Montage: Black & White All Over

Recently, I put together a story called “Fashion In the House” for the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine. The premise was that home design trends take style cues from the fashion runways. And in the never ending cycle of the game of style catchup, the home design trends fall about a season behind the fashion ones. And then it’s another season before we find such pieces outside pricey design center showrooms.

I did a quick perusal of pillows in the mass market to test the theory. West Elm’s got Moroccan, ikat and grays (last year’s runway darlings) and CB2’s got tie dye, Marimekko-esque florals, and Indienne. I’m sure if I dig deeper I’d turn up black and whites too, but my point is it’s not saturating the market (yet).

Although sometimes runway looks get left where they belong (on the runway), this one – Black & White – can work for everyone. Oddly enough, my parents did a series of black and white rooms in our (cringe) finished basement of my childhood home in Connecticut.

While my friends’ parents were firmly entrenched in their colonial living rooms complete with convex mirrors, or down and dirty, indestructible plaids (ick), my parents were experimenting with “style.” I hated it.

The walls were white and the ceiling black. The carpet and sofas were grey. The powder room had an oversize black and white floral print wallpaper. I detested it. (Truth be told, a decorator might just pick such pattern for a powder room today.) I liked the laundry room wallpaper — a simple hand-drawn vine that would look perfectly in tune with the current simple nature themes. Hmmm. Maybe I should apologize to my parents for the fuss I made.

RUNWAY

Left to right: Celine, Moschino, Stella McCartney, Michael Kors, Proenza Schouler, Vera Wang. Photos from Style.com

ROOMS

Room photos: Emily Summers Design; Hotel Fox in Copenhagen; Photographer James Tse; Joseph Dirand; Absolutely Beautiful Things; Frédéric Vasseur; Photographer James Tse; Intérieur; Osborne & Little; Joseph Dirand; Joseph Dirand; Joseph Dirand; Living Etc., Tine K; wallpaper from 2modern; Canadian House & Home; Light Locations; Joseph Dirand.