Modernism Week is just around the corner (February 15-25, 2024), and we’re excited to welcome a new Mod Squad to take us behind the scenes of the ultimate celebration of midcentury architecture, design, culture, and more.
Today, we’re excited to welcome part-time decorator, full-time vintage enthusiast, and returning Mod Squad alum Natalie Wong to join us in Palm Springs this month!
Natalie Wong is an interior stylist, content creator, vintage enthusiast, and proud owner of a Hollywood Regency–inspired apartment based in Los Angeles.
She’s passionate about using vintage and secondhand decor elements in her designs, and has traveled the world visiting thrift shops, flea markets and antique malls. Follow along in her decor journeys at @lagirl310.
Read on to see what “modernism” means to Natalie.
NW: “A true modernist, Walt Disney still remains one of the most influential people in media and entertainment. While Disney is best known for the creation of Mickey Mouse and Disneyland, few know that he was a pioneer and visionary for midcentury design. Walt Disney Imagineering was created in 1952 to oversee the production of Disneyland, and its team currently resides in Glendale, California . From his theme parks to his personal homes in Palm Springs, Disney was responsible for a full range of modernist design, including the earliest modern, high-tech office complexes.”
NW: “As one of the most prominent architects in Mexico, Luis Barragán was a master of light, texture and color in his designs. Casa Gilardi was his last masterpiece: a single-family home built for an advertising executive in the Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City. A ‘Mexican modernist,’ Barragan combined modernist and traditional Latin American influences, using bright, saturated colors and focused his designs inwards to courtyards and open to the sky. An architectural icon, Barragán redefined modernism and showed how modernism and minimalism meet.”
NW: “In the 1950s and 1960s, real estate developer Joseph Eichler’s business, Eichler Homes, built over 11,000 homes in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas of California. As the father of midcentury design tract communities, Eichler was an advocate not just for midcentury modern design, he was also an ally for minorities. He aspired to bring modernist homes to the middle-class masses, even establishing a non-discrimination policy when selling to minorities. By disrupting the status quo socially, Eichler fully embraced modernist belief beyond design.”
Follow Natalie at @lagirl310 for more design inspiration during Modernism Week 2024.
