Town & Country March 2015

“I try to bring the world around to my way of thinking: how a trace of lipstick, an eloquent gesture, the bat of an eyelash have more power of persuasion than any speech a man could make.” Guest collaborator OLIVIER SAILLARD, in an exploration of modern elegance “French women never share beauty secrets or shopping addresses with anyone— not friends, and certainly not men.” DANA THOMAS, in a tribute to the codes of French style “The Italian woman doesn’t do pretty. There is nothing cute or dainty about her. Instead she is beautiful, handsome, exuberantly sexy, or even magnificently vulgar.” ANDREA LEE, on the formula for Italian glamour…

10 STYLISH SPRING ESSENTIALS THAT EVERY LADY NEEDS IN HER CLOSET An ensemble from Miu Miu pairs nicely with an Alexis Bittar necklace (above) and Stuart Weitzman red mules. THE BEST COCKTAIL BARS IN PARIS Our favorite imbibing spots in the French capital, including Le Bar at L’Hotel. 8 FRAGRANCES THAT WILL MAKE YOU SMELL EXPENSIVE Swank scents from Creed (right) and others. 9 MUSEUM-WORTHY T&C COVERS A few standouts from America’s oldest continually published magazine. THE GREAT BEAUTIES See Richard Avedon’s 1957 “Eight Most Beautiful Women” as it first appeared in T&C, in our e-edition bonus, available at BONUS.TOWNANDCOUNTRYMAG.COM the social network TOWN&COUNTRY @TANDCMAG The @LLBean boot was 2014’s version of Tickle Me Elmo. JAY FIELDEN @JAYFIELDEN Is Christie’s abrupt shift of CEO a sign that runaway guarantees are…

Anyone who reads this Magazine with regularity knows that Town & Country has been an enthusiastic admirer of all things French for more than a century. In these last three years, since I’ve been the editor, you might even say we have been particularly attuned to this special part of the world. How could we not be? It is irrefutable that when it comes to haute couture and haute cuisine, Eifel Towers, the croissant, Dada, café life, Catherine Deneuve, reliably rude waiters, Existentialism, the Nouvelle Vague, Montaigne, Matisse, and Montrachet, nothing compares. We had, in fact, been preparing an issue with an even more Francophilic bent than usual and were busily sending pages to the printer on the morning of Wednesday, January 7, when every desktop screen in our office…

1 DOUGLAS FRIEDMAN “Shooting the Salon Doré was so much fun, but the highlight was spending two hours in Dede Wilsey’s closets picking just the right dress for her portrait,” says Friedman, the photographer behind the images in “ROOM AND BOARD” (page 180). “It seemed every hanger had a beautiful frock on it and a wildly interesting story to go with it.” Friedman, pictured here with Charles the cat, splits his time between New York City and Marfa, Texas. 2 DANA THOMAS Dana Tomas is the author of the new double biography Gods and Kings: Te Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano and the New York Times best-seller Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, both published by Penguin. She has lived in Paris since 1992, and she…

While I enjoy reading your articles in general, the most meaningful one was the story about former marine Adam Driver [“Driver Training,” December/January]. After a two year stint in the corps he was in short order accepted to the Juilliard School, which is quite an accomplishment. But even more impressive is his wonderful capacity to give back to men and women still in the service, by entertaining the troops with book readings and Shakespearean plays. A new Bob Hope emerges, and our servicemen and women are that much richer for it. DAVID TULANIAN, LOS ANGELES THE DEVIL YOU KNOW While I am fine with Stefan Simchowitz being categorized as an outsider, even a devilish one, I am not fine with your statement that he was born in New York [“Auctions…

PEOPLE WATCHING WHEN THEY DREAM UP BOND flick heroines, Xin Li must come to mind. Te nearly six-foot former model and basketball player has been an art world darling for years, jetting between Hong kong and London on behalf of the major auction houses. (She’s now deputy chairman of Asia for Christie’s.) She reportedly sold nearly a quarter- billion’s worth of rothkos and richters at 2014’s fall sales, mostly to her personal coterie of Chinese billionaire collectors. Her rapid ascent, coupled with a grueling itinerary—she rarely spends more than a week in any given place—had limited the pool of potential suitors and left the exotic beauty single. (Finding a match of comparable physical stature may also have had something to do with it—Sarkozy and Bruni come to mind.) Tat is,…