Better than a tent in Joshua Tree.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NATE ABBOTT
AIRSTREAMING PLATFORMS
If you missed the window on buying dirt-cheap land and plunking down a sweet little getaway in the High Desert, borrow one from AutoCamp. Opening this month, AutoCamp Joshua Tree brings the Airstream lodging concept to prime acreage just outside Joshua Tree National Park. Fully stocked trailer-suites encourage guests to pack light and enjoy much, glamped out by the fire pit with family, a few friends, or their best pup (for a $75 fee). Pop by the midcentury modern Quonset Hut Clubhouse, imbibe at the outdoor bar, or find local artist installations around the property. A mega hot tub becomes a plunge pool come spring. The AutoCamp Joshua Tree joins other camps in Cape Cod, Yosemite, and the Russian River Valley. The Catskills opens later this year and Zion in 2023.
SOME DAZZLING NEWS
Mike Sauls and Keith Burke have returned to desert retail and Dazzles is back. Their Uptown shop, one of the first on North Palm Canyon Drive, was legendary. Now they’re spread out in a high-ceilinged space at The Atrium in Rancho Mirage. Revive your costume jewelry habit, get your Tiki fix, and reminisce with the owners about your grandparents’ homes and why older is better.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JEVPIC
Destination PSP has released a provocative new collection of goods for pool life and home. Each vivacious piece features licensed original artwork created by Vera Neumann in the 1960s and 1970s.
NOTHING BUT VERA
You don’t need to have grown up in the 1960s to know Vera. As one of the most innovative female entrepreneurs, painter and designer Vera Neumann put her artwork on everyday homewares (along with those beautiful scarves) and brightened lives on a global scale. The art licensed for a new collection by Destination PSP came from her 1960s and ’70s Japanese sumi-e (ink) paintings. “We’ve been smitten by vintage images of Marilyn Monroe and Jane Fonda wrapped in Vera designs,” says Tom Dolle, creative director for Destination PSP, regarding the promo images. Placemats in four designs, pool totes, beach towels, and an ice bucket bring Vera back into homes again just in time for Modernism Week, when a four-member panel will regale her success at an event on Feb. 24.
MORE MODERN ON EL PASEO
BoConcept is a new name to the showroom set along on El Paseo, but the brand is more than well-established. Since its founding in Denmark in 1952 and opening its first franchise in Paris in 1993, BoConcept has become a global leader in bold, premium-quality furniture designed to elevate modern spaces. Stephane and Stephanie Duval worked on the corporate side of franchising in Europe for 25 years before moving to California and becoming BoConcept franchisees. Their Palm Desert flagship BoConcept follows their locations in Costa Mesa and L.A. BoConcept shows a modern face across 65 countries with almost 300 locations.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY BOCONCEPT
Pair the sculptural Fiorentina dining table with the best-selling Princeton chairs. BoConcept offers virtual styling help online as well as in-store and in-home design consultations.
POST AND BEAM ME UP
The title is for Trekkies; the subtitle is for everyone. Star Trek: Designing the Final Frontier, How Midcentury Modernism Shaped Our View of
the Future (Weldon Owen, 2021) is a fascinating flip-through regardless of your familiarity with one of the longest-running television franchises of all time (1966-1969). Authors architectural photographer Dan Chavkin and “avowed Star Trek aficionado” Brian McGuire guide readers through the original Starship Enterprise, where the show’s distinctive midcentury-modern art direction and set design portrayed the 23rd century.
“The products of American designers such as Paul McCobb, Milo Baughman, Joe Colombo, Bill Curry, Warren Platner, and Curtis Jere, as well as European designers Pierre Paulin, Osvaldo Borsani, Robert Oberheim, and a host of others were utilized to create a futuristic aesthetic,” the publisher notes. Seldom-seen storyboards and set sketches by art director Matt Jefferies illustrate the creative process behind each episode.
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