Notes of: A Garden Party
Behind March’s Mood Board
Welcome to Notes Of! Each month I make a mood board and post it to Instagram as a little creative exercise in thematic thinking. Notes Of elaborates on each month’s theme and includes links to relevant articles, videos, products, and more.
I don’t need Miranda Priestly to tell me that a floral-themed mood board is a little obvious for spring. But one of the joys of the season is that we collectively get so gushy about the weather and the greenery and that wow, it’s still light out at 7 pm!!! It’s as if it doesn’t happen every year. I’m choosing to revel in it, predictability be damned.
It’s actually NOT the start of spring itself that led me to choose this theme but in fact a photo I saw of a winter garden, specifically the winter garden of Madeleine Castaing. A French interior designer and antiques dealer known for her love of color and fearless pattern-mixing, Castaing’s name has become synonymous with a style of design abundant in romantic florals and botanical motifs. “I use three colors: red, sky blue, and the green of the gardens,” she once said.
I stumbled on this image of Castaing’s Parisian antique shop the other day, which I think used to be where Ladurée lives on Rue Bonaparte but is now around the corner on Rue Jacob, still open even long after her death in 1992. I’m not sure if the winter garden, a glass-ceilinged room filled with plants and ornate garden furniture, was in the old shop or the current location, but regardless, it’s what prompted me to daydream about my ideal garden scenario. I don’t know much more about Madeleine Castaing, but after hours of staring at twisty garden gates and spindly wall-climbing vines, I feel called to do a deep dive soon.
But anyway, that’s the story of why, yes, I’ve chosen florals for spring. This month’s mood board is sure to get you in the cocktail-sipping, sun-shining mood, even if you’re currently blanketed under an unfortunate layer of snow (or worse, slush). May your local Trader Joe’s have tulips in every color nonetheless.
10 notes of the garden variety:
Like I said, there’s a lot written about Madeleine Castaing that I still need to dig into, but I started with this fascinating article about one of her design projects, Villa Santo Sospir (pictured above). Owned by socialite and Holocaust survivor Francine Weisweiller and frequently visited by Yves Saint Laurent and Jean Cocteau (who drew all over the walls!), the villa is a legendary work of art in and of itself.
One of my favorite Instagram follows is British florist Willow Crossley, who posts weekly floral arranging videos from her idyllic greenhouse every Saturday. The videos themselves are so soothing, and even though my version of floral arranging is just plopping several stems of the same flower into a vase and calling it a day, I’ve learned so much from watching her compose her pieces with intention (but also, without a lot of fuss?). An inspiration.
The garden gate illustration on the bottom row of the mood board is from Liana Jegers’ The Los Angeles Drawings, one of my favorite zines in my ever-growing collection of artist books and publications. Just thumbing through its 12-pages feels like a day in the LA sun. I don’t think it’s for sale anymore, but you might be able to find a copy secondhand. (Here’s one for $10 on Depop.)
We are garden rich here in LA, from botanical gardens like the Huntington Library to private gardens like the Virginia Robinson estate. Last spring I made it a point to take regular walks or read outside at as many of these spots as I could and I swear to god I was a better person for it. Which makes sense—apparently there’s a growing movement in the therapy community to take sessions outdoors, a tactic that helps patients open up and feel more connected to a world bigger than themselves.
Moving into the “party” part of a “garden party”, a few recipe suggestions I can vouch for if you decide to host a backyard soiree: this carrot and ricotta tart, this lemon and asparagus spaghetti, a panzanella salad with a ton of herbs, this orzo salad with dates and feta, and a pistachio and meyer lemon panna cotta (which I haven’t made but it’s by Nancy Silverton, so you know it’s going to be perfect.)
And a playlist for said garden party, which I listen to on my evening walks but translates well into a golden hour happy hour vibe:
I’m personally excited for this year’s Met Gala theme, “The Garden of Time”, and can’t wait to see who nails it and who inevitably does not. The theme reflects The Met’s upcoming exhibition “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion”, which celebrates the decay of the natural world by way of archival garments so fragile they can never be worn again. “The Garden of Time” is also inspired by a 1962 short story of the same title by J. G. Ballard. Via Vogue:
“The story tells of a Count Axel and his wife, the Countess, in their utopia of leisure, art, and beauty; they live in a villa with a terrace that overlooks a garden of crystalline flowers with translucent leaves, gleaming glass-like stems, and crystals at the heart of every bloom. Though, as in all of Ballard’s work (‘Ballardian,’ per contemporary dictionaries, has come to represent ‘dystopian modernity, bleak artificial landscapes, and the psychological effects of technological, social, or environmental developments’), there is a dystopian element to their paradise; holding onto it is like trying to keep every grain of a fistful of sand intact in your palm.
Beyond the walls of Count Axel’s villa, an encroaching and chaotic mob draws nearer every hour. To restore tranquility, the Count must pluck a time-reversing flower from his garden until there are none left. The story ends with the unthinking mob descending onto the villa, now a derelict property with a neglected garden, in which a statue of the Count and his Countess stand entangled in thorny belladonna plants.”
I can’t wait to see how many “naked in the garden” looks we end up with on May 6th.
The newest trend in celebrity relatability photography is the flower haul. Just this month we’ve seen both Jeremy Allen White and Rhianna with armfuls of bouquets (à la that iconic Meryl Streep photo), and I don’t think it’ll be the last of it; I’d bet money that shots of Ben Affleck emerging from the Brentwood farmers market will crop up any day now. (Tangentially related: I saw Jeremy Allen White in the flesh in my neighborhood a few months ago and I am 99% sure he called the paparazzi on himself. Do with that what you will.)
I already have a too-large collection of cutwork lace tablecloths, but if you’re trying to amass your own, start with this one!!! The vase shapes in the lace! The 8 matching napkins! The fact that it’s never been used! Someone, please, get it before I do.
When people ask about my goals for the future:
Enjoy your weekend!
x
Ali
Sources: Porcelain panels on the facade of the former Old England department store by the Demeuldre-Coché porcelain factory, 1905; chairs by LRNCE for Rosemary Marrakech; Field Book of Western Wild Flowers by Margaret Armstrong, 1915; Damaris Goddrie in Walter Perre for Vogue Netherlands, September 2019; Woman Sitting With Hibiscus by Olivia Pendergast; cover of Cocorico Magazine, March 1901; A Garden of Delights, Gucci Decor campaign; floral pitcher by Milena Muzquiz; Mona von Bismarck in her rose garden by Cecil Beaton for Vogue, 1967; tulip garden by Luke Edward Hall; Liberte Cape by Les Vacances d’Irina; Paris, 1967 by Joel Meyerowitz; lemons by forestlake on Flickr; gate illustration from The Los Angeles Drawings by Liana Jegers, 2016; Gardens of Jaipur mural design by Mind The Gap; The Fairy of Flowers, Narcissus, inspired by H.C. Andersen by Anna and Elena Balbusso, 2008
beautiful as always, Ali. and shame on JAW. 😂
Ah, that Villa Santo Sospir article!!!
"As Cocteau explains in 'La Villa Santo Sospir,' a 35-minute montage film he made of the house in 1952, these were not frescoes but 'tattoos.' Indeed, most of them are simple outlines, rendered in thick black lines. 'It was not necessary to dress up the walls,' he says. 'It was necessary to draw on their skin.'"
Thank you, always, for sharing, Ali!