Hey there . . .
I gave you a look at my new office, which I am loving. I wanted to elaborate on the great Rose Cumming a bit. The window treatments in my space are hers and I have been dying to use that fabric. While pulling it, I spent some time looking at all her other designs as well as the woman herself, because I have always loved an eccentric, an original, with striking violet hair and all.
Her appearance first of all will peak your interested. Known to wear shocking lime dresses cinched with a gold tie back and hair full of plastic fern fronds, a look and attitude to admire simply for it's unconventionality. She marched to her own drummer, which I love.
Flash back to 1917, she was popular in New York society. Having not entered the design world yet, she asked her friend Frank Crowninshield, the editor of Vanity Fair what she should do, he suggested she become a decorator, to which she responded, "Perhaps I would, but first tell me what it is." She set up shop on Park Avenue and revolutionized interior design with her unparalleled sense of color and unorthodox style.
She became famous for combining pieces in ways which seemed random. Her greatest strength was as a colorist. Her mix of tangerine orange and blood red, teal and lime and her favorite hyacinth taffeta were legendary. "Parrots are blue and green, why shouldn't fabrics be!"
With her sense of the dramatic, it's not surprising that she counted Marlene Dietrich and Mary Pickford among her clients.
Upon her death in 1968, her sister Eileen Cecil carried on the fabric business until recently when the business was sold to Dessin Fournir - Chuck Comeau, who heads the firm, discovered old boxes containing fabrics hand painted by Cumming in the 30's in simpler and more abstract forms than her chintzes.
Today Dessin Fournir (a vendor of ours) offers many of the gorgeous colors and patterns, all Ms. Cumming - take a look at my favorites . . .
And let's not forget the wall paper !
Read more about Ms. Cumming and get inspired to be an original !
publish date September 4, 2012
Our showroom is filled with all her samples, give us a call for an appointment and come take a look.
