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24 I n 1968 in Paris, Irène Leroux brought us sunshine in the winter. Leroux's family owned a small boutique on Place de la Madeleine. On the heels of the revolution and thanks to her jet-setting friends who embraced the newly available cruise collections, Leroux was the first designer to offer swimwear year-round, via her family's shop. Leroux also offered modernized, radical swimwear: Bonings and paddings were banished, and each Eres swim- suit was sculpted to highlight a wom- an's body, as if it were a second skin. I n its opening act presenting design- plus-art exhibitions, Tienda X mounts an ambitious show for a California talent who defies clas- sification. Christopher Kreiling is a designer of spaces — a maker of experiences — who migrates between the worlds of art and design. Architect Michael Landrum and designer Garrett Hunter, co-founders of the design shop/ gallery Tienda X, first met the acclaimed furniture and lighting designer through their mutual connections with two L.A. bastions of retail cool, Blackman Cruz and Just One Eye, and have since collab- orated with him on custom furnishings. X Marks the SPOT F orty years ago, artists James Surls and Charmaine Locke acquired 170 syl- van acres in the middle of nowhere that became some- where: Splendora, 40 miles and 45 minutes north of Houston. When the pair forged Lawndale Art Center in the late 1970s, they birthed a raucous, im- portant new generation of visual creatives that changed Houston's art scene forever; their Splendora studio was one bookend to the fervent activity. After Surls and Locke moved to Colorado in 1997, the Splendora property lay dormant until their daughter Ruby's return in 2013. In June, Texas artist Jeffrey Wheeler, one half of the Wheeler Brothers from Lubbock, decamped there to become co-director of the newly christened Splendora Gardens and a de facto sheriff to shepherd in a new era for the woodsy art camp/incubator. Wheeler lives in a tiny house footsteps from Surls and Locke's cavernous original studio; a fellow creative, co-direc- tor Ruby Surls (whose trade is a baker), resides nearby, in a cabin on a lake. Together they unveil Splendora Gardens with an ambitious weekend Kreiling's understated aesthetic, elegant linearity, and use of straightforward, often unexpected materials (black tourmaline, meteorite slices, bronze, brass, steel, an- nealed glass, a touch of neon) have earned him acolytes from Ellen DeGeneres to Splendora RISING when the "Ulterior Motifs" exhibition and roadshow comes to town Saturday and Sunday, November 12 and 13. Now in its 17th year, the 15th iteration features 15 artists and a big side of Texas music led by brother Bryan Wheeler's band, Los Sonsofbitches. For more about the two-day lineup, visit Splendora Gardens' Facebook page. Catherine D. Anspon Eternal SUMMER Christopher Kreiling's Icon chairs in (left to right) bronze and steel at Tienda X. Background, a canvas by Kasper Sonne. A Surls sculpture welcomes visitors to Splendora Gardens. Thirty years later in 1998, Eres — by now a well-established name in luxury swimwear — debuted a collection with resilient, light-as-air fabrics featuring nude hues and muted shades never be- fore seen in the swimwear industry and that have since become Eres' trademark style. Now Eres has opened a boutique in River Oaks District — a natural fit, as summer here may as well be eternal. In addition to swimwear, Eres stocks beachwear, lingerie, and accessories. Eres, 4444 Westheimer Road, River Oaks District, no phone number at press time, eres.fr. Anne Lee Phillips François-Henri Pinault. The latter com- missioned Kreiling to design a pair of floor lamps as an 80th birthday gift for his father, François Pinault. The collection on view through November 12 at Tienda X (which includes lighting, seating, cof- fee and cocktail tables) hearkens back to Donald Judd and French modernism, as well as Latin American architects and de- signers of the mid-century. These objects, priced from $4,500 for the steel Icon chair to $21,500 for a set of three Meteorite cocktail tables, transcend mere furni- ture. "Christopher Kreiling: Hot/Cold," through November 12, at Tienda X, 1420 W. Alabama, 713.534.1257. Note: Kreiling's show is followed by an exhibition of Michael Tracy's jewelry, opening Saturday, November 19 (through December). Catherine D. Anspon RUBEN HASSEL CATHERINE D. ANSPON OBSESSIONS. DECORATIONS. SALIENT FACTS.