I Party With Jay Gatsby

Since I first read it during my formative years, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby has been my favorite book of all time.  I have read and re-read it countless times since, highlighting poignant and meaningful passages, and it seems to only get better with each read.  That, I feel, is the mark of a truly good story.  Of course, I have also seen the 1974 movie adaptation with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow.  And now, as of two Fridays ago, Baz Luhrmann's  version, starring Leonardo DeCaprio and Carey Mulligan, is a contender.  Unfortunately, haven't had the opportunity to see it--yet!  But I will--and I couldn't be more excited to discover how this version stacks up to the absolute perfection that is the story of Nick, Daisy, and Gatsby.  In the meantime, I'm partying with Jay Gatsby from the sidelines...and here are my inspirations:

He smiled understandingly--much more than understandingly.  It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life.  It faced--or seemed to face--the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor.  It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.  Precisely at that point it vanished--


One of the most stunning examples of literature come to life, the iconic Tiffany & Co. created Jazz Age Glamour, a collection of jewelry for the Gatsby film.  As a celebration of the 1920s, featuring amazing diamond necklaces and bracelets, looping strands of pearls, and ornate headpieces, "The collection captures [Fitzgerald's] characters’ privileged lives with modern versions of their Tiffany jewels that glittered through posh parties and summer soirées at grand estates, fueled by jazz and bubbling champagne. "  This dazzling Corsage Necklace (not to mention its price tag) take my breath away.

Corsage Necklace, $485,000
from the Jazz Age Glamour Collection
by Tiffany & Co.

I like large parties.  They're so intimate.  At small parties there isn't any privacy.

I can't take credit for discovering this tank; the lovely Megan shared her fabulous Etsy discovery with me, and I have been obsessing ever since.  While it seemed that no one who came to Gatsby's parties was actually invited, aside from perhaps Nick and Daisy, I wouldn't mind being a Gatsby party-crasher.  The Spring House on Block Island is how I've always pictured Gatsby's house in my mind, but I have a feeling Baz Luhrmann has something a bit more elaborate in mind.  I suppose I'll have to wait and see.  

I Party With Jay Gatsby Tank, $28
by SilksAndScreens
Available on Etsy

"I wouldn't ask too much of her," I ventured.  "You can't repeat the past."

"Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously.  "Why of course you can!"

He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand.

This Gatsby clutch is one of a zillion reasons why I love Kate Spade, for keeping geeky English majors like me on trend.  I've had my eye on the Gatsby clutch for some time.  Against the cheerful yellow, I love that the strand of pearls seems to represent the excess of the roaring twenties and the pool of black the dark subtext of the Gatsby tale--and all with an irresistible pinstripe lining that would have been right at home in West Egg.

The Great Gatsby Book Clutch, $265 (on sale)
by Kate Spade

No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.

As a teenager reading The Great Gatsby, I was always struck by Gatsby's seeming obsession with the past.  During days when I was beginning to carve my own path, the story of Gatsby and Daisy--and the collateral damage left in their wake--was an almost cautionary tale to me, of lost love, regret, and broken dreams.  All of that, of course, wrapped in a shiny package of lavish parties, amazing clothing, and wealth beyond measure.  To me, this tiny heart ring is a sweet symbol of what should have mattered most for Gatsby and Daisy, of what was ultimately lost.

Wee Heart Ring, $78
from Anthropologie

He must have felt that he had lost the old, warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.  He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass.  A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about...

When I spotted this print on Etsy, I was immediately sold.  Representing wealth and recklessness, the image of Gatsby's car is printed, appropriately, in green over an actual page from The Great Gatsby.  For me, Gatsby's "gorgeous car," an object of his material wealth and the source of coveting and admiration in the early Gatsby chapters, becomes sinister in the end--a physical harbinger of death, a vehicle (quite literally) of Gatsby's undoing.  Admittedly, I am a bit obsessed with this story, but I truly love this print for its subtle loveliness and sadness.

Great Gatsby Rolls Royce Print, $9.90
by Story304
Available on Etsy

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms farther... And one fine morning-- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Green has long been my favorite color.  I inherited my green eyes from my wonderful mother.  For a little while, while I was growing up, I was slightly covetous of my brother and sister's bright blue eyes--until I learned in science class that green was the most rare...  So, while I may not believe in the green light the way Gatsby did, I absolutely appreciate the symbolism of green in the story, as well as its glorious physical manifestations in the wide world of fashion, like this absolutely stunning trench from Burberry Prorsum.  I mean, a green lace Burberry trench: need I say more, old sport?

Kickback Lace Trench Coat in kelly green, $5,500
by  Burberry Prorsum

I've spoken several who have seen Baz Luhrmann's Gatsby so far, and people either love it or hate it.  I sincerely hope that I am in the former camp, a failed movie adaptation is perhaps one of the biggest disappointments ever.  For me, I've never had issue with artist liberty and interpretation, provided that the integrity of the story and its themes remains.  I suppose I'm just going to have to see for myself and report back! 

Psst... For more information about Tiffany & Co.'s Jazz Age Glamour collection, click here.

Lady Luxe

Remember back in grade school when the new girl immediately sky-rocketed to popularity, leaving all the other girls in her class in a dismal cloud of dust behind her? Well, Lady Luxe is the new girl in my 'hood, and while there isn't much competition, she's still made one hell of entrance!

But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself; allow me to explain... As you may already know, I love love love discovering new boutiques in and around the Boston area. I'm especially partial to vintage and/or consignment shops, which feel like the grown-up version of treasure hunting. You never know what might be hiding on a shelf or rack, and I suppose it's the thrill of the hunt that gets me. Lady Luxe is just this type of shop, and I dare say that part vintage lifestyle and part modern hipster equals one very cute new girl.

I have been meaning to pop into Lady Luxe since I first noticed it last summer. Its location on the Belmont/Cambridge line means that it couldn't be more conveniently located (for me, at least), but I tend to always pass it en route to another destination and just never seem to have a moment to spare! But today was the day. After a rendez vous with some of my very besties, we popped to see what we could see. The sunny vintage shop is bigger than it appears from the street, housing a mix of retro clothing, accessories, and housewares that all possess a suprisingly striking modern appeal.

The treasure on this particular treasure hunt was, without a doubt, an Oscar (de la Renta, to be clear) cap sleeved sheath dress covered in matte finish gold sequins. While it may have been quite literally worth its weight in gold (I kid you not, this dress was heavy!), I'm pretty sure I could have made it look light and effortless. While the price tag of $185 was hardly unreasonable, I had a sneaking suspicion that my adorable husband might disagree with my appraisal so I kept my wallet tucked safely inside my handbag. This time. But I'll be back. After all, who doesn't want to be just as luxe as the new girl?

Psst... If you need to see it to believe it, Lady Luxe is located at 31 Belmont Street in Cambridge, MA--and they're having a sale all through out the month of January! Click here to visit their Facebook page for more details.

All images thanks to Google maps.

More Fashion at Home: Upcycle Cool

Up until this past weekend, my husband and I have been madly searching for the perfect coffee table. Finally, we (okay, HE) got super crafty and constructed a fabulous table using an old door that we found inside my family's barn. He sanded it down, added wrought iron legs, and viola!--chic and eco-friendly.

While I am now the proud owner of the best coffee table a girl could ask for, I did stumble upon some other fabulous designs during our lengthy quest. In case you should find yourself in the same position, I wanted to share one of my discoveries: vintage luggage tables. Etsy seller LoveNostalgicWhimsy rescues vintage suitcases and converts them into coffee/side/end tables. The finished products are--like my barn door table--stylish and good for mother earth. After all, it doesn't get much more eco-friendly than a found object! And for a price that rivals the likes of Ikea or Target, it's really a no-brainer. The convenience factor of this design is another selling point, for you can open the suitcase/table to use it for storage. And not for nothing, as with most things vintage, your little table will truly be a one-of-a-kind (awww, just like YOU!).

So there you have it, fellow design stars; if you find yourself deciding upon or agonizing over home decor like I have been for the past two months and counting, try going upcycle cool. Remember your three Rs: reduce, reuse, and recycle! You know it's hip to be green.

Psst... To see more vintage suitcase tables from LoveNostalgic Whimsy, check out her Etsy shop by clicking here.

Image: Vintage Durabilt Luggage Table $80 by LoveNostalgic Whimsy (available online at www.etsy.com/listing/50754335/vintage-durabilt-luggage-table-satin).

Another Installment of Fashion At Home: My Husband Is Sometimes Right

It's been a while since we last chatted about fashion at home, but you may remember that this topic is often the source of marital discord and/or compromise in my happy little family. Nonetheless, the result is always a good one, for Dallin and I eventually find a way to blend our decorating wants into a well balanced aesthetic, somewhere along the lines of "traditional with a twist." Having recently moved (once again), we are now (once again) facing the somewhat daunting task of decorating our new home, the place where we hope to stay put for a while--especially now that we have a little one of our own on the way...

That said, given my husband's penchant for interior design and his self-proclaimed "creative vision," we have found ourselves navigating the sometimes turbulent waters of creating a space that simultaneously reflects both our unique and combined tastes, doesn't break the bank, and looks absolutely impeccable without being overtly catalog. Perhaps for this reason, we are still unpacking, long after our May 1 move-in date. However, it apparently took Michelangelo four painstaking years to paint the Sistine Chapel, so sometimes good things come to those who wait.

With our living room nearing completion, we recently shifted our focus to the dining room. After nearly four years of marriage, I'm excited to report that we finally have a dining room, and so it's been exciting for us to venture into this uncharted territory. We were lucky to inherit the fabulous farm-style table that was a fixture in my dining room growing up, and we recently proved ourselves worthy of it, after lugging it home via Uhaul alllll the way back from my family's home in Western Massachusetts (NOT an easy task). However, the chairs were another matter entirely. Understandably, my mother is still using the dining room chairs that my father hand painted for her in the charming Quimper style years ago. So, we were left to our own devices as far as seating--and that's where things got...interesting.

My first thought was to find some rustic wooden chairs and perhaps a matching bench, and I even located a few contenders at Pottery Barn. However, my husband saw things differently, arguing that--if I had my way--our dining room would look like it came straight off the pages of the Pottery Barn catalog, devoid of character and originality. As it turns out, his vision was one of mixed media, pairing our wooden farmhouse table with steel chairs. At first, I balked at this suggestion: metal chairs with a wood table?! But then he actually showed me the chairs he has been obsessed with since practically forever, and I started to see the light. But not for nothing, I have to mention that the chairs in question hailed from the pages of my mother's Sundance catalog--so it seems you can never fully escape all things "catalog." Just saying.

Here's a fun fact: Dallin's beloved steel chairs actually have quite the history! Yes, they may have found their way onto the pages of Sundance, but their story neither starts nor stops there. Rather, it all began once upon a time (in the 1930s, to be precise) when Xavier Pauchard designed the iconic Chaise A as part of a collection of galvanized steel furniture under the Tolix brand. Given its inherent form and function, the Chaise A immediately took off, becoming a ubiquitously favored seating choice--from cafes and bistros to army barracks and hospitals. Then, in the early 1980s, the Tolix A Chair, also known as the Marais AC Chaise, was reissued. Again, it was well-received, this time by both the public and professional designers alike who also valued its chic design and durable structure. Now, you can find this fabulous chair (in its original burnished steel, as well as bright colors like blue, red, or yellow) everywhere from the furniture shops of France, to antique fairs and flea markets across our great nation, and even on the pages of Sundance, Pottery Barn, and Crate and Barrel. Imagine that!

So here's the truth: in this particular case, Dallin couldn't have been more right, or his creative vision more cool. Still, we have never been a couple that does things precisely by the book; believe it or not, we ultimately moved away from the Tolix design, in favor of another galvanized steel chair, whose design was slightly more worn and industrial--an ideal compliment to the deliciously distressed cracked white paint along the lip and legs of our table. The end product?--sheer perfection that is impeccably country chic without even a hint catalog. What else can I say? My husband is sometimes right.

Fun facts about Tolix chairs, thanks to Paris Parfait (http://parisparfait.typepad.com/). Images, in order of appearance: (1) 1934 Dining Chair from Sundance, as shown on the Sundance website (www.sundancecatalog.com); (2) Wynn Ladderback Chairs in french white $229-299 by Pottery Barn, available online (http://www.potterybarn.com/); (3) Another view of the 1934 Dining Chair $245, available from Sundance; (4) Lyle Side Chair $199 by Crate and Barrel, available online (http://www.crateandbarrel.com/); (5) Another view of the Lyle Side Chair, as shown on the Crate and Barrel website.