Ever wonder where some of the well-known designers get their inspiration?  Well, a few months ago, I was channel surfing, and I stopped momentarily on a Victorian party scene.  The camera was peering through the window of a Victorian home zooming away from a mix of vividly adorned Victorian ladies and gentlemen.   Just as I was about to surf again, a man picked up an ottoman and carried it away.  Aha!  That ottoman was the spitting image of Barbara Barry’s ottoman no.405 from Baker (www.kohlersinteriors.com).  Who would have thought that an ottoman from “Meet Me in St. Louis” would rise again in the 21^st century.  LOL.  Of course, no one should be surprised.  The styles of Hollywood have always influenced our desires and fuelled our imaginations.  I suppose much of the credit should go to Cedric Gibbons, a visual designer extraordinaire who controlled the art department of MGM during the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s—a long reign that including 11 Oscars (Pride and Prejudice; Little Women; Gaslight; An American in Paris) among 39 nominations for Best Art Direction, the category that was once called Interior Decoration.   

I first studied the work of Gibbons in film school back in the day, as they say.  Trained to see the world through the lens of a camera, I watch old movies for perspective—the camera’s point-of-view in a room.  I see the furniture displayed in the background, the artwork and shadows on the walls, the costumes, and the movement of the actors around the set pieces.  Having written, produced, directed, and edited my own productions, I know what I want the viewers eyes to follow on the screen.  When I am working in someone’s home, I use the same technique.  Noticing where my own eyes land in the room—which walls, which direction, which viewpoint will most entertain the eye.  And so it goes with film.  I watch the old studio films to see the effects of the manufactured landscape that has captured our attention and woven a mythical construct of happiness and coziness.  Some of my favourites include:  The Philadelphia Story (mansions), Foreign Correspondent (hotels, mansions), The Lady Eve (mansions), Adam’s Rib (apartments), Son of Frankenstein (castles), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (seaside mansions), Sunset Boulevard (more mansions), The Little Foxes (Southern mansions), and The Thin Man, interior decoration by Cedric Gibbons.  Yes there are lots of mansions, but what counts are the indelible details that capture and direct the eye.  My own “classics” edification appears nightly in the homes of my clients.   

Cedric Gibbons carried the magic over into his own home too.  Gibbons sleek Art Deco home, like the Oscar award he helped designed, is an incredible indelible personal expression.  If you have $11.5 million dollars, it’s available today, see www.christiesgreatestates.com under “Greatest Estates”.  If not, over the holidays, reacquaint yourself with the some of the classics.  Look behind and beyond the actors, and absorb the style and visual artistry.  It could inspire your own South Shore set design for the New Year.