house and garden, new issue, magazines Our Editor-in-Chief, Piet Smedy, Image: H.J Bester
It’s something that has been contemplated by everyone from H.G. Wells to Cher – certainly, the prospect that we could turn back time is alluring and, from the safety of nostalgia and retrospect (rather than attempting any actual space-time continuum shenanigans) it can be a very rewarding one, too.
It is a sentiment that is beautifully captured in the works of Barcelona-born fabric sculptor Sergio Roger, who goes back (way back), drawing on the forms of antiquity in his irrefutably modern work. Subtle yet subversive, homage yet wholly original, he uses the techniques of embroidery and tailoring to sculpt linen into Greco-Roman works more commonly associated with the medium of marble. It is the sort of history rewritten that is very much the mood for this issue: a deep-dive into the ever-growing popularity of design informed by history – of self and place.
To be clear, there is no yearning traditionalism or a hankering for the good old days here, rather the mandate, and vision, behind these creative endeavours is using what came before as a launch point into what comes next.
But the past is not only a matter of time but also of a place. Closer to home, on the banks of the Zambezi, this could not be more true for designer Michele Throssell, who sensitively reimagined a former Cape Dutch family home into the luxe Zambezi Grande lodge. Incorporating the surrounding nature and the heritage of the building, ‘the design aesthetic celebrates our history but acknowledges contemporary living and honours the African wild,’ says Michele.
Coincidentally, the interiors that appear in this issue are not from just any houses, but the homes of designers themselves – from Rose Uniacke and de Gournay scion Hannah Cecil Gurney in London to Andrew Macleod and Inge Moore in Cape Town – although, given the focus of this issue, that sort of makes sense. Observed by the legendary Architectural Digest editor Paige Rense, a designer’s own home ‘is like an artist’s self-portrait: coloured by old dreams and new concepts, with judicious brushstrokes of a disciplined professionalism.’ To these creatives, memory and history are perhaps the most fundamental materials in their toolbelt, applied deftly – boldly or imperceptible – to these life-size manifestations of their craft.
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