This needlepoint life-size person climbing a vine is the very creative display window for a dry cleaner. Random photo, nothing to do with today's post, the essence of which was found in this book...
This is one of a series of "Living In..." books published by Taschen. I have bought four in the series, obviously Morocco, also Provence, Greece and Tuscany. The text is presented in three languages, French, English and German so not only can I look at all the pretty pictures of homes around the world, I can also check my French comprehension. Ok, so I have the four and I plunged into them this weekend. While browsing through the Morocco book, I stumbled upon a name I did not know: Bill Willis. How have I lived in Memphis my entire life and never heard of Bill Willis? Do you know who Bill Willis was? If you say, "yes, of course" then please stop reading this post as it will only make you cringe at my ignorance. But if you, like me, say "who?", then read on. So, I was looking through the Morocco book and read..."The name of Bill Willis, born in Memphis, Tennessee, will always be linked to Marrakesh." Bill Willis, as I discovered, was an architect and decorator who became THE authority on a reinterpreted Moroccan style. He designed homes for J. Paul Getty, Jr., Yves Saint Laurent, the Rothchilds, et al. For all of the interesting details and photos....
Read the New York Times 2010 article Fabulous Dead People
Read Architectural Digest's 2012 article The Aesthete: Looking at the Legacy of Interior Decorator Bill Willis
Read Wall Street Journal's 2012 article A Magician from Memphis
Read the New York Times 2013 article Shades of Casablanca
....and the list goes on.
2 comments:
Ok, that is very interesting. And no, I have not heard of him.
He seemed to be quite the colorful character. I love that style and now I know that a fellow Memphian (even one who I'm sure never advertised the fact)is in large part responsible for what I've come to know as "Moroccan style".
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