Words: In Pursuit of Decadence

“There’s no curiosity about decadence any more. The thrill of sin is not the fashion. Of course a few take cocaine, and lots of people don’t get married. None of those things is decadent. They are choices.” Diana Vreeland: NewYork Times, August 28, 1977

Decadence is a singularly non-American concept. And yet, as a rebuke to the Puritanism upon which the country was founded and which remains rampant among the amber waves of grain, what could be more American?

Culturally speaking, the concept of excess is having a tough time. Put aside the pandemic restrictions: In our current health-and-wellness, influencer-led society, an entire generation considers gluten to be the ultimate indulgence. 

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Words: Rediscovering Interior Designer Billy Baldwin

Four days after her October 20, 1968, marriage to Aristotle Onassis, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis found herself alone on her new husband’s yacht, The Christina. Her children had returned to school and Ari had resumed business negotiations—prompting reports in the press that the marriage was already over—so she picked up the phone and called an acquaintance.

“Billy, I need you,” Jackie implored. “I need a friend. How soon can you come to see me?”

A few thousand miles away in New York City, decorator Billy Baldwin simply asked, “What do you mean by ‘how soon?’” Two days later he was on his way to Jackie, Ari, and a whole lot of paparazzi.

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