Thomas B. Britt

Tom Britt, New York salon, via Love Is Speed

Another of the fabulous New York designers I was most fortunate to be mentored by was Tom Britt.  Originally from Kansas City, Tom is a dynamo of a designer, and a true man of the world.  One summer, I worked in his office, making drawings, and going on trips to the job sites- it was a bit of a shock to see how those apartments were totally demolished, and the furniture in them would be piled in the middle of the rooms and covered with tarps...the reality of what decorators do was beginning to register! 

In order to fully appreciate the immersive experience I had, under Tom's guidance, you need to know, as I did, that Tom and Angelo (Donghia) attended Parsons together.  They even shared an apartment!  So, it was so interesting to me, having already seen Angelo's very glam east side duplex, with its two drawing rooms, one up and one down- and both in satin and lacquer...to then be overwhelmed by the high drama of Tom's two drawing rooms - both in boiserie~ and the upstairs one entirely in a Rose Cumming shade of blue satin...  with the famous Rose Cumming "banana leaves" fabric in the metallic gold colorway in the downstairs drawing room.  Now, add to all of this the maestro (Tom) with his booming, unique baritone voice being broadcast throughout.  Oh, and the Baron Nicholas de Gunzberg had also kept a place in Tom's building, on East 63rd Street. 

I was fascinated and a little intimidated by Tom's powerful and exotic personality, although he was a good friend to me and always treated me with great kindness.  After all, the eminence grise himself, Prof. Stanley Barrows, had said of me that I reminded him of Tom, when he taught Tom at Parsons!  (Stanley Barrows also taught me at FIT).  And now, Julie Britt (Tom's wife) and I are friends on Facebook!  Who knew?  I had only met her briefly when I worked for Tom, as they were no longer together.  A very nice lady.

What happened to sort of derail what I think would have been a brilliant career (for me) was that almost all of my friends and colleagues succumbed to the AIDS crisis.  I was left with Tom and Mario...plus Albert for a while, but this was all after I had moved out of NY and settled for good, in affluent and conservative Naples.  Los Angeles had called out to me, like a siren, and I did almost go out there- but strangely ended up in a town known as the Palm Beach of the west coast!  I call Naples a little town with a big ego.  Armistead Maupin mentioned it in one of his later works, and not in a kind way.  I wrote about it in my sketchy little potboiler called "Diamonds In The Sun" (available on Amazon books)...and so, here I am, after all these years, I'm still here.  DF ***** click here for a great Plum TV video on Tom, and his Hamptons estate....

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Forecast: A Big Time Return To Color !

David Easton for Carroll Petrie, New York

While some of us never stopped loving color, bright, bold, clear color~  in all of its glorious guises, others of us perhaps due to fashion and technology, have worshiped at the shrine of grey, fifty million shades of grey!Grey is a color, and beige is too...just because it's not bright and punchy doesn't mean it's not a color.  (or colour as anglophiles prefer)
You know, I resided in Manhattan for about 12 or so years, and those long winters can be awfully dreary...one yearns for the Spring daffodils and tulips to pop up along Park Avenue, I do recall returning one winter from a Caribbean holiday, and being inspired to paint my kitchen on E. 90th street a pretty yellow, which looked great with the black and white diamond floor.  We added some forced narcissus, and enjoyed the heavenly fragrance all Winter...what fun!  The trick to using stronger colors, such as the glazed yellow above, is to do so with a sense of authority and quality.  Georgina Fairholme was a master colorist~ her lime sitting room at Kips Bay was a sensation.  Even Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis thought so, and hired her to help out with some of her decorating...on the Vineyard 
  Besides architect Jacobsen, Jackie has hired Georgina Fairholme, an English interior decorator who favors rosy decors, to help furnish the house. In her pre-White House days, Jackie was not known for exemplary home-making. "I was appalled at her housekeeping," columnist Maxine Cheshire has said. "Some slipcovers in the drawing room were shrunken and out of shape. The cording of JFK's favorite chair had obviously not been washable and the mulberry color had run like lipstick smears. The curtains were filthy, and so were the windows." But under the tutelage of Mrs. Paul Mellon, Jackie turned over a new leaf.
(excerpted from People magazine)

As my late, great, Professor Stanley Barrows, always said ~look to Matisse for the brilliance of color, and bask in the beauty of it, use it as an inspiration for your work with clients.
"When down by the sandy shore I can think of nothing I want more Than to live by the booming blue sea As the seagulls flutter round about me. "
—Jacqueline Bouvier, age 10 " 

Design Continuum

Dean Farris Interior Design 2015

 

While reviewing the new Stephen M. Salny book, on the work of William Hodgins, Boston's preeminent decorator~ I was reminded of how design has a thread, which weaves through my fortunate Parsons faculty education, my European travels (sponsored by my loving parents) and the super talented designers I worked under while in New York.  As you know, I was trained by Tice Alexander, who worked with Albert at the famed Parish-Hadley ~ and just as Stanley Barrows "pushed" Bill Hodgins towards Sister and Albert in the 1960's, so he also guided Tice toward the PH firm in the 1980's...which is why I always mention the Bette Davis movie, "All About Eve" ~ you see, I was Eve Harrington to Tice's Margo Channing !  They always say truth is stranger than fiction, and let me tell you, it is! Suffice to say, nothing is giving me more pleasure right now than the new book,  
William Hodgins Interiors, it's a fascinating account of one designers journey over fifty years, and, continuing in the thread- weaving- through theme, Bill Hodgins worked for Michael Greer!  (I have a very wonderful client from Pittsburgh who hired Mr. Greer many years ago to decorate his French influenced home there, and today I get to work with those same Greer antiques in this clients Naples residence!) To add one more note to this theme, my dear professor Barrows died in the Naples hospital, which had been decorated in the 1950's by none other than Dorothy Draper, who, as many may know, was related to Sister Parish. Finally, I really got to know Albert Hadley well, when he bought a historic cottage from 1925 in Naples, and the rest is history!  Enjoy!  DF *****  

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Designer Profile: Tice Alexander

Tice Alexander, photo: Fernando Bengoechea

My dear late friend and Parish Hadley mentor, Tice Alexander, was a wonderful and charming man, from Kansas City, who made his home and life in New York. While I've posted about Tice before, I failed to show my readers a picture of him, showing what a handsome and stylish devil he was. This portrait is by the late Fernando Bengoechea - another  fabulous talent, lost to the tsunami. To explain how important Tice was in my life, I should tell you that we were roughly the same age, and we attended classes together at the renowned Fashion Institute, under the aegis of our chairman, the late Stanley Barrows - and Tice went on to work with Albert Hadley at the famed decorating and design firm, Parish Hadley Associates. If Tice was still living I would still be in New York, working with him, just as our old friend Kelly Graham works with John Barman.
Tice was such a beacon for me, and when I lost him, I too was lost. He never tried to re-invent the wheel, he simply chose the best for his clients, and that was always his hallmark- the finest quality and workmanship, with a classical point of view, very timeless and chic. We did the President of Princeton's house, we did a large apartment on upper Park Avenue, and we did a beautiful house in Houston, Texas in the River Oaks section. There were other Park Avenue jobs, less major, as well, and when Tice and I first met, he was living in a large half-floor on Park in the nineties, with socialite Fred Bricker. Imagine my excitement and pleasure at being invited to dine there, and coming into the marble lobby, and then the black lacquer elevator foyer with a coromandel screen - lit with the lowest possible wattage, and the heavy scent of YSL opium hanging in the air! That apartment seemed so HUGE, as all the floors had been bleached and pickled almost white- with french frames "dancing" everywhere you looked. The library was done in classic upholstered pieces, covered in a trashed out Clarence House print. It all made such an impression on me. The master bedroom had been made from THREE rooms- and the king bed looked like a postage stamp in it. Then Tom Britt would drop in and talk about how exhausted he was, which was totally understandable, since he works like a banshee and loves every minute of it. I'm crazy for Tom, and did work for him one Summer many years ago, an experience I'll always treasure.
Stanley Barrows, the former Parsons School chairman - taught Tom and me, and SB told Tice that I reminded him of Tom when he was at Parsons! Tom and Angelo Donghia shared an apartment while attending Parsons. I just love all of this decorating trivia. It's become an integral part of who I am. Tice, you were a great guy, thanks for the ride, it was fabulous! DF *****