Bookshelf Styling — STYLEPRODUCTIONS

Nov 29

Nov 29 Bookshelf Styling

When I came to America in 1988 I barely spoke a word of English. My mother was an English teacher in Russia, so she taught my sister and me; and when we went to pre-school, we became fluent within 2 months. But where I remember learning English was by watching MTV, and learned how to read and write by reading any fashion magazine I could get my hands on. My passionate love affair with the major fashion magazines began right then, in the early 90’s, when Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and my all-time fave, Linda Evangelista ruled the world.

It wasn’t until college that I decided to finally get a subscription to Vogue, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar… and have been collecting these mags, (with the occasional W Magazine and the foreign versions of each) ever since.

After my husband and I got engaged and he was helping me move out of my apartment, I must have had hundreds of magazines stored in every nook and cranny of my room, and more in suitcases in storage. Poor guy had no choice but to lug these magazines out of that apartment (they were not light) and into our new home together… and then again out of that home and into another home… and then out of that home and into our first home as a married couple… oh and then helped me arrange them in chronological order.

After some time, my precious magazines which were so perfectly displayed in my home office, went right back into the suitcases they came in… that office was now being turned into a baby nursery. Good-bye magazines…

Almost eight years have gone by, we moved once again, this time out of the city and into the burbs, and after undergoing a huge renovation, my last project for the house (maybe?) was the formal living room. Here was where I wanted my precious magazines’ new home to be and styled the rest of the bookcase because of them.

I had also collected a fair share of beautiful coffee table books which I wanted to incorporate on my book shelves. Some fashion books, some biographies (mostly Coco Chanel), some on travel (mostly France), some on photography (my fave, Herb Ritts), and some on interior designers (my faves, Kelly Wearstler, Martin Lawrence Bullard & Mary McDonald). Along with my collection of shells (some from Palm Beach, some from Fiji that my sister had gifted me), and my beloved collection of Wedgewood pottery (one vintage piece from Harrod’s), the bookshelves came to life with so many of the things I’ve cherished for such a long time.

I decided to display only a few years of each magazine after all… The Vogues went on this bookshelf on one side of the living room, starting from 2003 and placed in chronological order. And the Harper’s Bazaar on the other side.

Progress…