DÉCOR:
HOLIDAY TRENDS

It’s almost here, the season to be jolly. If you’re planning a table, here’s what’s in – and no, it’s not green and red. The colors to fill your place with holiday cheer this year are purple/lime green combos and turquoise/silver combos. The biggest color trend this year is all gold or all silver. Also big this year are ornament chandeliers and ornament metal miniature table trees.

You’ll be seeing lots of bling, sparkle and glitter on everything as well as metallic finishes such as bronze and pewter. I sat down with a top event planning company here in LA to see what the trends are this season.

Allyson Levine is with Bob Gail and is working on Paris Hilton’s Christmas party this year. She says the long table is what’s in again. “Celebrities are really asking for a long table rather than smaller round tables. They want a long feating table on a natural sort of setting. Instead of covering the table with a linen, we’ll either do like a metallic runner or we’ll just leave it as a solid wood and then we’ll put sort of pieces together that are sustainable so it’s a like a green feel succulents that are sprayed or pine cones maybe sprayed as well in a different metallic incorporating both of those items together and again hitting on that sustainability but still making it look like it’s a trend.”

She says to think outside the box. People are into 'whimsy' this year. “People are asking for something unexpected. So we’ll use something like a paper floral or a paper garland to translate a little bit more texture in their event something a little bit more whimsy instead of the traditional pinecones and pine needles. Instead of just tree or a traditional wreath with ornaments we like to incorporate something like a balsa wood flower which is a hand carved flower made of wood or succulents which are sustainable as well. We’ll spray the succulents silver or gold and give a bit more of a whimsical feel rather than something that is expected and seen all the time. People want something a little it newer. A big trend that has been coming throughout the last four or five years is the ‘do it yourself’ look which incorporates a lot of those natural materials. You’ll use something like a paper to make it look like it’s hand constructed and even if it’s sewing pieces of paper together or taking a newspaper and making floral design.” That follows with the other Christmas trend- recycling. Recycled trees and ornaments have popped up for sale on the shelves of Crate and Barrel for example.

Christmas trivia expert and historian author Tom Quinn just wrote a book called What Do You Do With a Chocolate Jesus? He says mistletoe used to signify peace, ornaments began as apples and the wreath? “Another major trend at Christmas is the holly wreath which was also borrowed from the pagans because it’s an evergreen. When it’s made into a circle, the prickly leaves and the red berries represent Christ’s crown of thorns and dapple drops of blood. Another plant we celebrate with of course is the mistletoe, which has white berries actually and this goes back to ancient Scandinavia when two rival tribesmen would meet under the mistletoe under the woods, they would lay down their arms, and call truce for the day. There is also a famous myth in which, when you stand under the mistletoe, you are being kissed by a goddess who is grateful for the resurrection of her son. The kissing under the mistletoe goes back to that kind of a tradition. The one thing a lot of us don’t know about the mistletoe tradition is that when you kiss, you’re supposed to pluck one of the white berries off of the mistletoe so that when you eventually run out of berries, you run out of kisses. Another association with Christmas, of course, is angels. Everybody thinks they know what an angel looks like, but in fact the Bible never describes angels as having wings, or halos, or playing the harp. Some of them played the trumpet, but they didn’t play harps. The halo is actually also a pagan borrowing because it represented the solar disk of the sun gods that they used to worship and that eventually evolved into the holy aura that surrounds God’s messengers.”

ARCHITECTURE:
MUSEO SOUMAYA IN MEXICO CITY SETS TRENDS

I was at the museum last night in Mexico City for a cocktail party and it was lovely. I met some fascinating people and the grandeur of the space of the architecture is breathtaking. Director General Alphonso Miranda Marquez showed me around and explained the history of some of the works and as I stood two feet from The Thinker - it actually made me think. I have been moved by the forwardness of Mexico City, a city filled with culture and history that share space side by side.

This ultra-modern structure in Mexico City has set trends in architecture, Museo Soumaya, is housed in a 150-foot-high building like no other in the world, with 16,000 silver hexagon shaped aluminum plates that reflect the suns rays - something never seen before. The museum houses a private collection of over 66,000 pieces of artwork. It includes paintings by Picasso, Dali, Da Vinci, Renoir and it’s the second largest Rodin collection in the world, the largest privately owned, among many others. 

Owned by billionaire business magnate Carlos Slim Helu who collects art from around the world, he dedicated this world-class museum to his beloved late wife Soumaya Domit who died in 1999. The Carlos Slim Helu world includes along with his proud effort Museo Soumaya, telecommunications, banking, restaurants, construction, drilling, airlines, and more. He even owns a large stake in the New York Times, which he acquired when its stock was slumping. The museum cost $70 million and now the world is taking notice. Almost all of the works we bought individually from Christie's and Sotheby's. The Carlos Slim Foundation is underwriting all of the maintenance of the Museo Soumaya. The museum is part of the $800 million construction project in Mexico City. 

At Museo Soumaya, each floor space is a different shape. The Soumaya is giving a sophistication to the country. The works found inside have never been permanently displayed in Latin America giving Mexico something it never had before.

Slim calls the museum a gift to his city and to the whole country of Mexico. The creative and very talented architect is Fernando Romero, Carlos Slim’s son-in-law. Romero is a multiple award winning creator who has designed many buildings and written five books on architecture. Romero has built, mainly corporate offices for his father-in-law.

The Slim investment fund Inmobiliaria Carso SA recently added to its holdings in New York Times Co. (NYT) and Saks Inc. (SKS) The fund bought 450,000 Times Co. shares and 279,000 Saks shares. Those purchases boosted Slim’s stake in Times Co. to 7.5 percent and in Saks to 16.2 percent. Slim is buying shares of both companies for the first time since 2009 after the recent market slump. He spent $14 million on Saks and Times Co. His publicly disclosed holdings are valued at about $63 billion, according to Bloomberg.

ART TREND:
STREET ART - #1 GROWING TREND

One of the biggest trends today in the art world is street art. I was out shooting a story on it recently and I was amazed at what this has turned into and I was amazed at how much I loved it. It isn’t random graffiti - street art is art. The only thing is, within their world, it has to be done illegally. If it’s done legally, then it’s called mural art. Experts say it’s part of the art form. If it wasn’t illegal, I'd be out there doing it myself. I think I’m going to paint a side of my house. Now I’m not endorsing anyone taking a paint can to a strangers building but by all means. But on your own building, that’s ok.

I sat down with quite a few street artists from around the world. They were a very interesting bunch - so original. Roger Gastman has written 30 books on the topic and his latest is the prominent book called The History of American Graffiti. It’s a huge hardcover book.

I asked him the question that so many are trying to figure out – explain the difference between street art and graffiti.  They are two completely different things but they play on the same playing field. With graffiti, you go out and write your name over and over again stylistically for the sake of fame. To the average person it looks like vandalism. With street art, imagine a picture of a dog or a cat that someone does with a stencil, and they put that in 50 or 100 places. Even though it’ll been in one tenth of the places of the graffiti, people will notice it more and it will be seen as less illegal.

Street artists are making huge names for themselves as the demand for their work on canvas grows daily. Roger Gastman’s street art exhibit that he was one of the curators on is currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art here in LA. otherwise known as MOCA. This is a true history of what these artists are doing and will show you the difference between tagging and street art.

By the way - if you want to check out what they're showing at LABART go to their website. (labartgallery.com) You have to see this stuff, it’s so much fun.

http://www.labartgallery.com/

ONE OF A KIND PRODUCT:
RECLINING DINING CHAIR

Now turning to design trends, and a new, one of kind product that is gaining popularity in Hollywood - and for good reason!

How perfect is this - a reclining dining chair.

Yep that’s right – after your meal, when you’re full and all you want to do is relax, you recline right there at the dinner table without having to get up. I love this idea.

People are also loving it because it enhances the social experience, making everyone a lot more comfortable and relaxed, letting the conversation flow a lot more naturally without interruptions.

It's the invention of Carol Poet, a Hollywood-based interior and furniture designer. 

She came up with the idea after seeing a man, at the end of a formal dinner, tipping back and snapping the back leg off the French antique chair he was sitting on.

Not only is it a great concept, but esthetically it is beautiful - modern and sleek.

It comes in walnut, mahogany, or oak with your choice of fabric.

The reclining dining chair is available online at www.poetfurniture.com

DECOR TREND: DAZZLING COLOR


What's huge right now? Dazzling color.
Cheerful pinks, reds and yellows are key colors for the summer, along with calming shades of leaf green and watery blue.

Bright-white frames are very hot this season. Large, traditional pieces are a must as well.

For the patio: what's in is the combination of non-rusting aluminum frames and materials that look like wood or wicker.

As more homeowners move into smaller houses and condos, designers of outdoor furniture are responding to the downsizing movement. Sectionals are not so overbearing anymore. Styling is more contemporary, with a smaller scale and cleaner lines.

TREND: AROMATIC SCULPTURES and USB DRIVES WITH SCENTS.


Now turning to Home fragrance: and Aromatic alternatives to candles…Hot these days are chic oil sculptures to potpourri "rocks" and even USB plug-ins for your computer, scents for the home are now available in an array of options.

Hollywood is loving DayNa Decker's Luminesse Sculptures ($300-$640; daynadecker.com).

L'Artisan's scented amber balls and new Chez Moi diffuser are decorative alternatives ($75-$500) Potpourri rocks from India Hicks ($30; Crabtree-Evelyn.com) and there are Scented USB drives, which stick right into your computer, ($30-$35; protocoldesign.com )