Though it might have lost some of its cachet, Downton Abbey is still a huge hit in the US and now it’s starting to inspire the decorating choices in the highest reaches of power. Ben Terris, a reporter for the Washington Post, recently got a tour of Congressman Aaron Schock’s new quarters in the Rayburn House Office Building and his interior designer says it was inspired by the dining room where Maggie Smith has spit so many well-formed insults from her pursed lips. The funny thing is, Schock doesn’t want to talk about it.
According to pictures taken by Terris, Schock’s office features deep red walls, large crystal chandeliers, ornate gold-leaf picture frames surrounding portraits of 19th century politicians and a vase full of pheasant feathers. Annie Brahler, the Illinois interior designer who owns a firm called Euro Trash and who decorated the office, told Terris that it was inspired by everyone’s favorite manor house soap opera. Schock freaked out when he realised that Terris had this information and refused to cooperate with his article.
Why would the congressman be ashamed of his decorating scheme? Early 20th-century chic seems appropriate for DC, which is filled with neoclassical buildings and federal-style recreations. When it’s not a testament to utilitarianism, the city’s architecture is celebratory of an inherited past that founders of this country brought with them from Europe. Downton and its trappings seem of a piece with that.
Olde-worlde home design has always been especially popular in America. For some, velvet settees and frosted rose lamps with beads dangling from the glass shades connote a British opulence and sophistication often lacking in the States. However, in a recent episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, the house of soap actress Eileen Davidson’s house – which was done up in precisely this style – was derided as looking like the Bates motel from Psycho, a strong indication that this chintzy style is no longer aspirational to Americans.
Maybe Schock blanched because there is something a bit cheesy about taking your personal style from a television show. Facebook billionaire Sean Parker was mocked for his Game of Thrones-inspired wedding last year. Taking such extensive cues from the tube may looks like someone has no style of their own beyond their particular fandom.
Let’s not forget, however, that Downton Abbey is on PBS, which is in part funded by the government (and viewers like you, as they so often tell us). The Republicans have been trying to destroy PBS for years and Mitt Romney made a pledge in 2012 that he would cut its funding were he elected president. How can Schock stand so firmly behind the channel’s biggest hit when his party has put PBS on the chopping block?
Perhaps the real reason Schock wanted his office to be kept under wraps is because it is yet another thing that would make him stand out from his peers in the House of Representatives. Schock is known as one of the more extrovert members of the legislature. The 33-year-old once graced the cover of Men’s Health magazine showing off his abs and first gained national attention thanks to an outfit he wore to a White House picnic that included white pants, a plaid magenta shirt, and a teal belt.
Compared to the navy-blue-suit-and-eggshell-wall crowd passing national legislation, this counts as dangerously flamboyant. Perhaps that accounts for Schock’s reticence. But he should embrace the attention to his style, if only because it makes him one of the few colourful characters in the rather bland assemblage. Instead it looks like his love of the Granthams is something to hide. That shouldn’t be the case. And even if it was, Lady Mary would still approve, and what other endorsement does one possibly need?
