How many times I am tempted to cover a long wall with a city view, or a path in the nature!!! Often in my clients’ home I have to go through the process of finding the right wall paint color, only to cover it afterward with photos, prints and paintings or memorabilia, when, in reality, that large wall lends itself for the biggest digital image mural.
Just picture sitting in your home office and look at the view of Manhattan or an inviting warm beach. Granted it might distract you from working and wished you were there. In some people could create the opposite effect, but I find that looking at pretty views is very inspiring and brings out my best ideas.
You could be looking at a city street in one of the foreign countries you have visited that brings sweet traveling memories. Do you want to feel calm and relaxed? Choose a lake view or a meadow view photo and turn it into a print.
In the ‘70s mural prints were in fashion for the first time, but they required a lot of glue emitting VOC – Volatile organic compounds, which are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary room temperature. Today wall prints are eco-friendly, safe for you and the environment. There are companies that will turn your favorite photo into a digital mural print. The process is not any more expensive than applying wallpaper. I added a link below, check it out. http://www.worldwidewallmurals.com
Your large digital print will open up the room, your perspective will change and you will feel an integral part of the scenery. 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. She offers design consultations on-line through Skype and the traditional in-house consultations, helping people with their design challenge any where in the world. She is the author of three books, all-available on Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0 Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
They make us dream, they make us stylish, beautiful, sexy and they leave us with huge memories.
Micol Fontana left us today at 102. She is one of the three Fontana sisters, acclaimed fashion designers-couturiers since 1930.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).
Who cannot forget the controversial dress Anita Ekberg wore in Fellini’s film “La Dolce Vita”? It was the perfect dress for that film, which epitomized the decadent lifestyle of the rich, high-living society and jet set.
Ava Gardner wore Fontana sisters’ dress in the film “Barefoot Contessa” and many of the Fontana’s creations off the screen.
The gracious Audrey Hepburn in the role of a runaway princess who fell in love with a journalist in the movie, “Roman Holiday” also wore Fontana Sister’s creations.
The list of famous people, nobles, royals, presidents’ wives or daughters and Hollywood actresses the Fontana sisters dressed in their career is very long, even Alitalia flight attendants and official hostesses at the UN proudly showcased Fontana’s fashion on their bodies. In my many years of traveling, I have always thought the Alitalia flight stewardess are the most elegant of all the airlines’ employees.
The Fontana sister’s stories, like most fashion designers, started in the mother’s tailor shop or home-based alterations business. They came from Traversetolo, a small Italian country town between Parma and Modena, where the three sisters inherited their mother dressmaking shop and ended up in Rome, where they opened the first atelier, with the only desire to dress the aristocracy, the rich and famous. Their adventure started at the break of WWII, but the war didn’t stop them from pursuing their dream. They chose Rome as their base while everybody preferred to open fashion houses in Paris, the three sisters defied and resisted boldly that market. They knew the aristocracy could not resist their sexy clothes and so they made it happen.
Many museums around the world featured the Fontana sisters’ fashion during their career, the awards and articles written about the Fontana abounded. The three sisters Zoë, Micol, and Giovanna possessed glamour and created sumptuous dresses with special attention to women bust, their dresses were easier to wear than their French competitors.
(Micol Fontana-fashion and art)
The inspiration for their fashion came from eighteenth-century styles and designs of the early Renaissance. Between Parisian haute couture and the originality of the Italian fashion, the three sisters made American women really enamored of the feminine dresses.
Some people cannot be repeatable. Ciao,
Valentina https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services
Welcome to my Friday Fashion episode.
I stumbled just by chance in one of the most creative Italian persons living abroad. Her name is Francesca Romana Diana, a Roman living now in São Paulo Brazil. Her specialization is jewelry made with a passion for stones, semi-precious stones, and gems. It all started with a vacation trip Francesca took to Brazil, she got enamored of the views and lifestyle and in one decision she moved from Rome to São Paulo bringing along all her Italian style and know how that later she mixed with the local flavors, colors and musical rhythm to create her world recognized jewelry.
Beauty and nature inspire her pieces. She takes a look of Brazilian modern architecture and soon comes up with jewelry reflecting those lines. She observes the Corcovado and the curves of the city’s silhouette and turns them in wrist cuff pieces. The sidewalk pattern of Copacabana and Ipanema become in Francesca’s vision an incredible colorful pattern for another bracelet series. Her collection of enamel jewelry pieces encapsulates the Brazilian panoramas and banana trees. However, she never forgot her Italian origins and in every piece and every collection Francesca brings stories of Italy, every piece is so personal, stylish, keeps women feminine and noticed. She is considered one of the prominent jewelry designers in three continents. Her collection can be seen in fashion shows and fashion stores in Brazil, Europe and North America.
In this video, you can admire Francesca’s “Optical Illusion” Collection made of stunning pieces, chunks of semi-precious stones draped on women bodies like scarves or collars and what a breathtaking collection it is!!!
I am taking some time off life, business and everything else, but not without feeding my soul with art and all the artistic expressions. Visiting The San Francisco Art Market last week and some museums have been a mind opening. Next, I will visit some culinary academies to experience food creations made by students and aspiring chefs.
The High Style Exhibition at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco was a great visit. This is the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection that will be in San Francisco until July 19, 2015. If you are in the area don’t lose the opportunity to visit such precious collection, sophisticated expressions of women fashion of the 20th century from 1910 to 1980. High Style includes French couture houses of Jeanne Lanvin, Coco Chanel, Givenchy, Elsa Schiapparelli and American designers Charles James, Sally Victor, and Gilbert Adrian, among the others of the ‘30s and ‘40s eras.
High Style Exhibition is divided into three sections: Influence of Historical Fashion, Influence of Traditional World Couture and Influence of Art and Artists Movements.
In 1927 the fashion collection of Madame Grès was influenced by the chiton and the peplum, two popular women wear of the Roman Empire. Designer Worth Jean Philippe of the house of Worth was influenced by the high waisted dress of medieval era, which the Edwardian of the 1800s liked so much. In 1949 Gilbert Adrian imitated the Robe à la Française with the panier hips, (the cage under the dress that exaggerated women’s hips).
I adored seen the shoes of the Belle Époque echoing the 17th-century shoes covered with exquisite lace and velvet fabric, which Pietro Yantorny reinterpreted so well.
Lanvin-1923 Evening Dress
Louis Hills
Satin Shoe-Steven Arpad-1939
Elsa Schiapparelli BoleroDress
Zodiac Jacket Schiapparelli
Tigress Evening Dress Gilbert Adrian
Arnold Scaasi Spring
Arnold Scaasi-1961 – Evening Ensemble
Sorelle Fontana
Muslin Pattern – Charles James
Charles James Diamond Dress
Charles James Evening
Tree Ball Gown 1955 Charles James
(all photos were taken at the Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco by Valentina Cirasola)
American designer Charles James was fascinated by the women derriere and emphasized it in all his dresses. He accomplished the provocative shaping at the back of a Victorian princess-line dress with a simple realignment of the princess seam and contrasting colors. He created a sensuous form of the female anatomy. In the section dedicated to Charles James the 3-D video representation of his dress construction is amazingly interesting. We can understand how a dress is conceived from paper to realization, piece by piece put together as an architectural building brick by brick and geometrically pleasing. Steven Arpad in 1939 created the satin shoes with the hill echoing the C curve of a Barocco bed, which Chanel picked up again so many years later. It is fun to see how inspiration can come from minute details everywhere even from a bed detail.
Picasso’s art influenced Gilbert Adrian in 1949 and Elsa Schiapparelli in the ‘40s interpreting the beautifully embroidered outfit of a torero, produced evening ensembles with a bolero for a totally different function. She was also inspired by nature and classical art when she produced dresses and jewelry with insects and butterflies, of course not real, but embroidered to perfection.
What do you do when you have so many oranges falling off the tree in your backyard? The most common thing people would do is a batch of orange marmalade to keep for the winter. Some people would make orange cakes, cookies, tarts, or eat the oranges directly from the tree. They are so delicious, fresh and sweeten the day. What if you have a group of friends who wants to cook with you and “hangs from your lips” sort of speaking to learn everything you know about cooking with oranges? That’s what happened to me last weekend. A bunch of friends gathered in someone’s house with a large kitchen to cook with me. We were at Gioia Co. https://www.facebook.com/gioiaitalianartandproducts
The incredible aromas and flavors filled the kitchen during the two hours we cooked together. We bonded through stories of our childhood, food comparison, history of food, table customs and of course my anecdotes from Puglia came alive again putting a happy sparkle in everybody’s eyes.
A few days before we got together, I gave the hostess a suggested color scheme for the table. “The way you do one thing is the way you do everything” one of my business coaches said once.
Colors are very important to me, they are the focus of any project. I like infuse the right color energy in people sitting at the table, but that’s not all. A good energy comes from a few decorations (food is still the center of attention), from the right light if it is an evening affair, from an attractive or extravagant table setting and since the subject was cooking with oranges, the best color to pair was turquoise energy. The hostess went out of her way to find decorations to make her table stand out. The shells with orange and turquoise accents decorated the table well.
The food was incredible! We indulge with orange appetizers and prosecco, a salad of tomatoes, orange and olive, chicken roasted with oranges and hearty spices from my garden and a side dish of braised fennel in orange sauce. Dinner finished with an orange sorbet accompanied by orange home-made cookies. The food was easy to prepare, everyone introduced to food from Puglia for the first time was so shocked to see how simple food retained such huge flavors. Nothing remained for the next day, my friends polished off everything.
Orange Appetizer
Tomatoes, Orange Salad
Table Setting
Chicken Roasted With Oranges
Braised Fennel in Orange Sauce
However, I must say, I was very much surprised to learn that all the people in the group buy chicken already cut up in pieces and not a whole chicken. In the name of convenience and saving time, I guess people prefer the industry or machineries to process their food for them, sacrificing quality and health. However, my hope is alive, I am sure to have shown them cooking at home is not a chore, but a fun way to keep healthy. Next time figs will be on stage.
Tomatoes and Orange Salad is almost a non recipe, but here it is:
Cherry tomatoes split in half, oranges peeled and quartered, Calamata olives, red onion finely sliced, garlic finely chopped, basil leaves or mint, olive oil, salt and black pepper to your taste. Mix well and you will have a salad to die for. Ciao,
Valentina
Valentina Cirasola is the designer who cooks. She has a deep interest in food that led her as an autodidact in the studies of food in history, natural remedies, nutrition, well-being and learning food of the world. 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 Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0 Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Coastal decorating to me is ephemeral. Picture for one moment the colors of the water reflected on the walls and the next moment sun rays reverberating on the water and then again on the walls of your home. Coastal decoration is breezy, it must recreate the soft wind that carries the music of a wind chime and the echo of the sea in a large conch shell. Coastal decoration is also rustic, sandy and weathered as the seawater creates a patina on anything it touches. These are the feelings and atmospheres we want to create when decorating in the coastal style.
This style requires texturing, that means eliminating slipperiness and glossiness. The essence of a coastal effect is to keep everything as natural as possible. It is a celebration of tactile qualities where one can imagine telling a story of mariners and navigations. It is important to use opaque material, salvaged or rustic, weathered-beaten materials that are warm and cozy like driftwood, burlap fabrics and cord or rope materials often used as trims.
To perceive a soft lulling sense of the sea waves, window covers must be light, soft, easily to drape and often very sheer.
Colors are interesting, because most people would decorate using a lot of white, blues and aqua colors, but if we look at the underwater world, we will find an array of beautiful colors. In the underwater world there are coral banks ranging from beautiful orange color to purplish, white, cream and even greenish. The seabed has vegetation and algae ranging from all the grey tones, all the blue tones, all the green tones, to sage, pale yellow, and purple and even rose colors. Let’s not forget the colors of all the fish, some of which are multicolored and then all the variegated shells varying from beige and white tones to even brown tones, black, grey, blues and on and on.
To give a finishing touch, succulent plants tucked away in shells and glass topiary full of sand and driftwood would be perfect.
Nautical Theme – Model Kitchen
Colors and Material – Kitchen
Colors and Material Story Board – Living Room
A few years ago, one of my clients in Italy decided to decorate most of his home in coastal style. I called that project: “Stories of Navigations” because the client had been a life time long-distance navigator on merchant ships. Using his memories and his tales to decorate his home, my goal was to let him re-live his sea affairs. To reminding him of his distant voyages in exotic lands, I reproduced the original ancient maps he collected and pasted them on the walls of his living room. I used nautical ropes as curtain tiebacks, I placed lot of brass metals here and there as we see them on old ships, galleons and even modern yachts. The fabrics of upholstery were rough canvas, jute fabrics, striped cotton and burlap fabrics. The kitchen was huge fun to design. I found a company that specializes on nautical kitchen and other furniture. On the kitchen cabinets, the details were ship’s portholes and a lot of brass hardware. The floor was spectacular. I found a bluish-green marble that really echoed the swaying of seawater. The choice was between blue-green marble or blue painted hardwood floor. The choice was hard, as both floor solutions were very attractive. At the end marble won.
If you live on the water, refresh your home with “cool” ideas and if you need me, I am here to help. Ciao,
Valentina http://www.valentinadesigns.com
This week is ephemeral at WordPress photo challenge. https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/ephemeral BY KRISTA.
I was born on the water, I am attracted by the sound of water splashing against the rocks, the swaying motion of waves, the salty air, the smell of the sea and of course the colors of the water and the colors of the underwater world. I don’t snorkel and I don’t dive, the closest way I can get to the underwater world is visiting the aquarium. Every flora and fauna from the smallest to the largest examples fascinates me and I always come away with a treasure of photos.
At Monterey Aquarium in California the medusa or commonly called jellyfish is my biggest attraction. I can spend hours watching them going up and down and get hypnotized by their slow motion and magnificent colors. The orange color is so deep, bright and illuminated, it almost doesn’t look real. What beautiful art nature creates!!! The orange and blue are opposite to each other on the color wheel and they attract so perfectly. Can you tell I am in love with colors? I need to be inspired, I need to look at colors every day and be surrounded by them.
I caught two small sharks in the moment of kissing, at least they seem to be kissing. My prompt reflexes immortalized them in time, in my mind they will stay like that forever.
I hope you have the chance to visit aquariums, it’s time well spent. Ciao,
Valentina http://www.valentinadesigns.com
Welcome to a new episode of Friday Fashion.
A white shirt is as common as one makes it, or a piece of architectural work. A white shirt builds your figure to an elevated elegance or swallows your beauty. A white shirt must speak the language of beauty and not cover the body.
Italian designer Gianfranco Ferre’ considered the architect of fashion, designed striking white shirts, each with its own character and message. Gianfranco Ferre’ passed away in 2007 and now the Italian Textile Museum Foundation in Prato together with Gianfranco Ferré Foundation organized in Milano an exhibition in homage to the “architect” designer of the white shirt. “There are twenty-seven white shirts, a stunning sequence of sartorial masterpieces, bearing silent witness to twenty years of absolutely ingenious and peerless creativity.” – says the museum’s director. The exhibit runs from March 10 to April 1, 2015 and there are plans for the exhibit to travel to the U.S., to Phoenix and perhaps Los Angeles and Chicago.
(photo credits Museo Tessuto)
Gianfranco Ferre’ took inspiration from history, art, nature, poetry, architecture and built the white shirts on sensuality, curves and femininity. Watch his work here:
“Talking about my white shirts is all too easy. It’s all too easy to declare a love that covers the span of my creative path. A hallmark – perhaps the ultimate signature – of my style, which enfolds a constant pursuit of innovation and a no less unfailing love of tradition. Story in motion. Tradition in the form of the men’s shirt, ever-present and encoded element of the wardrobe. That tickled my fancy for invention, incited my propensity for rethinking the tenets of elegance and style in an interplay of pure fantasy and contemporary design. Read with sense of glamour and poetry, freedom and energy, the formal and quasi-immutable white shirt took on an infinity of identities, a multiplicity of inflections. To the point of becoming, I believe, a must of modern-day femininity… This process always entails a keen rethinking of shapes. The white blouse is never the same yet always unmistakable. It may be light and floaty, flawlessly severe (if a mannish cut remains), as sumptuously enveloping as a cloud, as skinny and snug as a bodysuit. Some parts, primarily collar and cuffs, can become emphatic; others expressly lose ‘force’ and may even disappear (back, shoulders, sleeves). The blouse comes with precious lace and embroidery; turns sexy thanks to the use of sheer fabrics; acquires ultra importance with gorgeous ruffles and ruches. It billows delicately with every motion, almost free of gravity. It frames the face like a fabulous corolla. It sculpts the body in a slick second-skin mode. It is the eclectic interpreter of all types of materials: sheer organza, crisp taffeta, glossy satin. Duchesse, poplin, chiffon, georgette, too…” Gianfranco Ferré, notes (quote credit given to the author)
Last time I took a group of American travelers to Italy we visited Matera, a medium size town in the region of Basilicata, in southern Italy. Matera is the largest town in this region and has been the capital town of Basilicata since 1806. The town lies in a small canyon, which has been eroded in the course of years by a small stream of water and that Canyon is called the Gravina. Matera is also known as the Subterranean City, due to its infamous homes created in the caves inside of the rocks of that canyon.
However, a few years ago, Hollywood and Italian Cinecitta’ chose Matera as the set for filming in 1964 of the The Gospel According to St Matthew by Italian produce Pier Paolo Pasolini, and in 2004 for Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ. Presently, another film is in production, the remake of historic 1959 blockbuster film Ben Hur, in which are now starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Huston. In 1993 UNESCO declared Matera a World Heritage Siteand last year it was nominated the European Capital of Culture for 2019. Due to all the new interests in the area, many activities and cultural initiatives have sprung up, like the World Book Fair of women writers from all over the world.
Matera Sassi – Photo Taccardi
What really makes this area so distinctively interesting is not the formal Italian architecture found in Italy, in fact the historic center of the town does not have examples of buildings or palazzi of particular value or refinement, the interests lies in the homes made for poor people inside of caves in the canyon (Gravina), or else known as Sassi. Those homes are examples of spontaneous architecture created out of necessity, where poor people were destined to live. Not having any place to go they excavated their homes inside of the womb of the earth. Visiting these ancient cave homes, one feels enveloped, embraced and a closed relationship with the womb of the earth. The original homes are made with local tufa stone, which is a particular calcareous limestone, malleable that gives out a feeling of warmth when is left exposed and not covered with other materials on top. Tufa stone gives out a feeling of authenticity and natural as nature created. It is not uncommon to find rock fossils of seashells in the tufa stones, which makes these homes so authentic.
Matera – Sassi – Photo Taccardi
As I said, poor people lived there, but during the ’60s and ‘70s the government offered them low-income housing arrangement with running water and electricity and little by little they vacated the caves for a better and more modern living in the town. Today, after Hollywood filming and Unesco recognition as World Heritage, local people are returning to cave living, making some big improvements with modern amenities. Now we see elegant hotels and restaurants being propped in there that are maintaining the characteristic of the caves.
If I were the designer remaking these cave homes, I would work with a warm palette that agrees with the warm tones of the tufa stone, using oxidized or etched copper as fixtures to recreate the patina of a corroding water stream. I would use opaque resins with oxides coating, type of Venetian style and for the floor, I would use the typical street pavement of the area called chianche, very beautiful stones or handmade ancient terracotta without cooked waked on top. For the furniture, I would choose the shabby chic style. Although in general I do not much like it, especially when it is very distressed, I believe it would be the most compatible with the type of environments we are confronted in the “Sassi”.
The air in the “SAssi” area is mystical, it is impossible not to feel a strong attraction and bewitched by the surroundings. The energy that comes up from the earth is truly magical, especially at night. Some of the visitors during my last trip to the area suggested that the Italian government should build a theatre in the canyon for aspiring actors from all over the world where they can practice their theatre plays. The mystical atmosphere is already there, they need to create the rest. 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 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 Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0 Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
I cannot be happier than this year choice of color: Marsala. It is a rich color, it feels velvety and opulent, it’s ruby undertone is warm and when it bounces off the walls on your skin will give you a special glow, in fact everyone with any color skin tone can wear this colors.
To some people it might feel a bit dark when used it in an interior space, but the idea is to feel enveloped. However, if the walls are painted in Marsala color the floor must be made of a light color, that is just one of the basic rules of designing regardless of colors. Adding light color furniture and mirrored furniture is one other way to avoid feeling closed-in by dark walls and I will never stress enough about lighting, which is something people don’t pay much attention to. Lighting is a vital feature for a successful décor and to feel in harmony with your space.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).
(Photo above: Pantone)
(Photo above: Pantone)
Here, I have prepared a couple of boards to give you ideas how to combine Marsala with cool aqua green and custard color together for a younger and modern décor, or how to combine it with a mixture of texture to achieve a more traditional and eclectic look.
Texturize it, explore new feelings and express it your way.
When in doubt call the expert, me!!! I am always available for new adventures. It’s alway easier to row the boat with two people. Ciao,
Valentina http://www.valentinadesigns.com
Welcome! Immerse yourself in the colorful world of Modern Tropical, an eclectic lifestyle brand for people who love the retro-modern beach aesthetic. It is produced by independent award-winning artist Kristian Gallagher.
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.
She offers design consultations on-line through Skype and the traditional in-house consultations, helping people with their design challenge any where in the world. She is the author of three books, all-available on
Valentina Expressions 
