where would Holly Golightly keep her tillandsias?

For the holidays, it’s okay to ditch the earnest glass orbs that imprison tillandsias the rest of the year and take a leaf from Holly Golightly’s decorating book, the one that epitomizes her insouciant glamour. The one each of us imagines Holly would have written. And of course in my book Holly writes about plants and has the savvy to know that those glass orbs are more like glass coffins than suitable digs for any respectable tillandsia. Even champagne glasses would be preferable, where they’d get more beneficial air circulation (being “air” plants and all). And Holly would want to keep things easy for moving the tillandsias around the apartment as the light and humidity changes, or to dunk in the kitchen sink once a week, or mist occasionally with water in her favorite perfume atomizer, possibly the one from Tiffany’s.

So where would Holly keep her tillandsias?

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These vintage purses with that irresistibly satisfying click and snap to close, little time capsules of the art of the alluring, are a possibility.
The handle makes it easy to carry onto the fire escape to accompany Holly and Cat when they feel like singing to the moon.

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I’ve got a shelf of old cameras, some in working order, some not, like the one above, which will certainly glam up the mantle with that tillandsia rakishly festooned in the gap where it’s missing some forgotten but vital functioning piece. And cameras simply adore Holly.

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Sometimes it’s an incredibly useful exercise to ask: What would Ms. Golightly do?

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5 Responses to where would Holly Golightly keep her tillandsias?

  1. shirley says:

    ‘earnest glass orbs’? I love it Denise, you made me laugh!!! BTW, is that clutch going up for sale in December? Sorry for the tillandsias, but that is a beautiful bag…

  2. Hoov says:

    That is 1 sweet purse, so much more elegant than the huge sagging studded sacks ladies drag around these days. Oy, I sound hostile! Must be the holidays.

  3. Blackswampgirl Kim says:

    J’adore this post!

  4. Denise says:

    Shirley, ask Mitch, earnestness is a fatal flaw with me, so I know it when I see it! And I’m not sure if my flea partners will let me put that clutch on our communal sales table!
    Hoov, never in a million years could I carry such a purse, but as a cultural artifact I love it.
    Kim, thank you for saying so! Sometimes I hesitate posting some of these OTT impulses I get.

  5. crystabel funes says:

    I also love love this post,the purse ,the camera , the breakfast at tiffany’s cute way of writing, I will come back for sure, btw I sell dolls Here at long beach:) and costume jewelry, I will stop by your side of our lol flemarket…..im by the first row behind actually after the building food court is in…see you!
    c.f.

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