Domino Magazine rises from the dead

Domino Magazine may not mean that much to British readers, but its fans in the US will already know the great news that this former Conde Nast title, which folded in 2009, has risen from the ashes.

Last week, the magazine relaunched as an independent, with former editor Michelle Adams – who founded another brilliant style magazine, Lonny – in charge.

Domino 2:0 as it was dubbed by Tech Crunch last week, also has a modern business model: online readers (the print issue will be quarterly) can now shop directly for look-alike products from each story with a simple click-through facility.

What was so great about Domino? It wasn't up itself. It was always practical. It wasn't always cool. But it was varied. Its interiors weren't out of reach. Not all of them, anyway. They frequently included rented homes and I remember they once did an amazing feature on some kind of hostel where they helped the people living there to do up their rooms with a tiny budget and a dedicated designer on hand. It's just not the sort of thing you get in the average interiors mag. It had a genuine, warm tone. It had Zooey Deschanel on one of its covers, goddammit.

But the pleasure at this news is bittersweet. I'll enjoy the digital version (images from which you can see above, and which so far also includes features on maximising space in a studio flat, comfort food and Coco Chanel's apartment), but there are no plans to make subscriptions of the print issue available. And, being Britain-bound, I can't shop for all those lovely goodies from US retailers. Window shopping will have to do.

Meanwhile, I'm fantasising about having the money and the discipline to live in a flat like the monochrome Manhattan beauty above and in the very top image. The intro to it is just so New York and almost trashy in its uber glamour, so I'll share it below. For anyone who only looks at the pictures in interiors magazines, Domino gives you much, much more. The story introduces the owner of the apartment, Rita Hazan, hair colourist to Beyoncé, no less. And despite also doing Katy Perry's hair pink, purple and blue last year, Rita "only lives only in homes that are black, white, and gray, except for a three-month mistake when she painted her apartment blue". But if that wasn't amazing enough...

...when she moved into a sun-splashed 2,500-square-foot loft on a quiet cobblestone street in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood, she had bought only a white bed and hadn’t yet figured out what to do with the space. A few weeks later, she ran into an old friend, the interior designer Nate Berkus. She told him about the apartment, and he said, “I know who you are: black, white, neutral, art deco, urban chic.” Hired on the spot, Berkus asked if he could bring in his new beau, and interior design partner, Jeremiah Brent, who had previously designed stylist Rachel Zoe’s home. It would be the couple’s first collaboration.

Just brilliant, no? See more at Domino.com

Post by Kate