NYC Day 8 Eve: Florent


Poster for the movie:
Owner Florent Morellet in fabulous Marie Antoinette garb on Bastille Day

The Marquee sign at Cinema Village


The sign outside florent during the last 5 weeks. Removing the L to make F ORENT = so clever.

Some great Florent graphics


The menu board during the last 5 weeks.
The restaurant celebrated the 5 stages of loss. Too smart/ adorable -no?
In the film David Rakof's "Anger" monologue was priceless. Love him.

On the eve of NYC Day 8 Scott + I went to see the documentary Florent: Queen of the Meat Market by David Sigal.
For 23 years this all night diner in the Meat Packing District was prime stomping ground for an electric mix of A list celebrities, everyday new yorkers, club kids + transvestities and played an important role in LGBT activism. The documentary chronicled the history + final days of this new york institution.

I came away from the film with a huge respect for the owner Florent Morellet who demonstrated an incredible combo of creativity, business saavy, courage, sense o' humour + HUGE joie de vivre. A definite role model!

I had long admired florent's gutsy + hilarious graphics so another highlight of the film was to learn that they were done by design giant Tibor Kalman + his company M + Co. (in exchange for a catered lunch delivered to the designers 4 days a week!) How great!

You can read an article by Jennifer Kabat on the design aspects of florent here.
Her essay + this doc are both are highly recommended.

ps. Right after the film I ran to the Strand to find any books I could on Tibor Kalman. I predict he will become my "new favourite thing" that I can't stop thinking about.

NYC Day 8: Visit with Lourdes Sanchez


Friday morning I was off on the R train to the Gowanus neighbourhood in Brooklyn to visit and interview textile designer Lourdes Sanchez .
I first discovered Lourdes' work through her collaboration with West Elm.

Here is one of her gorgeous duvet designs.

This is one of my current favourites: Her very colourful Bull's eye rug. So juicy!

Lourdes has been working for over 20 years in the industry and has amassed an impressive client list including Clinique, Kate Spade, Vera Wang Home, and Pottery Barn.

As suspected the minute I entered her fantastic apt my eyes were darting back + forth taking in all the juicy details!


Lourdes (aka Luli!) in her studio. Check out that turquoise wall!

Textile samples hung from the walls, art books were piled high in every room, and a cacophony of images + colour co-mingled on her inspiration board. It was a feast for the eyes.

A close up of her inspiration board

Beautiful Fabric inks

We had a fantastic visit and as is the case with most very talented people I've met - she was extremely modest + more interested in discussing her inspirations rather than her own work!

One of MANY stacks of books

From her huge collection of art books Lourdes pointed out some influential favourites which included Ad Reinhardt, Yayoi Kusama, Philip Taaffe, Morris Lewis, Vincent Van Gogh and Chris Johnson.


Here she is showing me a watercolour piece reminiscent of the one used for the Bull's Eye rug


A drawer full of fabric samples with her logo attached


Off to lunch with Moonpie: Lourdes' beloved Havanese doggie

Burritos - Yum!

Back home goofing around

Lourdes' studio, work and philosophies on art + life were all extremely inspirational. You'll be able to read my full interview with her in the August issue of uppercase magazine.
Thanks for the great visit Lourdes. xo