STANDING ON CEREMONY

摘要

IF YOU WANT to take the measure of a society, look not at what is celebrated but what is maligned: We find it easier to define ourselves by what we are not rather than what we are. What we are not, after all, is simple to spot—it's that guy over there, and what he's doing. So it's interesting to spend time in fashion designer Ralph Rucci's jewel box of an apartment, a terraced penthouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. There, a fastidious attention to luxury, detail, and carefully chosen objets d'art is so pronounced that at first glance it might seem precious, calculated, contrived. But when you sit down and breathe and feel the peace and thoughtfulness of the place, you realize how strange it is that we put a pejorative spin on words like precious, calculated, and contrived. Chez Rucci, those words are ideals to aim for. Still, American design today embraces other adjectives, ones seemingly at odds with Rucci's own outlook. Simple, unpretentious, down-to-earth style is the order of the day. But Rucci is not down-to-earth, nor does he aspire to be. Nor, however, is he some postmodern, irony-mad devotee of artifice for artifice's sake.