Warming Up to White Pants
Plus Kelsey Keith’s technicolor home and Star Trek’s design objects.
Turns out that Star Trek set dressers love the Bauhaus. We’ve also got an L.A. shopping report, non-see-through white pants, and MillerKnoll creative director and pattern sommelier Kelsey Keith’s colorful stuff. And join us in the chat, where we're talking about everything from ironing to Ireland. —Simone Kitchens, Winnie Yang, Lauren Ro, Erin Schwartz, and Michael Zhao
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* Erin visited L.A. last week and did a lot of shopping. At Suay, there was custom patchwork clothing and home goods in the front (they bought these napkins in citron and cerulean tie dye) and $5 thrift in the back, where they found an incredible green silk bolero. (Suay also runs a “community dye bath” every month; out-of-towners can mail in garments.) They liked the miniature ceramics at OK in Silver Lake and found a well-curated collection at Sleeper Vintage: Comme des Garçons, Dries Van Noten, perfect wool pants of all sizes. Plus they had an amazing meal at Café Triste, a rec from Zoe Latta.
* The Venice Erewhon uses an ostrich-feather duster to tidy its shelves. This one is similar.
* A vintage Joseph A. ribbed silk tank is the perfect vacation top. Festive but chill, good for the beach or dinner, and does not wrinkle. The label says hand-wash only, but you can get away with the delicate cycle and air-drying.
* Simone was never a white-pants person — until now. She just got a pleated pair from Imogene + Willie: high-waisted, billowy, and long with a durable sateen softness. (The shape is identical to military pants she bought from Santa Fe Vintage and then wore to shreds.) And this roomy pair from Buck Mason that sits lower on the hips. Neither are see-through, but they run a little big — look at the sizing charts carefully.
* Uniqlo just came out with a tall (34-inch inseam) version of the JW Anderson jeans we like and new kids’ T-shirts with drawings by Jason Polan.
* This Seiko metronome watch (seemingly available only from sellers in Japan, so expect to pay duties) has time, metronome (the minute hand oscillates between 11 and 1, with a pretty loud beep you can turn on and off), and tuner (440, 442, or 443 Hz) modes. Would make a great present for a very specific kind of person. Winnie loves hers.
Seiko watch. Video: Winnie Yang
* Francky Knapp’s story about swirly flatware and glassware in a recent issue of Eater Today led us to this site devoted to design objects in Star Trek. It’s a treasure trove of out-there-looking, 19th- to 21st-century tableware, furniture, and lighting, like the Memphis-style Feltman Langer Prism Mug (here are a few for sale) in DS9, lots of Alessi (like this and this), the Peter Saenger porcelain tea set (available here and also in black) in TNG, Jean Marie Patois’s Esotismo flatware, Josef Knau and Otto Rittweger’s Bauhaus tea infuser and stand that serve as salt and pepper shakers in Voyager, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Argyle chair, an 1897 design that has appeared in four different series.
“I grew up with a mom who wallpapered our house and painted all the time and sewed our clothes and curtains,” says Kelsey Keith, creative director of MillerKnoll and the author of the design Substack Ground Condition. “The ’80s and ’90s color palette was a little different from what I’m into, but the attention to one’s home environment is similar.” Her home is peppered with primary colors, but she also loves olive, navy, neon, and metal: “Always metal.” Lauren talked to Keith about her collection of Swedish mid-century ceramic fruit plates, floral bed linens, and the towel she owns in every colorway. Plus a solution to her biggest design conundrum: Where can you get a good-looking laundry basket?
* I have slowly been collecting these little fruit plates by Rabiusla Herrliberg, the ceramics workshop founded by Swiss architect Ursula Schneider. Each one is painted with a different fruit motif — there’s not a single one that’s the same. I have six or so of them. I’ve also collected a bunch of pieces from our friend Chinzalee Sonami (Pala Ceramics in Oakland). I was behind the Herman Miller dinnerware collaboration with Heath, and not so coincidentally, that collection sports some pretty bold color. I will say, it looks like it was made for my yellow breakfast table (also available as a coffee table) from Wiggle Room.
* I’ve always had a lot of color in my house. Looking at this one corner of my office, I’ve got a royal-blue Herman Miller Chiclet sofa — my personal opinion is that this sofa looks best in bright primary colors, as was originally intended — which you can find on the vintage market (two chairs in green and a two-seater in red), and a bright-red stool by this woodworker here in Oakland, Robert Saltonstall, who does a contemporary version of a bobbin. It’s all hand-carved, and they’re so amazing.
* Misha & Puff came out with a line of pillows very recently. They’re hand-knitted and so soft. The colors on this one are amazing, and it looks like it was made to go on my bright-green Hay sofa.
* I grew up sleeping on Marimekko sheets — one of the patterns we had was Tulips by Dan River. (Here’s a set on eBay as well as a set of mugs and another Dan River pattern.) For my kids’ rooms, we only use patterned sheets. I get them from Kip&Co and this French company, Lucas du Tertre. They have really great patterns and really good florals. You can find more patterns in the U.S. now, but they’re still always kind of pastel-y, and I want bold, high color and high contrast.
* I had curtains made (in place of closet doors) out of this fabric — the bedding set is very nice too.
* I find neutral towels so boring. I am a big fan of Lena Corwin’s Peace towels. We have collected them over time and have pretty much every colorway. I find that they’re extremely well made. They have not pulled and they hold up super-well. And then as a set of sauna towels, which we also use indoors sometimes, too, are the Dusen Dusen Hummingbird striped towels.
* Materials like stainless steel and cork keep color grounded instead of clownish. (My dream is an all-cork room.) This lamp is by my friend Tom Chung. I think it’s one of the best (contemporary) lamps ever designed. It comes in multiple sizes. We also have a smaller black one in our bedroom.
* I had this shitty plastic laundry basket that I hated. Every time I picked it up, it would collapse. I was like, What am I doing? To hate something you touch every single day of your life is unacceptable. I bought this handmade basket from amishbaskets.com, which is run by three Amish families. It is signed by the maker on the bottom and is the most beautiful thing that I own. It’s huge and holds so much laundry and has leather handles.
My brother has taken multiple family garments through the community dye bath, it’s so important!
Suay Community Dye Bath is amazing! The items take a while, especially since I'm mailing in from NY, but it's worth the wait.