Haute Femme

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"We call it neutral with a pop—a pretty neutral room with a bright orange chair," says Wendy Wurtzburger, merchandising manager for Anthropologie, who has noticed a yearning for standout embellishment among the company's mostly female constituents. "We're finding that people come to us for something unique, artistic or distinctive," she says. Haute femme's influence can be traced to radically different stores. New York City's John Derian does a roaring trade in delicate decoupage (a Marie Antoinette favorite), while even mainstream retailers like the Bombay Co. offer affordable mirrored chests that would not look out of place in a Right Bank apartment.

In the end, anyone can do luxury. Haute femme, however, requires a more irreverent touch. It is as much about what is omitted as what is included. Recent hotels that echo the gospel include Jonathan Adler's Parker Palm Springs, styled to resemble the rambling estate of a madcap aunt, and Christian Lacroix's Hôtel du Petit Moulin in Paris, with suites decked out in couture illustrations and a wild mélange of texture and color. What all these disparate projects have in common is an aversion to the white-box mentality. "I like white, and you need neutral things," says Wearstler, "but to have a room all in white—I would go crazy."