WE ALL KNOW the iconic opening scene of the 1963 film Charade: Audrey Hepburn looking devastatingly chic in a chocolate brown Givenchy coat and oversized sunglasses, sipping coffee on a sunny terrace in the French ski resort of Megève.
IT WAS THE shell-encrusted powder room (above) belonging to art dealer William Thuillier and lampshade maker Alvaro Picardo in Pimlico featured in the World Of Interiors that first caught our eye. Somehow, after that, we began seeing them everywhere.
Casa Milà is a Modernista building in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was the last private residence designed by architect Antoni Gaudí. Built between 1906 and 1912, the building was commissioned by Roser Segimón and her second husband Pere Milà in 1905 with the intention of living on the main floor and renting out the rest of the apartments, hence the Casa Milà, the new home of the Milà family. The building is popularly known as La Pedrera (the stone quarry), in reference to its unconventional rough-hewn appearance.
YOU MAY HAVE noticed a certain modular sofa set all over social media the past year and a half in the homes of celebrities and influencers alike, and you may even have known that it was the Camaleonda sofa, originally designed by Mario Bellini over fifty years ago, but did you know that it has become so popular in contemporary times that it was reissued in 2020? The Camaleonda currently has such a following, that four of the homes we featured recently here at TIG all included it: here, here, here, and here. In this instalment of Design History, we will be taking a closer look at the über-trendy Camaleonda, beginning with its designer, Mario Bellini.
RECENTLY ON INSTAGRAM, we posted an English countryside cottage (above) that captured the imaginations of thousands. Many of you asked if it was the cottage from the 2006 Nancy Meyers film, The Holiday. It is not (although there are similarities), as Rosehill Cottage from The Holiday sadly doesn't exist, its exterior built from scratch in an empty field on a hillside overlooking the town of Shere.