Have Some Decorum: dog

Not everything can be, should be, inexpensive. Sometimes you just have to pop for the good stuff. I’m talking about pillows. Decorative pillows. I can spot a cheap one a mile away. Sometimes a pillow can be $2000 and totally worth it. It’s the icing on the cake. I remember buying a blue Fortuny pillow from an old friend in Santa Barbara, who I hate now, named Todd Mossman. He made beautiful Fortuny and antique tapestry pillows. He also added beautiful trim and tassels. I stupidly sold the pillow when I moved to Paris for the first time. I still regret it all these years later. I still think about that pillow. I lose sleep over that pillow. That’s the magic of pillows. They are the crowning jewel of design. So, you can’t get all worked up about spending a fortune on them. Just take a deep breath… And relinquish your credit card.

One of the absolute best sources for one-of-a-kind decorative pillows is Rebecca Vizard. She has mouthwatering, jaw-dropping, gasping for breath, I want to shoot myself if I can’t have one…type of pillows. If these pillows don’t “go with your house” you need to burn your house down and start over. As far as I’m concerned, these pillows could go with most any style... Modern, Italian, French, Spanish, New York uptown/downtown, traditional, bohemian, chalet, or beach shack.

I always love a good back story and Mrs. Vizard’s does not disappoint. Here, I’ll let her explain… “I suppose the interesting part of my business is that I do all of this from a tiny town in North East Louisiana. (Population 1104…no traffic light). I can't even buy thread here. I grew up in this little town and all I ever wanted to do was live in the big city. Married the greatest guy from New Orleans several years after I finished in art at Newcomb College (Tulane) and thought I was set in the city.

Next thing you know my dad convinced my husband he needed help with the family business, and we were sucked back home like Jeanie vaporizing into her bottle. My bottom lip shook for about a year. I threw myself into building a house on my grandfather's property and next thing you know, friends from New Orleans were asking me to help them decorate their houses. I was delighted because I was in "Get the Hell out of Dodge" mode.

Soon I discovered I was spending more time designing pillows than the big stuff, like sofas and drapery, and was horrified by how much pillows cost just made out of regular nice fabric….Started thinking that you should be able to get something special for that amount of money. And the only antique textile pillows I could find were too frou-frou (This was back in '94). Made my first one for a client in NYC….textiles from the flea market on 26th st….more people started wanting me to do their ID work just because they wanted the pillows. In 1996 Neiman's ended up buying for 22 for their store….and then I was solidly in the pillow business.

The best part of the story and what I think has made it all so fulfilling is that in this process of working in a very high end world….the contrast between my work and where I live really started pulling on my heart strings. While I live on a lovely oxbow lake, this is one of the poorest areas in the US. The town is 8 miles from me and you can't drink the water, it's brown:( I started realizing that from my high end connections I could help people here make a living. It has been working! Being able to make beautiful things everyday and help people at the same time is extremely gratifying. Now I feel like the luckiest person in the world living here in this dinky place where I can piddle in my studio, take a trip here and there, help people, and wash my hair in the lake every day!”- Rebecca Vizard

How cool is she? Okay, I’ll shut my pie hole now and let the pictures speak for themselves. By the way, don’t you hate that word “pie hole.” Such an ugly word. I told my husband that if he ever told me to “shut my pie hole” then I would smother him in his sleep. Anyway, let’s drool over these pillows for a little while…

Antique Raised Gold Metallic Embroidery

$1400.00

Antique Ottoman Empire Raised Silver Metallic Embroidery

$2675.00

Late 17th C. or Early 18th C. Flemish Tapestry

$1300.00

Antique Raised Pewter Metallic Embroidery

$1545.00

Antique Ecclesiastic Raised Embroidery

$1825.00

Five Antique Silver Metallic Star Appliques

$700.00

Carnavalet Fortuny in Lavender and Silver

$650.00

De Medici Fortuny

$700.00

De Medici Museum Texture

$400.00

Vintage Olimpia Fortuny

$745.00

Vivaldi Fortuny in Raspberry and Gold

$695.00

Fortuny Dog Leash

$195.00

17th C. Flemish Tapestry Fragment

$2465.00

18th C. Aubusson Tapestry Fragment
$1400.00

Voilà! See? Worth every dime. You can buy these and many more on Mrs. Vizard’s website Here.

*Oh, are you wondering why I hate Todd Mossman? Todd Mossman would accept invitations to every hoity-toity party in Santa Barbara, drink their alcohol, eat their amuse-bouches, socialize with all of the women and then the very next day, gossip about them. Or was that me who did that? No, I’m pretty sure it was Todd.

A toute!

Parisians love their pets. In Paris, it is not usual to see pets at cafés with their owners being treated like humans. You never see signs that say, “Sorry, no pets.” Even if there were such a sign, Parisians would ignore it. In my neighborhood in the first arrondissement, the pets are plentiful. There is your typical chic gay couple with their impeccably groomed Afghan hounds. There is the seemingly lonely older Frenchwoman with her doppelgänger poodle who has the same violet tinted hair as her own. Another gay couple, super edgy with tattoos and piercings with their darling Italian Greyhound. Every fashionista around here has a French bulldog. And of course your typical bourgeois French family with their terrier. Parisians love their pets so much and have such regard for them that in the Paris suburb of Asnieres–sur–Seine there is the world’s oldest pet cemetery named Le Cimetiere des Chiens et Animaux Domestiques. Built in 1899, the cemetery is a quirky place with every type of animal from dogs, cats, monkeys, a lion named Tiger, a racehorse, bunnies, a sheep and a hen. A Romanian Princess has her beloved dog , aptly named Drac, buried here as well. This posting is dedicated to my friend Tom, who is the greatest animal lover of all time...He hates it when I “buy” dogs and give Kitty cats milk.