Colonial Savoir Faire

Whenever I am back in Australia for a visit one place I always make sure to visit is Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney.



Built between 1835 and 1839 when New South Wales was but a fledging colony for Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay, the house is a superb example of Regency Style Architecture. I like Regency Style for the amazing paired down simplicity of line that is one of its main characteristics. What detailing that is there is finely incorporated into the overall scheme of the style. I also love the sense of symmetry that is also visibly apparent when viewed as a whole.

The architect of the house is uncertain; however it is assumed that the house was designed by the main colonial architect of the colony John Verge. The whole façade of the house is quite severe, which is apparently because it is incomplete. It was originally intended to have an encircling single-storey Doric colonnade, and the small portico that now exists was only added in the early 20th century.

The house is best known for its central elliptical saloon with domed lantern and geometric staircase, which is the main focal point when you enter the house.



The main axis of the house is aligned with the winter solstice. Though no documents are known to discuss this feature, it is not likely to be an accident. A rear service wing (since demolished) contained a kitchen, laundry and servants' accommodation, and a large stables (also demolished) was sited elsewhere on the estate.

The house has been refurnished in the style of 1839–1845, the interiors reflecting the lifestyle of the Macleays and presenting an evocative picture of early 19th century Sydney life. Largely in the Greek Revival style with elements of the Louis revival, the house's interiors have been recreated based on several inventories, notably an 1845 record of the house's contents and a list of furniture sold to the newly completed Government House, plus pieces known to have originated at the house that is now located at Camden Park or Brownlow Hill (originally the Macleays' country property near Camden, NSW). The large library contains several insect cases and a desk originally owned by Macleay, on loan from the Macleay Museum at Sydney University. Wall colours have been determined from paint scrapes that revealed the original colour schemes. The house also contains a collection of significant early Australian furniture from Sydney and Tasmania.



However it is not this which I like so much about the house. Inside one is confronted with large light airy rooms which take full advantage of the natural light.

Originally surrounded by a 54 acre estate as you can see it is now surrounded by the modern city with hardly a garden left.

So if you ever are down under, pay a visit, it is worth it.

Tying the Knot with Savoir Faire

Recently one of my nieces was married back home in Australia. Unfortunately I could not attend the wedding, on account of distance and time etc etc. From what I have heard from various family members it was a wonderful wedddng.

However as you can see it was slightly different! My niece hails from a very small town in the middle of nowhere back home. She can also be a bit of a tomboy and very headstrong. There was no question as to where she wanted to be married and as to how.

The wedding took place in a paddock about 10 miles from the town next to railway line, with the reception being held in a shearing shed! Egads everyone is saying! What are they like down under?

However from the photographs, it looks fabulous. It is nice to see a couple who can throw some of the prevailing conventionality of a big budget wedding out the window and do it their own way with savoir faire!

Sightseeing Savoir Faire in 2011

Is it too early to start thinking what one will be wearing in Spring/Summer 2011? Savoir Faire thinks not as we will be heading south for the New Year and spending a week in Puerta Vallarta in Mexico! Now being the first time in Mexico I am looking forward to it immensely.

These spring summer offerings from Kitsune are just the thing for a week of Savoir Faire in a warm climate!

Of course leaving Toronto in the dead of winter needs some planning, however sweater and jacket combination below could be perfect!


The combinations below are perfectly relaxed and casual, just the right thing for some sightseeing anywhere.



And for a night out on the town in a warm client such as Mexico!

Savoir Faire in the Snow!

At last it is snowing here in Toronto! Last night saw a nice little covering of a couple of centimetres and it is still lightly snowing.

Savoir Faire is a big 007 fan! Not the modern day James Bond, but the older Sean Connery offerings which were incredibly stylish. However the best 007 film by far in Savoir Faire’s eyes is On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. And you guessed it set in a incredibly beautiful snowy landscape, and Connery does not star at JB is played by fellow Australian George Lazenby, and low and behold in the end JB even marries.

So for a bit of snowy savoir faire this cannot be beat!

Parenting With Savoir Faire

The French parent even manages to cope with Savoir Faire!

Author Unknown

I am not lost, I am not found


Like petals strewn across the ground,


There is no pattern, yet there is


The configuration lies within,


We are close, yet we are apart,


The perspective is of my heart,


What I see is what I am



And I see before me an impoverished man


I am what I see


Take blood from stone to forge this heart


And Stone from blood to carve this craft


From unknown whim this mortal stands



The Breath of life in these hands

Savoir Faire in the Rouff!

Are some of today’s arbiters of style and design going to be as well known in the future as what they are today? Or are they going to join the ranks of forgotten couturiers whose names only exist for the design savvy? Of course there are houses that will be around for eternity, like Chanel, Dior and St Laurent. However will Lacroix or others be forgotten in 50 years time?

There are so many names like Worth, Molyneux, Paquin, Desses whose names are only in Museums and fashion history texts. One such name is Maggy Rouff. Born Maggie Besançon de Wagner in Paris, 1896, she worked in her parent’s couture house of Drecoll, before opening on her own as Maggy Rouff in 1929.

Harmony and simplicity were cornerstones of Maggy Rouff's belief in elegance as a way of life, and the way of fashion. A truly elegant woman was in harmony with her environment and herself, and to Rouff this meant being properly dressed for every occasion. Patrons of her salon were secure in the knowledge that they would emerge with the right clothes, clothes that were fashionable, flattering, and appropriate. This did not mean she was conservative; rather, she believed novelty, and even surprise, were good for fashion. Novelty when allied with taste yielded chic, but novelty without taste was only eccentric.




A Rouff design was always “just right”, never too little or too much. A focal point was established in every costume, whether it be in the trimming, the cut of a sleeve or bodice, or the use of contrasting fabrics in swathes of fabric across the hips. Surfaces were enriched with different textures such as shirring or quilting. Her designs always enhanced an underlying sense of feminity.

Sarong-like style drapes of skirts, soft folds at a neckline, wrapped and tied surplice fronts and dramatic sleeves were a favoured feature and were common themes that ran through Rouff’s designs. Accents were also important and were always in perfect balance and proportion with the whole outfit, such as the embroidery on the evening dress below.


In 1942 while Paris was occupied by German troops, Rouff wrote La Philosophie de L'Elégance. Her justification for what might have been considered in such circumstances a frivolous topic was her belief that even in darkest times there must be faith in the future. Her book was, in a sense, an affirmation of the value and substance which the arts of elegance had given to her life and her success.


Rouff's daughter, Anne-Marie, took over the designing upon her mother's retirement in 1948. The house maintained the attitudes toward dress it had always expressed, and the clothes were still elegant and feminine, however it took a while for Anne-Marie to find her mother’s sense of equilibrium where design was concerned.

*Princess Grace of Monaco in a Rouff design

The house of Maggy Rouff did not survive the make-or-break period of the 1960s. Three designers worked for the house in the 1960s, during which time the business was transformed into a ready-to-wear house. The collections seem to have been aimed at a younger customer, but the original precepts of the house may have made it difficult to become established with a clientéle more interested in the pursuit of youth than the pursuit of elegance. The company was closed before Rouff's death in 1971.

Rouff once described herself as a couturier, deliberately rejecting the female title of couturière, "for I make a great distinction between the two terms," she said. "The couturier is a general who is more or less qualified, and who has, under his command, an army of collaborators. A couturière can, indeed, be very great and important . . . but the word by itself implies a knowledge and experience of manual labor. And I scarcely know how to cut!"