Willy Rizzo

I recently gave a lecture to a color theory class at UCLA and was asked if I had a favorite time period. I responded that my heart really belonged to the seventies and was shocked to see a number of muffled snickers and not-so-subtle eye rolling. Now I know that to the uninitiated, seventies style might mean rust shag carpets and avocado Formica kitchen counters but I am here today to say AU CONTRAIRE, my friends. Do Halston, YSL, and Studio 54 mean nothing? People? To make my case that the seventies had a rather chic side, today we are going to look at the work of Willy Rizzo.

The sassy Italian spent a large chunk of his life in France and worked for Paris Match where he took many now iconic photographs of the jet set and starlettes du jour such as Brigitte Bardot:

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Trend Alert!

Here’s a little something I’ve noticed cropping up more and more: the designer as curator. Exhibit A – The New York Times asked five interior designers (Jonathan Adler, Thom Filicia, Laura Kirar, Kelly Wearstler and Vincente Wolf) to go through the Times’s extensive archive of photographs and pick their ten favorites. The results are as varied as the designers. You really get a sense of what intrigues each of them and a little insight into how they view the world. All of the images are for sale so if you share say, Jonathan’s love of the giddy and surreal, get one of the delightful photos for your very own. Take a look at a few of my faves:

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