DRESS AND DECOR

I recently wrote an essay for the catalog of the Polish pavilion at the London Design Biennale 2021. The theme of the exhibit of handwoven textiles was “The Clothed Home,” and the title of my essay was “Dress and Decor.” I think I first made this connection when I was writing Home, and looking at paintings of interiors. François Boucher’s enchanting “La Toilette,” painted in 1742 and currently hanging in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza of Madrid, was one of these. I was struck with how the dress of the two women, and the materials of the decor—the Chinese folding screen, the silk wallpaper, the upholstery of the slipper chair, even the moldings of the fireplace mantel—were visually all of a piece. This was not simply a painterly conceit. Dress and the decor used similar fabrics and techniques, and more important, they were governed by the same Taste. Boucher painted during the period we call Rococo, but a similar concordance occurred in later periods: Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts, Art Deco, the early Modern Movement, and so on. In other words, we have always dressed ourselves and then decorated—dressed—our homes to suit.