“All I want is the best of everything and there’s very little of that left.” Cecile Beaton
In an otherwise cold and cheerless post-war Britain of the 1930s, a group of young aristocratic bohemians known as the Bright Young Things were the talk of gossip columns and high society.
The glamorous decadence of the group was captured by two masterful artists of the period; Evelyn Waugh in his book Vile Bodies (originally titled Bright Young Things), and Cecile Beaton in his celebrated photographic portraits.
The Madison & Mayfair Midnight Blush collection distils the spirit of Cecile’s beguiling photography, instilling modern home decor with the playfully indulgent spirit of the Bright Young Things.
Luxurious gold-tone adornments add an enchanting allure to ornaments, and glass tables and mirrors are finished with elegant details and exuberant designs, all of which adhere to one of The Bright Young Things indispensable mantras: never be boring.
“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safer, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”
Cecil’s photography captures the Bright Young Things – who included affluent painters, composers, and novelists - in elaborate costumes of Greek gods, amid giant recreations of soap bubbles or bounding fourth from glittered, shimmering backgrounds.
For the Bright Young Things, nobody was permitted to settle for the mundane or surrender to the dull, be it choice of costume, pose, lifestyle … or ornaments.
And what better way to encapsulate that ethos than with our Gold Monkey Ornament. Its cheerfully mischievous spirit would have made the perfect accompaniment to one of Cecil’s photoshoots, its intricate detail bringing the playful levity adored by Cecil and his companions.
We imagine it placed on an archly theatrical stage, among our Gold Standing Leopards, with reclined and immaculately dressed friends artfully posing, with all the promise of a gilded future awaiting them.
“The truly fashionable are beyond fashion.”
While the Bright Young Things were determined to eschew the ordinary, they were equally as resolute in avoiding mere trends.
The world they created was self-enclosed, and its core members – Rex Whistler, William Walton and Nancy Mitford – where driven by a fearsome creative and inventive drive, one that made them seem impenetrable to outsiders and captivating to magazine editors and journalists.
They wanted the unique, the individual and the distinctive - in all elements of their lives – and they wanted it in abundance.
Even the great fashion designer Christian Dior could not entirely satisfy the tastes of Cecile, who dismissed one of his creations as looking like ‘marzipan’ (a dessert too common to hold appeal, at least for Cecile).
The photographs that Cecile took of interiors are strewn with bold and singular pieces. We imagine the Bright Young Things contesting the ownership of our Gold Nest of Tables and Gold Metal Coffee Table, eager to showcase their gold geometric design at some long-into-the-night social gathering.
Perhaps it would be Nancy Mitford’s famed acerbic wit that would win her possession of their opulent allure, beseeching Cecile to photograph her, crossed-legged and head flung back, sat atop the Gold Metal Coffee Table, enraptured in riotous laughter.
“Soon someone would say the fatal words, "Well, I think it’s time for me to go to bed.”
Consider, for a moment, the fictional wedding party held by Bright Young Thing Elizabeth Ponsonby that scandalised the London press.
Why did the group decide to host a fake wedding day one midweek morning? For no other reason than they could. They desired to attend a wedding party, but none of the group were to be married. And so, they performed one, complete with a clergyman who was unaware of the event’s fictitious nature.
The press was appalled, believing the group were lampooning the sanctity of marriage. In truth, they were simply looking for another party, another reason to evade the drab inevitability of bedtime.
But even the Bright Young Things had to – if not exactly sleep – then at the very least rest. In Cecile’s photography, there is often a notable melancholy, and when we consider the photographs were taken at revelries, it is intriguing to imagine these more sorrowful snaps are taken moments before the death of the party.
We envision Tallulah Bankhead, whose endearingly solemn expression was seemingly forever fixed, slumped in our plush, exceedingly restful Green Velvet Armchair, endeavouring to not yield to the end of the night and the call of her bed.
“More varied than any landscape was the landscape in the sky, with islands of gold and silver, peninsulas of apricot and rose against a background of many shades of turquoise and azure”
A common misconception about the Bright Young Things is they were merely debauched wastrels. On the contrary, they had among them generational creative talents – Mitford, John Betjeman, Anthony Powell and, not least, Cecile Beaton himself.
All were artists of a kind, and all were absolutely rooted in art. All can claim to have authored classics of their genre.
The above quote is indictive of the way Cecile continually envisioned his surroundings and landscape. He thought like an artist, because, like many of his social group, he was an authentically great one.
We could, almost word for word, apply the quote as a description of our signature watercolour items, available in the Midnight Blush collection through our Watercolour Mug set and Watercolour Framed Canvas.
They feature an abstract print that hints at the interplay of flower petals and brooding skies, and with a nod to decadence of the Bright Young Things, are embellished with a fine gold-tone finish.
They are the material embodiment of Cecile’s reflection on sky and landscape. And while we may never have the good fortune to be among an exhilarating youthful epoch experienced by Cecile and his friends, we can invite their inspirational freewheeling essence into the home with Midnight Blush, by Madison & Mayfair.