I’ve been watching fashion shows this month. I’ve been curious about what designers produced during the pandemic and how they’re choosing to present their collections considering the same. While there has been a great deal of buzz about Kim Jones being chosen to fill Karl Lagerfeld’s shoes at Fendi, I’ve been loving the work of the woman who stepped in to manage the transition, Silvia Venturini Fendi. This collection showed us her view of the world through her window during the height of the ongoing pandemic, searching for trees and greenery, and the time she spent during quarantine at home with family and all the domestic objects that surrounded them. With both the presentation and in the clothing’s design, she made these constraints into things of beauty. So far my favorite collection she stayed close to the notions of family traditions, crafts and a family future built from the rituals and traditions passed down from one generation to the next. This is a brand that began as a leather atelier and transformed into a global success at the hands of five Fendi sisters.
The presentation showed a family where women take the lead, all generations, and body types included in pastoral scenes of family gatherings and meals in a garden. The show invitations were a box of Fendi pasta. The set was white curtains. There were bed linens and apron dresses, sheer tunics, and comfortable knits. Accessories were renditions of picnic baskets and crochet pouches. Home became a safe space, a family retreat, and a place of love. It elevated everyday life and the comfort of domesticity through the creation of garments that connect to these values.
Perhaps this show resonated so powerfully for me because my desire to move north came from my quarantine experience of being separated from family and friends. Aside from one exceptionally hardy fir, there was no green from my window. I take notice of the fact that all the dreaming and imagining I’m doing about my new home involves long tables on our back lawn, filled with mismatched china and silver passed to me from my mother and my grandmother with vases of flowers and lush salads filled with vegetables and herbs grown by me in a garden. As the eldest of six, and my mother unable, perhaps my sister and I will become the matriarchs, and our daughters and my granddaughter will be the bearers of the traditions I see us creating here in my new home. And yes, in my daydreams I’m wearing a long apron dress, made by me of deconstructed clothes I no longer wear but have kept because they are full of memories. That dress will make new ones. The dress I’m wearing in this photo is from Mother of Pearl, a favorite sustainable brand.
The room I am most consumed with designing in my new home is the kitchen. Never would I believe that is the space that I would privilege the most, but my newfound delight in cooking and eating well as an antidote to my being so ill has become an everyday pleasure I now look forward to. The thought of friends and family filling the space, leaning on counters while we prepare food, sharing stories, and laughing or crying together fills me with a joy that has become even more pronounced considering what we have all been living through and will continue to live through, at least through the fall and winter and into the spring.
NYC begins indoor dining today and as I walk through my neighborhood, I see that not so many people are taking advantage and the ones that do are sitting in isolated pockets. There is little or no evidence of the reasons we usually go to restaurants: the ambiance, the mood and the buzz from the others who are there too. What now is the reason to go except to help those who’s living depends on it? During this time, my kitchen and dreams of my new one have become a new restaurant, one where family’s retreat to so they can be safe. I’m thinking more about the mood I want to create when people walk in my new kitchen than the actual objects and appliances that will fill it. I’m thinking about what configuration can hold the conversations, the intimacy, and the rituals and traditions of a family. Here in this transitional new restaurant social ties and social knowledge are valued in fresh ways as we all re-discover during this time what makes us feel safe and what is important.
What’s your vision of a safe retreat these days?
So beautiful Lyn…thinking along the same lines. This pandemic has reemphasized what is important for me. I am so excited to experience your new home journey.❤️
I’ll be looking to you for help getting my thumb green!
If only to be on a largely empty beach anywhere in Kauai or any Hawaiian island with my disabled daughter – to breath fresh air, smell the ocean, feel the warmth of the sun. Followed by a wonderful fresh fish lunch and dinner.
PS – I live in California and have been isolating with my daughter in our home since March because of the pandemic and for the last month plus because of the pollution caused by the fires 100 miles to our west.
Your state has been through so many challenges, I hope you get your wish soon.
My kitchen/dining/living space in our Cotswold cottage is as you describe… a place where we stand and share stories, drink a cold beer or colder fizz, sit and eat. It gets steamy, is cosy, feels comfortable. A room where friends and family mix together and make new memories while I cook up a storm.
I like this article more than most others that I have read except maybe the first one It brings up good memories of mothers now passed and perhaps in a way that maybe never was My Familly is very small and my friends have gone off to make friends with others and have left me behind I love the imagery and it makes me feel good I wish I could go with you to enjoy your dreams!
I will try to describe them as best I can here.
Thank you for sharing! My vision is very much the same. We are selling our home and moving to a quiet place that will give us more time together celebrating our friendships without as many challenges.
I SOLD FENDI HANDBAGS LONG AGO………I remember meeting CARLA FENDI.
LOVE the invitation idea a box of pasta!
The kitchen is the heart and soul of the CASA……………….can’t wait to see what you do with yours!
Mine is the biggest room in the house and I have put a love seat and chair and coffee table in mine along with old portraits high up on the walls………..so I have company EVERY DAY!
XX
Sounds beautiful. A loveseat in mine is also in the plan.
I have been working from home since mid-March. My safe retreat these days is my entire home and gardens. I purchased a table, chairs, scented candle, and canopy for my backyard, where I go to read, eat breakfast, or just listen to music. However, with the California fires and their detrimental effect on air quality, I find that I can’t sit outside as often as I would like. So now I am transforming the inside of my home to make it more pleasant and comfortable with paint, artwork, and new furniture and appliances. As I spend most of my time here, I might as well make my surroundings as beautiful as possible.
Surrounding ourselves with beauty feeds the soul and fires the imagination,.
Thank you for such an insightful post. Green is a grounding life affirming color.
Your insight into what soothes your balance is getting back to nature.
My speciality in design is primarily kitchens. The heart of the house. Please take a look at AGA Line. I promise you will not be disappointed with its esthetics and function. For the price point it is a work horse. There are multiple styles within the brand and an assortment of colors to choose. Breaking bread together and communal meals brings closeness. Food is love and power. GettoGastro from Brooklyn explains the connection well.
I’m looking forward to reading your new journey and fashions impact on your design choices for your new residence. This will gift you with challenges, distractions from illness, and being brought closer to the earth, family, & friends. You may always DM me with technical or esthetic questions.
XOXO ?
Thank you so much for your generous offer, I am going to take you up on it and look into your suggestions.
Hello, and good morning!. I am currently in the lower part of the Sierra Nevadas, California side. Lots of wonderful air, trees, and remote from the trials of the city and its daily routines. The sunrises over the mountains, while the rooster crows, deer gathering not too far from my doorstep. The ‘lady’ chicken loves to talk every morning, and the female cat- Bandit takes her morning walk with me – nodding to the ducks, and to the horses that reside in the farm across the way. Once I am back inside, I grab a cup of coffee and sit down to write, field emails, and retrieve phone messages. This is the perfect clime to release one’s creativity.
Sounds like a wonderful life.
My husband and I bought a small cottage in a fishing village in Maine in 2016. My husband and sons have gone when we could and off the last few summers. Although I was the one who found this little place, I could not connect to to it. My husband said you need to give it more time.
The time came this past summer and I fell in love the little cottage. We painted the whole outside very vivid colors (not choices my husband liked!) We have bonded with our much older (wiser) neighbors and spent time with them all of us really enjoying each others company. I would watch the sun go down at the beach down the road each night. I realized after much meditation I was so grateful that I gave this little cottage more time for that connection to happen. We will move here as soon as our last son graduates high school.
What a lovely awakening story.
Liebe Lyn
Mein sicherer Rückzugsort: Ganz klar mein Haus am Fluss (Wie privilegiert bin ich doch und ich bin dankbar dafür).
Seit ich in Pension bin, nicht raus müssen, wenn ich nicht will. Eigene Wände nach meinem Gusto gestaltet. Ein Loweprice Passiv-Haus, dass ich vor 10 Jahren gebaut habe und wie es kein zweites gibt. Materialien aus dem Industriebau habe ich verwendet, gleich einer Thermoskanne, die keine Energie verliert. Sogar die Katze hat eine Schleuse mit zwei Türen.
Mein zweiter Rückzugsort ist die Natur. Jeden Tag 12 km dem Fluss entlang durch den Wald. Bewegung, sich an der Natur erfreuen und energetisch aufladen.
ich wünschte allen so eine tolle Umgebung
liebe Grüsse und viel Freude beim Gestalten
CH-Renate
YOU LOOK AMAZING.
The outfit you wear is again beautiful and the red dress will look great on you! I personally think the story you write about Fendi and the family atmosphere fits very well with these times. Especially when it comes to a long table and “The kitchen”! For me, the kitchen is a special place where many ideas and conversations take place, during the quarrantaine my husband and I spent hours in it and that was a pleasure! Preparing food is an art in itself and I am also someone who feels attracted to a healthy diet with lots of vegetables, spices and fresh every day! It was sometimes quite a challenge to try and taste something new, but it worked out quite well!
My hobby now is making homemade jam, it is really relaxing for me and a challenge to experiment with different ingredients, great!
I still find going to a restaurant very pleasant, but the atmosphere is so different, in the summer when the weather is warmer it is still okay because then you can eat outside on the terraces, but now it is getting colder and you have to go inside the restaurant eating then it is no longer as pleasant as it used to be.
I wish you many happy moments in your kitchen at a long table with your family,
Many greetings,
Brill
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Thank you and so wonderful you have all those moments in yours.
I so enjoyed reading this post and I love how you have in a sense pivoted your life to incorporate your past into a future you find so important. I (many of us, I think) have also found that the quarantine forced me to evaluate what I find important…I find a lot of joy in slowing down, reading, spending time with our dogs and trying to be more in the present, as opposed to either looking ahead to the next thing or remembering (or ruminating) on the past. This has brought me to consider our office as a sanctuary, one that I want to fill with shelves and books and cozy sitting areas arranged around the huge window that looks out onto our trees and front yard. I find a lot of peace in this room, and the pandemic (and BLM movement) has given me an opportunity to educate myself and spend time reading important works on racial history and oppression. I’m thankful for this because it has led me to a better understanding of my own privilege, and in such a time of divisiveness has provided me with a way to connect with others in ways I never would have envisioned, had events not given me this precious time.
Many of us have used this time to learn, to re-set values, and to find what is important.
I love my home in the middle of West Hollywood and it is my safe space …but I find myself dreaming of a move to a more rural setting…we shall see what the future holds… for all of us!
Yes, I am always excited to read what’s happening with my readers.
Welcoming activity stations throughout the house for being (alone or with someone): Jigsaw puzzle table by the window, cozy reading spot, bird-sketching corner, house plant garden set-up, fancy cocktail get up.
I’ll need some houseplant advice as I want to have lots of them.
I loved your story today!!!
I have your same dreams and visions, for I sold my house and now moving to the country to build a house so I’ll be close to family. Blessings to you and your new found life!!!Thank for sharing!
You too! looking forward to hearing more.
Your home is your sanctuary. For years we lived in the suburbs raising our two daughters. Our town was vintage 1920’s. Loved visiting friends seeing their homes and their antiques passed down from another time. In England where the weather can be unforgiving they created an inner sanctum with beautiful fabrics, rugs and artifacts to be cherished.
I miss my NY apt. A small cozy space. Now in Naples Fl. Everything is trendy and must be updated each season. They destroy the beauty of the past. It escapes me as to why.
I’ve become very romantic and historical lately.
My vision of a safe retreat is a cozy room, a sunny window, music, a nice cup of tea and my knitting not being interrupted!
My vision of a safe retreat is on my porch, with my new fire table, a glass of wine, and enjoying the forest!
Congratulations on your new home, if I understand you correctly. Or maybe you’re just ‘dreaming’ of a new home? That’s good, too! I moved last year after living in my home for more than 35 years; having raised my two sons there. It was challenging and emotional (and exciting).
I even moved states, simply because of the cost of where I was living. Here, in my new home, I live a more simplified life. I can still make the trek home to visit my boys. The cost is MUCH kinder here, I even have some neighbors that I really enjoy. I’m safe.
I hope your dreams come true!
Thank you! Though I keep pinching myself it’s really not a dream, it’s real.
I keep dreaming of a screened in porch in the Blue Ridge Mountains , autumn time…something like an old fashioned sleeping -porch with days beds covered in soft old quilts and possibly a hammock with lovely linens….stacks of children’s books, my magazines and and books.–a table with found objects like river stones and a perfect fern fond…. My grandchildren, the 3 dogs and I all sleep on the porch…making memories…
oooops …. day beds PS…. I so enjoyed your post…reflection is a beautiful thing….I look forward to following you and your dream….
I have so many wonderful memories of sleeping out on my best friend’s screened-in porch, thank you for bringing lovely memories back to me today.
It’s so lovely sounding it fills me with tears of joy, Lyn. The pandemic has served as a press, pressure, heat to refine so many of us and force us to narrow our lens to see more specifically, more purposefully. Pressure forces us to reach inwardly and more deeply to find better alternatives and choices. As much as I’m anchored into being a gentlewoman farmer, which has been a goal for years, I’m being directed in another direction so far from that. But, always up for a challenge, I embrace it with gratitude. I trust His plans, earnestly strive to hear Him each day, and trust this new ordering.
I know you will be brilliant no matter what direction you take. Faith and beauty.
Beautiful Lyn,
For me it’s the kitchen as well, and how it has brought my core family together around sometimes very elaborate, yet simple, wholesome meals. I have also retreated into my wardrobe, which speaks of someone I no longer am, places I no longer go to, and don’t long for. My wardrobe is being reinvented alongside who I am becoming thanks to Covid.
Such a testament to the memories held within our clothes
Your words resonate with love, warmth, beauty and joy in creating a home that is a haven for all who enter. The kitchen is a space of creating and preparing food to feed the mind and body. As a matriarch myself you have inspired me to be much more intentional with this. The joy of laugther as the aroma of a favorite dish wafts from the oven on a beautiful fall day brings deep contentment.
Thank you beautiful lady for once again inspiring me!!
Thank you for inspiring me!
penultimate paragraph, “whose” not “who’s” (= who is)
Enjoy your new home!
Rebecca – of all the comments you could have made of Lyn’s beautiful article, you felt compelled to only comment on what was probably typo? SMH.
Thank you.
I am so grateful to have discovered you! I hardly know what a blogger is but you inspire me. Sending love.
Thank you!
Riding my bicycle around a lake in SW Denver.
I can’t wait to bike again, I don’t enjoy it in the city.
Covid is fostering so much togetherness we previously never really nurtured…
Hope you experience your Family get togethers soon
I have big plans for Thanksgiving!
Love your writing and thoughts. My safe retreat is the Loft, a space for writing above the garage, and when the grand children come, a place to play with their toys. From one window I have a view that is beautiful and at the moment I see a golden yellow tree that marks Spring here in Queensland, Australia. The space is colourful, quirky and meaningful. I have piles of papers and art work, books and table. It’s my creative, get away from it all, place.
What I aspire to!
I wonder if you have read “Under Tuscan Sun” by Frances Mayes? Long tables outside where friends and family rejoice in each other’s company. Of course, it all hinged on the renovation of a fantastic villa just outside Cortona in Tuscany and I lived through every piece of brick and mortar of the proceedings! Then, of course, I had to buy her recipe book: “The Tuscan Sun Cook Book” – absolutely brilliant.
My safe retreat was, from 2001 until 2017, a home my husband and I had built in Cyprus where we wallowed in every imaginable dream, entertaining friends and family around a large table on a spacious patio by the pool with a vista stretching all the way to the Mediterranean Ocean. Alas, it did not last forever as my beloved man passed away in 2012 and in 2017 I sold my beautiful home. It simply was too big and expensive to handle for just little old me.
I now live in rental accommodation – by choice – and have a studio to die for. That is where I retreat to these days… and loving every moment of it.
LOVE that red apron-dress!
I have read the book and enjoyed it as much as you did. I have some hopes for the detached garage in my new house to become a beautiful studio,
Somewhere cozy and reminiscent of traditional times. Juxtaposed with nuances of fun, quirky modernish touches to spark adventurous energy would be my ideal.
During the pandemic, my husband and I have had the good fortune of being able to retreat from Toronto to our cottage on Lake Huron. Over the last few years we have travelled extensively, and last year, at about this time, I said I needed to stay put for a while. Little did I know! Despite all the death, pain and suffering that has been caused by this pandemic it has also taught me to embrace the smallest life I can love. This summer we’ve had wonderful family gatherings around the kitchen and fire pit, we’ve made many traditional Greek meals, for the first time (our heritage is Greek) we’ve canned tomatoes, made traditional Greek “Toursi”. I’ve gardened for the first time, stained our decks, created a family photo wall. We’ve enjoyed boat rides, swimming in the lake, hikes and bike rides in the forest, watched sunrises and sunsets. I’ve read voraciously, joined a virtual book club, practiced yoga, meditated, and napped. This pandemic has taught me to embrace the smallest life I can love.
I do agree many people have found this a time to re-set and re-acquaint themselves with what’s really important in life.
Such a beautiful outfit, Lyn, so stylish yet relaxed. It looks wonderful on you. I’m retreating in a little cabin that I rented in August and then decided to stay on. I live in a mid-sized city, busy enough that by summer I needed a respite. All I do now is read, cook, take long walks, light candles at night and dream of a safer future, once this pandemic subsides. I can’t stay in the cabin forever, as it has no heat, so I’m enjoying October for as long as I can. Congratulations on your new home! I’m sure you’ll enjoy fixing it up during the long winter days ahead.
Sounds like such a lovely time.
A kitchen renovation was my ticket to transformation coming off a divorce. I am an architect and so had a high bar for design, but a low budget. I worked hard to create style through curated choices, much like you do with your clothes. I roped in my brother to come out from Portland, OR to help me do most of the construction work myself. It is now my anchor and my pride, a place of happy cooking and sharing with others, as I now rent out guest rooms through Airbnb. My guests have cooked for me and I have cooked for them. The bold pop of the Appletini green island countertop gives me great joy – greeting me every morning. You will create yourself anew in your new 1912 home! Best of luck – and make it your own!
You’ll have to give me some kitchen tips, I want to do a lot of the work myself too.
I remember a time when we gathered with friends at favorite restaurants, toasting one another, sharing stories of trials and travails that occurred during the week and laughing over exploits. That’s what I miss most. I would gather with four of my girlfriends every Sunday for brunch and giggles. I miss eggs benedict and mimosa’s. I miss laughing and sharing and being eager to see them next weekend. I miss that. I want that back. I fear we will never quite be the same. Our innocence (if such a thing ever existed) has been shattered. Sorry to be such a downer but that’s how I feel.
It will come back, maybe not quite the same and with us a little wiser but I do have hope.
I totally agree! Dream place.Love your writing and thoughts.
I saw you on a commercial and I thought I must find out who this fashionista is…a lot of searching and finally found you. I am totally fascinated and in awwww. You are most def an icon.
Why thanks.