French Revolution
Designer Hélène Aumont's pièces de résistance
Designer Hélène Aumont's pièces de résistance
Photography by Matt Wier
Tricks of the Trade
Metal Tubs
“Free-standing metal tubs hold hot water for a long time…and you can drink champagne in them! Can’t do that in the shower, non?”
A Trellis
“A steel trellis mixed with natural reed for the incredible light it gives.”
Fabrics
“Raoul Textiles is my absolute favorite fabric house with the most endearing prints.”
Flooring
“I’m loving white oak and black limestone flooring at this moment—and NS Ceramic for the infinite possibilities of custom tiles.”
Pools
“A pool set in grass with surrounding stone appears more as a reflecting basin.”
Hélène’s Black Book
Summerland Antique Collective, 2192 Ortega Hill Rd., Summerland, 805-565-3189, summerlandantiquecollective.com, for the hunt for an unexpected treasure.
Give me a dozen of each—I love it all at Porch, 2346 Lillie Ave., Summerland, 805-684-0300, porchsb.com.
The best floors, fireplaces, and fountains are to be found at Charme d’Antan, 2337 Troutdale Dr., Agoura Hills, 818-889-0229, charmedantan.net. It's worth the drive. Jacques is a gem—and he is French!
If you are well-behaved, Michael will show you his secret room at Rugs & More, 410 Olive St., Santa Barbara, 805-962-2166, rugsandmore.com.
Nancy does beautiful custom work for our fabric lampshades at Santa Barbara Lampshades, 4287 State St., Santa Barbara, 805-683-8877, sb-lampshades.com.
Miri Mara Ceramics. "I could own every single vase he ever made," says Aumont.
See the story in our digital edition
SBIFF Springs Back to Life, On and Off Screen
Everything you might have missed at the 37th annual film festival
Scott Feinberg, Paul Thomas Anderson, Kenneth Branagh and SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling speak onstage during the Outstanding Directors of the Year Award program at the 37th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival at Arlington Theatre on March 03, 2022 in Santa Barbara, California.
Everything you might have missed at the 37th annual film festival
Written by Josef Woodard | Photography by Rebecca Sapp & Tibrina Hobson
Following a two-plus-year hiatus due to the pandemic’s chokehold on normal cultural life, reel life became a welcome reality as the Santa Barbara International Film Festival triumphantly returned to local streets and theaters. In this, its 37th annual enterprise, the Santa Barbarian cultural institution rose to the renewal occasion with flourish and the requisite elements of glitz and cinematic sophistication which have made SBIFF prosper.
As usual, the primary treasures in the 200-plus list of screenings came from beyond America, with special focus on cinema from Nordic countries, Spain, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Some of this year’s finer films came south from Canada, including Islands, Scarborough, All My Puny Sorrows, and The Righteous.
The all-important celebrity tribute list, synchronized with current Oscar nominations, brought out the starry likes of Penélope Cruz (Parallel Mothers), KristenStewart (Spencer), Will Smith and his King Richard co-star Aunjanue Ellis, Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog), and Being the Ricardo stars Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman. The award for best unscripted moment in the tributes goes to the comically gifted Smith, who responded to an audible disturbance in The Arlington by telling Ellis, “See, that’s why it’s important to have white audiences, because that would’ve gone differently where you and I grew up.”
Behind the lens, the Outstanding Directors Arlington tribute toasted all Oscar-nominated directors this year—with Steven Spielberg (West Side Story), Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog), and Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) appearing via video from their respective quarantine outposts. Master American director P.T. Anderson (Licorice Pizza) alluded to his Robert Altman-influenced creative process as an auteur: “Ideally, you have a story at the center, and the center will hold. It’s a balancing act involving both a knowingness and a freedom of flight.”
Roger Durling, now in his 20th year as executive director, was a recurring and anchoring presence on stage, a charismatic rallying cheerleader, and also a champion for solidarity and fundraising for victims of the war in Ukraine. A goal of raising $100,000, through the Santa Barbara-based Direct Relief, fell short $4,000, a tab picked up by Cumberbatch. Durling also put in his finest moderator work to date, in a bright and personable exchange on Cruz’s tribute night.
As the self-effacing and, on this night, elegantly dressed Cruz noted, “I am very grateful and feel lucky for all that I’ve been able to do, but I also torture myself a lot. My rhythm is different at this stage [of my career], but I still have the same excitement as when I was 4 years old.”
Well-known film critic Claudia Puig took the programming reins this year, with a new team, and filtered through a record number of entries (partly due to the closure of other film festivals this year) to create a substantial and diverse roster. Women filmmakers and issues asserted a prominent force, in films such as Quake, the Danish delight Miss Viborg, and even the nerve-tingling Hitchcockian Spanish thriller La Hija. Meanwhile, veteran director Campion, whose The Power of the Dog is a rare male-oriented saga in her filmography, explained that “with the #MeToo movement and more women working (in film), I felt free to go wherever I wanted to.”
Hybrid feature-documentaries accounted for some of the prized entries, including the fascinating 107 Women (Slovakian director Peter Kerekes’ film about pregnant women in a Ukrainian prison) and the gripping I Resemble You. Based on a true story, I Resemble You chronicles the back story of an Arab Frenchwoman falsely accused as a terrorist in the 2015 Bataclan bombing in Paris, winning director Dina Emer SBIFF’s Best Middle Eastern/Israeli award.
As testament to this festivaler’s obsessive hunger for the cinema experience again—in actual theaters with actual audiences—I managed to log 54 film screenings this year, along with tributes and panels. Sleep could wait.
On closing night at The Arlington, before the festivities ended with the sweet, songful documentary Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over, Durling issued a kind of proclamation: “Mission accomplished. The festival did what it had to do.”
Etro Takes Residency at Studio C in Montecito
Etro’s lush new spring ready-to-wear collection lands at Studio C in the Montecito Country Mart for a month-long residency, launching with trunk shows held on April 10 and 11
Veronica Etro’s exuberant designs are affecting on any given day, but in this moment, a year after the start of the pandemic, her bold combinations inspired by the Italian Riviera feel transformative. Etro’s lush new spring ready-to-wear collection, with prints drawn from the house’s 1990s archives — paired with rope bags, canvas totes and bright sandals — lands at Studio C in the Montecito Country Mart for a month-long residency, launching with trunk shows held on April 10 and 11.
Etro says she found herself playing Neapolitan songs on a restored record player as she created the collection of breezy seaside looks given a nautical twist with rope motifs, shells, anchors and summer stripes. Lightweight twill blazers top printed skirts made with archival prints initially inspired by frescos from Italian palazzos. A playful flag print from 1992, the Bandiere da Parata, is now a flowing skirt. The palm tree-strewn Albero delle Meraviglie print from 1993 tops a cotton belted maxi skirt. Elegant graphic foulard prints from 1994 and 1995 including the Trionfi e Soffitti and Palais Jamais brighten tossed-on looks.
A printed bikini in shades of aqua and turquoise blue paired with Bermuda pants, patchwork button-down shirts with multiple clashing paisley designs (an Etro signature), plus flowing tunics — particularly in the most vibrant shade of red — and upcycled denim all foster an elevated look that’s refreshingly uncomplicated. Utilitarian cork sandals with printed straps and bold metallic buckles plus woven belts with similarly eye-catching closures round out a refreshingly sweats-free collection.
“Etro’s lush new spring ready-to-wear collection lands at Studio C in the Montecito Country Mart for a month-long residency, launching with trunk shows held on April 10 and 11”
Knotted silk scarves worn as micro tops are a genius take on Riviera summer style, as are bustier tops paired with straight or tiered skirts in romantic sorbet-like shades of turquoise, mint, lime yellow, salmon, orange and lavender shot through with maritime hues of blue, red and white. Also new this season are the monochromatic paisley motifs. Etro even created a new logo character, the Pegasus-Triton, emblazoned on sporty cropped knit vests worn atop crisp striped shirts. This transporting jolt of elegant-yet-accessible Italian style couldn’t have come at a better time. 1016 Coast Village Rd., Montecito.
John De Bastiani
The interior designer’s new Montecito digs
In the dining room, vintage leather chairs sit atop a rug from Jamal’s Rug Collection in L.A.
The interior designer’s new Montecito digs
East Coast native and renowned interior designer John De Bastiani is no stranger to big cities. He’s lived and worked in Boston, Miami, and, most recently, L.A. A few months back he decided to shift his home base to Montecito, a quieter spot close to family and clients. In relocating, De Bastiani renovated a 1930s adobe home in Romero Canyon, applying his signature clean, comfortable aesthetic. New floors and French doors combine with original steel windows and collected décor for a look he calls airy and more “today.” As with most of his projects, a muted color palette makes for a relaxed mood that feels appropriate to a town like Santa Barbara. “Here you walk down the street, and everyone says hello and holds the door for you,” he says. “This feels like the Nantucket of the West Coast.” JOHNDD.COM. Jennifer Blaise Kramer
Wall Street
The calm, cool, and collected canvases of Colette Cosentino
The calm, cool, and collected canvases of Colette Cosentino
Artist Colette Cosentino in her studio flanked by two works in progress.
Wander into Colette Cosentino Atelier + Gallery and delight in the talents of the namesake owner, a decorative painter whose exquisite hand-painted murals adorn the town’s toniest walls. Cosentino also creates individual paintings, and the renowned house of Schumacher recently unveiled a wallpaper collection designed by the artist. 11 West Anapamu St., Santa Barbara, 805-570-9863, @colettecosentinoatelier, COLETTECOSENTINO.COM. L.D.P.
Rise and Shine
The Jeff Shelton-designed four-story Ablitt Tower on West Haley was (rather miraculously) built on a 20 x 20 foot lot in 2006.
Celebrating the traditions of southern Spain that inform the quintessential abodes of Southern California, The Spanish Style House: From Enchanted Andalusia to the California Dream (Rizzoli New York, $55)—written by Rubén G. Mendoza and photographed by Melba Levick—includes a walking tour of architect Jeff Shelton’s downtown Santa Barbara buildings.
Photograph: MELBA LEVICK, The Spanish Style House: From Enchanted Andalusia to the California Dream (Rizzoli New York, 2021).
Digital Sunsets
I enjoyed the task of illustrating each of these uniquely beautiful places
“I enjoyed the task of illustrating each of these uniquely beautiful places as it gave me the opportunity to explore the surrounding areas of Santa Barbara that are lesser known to me,” says the local artist whose vibrant works can be seen throughout “Block Party”. S.B. Must Dos Family trips to Hendry’s Beach. • Walking to La Bella Rosa Bakery for fresh concha. • Jogging through the streets of S.B. in search of my next Digital Sunsets composition. digitalsunsets.net
Miramar Reborn
At last, the long, long, long, long wait is over. The Rosewood Miramar Beach Montecito hotel has opened…
At last, the long, long, long, long wait is over. The Rosewood Miramar Beach Montecito hotel has opened with a flourish in its iconic oceanside setting, the culmination of developer Rick Caruso’s 12 years of patience and financial investment. Yes, the Pacific panorama is mesmerizing, but don’t be daunted by the shiny newness of the surroundings. Just give in to the seductive feeling you’ve been invited to a grand mansion or an elegant country club. The welcome mat is out for celebratory occasions as well as casual get-togethers and parties on the vast lawn. Locals have already discovered that the Manor Bar—with its old-school Rat Pack atmosphere—is the place to hang out in what is arguably the ultimate roadside attraction. Rates: From $800/night. 1759 S. Jameson Ln., Montecito, 805-900-8388. Joan Tapper