Editor’s Letter

#BELLEMAGAZINE

y the time you read this we will have knocked over the first two months of 2017 which begs the question have you begun work on your style resolutions? If not, don’t despair as the Belle team has sourced new design pieces and assembled over 40 pages of kitchen and bathrooms, p175, from Australia’s hottest design talents to help get those mood boards going. New York-based ex-pat artist and photographer Martyn Thompson’s textile design is the beguiling result of a contemporary eye taking a fresh look at a craft-based pursuit. We shot Martyn back in Australia with his mesmerising textile designs, including his new Rock Pool collection, p74.

Thanks to entrepreneurs such as fashionista Eva Galambos bringing her Parlour X emporium to Sydney’s Paddington, hospitality king Justin Hemmes opening his fantastic new restaurant Fred’s and hip design retailer Charlie Hinckfuss debuting in Oxford Street, the shopping precinct is reclaiming its glamorous mojo. We visit Eva’s own home, p62, and get a preview inside Charlie’s new flagship MCM store, p78.

The houses in this issue are a voyeur’s delight and take us from the grandeur of a 300-year-old historic mansion on Lake Como, p92, restored by Keld Mikkelsen, founder of Danish fashion house Day Birger et Mikkelsen, and his partner in work and life, Marianne Brandi, to the relaxed beach chic of another successful design retailer, the former owner of Sydney’s Arida, Elizabeth Jones’ Vanuatu luxury holiday home created with Iain Halliday of BKH, p140. A home in Watsons Bay designed by architects Hess Hoen, p116, is the perfect creative home/workspace having been redesigned to that particular brief for a couple who spend nearly all their time at home – working and relaxing there. Australian design lover Nikki Mccullagh’s love of Paris and her collaboration with renowned designer Jacques Grange on her apartment in the Place des Vosges has previously featured in Belle and now we visit her Venice abode – another project she undertook with Monsieur Grange resulting in an uber-sophisticated interior with incredible Venetian vistas, p124.

New York is definitely calling and I would love to spend a couple of weeks there especially after reading our chic nomad, Sibella Court’s, rundown of where to design shop, eat, drink and gaze in the Big Apple, p164. And contributing editor Carli Philips adds to the New York state of mind with her rundown of new hotels to visit, p168.

Enjoy the April issue and we hope to meet you at one of our reader events this year – see details of our upcoming design lunch in Melbourne, p22.