Jean Paul Gaultier pour Roche Bobois

Monsieur Jean Paul Gaultier has collaborated with French furniture manufacturer Roche Bobois to curate a limited collection comprised of new designs as well as reinterpreted classics like the Mah Jong sofa, created by Hans Hopfer in the 1970's.

Jean Paul Gaultier, often referred to as enfant terrible of the fashion industry, is an undisputed heavy-hitter in the ephemeral world of couture, yet has had no formal training. He started creating collections for his mother and grandmother at age 13, by 17 he confidently sent a series of sketches to famed Parisian designer Pierre Cardin. The drawings impressed Monsieur Cardin enough to hire the young lad as an assistant. After only a few short years, J.P.G. launched his own line. The rest, as they say, is history.

After decades of pushing the design envelope in the fashion industry; introduction of the man skirt in 1985, Madonna's infamous cone bra costume in 1990, and corsets for men in 1997 Mr. Gaultier is the latest fashion designer to catwalk his way into the interior / furniture design field. The divide that once existed between the two industries seems to be shrinking at warp speed and I, for one, am excited to see what transpires.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

First off -a thousand pardons. I've been a terribly neglectful blogger. Although I can't promise to be more diligent about postings; I can say that I sincerely appreciate the supportive outreach from so many of you who seem to enjoy the musings of one often tipsy young man in the District.



All right, I'm surely not the first to announce the possession of an extreme crush on one talented and beautiful Mr. Nicolas Ghesquiere. Creative Director of the venerable fashion house Balenciaga Mr. Ghesquiere, or Nico as I so innocently refer to him, started from humble beginnings.

According to The New York Times, Interview, Wikipedia, or some other such stable sounding board for information that I surely briefly perused while finishing off a few bottles of Hoegaarden, Mr. Ghesquiere obtained an internship at Agnes B in Paris at age 15. By 21, he was working for John Paul Gaultier. But, in 1996 (A year within a decade of decidedly unfashionable fashion) Nicolas was hired by Balenciaga, then a house resting in a pit of passe despair, to design uniforms for a Japanese licensing company. Nico quickly climbed the the ranks, and come 2000 his frocks would be seen shrouding the trendiest of all celebrity skeletons; Nicole Kidman, Chloe Sevigne, and the Olsen twins to name a few.

Well, while scouring the overflow of photos in my files I came across some of a chic apartment in Paris inhabited by this peculiar creature known as Nicolas Ghesquiere. The maisonette is simultaneously effortless and thoughtful, chic and stoic, old and new. This grand aesthete embodies a style that your timid host can only aspire to one day graze.