Hollister Hovey: August 2007

Friday, August 31, 2007

Scandinavia: The Cape/Vest

Porter found this great cape/vest at a boutique in Stockholm, but it's actually Danish label Samsøe + Samsøe. I took the Polaroid down the street from Svensk Tenn.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Wodehouse Chic: Sermoneta Driving Gloves

Family Photos: The Beach, 1910s

My grandpa, the blonde kid in the middle, spent the first half of his life on the beach and the second, on a golf course. A little tribute to the end of summer.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Lindbergh Chic: Tom Ford Falconer Sunglasses

Tom Ford calls the color "Havana wood." Beautiful.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Technology: Wooden Pinhole Camera

Ok...maybe anti-tech, but still beautiful. AND quite affordable. ZeroImage makes this $225 handmade deluxe model that holds 4x5" film.

Diptyque's Feu de Bois (fire wood) candle creates instant coziness in any setting, especially those with faux fireplaces. It's the perfect accessory to my new black wall. My friends and I actually use the room spray as a winter-time unisex perfume/cologne. If you're not into spraying yourself with air freshener, Terre d'Hermès is the best men's scent out there (I think it's great on women, too). Hermès claims it evokes the "smell of bodies after lovemaking." The scent of a roll in the hay (with a touch of pepper and spice)! Porter and I gave a bottle to our friend and he gets compliments (and come-ons) all the time.

Acquisitions: Velvet Skull Slippers

My dad has a custom made, monogrammed needlepoint pair of formal slippers that put my Rugby versions to shame. When you get them at Rugby, they come with the "R" but cost about 80% less than the skull-only Ralph Lauren version. Stubbs & Wootten makes a great selection for about $325 each (and they did an espadrille for summer, as well! -- the classic men's version is much nicer than the women's wedge). (My mom and dad needlepointed that zebra pouf.)

Creations: The Black Wall III

The black (Behr, "Beluga", flat) wall, finally finished, my new pride and joy. Our parents picked up the 1933 life sized portrait of the man, his dog and cigarette at an estate sale in Kansas City about 20 years ago. Our aunt found the tortoise shell on her farm in Nebraska in the early 1980s. The pronghorn antelope head comes from Junk on North 8th & Driggs in Williamsburg. The rug is from ABC Carpet. Porter's wearing my favorite Gucci sitting shoes.

Creations: The Black Wall II

Creations: The Black Wall I

It may be time to retire Leo, my third grade papier-mâché project languishing sadly by the faux fireplace. While the other kids made little pigs or chickens, my mom requested something exotic that she could use in her house. So, I went with a life-sized, unintentionally primitive leopard/cheetah. The neighboring head sculpture was a college project -- of me, in a turban, cast in fiberglass and iron filings -- that weighs more than a cannon ball and looks wonderful upside down and absolutely deformed right side up.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Apothecary Chic: Hendrick's Gin

My favorite booze bottle -- Tastes great, too. The Hendrick's website has some great recipes. This one sounds perfect for fall:

BLACKCURRANT JELLY TODDY

INGREDIENTS:
2 oz. Hendrick's Gin
½ oz. Honey Syrup (two parts honey mixed with one part warm water)
½ oz. Pink Cloves Cordial by Phillips and Bristol
1 level teaspoon Blackcurrant Preserve
½ oz. fresh lemon juice
1½ oz. hot water
1 cinnamon stick garnish

PREPARATION:
Assemble all the ingredients except the garnish in a mixing glass and stir well. Strain through a tea strainer into a warmed mug. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.

Acquisitions: Cabinet of Curiosities

My first and favorite ebay purchase: The little Baoulé (Cote d'Ivoire) statue of the man in the pith helmet. This liquor cabinet of curiosities also includes the great cast iron alligator nut cracker and an empty bottle of Hudson Whiskey (the Rye version is the first rye whiskey legally made in New York since prohibition!) that I finished off and nabbed from Fette Sau.

Creations: Mustache and Roses

“Mustache & Roses,” Watercolor on paper, 2006

I really started painting portraits in college, but stuck to oils. After a couple projects for anthropologie, I became really comfortable with watercolor and actually like its translucence much more (probably because I'm lazy and hate mixing colors).

Family Photos: Longs Peak, 1915

Oh, the days before polar fleece. Pretty amazing to make it halfway up the tallest peak in the Rockies in a tie and/or tweeds. My great grandfather, Willard Porter Hovey, Sr. is on the right. I love his friend's shawl collared sweater -- used it as the model for a painting for last year's Christmas party invitation.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Flashman Chic: Hand & Lock

This wonderful British embroidery company has been in business since 1767. One doesn't necessarily need to have earned "The Most Noble Order of the Garter" to be a patron...they do everything from monogramming to wedding embroidery.

http://www.handembroideryshop.co.uk/

Creations: The Deco Leather Goldfish Headband

I ordered a box of leather scraps from Ebay, cut out disks, painted deco patterns on a few and stapled them together. I'm planning more well-crafted versions for my accessories line.

Colonial Chic: Dutch Indonesia circa 1926

Family friend and jazz singer Francine Whitney sent over this wonderful photo of her mom, grandfather, great grandfather and Toy, the family Airedale, circa 1926 in Colonial Dutch Indonesia. Love it all -- the white suits, the handle bar mustache, the bowties, the perfect dog. Her dad's short suit pants are very Thom Browne!

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Anatomy Poster Chic: John Derian

The ubiquitous media coverage of John Derian's decoupage wares takes away any newsworthiness of this post, but I love his work all the same. http://www.johnderian.com/

6 East Second Street (Between 2nd Avenue and The Bowery), NYC (the dry goods store is next door at 10 East Second)

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Military Chic: French Country Raincoat

In the spirit of New York's wonderfully unseasonably chilly, wet weather today, I ordered one of these decidedly feminine French military country rain overcoats. They're only $16!

www.rddusa.com

Einstein Chic: Trevor Guthrie

Put a mustachoed man in a work of art and I'll love it. Trevor Guthrie showed at the McCaig & Welles Gallery next to Oslo on Roebling Street in Williamsburg last December. I've had the post card on my desk at work since. He's got a wonderful style -- and great taste in vintage subjects.

Anamorphic Study # 5, 2006, charcoal on paper, 60 x 120 cm

http://www.galerie-open.com/artist/view/812

Monday, August 20, 2007

Technology: The Woody iPhone

I always found it disconcerting to listen to bands like the Louvin Brothers on a slick, space age pod, but Dutch company Miniot has come to the rescue with their beautiful wooden iPod and iPhone (see photo) cases. Opening Ceremony is selling other wooden versions that looks like vintage ciggie cases (will post those once I find out the designer).

http://www.miniot.com/miniot/index.htm

Wodehouse Chic: Wooden Glasses

Urban Spectacles in Chicago makes these amazing, bespoke wooden glasses frames. Each pair is a true work of art.

http://www.urbanspectacles.com/

Friday, August 17, 2007

Wodehouse Chic: Brooks Saddles

Even those who despise New York bikes and their owners (hoarding space on the subway, the near-death crashes into pedestrians and the social tension that develops when a non-biker wants to meet up in transit) can appreciate and covet the Brooks saddle. http://www.brookssaddles.com/

Hemingway Chic: Copenhagen Store Window

Headwear: Japanese Straw

Porter got this great Japanese straw hat on the Lower East Side. (And btw, that wall in the background will be black by the end of the week!)

Creations: The Boot

Anthropologie commissioned me to paint a boot to eventually be used as part of the packaging for some military-inspired spats. They deemed this English riding field boot version "too masculine." The final version looked like a Deadwood-type heel. (The proportions are off on this, but I like that I was able to capture the richness of the leather pretty well).

Creations: The Christmas Invite 2005

Designed this crest for my 2005 Christmas party. Printed it on black-backed ivory card stock and mailed in an eggplant-colored envelope sealed with gold wax and ribbon. Used gold pen for the calligraphied addresses.

Acquisitions: Art Deco Elephant Clothes Hook

Found this old brass elephant hook on Ebay last year. It's got a wonderful weight to it.

Deco: Christianshavns Apothek

Beautiful fonts -- and a unicorn! Love those Danes.

Deco: Copenhagen Watchtower

Of all the amazingly ornate dream palaces in Copenhagen, this watchtower on the bridge to Christianhaven is one of my favorite structures in the city.

Creations: The Walton Ford Screen

Built this screen to separate my bedroom from the rest of the loft. Scanned my favorite Walton Ford monkey and printed life size to decoupage onto the boards I'd stained mahogany. The back is peach, glazed with polyurethane mixed with a bit of the stain I'd used on the front. I used gold paint on the edges. {As to the creature on the right, the makeup guy at the Y.S.L. flagship store cut up a feather duster and glued it to my sister's eyes to give her a couture bird look for Halloween. I threw the makeshift burlap "scarf" (some $5 craft stuff from Michael's) on her and fastened it with a kilt pin}.

Colonial Chic: South Asian Cricket Player Painting

Another preppy sport painting from Ebay I couldn't afford but absolutely love.

Acquisitions: Vintage German Anatomy Poster

Found the vintage 1920s anatomy poster with the wonderfully ferrell tiger in a little junk/antique shop in Copenhagen. (The hunter green and white bag is Seize sur Vingt, the great Elizabeth Street men's store, http://www.16sur20.com/. The Josef Frank green bag with the white elephants comes from Svensk Tenn, http://www.svenskttenn.se/, in Stockholm. The Argentinian saddle turned up in a junk shop in equestian haven Lexington, Virgina, my college town. Found the vintage boot trees on Ebay and the Vuitton suitcase and ivory/wood trunk at Ugly Luggage on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg.)

Acquisitions: My Favorite Chairs

Various versions of this chair pop up everywhere - Stark Carpet is doing a fluffy version and Ralph Lauren has a narrower one. I found this pair on Ebay for $900, replaced the worn out rust colored arm rests with alligator-looking leather and performed a quick D.I.Y. upholstery job with peach moire.