
MPavilion is on from November 23, 2021 until March 27, 2022;
mpavilion.org
Nov/Dec 2021

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homes

VLiving

actor Sonam Kapoor Ahuja in the drawing
room of her London home, Knoll Florence Knoll sofa
from The Conran Shop, enquiries to Dedece; rug from
Reindeer Antiques; artwork by Jagdish Swaminathan.
Kapoor Ahuja wears robe and pants from Dundas
World; slippers from Le Monde Beryl; vintage Chanel
necklace from The Hirst Collection; rings, all from
Elizabeth Gage. Turn to page 106 for the full story.
P HOTO G RAP H E R: SI MO N U P TO N. ST Y L IST: I SA BE LLE D U BE R N -MA LLE VAY S. C RE ATI V E D I RE CTO R & FA SH I O N ST Y LI ST: NI KH I L MA NS ATA .
FASHI O N AS SI STAN T: VE DI KA SHA RMA. H AI R : K E N O ’ R OU R K E . MAK E - U P: MA RY G R EE N WE L L

THI S PAG E

Nov/Dec 2021

OVER
THE
RAINBOW

vogueliving.com.au

THE SE PAGES the rear facade and exterior of the Garcia House
designed by John Lautner in 1962, located in Los Angeles. A pool
was added in 2008 in keeping with Lautner’s original vision.

Nov/Dec 2021

T H I S PAGE homeowners Bill Damaschke
(left) and John McIlwee in the living room,
with a view of the dining area beyond.

t was pure good fortune that two visionaries with an
appreciation for the arts and cultural heritage as ardent as John
McIlwee and Bill Damaschke made the unique John Lautnerdesigned Garcia House in Los Angeles — also known as the
Rainbow House, due to its multi-hued windows — their home.
McIlwee, a business manager who self-describes as a kind
of “ﬁnancial therapist” to his entertainment industry
clientele, says he was in college when he ﬁrst saw the eye-catching
three-bedroom structure, on motorbike rides up and down
Mulholland Drive. Damaschke, a former chief creative officer for
DreamWorks Animation who now has his own production company
— his Tony Award-nominated Broadway production of Moulin
Rouge is, at the time of writing, slated to open in Melbourne this
October — details seeing the 1962 masterpiece on frequent outings
with McIlwee: “We didn’t know it was by John Lautner but every
time we drove by we’d be like, ‘Who lives in that kooky house?’”
It was McIlwee’s birthday, “and we were discussing buying
a house together and John said, ‘Yes, let’s do it but let’s look around
and really ﬁnd the right house for us,’” recalls Damaschke. “Then he
opened the newspaper and there it was, the Home of the Week in the

in the living room, stained walnut cabinetry designed by Marmol
Radziner; banquette, upholstered in fabric from Romo; purple cushions
in fabric from Holland & Sherry, enquiries to Milgate; patterned cushions in
Mohave fabric from Casamance, enquiries to James Dunlop Textiles; coffee table
by Charles Hollis Jones; Arco lamp by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni for
Flos, enquiries to Living Edge; photographic artwork by Terry Richardson.
T H IS PAGE

LA Times.” “I’m a huge fan of kismet,” adds McIlwee. “I think things
happen for a reason. We went to see it and we bought it.”
That was in 2002. The pair lived in the Hollywood Hills home —
originally designed for composer Russell Garcia and his wife Gina
— for a year, familiarising themselves with its idiosyncratic quirks
before calling upon architectural ﬁrm Marmol Radziner and interior
designer Darren Brown for a full renovation. “John Lautner is both
a blessing and a curse,” explains McIlwee. “He built these incredibly
unique structures, which are completely custom but it means that
simple things like changing a light bulb become a monumental task.”
After a meticulous 12-month restoration by Marmol Radziner,
which stayed as true as possible to Lautner’s vision, and a detaildriven reworking of the interior by Brown — aside from the
Hawaiian lava rock walls and some terrazzo ﬂooring, the only ››
Nov/Dec 2021

vogueliving.com.au
TH ES E PAG E S in another view of the living room, Saporiti club chairs,
ottomans and sofa; custom drum side tables designed by Darren Brown
Interiors; coffee table by Charles Hollis Jones; vintage vase.

‹‹ original remnants left after years of overzealous makeovers
by previous owners were the kitchen sink, a magazine rack and
a toothbrush holder — the home was completed in 2004.
Brown moved onto other projects including McIlwee and
Damaschke’s Palm Springs property, the Ford estate (featured in VL’s
March/April 2018 edition), but the pull of Garcia House was magnetic.
After the addition of a pool then landscaping by John Sharp in 2019,
interiors re-jig 2.0 came to life. “I truly love this house,” says Brown,
who was introduced to the pair by way of Martha Stewart following
a private tour of the home. “And frankly I was drumming up business.
I shamed them by reminding them it had been more than
10 years [since the renovation] and we needed a fresher look. And
they handed over the keys… John and Bill are showbiz: they like to
do things big and loud, and they take risks so naturally we click.”
McIlwee recalls that ﬁrst meeting with Brown with equal
appreciation. “We met Darren for our initial design presentation
at the Mandarin Oriental in New York and — I’ll never forget this
— he hands us a book, a kind of lookbook. I open it and the ﬁrst
picture is Halston and Bianca Jagger walking out of Studio 54.
And straightaway, he got the job.”
88

vogueliving.com.au

the exterior stairwell, leading into the dining and kitchen area
(at door), with original terrazzo ﬂoor and plant selection by Studio John
Sharp. O P POS IT E PAG E in another view of the living room behind the
original stone ﬁreplace, the homeowners’ vinyl collection including
Duran Duran’s Rio album with cover art by Patrick Nagel.

T HI S PAG E

While the brief for the initial interior design was loose — “they
entertain a great deal so the house had to function and ﬂow” says
Brown — the next chapter unfurled when the interiors maestro
introduced the art-appreciating duo to the ’80s-era works of
Chicago-based artist Ed Paschke. For Chicago-born Damschke,
it was a match made in hyper-toned heaven: “I love Paschke, not
only because of his work but because his name is spelt the same
as mine, which I don’t see that often.”
“Darren isn’t as fond of some of our art,” says McIlwee, who
reveals a penchant for the work of Diane Arbus, Kirsten Everberg,
Catherine Opie and Annie Lapin. “But we’re on the same page when
it comes to late-’70s to early-’90s art, like Patrick Nagel who did the
Duran Duran record covers and Ed Paschke.” This mutual
enthusiasm soon dovetailed into the home’s interior aesthetic. ››

vogueliving.com.au
in the dining area with a view of the kitchen,
custom dining table designed by Darren Brown Interiors;
1974 Saporiti dining chairs; original custom chandelier.

T HE SE PAGES

T H E SE PAG E S in the media room, custom sofa, upholstered in Great Plains
fabric by Holly Hunt; armchair (at right) by Milo Baughman; Bronzeforms 4
SV cocktail tables from Silas Seandel; Labula (1980) artwork by Ed Paschke.

‹‹ “Everything came to a screeching turn as soon as we got our ﬁrst
Ed Paschke work [Labula (1980)],” says McIlwee. “It was deﬁnitely
one of the pieces that drove this whole re-imagining.”
Brown’s ﬁrst interior layering embraced a late-’70s feel with dark,
earthy tones and plenty of timber surfaces. This time around,
the focus was on editing down and lightening up. “To me, it’s early
’80s with a much more sophisticated, contemporary feel,” says
McIlwee. “What’s interesting is that the house looks much more like
a piece of art than it did before. It’s much more unique, but
everything is very usable.”
“Darren really likes storytelling,” says Damschke. “We learned
a lot from him. He turned us onto the Italian design company
Saporiti. And now we have Saporiti dining chairs, which have that
same kind of cantilever vibe that the house has. They feel like they
were made for this house.” Brown describes the Saporiti pieces as
a mastery of form, ﬂow and engineering. “They feel like birds, which
feels right, up here on Mulholland Drive in the sky.”
Indeed, it’s this elevated, open aspect and bird’s eye view, especially
from the kitchen where McIlwee has stationed himself throughout
much of the pandemic, and the second-ﬂoor guest bedroom where

Damaschke has set up as a work-from-home space, which holds
much of the enduring magic of the Garcia House. Damaschke sums
up the allure with what he calls the “custody lunch”, when he and
McIlwee met with the home’s previous owner, actor Vincent Gallo.
“He said to us, ‘This home is going to change your life.’ John and
I frequently reﬂect on that. We’ve met the most amazing people
through this house and have gone on this journey of learning about
architecture and design. It’s introduced us to parts of the world and
people in the world that we never would have met before.”
McIlwee agrees. “So much of our Los Angeles history has been
lost and I believe these structures have to be protected. It’s changed
our lives. It’s made me a bigger thinker. It’s opened a world
of architecure, art and interesting people.” VL @darrenbrownid
@marmolradziner @lautnerfoundation

T HI S PAG E in the top-ﬂoor guest bedroom, Ligne Roset Uzume bed by
Eric Jourdan; armchair and ottoman by Jean Gillon; artwork by Ricky
Allman; custom rug from Stark. O PPO SI T E PAGE in the powder room,
vintage vase; wallpaper from Phillip Jeffries, enquiries to The Textile
Company; artwork by Raymond Pettibon. Details, last pages.

MAKING
SOLID

Designer Lauren Tarrant has translated her passion for grand European buildings into a polished stone-clad
Melbourne home of considered linear proportions for her ex-footballer husband and their daughters.
By Annemarie Kiely Photographed by Timothy Kaye Styled by Marsha Golemac

TH I S PAG E

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O PP O SI T E PAG E

Nov/Dec 2021

s Melbourne snaps
into lockdown 6.0 (at
the time of writing)
and snuffs out the
real-life previews of
new design, Lauren
Tarrant swivels to
the cloud-streamed
capture of her latest
handiwork and home
— “an ode to marble ‘crafted’ in collaboration
with Conrad Architects”. She is the boss
lady and creative brains of namesake
interiors practice Lauren Tarrant Design,
a boutique ﬁrm that dabbles in high-end
residential
developments
and
does
a bankable line in restrained beauty,
the evidence of which is about to show
through her phone’s eye.
It frames up the inscrutable walled
frontage of her river-end Toorak property
and follows the tight axis of engagement
established by project architect Paul
Conrad, who later posits his style as
steeping centuries-old tectonic values
in structures that tell of this time.
His rigour reveals in Tarrant’s walk-andtalk which, commencing at a gatehouse
contrived for the stress decompress, releases
into an open garden room that signals
the departure from suburbia and the
emotive slip into sanctuary. Its emerald
serenity, palpable across the digital
divide, directs passage up a ceremonial
marble stair to a dramatic proscenium
preceding double-door entry into one of two
marble-clad monoliths.
The build of expectation is tightly
managed and betrays no hint of the private
world beyond; a white-out of sensory noise
that dampens all speak when Tarrant
pushes into its luminous atmosphere.
“This is my castle,” she whispers, with
phone panning the full stretch of a
corkscrewing stair that siphons sun from
a rooftop skylight down the twist of its well.
“I could be anywhere in the world, but I
always feel like I’m on holiday in here.”
Lines of sunlight hit crystals in the blueveined marble treads and turn polished
plaster walls pearlescent. The effect is
dazzling without resort to decoration and
elicits smiles of delight from Tarrant, who
tells of growing up in the brooding dark of
Victorian-era architecture.
“I wanted my home to feel bright, solid,
grand, timeless and have stature,” she says
of a hankering for gravitas on a site with
potential city views, a two-level slope
and a surrounding building stock best
described as confused. “I am the happiest
person in the world when I am in Europe
roaming through beautiful old buildings ››

vogueliving.com.au

T H E S E PAG E S

‹‹ and absorbing their detail. I wanted a modern version of that
heritage and there is something about Paul’s work that condenses it
and something about marble that communicates it.”
Conrad later recalls the written speciﬁcity of her brief; one tabling
with magazine tear sheets of a modern European museum
and a pool projecting over an Italian picturesque landscape.
The non-negotiables, he says, were living spaces looking over water
to wider Melbourne, a surface toughness for two little girls
(daughters Bella-Dita, four, and
Mila, one) and a ﬁtness facility
for her husband Chris, a former
Australian Rules footballer who
remains corporately connected
to his old club Collingwood
and
co-manages
property
developments with his wife.
“But it wasn’t so prescriptive
that I couldn’t play,” Conrad
says, thumbnailing his response
to “both Lauren and local
planning regulations”, as an
asymmetrically massed fourlevel monolith burying its bulk
down the slope of site and setting
entry at street level on storey
three. “I quite like the idea that
you step up to a perch or look out
and experience the view.”

iting the musings
of 19th-century
English poet and
Jesuit
priest,
Gerard Manley
Hopkins,
who
touched on the complex tensions
in life as told in the oak tree,
Conrad confesses to liking
the riches that emanate from
contradictions
rather
than
consumer objects. Think the play
of light and shadow, opacity
and transparency, solidity and
fragility, denial and reward — all
reaching an experiential zenith
in a living zone that celebrates
the spectacle of city not stuff. “I so love Melbourne,” says Tarrant,
with a tracking shot of her slice of spires and corporate shards.
Both she and Conrad concertedly designed for the space between
matter and mind, concurring on the ﬂip of the conventional
residential plan with the lift of further living space and study to
level four and the drop of all bedrooms below street level — a logical
descent in body and mind at day’s end. The base ﬂoor, level with the
ground at site rear, became a fully kitted-out health facility.
Evincing a holism of stone and classical geometries, the house,
it suggests to Tarrant, reminds of the BC temples built by the
Ancient Greeks in honour of the gods who, in sports-mad Melbourne,
might assume the guise of AFL players. Tarrant laughs and asks:
“Did my husband put you up to that?”

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“No, my deﬁnition of ‘ﬁt’ is ﬁnding the right ﬁnishes for his
gymnasium and steam room,” she quips. “My health facility is
shaped into the cellar — drinking wine is my pro-sport.”
Before any aspersions can cast from that statement, Tarrant
declares herself a stem on the long family vine of Western Australian
vignerons who gather under the Fogarty Wine Group. In short,
she knows her rotgut from her hermitage reds and arranges
accordingly in a tasting room lined in a punchier patterning of
marble to the lighter cast upstairs. It raises the question of
provenance and a single supplier of the stone.
“Well,” she sighs, in ﬂag of a long story made short. “I know
travertine is coming back, but it’s porous and I like a cooler base,
so I approached Artedomus to
suggest options not seen in
every second ﬁt-out and Yas
[Behar of Artedomus] came
back with Grigio Orsola — a
cloudy
grey-stone
made
leathery like travertine when
acid-etched.”
It became the mainstay of
surface inside and softened to
a warmer tone on the facade
with the select of rust-veined
slabs. “And then, I started
googling stonemasons around
the world,” Tarrant adds, in
reference to the cellar shelves,
the powder-room basin and a
plinth, at stair base, supporting
a sculpture by Melbourne
artist denHolm. “I found this
particular shade of Dedalus on
a favourite Belgian architect’s
social media account and got
Yas to track it down, but, of
course, the quarry had closed.
Undeterred, she scoured the
globe and voila!”

he same obsessive
quest to invest in
idiosyncrasy applied
to all furnishings,
with Tarrant amusing
the Swedish designers
of the raw-form Horse chair,
a boxy, Bauhaus-type stained
baby blue, with a ﬁrst-ever
order from Australia. “I wanted
to base the rest of the furniture palette around it,” she says, in proud
show of the referential desk she designed. “I had fun doing that and it
ﬁtted so beautifully with the blue in the enveloping stone.”
Calling marble the material witness to time and place, Tarrant
says that Covid has reinforced the soul-salving beneﬁts of living
with light and earthy textures; a sentiment with some echo of
Eleanor Roosevelt’s belief that the pessimist’s stumbling block is
the optimist’s stepping stone or entire shelter, as the effervescent
Tarrant was determined to have it. VL laurentarrantdesign.com
conradarchitects.com

T HIS PAGE , F RO M TO P

OPP OS IT E PAGE

T HI S PAGE

O PP OS I TE PAGE, CLOC KW ISE
F RO M TOP LE FT

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LAUREN TARRANT

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105

Intensely intimate and overﬂowing with art, the London home of Bollywood star Sonam Kapoor
Ahuja is a little of Britain and a whole lot of India. Using wallpaper as a starting point, the
vibrant home is the result of a collaboration between the actor and designer Rooshad Shroff.
BY FREYA HERRING PHOTOGRAPHED BY SIMON UPTON STYLED BY ISABELLE DUBERN-MALLEVAYS
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C RE ATI VE DI R E CTO R & FAS HI ON STY L I ST: N I K HI L M ANSATA . FASH I ON AS SISTA N T: VE DI KA SH ARM A .
HAI R : K EN O ’ R O U RK E . M AK E - U P: M ARY GR EE N W EL L

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107

like the fact that it’s so multicultural in London,” says Bollywood star Sonam Kapoor Ahuja while
discussing her recently redesigned Notting Hill home and Kensington office mews. “People who live here
come from every part of the world — the fashion and art and music and culture and the gastronomy
is all very global. I don’t think there is anywhere else like London.”
It makes sense then, that the two-bedroom, three-bathroom London apartment she shares with
entrepreneur husband Anand Ahuja reﬂects Sonam’s multicultural appreciation, too. Architect and
designer Rooshad Shroff worked with the actor to fuse internationally sourced design pieces to form
a series of complementary spaces that sing with colour-drenched, kaleidoscopic vibrancy.
“Initially they thought it would be minor changes and I could just help them style a bit,” says Shroff,
who is based in Mumbai. “I was on the next ﬂight to London, and from there we decided to change
everything — from it being a two-week exercise, it ended up being almost a year.”
Shroff is known for his appreciation for and advocacy of traditional craft, the wares of which he weaves
into his pared-back interiors. But Sonam did not want a minimalistic interior. “His aesthetic and
my aesthetic are actually very different,” she says. “But he knew what was important to me: colours, textures, fabrics
and wallpapers, and a lot of layering.” She wanted her heritage reﬂected in this space. “I really love my Indian
identity,” she says. “The handicrafts, the workmanship, the culture — it’s all very rich. I wanted that to be incorporated
in a very modern but authentic way in my home.”
Each room began with wallpaper — and it had to be the intricate, elegant wallpapers of De Gournay. “We used
De Gournay wallpapers as a starting point because they form a very strong language in terms of either colour
or print,” says Shroff. “They command the space, are handmade, vibrant and beautifully painted.”
Objects were sourced everywhere from international antique markets and 1stDibs to vintage traders and
contemporary designers — the living room’s layered bronze Calanque coffee table is a modern piece by Charles Zana
for The Invisible Collecton, while the rug it sits atop was picked up at Reindeer Antiques on Kensington Church
Street. In line with his practice, Shroff went to town with customisation. “We found the elephant lampshades in the
kitchen and dining area in Alﬁes Antique Market,” he says, “and then we added shades, which were hand-painted as
an extended story from the wallpaper.” Indian artisanal skills were applied to luxurious fabrics — from the bedrooms’
cashmere curtains to the silk ones of the living room. “We got all the soft furnishings specially done, so all the
cushions, all the bedspreads and curtains — everything was hand-embroidered in India, taking motifs or elements
from the wallpaper, in different Zardozi embroidery.”
With Sonam and Anand spending most of 2020 in lockdown, it became necessary for the couple to set up an office.
And so, a hop, skip and a jump over Kensington Gardens, the couple found a three-storey mews and spent the
year transforming it. For this, they brought in Sonam’s stylist,
Nikhil Mansata. “Nikhil is truly one of my best friends — we can
literally ﬁnish each other’s sentences,” she says. “We have a very
similar sense of style and design.”
The ground ﬂoor became what Mansata calls, “a multipurpose
space where we could host meetings and exhibitions — a space for
artists and creatives”. Sonam, a passionate patron of South Asian
art (her enviable collection features throughout the apartment),
has teamed up with Jhaveri Contemporary, with the dual purpose
of the Mumbai gallery being able host events and exhibit works
here for the overseas market, as well as Sonam being surrounded
by ever-changing, inspiring artwork for her creative space.
The ﬁrst ﬂoor is Sonam’s office — an open-plan space she shares
with her team. “We thought about what it would mean to go back
to an office space post-pandemic — we wanted it to feel very
democratic and collaborative,” says Mansata. “So Sonam is
perched at her Pierre Jeanneret desk and chair, over that beautiful
ﬂoral Nanimarquina rug. Then there’s this large workbench
where her colleagues can sit. I didn’t want to close it off; I wanted
it to feel very like how you would sit at a large table at home.”
Upstairs on the top ﬂoor, skylights ﬂood the whitewashed
rooms with soft sunshine. It’s another shared space — two
closed-off offices and one big, plushly designed room — but is
mostly for Anand’s use. Colour abounds with the variety of bold
statement furniture: a bulbous, two-toned Camaleonda sofa
by Mario Bellini for B&B Italia here, a diminutive Nomad
stool by Charles Zana for The Invisible Collection there.
Sonam is known for her high-fashion looks, and can be found
bedecked in jewels in any number of press shots, but she actually
describes herself as “someone who thinks furniture is more
important than jewellery — I would rather spend money on
a chair than anything else”. VL rooshadshroff.com

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T H IS PAG E in a view of the corridor, antique Chinese chair;
vintage lighting and 1940s Murano Plafonnier chandelier,
all from Alﬁes Antiques Market; coat from Osman Yousefzada;
circa-1900 Kurdish runner. OP POS IT E PAG E in the dressing
room, doors carved by artisans in Mumbai, with inset
vintage ﬂoral paintings from Antiquités Lahaye.

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T HES E PAG E S in the draw
and dining area, Knoll Flo
Store, enquiries to Dedece
from The Invisible Collec
Allegra Hicks; round ott
silver gas lamp from 1
Besselink & Jones; Lian
Pucci; Amazonia wallpap
ﬁgurines, heirlooms fro

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T H IS PAG E in the guest bedroom, Louis XIV iron bed from Tara Shaw; throw from Hermès;
lamps from Besselink & Jones; 1960s Italian wall sconces from Alﬁes Antique Market; Le Brésil
wallpaper from De Gournay. O PPOS IT E PAG E , C LOC KW I SE FR OM TO P L E FT in Kapoor Ahuja’s studio/
exhibition space in Kensington, desk by Pierre Jeanneret; lamp from Viola Lanari; Censer incense
burner from Apparatus, enquiries to Criteria; door panels in fabric from Fermoie, enquiries to
Tigger Hall Design; Flora Bloom 2 rug by Santi Moix for Nanimarquina, enquiries to Mobilia;
artwork by Prabhakar Barwe. In another view of the studio, cabinet designed by Rooshad Shroff;
vase by Johan Swart from Evoke London; Lantern table lamp from Apparatus, enquiries to Criteria;
artworks by Nicola Durvasula. In another view of the studio/exhibition space, chairs and stool,
all by Pierre Jeanneret from Studio Bijlani; 190 sofa from Pierre Augustin Rose, enquiries to Alm;
Louise Liljencrantz Mini Cloud table and Charles Zana Nomad stool from The Invisible Collection;
Adnet mirror from Gubi (in dressing area), enquiries to Cult; NAB II (2019) textile artwork (left)
by Shezad Dawood; No. 982 Painting (2020) artwork by Rana Begum. Details, last pages.

This
corner
of mine

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ust a 50-metre stroll from the slim, golden
arc of harbourside beach named Camp Cove
lies the newly re-imagined home of architect
and art connossoisseur Nick Tobias. Set on
a corner, the open aspect of the two-level
house — originally dark brick — was just
one feature in a list of appealing traits,
which led Tobias to buy the four-bedroom,
ﬁve-bathroom property at auction a little
over 18 months ago. “Its proximity to the
beach, north orientation, and the fact it has just one neighbour to
the south — all of those things made it a good idea,” says Tobias who
recently moved in with his two sons, Samson and Griffin, at the
conclusion of the dwelling’s year-long renovation. “I do a lot of things
by intuition and it just felt right. On one side it was so ugly, it felt like
a funny, little ’70s school building — but there was also something
quite cool about it. It felt charming and I could feel the potential.”
For Sydney-born Tobias, who’s known the Camp Cove area since
childhood and has close friends living in the neighbourhood, the
allure of this tiny enclave on the northernmost tip of Sydney’s
eastern suburbs is a combination of social connection and seaside
lifestyle. “The community down here is really beautiful,” says the
self-described water obsessive, who has taken up ocean swimming
alongside his usual windsurﬁng and paddle-boarding pursuits.
“It’s like living in a little country town where everybody knows each
other and looks out for each other. There’s a lot of open doors and
open arms. It’s not ﬂashy in any way.”
Alongside this connection to community and a long-held passion
for music — a collection of guitars and a Steinway piano bequethed
by his grandmother are among Tobias’s most treasured posessions
— art plays an important role in the architect’s life and his home.
His creative streak — ﬁrst nurtured by his artistic grandmother
— was further developed in his early 20s by a close friend who
happened to be on the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art
[MCA] in Sydney. “She thought I was partying a little bit too hard
so decided that we’d go to art galleries on Saturday mornings to stop
me from going out too late on Fridays,” he says. “She introduced me
to Australian contemporary art properly and to the MCA.”
It was here that the young Tobias was introduced to artist Neil
Smith. A commission ensued and so began the start of a collection.
“I started buying things slowly, as I could afford it,” says Tobias, who
is now Chair of the MCA Foundation. “Nearly all of it is Australian,
which is in line with the MCA’s mandate to only collect the works
of living Australian artists, which is a must for me. Other than that,
there’s no curatorial theme.”
The corner house is equally relaxed and open in theme. Backing
onto a park, with two sides facing the street, Tobias saw the property
as an opportunity to create a home with a tangible link to local
life. While external blinds, internal curtains and lush verdant
landscaping by Myles Baldwin help control privacy, Tobias also
enjoys the freedom of opening a window on a sunny day to chat with
passing friends should the mood take him. “It’s all very connected
from a community perspective,” he says. “That was something that
I really wanted. I’ve only been here a few months but it’s been
a really beautiful thing — especially in lockdown — to be in a house
that has a great connection with the street. You’re not really ever
lonely, although you can be alone if you want to be.”
Inside, he has extended the footprint a metre-and-a-half at
both north and south ends, pushing out the upstairs bedroom level
and the downstairs living area and expanding an underﬂoor space
to create a sauna and cinema room. A penchant for natural,
raw materials is evidenced throughout, spanning sandstone and
timber, exposed stainless-steel plated benches and plywood joinery.
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Tiles are inspired by Japanese earthenware pottery while walls
are polished plaster with a beeswax ﬁnish. Colours are earthy —
oranges, terracottas and rusty pinks. “I had a bit of a vision, a bit of
a palette and a bit of a feel that came to me right from the beginning,”
says Tobias. “And I stayed pretty true to that. I deﬁnitely wanted
something light. Light in terms of lumens, light in terms of colour,
and light energetically.
“I didn’t want any heaviness — especially in the feel of the space.
I wanted it to be positive and I wanted it to feel like a home, not a
sort of crazy design object.”
Many of the furnishings have been in Tobias’s life for quite some
time and some are new, like the USM modular shelving systems and
a robust leather chair — the legendary Spanish Chair by Danish
designer Børge Mogensen — that the architect has always coveted,
which now takes centrestage next to the ﬁreplace in the lounge.
A “crazy” Edra sofa languidly sprawls alongside. “It’s like a piece of
sculpture,” he says of the On the Rocks sofa. “You can turn it into a
playpen for the kids, make it like a formal sofa, or push it into the
corner and turn it into a huge banquette. And the fabric is so
delicious. It kind of looks like the cat got to it, with small pieces
taken out of it. It’s really kind of wild.”
The architect’s ability to infuse a space with an inviting sense
of place is, he says, his greatest achievement when it comes to his
new home. “I’m most proud of how it feels rather than how it looks,”
he says. “I feel it myself, I hear it from my kids and from our friends.
It feels good and it makes people feel good. It’s not a statement. It’s
really a home and a nice place to live.” VL tobiaspartners.com

T HIS PAGE
O PP O SI T E PAG E

T HIS PAG E , F RO M LE FT in the staircase landing, Tom Dixon Jack lamp (on right), enquiries to Living Edge; Untitled (NHC2) (2013)
artwork by Daniel Boyd. In a detail of the kitchen, Study for a Mirror #9 (2014) artwork by Coen Young; vessel from Ignem Terrae
Ceramics; marble bowl from Greg Natale; Paros hand towel from Polite Society. O PPO SI TE PAGE in the kitchen and dining area,
daybed upholstered in Argo fabric by Raf Simons for Kvadrat Maharam; island in Rosa Nuvola marble from Artedomus; Maxiply
cabinetry designed by Tobias Partners, produced by Saltwater Joinery; splashback tiles from Academy Tiles; rangehood surround
in polished plaster; tap from Zip Water; Wolf cooktop and oven, enquiries to Winning Appliances; vase from Ignem Terrae Ceramics;
plates from Robert Gordon Australia; oak flooring from Tongue n Groove; Helioscreen external blinds from Simple Studio.

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“I didn’t want any
heaviness — especially
in the feel of the space.
I wanted it to be positive
and I wanted it to feel
like a home, not a sort
of crazy design object”
NICK TOBIAS

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T HI S PAG E, F R O M TO P in the main
ensuite, Kaldewei bath from Bathe;
vanity benchtop in Calacatta Vagli
marble from Artedomus; Paros
hand towel from Polite Society;
marble dish from Greg Natale;
terracotta tiles from Artedomus;
artwork by Norman Lindsay. In
another view of the main ensuite,
SuperElastica chair from Bonacina
1889; towel rail from Hydrotherm;
Mini Glo-ball wall light by Jasper
Morrison for Flos from Living Edge.
O P POSIT E PAGE in the main
bedroom, Chemise bed by Piero
Lissoni for Living Divani from
Space Furniture; USM Haller
storage unit from Anibou;
bed linen from Cultiver; bolster
from House of Ise; cushion from
Monmartre Store; Vitra Lampe de
Bureau table light by Jean Prouvé,
enquiries to Living Edge; Daphine
Terra floor lamp from Lumina;
carpet from Signature Floors.
Details, last pages.

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House

party
From the light-up
disco dance floor
to re-creating 1970s
light switches, not one
single detail was
overlooked in the
immaculate restoration
of Marsala House,
the Brutalist work
of acclaimed Bulgarianborn Perth-based
architect Iwan Iwanoff.
By Jake Millar
Photographed by Jody D’Arcy

homeowners Melissa Lekias and Stormie Mills
in the living room of their Perth home, custom banquette
and cushions upholstered in fabric from Tessuti + Moo;
vintage Murano glass table lamps; Unexpected Pleasures
artwork by Matt Doust; glass bottle artwork (on left of
banquette) by Barry McGee. Details, last pages.

T HE SE PAG E S

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129

TH I S PAGE in the main bedroom, lacquered sideboard by Jean Claude Mahey;
1950s Bitossi Plume ceramics; Boule vases (at centre) from Skultuna; Curiosa
Langur wallpaper from Arte; Ghost Dog 2 artwork by Emma Margetts.
O P P O S I TE PAG E in the bar area, original bar and tiled ﬂoor; Venini black
mirror; vintage glass drinking set found in Venice.

here aren’t many homes whose reputations
precede them quite like Marsala House.
But it’s not just Perth locals who know it as
a glam party spot; it’s even in its official
description on Western Australia’s State
Register of Heritage Places: “Dianella’s
Disco House”. So needless to say, the
property — featuring a bar complete
with light-up Saturday Night Fever-style
dance ﬂoor — is not the place for quiet
retiring types. Happily, its current owners more than ﬁt the bill.
“I love a bit of theatre,” says Melissa Lekias, a former PR maven
who owns the home with her partner, renowned artist Stormie
Mills. “So there’s lots of wafting around in caftans with martinis.
And the disco’s amazing — we love it in there, even if it’s just the two
of us. It’s just so much fun!”
The property is the work of Bulgarian-born architect Iwan
Iwanoff, who arrived in Perth as a refugee in 1950 and went on to
create some of the most iconic homes in the state, if not the country.
Working across the ’50s to the early ’80s, his unique Brutalist style
has earned his projects a cult status that has only intensiﬁed since
his death in 1986.
Located around nine kilometres north of the city centre, the 1976
property was once known as ‘The Lookout’ for its stunning views of
the Perth skyline, but later adopted the name Marsala House, after
original owners Tina and Sergio Marsala. And while many would
recognise its distinctive facade, Lekias’s own connection to the
home is far more personal.
“It’s quite a crazy story because all the time Stormie and I have
been together, I would talk about this house that my uncle owned
that had this incredible sunken lounge,” she says. “I remember going
there as a child and I just thought it was amazing.”
When the couple were looking for a new place, Lekias and Mills set
their sights on a home in Mount Lawley, only to ﬁnd out it had already
been sold. But the agent had another idea. There was a property that
had just hit the market and offered to give the pair a sneak peek.
“When we walked in, I just turned and looked at Stormie and
said, ‘Oh my God, this is my uncle’s house!’ And we went home that
night and bought it.”
But at the time, both of their careers were ﬂying. Mills had become
one of WA’s most in-demand artists, and Lekias was running her
own successful PR agency, Magenta.
“We didn’t even move into it for 12 months because we were just
travelling too much with work,” she says. But once things slowed
down enough for the pair to turn their attention to the home, it was
clear it was going to need more than a fresh coat of paint. The previous
owners had done some restoration of the heritage-listed property,
but it still needed signiﬁcant work to return it to its former glory.
“We’re both really quite obsessive people,” says Mills, “so when we
want something, it’s got to be perfect.” “Where things were original,
they’ve been restored and where they weren’t, we’ve taken them
back to the spirit of the era,” adds Lekias. “We really drilled down
to the details — every light switch in the house was changed so
it was the proper light switch from the ’70s, and same with all
the handles on all the doors.”
But it wasn’t a case of simply popping down to a one-stop hardware
shop. Their electrician had to convince electronics company Clipsal
to produce an entire run of ’70s-style light switches to ensure they
were authentic to the originals. And rather than simply tearing out
the old windows, the couple managed to ﬁnd a tradesperson willing
to lovingly restore each and every one.
“I found this amazing guy and I explained to him that it’s like
having a Chanel jacket,” says Lekias. “If a button falls off, you’re not

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“Iwan Iwanoff
was just an
incredible talent.
He was just
so visionary
and ahead of
his time”
MELISSA LEKIAS

going to randomly replace it. And this guy totally got it — he spent
a week restoring each window in the house. It was just amazing
to watch him work.”
Once the original bones of the home were restored, Lekias
and Mills worked with designer and stylist — and long-time friend
— Mariia Gabriel, who assisted with the ﬁnishing touches.
Needless to say, they were not looking to turn Marsala House into
a contemporary minimalist white box.
“We really love the interior work of Lenny Kravitz. It is
both striking yet bohemian and we like that interesting blend
of relaxation and glamour, which is quite hard to achieve.
It’s important for us that our home feels like you can live in it,” says
Lekias of the couple’s style. “We are not the type of people that can
have someone else’s aesthetic imposed upon us, which is why Mariia
is so great to work with as a guide and collaborator.”
Far from rushing things, the collaboration between Gabriel and
the couple has spanned several years. “Some clients will want
everything done in six weeks, whereas Stormie and Melissa, their
brief has always been: let’s just get it right,” says Gabriel. “Sometimes
you dream about just getting to see inside some of these homes,
so I think it’s everybody’s dream to work on something like this.
They really do live in that house in the way that it deserves to be
lived. And I think that’s really quite special.”
“We have felt that living in Marsala is like living in an artwork,”
says Lekias. “You are forever discovering new little details
created by the way the light works in the house and the ﬁne detail
Iwanoff put into his work. You are constantly immersed in his
incredible mind.”
In fact, the couple is so enamoured by the architect’s work,
they have recently purchased another Iwanoff home, which they
eventually plan to settle in, and pass Marsala onto new owners.
“Iwanoff was just an incredible talent,” says Lekias. “He was
just so visionary and ahead of his time, and it’s so great to see that
he’s beginning to be recognised now.”
Lekias and Mills might eventually be moving on from Marsala
House. But regardless of whoever takes their place in the iconic
property, you can’t help but feel that the party is far from over. VL
@mariia.gabriel; stormiemills.com

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133

TH IS PAG E in the kitchen, cooktop from Westinghouse; oven from Miele;
vintage 1970s yellow vase found in Venice; trays from iBride; Italian pewter
sculpture (top shelf ) from Robi Renzi. O P P O SI T E PAG E in the dining area,
Peg dining table from Matsuoka Furniture; 1960s Technosalotto dining
chairs; 1970s pendant light by Goffredo Reggiani; oil sketch artwork by
Quentin Blake; small study artworks by Matt Doust.

“The disco’s amazing — we love it
in there, even if it’s just the two
of us. It’s just so much fun!”
MELISSA LEKIAS

in the downstairs disco room, vintage Italian
armchairs from Pamono; vintage Murano chandelier;
vintage wallpaper found in London; artworks by Retna.

T H E SE PAG ES

in the pool room with a view of the stairs leading to the disco room,
1960s credenza found in London; 1970s Les 2 Potiers ceramic coffee table;
stools with custom Moroccan fabric upholstery; vintage Alvino Bagni
ceramics; 1970s lamp by Philippe Barbier for Maison Barbier, with custom
lampshade from Tessuti + Moo; Self portrait artwork by Michael Peck;
vintage artworks by artists unknown. OP PO S ITE PAGE in the main ensuite,
stonework produced by Attica; candle from Diptyque.

T HIS PAG E

in the pool area, daybeds and Coral Reef
parasols from Roberti; mid-century Russell Woodard
spun ﬁbreglass outdoor setting with custom upholstery;
vintage elephant side tables. Details, last pages.
T HE SE PAG E S

Walking
on sunshine
This bold Mornington
Peninsula property
takes more than its
name from a secluded
bay in Florida Keys.
By Amy Campbell
Photographed by
Armelle Habib

T H IS PAG E designer and
homeowner Kate Walker in the
dining area of this Mount Martha
home, Baxter dining table and
Lodge dining chairs upholstered
in Hermès Dune fabric from Boyd
Blue; Westwood English Gold
hurricane lamp (on mantlepiece)
from Cromwell; Ralph Lauren
Home Cara Sculpted pendant
light from The Montauk Lighting
Co.; Tunstall sisal rug from KWD
& Co.; artwork by Zoe Young.
O PPO SI T E PAGE in the backyard
pool area, original bench in Dulux
Cooks Beach paint; Tectona
1800 sun loungers from Classic
With A Twist; custom patio
umbrellas from Lynch’s Window
Fashions; pool in Amano Ice Blue
Glossy mosaic tiles from Klay
Tiles and Facades; Miami marble
pavers from KWD & Co.;
landscape design by Plume.
Details, last pages.

Nov/Dec 2021

143

here are properties that look straight out of Slim Aarons’ iconic
that hangs in the den depicts Walker and her family
Poolside Gossip series, and then there’s Biscayne. So it’s ﬁtting,
splashing around at the beach, while a trio of works
if not a little coincidental, then that the name of the whitewashed
by Brooklyn-based artist Wayne Pate, whom the
home was inspired by one of the renowned photographer’s
designer has been following for some time, hangs
favourite destinations to shoot: Florida.
in the entrance foyer.
Yet ensconced on a quiet street in the sleepy hamlet of Mount
“When it came to this home, I really wanted to
Martha on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Biscayne couldn’t be
showcase how far we could take the design. And
more geographically distant from the Everglades if it tried. The
because I was my own client, I really had carte
holiday state-of-mind however can be felt in each and every detail.
blanche to do that,” muses Walker.
“It’s got that resort feel,” says designer and homeowner Kate
Having bumped the entire family in, is she happy
Walker. “It almost feels like compound living. You come through
with the end result? “I am,” she says resolutely.
the private gates, they close behind you, and you really do feel like you’re transported
With a laugh, she quickly adds, “it was all well and
someplace else.”
good until the bill came in.”
Where other buyers found the home’s orientation off-putting — built to maximise
Would she call Biscayne her dream house?
the view at the rear of the block, the ‘back’ of the house actually faces the street —
“Honestly, I don’t think I can have one,” she admits.
Walker saw immense potential.
“I’m forever searching for new projects, and I’m
so passionate about ﬁnding homes and bringing
“It was a challenge. The backs of houses aren’t normally as pretty as the front,”
out their full potential. It works for our family now.
observes the designer and founder of her eponymous studio, Kate Walker Design.
If this last year has shown us anything,
“But I was immediately drawn to the colonial aesthetic; the home had all the
it’s that things can change. But we’re living in the
hallmarks of that design style, and it became all about articulating those features.
moment, and it’s perfect for us right now.” VL
“We closed in the old verandah and extended the front entrance to make it a real
katewalkerdesign.com.au
focal point, and we looked a lot at connectivity between inside and outside. With the
landscape design, it became about creating outdoor rooms,
similar to how all of these different moments and experiences
can be contained within the grounds of a hotel.”
T H IS PAGE on the upstairs landing, Julie Neill Alberto single-tier
Walker purchased the house with the intention of sharing it
chandelier from The Montauk Lighting Co.; Sapphire Blue mirror
with her two teenage children. But then she met her partner,
from Cromwell; custom carpet from KWD & Co.; The Second
Flowering (August’s Orchids) (2019) artwork by Sally Anderson.
Anthony, and suddenly, Biscayne’s occupancy doubled in size
— two of Anthony’s children also spend time at the home.
“We’re a bit of a Brady Bunch,” says Walker. “It’s been
interesting because I didn’t design it for all of us. But going
from a house of three to six people, what’s saved us has been
those outdoor spaces.” To help illustrate this, she recalls
a vignette from the weekend prior. “It was the most beautiful,
sunny August day, and two of the kids were in the pool — which
is ridiculous! Another was playing on the tennis court, and
another was with us, stoking the outdoor ﬁre. It really made me
stop and think: these different experiences outside are what
connects us to the home.”
Inside, it’s the kitchen — and the island, speciﬁcally — that
forms the nucleus of the home. The stately slab of Amazonia
marble plays host to a school lunch production line and brekkie
on the run in the mornings before it transforms into a homework
bench from 4pm. By dinner, meals that are cooked in a palatial
Ilve Majestic oven are served and devoured on the island’s surface.
Likewise, the bar also tends to change personalities as the
day progresses. “The coffee end of the bar gets opened in
the morning, and closed as the day goes on. And then come ﬁve
o’clock, the ‘bar’ bar gets opened. It’s like a little speakeasy, and
we might have a drink with friends — Covid allowing,” says
Walker. “But yes, we move right along!”
This sense of exuberant energy extends throughout the entire
home and up the stairs — a custom-made candy-coloured runner
infuses this passageway with a sense of whimsy. In the powder
room, a ﬂock of pink-and-white herons dance along the walls
(the wallpaper is Gucci, but it might as well be an artwork)
while in the main ensuite, a bench-like basin stand that
doubles as an exquisite piece of furniture subverts the notion
of conventional joinery.
But it’s the art collection that gives Biscayne its sentimental
value. A special commission by Australian artist Craig Parnaby
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145

T H IS PAGE in the main ensuite,
tapware and custom Hawthorn
Hill stand basin from The English
Tapware Company; custom mirror
from Outlines; Wideboard Biscayne
European Oak ﬂooring from KWD
& Co.; Julie Neill Lucia Medium
Tail wall sconce and Aerin Benit
Wall Washer wall sconces
(in hallway) from The Montauk
Lighting Co. OPP OS ITE PAG E in the
kitchen-dining area, custom bench
table in Amazonia stone from
Gladstones Granite & Marble;
custom stools from KWD & Co. and
Sorrento Furniture, upholstered in
Vallan fabric in Sage from Elliott
Clarke; candelabras from Lucy
Montgomery; glazed green bowl
and plaster bowl from Brownlow
Interiors; Farmers Doors weathered
oak joinery installed by DMA
Kitchens; splashback in Zellige
ceramic tiles in White Matt from
National Tiles; Kew handles in
Acid Wash Brass by Hepburn
Hardware; Ilve Majestic oven,
Qasair rangehood and Fhiaba
fridge, all from Winning
Appliances; Mauviel copper
stockpot from Williams-Sonoma;
Kelly Wearstler Bayliss table
lamp and Cleo pendant lights
from The Montauk Lighting Co.;
A Single Rose (2020) artwork
by John Bokor.

Nov/Dec 2021

147

in son Charlie’s bedroom, throw from Polite Society; cushions in Lee Jofa St Tropez Print
fabric, enquiries to Elliott Clarke; Jeffery Alan Marks Green Oaks pendant lamps from Boyd Blue;
Ionian Sea Linen wallpaper in Tide from Ralph Lauren Home, enquiries to Designers Guild; rug from
KWD & Co. O PP O SI TE PAGE in the downstairs powder room, Perrin & Rowe tapware and The Water
Monopoly Paris basin on stand from The English Tapware Company; vanity in Cosmopolitan quartzite;
Villeroy & Boch Architectura 2.0 toilet from Argent Australia; mirror from Nicholas & Alistair;
Suzanne Kasler Juliette table lamp, Ralph Lauren Home Ella Woven Flush Mount ceiling light and
Kelly Wearstler Melange Pill Form wall sconce, all from The Montauk Lighting Co.; Heron print
wallpaper from Gucci; straight-cut Rosso Verona and Portagallo marble ﬂooring from KWD & Co.
T HI S PAG E

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in the laundry, Miele washing
machine and dryer from Winning
Appliances; tapware and Acquello sink
from The English Tapware Company;
Copacabana honed quartzite splashback
from KWD & Co.; Lady ’79 lamp by Sarah
Nedovic Gaunt; Botticino and Bardaglio
tumbled marble cobblestone ﬂooring from
KWD & Co.; commissioned artworks by
Edward Pope. OPP OSI TE PAG E in the rear
terrace, Tectona 1800 sofas and footrests
from Classic With a Twist; Stripes cushions
from Lucy Montgomery; ceramic vase
by Giacomo Alessi from Fenton & Fenton;
Ayere Cascais cups and tray from
Greenhouse Interiors; gazebo in Dulux
White Cloak Half paint. Details, last pages.
TH I S PAG E

PITCH

PERFECT
Craftsmanship and exquisite detail have elevated this
Sydney home into a striking showpiece, with a newly
formed design duo’s diverse talents on full display.
By Chris Pearson Photographed by Anson Smart Styled by Megan Morton

T HE S E PAGE S in the formal
lounge, custom sofa; velvet
ball cushions designed by
Duet; Etcetera lounge and
foot stool by Jan Ekselius
from Tigmi Trading; Elle
Monument marble coffee
table from GlobeWest;
Pillar side table from House
of Orange; Heat & Glo 3X
enclosed gas ﬁreplace from
Jetmaster; ikebana bowl
(on coffee table) from owner’s
collection; vintage Venini
vase and clam shell from
Shapiro Auctioneers; vintage
Bilia lamp by Gio Ponti for
FontanaArte from Smith
Street Bazaar; curtains
in Zimmer + Rohde silk
produced by Simple Studio;
rug designed by Duet,
produced by Tapetti; walls
in Dulux Rice Crop paint;
sculpture by The Visuals;
ﬂowers throughout by
Sophia Kaplan.

esigners Dominique Brammah and
Shannon Shlom struck such a resonant
chord in this handsome home in
Sydney’s inner west that it became the
prelude to a new business, called Duet.
In 2019, Brammah received a call from
Shlom — the two had worked together
at interior design ﬁrm Arent & Pyke.
“I have landed a large project I can’t do
by myself. Do you want to collaborate?”
asked Brammah. When Shlom saw that project was this generous
1916 Tudor Revival home, she couldn’t resist. That moment became
the catalyst not just for the pair’s dramatic transformation of these
spaces but also a creative partnership that led to the launch of
a design studio earlier this year. Sharing a similar aesthetic, they
proved a harmonious team, in chorus with a design-savvy owner.
Drawn by the stained-glass windows, arches, pitched roof and
generous grounds, including a tennis court, the owner and his wife
purchased the two-storey brick home for their three — now four
—children in mid-2019. “It had so much history, having been
featured in Decoration and Glass magazine in 1937 and owned by
tennis champion Daphne Akhurst,” he enthuses. But a by-thenumbers renovation, embracing an open-plan layout at the back
had stripped the home of its character. “While it was grand on the
outside, inside there was no big moment,” says Shlom. “The interiors
did not speak to the architecture and there was no ﬂow,” adds the
owner. “I wanted to adapt it for both family living and entertaining,
with magical ﬁnishes.” Having long followed Brammah’s work, he
knew who to call. “She and Shannon are true explorers, with no two
properties the same. Like a DJ mixtape, they combine materials,
colours and shapes and somehow they all work.”
The well-travelled owner presented the duo with captured
Instagram moments from French and English hotels. Those images
revealed recurring themes — wall panelling, moulded ceilings and
cornices, ornate joinery, deep skirtings and sinuous curves,
combining the Belle Epoque era and manor-house traditions. With
these striking inﬂuences as a starting point, the new team instilled
the ho-hum home with some serious je ne sais quoi.
“I wanted luxurious and warm, colourful and playful, and each
room to tell its own story,” says the owner, and on a practical level,
a functional family home that also opened itself up for generous
entertaining. While he handled the project management, he gave
the duo virtual carte blanche in a 16-month passion project.
“We stripped it back to the stud work,” says Brammah. A pivotal
moment was moving the staircase from the entry to the open-plan
area. Not only did the house instantly shed its old stuffiness —
together with its varnished panelling and picture rails — the
linearity of the old stair was swapped for a sculpted sweeping spiral.
“After we moved the stairs, the rooms arranged themselves,” she
says. “We then played up the entry hall, making it grand and spacious.”
While the designers retained two formal rooms at the front,
a living room and a study, the back was devoted to family living.

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A formal dining room reemerged as the children’s playroom beside
the open-plan zone, attached yet also separate. Within the open
plan sit two kitchens — one a showpiece, the other behind for daily
use, robust and hidden away. At the rear, a games room replaced
a home theatre. Beyond that, beside the tennis court, sits a
freestanding apartment. Masterminded by architect Adrian
Hernandez of AJH+, both those additions are crafted in brick,
with the latter’s sweeping arches taking their cues from the home’s
architecture. Meanwhile, ﬁve bedrooms occupy the reinvigorated
property’s upper level.
While the formal living room is muted and sophisticated
in its palette, deeper earthy and leafy hues adorn the informal
living area and the playroom. “We wanted to keep things serene,”
says Brammah, “but ramped things up in the kids’ playroom,
with stripes on the ceiling for a playful space. It has both grandeur
and joyfulness.”
Exquisite craftsmanship runs
throughout. Oak parquetry and
“Dominique and
marble inlay ﬂoors rub shoulders
Shannon are
with a plethora of panelling and
ﬂowing curves expressed in the
true explorers,
stairway, mouldings and arches.
with no two
“The curves create ﬂow and
properties the
movement,” says Brammah. For the
same. Like a DJ
custom bathroom and games room
ﬂoors, the tiler chopped up slabs to
mixtape, they
combine materials, create unique patterns. “We worked
with the artisans in the mouldings
colours and
and workshopped the internal
shapes and
doors. It was a labour of love, with
somehow they
everything so detailed.”
Furnishings, meanwhile, offer a
all work”
crisp counterpoint. “There’s plenty
THE HOMEOWNER
of ornamentation, but we bring in
a twist with the contemporary
furnishings,” says Shlom. “We did not want a European pastiche,
so we respected the house’s original features and then moved it into
something more appropriate for family living.”
The dynamic duo scoured the world for furniture. But plenty
of what they wanted they couldn’t ﬁnd, hence custom sofas,
bedheads, pendant lights and carpet — including the signature
harlequin checkered ﬂoorcovering in the main bedroom — were
again meticulously handcrafted. Luxe ﬁnishes such as velvets,
durable leathers, marble and gold highlights abound.
“It was a dream ﬁrst project, showcasing all we can offer — we
even sourced cutlery and tea towels,” sums up Shlom. “And, with
seven bathrooms and four kitchens, it was what we might have
designed over four projects, not one.”
“I love how each room has different textures, materials and
colours, and I am in awe of the detailing. As you walk through,
you start with a wow and keep wowing,” says the owner. VL
weareduet.com.au ajh-a.com.au

TH I S PAG E, FRO M TOP

in the family living area,
Joy chair from Jardan;
Elle block angled coffee table
from GlobeWest; Esedra pouf
from Poltrona Frau, enquiries
to Mobilia; custom sofa
designed by Duet; vintage
Venini bowl and vase from
Shapiro Auctioneers; vintage
Fabergé eggs on custom
plinth; rug designed by Duet,
produced by Tapetti; Stellar
Grape ﬂoor lamp (at left) by
Sebastian Herkner for Pulpo
from Domo. The homeowner
with his prized vintage
Mercedes-Benz vehicle in
the driveway with Luca
Filetti natural stone pavers
from Eco Outdoor.

Nov/Dec 2021

157

T HI S PAG E in the main bedroom, bedhead,
bedside table, bed linen and pendant light,
all designed by Duet; LagunaB tumbler from
Pan After; carpet designed by Duet, produced
by Tapetti; grasscloth wallpaper from Ascraft.
OPP OSI T E PAG E in the children’s playroom,
sofa designed by Duet; custom-upholstered
Lobby bench from House of Orange; vintage
mid-century Italian side table; cabinetry
designed by Duet with drawers in Dulux
Cuddlepot paint; candlestick from Kirsten
Perry; Pomponette vase from Maison Balzac;
B-4 table lamp from Gubi, enquiries to Cult;
rug designed by Duet; Rex pendant light
from Arteriors, enquiries to Boyd Blue;
striped ceiling and wall detail in Dulux
Rice Crop Quarter with Murobond
Terracotta; artwork, stylist’s own.

T HI S PAGE , FR OM TO P in
the kitchen and dining area,
island, benchtop and
rangehood surround in
Calacatta marble; island
benchtop in Verde Chambray
marble; custom-stained
crown-cut American oak
veneer cabinetry in Porter’s
Paints Half Dusty Mule and
Triple Newport Blue; Perrin
& Rowe tapware from The
English Tapware Company;
cooktop from Pitt Cooking;
ovens from Gaggenau,
enquiries to Winning
Appliances; integrated
fridges from Fisher & Paykel,
enquiries to Winning
Appliances; Iva bar stools
from Grazia&Co; vase from
McMullin & Co; Benjamin
Ripple Oval dining table and
Franklin dining chairs from
GlobeWest; Drop System
chandelier from Lindsey
Adelman. In the guest
bedroom, bed linen from
The Stitching Project;
artwork by S A S Veer.

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Need the holiday that
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P HOTO G RAP H E R: LAU RY N I SH AK

Awe-inspiring escapes,
need-to-know destinations and
holiday essentials await.

TH IS PAGE a view across
Singapore’s vibrant Chinatown
to the central business district.
Turn the page for the full story.

Nov/Dec 2021

165

With a travel bubble on the horizon,
Singapore slings to the top of our getaway
plans. With top-notch restaurants and
enticing bars, it’s time to rediscover
the Garden City’s perennial attractions.

By Annette Tan Photographed by Lauryn Ishak
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Travel+Luxury

Nov/Dec 2021

167

VList

of national progress. Ask for a table
on its balmy alfresco terrace and
devour time-honoured favourites such
as chilli crab, caramel soy sauce
prawns (har lok) and steamed tilapia
doused in a tangy Nyonya gravy.
A meal at Candlenut, the world’s
ﬁrst Michelin-starred Peranakan
restaurant, is always a treat. Chef
Malcolm Lee makes an art of elevating
Singapore’s most famous cuisine
— an aromatic hybrid of Chinese,
Indonesian and Malay ﬂavours — with
the best ingredients and Western
techniques. The stylish eatery is part
of Como Dempsey, home to a ﬂock of
restaurants at Dempsey Hill, along
with Dover Street Market.
Once a haven for early
Chinese migrants, Chinatown
is now the setting for some of
the city’s buzziest restaurants.
At Nouri, Brazilian chef Ivan
Brehm investigates how foods
of the world are connected
with his “crossroads cooking”.
A recent tasting menu veered
from pan-seared Hokkaido
scallop to Vietnamese-style
soy-glazed ﬁsh to French
pigeon infused with Mexican
ﬂavours. Multi-concept space
Appetite is one ﬂoor up,
housing an art gallery, record
lounge and an eight-seater
open-galley kitchen.
Still on bustling Amoy
Street, Cloudstreet remains
one of the city’s most in-demand
eateries. One-time Australian
resident, chef-owner Rishi Naleendra draws
on his Sri Lankan heritage to craft a unique
culinary approach. His best-loved dishes
include yellow curry of Western Australian
marron, roasted lamb saddle with baby
jackfruit curry wrapped in radicchio, and ‘Vegemite
on toast’ petits four.
In the curvaceous dining room ﬁtted with brass
and stone at Restaurant Euphoria, Singaporean
chef Jason Tan showcases his love for vegetables
by re-creating the mother sauces of French cuisine
using only botanicals. The results are impressive
tasting menus full of ﬂavour and texture, and the
unexpected use of humble local ingredients such
as patin ﬁsh.
Intrepid South Korean chef Sun Kim, a former
sous-chef at Tetsuya’s in Sydney, heads Meta, the
undisputed darling of the ﬁne-dining scene. Huddled
over blond brushed-wood tables, devotees gush over
Kim’s contemporary cuisine that parses elements

he prospect of emerging from
the depths of travel deprivation
has energised us. Firmly in
our viewfinder is Singapore,
the verdant South-East Asian
city-state adored by Australians, revered
by food fanatics, and floated as the next
potential bubble for quarantine-free travel.
Singapore’s diminutive size belies its bounty
of experiences. The usual suspects abound
— the charming shophouses of Chinatown,
Marina Bay Sands’ many luxurious
temptations – but the nation’s appeal lies in
its constant evolution, its polyglot cultural
mix, and its impressive efficiency— the
gleaming MRT system, for instance, and
masses of taxis that make scooting around
town a cinch. Here, we take a closer look
at the impressive and innovative bar and
dining scene that reveals Singapore is
more enthralling than ever.
E AT I N G O U T

From hawkers to haute cuisine
Singapore’s culinary scene is legendary. Almost nowhere else in the world can you
eat as affordably (or extravagantly) as this food-obsessed city-state where treats
tempt at every turn. When in doubt, head to the no-frills hawker centres — any one
of them, really — and odds are you’ll stumble on well-priced, mouth-watering food.
One of the most admired and renowned is Hawker Chan. For $3 you can enjoy an
ambrosial dish of chicken poached in soy sauce and served on fragrant rice. Another
culinary treasure, Hill Street Tai Hwa, is as famous for its hours-long queues as
for its unrivalled bak chor mee, chilli- and vinegar-spiked minced pork noodles.
Spring Court, one of the city’s oldest restaurants, continues to draw a crowd for
its distinctively Singaporean-Chinese fare. Succulent dishes such as roast chicken
slicked with a layer of minced prawns and Chinese cabbage stewed with dried
scallops offer a glimpse into the old food ways when migrants of every race
contributed to the richer, piquant ﬂavours of the island’s early Chinese food.
The family-run Hua Yu Wee, set in the last remaining beachfront mansion
of its kind, is another window into a bygone era. Its entrance along Upper East
Coast Road is really the back of the house; its true frontage, now shrouded by
thick rainforest, once faced the sea, which has since been reclaimed in the name
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Travel+Luxury

T HE SE PAGE S , F R O M LEF T satay is a
staple at Singapore’s hawker centres.
Patrons at Manhattan come for the
American-inspired cocktails.
Native’s Oolong Highball topped
with a nori cracker, and the Mekong
Cola with a lotus-stem straw.

of his native South Korean cuisine with
classic European techniques.
Speaking of Tetsuya Wakuda,
his gastronomic temple Waku Ghin
recently
reopened
after
major
renovations and comes with even loftier
price tags. Its entry-level tasting menu
starts at S$550 before drinks and taxes,
and takes diners on a memorable,
meandering journey from bar to chef’s
table to dessert alcove. Or take a seat at
the no-reservations, newly expanded
Waku Ghin bar, which serves inspired
cocktails and exquisite small bites,
from Spanish-style bikini sandwiches
to Japanese wagyu tartare.
Burnt Ends, the Michelin-starred
barbecue restaurant of Perth-born ﬁrestarter
Dave Pynt, is still a sizzling-hot option. Lock in a
reservation long before you arrive in the city to
try Pynt’s sensational smoky fare, prepared in a
custom-designed, wood-burning kiln.

WHERE TO DRINK

Toasting the cocktail capital
Singapore is at the apex of Asia’s burgeoning cocktail
culture, a swathe of its watering holes sitting proudly
on the World’s 50 Best Bars list. Chief among them is
Atlas, currently ranked fourth, which has the world’s

largest collection of gin, as well as cinematic Art Deco-inspired interiors worthy
of Jay Gatsby. Meanwhile, Manhattan, ranked 14th, has its own dedicated
rickhouse ﬁlled to the brim with aged spirits that lend delicious complexity to its
menu of American-inspired cocktails.
Hong Kong import The Old Man has a compact list of 11 cocktails that pays
tribute to Hemingway’s novels, all of which feature fat-washed spirits and original
sous-vide infusions. The Sun Also Rises, for example, lends an Asian twist to the
Negroni, with coconut oil fat-washed applejack, curry leaf-infused gin, pandan
leaf, sweet vermouth and kaffir lime.
At the atmospheric Elephant Room, owner and mixologist Yugnes Susela has
transported the scents and ﬂavours of Singapore’s Little India district to his
Chinatown bar fashioned with decorative elements such as russet Jaali vent blocks.
The inventive cocktails are made with spirits from India such as Hapusa Gin, with
turmeric and mango among its exotic botanicals. The well-considered snacks are not
to be missed – the string hoppers with chicken curry are among the city-state’s best.
Ever-popular Native lives up
to its name with cocktails made
from regional spirits and local
ingredients, including ants, foraged
by owner Vijay Mudaliar. The
insects go into a tropical mix of
Chalong Bay Rum, coconut yoghurt,
salt-based tapioca and soursop.
For a breezy experience by
the Singapore River, there’s Caffe
Fernet, which looks out to
the historic Collyer Quay. With
tan-toned booths and knockout
views, it’s a fabulous setting for
enjoying Italian-accented cocktails
such as nifty Negronis and ﬂavourdriven spins on Spritzes. VL
Nov/Dec 2021

169

COM P I LE D BY H ARR I E T C R AWFO RD

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The VL edit

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THI S PAGE Cloud Forest at
Gardens by the Bay, Singapore.

Nov/Dec 2021

171

1stDibs 1stdibs.com Abey Australia abey.com.au Academy Tiles academytiles.
com.au Alﬁes Antique Market alﬁesantiques.com Allegra Hicks allegrahicks.com
Alm studioalm.com Anibou anibou.com.au Antiquités Lahaye antiquiteslahaye.fr Apparatus apparatusstudio.com Argent Australia argentaust.com.au
Artclub thisisartclub.com Arte arte-international.com Artedomus artedomus.com
Artemide artemide.com Ascraft ascraft.com.au Astra Walker astrawalker.com.au
Attica attica.net.au B&B Italia bebitalia.com Barovier & Toso barovier.com
Bathe bathe.net.au Besselink & Jones besselink.com Blender Gallery
blendergallery.com Bonacina 1889 bonacina1889.it Borgia Marble Installations
borgiamarble.com.au Boyd Blue boydblue.com Brochier brochier.it Brownlow
Interior Design brownlow.net.au Cantwell Pools & Courts cantwellpools.com.au
Casamance casamance.com Cassina cassina.com Castorina & Co. castorina.
com.au Chanel chanel.com Classic With A Twist classicwithatwist.com.au
Claudy Jongstra claudyjongstra.com Coco Republic cocorepublic.com.au
Craig Parnaby craigparnaby.com Craig Waddington Construction @cw_
construct Criteria criteriacollection.com.au Cromwell cromwellaustralia.com.au
Cult cultdesign.com.au Cultiver cultiver.com.au DMA Kitchens dmakitchens.
com.au Darren Brown Interiors darrenbrown.com De Gournay degournay.com
Dedece dedece.com Dedece+ dedeceplus.com Designers Guild designersguild.
com Designstuff designstuff.com.au Dinosaur Designs dinosaurdesigns.com.au
Dior dior.com Diptyque diptyqueparis.com District district.com.au Dolce &
Gabbana dolcegabbana.com Domo domo.com.au Dulux dulux.com.au
Dundas World dundasworld.com Early Settler earlysettler.com.au

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Eco Outdoor ecooutdoor.com.au Elizabeth Gage elizabeth-gage.com Elliott
Clarke elliottclarke.com.au Emma Margetts @emmamargetts_artist
Erdem erdem.com Evoke London evokelondon.com Exteta exteta.it Farmers
Doors farmersdoors.com Fenton & Fenton fentonandfenton.com.au
Fermoie fermoie.com Fisher & Paykel ﬁsherpaykel.com Flos ﬂos.com
FontanaArte fontanaarte.com Gaggenau gaggenau.com.au Ghidini 1961
ghidini1961.com Gladstones Granite & Marbles gladstonesgranite.com.au
GlobeWest globewest.com.au Grazia&Co graziaandco.com.au Greenhouse
Interiors
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Greg Natale
gregnatale.com
Gubi gubi.com Gucci gucci.com Halcyon Lake halcyonlake.com Harvey
Norman harveynorman.com.au Hepburn Hardware hepburnhardware.com
Hermès hermes.com Holland & Sherry hollandandsherry.com Holly
Hunt hollyhunt.com House of Ise houseoﬁse.com House of Orange
houseoforange.com.au Hydrotherm hydrotherm.com.au iBride ibride-design.
com IconRadford iconradford.com Idea Creation ideacreation.com.au
Ignem Terrae Ceramics ignemterrae.com iGuzzini iguzzini.com Innovative
Aluminum innovativealuminium.com.au Intrim intrimmouldings.com.au
Invogue Door Systems @invogue_door James Dunlop Textiles
jamesdunloptextiles.com Jardan jardan.com.au Jetmaster jetmaster.com.au
Jhaveri Contemporary jhavericontemporary.com Jim Jon @jimjonﬂowers
John Sharp studiojohnsharp.com KWD & Co. kwdandco.com.au
Kara Walker karawalkerstudio.com Kelly Wearstler kellywearstler.com
Kensington Lighting Company @kensington_lighting_company Kirsten
Perry kirstenperry.com Klay Tiles and Facades klay.com.au Kvadrat
Maharam kvadrat.dk Laminex laminex.com.au Le Monde Beryl lemondeberyl.
com Ligne Roset ligne-roset.com Lindsey Adelman lindseyadelman.com
Living Edge livingedge.com.au Lovelight lovelight.com.au Lucy Montgomery
lucymontgomery.com Lumina lumina.it Lynch’s Window Fashions
lynchswindowfashions.com.au Lynne Roberts-Goodwin lynnerobertsgoodwin.
com Maison Balzac maisonbalzac.com Maniberg magniberg.com Marco
marcofabrics.com.au Marmol Radziner marmol-radziner.com Matsuoka
Furniture matsuokafurniture.com Maximiliano Modesti @max.modesti
McMullin & Co mcmullinandco.com Mercer & Lewis mercerandlewis.com
Metalarte metalarte.com Metro Gallery metrogallery.com.au Michael
Peck michaelpeckart.com Miele miele.com.au Milgate milgate.com.au
Mobilia mobilia.com.au Modern Times moderntimes.com.au Montmartre
Store montmartrestore.com.au Murobond murobond.com.au Myles Baldwin
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nationaltiles.com.au Naturally Cane naturallycane.com.au Nicholas &
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osmanlondon.com Outlines outlines.com.au Pamono pamono.com Pan After
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Phillip Jeffries phillipjeffries.com Pierre Augustin Rose pierreaugustinrose.com
Pitt Cooking pittcooking.com Plume plumestudio.com.au Polite Society politesociety.com.au Porter’s Paints porterspaints.com Quentin Blake quentinblake.
com Ralph Lauren Home ralphlaurenhome.com Ralph Pucci ralphpucci.com
Rana Begum @ranabegumstudio Reindeer Antiques reindeerantiques.co.uk
Ricky Allman rickyallman.com Robert Gordon Australia robertgordonaustralia.
com Roberti robertirattan.com Robi Renzi robirenzi.it Romo romo.com
Rose Uniacke roseuniacke.com Rosenthal rosenthal.de S A S Veer sasveer.
com
Saltwater
Joinery
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Sarah
Nedovic
Gaunt sarahnedovicgaunt.com Shadowline Joinery slj.com.au Shapiro
Auctioneers shapiro.com.au Shezad Dawood @shezaddawood Signature
Floors signatureﬂoors.com.au Silas Seandel silasseandel.com Simple
Studio simplestudio.com.au Skultuna skultuna.com Smith Street Bazaar
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Paciﬁc Fabrics southpaciﬁcfabrics.com Space Furniture spacefurniture.com
Stark starkcarpet.com Stone Elegance stoneelegance.com.au Studio Bijlani
@studiobijlani Studio Rewild @studiorewild Sub-Zero Wolf au.subzero-wolf.
com Susan Caplan susancaplan.co.uk Tapetti tappeti.com.au Tara
Shaw tarashaw.com Tessuti + Moo tessutimoo.com.au The Conran Shop
conranshop.co.uk The Cool Hunter thecoolhunter.net The English Tapware
Company englishtapware.com.au The Hirst Collection thehirstcollection.
com The Invisible Collection theinvisiblecollection.com The Montauk
Lighting Co. montauklightingco.com The Society Inc. thesocietyinc.com.au
The Stitching Project the-stitching-project.com The Textile Company
textilecompany.com.au The Visuals thevisuals.com.au Tigger Hall Design
tiggerhalldesign.com Tigmi Trading tigmitrading.com Tim Roodenrys
timroodenrys.com Tom Dixon tomdixon.net Tongue n Groove tngﬂooring.
com.au Tréca international.treca.com Victoria + Albert vandabaths.com Viola
Lanari violanari.com Vitrocsa vitrocsa.com.au Wayne Pate waynepate.com
We Love Parquet weloveparquet.com.au Westinghouse westinghouse.
com.au Williams-Sonoma williams-sonoma.com.au Winning Appliances
winningappliances.com.au Wolf au.subzero-wolf.com Worn Store wornstore.
com.au YSG ysg.studio Zimmer + Rohde zimmer-rohde.com Zip
Water zipwater.com Zoe Young zoeyoung.com.au

P HOTO G RAP H E R: ARME L L E HAB I B

Sources

VO GU E L I V I N G PROMOT I O N

POSTSCRIPT
From the kitchen to the bedroom, update
your home in style with these must-haves.
PERFECT CONDITIONS
For those who prefer a more
robust aesthetic for professional
kitchen appeal, Fhiaba has
created the X-Pro series of wine
cabinets to house your collection
of favourite, note-worthy drops.
Handcrafted in Italy, Fhiaba
wine cabinets have been designed
to store fine wines under ideal
conditions addressing the impact
of temperature, humidity, light
and vibration. For more details,
visit winningappliances.com.au

TOP OF THE
MORNING
Start the day off right with
a cafe-quality brew at home,
thanks to Nespresso’s chic
Vertuo Next machine and
Aeroccino3 milk frother.
Whether your preference
is a double espresso latte
or a cappuccino, this smart
energy-efficient machine
brings out the rich aroma of
sustainably sourced coffee.
For more information, visit
nespresso.com.au

HOMEWARD BOUND
Bringing together Parisian elegance with modern appeal, The Amour from
Webb & Brown-Neaves delivers on the promise of luxurious everyday living.
Outside, Juliet balconies recall boutiques along the Champs-Élysées while
the chic monochrome palette is softened with warm parquetry flooring.
For more inspired residential home design, visit wbhomes.com.au

SIGNATURE STYLE
Inspired by the controlled environment of wine caves, the LG SIGNATURE
wine cellar adds technological advances to the equation. The InstaView
panel illuminates the contents without altering the temperature while also
blocking outside heat and light to ensure distinctive flavour profiles of all
wine varities within are protected. For more details, visit lg.com

BEDTIME STORY
Antonio Citterio brings his signature eye for clean lines and simple yet
sophisticated form to the Gregory bed for Flexform. The contemporary
piece is matched with superior craftsmanship in the leather detailing
around the frame, while the generously plush headboard ensures comfort
and support. For more Flexform pieces, visit fanuli.com.au

AHEAD OF THE CURVE
Australia’s first fine jeweller
Fairfax & Roberts presents
the covetable No.19 Eclipse
bowls. The innovative
European-crafted range
challenges convention, fusing
mouth-blown glass with
titanium or stainless steel.
For a further look, visit fairfax
androbertshome.com.au

Get your skin summer ready with
nontre.co’s Natural Bath Salts and
our Miracle Glow Body Milk and
Scrub. These tubs of goodness
are packed with essential oils to
smooth and hydrate your body
whilst detoxifying and buffing away
dry, dull skin. Say hello to glow and
unveil your best self with nontre.co

INTERIOR DESIGN
COURSE
Learn from industry leaders.
Self-paced course by
distance learning.
Postal and online
options available.
Call 1800 071 100

@nontre.co

nontre.co

TheInteriorDesignA cademy.com

NERRIDAH & ROSS

AGOSCO

At Nerridah & Ross, we’re loving
our range of refillable and sleek,
teak Orbs from Only Orb. They are
an aesthetically and aromatically
pleasing addition to any space,
and with five unique fragrances to
choose from, you’ll be sure to find
a mood to suit you. Also available
in Ceramic and Glass varieties.
RRP $89.95

Whether you’re looking to
transform your living room into the
social hub of the home, or wanting
to up the ante on your outdoor
entertainment, agos—co’s humble
bar cart is the epitome of variety.
Lightweight, weather resistant, and
crafted from cast aluminium and
FSC certified teak.

@nerridahandross

@agosandco

nerridahandross.com.au

agosandco.com.au

ZAKKIA
Part or our Tab Collection, featured here
is the Tab Dish – Large White. A
structural tab shaped base, creating a
clean outline that is just as beautiful to
look at as it is to use.
The large serving dish has been sealed
with a semi-matte glaze. The ﬁnish of the
ceramic is slightly textured and uneven,
and because each dish is individually
handcrafted its texture forms its own
individuality.
This piece can be displayed in any home
as an individual piece of carefully
handcrafted art.
This is the beauty of buying handmade,
your dish will be like no other.

@zakkiahomewares

zakkia.com

T O A D V E R T I S E C O N TA C T 13 0 0 139 3 0 5 O R V O G U E L I V I N G @ N E W S L I F E M E D I A . C O M . A U

VLcollection

NONTRE.CO

T O A D V E R T I S E C O N TA C T 13 0 0 139 3 0 5 O R V O G U E L I V I N G @ N E W S L I F E M E D I A . C O M . A U

VLcollection

@bamboohausau

bamboo-haus.com

SHOP

Forever young
A modular favourite blurs the boundaries between inside an
By Virginia Jen
The return of Salone del Mobile (or Supersalone) to a world reeling from the aftershocks of a pandemic offered its usual heady blend of
innovation and creativity. Arguably though, it showed that despite the exhaustive speed at which the market churns through trends, there
will always be a place for true originality. Arﬂex turned to Mario Marenco’s shapely modular sofa conjured back in 1970. Its versatile,
streamlined and rounded form has led to a re-imagining for the great outdoors. None of the inviting comfort or joyful charm it’s offered for
ﬁve decades has been lost in translation; just ﬂexibility and actual time in the sun added to the chic equation. VL
176

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