As a Dries van Noten devotee, my fashion heart goes out to arty-ethnic textiles, eclectic and decorative pieces. Transported by the romance of the castle and its surroundings, my style of dressing easily translates into interior design for Lescure. I’m sounding out ideas, thinking about elements, playing with fabrics. When I came across vintage obis (the wide brocade sash tied around a Japanese kimono) I was tempted to use these in the castle to dramatic effect. But how do I reconcile this with my exploration of the wabi-sabi aesthetic? Wabi-sabi honours the imperfect, the unfinished, and the ephemeral. A geisha’s kimonos and obis are anything but. They represent the opposite—perfection in vivacity. As always, the answer has come from the château itself, showering the obis with the most beautiful light against its muted walls.

La Caravane de Rêves

So I continue my exploration. For my mood boards I’ve been using the theme of La Caravane de Rêves. Imagine a troupe of artists and nomads, settling down on an abandoned estate to pursue a life revolving around beauty. They’ve no money to do the entire place up (remember the roof is leaking!), so they decorate the castle with beautiful objects they’ve brought back from the four corners of the earth. And how beautiful they themselves look in their exquisite outfits as they descend the grand staircase against a wabi-sabi backdrop.