 | | |
| Charlotte Moss: A Flair for Living | 
 enlarge
| Author: Charlotte Moss
Creator: Pieter Estersohn
Publisher: Assouline
Category: Book
List Price: $65.00
Buy New: $40.95
You Save: $24.05 (37%)
Buy New/Used from $40.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  (9 reviews)
Sales Rank: 15679
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 170
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.2
Dimensions (in): 13.4 x 10.8 x 0.9
ISBN: 2759402657
Dewey Decimal Number: 747
EAN: 9782759402656
ASIN: 2759402657
Publication Date: April 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
|
| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-9 of 9 | | « PREV | | |
 When Big Counts May 26, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Really love this book. This hardback oversized edition allows one to see the details. As I collect French and English flatware as we well as antique china and all, I was very happy with the closeups of table settings. Nice.
 Gorgeous rooms, but extremely grand and over the top May 24, 2008
22 out of 22 found this review helpful
I've been a great fan of Charlotte Moss interior design (beginning with my exposure to her Lexington Avenue shop in the 1980's/1990's) and books from her very first, Passion for Detail, published in 1991. Her last, Flair for Living, is a beautiful, over-sized coffee table book with spectacular photos of rooms she designed for her newest home (New York City townhouse) and others she designed for clients.
While I recommend this book based on the gorgeous photos of absolutely stunning rooms, I am a little disappointed because I feel her style has over time become extremely grand and essentially beyond anything anyone who is not exceptionally wealthy could possibly hope to achieve. (As she, herself, states throughout this and earlier books, she is married to a very high-profile investment banker -- he is named in all of her books and, if you're curious, do a Google search!).
There is quite a lot a name-dropping in Flair for Living and more than a little ego. Unlike her earlier books (for example, Passion for Detail, Creating a Room, Winter House), Flair for Living, cannot really be seen as a "how to" book, unless one's resources are quite unlimited. The text is full of references to her purchases of fabulous furniture, one-of-a-kind collector's items, accessories and art once owned by, for example, Jackie Kennedy, Doris Duke, the Duchess of Windsor, famous decorators Nancy Lancaster, Elsie DeWolfe, Madeline Castaing -- even Marie Antoinette! Her life-style -- the "Flair for Living" that is the title of this book -- does not come cheap: she writes in the impeccably landscaped garden of her New York City townhouse, she has a "drawing room" full of Louis XVI furniture, she entertains in a dining room with floors that are "antique parquet de Versailles, salvaged from a chateau in France", she has a "breakfast room" with a domed ceiling painted with morning glories, she sleeps in a luxuriously curtained "lit a la Polonaise", she bathes by the candle-light emanating from gilt-bronze candlesticks, in a specially commissioned free-standing polished nickel tub, bath towels stacked nearby on an antique gilt-wood chair, and so on. Nothing is beyond her resources and the book is full of references to custom-designed items ("Sometimes I can't find the kind of mirror I want, so I'll have it made".) But her taste is impeccable; her eye (for example, "custom-made embroidery on the pale green silk faille covering an eighteen-century French fauteuil") is a sharp as her as her pockets are deep.
Do you detect a note of envy on my part? Of course, you do and I freely admit it -- my fantasy is to have a home designed by Charlotte Moss, but a fantasy it will be until I'm a sole Powerball lottery winner (a mere million or two would be inadequate!). Bottom line: buy this book as you might buy a coffee table book on Versailles -- with photos to dazzle and delight the eye, to sigh or salivate over, but not for real inspiration in decorating your own home -- unless your financial position allows it (in which case, you may as well go ahead and hire her to do it for you!).
 BIG disappointment May 16, 2008
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
Received today and was thoroughly disappointed. Its physical size is way too big for a dearth of photos and text. For "decorating" books, try Bunny Williams' "An affair with a house" or her "Point of View." Also, highly recommended is Armelle Baron's "Alex Vervoordt: Timeless Interiors." Now these are some books that you can sink your teeth into; high in content and low in ego.
A Flair for Living May 15, 2008
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is a beautifully photographed book with intersting text BUT it does
not compare to her previous book, Winter House. The title suggests that
the reader will get an idea of the author's lifestyle but instead is given
samples of her interior design both for herself and her clients. Pictures
are confusing as you aren't always certain whether you are viewing pictures of her own home or those of a client unless you follow the text.
In comparison, Winter House showed the reader intimate details of her impeccable Colorado home and how she entertains and uses that home. Given
the title of her newest book, the reader expects the same intimate details and will be disappointed to find they don't exist. Had the book
been titled differently I don't think I would have been so disappointed.
It is still a delightful book and worth including in your own personal
library of interior design books as Ms. Moss is a very talented interior
designer with fabulous taste who caters to the rich and famous!
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| | |
