Hey the MLE,

Came across this through the Sang Bleu site today, thought I'd post, since we are both moving house relatively shortly and we may have interiors on our minds…  Perhaps you might get inspiration to take a sledge hammer to your new home?

It is impressive that Rick Owens has managed to stay together with is his wife for over 20 years.  She is an interesting French woman who is in her early 70s.  They moved from California to Paris in 2003.  Rick has yet to learn any French himself.

The Owens's apartment dates from the early 19th century at the front and the 50s from the back. For about ten years, it has been their home and their workspace, though the showroom has now moved elsewhere.

I love it because worn interiors just make a space comfortable.  Also, it seems practical and cost-effective - I mean really how hard or expensive could it be to strip a place down to its bones?!  Could even look good to do this to a modern building, so need to worry if there are no vintage features.  I also love the Rick Owens colours, or lack thereof, as you know, I'm not a fan of colour either.  Who needs colour.  Boooo colour.

Suzan xx

MMM + LLLLL + EEEEEEE,

Today, I present to you my collection of photos of the various colour combinations found on the buildings in Merida, Mexico, where I was a couple weeks ago. Walking around this city, it is impossible to ignore these colour palettes.  I actually became a bit obsessive about photographing them.  After about a week, I had to make myself stop, as I had too many photos.

Had a few chats about why it is that most other cities do not have as many colourful buildings. My aunt suggested that the light is just not right, as in these cities, it is just cold and dark and the colours don't look as bright and vivid as they do in the Merida sun. Maybe it's the building materials used - it seems the more stucco the more colour. Stockholm has more stucco, and hence more colour, for example. London has a lot of brick, which does not lend itself to colour.  Also, architectural style - London has a lot of Georgian and Victorian buildings which just look a bit crap in blues and pinks etc. Modern and less ornate buildings tend to work well with greens and purples, etc.

Looking forward to our meet soon!

S  xx

Hey hey the MLE,

Hope you had a great long weekend. Mine was not a long weekend, but I cannot complain cause I just got back from a few weeks holiday, so no need for another yet really. Well, actually... haha...

Merida, Mexico is a very beautiful, elegant little city on the West side of the Yucatan peninsula. To me, nothing is more beautiful than old crumbly European architecture. Nothing. And Merida is full of it.

Mexico takes these buildings and paints them in endless colour combinations that I spent days and days photographing. Don't have the photos ready, will post next week.

In addition to the old crumbly European architecture, on the inside Merida's buildings have another one of my obsessions: old crumbly Spanish tile floors. It's post office was recently renovated into a beautiful modern art museum. Everyone went room to room to room examining the art - while I was examining the floors. Actually never saw the art!

And so this is how I passed an entire afternoon, staring at the floors of an art gallery taking pictures. Amazing. One day I will have a Spanish tile floor in my kitchen. Maybe the bathroom and hallway too... Hopefully they will be old and crumbly.

Talk soon my friend!

xx