Friends

ANGELO AND I

The Laurens' Fifth Avenue Apartment by Angelo Donghia, c. 1980

The Laurens’ Fifth Avenue Apartment by Angelo Donghia, c. 1980

Angelo Donghia died in NYC April 12,1985. I was still at Parsons studying Graphic Design and not aware of his unprecedented success as an interior designer and business man. Or of the figure he cut though Manhattan society from Studio 54 to the Metropolitan Opera Club.
But decades after his death he seems to be “haunting” me in the best possible way. First came “Angelo Donghia: Design Superstar,” a retrospective at the New York School of Interior Design in the Fall of 2015. The venue limited the scope of the exhibition, but it gave me a glimpse of Donghia’s Fifth Avenue duplex for Ralph and Ricky Lauren. More Tribeca [before Tribeca was Tribeca] than Upper East Side, it was low-slung, white and spare – no molding, no art, just overstuffed white furniture and unadorned white walls as far as the eye could see.
Not long after, I was talking to a friend, Liz Youngling, who’s career has included stints in fashion and as an interior designer. Having attended meetings in that gorgeous apartment when she worked for Ralph Lauren, she could confirm it was even more spectacular in person. Recently via email, Liz also remembered, “Angelo used to come to our office quite a bit to see Ralph and he was the most elegant man! So well-dressed, handsome, and kind to all of us peons. I’ll never forget being around him the little bit that I was – not many men like that anymore.” Certainly something to aspire to.

Angelo Donghia and unamed friends in NYC

Angelo Donghia and unamed friends in NYC

I read more and learned that the Donghia studio’s signature included silver-foil ceilings, lacquered walls, bleached floors and oversize upholstered furniture. His use of grey flannel, a reference to his family’s tailoring business, prompted the moniker, “the man in the gray flannel sofa.” And his business acumen led him to produce furniture, textiles and wallcoverings for the design trade, and he licensed his designs for sheets, towels, china, glassware and giftware produced for the general public, to great success unheard of for an interior designer of the day.

A vignette in the Donghia Dallas showroom featuring vintage books, ceramics and silver from my inventory.

A vignette in the Donghia Dallas showroom featuring vintage books, ceramics and silver from my inventory.

Today, Donghia, Inc., operates twelve showrooms across the United States with collections including textiles, wallcoverings, case pieces, accessories and upholstery. The Dallas showroom is helmed by the dynamic Jessica Craig. I was introduced to Jessica by my dear friend, interior designer Alice Cottrell, with an eye toward making advertising industry connections. A second meeting clarified two things for both of us: my dream job wasn’t in advertising, but in selling beautiful objects, books and art; and Jessica and I could work together.

I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with Jessica and the Donghia Dallas showroom, providing thoughtfully chosen books, ceramics and silver accessories. I hope to bring even a bit of Angelo Donghia’s wit and flair to the showroom’s already smart décor. And I hope he would approve.

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Doing Dallas

The Library on Parry Avenue with books, collectibles, ceramics, and silver on display.

The Library on Parry Avenue with books, collectibles, ceramics, and silver on display.

I’m the guy that moved into the loft directly across the street from Fair Park in Dallas the day the State Fair of Texas commenced. For the next three weeks, it was mayhem down here. Not to worry, I was a prisoner of the loft anyway, getting everything from the TPRB office and the Inwood Manor condo that had been in storage in Houston for past six months sorted and stowed. It was all the more important that everything be just so, since the loft is my home AND my livelihood. That it is so beautiful is due to the talent and hard work of interior designer and dear friend, Alice Cottrell, and her trusted jack of all trades and all-around miracle worker, Steven Hauser.
The loft is “done” and I’ve been working to launch my new endeavor – selling artist and architect designed objects; original art and editions; vintage ceramics; collectibles; rare art, photography, and fashion books; fashion and design collaborations; and commissioned objects by Texas artists to interior designers and directly to clients. I’ve gone to every event [“He’d go to the opening of a drain!”], talked to everyone, and have had enough delicious meetings/meals with fantastic people to need bigger pants. With a job providing thoughtfully chosen accessories for Alice’s latest Museum Tower project under my belt, some press coming out in January [fingers crossed] and a collaboration with the Donghia showroom in Dallas [see my next post], things are coming along. This gig is certainly not a “sure thing,” but people and the universe keep stepping in just when I wonder if it “will ever happen.” It has happened. It is happening.

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A MOVING STORY

Dallas bound

Dallas bound


I moved from Houston, where I grew up, to New York in August of 1983, ostensibly to attend Parsons School of Design, but really to become the person I was meant to be – creative, sophisticated, artistic, chic and ultimately open and honest about who I was in all areas of my life. New York did the trick – it was everything I had hoped for and so much more.
In June of 1995, I moved to London to get away from both a contretemps at the ad agency I worked for and my best friend’s gruesome lingering death from AIDS. London was a great distraction. It was all familiar, but all a little different. A New York with more age and more green space, London in the mid 90s was THE center of design, theatre, pop music and culture in the world. It was so much fun to be a part of it all for a few years.
In June of 1997, I returned to New York – the ad agency having closed the London office. I settled in for an increasingly unhappy few years. Nothing was doing the trick anymore. Not the job, not relationships (such as they were), not even the things I loved – art, theatre, fashion. I resorted to what had worked for me in the distant past to change the way I felt. It worked until it didn’t.
In the last days of 2001, my father scraped me up off the floor of my apartment near Madison Square Park and took me back with him to Houston. I did recover from what ailed me [and continue to] but I was horrified to be back where I started. The place I had run from. Feeling I had little choice, I made the best of it. I opened an ad agency in Houston with a terrific business partner and made a good life. I had close friends. Dated. Traveled. Bought and sold beautiful homes. Made my peace with not being in New York and returned 3 or 4 times a year.
The agency was great for 11 out of the 13 years we were open. The last year was not one of them. We closed the doors in March of this year. I sold my apartment in February, and a few months later, moved into the garage apartment of a friend’s home in Broadacres, a leafy inner loop neighborhood in Houston. I began to look for employment and talk to everyone who would speak to me. It was a terrific experience. The universe met me more than halfway by bringing me a lot of lovely, smart, creative, and to a fault, generous, people. What I didn’t find was a job in Marketing or Advertising. Free of the agency and real estate [and, sadly, my lovely 17-year old American Eskimo dog Holly, who had passed away at the end of 2016], the universe seemed to be telling me that I could be free of my career as well, something I hadn’t really considered.
As I continued to look for a job in my “chosen” field, I began to consider what I might really choose. I’ve collected architect and artist designed objects, fashion collaborations, art and photography, and books on all of it for decades. It’s what I love. I love the stories behind the objects and artworks – the designers and artists, the makers and marketers, and how these works fit into the whole of their output and the world. Inspired by an article about a gentleman who sells design objects from his home in Brooklyn, I started to talk to people about creating such an endeavor myself. The response was overwhelmingly positive – a chorus of “it’s very you.”
At the end of this week, I’m moving to Dallas to pursue my new business there, perhaps along with an advertising or creative gig – I’m open to whatever the universe brings. A full 34 years after I first left “home,” I’m leaving again to strive to be even more of the person I am, without apology or obligation. There is a pretty good chunk of risk involved, but I have a lot of love and support including that of a lifelong friend, a sister really. And at this stage, “success” is whatever comes next, as long as I let the universe move me.

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One Night Only

Kevyn Aucoin transformed me into a 1950s Maria Callas-like siren.

Kevyn Aucoin transformed me into a 1950s Maria Callas-like siren.

One evening in 1994, I went to dinner with my then boyfriend Ken, my friend from Charavari, Donald Reuter [who by that time was working for Mr. Beene], and his boyfriend, the makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin. We went to see one of the Terminator movies, grabbed pizza and went on to Kevin’s amazing little 2-story house complete with front garden in the rear yard of a building on the edge of Soho/Little Italy. Kevyn asked if he could do my make up and I said yes, of course. Kevyn was already “famous” by pre-internet or social media standards and spent much of his working life with the likes of Naomi, Cindy, Whitney and Dolly. Though he would be remembered for his approach to individual, “natural” beauty, he was a master of transformational makeup, turning Isabella Rossalini into Baraba Streisand and Gwyneth Paltrow into James Dean among many others. So I was to be a mid-century Italian bombshell a la Maria Callas. Arched eyebrows, reshaped features, full lips and a beauty mark. Dark wig in place and the transformation was complete. I was still in the white t-shirt, jeans and boots I had been wearing that evening out. We admired his handiwork, Kevyn took polaroids and then he took it all off.

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We’re Better Together

Signature Luncheon Invitation I was inspired by Elizabeth Vargas’ story of recovery and her efforts to remove the stigma that still surrounds mental illness and addiction at The Menninger 2017 Annual Signature Luncheon. I so appreciate Michele Arnold [Annual and Planned Giving Manager extraordinaire] including me. And I’m honored to be a very small part every week of the work that Menninger does to help those still struggling with mental illness and addiction.

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The Japanese Garden in Hermann Park – Celebrating 25 Years

HERMANN PARK EITP

I’m just getting back into the swing of things after moving house, so this is definitely a latergram. As a happy supporter and Executive Board Member of the Hermann Park Conservancy, I was thrilled to attend this year’s Evening in the Park Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of The Japanese Garden. [I and Art Directors David Sloat and Leah Justice created the branding for the event.] A roaring success, the event raised over $600,000. Those funds will be split between the operation of the Conservancy and the Japanese Garden itself. These galas are parties to be certain, but they raise funds to actually run these not for profit organizations – staff salaries and expenses – that aren’t typically covered by patrons’ generous capital campaign gifts.

Take a look at the Chronicle’s coverage.

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Be A Connoisseur

Artist Leslie Wayne interviewed by HMACC Exhibitions Manager, Dominic Clay

Artist Leslie Wayne interviewed by HMACC Exhibitions Manager, Dominic Clay

This past Saturday I was thrilled to see my friend Leslie Wayne’s shared exhibition at the Houston Museum of African American Culture “Africa on my mind: The art of Malick Sidibe and Leslie Wayne.” Leslie and her sculptor husband, Don Porcaro, flew down from NYC for the opening and the next afternoon Leslie gave a gallery talk/interview. One of Dominic Clay’s questions to Leslie was along the lines of “What advice would you give to an artist who’s intent is to a have a global, cross-cultural approach to their art practice?” Leslie’s emphatic response was “Connoisseurship!” This from a NYC-based life-long working, successful artist. And I couldn’t agree more. For any kind of creative person – from painter to art director to copywriter – output IS connected to input. The more you absorb, the more you have to work with. Leslie admonished the audience to be informed, to look at everything we can. Be interested and engaged. Yes! Creativity does not exist in a vacuum. Or at least it’s more fun and more of this world if it doesn’t.

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I’ll Start at the Beginning

Version 2 The moment pictured – the Astor Place Diner in 1984 with my friend Alice (and that waiter) – wasn’t quite the beginning, but it was fairly soon after my move to NYC and Parsons School of Design after two years at Rice University in Houston. It was the beginning of my life in the applied arts and my love of art, design, architecture, photography, fashion, and eventually advertising and marketing. And as all my friends like to point out , “Look at that hair!”

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