Retail Therapy: L.A.'s Voila!

I first became acquainted with Los Angeles shop Voila! when I visited their booth at the last SF20 show. It was filled with gorgeously repurposed vintage industrial furnishings and darkly glamorous objets, and it was pretty much love at first sight.

I was excited to visit the Voila! showroom on North La Brea during our last trip to Southern California, but alas, it was closed the day we stopped by.

These new photos of the shop, shot by Sam Frost for a recent feature on 1stdibs, make me more determined than ever to get there.

I'm absolutely mesmerized by store owner Katrien Van der Schueren's inspired mix of dark, weird, and wonderful Belgian antiques and curiosities. And though I'm positive that everything here is way out of my price range, I could definitely kill an hour or two furtively fondling it all -- not to mention taking inspiration for future eBay scouting missions.

Read the 1stdibs article on Voila! here -- and browse the shop's online offerings here.

Objects of Lust: Everything Michael Bruno Owns

Another highlight of yesterday's SF20 show was the keynote address by 1stdibs founder and president Michael Bruno.

If you're not familiar with the site, Bruno jokingly describes it as "eBay for rich people." Looking for an absolutely mindblowing assortment of pedigreed, pristine antiques and pieces of vintage modern design culled from top dealers in the U.S. and France -- and have, say, $12,000, budgeted for a writing desk or armchair? Then report to 1stdibs posthaste. The rest of us will simply have to content ourselves with surfing and drooling.

Anyway, the address was billed as "how you can do the planet a favor by buying vintage," but it was really just Bruno talking about how the idea for 1stdibs germinated. Basically, he was an unemployed expat living in Paris and decided, somewhat randomly, to "put the Paris flea market on the internet." The idea met with almost immediate success, and today 1stdibs is a powerhouse in the design world, with top designers regularly sourcing items there.

I had no complaints about the talk being somewhat different than advertised. It was thoroughly entertaining, and the blue-blooded and well-connected Bruno charmed the pants off everyone in the room. (By the way, taken together, the pants and shoes in that room probably cost more than the down payment on our house.)

The best part, though, was the slideshow of images from Bruno's incredibly chic homes on Paris's Left Bank and in Sagaponack, New York. I'm not ashamed to admit it: I had lust in my heart.

First, the Paris apartment:

Bruno says he furnished the place almost entirely with pieces from the Paris flea market -- and that at first, he was 1stdibs best -- and only -- customer.


Now, the Hamptons "farmhouse":


Oh, and here's Bruno's former home in San Francisco:

A charmed life, indeed.

(All photos except the bad, blurry one at top by Tim Street-Porter, Sally Bruno, and Mary Nichols. Some image scans borrowed from this post by my blogging buddy, 1stdibs profilee and Sacramento interior designer Katiedid, aka Katie Denham.)