The muted brown and green color palette of the rug is also present in the rosewood-veneered Italian modern club chairs with matching ottomans which Bastone had custom-upholstered in a Bizarre silk reproduction manufactured by Prelle in Lyon, France – the capital of European silk weaving. Bizarre silk is a popularized term for seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Western European woven silks. Silks of this time featured large, asymmetrical, and overlapping patterns often inspired by motifs from different Asian cultures and then stylized to the point of near abstraction. This particular fabric features an elaborate pattern of florals and architectural motifs in pink, green, brown, and black, with woven metallic silver and gold threads. Stephen Bastone says, “I love the juxtaposition of applying this silk to a 1940s chair to create a very interesting and chic result.”
