This is why the Internet is great: because it helps you find things you remember from magazines ages and ages ago. Back in the 90s, ladies loved Tocca and their sweet candy-colored, feminine but not overly frilly dresses. I thought Tocca was just fine for clothes (I was more a Daryl K girl back in that day), but I distinctly remember flipping out over Tocca founder/designer Marie-Anne Oudejans’ apartment in NYC when it was featured in an Elle magazine. It was bee-yoo-ti-ful! She painted the walls this lovely robin’s egg blue and other lovely, adorable colors and it had this whole gentle, serene, slightly bohemian vibe in this real, lived-in, non-fakey-too-clean-and-showroom-like way. I held onto that issue for ages as inspiration and a kind of visual Valium, until I lost that magazine in one of many, many moves. I swore to myself that I’d one day paint my apartment that shade of blue and fill it with Chinese lanterns.
Of course, I never did that because I’m lazy and traveled too much, but I still think the apartment is so beautiful. And I’m thrilled Tocca is getting a bit of a resurgence like many things 90s, and I can’t wait to see Lyell designer Emma Fletcher’s designs for the label. (Because, oh, I miss Lyell.) Until then, I will stare at these .jpgs and dream again about painting an apartment a perfectly lovely shade of robin egg blue. Love and beauty, everyone!
Related Posts
Tags: Lyell, Marie-Anne Oudejans, New York, the 90s, Tocca, visual Valium
I love this- they look like filmstills. These pics are definitely not what I expected after reading that this is a shoot from Elle– I imagined glossy/sunny pictures of a perfectly neat classic 6, as is usually the style in Elle or Vogue’s spreads on homes today. Maybe the idea of letting fashion magazines be a little muddier/blurrier is another reason the 90s resurgence isn’t all bad?
yeah, i like how moody these are, too. that was definitely a nice thing about the 90s — kind of a celebration of imperfection. xo k.
in 1998, my boyfriend at the time was good friends with marie-anne. when ever she would go out of town we would apartment sit & stay at her apt. she had such amazing taste, it was so simple, effortless, & so chic. that apt. made such an impression on me, i ran down to china town immediately & bought a bunch of colorful lanterns like she had. i also remember that her bed had no bed frame & it rested on the floor, i don’t think you can see that from the pictures. i think the headboard was some how bolted to the wall.
how lucky you got to stay in the apartment! it seems so lovely and restful. thanks for sharing, marie! xo k.