Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Ponyboy Curtis Sleeps Here

It wasn’t so long ago that I had a magazine picture of Ricky Schroder taped to the wall above my bed. Most of my friends had a Duran Duran poster taped to the ceiling above theirs. But 25 years later, such decorating sense would be frowned upon both by spouses and design professionals alike.

Luckily, there’s a place to where us Gen X girls can steal away and relive our 1980s youth, if only for a night. The Gladstone Hotel in Toronto boasts a Teen Queen room, decorated with lavender walls, gingham bedspread, unicorn lamp, and—best of all—walls plastered with teen magazine photos of everyone from Rob Lowe to C. Thomas Howell.
All of The Outsiders are represented, as are “fox” Kristy McNichol and bionic woman Lindsay Wagner. There are also a few paintings of horses thrown in for good measure. (I never had the horse fixation myself, but I’ll roll with it knowing so many others who did.)

Cecilia Berkovic is the artist who created the room and describes the Teen Queen as, “Like sleeping over at your best friend’s. An homage to the young girls we were, feared, wished we’d been, or wanted to date.”

My friend Leslie recently spent New Year’s weekend in the Teen Queen. Despite the retro pop culture theme, she said the room was actually aesthetically pleasing and comfortable. “I definitely felt like I was spending intimate time in an art installation,” said Leslie.


In fact, the Gladstone boasts 37 uniquely-designed rooms which the hotel claims reflect the diversity of talent in the city of Toronto and “encompass a number of disciplines including visual artists, interior designers, architects and material-based artists.” Each room is dramatically named for its theme: Skygazer, Faux Naturelle, Trading Post, and my favorite…Parlour of Twilight.

Said Leslie, “Some of the rooms had long-winded, high-falutin' artist statements about “acclimatization” and “erasure as efflorescence,” but the artist statement from the Teen Queen room sold me with its simplicity.”


Just looking at her pictures makes me want to put my hair up in a neon scrunchie and choreograph a dance to a Wham! song.

If you venture to Toronto, the Teen Queen starts at $169/night. But please, no lipstick marks on the photos.

3 comments:

  1. How in the world do you find this stuff? I love it.

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  2. 'Tis the season to be nostalgic... Nice! Happy New Year!

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  3. Amy: A litte bit of luck, a little bit of always being on the lookout...and a little bit of having awesome friends who pass on stuff THEY find.

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