SMASH CULT IS MOVING SOON!!

Smash Cult is moving soon! We've been extremely busy working on a new and improved site for you guys. Thanks to the awesome Machteld van Ketwich Verschuur, who is responsible for building the new site and went far beyond the call of duty for us, we will soon be going live with Smash Cult 2.0!!

The url for the new site is www.smash-cult.com. As soon as it goes live, we will post a final message on this url address to warn you. From then on, please use the new url.

We're really looking forward to this next chapter and are thrilled to pieces with our new site. Thanks so much for your support and continued interest in our blog. We've got a series of great interviews and exciting new projects in the pipeline!!

Iconic: Lee Radziwill

The Bouvier sisters seemingly coined the term 'marrying well'. Jackie, the elder, married JFK and went on to become First Lady, then married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, at the time arguably one of the wealthiest men in the world. Meanwhile, younger sister Lee (born Caroline) married three times. Her second marriage was to Prince Stanislaw Radziwill, whose name she kept.

Many comparisons have been drawn between the Bouvier and the Middleton sisters, and understandably so. The elder sister captured the heart of a nation by marrying royalty (the Kennedy's are still pretty much regarded as royalty in the US), while the younger makes a splash with her style and looks. Looking at images of Lee, it comes as no surprise to me that she was such an 'it' girl. Particularly in later years, her style evolved into an extremely sophisticated, cut-glass Park Avenue look. I think my favourite look is of her in the sixties and seventies, when she hadn't yet lost so much weight and looked gorgeous and relaxed, yet always incredibly stylish. Little wonder that she was named to the best dressed International Hall of Fame list in 1996.

Lee dabbled in a number of careers, acting being among the most short-lived of them. More successful, later on, was her work as interior decorator to the very wealthy. She was inspired by her own decorator,  Italian stage designer Renzo Mongiardino, who worked on a number of her homes. Her Paris and London apartments were featured in Elle Decor in April 2009. Following are some pictures for you to enjoy of both her personal style and home decor.

With sister Jackie Kennedy Onassis

With sister Jackie Kennedy Onassis

With Mick and Bianca Jagger

With Gianni Agnelli

With Calvin Klein

Paris apartment

Lee in her Paris apartment

Paris apartment

In her London apartment with her daughter Tina

Turville entrance

New York apartment

Library in New York

New York apartment

Kinky boots

Taylor Tomasi Hill

Over-the-knee boots are all the rage this season, but they're extraordinarily hard to pull off. You run the risk of looking like Julia Roberts in the opening scenes of Pretty Woman, and we all know that's a before picture that only looks cute in that particular movie!

Be that as it may, celebrities and fashionista's the world over have been sporting variations on the theme, from flats to stacked heel versions, and having been pulling off the over-the-knee look with aplomb. I've included a couple of my favourite looks, with Olivia Palermo winning out over everyone else (no surprise there), although Modus Operandi's Taylor Tomasi Hill comes in a close second. I also really like Gwyneth's version for 'the hip mom on the go'. That's totally doable for an afternoon of errands, right? Of course, I may want to borrow her body to go with that look!

Gwyneth Paltrow

Carol Alt and colleague

Olivia Palermo always gets it just right

Olivia Palermo can do no wrong in my fashion book - that's why I've included her twice!

via Atlantic Pacific blog

Kate Moss - don't try this at home, best left to the professionals!

Miranda Kerr

Just because...

They've been photographed together a great deal, but there's something about this image of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat that I just love. So stylized, yet with such great irony. It puts a smile on my face. Then there's the fact that it's these two legends together. Love it!

Wondrous

On Saturday I drove up to Amsterdam for lunch with a friend and to check out the Wunderkammer's Shop for a Week, a temporary store set up bi-annually by florist and decorator duo Florian Seyd and Ueli Singer in different locations in Amsterdam. As the name implies, the store is only open for ten days at a time (although this time we were treated to an extension due to popular demand) and contains an abundance of treasures for the home and garden. Imagine everything from beautiful vases, horns set on a base of crystals, beautiful tableware, exotic stuffed birds showcased in bell jars, and rare corals on decorative bases. Just like a proper Wunderkammer (see our earlier post on the subject). I was entranced, but dismayed by the prices. Until I discovered their online store which featured a few more affordable gems. But even if, like me, you're not looking to buy, the visit is fun and inspirational. Already looking forward to next year. For more information, check out their website.

Following some images from previous Shop of the Weeks.

Door to door

In life, it's all about first impressions. We make up our minds about each other on sight, whether we like to admit it or not. So the first sighting had better be a good one. The same can said of our homes, although not everyone cares as deeply about the exterior as I always have. I remember, when I moved to London and was looking to buy my first home, I was appalled by the state of the exteriors of the many buildings I visited. Peeling paint, greying facades, rickety doors and a general feeling of neglect permeated them all. Now, I have to admit that my budget was limited, so that may have had something to do with it, but as a student in Leiden I had lived in some extremely picturesque houses (which perfectly hid the studenty squalor inside!), so I was deeply spoiled. My very proper and rather posh British estate agent pointed out that the exterior simply did not register very highly on the scale of importance. It was all about the interior. In other words, stop wingeing and turn a blind a eye. 

Even in the interiors, however, there was always something missing and I found out what it was much later in life, when we were selecting the doors - both inside and out - for our new home. A great door can really lift a room. It creates a sense of drama, hides what needs to be hidden, or highlights what must be seen. Often ignored as a purely functional element in the home, the door can be a thing of great beauty as the following images perfectly demonstrate. And as you can see, they're not limited to entrances. An armoire or built-in closet can become a piece of extraordinary architecture. Feeling inspired yet? I am!

All images via Pinterest