“Standing in front of an open mailbox with a scorched envelope in my hands. The confusion was similar when his “imaginary rooms” first presented themselves to me: awkward, unpeopled, Degas-colored, irreverent of style or purity, freely invented with just enough effort to complete a semblance of space, dashed off like an inscription or a thank-you note. The charisma of his costume designs, fashion illustrations, frontispieces, paintings, sets, rugs, scarves, improvised stylings and “looks” for legendary parties is buoyed by this sure, yet unsure line. Everything I can’t talk about I read into this trenchant shorthand for a world so detailed and sweet, social, hilarious, intuited, complete within the borders of its ambitions as a proposal, a counter-design. Unbearable, because I recognize it instantly, inviting, because it is still completely foreign to me.”

—
Nick Mauss Everything that Hesitates (2010) p. 4 - 5