Yes, fashion hits the backyard. Here’s the Minnidip x Alice + Olivia Tufted Luxe inflatable Pool designed by Stacey Bendet for Minnidip. It’s $70 at the Minnidip site (and has a coordinating beach ball and float-drinks-cooler combo.
By Stephanie Cavanaugh
IT’S BLOODY hot out there, but at Architectural Digest it’s chill. I don’t always appreciate this magazine: It’s often too pretentious and insanely pricy. But the new, September, issue offers plenty of styling jelly beans and bubble gum, rooms full of color and joy—there’s even a steal in there.
Of course, most of the wares are over the top; a $36,295 Murano glass chandelier frosted with multicolored blown-glass baubles would be just the thing, wouldn’t it?
But then, the eye stops, seizing on an inflatable pool, of all things, with tufted sides patterned in black and white, surrounding a gamine face with a swish of black bang above enormous round black shades and a rosebud mouth. One would have to dress for this, of course, and nothing chintzy: a white ruffled bikini perhaps, so Bardot. A sleek black maillot.
An inflatable pool in Architectural Digest? And it’s $70? A mere mortal can actually do this! Although they appear to suggest you accessorize with a lipstick-red enameled-ceramic cocktail table from Ralph Pucci ($2,820, shown in black on the site). It’s the high-low business that makes the pool amusing. Darling.
Designed by Stacey Bendet,* founder of the whimsical fashion house Alice + Olivia, for Minnidip pools, it’s 5½ feet in diameter, large enough for the average-sized woman to wallow, and 21 inches deep—that should be enough to cover most bellies.
I visited the Minnidip website, and oh, what a gleeful place! There are crystal-clear pools and pink pools, striped pools, polka-dot pools, and fruit-patterned pools. A yellow-and-white-striped number would make one feel like an ice cube floating in a frosty glass of lemonade. (See below.)
There’s also a 7-foot-round pool if you want to entertain guests, and coordinating umbrellas if a bit of shade is in order.
For a touch of class, there are inflatable pools with—I kid you not—fountains in the center, one with hints of a Moroccan garden, its sides covered in an elaborate pattern in turquoise and white; just bring on the eunuchs. Another, they say, in a deep green boxwood pattern, for what they call a “chic midcentury hotel vibe.” Both are out of stock, of course.
Kids keep OUT! (Though there are kiddie pools, too, and some are even designed for doggie claws.)
But it’s the adult pools that are so captivating, so playful. Plunk one in a tiny yard, on a terrace, a deck. Surround it with potted palms, hibiscus, an orchid or two. Now pour yourself something chill. Here’s to surviving August, with a grin.
A first! And no wonder it’s sold out at the moment. It’s Minnidip’s Topiary Luxe Inflatable Fountain in an all-over boxwood print. You use a garden hose to supply the fountain with its spritz. Until it’s back in stock you might content yourself with the 3-foot-wide Topiary Beach Ball ($33) or its 20-inch-diameter cousin ($16). All on the Minnidip site.
The Speckled Terrazzo Pup Dip Dog Pool, engineered with no inflatable elements to withstand doggie paws (those nails, you know, but they should still be trimmed). It’s $45 at the Minnidip site.
If pink will complement your peonies, the Blushing Palms Luxe Inflatable Pool will call to you ($55 on the Minnidip site).
Moroccans know the allure of cooling blue. The Marrakesh Luxe Inflatable Pool, $70, was inspired by intricate tile work throughout the North African kingdom. It’s on the Minnidip site.
*Bendet’s eye-candy apartment in New York’s fabulous Dakota apartment house is featured in this issue of Architectural Digest. With no terrace, one does wonder where she puts the pool. The living room? It wouldn’t look out of place.
Val – consider the living room — have the eunuchs fill it for you. When changing the water, please have them use it on the potted palms and such.
I have never cared to have a yard…till now.