Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1302598
Designer Mark D. sikes Celebrates His new book at wells abbott. by billy Fong. PHotograPHy JonatHan ZiZZo. Masks, Martinis, anD More beautiFul A highlight of the design whirl surrounding the opening of Kips Bay Decorator Show House Dallas was undoubtedly designer Mark D. Sikes' book signing at Wells Abbott showroom in the Dallas Design District. Showroom owner Lauren Hudson, who also designed a room in the show house, honored her fellow decorator with cocktails and a book signing. Designers showed up to support Sikes' recently published book, More Beautiful: All-American Decoration (Rizzoli), wearing masks (aside from the few seconds when a photo was snapped). The dashing darling of interiors, known for his classic all-American style and penchant for blue and white, Sikes had a long line awaiting his signature, along with the opportunity to pose a question or two and take a quick selfie. Many had already attended one of the two preview days for the show house, which included Sikes' blue fantasy of a room — titled Casa Fiorentina in homage to the famed Saint- Jean-Cap-Ferrat estate Villa La Fiorentina, built in 1917. The work-all-day-cocktails- at-night crowd perused the latest offerings from Wells Abbott showroom — although, as Hudson lamented, so much was borrowed by designers for their rooms at Kips Bay that she and VP Michael Flores had scrambled to fill the empty spaces. Catching up (from beneath chic masks): Cornelia Guest, Heather Furniss, Andrew Gonzales, Lisa Fine, Tom Scheerer in from NYC, Beth Ewing, Doniphan Moore, Jennifer Klos, Chad Dorsey, Kips Bay's Nazira Handal, Alex Eskenasy, Trish Sheats (who also had a room at Kips Bay), Lindley Arthur, Sarah Johnson, Liz Miller, Brittany Gaskill, Mia Smith, and, in from Houston, Michael Viviano, who designed a room at Kips Bay, and Ryan Reitmeyer, as well as Lauren Hudson's husband Brock Hudson and daughter Margaret. Billy Fong, Cornelia Guest Brock Hudson Margaret Hudson Heather Furniss, Christina Geyer Maia Farmer, Trish Sheats Nazira Handal Chad Dorsey Lisa Fine, Tom Scheerer, Beth Ewing James Campbell, Jennifer Klos, John Phifer Marrs Mark Sikes, Lauren Hudson Michael Flores Sarah Polzer, Emily Larkin Catherine Spavital 66