American fashion designer Mara Hoffman launched her eponymous brand in 2000, showcasing loose, easy-wear dresses, one-piece swimwear and trouser suits emblazoned with bold colours and wild, Matisse-like prints. Fifteen years later, her brand had become an international hit, with offices spread across the globe. But by now Hoffman was painfully aware of how wasteful and…
All posts by Rosie Lesso
BEET RED Linen’s deep crimson burrows through Joan Mitchell’s paintings like the roots of an ancient tree, twisting and turning with a live, pulsating energy. Leader in the second generation of Abstract Expressionists throughout the 1950s, Mitchell pioneered a daring and adventurous approach to painting, allowing wild tangles of paint to become dense networks of…
Personal relationships were integral to the pioneering 20th century sculptor Louise Bourgeois, so perhaps it is no surprise that themes of motherhood crept into many of her most famous works of art. Whether addressing her relationship with her own mother, who died when the artist was 21, or her own shifting role as she herself…
FRENCH LILAC is soft, delicate and mysterious, conveying foggy skies or pale shadows flickering on the surface of water. Artists over the years have introduced this subtle, enigmatic colour into their art to bring in layers of poetic meaning, or even just a hint of tart freshness. Three very different artists who demonstrate the potent,…
Cold, calm and fresh, HEDGE GREEN is the colour of fresh summer herbs or sprinkled sunlight catching the tops of trees. Its soft, hazy undertones make this colour a surprisingly versatile choice that can be worked into a range of colour pathways. Next to vivid bright hues it is as cool and fresh as a…
Light, airy and weightless, Korean-born contemporary artist Do Ho Suh’s ephemeral architectural constructs are made from great swathes of sheer fabric and thread. He reconstructs the many different places he has lived around the world, recreating distinctive features, rooms and even staircases of places he has passed through during his nomadic life. Do Ho calls…
American quilts, Japanese kimonos, French linen and African strip-weave: these are just a handful of the vintage sourced fabrics that are gathered and upcycled by menswear designer Emily Adams Bode for her eponymous menswear brand Bode. This radical American designer is one of a generation who are transforming the face of the fast-paced fashion industry…
Cool and dark with just a hint of green, BLUE APATITE is a mysterious, naturalistic colour that has dominated some of the most famous artworks in the world. We particularly see this teal blue crop up in the art of many modernist artists, from the Impressionists to the Fauvists and the Abstract Expressionists. More often…
Photographs of the stylish Manhattan apartment shared by the designers Emily Adams Bode and Aaron Aujla reveal a home filled with warmth and familiarity. From mahogany panelled walls to furniture scribbled with family names, it is a lived-in space that speaks of family history, and the deep-rooted connection the couple share. It’s a fitting introduction…
Photographs of the young Cecily Brown show a glowering woman covered in paint, hair tousled and eyes lined in darkness. In the 1990s she was the quintessential female rebel, grabbing the mantle of the tortured male painter and subverting it for her own ends. Her erotic, expressionist art spoke of raw energy and sexuality from…
Raoul Dufy’s art was a celebration of life, in all its stunning, technicolour glory. He painted with light, airy brushstrokes and intense colours like MEDITERRANEAN BLUE, illustrating boundless optimism and the endless days of lazy, sunlit summer. Dufy spent much of his career painting along the Mediterranean coastlines of France, and his paintings capture the…
The stylish young British duo Charlie Casely-Hayford and Sophie Ashby both have individual, successful careers – Ashby is a celebrated interiors expert who recently on House & Garden’s Designer of the Year 2021, while Casely-Hayford is an esteemed British menswear designer who founded a business with his late father, Joe Casely-Hayford. But what unites them…
Agnes Martin’s shimmering, Minimalist abstractions are infused with pale, crystalline light, capturing the indistinct atmosphere of half-forgotten memories. Soft, baby blues like LIGHT BLUE were a recurring feature in her art, suggesting hazy, distant skies opening out across an imaginary (or half-remembered) horizon. She demonstrates how this colour is striking and commanding enough to be…
In Chiharu Shiota’s dreamy world vast webs are cast across space, creating dense tangles that cloak and consume everything around them. This includes the ordinary objects that we so often take for granted, such as keys, books, and even boats and pianos. When absorbed into the foggy midst of all this thread, we see how…
There is a chaotic, frenetic energy in Phyllida Barlow’s art, as piles of painted wood lean this way and that, and huge heaps of fabric are bundled into balls and strung up on the gallery walls. Perhaps it’s no surprise then that Barlow is a mother of four – this free-spirited playfulness seems to conjure…
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