late on xmas day, my sister and i were discussing my blog (i was delighted to find that she actually reads it), and she showed my blog to my 13 year old niece, who on viewing the below photo of pauline de rothschild peeking through a jib door into her fabulous bedroom, declared admiringly "that harry potter room is sick!". my sister and i cracked up, because we realized that pauline peeking through the door does look a little bit like severus snape sneaking around hogwarts! just goes to how design sensibility and personal taste really are filtered through one's own experience! maison21 views that photo and can't get over the incredible chinoiserie wallpaper, but to a 13 year old, it's a "sick harry potter room". love it! btw, for us old folks- "sick" is good.
my 19 year nephew spent xmas day rocking a faux louis vuitton print velour hoodie- he is heavily into hip-hop and likes to work a gangster rap meets so-cal skater look, but just a short while ago he was in a heavy-metal screamo band. aaah, youth... maison21 loved that his nephew cares enough to have a style that makes a statement, and it led m21 and his sister to reminisce about m21's own crazy fashion faux pas days. my niece asked me if i was a goth and wore eyeliner- i replied that i indeed wore eyeliner everyday in high school, but there was no such thing as a goth yet- just one lonely punk rock boy (and a couple of his new wave girlfriends) in a sea of preppy surfers at m21's beach-adjacent san diego alma-mater. it's amazing, though, how 25 years later, the fads of maison21's youth are now time-tested classic looks of alienation for today's kids. maison21 proceeded to explain to his nieces and nephew (with tongue firmly in cheek) how as a youth, m21 invented not only the goths, but punk rock, gangsta rap and the internets! maison21 was a very busy teen!
so to prove to my nieces and nephews that their bearded, stocky (but hopefully not stuffy), favorite decorator uncle was indeed once a cool kid, i'm posting a photo of myself as a teen. can you tell i was heavily into the cure and siouxsie? see kids, i really did invent goth! now do you believe me that i invented punk rock, gangsta rap and the internets as well?
the below photo is also in honor of my fellow blogger, the absolutely hi-larious decorno, who recently challenged her audience to post photos of their past decorating mistakes (12/22/07). i'm still looking for a photo of my ghastly, too-colorful, zsa-zsa gabor meets barnum and bailey bedroom, that i thought was too cool for about a minute in my 20's. so until i find one, decorno, you'll have to settle for a photo confession of my past sartorial missteps instead. actually, since i now make make a living by peddling my good taste in decor, i will probably never find a photo of said room, but i'm perfectly willing to embarrass myself fashion-wise to make up for it! any of my fellow bloggers care to rise to the challenge and post a photo of your own youthful indiscretions? m21 DARES YOU! (please? m21 doesn't want to feel like a misfit teen all over again- someone else out there must have been a fool for fashion in their deep dark pasts...)
portrait of the decorator as a young (new romanitc) goth:
10 comments:
Oh man, I *love* this! I think I might like your crazy flock of seagulls look more than I would have enjoyed any bad-decor pic!
So glad you posted this. I am not sure I am brave enough to put up photos of my really, really tragic fashion circa middle school... maybe someday. Just maybe.
For others who want to follow along, the comments section of this post has some people admitting their worst decorating mistakes:
http://decorno.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-was-i-thinking.html
decorno, soooo glad you have your "google alerts" set, and saw my post so fast! now, if my nieces and nephews just get their butts over to my blog, i can pull the darn post down and not embarrass myself in front of the whole design blogging world.
but alas, i guess i must be both a bit of an exhibitionist and a masochist, so i'll let the post stay. for now...
Too late Maison - I've seen it too - you spunk you!!!
I am NOT going to put any of myself as a teen - I would put you as a goth to shame - tho I didn't have goth tendencies :-)
Hey...I LIKE the goth look! :p I never managed to make it too deep in, but my dh says if I hadn't married him (a stick in the mud square if there ever were one!), I most def would be one now, and I pretty much agree. :p For now, I call myself a closet goth.
Lookin' good, there, M21. :D
Lurve the hair!
M21 - I think you are and were fabulous - and would have wanted to be one of your new wave girlfriends back in the day. So would rather see this than the two Polo shirts, collars up, and khakis. Thanks for the flash back.
Leave it to maison21 to choose an "embarrasing" photo where he looks totally hot.
AWESOME (in the vernacular of the 80s)! How old are you, M21? I think we are of the same vintage. Although, I was one of the preppies in my Laura Ashley and polos.
I loved the Harry Potter reference. A few months ago, one of the bloggers did a post on outdoor tents, and all I could think of was the Harry Potter tents at the Quidditch (sp) tournements. The tents that turned into huge houses when you went inside them.
I scrolled down expecting the worst and there you are looking super cool! You're too much Maison21!
By the way, there is no way I'm posting any embarrassing photos of myself. I mean isn't that why people move to NYC, to forget their embarrassing youth?!
What a great story about the jib door and your 13 year old niece...."out of the mouth of babes", and talking about babes, you were pretty hot for the time!
It's way too funny to look back.
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