Thursday 22 August 2013

The Delights of Dots


So, I had a sort of accident in Yastik, and I now own a pair of these, albeit these in green and pink rather than blue and cream.  And they are so beautiful, so beautiful, that they are currently on chairs in my bedroom so that they're the first thing I see as I wake up.  I don't see how one can fail to have a good day if one is greeted by Rifat Ozbek's ikat wonders, and I desperately need to eradicate the latest set of images to come out of Syria from my memory bank, because I'm feeling so impotent in regards to being able to do anything, anything to help - aside from donating money to Oxfam/ Save the Children/ etc. - that it makes me furious all day long.   

So cushions; they're just too exquisite for words, no?  Sholto helped select them; he's actually a brilliant shopping partner, I've discovered, as he gets bored and announces "Let's just buy everything, Mummy.  Everything in the whole shop,"  which is all the encouragement I need.

I feel that I had been building up to it for a while.  I regularly stroll past Yastik, and more often than not venture in, to gaze in rapture at the cushion-lined walls.  


How could anyone fail to be seduced?  Truly, Rifat Ozbek is a genius.  And that I fell for the spots in particular is no great surprise 1.) they were in the sale (and I love a bargain) 2.) I'm genuinely keen on spots most of the time; top of my current wish list is a polka-dot piano which is part of an installation at the Tate Modern, the Meschac Gaba: Museum of Contemporary African Art.  

(Please excuse the instagrammed nature of the image . . .  )

I would love nothing more than a piano in our house, polka-dot or not.   Due to constrictions of space (and believe me, I've tried to find room for an upright) Sholto has got a keyboard, but there is little point in spotting-up that, I feel.  His ukelele, on the other hand, with which he sits on the sofa making up songs - "And a monster cockadoo did come to eat me, and I did dead and die . . . . " - now that I could polka-dot.  I have a feeling my antique nail varnish collection (I've still got bottles of tipex-like Hard Candy in ice-blue and mint-green) might finally come in handy.

Of course, spots are nothing new - in fact, given the fact that the Yayoi Kusama Louis Vuitton collaboration happened a whole year ago, they're pretty much old news.  I did love them then, too, incidentally, but I had a brand new baby and a two year old and I was working, so I was kind of in survival mode:


I took Sholto to see the Bond Street store though, at the time, and he loved it.  (Esmeralda had barely yet opened her eyes, and slept through the entire excursion.)   Retrospectively, I'm now slightly sad that no one thought to give me one of these:


Because I would totally use it.  Occasionally.  Maybe.  I'd definitely keep it for Esmeralda though.  

But I must have been subliminally influenced as when it came to redo the bathroom, I made sure that the cupboards all had these for handles:


Which come from Anthropologie, and which make me deliriously happy every time I look at them.

In fact, thinking about the delights of dots, I'm now so enthusiastic that I'm almost prepared to consider Sholto's request for a spotty puppy:

Totally gratuitous image of a Dalmatian puppy.

I could then buy cushions to match the dog.  Because those amazing Yastik numbers?  They come in a whole lot of colourways, and it took every ounce of will power that I have (which actually isn't much) not to buy them all.  And I have do doubt that a Dalmatian puppy or two would bring eternal happiness to the entire family.  (Providing Cruella de Vil never shows up.)  For short-term happiness, however, I can definitely recommend a trip to the Tate Modern.  The Meschac Gaba: Museum of Contemporary Art installation is not only brilliant, but totally child-friendly, insofar as there are building blocks to build towers with (representing constant flux), another piano that children - and indeed anybody visiting - are positively encouraged to play, and an entire spotty cafe, which is part of the installation:


Okay, so you need to be up close to see the spots properly, but aren't the birds on the walls just heaven?!


www.yastikbyrifatozbek.com
Meschac Gaba: Museum of Contemporary African Art is at the Tate Modern until the 22nd September.
www.louisvuitton.co.uk
www.anthropologie.com
As for puppies, certified breeders can be found re www.thekennelclub.org.uk