James Andrew photographed by Lars Stephan
Fredrick Victoria, the founder of the super chic Fredrick P. Victoria & Sons was blessed with an eye for excellent design – that, and no small amount of daring made him one of the most respected antiques dealers of his time – it is not surprising that his client list included names like Windsor, Macy, Field, Baldwin, Duke, Stacey, Kelly, Astor, Gimble, Perrault, Whitney, Tree, Pahlman, Gibbons, Taylor, Hadley, Porter and Berlin to name a few.
In Victoria’s fabulous apartment at the magnificent Dakota he indulged his passions for the most fantastic whimsical and exuberant antiques. His curtains were originally inspired by a fanciful almost trompe l’oeil carved and painted curtain. Then a bit later he came across an 18th century over the top carved wood curtain theater prop – The resplendent carved wooden curtains I’m featuring here were based on this prop and hung in Victoria’s bedroom, and he used different variations throughout his beautiful apartment at the Dakota. His friend Albert Hadley was so inspired by these superb creations that he commissioned Victoria to produce a version of these for the library he designed for Ann and Gordon Getty at 820 5th Avenue. I’ve been enthralled by these curtains since my days at Parish Hadley.
Today, Fredrick P. Victoria & Sons continues to uphold its well deserved reputation, and I can’t wait to collaborate with the Victorias on one of my own upcoming project.
I had the great opportunity to be photographed by the brilliant photographer and model Lars Stephan again for this superb photograph. We decided to channel the pose made famous by one of my favorite fashion icons, Yves Saint Laurent. I’m sure Lars will be featured soon in an ultra luxe fashion magazine like L’Official Homme or Arena.
I decided to do a mix of aqua, blue and turquoise, playing off the smaller scale medallion print of my pants with the larger scale of the silk ikat shirt both by Gucci (a very Lacroix look though!) – Hermes blue leather belt with silver buckle and navy suede Gucci loafers.
