today i am thrilled and honored to be sharing an interview with melinda launspach, the set decorator for one of my favorite new shows, hbo’s no. 1 ladies detective agency. i’ve mentioned my love of the show’s design before, so it was such a treat to get to chat with one of the people responsible for the look and feel of the program. melinda took the time to give incredibly thoughtful and detailed answers to my questions about design in botswana, working with local artists, and how one goes about telling a story visually, using paint, furniture and decor. what i most love hearing about is the way the show worked with hand-painted signage and supported local industry by using artwork from local artists working at a nonprofit cultural village. there are so many incredible details and stories in her interview, i hope you’ll enjoy it as much as i did. even if you’re not a fan of the show (yet), it’s fascinating to hear how creative people can work with objects and color to create the perfect mood and feel for a story. a big thank you to melinda for taking the time to answer my questions, and thank you to bear at hbo for making this interview possible.

CLICK HERE for melinda’s full interview (and pictures from the set of the show) after the jump!

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i’m a big fan of most hbo shows (hooray for true blood!) but i’m especially fond of their latest addition: the no. 1 ladies detective agency. when it comes to tv, i really appreciate set decoration and the way that that helps tell a visual story and this show does not disappoint when it comes to a visual story. i feel like contemporary tv shows (except for mad men) lean on a very similar color palette, so it’s so refreshing to see the vivid colors used in no.1 ladies. the vivid teals, oranges and yellows are a feast for the eyes and a real treat to watch. i’m not entirely sold on the show’s content yet, but it’s such a pretty one to watch that i think it just might win me over. if you have access to hbo on demand i highly recommend the first episode- if only for the beautiful teal color they paint the detective agency. so, so beautiful.

this morning i thought i’d start with two things i love: beautifully styled product photography and santino rice. i’ll start with the first, because right now i’m silly over these gorgeously shot photos from the new spartan home e-shop. alyson fox kindly sent over a reminder about their recent e-upgrade and i’ve spent the better part of the morning drooling over wonderfully simple, but beautiful, plates, bowls, glasses and small accessories like the vintage mesh rose earrings below. care to join me in the swoon-fest? click here to check them out.

and, last but not least- today is a big day. not only because we have 2 city guides and 2 biz ladies posts, but because julie wolfson has a guest blog post (and video!) with santino rice of project runway today! santino was and will always be my favorite designer to ever grace the project runway catwalk and i’m so thrilled to see him shopping in little tokyo with julie for the d*s guest blog today. if that wasn’t enough, julie’s also shopping with project runway designer kit pistol later this week (stay tuned for that). it’s project runway madness, and i love it. click here to check it out. [all photos of santino and julie by tom andrews]

i promise i’m not going to say anything about the winner or loser of last night’s project runway (finale, part one), but i have to talk about that wedding dress that leanne designed. i’ve liked leanne (or “the portland girl” as she’s called around my house) from the start and have loved watching her style develop over the course of the show. and when she brought her wedding dress from the rack over to tim for examination i thought i was going to fall off the couch. i’ve been wedding dress hunting for nearly 6 months (i changed my mind about the first dress) and i can tell you this is easily the most gorgeous dress i’ve seen all summer and fall. the shape, the folds, the pockets!, the drama of the silhouette- it’s fantastic. if i was as tall as leanne’s model i would be calling her right now to ask if i can order a custom version of this dress for my wedding in april. seriously, how painfully gorgeous is this dress? the only sad thing is that i have a sneaking suspicion it would look rather bad on a person of a height and weight similar to mine. darn those tall-girl dresses. anyway, click here to check out leanne’s designs and my apologies for the hastily taken tv-shots from last night.

ps: did you know you can view the final collections on the bryant park runway already (i can’t bring myself to look)? why on earth did they do this? more weinstein drama?

oh, project runway. i want to look away and not get pulled into another season but each time i find myself going back for more- despite the fact that i cringe every time i have to hear the phrase, “furnished by tresemme- professional haircare“. that “professional haircare” part bugs me every time. but last night i couldn’t resist watching (or jezebel inspired snap judging), so i thought it would be fun to dish (and hear you guys dish) about the show. but unless i want to come home to an inbox flooded with “why did you tell us what happened! i didn’t get to see the show yet!” emails, i’d better keep the conversation going after the jump. so click here, or just click “read more” below, to join the fun. or as tim gunn would say: “holla at your boy”. (or girl)

[i wish there was a better header picture to use above but they seem to have skimped on the pretty photoshopped "full cast" photo too. and publishing each episode theme and guest host for the whole season already? such a bummer. broken contract or not i'll miss the element of surprise.]

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