A NEW book, Charm School: The Schumacher Guide To Traditional Decorating For Today, offers a fascinating insight into an aesthetic vein that runs deep within American decoration. Written by former journalist Emma Bazilian and art director Stephanie Diaz, both of whom are too young to remember the wilder excesses of the 1980s and so are well placed to bring a fresh perspective on the minutiae of the subject, from chintz, florals, checks and stripes to toile, skirts, slipcovers and bed hangings, with plenty more in between. In its celebration of designers such as Tom Scheerer, Suzanne Kasler, Celerie Kemble and Caroline Gidiere, the book demonstrates that US decorators remain more committed to decoration with a capital D than ever before.
Although Britain is often seen as the spiritual home of classic decoration, it’s ironic that Nancy Lancaster, the high priestess of classic English decoration in the 1950s, was born in Virginia. It can take an objective eye from over the Atlantic to sort the wheat from the chaff (Ralph Lauren also offered his own take on the look a few decades later and the decorator Remy Renzullo continues the tradition today).
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