Despite knowing Stephen Sprouse for nearly twenty years, I didn’t meet his mother, Joanne, or his brother, Brad, or any of his other relatives until after he passed away. When we finally met, we all agreed that it was long overdue and regretted that it couldn’t have been under happier circumstances.
In the years since, there have been a lot of Stephen Sprouse projects and events — a book, a retrospective, the famous Louis Vuitton special collection, a museum show in Hong Kong, and so on — keeping me in regular contact with Stephen’s family. But regardless of the quasi-professional elements to our relationship, I have a lot of affection for them as friends and really enjoy getting together with them socially. Unfortunately it doesn’t happen very often and when it does, it’s always in New York.
“When are you and Deborah going to visit us in Michigan?” they always ask.
“Soon,” I always say.
Well, this year, “soon” finally came.
And so…
We checked out of western Pennsylvania’s beautiful “Ritz” Carlton Motel and were on our way.
A long haul, nearly 600 miles, from Daisytown, PA to Michigan’s Leelanu Penninsula and with a windshield full of bug splatter and the late summer sun setting in our eyes to slow us down, we were later than expected.
I called Brad along the way to give him a status update and let him know when to expect us. “Okay, we’ll see you when you get here,” he said. “Big Jo has a surprise for you when you get in.” (Big Jo is what he calls his mother, Joanne.)
Over the river and through the woods, we turned onto the long, tree-lined drive of Joanne’s beautiful lakeside home. “It’s the quintessential grandma’s house, isn’t it?” I said to Deborah. “Albeit with a few additions.”
Brad, Joanne, Brandon and Brandon’s girlfriend, Winnie, greeted us in the driveway. After the initial hugs and hellos, we were led inside where we sat around the kitchen table snacking on homemade pie while Joanne prepared the surprise.
Several minutes later, “Okay, follow me,” said Joanne, and she led us through the living room and down the hall. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
She pushed open the door to the spare bedroom revealing a floor-to-ceiling Day-Glo and neon rose radiating in all its luminescent glory. “Welcome to The Rose Lounge.”
“Wow,” was about all we could say.
Joanne told the story about how, when the big Stephen Sprouse/Louis Vuitton promotion ended, she contacted someone at Louis Vuitton to see about getting one of the neon roses that had been used in Louis Vuitton’s SoHo store, thinking it would be nice to hang it over the piano in her living room. But apparently she remembered the rose being much smaller than it actually was and was shocked when a delivery man came to her door ready to unload a seven foot square wooden crate. “Where would you like it?”
The crate sat in the middle of the house for a couple of weeks until finally, with a little rearranging and some help from Brandon and Brad, she managed to find a suitable place to hang it which, in the process, created the simultaneously cozy and intense “Rose Lounge” where we sat for a champagne toast and some chocolates to celebrate our arrival.
“Welcome to Michigan.”
