This week chapter was about the interior design as a profession, and how the women were involved in the success of it. A lot of names where pronounced during the lecture but one of them caught my eye, it was Syrie Maugham born in London in 1879.
Searching a
little more information about her I found out she began her career with her own
store in Baker street, she dedicate her time to buy furniture, and used the
technique of pickling, by these I refer to stripping the dark polish from
tables and chairs, and finishing them with light point wax, a technique that it
is still used now days.
The trips
she had brought her to Elsie de Wolfe , another well know designer of the same
time, and that possessed a similar taste in design, there is even said that
Maugham hided her designs from her store , so De Wolfe couldn’t saw them because
she was afraid of being copied.
In time she
was also known for her White room, which was actually her drawing room in which
she used bleach, white satin, wool and silk, white velvet lampshades and even
flowers in the same colour accented with mirrors and glass.
Even though
she was recognized for white rooms, her drawing room was the only full white room she did, all of her other
rooms designs had bold colours
incorporated. From these rooms she also got another signature mark that where
mirrored breakfronts.
Adding all
of this elements and seeing pictures of her designs, I saw clear points that
evoked the “Hollywood Regency “ style, and researching a little more the
information founded supported my suspicions.
Maugham is actually recognized as
one of the inspirations for the developments in the Hollywood sets that lead to
the Hollywood regency concept, born around the 1930’s and was created with lacquer
furniture, bright colours contrasted with black and white, classical furniture,
and luminaries that evoke glitz and glamour.
Either way
you take the overall image of signatures
in her design apart or together you can still see all of her designs inspirations
in stores today, maybe not product of
her own work but mirrored breakfronts, lacquer and Pickling techniques in
furniture, and even rooms with bright colours contrasted with black or white, are
part of today’s trends in interior design, this statement was the one that
brought me to my initial idea when I started writing this post Syrie Maugham
was a designer before time, just like Joseph Paxton with his Crystal Palace,
and by this I mean before the society was able to achieve the recognition of
her work and integrate that into their interiors, not only the higher class
society which was actually the world in which she worked, and the one that
provide her with the fame and recognition as an interior designer, but all of
it.
F!
Sources:
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