BlogTourNYC: Day 1 (Part 2)

 

Following our lovely brunch hosted by BlogTourNYC sponsors Poggenpohl and BLANCO our first day in NYC continued with a trip to the D&D Building on Third Avenue. The D&D Building is one of the world’s pre-eminent destinations for high design and luxury decor. Home to 130 premier showrooms, the building welcomes over 20,000 design and architectural professionals every month.

 

When we arrived we were met by the lovely Ashlee Harrison who is Director of Marketing for the building. Ashlee had prepared a guided tour for us and took us around the building to visit a variety of showrooms, many of which are the flagship showrooms for the top luxury home brands.

First up on our tour was Lorin Marsh, a boutique showroom crammed full of furniture and accessories ranging from contemporary to traditional to vintage and everything in between.

There were lots of great products in the showroom including these funky stools above. However, my favourite product was this gorgeous painting that was hanging on the wall. I love the colours and I would love to have something like this in my house, but I dread to think how much it costs. I couldn’t bring myself to look at the price tag!

Next stop was the exquisite fabric showroom, Fortuny. There we heard a fascinating story about how the company came into being. Whilst there is no comparison to having it told by the owners I will try to recap it here for you.

The company was founded by the brilliant and enigmatic Mariano Fortuny. Born in Spain, he later moved to Paris and then to Venice, where his career started. A talented painter, etcher, sculptor, photographer, architect and inventor, Fortuny entered the fashion industry in 1907. Soon after, he began work on the textiles that are still manufactured today.

After Mariano Fortuny’s death in 1949, his widow, Henriette sought help from Elsie McNeill Lee (or La Contessa as she became known once she married Count Alvise Gozzi) to continue her husband’s work. She agreed to take over the company and resumed production of the textiles.  In the early 1980’s, worried what would happen to the company after her death, the Countess asked her confidante and attorney, Maged F. Riad, to buy the company from her and continue the legacy of Mariano Fortuny. He politely refused but the Contessa would not give up and he finally bought the company in 1988.

Mr. Riad’s sons, Mickey and Maury, have been running Fortuny’s day-to-day operations since January of 1998. The fabric is still produced in the same factory and on the same machines, using the same secret process and techniques handed down from generation to generation.

I fell in love with all the gorgeous products on show at Fortuny and the passion that Mickey and Maury obviously have for the company that they are now safeguarding.

Upon leaving Fortuny we stopped in at Donghia, which is brand I had come across before. Donghia’s collections of furniture, textiles, wallcoverings, lighting and accessories are sold exclusively to interior designers and architects through Donghia’s twelve showrooms across the United States and in over fifty representative showrooms throughout the world.

There were some really beautiful things in this showroom, real eye candy from floor to ceiling!

Maya Romanoff was next on the design tour and we were able to get up close and personal with the absolutely stunning wallcoverings that this company produces. You should all know by now how obsessed I am with wallcoverings so it probably comes as no surprise to learn that I was really in my element here. We met Showroom Manager Janet Greenblatt who gave us a great overview of the products on offer and also explained a little about how the products are made.

The products are mostly hand made by artisans and crafts people The one that really stood out for me had to be Meditations Ohm, which Janet explained to us is actually made by Nepalese monks using chopsticks. There really was no end to the inspiration to be found at Maya Romanoff.

But there were some really stunning products that would be perfect to add a touch of sparkle and texture to your walls.

We got a look at some more great fabrics and soft furnishings when we stopped off at De Le Cuona. Now I’m not massively into fabric and cushions as I prefer to focus on hard furnishings, but every now and then something awesome does grab my attention and that is what happened in the De Le Cuona showroom.

I spotted the most gorgeous cushions and they even have a great story behind them. What makes the cushions so great? I hear you ask. Well the fact that they have been embroidered using metal is pretty cool don’t you think? Made in Poland, the metal that is used for the embroidery is cut from small metal springs and then sewn on to the cushions to create a fantastic texture and a beautiful effect. Now I’m not sure how comfortable these cushions would actually be, but I would buy them just because they are so unusual and would certainly make a great statement piece in the living room or bedroom.

And that concluded our tour of the D&D Building. No wait…that is not strictly true. Before we left we were treated to some delicious nibbles and some champagne, which provided a much-needed boost to see us through the rest of the day, which I will tell you about in the next post so be sure to check back soon.

Keep your eyes peeled for more posts featuring the fantastic sponsors of BlogTourNYC: Samuel Heath, BLANCO, Scholtes, Miele, Poggenpohl, Spirit of Sports, Big Ass Fans, Victoria & Albert Baths, Modern Aire, Jenn Aire, Rotsen Furniture, Vitra, Axor, Wallunica and Ethan Allen.