The Queen’s Clock Collection Takes the Spotlight, Leyden Lewis Works With Sotheby’s, and More News This Week
From significant business changes to noteworthy product launches, there’s always something new happening in the world of design. In this weekly roundup, AD PRO has everything you need to know.
In the News
The Queen’s Clock Collection Gets Special Attention, as the Royal Palaces’ Links to the Slave Trade Are Investigated
For design buffs in the know, London-set news may have been of particular interest this week. First, the BBC shared a charming story on what it takes for the Royal Collection Trust to get all 400-plus clocks at Windsor Castle on track for daylight savings. Second, The Guardian reported that a royal palaces curator is launching an effort to uncover royal buildings’ links to the slave trade. “Anything to do with the Stuarts is going to have an element of money derived from slavery within it,” head curator Lucy Worsley noted, speaking of one predecessor to the House of Windsor.
Business
Salon 94 Begins Representing Donald Judd Furniture
This was already a big year for Donald Judd, what with a slew of exhibitions, including a MoMA blockbuster. And now, his furniture is getting brand new representation, thanks to Salon 94. “I am a child of minimalism–it’s my psychological comfort zone,” Jeanne Greenberg of Salon 94 says to AD PRO. “I grew up in a house where furniture was spare and essential—a Saarinen kitchen table, a Judd bench, a makeshift table of trash cans with a slab of wood on top. I feel privileged to now represent Donald Judd furniture.”
Networking Platform for Professional Designers Goes Live
Designer Genevieve Trousdale’s new professional online platform, Circaphiles, has launched. The invitation-only private networking and global resource-sharing platform has signed aboard brand ambassadors including Timothy Corrigan, Michael Berman, Michel Smith Boyd, Damour Drake, Breegan Jane, Zoe Feldman, and others.
Trousdale tells AD PRO of the launch, “2020 has thrown everyone a major curve ball. Especially during this time, I am providing this platform as an anchor and inspiration for designers to elevate the industry’s reputation. I believe in us and the industry believes in us—we just need the right foundation and tools to push us forward, ahead of our clients, and ahead of future curve balls.”
Sales
Designer Leyden Lewis Debuts a Sotheby’s Home Curation
Designer Leyden Lewis has teamed up with Sotheby’s Home to curate his own shoppable webpage. “It’s a great opportunity to share my world and memorable personal artifacts with other design professionals and art collectors,” Lewis says to AD PRO. “Many of these pieces have been acquired over time through design collaborations with friends and in my travels.”
Dalva Brothers Sale Rakes in Nearly $5.89 Million at Christie’s
Closing out this month in design auction news was the hotly anticipated if delayed sale, “Dalva Brothers: Parisian Taste in New York.” The sale brought in a total of $5,885,500, with its top lot being a late Louis XVI pietra dura and ormolu-mounted ebony secrétaire en cabinet by Adam Weisweiler, which sold for over $1.13 million. A teapot possibly owned by Marie Antoinette also turned virtual paddle holders’ heads.
Show Houses
Designers’ Show House in Detroit Is a Great Success
This month, the Junior League of Detroit welcomed individuals into a decorators showcase in order to benefit local community organization Project Pantry. “The Junior League of Detroit was thrilled to bring such an incredibly high-caliber Designers’ Show House to over 4,000 guests in the greater Detroit area in the midst of a pandemic,” Liana Dabir, show house co-chair, says to AD PRO. “This year truly showed how good design has the power to inspire and bring joy to many.”
Openings
AD100’s Pierre Yovanovitch Designs Kamel Mennour Gallery Space in Paris
Paris may once again be on lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, but that didn’t stop AD100 designer Pierre Yovanovitch from completing a new gallery space for Kamel Mennour not long before the announcement was made. “As a longtime collaborator and close friend of Kamel Mennour, it’s an honor to design the gallery’s latest Paris location in a large space within the 6th arrondissement,” Yovanovitch says to AD PRO. “With the design of the new gallery we wanted to create a clean maze of small rooms…while accentuating certain architectural aspects, such as the arched windows, the rhythm of the columns…. At the same time, it was important that the interior serves as a perfect background to emphasize—though not detract from—the artworks in the space.” The pièce de résistance of the space is undoubtedly a new spiral staircase created by Yovanovitch.
A Fashionable Store With an Even More Stylish Façade Opens in NYC
Who says the in-store experience is over? Amsterdam-based clothing brand Daily Paper has opened the doors to its first-ever New York retail space. Located on the Lower East Side, the brick-and-mortar store is also poised to draw in deign buffs, thanks to its pattern-clad and mosaic-covered exterior.
In Memoriam
Designer David Easton Dies
Decorator David Easton has passed away. He was remembered on social media but industry experts such as Michael Boodro. In an Instagram post, Boodro wrote, “I am so sorry to hear of the death of David Easton. Not only was he a great American designer, he was also a man of great generosity and wit, and a ribald presence in whatever room—no matter how elegant—he was in, no matter how august the occasion. RIP, David.”
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
