Christmas with Victoria
Ever since I was 12 years old, I have been in love with Victoria magazine. Each and every beautiful issue was savored and read over and over again during those pre-Internet days. At one point, I had collected every single issue going back to 1987, the year of the magazine’s inception. Unfortunately, I had to get rid of most of them during our last move, but I was able to find The Complete Collection from 1987-2012 on disk via Amazon which I cherish and highly recommend! The timelessness of this magazine is remarkable. I was skimming through issues from 1992 the other day, and virtually each and every image appeared as if it could be from today. Such is the beauty of classic, elegant design. Naturally, @victoriamagazine is one of my very favorite follows on Instagram, and I have collected some of their most beautiful Christmas inspiration to share today. All images are via @victoriamagazine.
To subscribe to Victoria magazine, please click here. The Complete Collection from 1987-2012 is available via Amazon, and for daily inspiration, you will want to follow @victoriamagazine via Instagram. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
An Old Fashioned Southern Christmas
Instagram is such a wonderful resource for meeting new people who share similar interests, and today I am delighted to introduce you to Judy Rizzo, aka @mousefeathers. Judy lives in a historic 19th century home in New Iberia, Louisiana that is classically decorated and full of fine antiques and treasures. Judy particularly enjoys the Christmas season, and today we will tour her beautiful home decorated for the holidays and beyond. This is a home that stands the test of time and is a reflection of the Rizzo family’s lives, collected over decades of memories. Let’s take a look inside and meet Judy!
Q: Please tell me about your home (what year was it built, etc.) and your design process.
A: My home was built in 1890 in New Iberia, Louisiana on what was to become the Old Spanish Trail (in 1929), the first southernmost transcontinental highway. It is located on Main Street and built in the style known as Victorian Center Hall Cottage. It is a raised cottage spanned by a deep front porch. The East Main Street Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
During the design process of this house, I was able to take cues from the house itself. Usually the scale of the rooms, window placements, formality of the millwork and mantel of a particular room will dictate how it is to be decorated, and the fact that all of the rooms in the house are very much used. The house has a great flow to it and a “time-worn” feel to its rooms. My husband Monty and I bought this home in the fall of 1978.
Q: How would you describe your design aesthetic, and what was the design inspiration behind your décor?
A: My main thought on decorating is that a home should be a reflection of its inhabitants’ lives. I feel I’ve always been, even as a young girl, drawn to design books that have shown this philosophy, even long before I majored in art and interior design in college. A room should offer many “clues” as to who “truly lives” in it. Just as a husband and wife meld their lives together, so should the home become a collage of objects and collections of objects that have made up their lives.
I have been told that our home is living proof that art, chintz, and my collection of lots of “living” animals can co-exist just fine with Monty’s antique medical engravings, floor to ceiling bookcases in very room (even the bathroom!) and his collection of “once living” African taxidermy. I guess you could say that we are each collectors and hunters by nature, and through the 40 years that we have lived in this house, we have both learned a lot about ourselves. Our home and its walls certainly do express both our loves and our lives.
Q: When did you become interested in interior design, and where do you find inspiration? Do you have any professional design experience?
A: I studied art and interior design in college but never worked in either. While my three daughters were in college, I did have an antique business in the city in which they attended school. It was a fun thing to do with my time while getting to see my girls and my friends from college days.
A lot of my spare time now is spent helping friends and family design and decorate their homes. I have helped three generations of friends – my mom’s, my own, and now many of my children’s friends.
Q: What are your favorite interior design books?
A: My favorite design books are Charlotte Moss: A Passion for Detail, Charlotte Moss Decorates, Mario Buatta: Fifty Years of American Interior Decoration, and Suzanne Kasler: Inspired Interiors.
Q: Are there any treasures you particularly enjoy collecting?
A: One of my passions has been collecting Victorian Staffordshire Figures from the early to mid 1800s. My collection is quite extensive and is displayed in several rooms around the house.
Q: How do you like to decorate for Christmas?
A: Decorating for Christmas has always been a fun time at the Rizzo House. The architecture and layout of the house just lends itself to traditional, old time fun decorations – classic Christmas colors, magnolia leaves from the yard, old world ornaments passed down from my mom and from trips through the years, Christmas crackers, gingerbread houses, and always a heavily lighted and decorated Christmas tree that brushes the 14 foot ceiling. Our three girls have always played a very big part in the decorating and helping with the Main Street Christmas Tours, and it is my hope that the grandkids may one day also do the same.
Q: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
A: What I really enjoy doing during my free time is painting. In fact, my New Year’s resolution is to spend more time at my easel painting portraits, still lifes, and interiors.
Since my husband retired one year ago, it’s been fun to be able to take off at any time for a quick trip to see our grandchildren or to go to our house in New Orleans for longer than just a weekend!
Q: Anything else you would like to add?
A: For the past 12 years, our Christmas celebration has also been a birthday celebration for our beloved pair of Scottish Terriers named Oliver and Tilly, who were born on Christmas day in 2005. In fact four of my portraits of them have been used as our Christmas cards through the years.
Thank you Judy for sharing your beautiful home today, and for your lovely sentiments on decorating. I could not agree more! For additional inspiration, please follow Judy on Instagram.
Visions of Sugarplums via Rebecca Gardner
Event and interior expert Rebecca Gardner has been making waves this holiday season with her Sugarplum Pop-Up, a retail collaboration at the St. Regis New York. The pop-up shop is open through December 24 and features elegant yet whimsical gifts and entertainments made exclusively for the occasion along with vintage collections curated by Rebecca through her travels.
Rebecca is the founder and creative director of Houses & Parties, a full-service event and interior design collective in Savannah and New York City. Her clientele includes the likes of Lauren Santo Domingo, Candice Bergen, and Derek Blasberg, reports Architectural Digest. Rebecca’s “tablescapes and events are some of the most amazing we’ve ever seen,” declared Town & Country. Vogue said the “Sugarplum pop-up at New York City’s storied St. Regis hotel might possibly be her most unusual, not to mention grand, undertaking yet,” and Salonniere reported it as the “new must-do in town.” The New York Times has featured Rebecca’s advice this holiday season, along with Brides magazine (she has been named a top wedding planner by Southern Living and Harper’s Bazaar). Rebecca is also a contributing article for Mileu magazine, and she has been featured by The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Savannah Magazine. Intrigued to learn more about this dazzling designer, I was thrilled when Rebecca agreed to today’s interview!
Q: Please tell me about your vision behind the Sugarplum Pop-up and how it came to fruition.
A: The Sugarplum Pop-Up is how I dream of December. The offbeat gifts and entertainments were either made just for the shop or vintage collections I’ve gathered from my travels. I can’t think of a better home than the St. Regis New York. An original Tiffany chandelier with pink glass flowers and happy cherubs hangs from the ceiling of my shop. Eloise can have the Plaza, I’ll be at the St. Regis New York.
Q: What are your favorite tips for entertaining and decorating during the holidays?
A: Have a party, any kind of party. It’s the festive way share joy and friends. If you have a teeny apartment, serve good champagne, cheese straws and be done. If you are a great cook, host a seated dinner with beautiful china. Make your best effort.
Q: Do you have any special family holiday traditions?
A: My childhood neighborhood organized a Christmas Eve spectacle with thousands of paper bag luminarias lining the cul-de-sac. It was magic and must have sparked my fascination with candlelight.
Q: What inspired you to become an events and design specialist?
A: My favorite ways to spend time are cooking, entertaining and dreaming up new spaces. My work is really my passion.
Q: How would you describe your aesthetic, and is it influenced by your Southern roots?
A: I’m a stickler for the rules but insist on jolts of irreverence. Everything that we do have an unusual twist – a performance, an installation, a surprise.
Q: What are five daily necessities/luxuries that you could not live without?
A:
- An hour in bed perusing eBay and Instagram.
- A cappuccino, with real milk, in a real cup with a saucer.
- Mrs. Strong engraved notecards and Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens.
- Basic Chapstick (black tube).
- Starched percale sheets from D. Porthault, there is nothing like getting into a beautifully made bed.
Q: Do you have any favorite resources for linens, china, tableware, etc.?
A: Oriente by Ginori is my favorite china pattern. We ordered it in Vermiglio and Malachite for the Sugarplum Pop-Up without the gold edge. I think it’s more versatile.
For linens, it’s the same as my bedsheets – D. Porthault. Their iconic prints are happy and fresh but they also create the most beautiful hand embroidery and appliqués. They are dream makers.
I like to mix and layer the other table elements such as glasses and flatware. Different textures and different ages so that nothing is stiff. The blown glass Latticino tumblers were commissioned especially for the shop to match the Ginori China. They add pattern and color to compliment (and avoid matchy).
Q: Do you have any items you like to collect?
A: I love antique linens and use them all over my house: pillows, curtains, tablecloths. I’m desperately trying to be bohemian.
Q: Where do you find inspiration?
A: Nothing gets me going quite like experiencing a new culture – the food! the music! the colors! the craft! Hotels are a big part of this travel mojo. When I’m stuck with a project at my desk, I look at these books: Tim Walker’s Story Teller, Jeffrey Bilhuber’s The Way Home, anything with Cecil Beaton’s work.
Q: What are your favorite things to do in your free time?
A: When I’m in Savannah, I like to plan and cook low-key dinners with friends. In New York, I like to be a flâneur and see what happens – it usually involves white wine.
Q: Will you have further pop-ups/retail ventures after the holidays?
A: Oh, I hope so. The Sugarplum Pop-Up was my first retail venture and I have learned so much in four short weeks. I’m already planning for next year.
The Sugarplum Pop-Up will be open in the Cognac Room at the St. Regis Hotel in New York through December 24. You can also shop the Pop-Up online by clicking here and here. For daily inspiration from Rebecca’s enchanted world, please follow via Instagram.
Thank you, Rebecca, for infusing an elegant dose of holiday magic and fantasy into this Christmas season!
