Valentina

At The End Of The Year | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

01 Jan 2018 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ItalianNewYearEve, #NewYearCelebrations, #NewYearEve, #NewYearEveCustoms, #NewYearEveRedUnderwear

The end of the year marks a passage of time and the hope for new experiences, new love, new peace and new expectations. Whether it is celebrated on December 31st or not, people worldwide do celebrate it, and in much different ways. I remember how we celebrated it in Italy, long time ago. It was colorful, fun and very dangerous.

As midnight struck, heavy fireworks started from every windows and balconies. Kids played with the less dangerous fireworks and adults played with heavy ones, often losing parts of their body with it. Loudest and powerful fireworks lasted for more than an hour and during that time, it was customary to throw everything old and no longer wanted out of windows.
It was not advised to come home from parties before 5:00 am, that’s when people finally quieted down. This practice is now prohibited by law, but for some people is hard to desist from this custom.

Before the Southern Italians went absolutely crazy with fireworks and throwing things out of the windows, they went totally crazy with food. They sat down at dinner table around 6:00-7:00 pm surrounded by many people, usually family, with the intentions of eating 13 courses, one for each month of the year passing and an extra one as a good wish for the new year. The 13th course was a plate of cooked lentil eaten soon after midnight. Lentils represent money, more lentils we eat, more money we will have…. and everyone hopes…..
Eating lentils is still a custom of today.

(Click on each photo to view it larger)

No matter what color Italians like, at the end of the year, every woman from North to South wears a red pair of underwear to wish for a new love or to keep the one they have. That’s is something I still do today.

(Photo above: https://www.zappos.com/p/b-temptd-lace-kiss-thong-haute-red/product/8343688/color/401264)

The last and the first day of the year are two days equally respected and celebrated in Italy. Italians never pay bills on Jan.1^st even if they expire on that day. We believe that whatever we do on the first day of the year, it will repeat itself all year round. Laugh, make love, travel, eat in company of people, cook, create art, visit museums, go to the beach, start writing a book, play music, whatever we do, must be a fun activity that we want repeated again and again throughout the year.

Those who decide to go out at the end of the year, willing to pay a high price for dinner and dance, after midnight, will end up in a single file, making a train with people, often strangers, rolling through tables and going around the dancing hall, at the tune of Brazilian music. I never understood why Brazilian music became the brand of celebration for the end of the year. The best part of going out at the end of the year is that most everyone waits until 5:00 am to get warm croissants, freshly baked and just out of the baker’s oven. They go so well with a cup of cappuccino or a double espresso. The aroma of a fresh croissant is a prelude that something sweet will happen in the new year…..and so everyone hopes….
True or not, it is good to have hopes and beliefs. I wish you a splendid 2018, all the way through and celebrate what you want more of. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinaexpressions.com/trips-to-puglia-2/

As a writer and cultural promoter of Puglia, my native land, it is my intention to let readers feel and experience a new ”wheel of emotions”. I want to encourage them to visit areas of Italy not beaten by massive tourism. Through stories of local customs, art, architecture, fashion, food-wines, shopping, I want them to create their special adventures and live it up in Puglia! Check out my books on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

Color Expressions in 2018 | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

15 Dec 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #2018Colors, #GoldSilverColors, #HowToCombineColors, #Pantone2018Colors, #PowerColors, #SubtleColors

Coco Chanel said; “The best color is the color that looks good on you”.
Year after year we follow colors around, we discard new clothes just because they represent last year colors and not for a moment we stop to think if those new colors are really suitable for our texture, face, age and personality, or we bought them just because they were in fashion.

I don’t get excited when I see the same colors or the same fashion style on everybody, I get totally bored. I want to see women vibrating their own energy, as it happened in the ‘20s -‘30s -‘40s -‘50s and then there was the abyss. Women of past eras wanted to be different from one another with a style, which was personal and unique to their personality. Men’s fashion has not changed that much in the last 100 years. Shirt collars were first higher and then lower, ties were first shorter, then longer, pants bottoms were large, then became skinny like a pencil, back to large and back to skinny again, jackets were single breasted and double-breasted. The basic men suit-look stayed the same with a few minor changes from time to time, nothing special to talk about. Women, instead, have slipped from looking sophisticated, classy and elegant to plunging into vulgarity. The other day, I saw a woman walking in the street dressed in a striped white and blue pajama, house slippers with fake fur all around, a Gucci bag on her arm and a diamond ring on the finger. Not only she devalued the diamond ring, but she looked awful and totally sloppy.

I am a highly attentive person, I see small details other people don’t notice and I am aware of my surroundings. Here, I am only making an observation of what I saw in the street, I don’t wish to change a nation. If women feel good going out in the streets in a striped pajama or rollers in their hair, more power to them. Happiness, after all, is also feeling free and detached from society’s constrictions. I am just very sad that women don’t care for the way they look anymore.
I want to bring the beauty of life created with the right colors to those people who want to listen and want to find harmony within themselves.

Those who still care about their appearance, should find colors and style that look good on them, colors that nourish their soul and make them feel good. They should find the style, which gives them an aura of self-esteem and allows them to leave an impression behind when they exit a room.

Based on Pantone color choices for 2018, I have created three palettes easy to compose as your next color expressions in the next year. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

Teck – A technique to combine Bright Turquoise, Pink and Purple colors anchored with Brilliant White or Frosted Almond.

Discretion – Nostalgic hues for a subtle palette, such as Elderberry, Burnished Lilac, and Hawthorne Rose combine with strengthening tones, such as Coffee or Gold.

Intricacy – Intensity to convey power and to providing an eclectic mix of colors balanced with Black, Gold, Silver or Bossa Nova.

Style is a journey, putting clothes on is just covering the body. Once you find your powerful colors and style, that “first impression” will give you the right vibrations and the world will know who you are! I hope you will try these colors and if you want to show them, please post them here. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, born in Italy in a family of artists. Style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. She is passionate about colors and encourages her clients to express their individual style in their homes and with the clothes they wear.
To better help people all over the world she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB

Bubbly Moments | Valentina Cirasola | Designer and Author

08 Dec 2017 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ChampagneCoupeGlass, #ChampagneGlassCharacteristics, #ChampagneGlasses, #GlassesForCelebrations, #HolidayDrinks, #SparklingWines

We are at the end of another year of work. We might have reached some or all the goals for this year. We have put efforts in keeping the good friends near us and manage to stay healthy, or have helped someone in the process. We have passed good and bad moments and we might had had some challenges to overcome. It has been another year and another chapter. Life situations are such that we have everything to celebrate and to be grateful. This is the month for bubbles to celebrate life and the new lights coming.
For exciting celebrations, we need special glasses. Some glasses will alter the taste of the bubbles and some will improve it. We can choose the Coupe, the Flute or the Tulip shape glasses to fill with our favorite bubbles.

The Coupe shape, or otherwise called Champagne Saucer was in vogue in the early 1900s, became most popular in the extravagant years of the ’20s with the Great Gatsby and remained popular until the ’60s. However, before the roaring ’20s, someone else in the upper crust of French society, thought of making the coupe champagne glass very famous. She was the beautiful and famous French Marquise Madame Pompadour, a valued aide and court advisor, but also a mistress of the King of France, Louis XV, from 1745 to 1751. She was a patron of architecture, decorative arts, porcelain and a patron of philosophers. The gossip columns of the era mention that Madame Pompadour, in love with beautiful things, lent her breast to a glass designer to make a mold of her breast and thus to create the Champagne coupe glass. The picture below speaks for itself. This fun 8×10 print is available at Meluseena on Etsy goo.gl/tUhHzq

Is this a myth? I don’t know. It is an amusing tale and I like to tell it. Apparently in more modern times, other famous women have lent their breasts for the same reason. Claudia Schiffer loaned her left breast to a Karl Lagerfeld-designed ceramic coupe for Dom Perignon in 2008.

I like my champagne or sparkling wines very fizzy, I am sure many people do too, but the bubbles in the coupe glass dissipate quickly. Before they go totally flat, one must drink up fast and that’s not the scope of a pleasurable drink. Pleasurable moments, holding a nice piece of glass with bubbles come in small sips.

I have a coupe glass set I use to drink foreign blond beers and for cold desserts.

The flute, today is considered a classy, sophisticated glass for sparkling wines. Pouring the sparkling wine in this glass, let the bubbles sink at the bottom, then quickly rise to the top and immediately delivery a fuzziness to the nose. We have grown accustomed to this visual impact.

The tulip, just like the flower, is an elegant glass shape, it has a wider aperture at the top, maintains bubbles fizzy until the glass is empty and allows a better development of the aroma of the wine. The bubbles will touch different parts of the tongue, instead of going directly to the nose.

As far as juicy stories, the flute and the tulip glasses have none that I know.

In a nice piece of glass, one can feel and hear the work of those who made it; holding it, is like holding a piece of art. Enjoy bubbles all year around and celebrate even when there is nothing to celebrate.

My next TV show Drink Up will be December 8, 2017 with a young sommelier as a guest. Nicole Stevenson, will mix non-alcoholic drinks for those people who can’t drink for one reason or another, but still want to be part of the festivities.

Happy Christmas. Ciao,
Valentina
Valentina Designs Universe TV Channel https://goo.gl/2tbN3N

Valentina Cirasola has been in business as an interior designer since 1990 improving people’s life by changing their spaces. Most often she designs kitchens and wine grottos; outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms; great rooms and entertainment rooms. Her deep interest in food led her as an autodidact in the studies of food in history, natural remedies, nutrition and well-being. Finally, she wrote two books on Italian regional cuisine and one book on color theory, in which she included one recipe for each color. Get your copy of Valentina’s books on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

Sculpture In My Hands | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

01 Dec 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #ChicInVintage, #HowToDressWithVintage, #LucitePurses, #VintageFashion, #VintagePurses

Welcome to December episode of Friday Fashion.
There is nothing better I like than dressing in modern clothes and accessorize my outfits with vintage items. It’s a playful look and not necessarily prim, snobbish.
The fact is, a vintage accessory goes well with everything we wear today. The clothes of today are mass-produced and lack originality. The moment one thinks is wearing something original, thousands examples exactly the same have come out at the same time filling stores with garment-uniforms. In the past, when clothes were tailored, every woman was original, details on the garment were exceptional, different from one dress to another and often reflected the fantasy of the tailoress. Well-designed original dresses required just as original accessories for a finishing touch.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

I own Lucite and other vintage purses mostly from the ‘40s and ‘50s, they all find their place with my outfit and somehow, they work every time. Some purses have lids that open and reveal mirrors, lipstick case or small make-up compartments, some even have a cigarette case attached. Their value today is very high, they might range from $50 to over $500.

Play with geometry – I attribute the success of combining modern with vintage to the futurist shapes of some vintage purses: square and rectangular box styles, ovals, trapezoid, cylinders, scalloped shaped……

Let’s say you are wearing an A line skirt, your vintage purse looks better if it is vertical in a long shape. Why? The A line skirt flair out from the body, the cylinder purse will balance the visual puffiness of the skirt.
If you are wearing a cigarette pair of pants, the round barrel or the square purse will look better.

Clothes as Architecture
Clothes and accessories follow the same principle of architecture. It must be aesthetically pleasing and proportionate to create harmony on the body. When we look at a building with classic architecture we might see a row of windows with triangle pediments on top, then below we see a row of windows with arched tops, then again, another row of windows with triangle pediments. This is called repetition in harmony. We sculpt our body the same way with colors and shapes. In my drawing is easy to understand how to counterbalance triangle shapes with round shapes and square shapes with rectangular shapes, just as architects do. This eliminates boredom and it is easy on the eyes.

If your body is round, your purses shapes should be vertical and rectangular, if your body is rectangular, you can choose the round shape purses. Difficult? It might be at the beginning, once you get the hang of it, you will love to play this game. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, born in Italy in a family of artists. Style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. She is passionate about colors and encourages her clients to express their individual style in their homes and with the clothes they wear. To better help people all over the world she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors:
©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on

Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB

Dining In Colors | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

16 Nov 2017 6 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ArtOfDining, #BohemianColors, #ColorfulDining, #ColorfulHolidayDiningTable, #TableDesign, #ThanksgivingColors, Tablescape

Eating is a story, not just a moment to fulfill a necessity. Every nation has special holiday dining customs and rituals. In the western world, we sit at a well decorated table and give our guests something stunning to look at while they gather to enjoy dinner. Your dining table should be colorful, inviting, extravagant (why not?) and especially filled with good food.

It is easy to set up a table with traditional dishware, crystal glasses and silver flatware, nothing to it. The challenge comes when you want to do something out of the ordinary, colorful and follow your instinct instead of rules. How a table that responds to these characteristics would look like?

First, create a color scheme, let’s say blue. It doesn’t mean everything on the table must be blue, you need to create a rhythm with complement or analog colors.
Vincent Van Gogh said: “There is no blue without yellow and without orange”. Right there is the answer. With a blue tablecloth, yellow and orange tableware will be perfect. Blue is a cold color, yellow and orange are warm colors. You have created a color temperature.

Start with choosing a theme for your table: Bohemian, bucolic, country and so on.
Then select dark, medium and light values of the color you plan on using.
Find some complement or analogue colors to mix in and to add rhythm to the table setting.
Mix and match the tableware as you like.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

For this first tablescape the theme is Bohemian. I chose a white tablecloth as the base for layering all the colors. Two different colors tea tablecloth covered opposite corners of the table, one black with bird motifs and the other one in golden tones with classical motifs.
Playing with geometry and mixing round with square plates from various dish sets is fun. Mix vintage and modern plates, mix colors and shapes, no rules and surprise yourself.
I made the napkins from leftover material of various projects and closed them in brass napkin rings. Tea light holders made of rusted metal go well with brushed bronze flatware.
Glassware don’t match on purpose, but the greenish tone is their common denominator to other items on the table.
Prosecco bottle has an interesting Venetian embellishment. She is the autumn leaves lady that sometimes is on a wine bottle and sometimes is on a mirror somewhere else in the house. Her purpose is to embellish.

For the second Bohemian table, I have used a floral tablecloth, made of silk fabric in silver tone, as the base, then I cover it half way with a red voiles shawl. Each set of glassware is made of three different styles glasses and each set is made of the same three pieces. Even though, I chose a continuity in the glassware, I wanted my plate sets to be extravagant in style and colors. The silver flatware is a contrast to the gold wine glassware. I scattered some acrylic diamonds on the cloth to pick up light from candles and lamps outside the table. The table is set for two, it would be just the same for 4-6 or more people.

A dinner table is for food and conversation, decorations should be kept minimal and low to allow guests to see each other and talk across the table.

This will be the topic of my next TV Show: “Dinner At 7:00” produced under my label Valentina Design Universe.
I hope you have a splendid Thanksgiving. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola transforms and creates spaces realizing people’s dreams in homes, offices, interiors and exteriors. She infuses your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away a comfortable living. Valentina is well-known for bringing originality on any project and for thinking outside the box. Her interiors are not made with cookie cutters, only follow client’s inspiration, lifestyle and personality. She offers on-line design consultations through Skype and the traditional in-house consultations, helping people with their design challenge anywhere in the world. She is the author of three books, all-available on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

Life To A Cloth | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

10 Nov 2017 4 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #TailoredClothes, #TailoredSuits, #TailorScissors, #TailorTrade, #TailorWork, #WomenTailors

This Friday Fashion is about a charming trade.
Today, they are called “Men of Cloth” and “Men of Artistry”, they are those few tailors left in the world. Their stories are so similar to the tailoresses’ stories, I know so well. My mom and all her sisters were professional tailoresses. The difference between a tailoress and a seamstress? Like day and night, without putting one on the pedestal and diminishing the other. They both contribute to the beauty of a person in a different way.

In my mom’s era, both men and women learned some king of trade in school or off school, a solid trade to make a living and support families. Tailoring was an art, it was about choosing a piece of cloth and make it come alive on someone’s body. Anyone going in that trade, had to start from the basics, learn how to manage the needle, how to use a thimble, how to do basting (a rough stitching that holds two pieces of cloth together, whether it was for hemming, holding fabric and lining, or interface) and even learn how to hold a scissor in the hand. The apprentices learned the artistry of making a perfect garment from established tailor teachers with a reputation of being beyond strict.

Artistry is having the ability to bend a piece of metal, to tame a stone, to shape a cloth, to give a life to any material as the artist wants. My mom celebrated the woman’s body, transformed large women, women with birth defects, tall and small women into perfect bodies, she made clothes to highlight their best features and knew how to hide imperfections.

In her sewing laboratory there was camaraderie between the girls working for her. Married women workers shared marriage hardships, kids difficulties and kids sicknesses, the single girls shared love stories and dreamt with opened eyes. They were proud to work in my mom’s tailor laboratory. Working condition were good, clean and most of them knew my mom put high quality craftsmanship at the centre of their attention. They wanted to work for her, she was kind, sweet and understanding, very unusual qualities as a boss in the tailor trade. Our younger workers were always excited to get a glimpse at the clients’ young sons picking up their moms after fittings, the girls waited for that moment to be noticed. There was a lot of giggling and many mirrors came out of their purse to smear more red lipsticks or freshen up a make-up, every time there was a rich boy at the door. My mom’s clients were wealthy, every young worker aspired to end up in the grace of one of those wealthy kids one day.

With a few tricks of the trade, which weren’t tricks, but professional knowledge, my mom made miracles on paper patterns she drew free hands. She knew how to make the stomach of a woman disappear by drawing the right slit on the paper pattern, or how to augment a small breast with a dart in the right place. She knew how to make uneven shoulders look even and square, or uneven arm look the same length. All the designs happened on paper first, then transferred on cloth.

Her tools of the trade had been the same for over 65 years: chalk, measuring tapes, paper, pencils, some squares she never used, thimbles, heavy scissors, some decorated with cherubs or metal embroiders, some plain and heavy. She carried her scissors hanging on her waist, like a guard carries a gun on the side of the body. She never wanted anyone to use her scissors. Where did they end up? I wished I had them today.

(Click each photo to view it larger).

(Above https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Art-Noueau-Gilt-Brass-Handled-Scissors-of-Unusual-Form/112629748198?hash=item1a394191e6:g:oXMAAOSwOA1Z~mmJ)

Her laboratory was in the house where we lived. Workers came to work there and they were part of our family life. It wasn’t an industrial place, like this one in my photos, but more like a large salon with nice furniture, sofas, tall mirrors and upholstered chairs for the comfort of the clients. The working area was filled with a couple of sewing machines, iron table, cutting table, shredded fabric and thread everywhere on the floor. My mom had little time to devote to shopping and cooking. She would ask one of the girls designated for errands to go by the market to pick up this and that food between running errands for the tailor shop. Admonishing her not to flirt around too much was like telling it to the wall and completely disregarded.

(Above pictures were taken by Valentina Cirasola inside a seamstress shop with permission)

No one body is the same, there are no two people alike, the expertise of a tailor is not to make clothes that fit everybody like those mass-produced clothes today, but to understand the differences and find the solution to create visually perfect bodies, no matter the size.
My mom always said: “Style is more than putting fashionable clothes on. One must travel through life changes, accept them and adapt by wearing clothes that will give you the power each age brings”.

I learned all my mom’s trade secrets just by being there, living and breathing fabrics, threads, notions, colors, style and hearing shop talk, I learned their jargon and techniques. My mom never wanted to teach me her trade. Often she exclaimed: “The needle is very small and very heavy, learn a profession!!!”. I guess, she didn’t want me to deal with long working hours, temperamental clients, delicate fabrics, disasters of the unexpected or being in a volatile field, but life always plays tricks with us. I moved away for work, I ended up going to the Fashion Academy in Italy and worked as a fashion designer after all. The cloth that comes alive under the hand of experts, fascinated me and I wanted to be part of that magic too. If you have a dream, let it happen and if you have stories in the tailoring trade you like to share, please write me and I will share them here. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, born in Italy in a family of artists. Style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. She is passionate about colors and encourages her clients to express their individual style in their homes and with the clothes they wear. To better help people all over the world she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB

Rounded | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

31 Oct 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #NapaStyleFurniture, #NapaWineCountry, #PodChair, #RoundedChair, #RoundMetalPlates, #WordPressPhotoChallengeRounded

Going to Napa, the California wines’ valley is a fun experience every time. Stores display unusual merchandise for those people looking for originality and at time a bit crazy too, but crazy in home décor is good. One or a few whimsical pieces here and there make a jovial, playful home. Colors and rounded shapes are more welcoming than straight lines or sharp corners, especially if kids are around.

I loved this pod chair. Not only is round, it swivels and is patriotic. All black leather covers the interior of the pod. I would have liked it in all red interior.

(Click on each photo to view it larger)

In the same store, I found this very unusual table set made of hammered metal with golden beading. I wondered if this is only a decorative table set, or it is intended for food and if it is, how food would taste on metal. In the Middle Age, metal and wood were the only materials used to make plates, until ceramic was invented.

This set of lace tray and plates is magnificent, and the price is as well, $525 each set, of my !!!

The visit could not be complete without a visit to at least one winery, where the round oak wine barrels, round shaped garden and beautiful flowers greeted us.

Round shaped flower beds and a round fountain make an inviting courtyard.

Napa Valley is a country side, with a warm, sultry temperature, vineyards and wine makers populate the area. Here, days go by tasting wines, eating specialty food and international variety of cheeses. I think that’s the reason people are so relaxed here. Life is easier when it is not stuck in the same groove.

Some of the buildings stayed the same since 1892 or just about. The round paneling enclosing all windows makes nice details on a building that is otherwise square. History and traditions is what I want to see when I get away from the city, skyscrapers and heavy traffic.

I think, I can live here, even without the sea. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian interior designer in business since 1990. She is passionate about colors and all expressive arts. She is a “colorist”. To her, selecting art and original pieces means to bring out the best energy of her clients and nourish their soul. She trots the world and loves writing travel notes, from which she draws inspiration to design her interiors. She is the author of her book on the subject of colors: ©Red-A Voyage Into Colors available on:
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB

Equestrian Weekend | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

29 Oct 2017 2 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #EquestrianStyle, #IndianJewelry, #LeisureClothes, #UrbanCowgirlStyle, #WesternStyleFashion

My last business trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico enticed me to look at another type of fashion, the one that is far from my city style: western style and even equestrian style. There is a lot of charm in this style, it’s a little rough, a little country, suggestive of adventures with bizarre horses running with the mane in the wind, in all their strength and grace.

Local stores in Albuquerque displayed a lot of western clothes, but I haven’t seen many people wearing that fashion in the street, except cowboy hats on a few older men.

I thought it would be interesting and fun to wear an equestrian style for a weekend in the gold country of California. Up there, one can still feel the spell of gold and the roughness of pioneers. Architecture is the same as in the 1800s, saloons are still there and people do wear this kind of clothes. At least I will not look prepared for Halloween. With this style, I have more opportunities to wear my huge turquoise index ring, an original design of Navajo Cecil Atencio.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

I made up a concept board with all I want to wear and now that I am looking at it, I can say, it would feel comfortable wearing this style even in the city. Just need the right horse. I love the ankle bracelet to wear over the boots, nice touch! It comes in a few colors.

(All items in my concept board are from https://www.backinthesaddle.com)

This is how the concept of building a new personal wardrobe starts, when I am remaking someone’s image. I look at the client’s lifestyle and decide how many pieces of clothes he/she needs for leisure or work. I look at the colors of skin, hair and eyes, the shape of the body, I take measurements and put all the information on a concept board. Once approved, we go shopping. Nothing is difficult with experience and skills. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola, is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, born in Italy in a family of artists. Style has surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience in design business led her to offer consultations in both fashion and interiors, so much so that she can remodel homes as well as personal images. She is passionate about colors and encourages her clients to express their individual style in their homes and with the clothes they wear. She is the author of three books, one of which is a book on color theory: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Bring Back Charm | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

21 Oct 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #Archways, #CrownMolding, #DecorativeBaseboards, #DecorativeMoldings, #MoldingandTrims, #MoldingsandCorbels

Newly built homes might follow trends of the moment, but lack the charm of trims and custom millwork of elegant homes of the past.
Adding an arch, a niche, a wainscoting or various crown moldings is not as intimidating as one thinks. I am working on a client’s home, it will be cute as a button when it will be finished. Adding the archway was easy even for the contractor. Between demolishing the existing door and building the new arch, took no time, just a day of work. It seems such a small detail, but the new arch is making a big impression in the room. The medium-high kick board highlights the new distressed wood next to the tile planks. The cabinets with interior lights on both sides of the arch, seem to frame it. The new corner block molding finishes beautifully the end of the crown molding, which doesn’t dead end in the wall.
Before the arch, there was a door there, now both rooms look one entity, even though there is a change of color.
That is called rhythm.

New Arch with block molding

Wood floor and tile planks

New lit cabinets with block molding

Block moldings are small details with large power, they finish corners so beautifully.
(Photo below: Decorating Ceiling Tiles)

(Photo below: Crown Molding Corner Blocks Lowes Sheltylvratt Net Pinterest)

In the photo below is explained how easy it is to design and elegant ceiling crown moldings with a bunch of strips stacked together in an artistic manner. (Photo below: TheJoyofMoldings.com)

What else can we frame with crown moldings? Frame a mirror.
(Photo below: http://www.kts-s.com/kts/53083/how-to-frame.asp)

Frame a door with simple molding and corbels, which will add attractive classical details with an old charm, even if it’s only one doorway as shown in the photo (By: Full of Great Ideas – http://www.livingho.me)

Wall frame paneling – simple moldings can be arranged to mimic ornate profiles and add the illusion of wood paneling, just like those used by the British homes in the 1750s. (Photo found on: http://www.buzzfeed.com)

Tall Baseboard –After World War II, houses went up like mushrooms. Society had the need to rebuild infrastructures, homes, schools, shops and everything else. To give way to fast building, beautiful details of past architecture were not important anymore. Layering various pieces of molding with different feature, such as a flat plank with a decorative cap molding and quarter round pieces, is very effective, it defines the room by adding a regal look and value to the house.
A tall baseboard can be made with flexible skirting as this one in the photo below.
(Photo below – https://www.wmboyle.co.uk/product/sx118-flexible-skirting)

Upgrading the home with small details such as crown molding will increase the value of your property and will be your home, personalized to your taste, not the builder’s taste. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola transforms and creates spaces realizing people’s dreams in homes, offices, interiors and exteriors. She infuses your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away a comfortable living. Valentina is well-known for bringing originality on any project and for thinking outside the box. Her interiors are not made with cookie cutters, only follow client’s inspiration, lifestyle and personality. She offers online design consultations through Skype and the traditional in-house consultations, helping people with their design challenge anywhere in the world. She is the author of three books, all-available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Glow | Valentina Cirasola | Designer and Author

21 Oct 2017 8 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #AlbuquerqueHistory, #AlbuquerqueOldTown, #EarthColors, #SouthWesternArt, #TravelUSA, #WordPressPhotoChallengeGlow

Sleepy life in the afternoon glow has its charm.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

I had forgotten how it was to slow down life activities in the afternoon for a relaxed siesta, until I went to Albuquerque on business and experience it again. The Old Town is just as I had envisioned: Abobe style architecture, earth colors, brick sidewalks, natural stones, row hides, pleasantly warm weather, friendly people and sleepy corners glowing in the golden light of the afternoon. Memories of the past came back when I saw Guajillo Peppers drying in the air. My grandparents used to dry the same peppers and they weren’t Mexican. I guess drying earth summer bounty was a way to ensure good food for the winter as well. I find a common denominator in various cultures and drying or canning food for the winter is one.

I am observing the Adobe style and how I can reproduce some details in a different climate and environment. Colors here are warm, mostly ochre, sandy, green and turquoise, while brown dominates. Here, the light is different from the area I live, we are at 5000 ft of altitude, the air is thinner, the golden glow in the air is enveloping, it adds to the quiet and slow life. I feel the vibrations of this spiritual land.

The lintel beam over the iron gate is very appealing to me as a rustic garden feature, especially when the opening leads to another glowing garden vignette with colorful flowers. This is the rectory’s courtyard of San Felipe de Neri Historic Church built in 1793 in the Old Town Albuquerque.

Yellow fits in the brown like two peas in the pot.

I sat here between flower beds for half hour and saw the world going by. I can feel the earth’s vibrations in this old town. In that glowing atmosphere of a warm afternoon, I actually learned from my silence and the quiet around me. Every moment counts, live it in colors!

I returned home in the glowing afternoon, accomplished, full of ideas and happy.

Ciao.
Valentina
https://valentinaexpressions.com/trips-to-puglia-2/

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian interior designer in business since 1990. She is passionate about colors and all expressive arts. She is a “colorist”. To her, selecting art means to bring out the best energy of her clients and nourish their soul. She trots the world and loves writing travel notes, from which she draws inspiration to design her interiors. She is the author of her book on the subject of colors: ©Red-A Voyage Into Colors available on