Welcome! Thank you for visiting my weblog. I am Irene, Elisabeth Pouw, a Dutch blogger. As blogger I am connecting my readers with beauty, style, quality and craftsmanship in various subjects like interiordesign, architecture, haute couture, photography, art etc. I created this blog to share my passion for decorating as well as the many other things which inspire me. From time to time I am also highlighting certain interior designers, decorators, architects, stylists, photographers etc. I hope you enjoy your visit. Feel free to give a comment on my blogs. I will react back as soon as possible. Best regards, Irene Pouw from Holland.
Good Evening! Tonight I've accomplished the milestone of 4 million page views since I started with my weblog ByElisabethNL on December 11th, 2011. I am very proud and happy with this great result. Would like to thank you wholeheartedly for your interest in my blogs. It's always a pleasure to be a source of inspiration for my readers.
Wishing you a beautiful evening and greetings from Amsterdam (NL). Irene Pouw, Interior- & Fashionblogger (ByElisabethNL). ♥ ♥ ♥
While surfing today on internet I found this elegant Swedish apartment located in the renowned Oscar Properties development. Beautifully styled by the team of Lotta Agaton Interiors. I am in love with the soft grey palette paired with warm beige and brown tones. It looks really elegant and at the same time very peaceful by the balanced color choices. Love the high ceilings too. Later on I will publish another blogpost about this interesting interior designer Lotta Agaton. Be Inspired ........ Earlier I wrote already another blogpost about Lotta, SEE HERE
Lotta Agaton, the interior designer
More about Lotta Agaton
Lotta Agaton is a renowned Swedish interior designer, stylist and founder of Lotta Agaton Interiors, one of Scandinavia’s leading interior design studios. Lotta Agaton is a prominent figure in Scandinavian interior design, known for her multidisciplinary approach that combines styling, creative direction and architectural interior projects. She founded Lotta Agaton Interiors in 2004, a studio that works on a wide range of projects including private homes, offices, retail spaces and commercial styling for international clients. Her studio emphasizes long-lasting quality, functional design and a human-centered approach, ensuring that every space is tailored to the client’s needs and vision.
Career and Background
Agaton grew up in a family connected to architecture, as her father was an architect, which influenced her early interest in interiors. She began her career as an interior stylist and co-founded the Swedish interior magazine Residence, gaining extensive experience in editorial design and visual communication. After four years at the magazine, she established her own studio which has since become a leading name in Scandinavian interior design.
Design Philosophy
Her work is characterized by a seamless integration of architecture, interior design and styling, focusing on materials that age beautifully and timeless aesthetics. The studio handles everything from technical architectural drawings to the careful curation of furniture, art and objects, ensuring that each project reflects a cohesive design vision. Agaton also emphasizes the human touch and functionality, creating spaces that are both visually striking and livable.
Notable Projects
Lotta Agaton Interiors has worked on prestigious projects worldwide including residential complexes like 79 & Park in Stockholm, designed by Bjarke Ingels with interiors curated by her studio. The studio also collaborates with commercial clients on showroom designs, fair stands and visual identity projects, demonstrating versatility across private and public spaces.
In summary, Lotta Agaton is a highly influential interior designer and stylist whose work blends Scandinavian minimalism with functional elegance, making her studio a benchmark for quality and creativity in interior design.
Interesting interiorbook about Paris: "Living in Style" by photographer Reto Guntli. Arguably the most stylish city in the world, Paris has long been known for its sleek, sophisticated interiors. This inspiring volume takes us on a tour of the French capital's most notable dwellings. These luxurious living quarters will truly take your breath away! The decor ranges from classic to contemporary, with intriguing choices of furniture, finishes and materials. Reto Guntli's spectacular yet accessible photography makes you feel right at home. Be Inspired ......
Thank you for reading this blogpost. Source: Amazon
Good Evening! Today I've accomplished the milestone of 3 million page views since I started with my weblog ByElisabethNL on December 11th, 2011. I am very proud and happy with this great result. Would like to thank you wholeheartedly for your interest in my blogs. It's always a pleasure to be a source of inspiration for my readers.
Wishing you a great new week ahead and greetings from Amsterdam (NL). Irene Pouw, Interior- & Fashionblogger (ByElisabethNL). ♥ ♥ ♥
Now and then I will share some photos from the area where I live. I live in North of Holland. It's about 40 kilometers from our capital Amsterdam (NL). I guess that my readers would like to know a bit more about me as a blogger (the person behind this blog, the area where I live ......).
This week I went by bike to the Dutch place Egmond-Binnen to pick up a delivered package. The area is quite country-sided with open fields with huge trees and houses. Lots of space with cows, goats and sheeps grazing, really peaceful ...... While cycling I came across this field with yellow flowers and a large farmhouse. There was a beautiful sky with lots of clouds. Of course I could not resist to take a quick photo with my mobile phone. Greetings from Irene. p.s. Earlier I published more photos, shot by me SEE HERE
Thank you for reading this blogpost. Ph. captured by Irene Pouw by mobile phone
While surfing on internet I found this beautiful apartment of 400 m2 located in Barcelona on the Paseo de Gracia, the most listed street of Barcelona. It is designed by the very talented interior designer & blogger Katty Schiebeck. She created a sophisticated & elegant place with personality. Love her interesting choices for interior design. Enjoy the beauty and luxury of this apartment .....
Katty Schiebeck, interior designer
More about Katty Katty Schiebeck, self-taught interior designer and blogger at Somewhere I Would Like to Live — a website of inspiring photography, tasteful interiors and architecture — is truly the product of her generation. Her work has been shared online with such an enthusiasm that it has catapulted her onto the international stage.
Despite her modest-sized portfolio of residential projects — the most blogged-about being a 440-square-metre apartment in Barcelona’s upscale Passeig de Grà cia — Schiebeck’s distinctive style has attracted attention from day one. What some might see as a mix of Scandinavian minimalism and contemporary Spanish design, the interior designer prefers to describe simply as “welcoming and austere at the same time”. There are many other influences at play, she adds. The work of Modernists Le Corbusier and Mies Van der Rohe and the dramatic interiors of American architect Paul Rudolph are all touchstones.
Most important for Schiebeck, however — and the starting point for every project — is to respect the history or the ‘bones’ of each site. “I try to retrieve some architectural elements of the space, for instance: a floor of mosaic tiles or some moulds on the walls,” she explains. “I’ve been fortunate to work on properties in Barcelona of modernist style, where you always find such decorative elements.”
Schiebeck came to interiors via real estate, an avenue that allowed her to build a client base quickly but decorating was always her first love. “I used to love going to Encants, a small flea market in Barcelona, to look for pieces,” she says. “Furniture with lots of character fascinates me.”
The furniture Schiebeck sources for her clients is mostly custom-designed and made to fit each interior, almost always in mid-century modern style. The careful arrangement of these pieces creates a sense of space — one of the most remarkable characteristics of her work.
Another Schiebeck hallmark is an emphasis on light: “Always maximise the natural light,” she says. Adhering to a neutral colour palette — white, ecru, light grey and blond and honeyed woods with dramatic black accents — and the interplay of timber, marble and micro-cement surfaces make her interiors appear more light-filled.
Good Morning! Today I've accomplished the milestone of 2,8 million page views since I started with my weblog ByElisabethNL on December 11th, 2011. I am very proud and happy with this great result. Would like to thank you wholeheartedly for your interest in my blogs. It's always a pleasure to be a source of inspiration for my readers.
Wishing you a great new week ahead and greetings from Amsterdam (NL). Irene Pouw, Interior- & Fashionblogger (ByElisabethNL). ♥ ♥ ♥
Be inspired by this beautiful fashion photo from photographer Gladys Ng. She is a fashion, advertising and commercial photographer based in Singapore. Love her beautiful work, a combination of beauty, art & photography. This blogpost was earlier published on 14-07-2014.
More about Gladys Ng: Experimental is the word to describe photographer Gladys Ng and her works. Fascinated by beautiful things since young, fashion photography is doubtlessly her calling. Since she started fashion photography in 2010, her works have been published in numerous fashion magazines and also international platforms. She won many awards both in her own country and internationally.
Never one to bow to monotony and constantly aims to transcend boundaries, she loves to capture beauty through her art. As Alexander McQueen says, beauty can come from the strangest of places. To her, every shoot is like creating a new piece of art that is exclusive. It is not about just taking photographs but creating fairytales. For more information about her background and stunning work, see the enclosed links below.
Thank you for reading this blogpost. Sources: Gladys NG and FMD
Ansel Adams was born in the Western Addition of San Francisco, California. He was an American photographer and environmentalist (1902 - 1984). His black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park, have been widely reproduced on calendars, posters and in books.
With Fred Archer, Adams developed the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs. Adams primarily used large-format cameras because their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his images.
Adams founded the photography Group f/64 along with fellow photographers Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston. In 1921, Ansel Adams produced his first photograph. In 1927, Adams produced his first portfolio, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras, in his new style, which included his famous image Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, taken with his Korona view camera using glass plates and a dark red filter.
Adams received a Doctorate of Arts from both Harvard and Yale universities. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1966. He was awarded with various awards and was inducted into the California Hall of Fame by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver in 2007.
Would like to share with you today this interesting photo from fashion photographer Norman Parkinson: The Art of Travel on Artnet Auctions. Love his beautiful fashion photos. Norman Parkinson was a pioneer of fashion photography. Famous for his iconic sense of style and glamour, Parkinson’s unexpected and unique approach brought a freshness to the sometimes staid genres of fashion and portrait photography. Be Inspired ........
More about Norman Parkinson (1913 - 1990)
Norman Parkinson established his first photographic studio in 1934 and following World War II rapidly became one of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar most prominent photographer. Sharing with Toni Frissel the honor of being the first to have brought models outdoors, the British photographer privileged a realistic and impulsive aesthetic. He brought glamour and fantasy to his narratives that featured colorful and elegant yet humorous compositions that often took place in exotic landscapes - ‘I like there to be a joke in practically every photo I take.’ He discovered such models as Grace Coddington and Jerry Hall whom he depicted in 1975 in the USSR and pushed a certain Brian Ferry fascinated by her portrait to ask her to pose for a Roxy Music album cover and become her girlfriend. Rigorous yet surrealist are adjectives that would perfectly describe not only his images but also the man. The quintessential British charmer had an incredible allure and attitude dedicated to style.
I love travelling and visiting other places / countries, meeting people, making new friends worldwide. Today I would like to highlight the place Florence, Italy. What a beautiful place to be! It's on my bucketlist ........ :-)
Such an outstanding collection again from Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen for her Spring/Summer 2021 couture collection from Paris Fashion Week. She is a true visionary and such a fascinating artist! This collection is beyond. Elegant, innovative and mystical. Bravo, Iris! What a craftsmanship, creativity and originality. So beautiful to see. Below you will find her Couture collection for S/S 2021. At the end I also added the You Tube movie. I found the video completely mesmerizing, from start to finish. Get Inspired ...... This blogpost is a repost of my blog from 01-02-2021.
Sevdaliza embodies the 'Apotheosis' gown.
More about this haute couture collection S/S 2021
Iris van Herpen explores a symbiosis of high technology and the artisanal craftsmanship of couture, through a collection that references the intricacy of fungi and the entanglement of life that breathes beneath our feet.
Iris showed her latest collection ‘Roots of Rebirth’ during Paris
Haute Couture Week on January 25th 2021. The work of Iris van Herpen is
often described as ethereal and transcendental; a chimeric exposition,
radiating shapes that reference the relationship between the human body and the
natural world. This season, the Dutch designer explores the rich, yet deeply
fragile interconnectedness of an unfamiliar world, the enigmatic fungi empire
and the life-bearing fine threads of mycelium. The collection details the
extraordinary existence of this winding ‘fabric of life,’ the marvelling world
of undergrowth tapestry. In reference to the book penned by scientist Merlin
Sheldrake, ‘Entangled Life’ notes that ‘fungi is the ecological connective
tissue, the living seam by which much of the world is stitched into relation.’
“Thinking about fungi makes the world look different. These astonishing
organisms challenge our animal imaginations and make questions of many of our
well-worn concepts, from individuality to intelligence.” - Merlin Sheldrake
‘Roots of Rebirth’ extends its own branch, an invitation to a
sequence of 21 looks inspired by roots and spores. During the show, the models
seem to magnetise a living lace of spores with each stride, the entanglement of
each garment resembles roots of regeneration. Two looks embody the 'henosis'
technique, in which multiple translucent layers of duchess fabric were dyed in
pastel hues, forming a 'mantodea' motif. An off-white lasercut venation formed
by a myriad of hovering fins sprout outwards, radiating each motion into a
delicate lacy array of invisible interconnectedness. In other creations,
hand-embroidered roots surge and symmetrically entwine the body in
transformative tones, from liquid copper to deep shades of burnt umber.
Hand-pleated mahogany silk were draped to fan out into hemispheric blooms.
