color to spare

good morning! so i've been meaning to share these photos with you for a while, and i figured this cold and wintry morning was the right time. they're from the traditional home spread on fashion designer michelle smith from a few months ago. aren't they gorgeous? her clothing line, milly, is known for "polished designs with exuberant dashes of unexpected hues" and you can totally see that thread in her workspace, as well as her own wardrobe, obvi.

i love how her garment district studio is both sparse and glam, and manages to reflect a creative but calming aesthetic at the same time. it just looks like the kind of place i'd love to spend my days. and check out that sputnik chandelier! yes please!

i think so much of the success of the look of her space is the high-shine dark floors and the clean, white walls allowing the garments, fabulous rolls of fabric and the upholstery (the chain-link jacquard is a milly signature) to really pop. it reminds me of anna spiro's work in that way, which i blogged about here.

speaking of which, why do i love the look of fabric and thread rolls so much? do you feel that way too? i think part of it is the amazing impact of so many disparate colors and textures presented together in sprawling abundance.

and there's probably an element of it that i love because it's such a visual representation of possibilities and potential. do you think i could get away with having some fabric rolled up in the little home office i'm creating? hmmm....i can see the conversations now...

visitor: oh, what are you making?
me: nothing, i just like looking at the pretty fabric.
visitor: oh.

okay so maybe that's not the way to channel michelle's workspace aesthetic, but i am definitely going to take cues from her in the ways she makes her space reflect the sensibilities of her designs and her general outlook. it's one of those ways of making the outside match the inside that just makes good sense.

all photos from www.traditionalhome.com