December: FluidDandy

Nocturnal tones and dense colors, erudite references and signature modernism. Our mood for the coming month narrates a taste for elegance and attention to detail: a flower resting on a table, a pattern hidden in wallpaper. With just a touch of decadence. The contemporary dandy, in the guise of design

Moodboard: FluidDandy
Moodboard: FluidDandy

To be FluidDandy – our December mood – you have to make a vow of a “certain exquisite originality,” as Lord Byron said. The starting point is a delicate romanticism, tactfully eccentric (at least one atom of extravagance is indispensable); a taste that stems from personal aesthetic investigation, closer to cultural study than to any expression of fashion.

Just one detail will suffice to enter this new brotherhood, where the weight of history and the use of colors fully represent elusive inner time, while the term ‘fluid’ sets the pace towards the contemporary.

Skull Damask Superwide by Timorous Beasties
Skull Damask Superwide by Timorous Beasties
Canal Grande by Ceramiche Refin
Canal Grande by Ceramiche Refin

To talk about this figure of an aesthete updated to the new century, we have chosen to combine black damask-effect cladding punctuated by skulls (a bit of memento mori always comes in handy) with naturalistic wallpaper, a citation – if you will – of another confraternity of thinkers, a bit more famous than our own: the Pre-Raphaelites.

Disincanto/WP 75 by WallPepper®/Group
Disincanto/WP 75 by WallPepper®/Group

To get aligned with the style of this turbulent artistic current, we have chosen green as the dominant, stolen from the dress of Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, where the painter depicted Elizabeth Siddal, his muse and wife, wrapped in soft folds in contrast with her red hair. To soften it all, we have opted for a discreet glitter effect, obtained by combining shiny porcelain stoneware tiles with a lacquered screen created by Eileen Grey.

Art, including NFTs, is fundamental for those who want to delve into this mood. Lots of pictures on the walls and – for those who have an attic – our advice is to follow in the footsteps of Dorian Gray: you never know, maybe hiding a portrait that ages in your stead will be more effective that many other anti-ageing treatments.

San Siro by Azucena, Design Luigi Caccia Dominioni
1919 by Poltrona Frau, Design Renzo Frau
Geo by Saba, Design Paolo Grassello
Mos by Gebrüder Thonet Vienna, Design GamFratesi
Ducale by Besana Carpet Lab, Design Cristina Celestino
Double by Brokis, Design LCM Marin Design Studio
San Siro by Azucena, Design Luigi Caccia Dominioni
1919 by Poltrona Frau, Design Renzo Frau
Geo by Saba, Design Paolo Grassello
Mos by Gebrüder Thonet Vienna, Design GamFratesi
Ducale by Besana Carpet Lab, Design Cristina Celestino
Double by Brokis, Design LCM Marin Design Studio
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The best-loved materials are still the velvets, cowhide and wood, and the atmosphere is a mixture of noble classicism and the contemporary: a sofa created by Luigi Caccia Dominioni, an antique chair worthy of Lord Brummel, a table where the Vienna straw takes us back to certain turn-of-the-century cafés.

Brick bu Classicon, Design Eileen Gray
Stand by Tato, Design Ignazio Gardella
Metropolis by Galerie Philia, Design Jan Garncarek
Vase by Eva Solo
Self-portrait with a hood by Claire Tabouret - courtesy Galerie Perrotin
Cruciverbiste by Sophie Calle - Courtesy Galerie Perrotin
The pensive air by Jenes Fänge - Courtesy Galerie Perrotin
Brick bu Classicon, Design Eileen Gray
Stand by Tato, Design Ignazio Gardella
Metropolis by Galerie Philia, Design Jan Garncarek
Vase by Eva Solo
Self-portrait with a hood by Claire Tabouret - courtesy Galerie Perrotin
Cruciverbiste by Sophie Calle - Courtesy Galerie Perrotin
The pensive air by Jenes Fänge - Courtesy Galerie Perrotin
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Everything plays with memory here. In the end, a simple madeleine dipped in lime-blossom tea can unveil the power of recollection, crystallized who knows where and apparently inaccessible. Like that orchid we have placed atop a table, a symbol of the tormented love between Charles Swann and Odette de Crécy in In Search of Lost Time, the masterpiece of Marcel Proust. The flower Proust himself always wore on his lapel, which 100 years after his death (18 November 1922) continues to narrate a tale of elegance and refinement. Like a true dandy.