Texas Design Week Houston — The Life and Style of Unintentional Design Muse Bunny Mellon

Cocktails, Illustrated Talk and Book Signing with Thomas Lloyd and Bryan Huffman

BY Lisa Collins Shaddock // 04.19.22

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Inside the central pavilion of Bunny Mellon’s formal greenhouse at Oak Spring with Fernand Renard trompe l’oeil paintings.

Thomas Lloyd and Bryan Huffman will sign Bunny Mellon Style Tuesday, April 26, 6 to 8 pm at The Sarofim House. Photo © 2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Used with permission of Isabelle Rey.

Bunny Mellon's beloved Oak Spring gardens.

Bryan Huffman, a close friend of Bunny Mellon's.

The Basket House at Bunny and Paul Mellon's Oak Spring estate.

Thomas Lloyd and Bryan Huffman will sign Garden Secrets of Bunny Mellon.

Trompe l'oeil cabinets in the greenhouse that open to reveal a bar sink.

Bunny Mellon at home in her Cape Cod house.

The late Summer gardens at Oak Spring Farm. September 13, 2017.

The arbor leading from the Formal Greenhouse to the gardens at Oak Spring.

Bunny's signature myrtle topiaries in the greenhouse at Oak Spring.

Designed for Bunny by Balenciaga, a garden tunic with diamond-shaped patch pockets, in pistachio green cotton taffeta, and her trademark blue bucket hat.

Inside the central pavilion of Bunny Mellon’s formal greenhouse at Oak Spring with Fernand Renard trompe l’oeil paintings.

Bunny Mellon: Style and Substance

Tuesday, April 26, 6 to 8 pm at The Sarofim House

Bunny Mellon, one of the most unintentionally influential women of 20th century design, has left her imprint in the decorative world — painted hardwood floors, potted myrtle topiaries, handwoven baskets, and in the world of fashion — muse and friend to Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy and Jean Schlumberger. The late philanthropist and horticulturalist known for her unparalleled eye for detail, preference for understated elegance, and gardening frocks designed by Balenciaga then Givenchy, created legendary family homes and gardens that are revered today.

Thomas Lloyd, Mellons’ grandson and president of the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation founded by Bunny Mellon and named for her father, along with designer Bryan Huffman, friend to Mellon for many years, have co-authored Bunny Mellon Style (Gibbs Smith), and Garden Secrets of Bunny Mellon (Gibbs Smith). In an illustrated talk, Lloyd and Huffman offer up stories from those close to Mellon, as well as personal anecdotes, photography, watercolors, drawings, and excerpts from her personal writings and correspondence.

A foreword by Tory Burch — the current owner of the Mellons’ much-loved Antigua estate, King’s Leap — sets the tone, musing on Mellon’s “perfectly imperfect approach to her houses, and to her gardens. . . a triumph of restraint.”

Bryan Huffman and Thomas Lloyd will discuss the life and influence of Bunny Mellon and sign their books Tuesday, April 26, 6 to 8 pm at The Sarofim House, hosted by New Orleans Auction Galleries and the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA).

Texas Design Week Houston is a ticketed event. For details about the event and to purchase tickets, visit TexasDesignWeek.com.