DIFFA, Dining by Design at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show


This year marks the 30th Anniversary of the Design Industries Foundation Fighting Aids - DIFFA - Thirty years of providing treatment and care to those who are living with AIDS. Each year at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show, design leaders and visionaries create the most spectacular tables for a wonderful event called Dining by Design. Taking center stage was Ralph Lauren's spectacular spring table, both rustic and elegant, here one can imagine having a casual yet sophisticated meal, a luncheon perhaps. The garden-like setting was punctuated by the magnificent Evalina Chandelier dressed with cherry blossoms.

My love for entertaining, dining and food come together here... As I walked through and admired each lovely table display, I could easily imagine myself and a few close friends sharing a lovely evening filled with good food, good wine and lots of laughter.

I will be showcasing 4 tables today with more to come tomorrow. I hope you the images captures by these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!











Some tables were decadent, ornate, fun, over the top and others were simple and serene like Calvin Klein's zen-like setting with natural and Japanese influences which were expressed through warm woods, green moss, the most subtle of gold accents and a serene milieu.






By contrast we have the table designed by Kati Curtis - a sensory delight, with so much detail you can spend hours gazing and amazing at this fun and whimsical creation that illuminates the masculine as well as the feminine as she poses the question, which one dominates you? Which one guides you? Intrigues you?

Through her table Kati expresses the interplay of the boy and girl in us all - playing with the stereotypes we so easily fall prey to. Here a fantasy world is created using the many wonderful materials and playful elements of the New York Design Center that are used in such a way that while unexpected, they make perfect sense. Kati asks us to look closely, things aren't always as they seem!















For those of us who love Diane Von Furstenberg will instantly recognize these next tables. Her unmistakable style - her play on color and pattern, needs no introduction.  Here the designer's expertise in color, prints and mixing unexpected patterns and scales are at play in the garden, under large umbrellas, making us yearn for the Spring that so far seems so very far away. This is the designers first fabric collection for Kravet









I hope you enjoyed these unique and wonderful tables and please come back tomorrow for more!


Back and white :: When not just one will do!

:) ahh

I can be indecisive. Sometimes I have a hard time making up my mind. Sometimes, well, OK - often, I want not one but both. Call me greedy. Call me gourmand. Tell me I can never seem to make up my mind or tell me that I want it all. The latter is probably the truest statement of me. I can make up my mind. It's easy as 1,2,3 or Eenie Meenie Miney Mo... But when you really want both... when you really have to have both the best thing to do is to come to some sort of compromise. This is a most genius of ideas and I am Queen of the Compromise. I like to be happy. I like to make others happy. And, I want it all! 

Especially when it comes to black and white. I am a rebel. I wear black in the summer and white in the winter. But sometimes I want a little bit of both. Sometimes I need a little bit of both. Some days my mood reflects a little bit of both. I wore black again yesterday. A pair of comfortable loose-fitting cargo pants, a thinly knit black T shirt and my pearls. Cargo pants and pearls. Why? I say why not! And, to confuse things a little more, as I was handbag shopping in my closet I opted for the white leather one. It was 80 degrees outside and I wore black. It's after Labor Day and I pulled the white leather bag from the upper shelf.  That's me... a great big juxtaposition... a great big paradox... But I know what I want and I know what I like. I know my style and I know what suits my style. Yesterday my style was a bit of casual playfulness with a bit of rebellion tossed in. Sometimes I am calm, cool and collective wanting to dress with quiet sophistication. Other times I am silly and whimsical never to dress overly seriously. I am classic and casual. I am modern and edgy. I am black and white. It is my absolute most favorite combination. I love it in home decor. I love it in my wardrobe. It's sexy, sublime, playful, witty, eye-catching... I am not just one thing; I am many things and the way I dress and decorate and live is a perfect reflection.

Even the foods I love are black and white!

black-white-cookies

But is black and white really a trend? We're seeing it all over the place these days... in the magazines and on the runways... I'm certainly not a trendy person. I don't follow or conform to them... and really, how can something so elegant and timeless and classic ever be considered a trend?


@Michael Kors #NYFW #SS13 via @Nina Garcia
Vogue.it

Michael Kors graces the runways in black and white....
as does Marc Jacobs....


Marc Jacobs - Spring Summer 2013 Ready-To-Wear - Shows - Vogue.it
Vogue.it


But um, hello! Pull up that skirt... or eat a few dozen yodels for crying out loud! OMGawd... I'm only just noticing... those shoes!


Marc Jacobs - Spring Summer 2013 Ready-To-Wear - Shows - Vogue.it
Vogue.it

I do love this Marc Jabobs coat, but can you imagine if I decided to grace the streets of New York like this? People would be shielding their eyes, telling me to cover up!


Classic


I do love this classic, timeless, crisp clean look that's synonymous with the Ralph Lauren brand. It is definitely me but clearly this ad pays no attention to those of us who are over 40 and have nursed many kids through infancy... but all advertising is is an illusion to make us think that we too could look like this... and in my own little world I do... I look just like this model with no fat on her whatsoever and teeny perky breasts... Why yes, yes I do!

stripes on stripes
Tumblr

Now this I could do... I would look just as darling (maybe even more so!) in this dress, most especially on this little yacht off of some remote island in Greece...


black and white
via The Neo Traditionalist

Timeless, elegant, playful, flirty... this just screams to me. I must have it! Yes, Yes, YES!!!


oscar de la renta
WWD

Oscar de la Renta is my hero. My idol. For he has created the world's most perfect dress. He doesn't know it but he's created it just for me! This would be a perfect wedding dress for me... You know, because I'm not supposed to wear all white (and if we all stuck to that rule there'd be no market at all for white wedding dresses, but I digress...) and I love this dress even more and I know it was made just for me because it is nice and form fitting on top (though I need just a couple sizes larger, maybe) and it flows in such a lovely and elegant way from the waist down which is perfect for us non-waifs who actually eat and this dress makes it so we don't have to suck in our guts and be uncomfortable all night long... nor do we have to wear our Spanx! Oscar, I love you! Marry Me? Or maybe send me over a size 4.... I'm short - just 5'4", so you'll need to come over and hem it for me, and since you'll be down on your knee while you're hemming... I do! I do!

My love of black and white comes out of the closet and into my home... 

black and white...love the ottoman and floors.
Belle Maison


πŸ’šCan we live here please?
New York Times Magazine

black. white. stripes. GORGEOUS!
Roomzar


coral, zebra, black & white, fun.
the lennoxx

fabulous walls!
Petrella Designs


love this
Pinterest, source unknown


black ceiling
La Casa de Mi Madre, Newport, RT


Look luxe
Pinterest


amazing
Tumblr

I hope this post made you laugh... I hope it made you smile... I hope it has you realizing that not everything is black and white, but maybe it should be!

Have a wonderfully happy Thursday!

XOXO

Jessica