David Netto

Recently I went to an incredible and sort of underground resource in LA called The Tile Guild. Among all the different styles of tile they make—which is every—there was a trove of designs by Gio Ponti which blew my mind. I was certainly aware of his architecture and furniture, but the vivid optimism of these tiles was something new to me

In 1961 Ponti designed a hotel on the Amalfi coast in Sorrento, the Hotel Parco dei Principi, which is full of these tiles. A floor like this with a white box around it, and you’re done—it’s a celebration

For all the playfulness of his designs, Ponti cuts a stern figure at home with the ladies. Genius or no, it seems he was a quintessential Italian man

The graphics of this contemporary catalogue are surreal, but the floors do feel just like this in real life. They’re brighter than reality. As a designer, to keep fantasy uncompromised when something transitions from intent to the world is a very hard thing to do

The kilns at The Tile Guild, filled with treasures

Oh come on, let’s go

LA is constantly proving itself full of secrets to me. Dennis Caffrey is the proprietor of this extraordinary place, and these are some of his pigments (www.tileguildinc.com)

This exhibition on Ponti and his tiles and designs for the hotel was in Italy. So it may have taken me 43 years to find out about this, but they know what they have

Ponti’s furniture is no slouch, but you fall in love with these rooms because of the floors

This room is always in my head. Not as just one of my favorites by Frances Elkins, but as a lesson in the eternal importance of combining playfulness with sophistication. Harder than it looks: I once tried to do what she’s doing by putting little Chinese rugs everywhere, and I totally messed it up

When Barry Bergdoll explained this incredible building by C.N. Ledoux to me in a lecture at Columbia the top of my head blew off…

Plan: in a fairly compact plan, the architect creates the illusion of distance by forcing repeat diagonal crossings front to back

Elevations: Husband and wife were alike in nobility, so the two families— and their arms—are represented equally by twin facades. Very clever—neither one is the principal elevation since the entrance is on a corner

Later at Harvard I wrote an essay about this, and a moron T.A. disagreed with my explanation and told me it read just like bullshit. That incident was instrumental in my deciding to drop out of the school

Stephen Russell is a jeweler in New York with real taste, and when you go in and ask if they have anything special—“off menu” as it were—they never disappoint. On a recent visit they took out and showed me the very brooch made by Rene Boivin for Millicent Rogers

Speaking of jewelry, which do you like better—my daughter’s watch or mine? I can’t decide. And I do mean that

Here’s one way we never picture her, as just another guest at a party. This fascinating snap shows Marilyn maybe an hour or so after singing Happy Birthday to JFK, watching Diahann Carroll perform at a townhouse on 69th Street. That’s Jimmy Durante on the stairs

Photo by Cecil Stoughton

Another ‘always in my head’ room is this library by Valerian Rybar from the early 1970’s. Contemporary decoration in an 18th century hotel particulier, it is full of miracles and lessons…

Miracle: in a room which is long and stringy and awkward in shape, a good seating plan can turn this into an opportunity for drama

Lesson: It takes a minute to notice why this is a modern room, then you realize the floor is made of pockmarked stainless steel. Remember as you design, a floor has the power to change everything

Every time I walk on the beach in Malibu I can’t get over how shitty all the architecture is—LA is truly, in Stephen Tennant’s words, “A mass of shacks”. Then I found this one where somebody solved all their problems by throwing up a chic paint scheme and a life ring, and it put me in a good mood for hours

It’s very important to meet different kinds of people and find out about the journeys they have made through life. In Cuba I met this awesome fellow. One of my favorite people who I know in New York is this magnificent lady, and she also once lived in Cuba; I have spent hours listening to her describe it. You might think that of the two of them, he had taught me more about Cuba than she did—but I’m not so sure

I found this in a 1941 issue of Vogue, and it affected me on many levels. One, I love a damn cheese soufflé, one of the most simple but devastatingly elegant dishes there is. Two, food of this character is of such another time—and so unusual to run into these days—that even though it’s a simple suggestion for lunch, reading it feels like Babette’s Feast. Three, the suggestion of adding lobster—this brilliant way of making a simple thing just a little bit dressier—is something I love to try to do across categories in life, not just with food. It is a formula for elegance. And it relates to what I want to say about men’s fashion on this page, because this is not just a recipe to me—it’s a philosophy of style. It’s also a way of explaining why I didn’t buy any new clothes last year, but instead invested in 30 new pocket squares, in assorted bright colors and checks

Now let’s talk about somebody I want you to meet. This page is roughly supposed to be about well-dressed men, but it's dedicated to one—the best of them all, right up there with Fred Astaire—but not as well remembered today. This is Anthony Drexel Biddle Jr., or A.J., all-around winning fellow and definitely among the top 3 most stylish men the US has ever produced.

I recently had a conversation with A.J.’s nephew Tony Duke, himself the epitome of dash, American sportsmanship, and kindness at 94 years of age. Tony remembered his relative very vividly and with a certain amount of tenderness, too. The sum of the stories told by him about A. J. made it clear he was a great male character, and got better with age. We barely talked about clothes. My favorite story: during the war, A.J. took his nephew Tony to lunch at the London Ritz. Afterwards he said, “I want you to come meet a nice fellow.” He took him to US Army HQ, and it turned out the nice fellow was Eisenhower. Tony, being so close to A.J., was warmly received, and D-Day was five days later

It’s funny the things that make us feel like somebody in life. Or in a job. I’ve been writing for the Journal for almost two years now, but there was no better day than when they showed me my WSJ stipple. I guess it’s who I would like to imagine I am—a persona which, to me, stands for some kind of ‘success’ in adulthood. So I would prefer to show you this, rather than the best-dressed photograph of myself I could find, because I want you to think success is my style

Getting into character is very important in clothes—and in interiors. There must be a strong point of view. I did this room for a client (and friend) who loves Old Russia, and her brief was only that ‘Tolstoy should feel at home here, if he came to spend the night.’ I love Nathalie forever for those instructions, and I don’t think we let him down

Here we are with A.J. in one of the seven suits—if you read George Francis Frazier’s The Art of Wearing Clothes you know what I’m talking about. Judging by the broad lapel and low notch this one was made by E. Tautz in London. Indeed, were he not the originator of the style, upon looking at this photograph one might say that Biddle was ‘sporting the Tautz’. (that’s what people in the know used to call it when your lapels were like that)

My younger daughter Madelyn, who is six, drew this portrait of the cast of her favorite Cartoon Network show. It’s a strange crew. But besides showing off my child’s incomparably beautiful artwork, my purpose in including them here is to show you—in an atypical vocabulary—the power of personal style. I am convinced Madelyn loves these characters because of their eccentric clothes and look. It’s a good look. And crazy or not, to me these characters are chic. After all, nothing is more stylish than being not-conventionally-beautiful but not letting it hold you back. Go to the Prada/Schiaparelli show at the Met if you don’t believe me

To give you a sense of what A.J. Drexel Biddle Jr. looked like in a group, and how winning was his personal style, check him out in this formal assemblage (I also like the Civil War veterans in the front row). Of all the men wearing their best, only one is well-dressed. Hint: he looks the most natural, and the happiest.

The only known picture of him in an undershirt is below

Hilton Als, drama critic for the New Yorker and superb writer all-around, is one of the most stylish men I know. Here he rocks a searsucker suit and comfy sneakers, loose but patrician all at once. As with all great dressers, the best part is a detail only glimpsed: there is a smashing pair of black suspenders under there, and he doesn’t care if you know it or not

Not quite as plum as the Let’s Dance tour of five years before, but I was at camp and missed that one…June 19 is my birthday, and I could have done worse. I don’t remember a thing about this concert though

My good friend Tatiana von Furstenberg and I went out and tore it up a lot, and if I’m not mistaken I took this picture of her at the Palladium, although it might have been Area. She is thirteen here and looks exactly the same today

Upstairs in the VIP room there was the most enormous Basquiat, which would be worth millions now. I wonder where it is today

Since this is a page devoted to the 80’s, I thought you might enjoy a portrait or two— to show I was really serious about being in the front lines

Malcolm Mclaren’s album Fans kept opera cool, although I had been going for years with my dad. Spectacle was the thing, you see

At one point during this night I ended up in a freight elevator with Grace Jones, Mink DeVille, and Whitney Houston. A fight broke out because Grace was supposed to ring in the New Year at 3am on the west coast, and true to fashion had arrived late and missed it. Not my fault, she was famous for this

In the summer of 1985 Diane von Furstenberg gave me a job—the first time I had worked for anyone besides my father. Here I am outside her store on Fifth Avenue, having just designed the windows. Heady stuff for a fifteen year old

A champagne cork popped by Grace Jones herself in her apartment, after the ruckus died down. At the time she was dating Dolph Lundgren, who asked me in all earnestness if he should carry a gun under the seat of his car, like Stallone did. I said yes, I thought he definitely should

My lifelong friends Maria Von Bothmer and Claude Arpels. At the time Maria was at Spence and Claude at Deerfield, and the rest of the kids we grew up with looked sort of like the fellow at left. We worked to stand out, but not too hard—it came naturally

Here I am in profile again, possibly at the same party. This is uptown at 1040 Fifth Avenue at our friend Kate Bedrick’s apartment. The girl in the picture with me is called Brooke Stoddard, who also went to Spence. We’d start out like this, and head downtown at about 11.30…

Visage was a nightclub I never went to except this once, to join up with Grace Jones for the night that ended with the aforementioned champagne cork and discussion of firearms. She was paid $10,000 in cash for appearing for an hour, and her manager Bob Caviano walked around with the roll of bills for the rest of the night. I had never seen more than $300 before

The time I saw the $300 might have been when I used it to (partly) buy the leather jacket I’m sporting here, purchased at the Jean-Claude Jitrois boutique in St. Tropez. I spent all my money for the trip on that, and had to take a boat to Nice to pick up more dough I had desperately asked my parents to wire. They were very patient with me, I must admit

I remember this fellow’s name was Kaz and that his style put us all to shame, but that’s all I remember

My buddy Claude Arpels and a truly beautiful Spence girl called Allison Iselin—in a rented limousine, charged to my parents and argued about when the bill from Carey Cadillac arrived a month later. The driver’s name was Anthony Lidall and he was a good sport. We are headed downtown to Area

Why not save the Concorde luggage tags? I’m glad I did, it’s a piece of history now. You never knew who would be on that plane with you

This picture was taken for a Uniqlo campaign in which they decided to use real people, which made me feel very good because it was put up in the store two blocks from my office. They took it down pretty quickly, though

Photo by Maciek Kobielski

Looking at old Vogues is one of the best things you can do to stay inspired and to educate yourself as a designer. I’m always thinking about Paris in the 1930’s, and one of the great lights of that time—and great aesthetes of all time—was Carlos de Beistegui, to whom this page is roughly dedicated. This enchanting little drawing, in the style of Cecil Beaton but not by him, shows a party in the legendary penthouse apartment which he retained Le Corbusier to design in strict modernist style and then decorated himself with rococo and baroque furniture, to the architect’s fury. The result was magical and totally unique. I tried to do the same with my Neutra house in LA. Compare this drawing with the photo of the actual room…

The exterior of the Beistegui apartment, a modernist dream floating above old Paris. That’s a surrealist garden enclosed by walls at the top. This project is not talked about as much as the Maison de Verre, but it should be

A Christmas card showing some of the follies in the garden of Beistegui's country house, Chateau de Groussay

One of my heroes is W.O. Bentley, inventor of the Bentley car. He didn’t have the business success he should have had but this is a page of artists, and he belongs on it. There is a particularly moving chapter in his book titled ‘A Nostalgic Occasion’ where he spends a few hours going over one of the original Speed Sixes from 1929, the car that brought Bentley some of its greatest triumphs at Le Mans. W.O. is an old man now (this was taken in 1963) and becomes somehow childlike next to that ferocious machine…which is in fact his child. At the end he refuses to drive it but here in this picture you can feel the rush of emotion, before he has decided not to

At the auction of the contents of Groussay in 1999 the architectural models for the garden follies were sold, and it just kills me they weren’t kept together as one lot. They are like characters in a play. Which all the objects at Groussay were, come to think of it

Speaking of Groussay and theater, take a look at the damn theater! I love this shot because the set is down, offering a mirror image of the room facing the stage—so you are in an illusion of a theater in the round. A very 18th century idea constructed in the late 1950’s. Elvis was already big, but somebody was still living like this

A lovely watercolor by Virginia Johnson of a room I did on Park Avenue, from Deborah Needleman’s book. I’m a fan of putting mirrors under things to add a little flash of mystery and light. It’s dignified, but does it look like the people who live here are in their 30’s? I think so

Not many people know his name now, but the greatest decorator and most daring colorist of all of them—in my opinion—was Georges Geffroy. He died in 1971. This room of his on the Avenue Foch is the granddaddy of all green velvet salons, from Heinz to Givenchy to Bass to Tory Burch, whether they give him credit or not

Me and my grandmother, Christmas 1973. Despite what looks like is going to happen here, she didn’t leave me a dime

Gregory Peck is a major hero of mine. I have a test whenever I’m not sure of what to do where I ask myself: “What would Gregory Peck do in this situation?” Then I try not to do the opposite. We always see him as Ahab or as Atticus, but this photograph by the great Edward Quinn shows Peck had a personal style that mopped the floor with all of them

The entrance hall of the Paley apartment, by the great Albert Hadley, is one of the rooms that is always in my mind. What can I tell you—the opulence of white

Photograph by John Hall

James Boswell is another hero of mine. Whenever you’re feeling down, you’ve blown all your money, or you think that no one cares about what you’re doing, pick up Boswell’s London Journals and just begin reading. You’ll feel better in two minutes, get the giggles, and remember what life is about

When I was little, my friends were all popping wheelies. I however, dreamed of being friends with Fred Astaire and playing backgammon with him in his library in Beverly Hills. Someone left an Architectural Digest open in 1977 and here I am…it’s funny the chance things that shape us

Grace Jones is also a hero of mine, a true original. Lady Gaga’s great but this is where it all comes from. You do know that, right?

Just so you know I’m not all about green velvet and Louis XV, this is my favorite room in what I think is the most important new building in America. The Seattle Public Library by Rem Koolhaas is a joyful gift to the city—a living room for the whole town that shows the happiness-making potential of modern architecture

This house by Harrie T. Lindeberg in Rhode Island is a design lesson in itself. You’re looking at what appears to be the front door, but the plan reveals a completely different house than what you are expecting (look for it on the next page)

In Corona, Queens is another of my favorite rooms, Louis Armstrong’s kitchen. He and his wife Lucille knew how to be happy, and that’s 4/5ths of it. This brilliant little room room does everything great decorating should do

Anytime we think there’s more guts in decorating now than in the past, we should look at the 30’s and 40’s and things like this lobby by Dorothy Draper. The scale of that clock over the fireplace—would you dare?

Here’s a marvelous restaurant in Milan called Da Giacomo. As I sat there thinking how beautiful the room is, my friend explained that of course it was, it was designed by Mongiardino—everybody knows that. I felt like a moron

My mom and me on the steps of our first house in Long Island in 1972, which we rented from Colonel Serge Obolensky. Ridiculous as it sounds—all we did was play ‘pick up sticks’—he was an influential figure to me, and I was very affected at his funeral a few years after. Read One Man in His Time, his autobiography—it’s a portal into a forgotten world

Le Corbusier designed a small one-room hut for himself on the Riviera with no kitchen and two camp beds. It is one of the most beautiful and luxurious residences in the world. Think about that

Here’s the plan from the Lindeberg Rhode Island house, remember? What you think from the façade is the front door is actually the middle window of the living room, and the entrance is a surprise—off the porte-cochere at left. You are thus threaded through a much more lengthly and dramatic room sequence that if you had just walked in from the front. Anybody who thinks traditional architecture is boring should study this house very closely

One of the great rooms that has ever been was Jean-Michel Frank’s living room for Nelson Rockefeller from 1937. Demolished in 1979, after Albert Hadley was unsuccessful in trying to convince Happy Rockefeller to donate it intact to the Metropolitan Museum, the loss of this room is decorating’s Pennsylvania Station. I got to work with some of the furniture by Frank and Giacommetti while doing an apartment for one of Nelson’s children, but nobody knew what happened to the Berard rug

The Children’s Dining Room on the Normandie is one of those ‘lost rooms’ that’s always in my head, with its Babar cutouts by Laurent de Brunhoff and that chic plaid rug. I’m a sucker for a plaid rug, anywhere

This late 1930’s image from a children’s book by Naomi Averill shows us what a form of high art something created for kids has the potential to be. It’s intentionally naïve but incredibly sophisticated all at once. Now, we dumb it down to death. The style and character of this illustration is what I was going for with NettoCollection furniture

He may not LOOK like an artist, but he’s one of the best—this is Ron Galella, in disguise as a Greek sailor so he could get close to the Christina. We have the beautiful pictures of Jackie that we have because of him and his antics such as this. You never know who’s an artist

In this detail of Nelson Rockefeller’s living room by Frank, you see the ‘moderne’ Louis XV chair that inspired my Louis furniture collection. I’m always thinking about this apartment

This is the cabinet by Jean-Michel Frank that I based that library in Nashville upon

Automobile design is full of lessons and inspiration, as Ralph Lauren could tell you (he also owns this car). Here’s a lesson which stayed with me since the day I first heard the story: the alloy used by Ettore Bugatti to build the prototype for his superb Atalante could not be welded, so he used rivets instead to close the seam down the middle. He liked the effect so much—the handmade spine in tension with the streamlined form—that when time came to build the real car, he used that technique even though he didn’t have to. The lesson: keep your eyes open along the way

My darlings at breakfast, which sometimes requires an eye patch. I moved to LA to be this person

Photo by Paul Costello

There’s something about this drawing of a steam launch from 1914 that shows exactly what I was getting at with NettoCollection—it’s tech-y but cute, you know? Since Mies took over everything in the late 1940’s we have almost completely lost the ability to unite these two qualities in design. This also looks uncannily like the boat in William Steig’s inimitable children’s book Amos & Boris (1971)

Harry’s Bar in London is one of my favorite rooms in the world, and perhaps the most damning evidence yet that the best decorators are not Decorators: Mark Birley, the proprietor and king of atmosphere, designed this room as a place where the Duke of Marlborough and Russell Brand would both be treated the same. And it works. Hint: it’s all in the lighting

The Amalienburg Pavilion in Munich is rock n’ roll, baby, and don’t let anybody tell you different. Karl Lagerfeld once said he liked his 18th century FRESH, and here’s what he meant

Nautical stuff is another constant source of inspiration for me. The shape of these bunks on the Aquitania became the conversion kit for NettoCollection cribs

In a recent panel discussion I was asked what building I would most like to see that I had never seen, and my answer was the temple in India which was to house the Maharaja of Indore’s three Brancusi sculptures. I have never seen it because it was never built, but had it been we would have an Art Deco Taj Mahal. His Highness commissioned the sculptures in person at Brancusi’s Paris atelier, probably while holding two Russian wolfhounds with a Saoutchik-bodied Rolls-Royce at the curb. Look into this guy—as Cole Porter would say, he's the top

Francois Halard is one of the world's great photographers, as well as a good friend. It's amusing to see how innate is this talent when you look at the iPhone pictures we took of each other side by side—his of me is a real portrait, beautifully composed; mine just a goofy snapshot. He can decorate too, so it's not exactly fair

We are not actually in Japan, which is obvious from my picture but less so in the one of me by Francois

My children love to draw in my datebook, which I encourage. It cheers me up on my travels and gives me something to look forward to as I turn the pages. This began life as an ostrich, but to me it’s more of a Brachiosaurus, you know?

A spectacularly talented jewelry designer called Joel Rosenthal told me that if I wanted to see an interesting store in Paris to go look at an Israeli fruit and nut shop in the Marais, someplace that approached the art of display with real guts and style. That is typical Joel: only one of the great artists in the world would tell you they were inspired by this. Then I got there and it really was great

I have a wonderful wife, Elizabeth—and an equally wonderful mistress. Her name is unclear but we can call her Conchita. She lives in England where I regularly go to visit her, trips taken too seldom but always filled with passion. She is a 1956 Bentley Continental S1 fastback, the most beautiful car in the world, and I care not who knows it

My girls love Paris, and I love to take them there. Madelyn’s pink boots came in handy but Kate, while less prepared, never made a peep of complaint about soaked-through Vans. We all got on a train that night and woke up the next day in Venice

When I travel I’m always looking at architecture, the history and design of which is my real passion. The lower picture is of Vizcaya—the James Deering house in Miami—and one of the most fascinating residences in America. Its gardens originally spanned many acres of mangrove swamps full of wild paths, canals and water features, as the aerial photo shows. These are gone now; but I had a hunch that the main feature, that stone bridge at the center, would never have been demolished—even as landfill claimed the whole site (most developers would be too cheap). I found it right where I thought I would, half-buried in the college parking lot next door

Vizcaya as it was