Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2015 i Town & Country

EDITOR’S LETTER I WAS TOO YOUNG TO BE AN Elvis fan while he was still alive, but my sister Susie, who was three years older, wasn’t. We were living in a duplex apartment in Houston at the time. My father had recently moved us there from West Texas, where, for most of the previous two decades, he had had a successful practice as a general dentist. He had never liked the à la carte demands of those days: X-rays and prophylaxis, toothaches and flings, bridges and crowns. He performed high-quality work but, being cursed by perfectionism, dreamed like a perfectionist, imagining the truly perfect work he would do if he could do only one thing and do that one thing repeatedly and endlessly, like the golf pro or the marksman…

FAST CROWD WHILE THUMBING THROUGH one of Cecil Beaton’s unpublished scrapbooks two years ago—enjoying a peek at a friend’s rarefied collection—I stumbled on a blurry black-and-white photograph of a tousle-haired youth. Beneath it Beaton had scribbled a caption: “Horrid Madboy.” It was a thrilling discovery, as it offered a unique glimpse of the destructive animus between Beaton, the venerable photographer, and robert Heber-Percy, the sly young man in the picture. known for the spontaneous antics that earned him the nickname “Mad Boy,” robert relished the shock value of riding naked on horseback at Faringdon House, the idyllic oxfordshire estate of his three-decadesolder lover, Lord Berners, an elegant, monoclewearing novelist, painter, and composer who wrote music for Diaghilev’s Ballets russes and was admired by Stravinsky. I sensed that Beaton’s photo would…

REAL ESTATE…

While some works of art are purely decorative, there’s an ancient tradition of creating art that is both beautiful and functional—this is the philosophy of hand woven rugs. Warm, polished and finely-crafted, traditional hand-knotted rugs continue to be made today as they have been for thousands of years. It can take a team of artisans up to a year to complete one rug—using the finest hand dyed wools and silks—tying up to 1,000 knots per square inch. Feizy utilizes weavers in India, Turkey, Pakistan, Nepal and beyond to create their exclusive designs. For John Feizy, founder and CEO of the company, it’s been a lifelong mission to expose people to the beauty of a vanished world while enabling them to incorporate these incredible pieces of art into their everyday living…

ROYAL BLUES HOTEL The Royal Blues Hotel is a luxury boutique hotel located in Deerfeld Beach, Florida. With twelve beautifully appointed rooms and suites overlooking the ocean, the hotel is just steps away from the sand. A short drive from Miami and Palm Beach, the hotel is also home of Chanson, a fine dining restaurant. The Royal Blues Hotel is owned and created by legendary film and Broadway show producer, Edward Walson. For more information, please visit royalblueshotel.com or call 954.857.2929. SUZY LANDA Suzy Landa’s 18-karat gold and gemstone contemporary ring has an old world air with a modern fare. A marriage of clean lines, soft shapes, and pristine color, this one-of-a-kind piece features an exceptional 20.46-carat teal green tourmaline surrounded by .28 carats of diamonds. For more information, please…

WHILE PRESENTING her new line of limited edition bags for Roger Vivier during the Paris couture shows, Inès de la Fressange (above) professed her love for copper—"the new metal“—and declared that she now wanted everything fom lamps to jewelry to be made fom it. Her preference was clearly visible in the Miss Viv’ bags on display; several had copper hardware, and the patent leather one, pictured here, was an all-out ode to the element. Earlier in the week, at Maison & Object (Paris’s international design fair), the metal appeared in tables by Ligne Roset and in multiple items in Tom Dixon’s booth. And the copper phenomenon is not just a French one: India Mahdavi used it throughout her redesign of London’s Gallery at Sketch restaurant. BEAST MODE Today’s designers tackle…

Investment…

THERE ARE SEVERAL THINGS the movie Back to the Future II, set in a then-distant 2015, got wrong. We don’t regularly use flying cars or hoverboards, and robots don’t pump our gas. We are, however, still trying to break barriers of time and space. At press time Tesla founder Elon Musk was attempting to launch his deep space observatory rocket after receiving a $1 billion investment from Google. And at recent international watch fairs we spotted multiple meteorite dials, which gave classic timepieces a certain far-out appeal. Te moon surface– like material was also noted on serving plates by Bernardaud. We couldn’t help but hear the words of Doc after Marty McFly questioned him about the souped-up DeLorean: “Te way I see it, if you’re gonna build a time machine…

WHEN A BUILDING — even a beautiful one—turns 50, one of three things usually happens: It exemplifes its age perfectly and is venerated, it shows its age badly and is renovated, or it gets torn down. A lot of Victoriana was razed during the Art Deco era. Manhattan’s Penn Station, opened in 1910, was demolished in 1963, creating enough dismay that New Yorkers established the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Middle age is tough on people, but it’s even tougher on architecture. That’s especially true now, because those graying buildings come from the peak period of modernism. In the 1960s a lot of bad slabs replaced charming buildings and left people sour on the whole era. And though even traditionalists accept that a few great buildings by Mies van der Rohe and…

MARTINI TABLES You and your fancy cocktails. Can’t you drink something less fashy? Isn’t a drink, after all, just a drink: alcohol plus this or that favorsome additive to bamboozle the throat? What’s with the special glass, the exotic ingredients, the jazzy name? And now you want a table? Your drink needs to parade around on its own separate platform? Wait, what are you doing? Put your shoes back on. Your cherry-garnished drink is right there. We’re not here to judge, we swear……

1 MAX VADUKUL “This season couture has been about romance, experimentation, and the link between generations,” says Vadukul, who shot “ARCHITECTURAL MODELS” (page 150). “Here I am in 2015 photographing Stella Roversi, a stunning beauty who’s the daughter of Paolo Roversi and Laetitia Firmin-Didot— one of the first models I shot for Per Lui magazine, in 1985. Te lineage goes on and on.” Vadukul lives in New York City. 2 VICKY WARD In “BUYER’ S REMORSE” (page 134) Ward writes about the recent leadership drama at Sotheby’s and Christie’s. “I came away thinking you don’t ever want to bid at auction without really having done your homework,” she says. “As one person said, ‘If you’re sitting there with a paddle and you don’t know who the sucker in the room…

DONNA KARAN NEW YORK Town & Country partnered with Donna Karan new York on December 5 for an event at the Americana manhasset boutique, hosted by infuencers monique Bloom & haleh Damaghi. timed with Americana manhasset's champions for charity, this special occasion was in support of the hUGs fund to beneft cohen children's medical center MAX MARA on november 7, T&C and max mara celebrated victoria tennant's new book, Irina Baranova and the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. hosted by irena and mike medavoy, the industry event took place at the max mara boutique on rodeo Drive and featured a DJ set by Daisy o‚Dell. over 120 stylish guests shopped the latest max mara collection in support of Brentwood school. TO ACCESS OUR EVENTS AND PROMOTIONS, GO TO TOWNANDCOUNTRYMAG.COM/INSIDER GAIN…

WEDDINGS WHEN CHRISTOPHER SWAINE met Patricia Taft, in 2001, both were Cincinnati high school students with very little in common apart from the etiquette lessons they were forced to take at the Cotillion Club. Te second time they connected was during the 2008 presidential campaign, when Chris teased Patricia about her “Go Obama” Facebook status— surprising, as she is a great-granddaughter of President William Howard Taft and a granddaughter of Ohio senator Robert A. Taft, who was known as “Mr. Republican.” Friendly banter soon led to talks on the phone and intimate dinners during Chicago-based Chris’s weekend visits to New York, where Patricia lived at the time. She admits that she was initially hesitant to date Chris, an investment consultant at TD Ameritrade, because of the distance. But eventually, in…

IMAGINE A TALL, LEAN woman in a long dress of some dead purple stuff,” Henry James wrote in 1869 of Pre-Raphaelite muse and haute bohemian role model Jane Morris, “with a mass of crisp black hair helped into great wavy projections on each of the temples…a long neck, without any collar, and in lieu thereof some dozen strings of outlandish beads.” It’s tempting to imagine what he might have made of art world princess Dasha Zhukova’s psychedelic ensemble at Burning Man, Kendall Jenner’s bell-bottoms at Coachella, or the spring 2015 shows of Dries Van Noten, Valentino, Chloé, Etro, and Sonia Rykiel. If the high-living hippies of the 1960s looked to Dante Rossetti and his circle for how to live and dress—Jimmy Page collected art from the period—the current aesthetic seems…

MANY OF THE MEN PRESENT AT THE CIFONELLI SPRING 2015 SHOW had likely been to 31 Rue Marbeuf before, even if just to get a sneak peek at the legendary tailor. And a few may have been lucky enough to have been fitted for their own bespoke Cifonelli suits. Te family-run company was founded in Rome in 1880 and moved to its current atelier in 1926. Te business is still run by Lorenzo and Massimo Cifonelli, the founder’s great-grandsons, and they still hand-cut suits in their house’s trademark style. It’s a signature so strong that Karl Lagerfeld said he could recognize a Cifonelli shoulder from a hundred meters away. Te new 16-piece ready-to-wear line, presented during the Paris men’s collections and overseen by Ralph Lauren alum John Vizzone, includes suits…

IN WATCHMAKER YEARS, NOMOS Glashütte, founded in 1990, is a baby—but it’s a prodigy. What makes the company’s watches stand out from the hundreds I see? A clear and strong design. Nomos is independent, operating out of Glashütte, Germany, and it has racked up multiple awards for its Bauhaus-inspired aesthetic. A recent redesign of the Metro style introduced a more symmetrical dial and a larger case, and pale blue indices contrast with the bright red seconds subdial. But what really sets Nomos apart is that it builds its timepieces from scratch, including all the delicate wheels and springs of its “swing system” movement.…

The director of The Girlfriend Experience, Keough’s new series on Starz, says the actress is "alive on camera. I don’t know how else to describe it. There’slife inside her. She’s fun to watch.” WHEN I MEET RILEY KEOUGH, IT’S the day after Elvis Presley’s 80th birthday. As the oldest grandchild of the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, she had of course attended the celebration at Graceland the night before, with her mother Lisa Marie Presley and her grandmother Priscilla—three generations of Presley women, all in black for the occasion, not in mourning but in homage. According to Riley, even her brother Ben, three years her junior, couldn’t get over it. “My brother was like, ‘You guys look so creepy. You all look like diferent ages of the same person.’ ”…

I was delighted to see this photo again [December/January]. I was 25 when Slim Aarons took this picture of me, and I had been married a year. We would spend the winters skiing: We had an apartment in Gstaad, and we would go from there to Cortina d’Ampezzo, then drive to Lech. My husband knew Slim, who was terrific—tall, handsome, and talented. He photographed me three times—in Lech in ’79, Cortina in ’83, and in Gstaad in ’85. To see this picture now makes me wish I were that age again. It was an exciting time in my life. And I still have that coat! Congratulations on the rejuvenation of the magazine and for including just a little bit of its past. LUCY HAMILTON, ST. HELENA, CA` DEFENDING BASIA I…

ARTS & CULTURE COACHELLA April 10–19 The California music festival will offer AC/DC, Jack White, and Drake, as well as a strong lineup of socialites in this year’s haute bohemian looks. LAKE FOREST SHOWHOUSE AND GARDENS April 25 We can’t promise that Jake Ryan will materialize, but an impressive roster of designers has transformed director John Hughes’s 1929 Lake Forest estate. AN A MERICAN IN PARIS April 12 Based on the word of mouth from its sold-out Paris run, this play is not to be missedwhen it pirouettes to Broadway. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO,THE MUSICAL April 21 How to top Julie Christie in that fur hat? Add show tunes. JAZZ & COLORS April 24 Washington Crossing The Delaware with a song. Fifteen jazz bands take over the galleries at New York’s Metropolitan…

IN PALM BEACH SOCIETY, FROM the 1960s to the 1980s, Dodie Tayer’s cabbage and lettuce ware—cast at her home in Jupiter, Florida, with each leaf ’s vein carefully shaped by her hands—was all the rage. C.Z. Guest collected it (her daughter Cornelia still adds pieces now and then), as did Brooke Astor, the Duchess of Windsor, and Jackie Onassis. Now in her late eighties, Tayer fired the last greens for retail in her kiln almost three decades ago; today the dishes are available only via the occasional Sotheby’s sale or online listing. (At press time there was just one piece on eBay: a dinner plate priced at $870.) However, Tory Burch, after purchasing a vast collection from interior designer Todd Romano, struck up a friendship with Thayer that blossomed into…

AT A PRESENTATION FOR EMERGING designers during New York Fashion Week, a collection of artfully drawn dresses mesmerized the Moda Operandi buying team; they were for sale on the site within weeks. Designer Holly Fowler’s conception of fashion as art is refeshingly literal: She paints directly onto blank fabric. “Each piece is a story,” she says of her commissions, which can take up to 200 hours to complete. Clients have requested evening sheaths emblazoned with heirloom jewels, family crests, and favorite flowers. And thanks to popular demand, Fowler has focused her brush on a slightly smaller canvas: Hermes Birkin bags—sold exclusively on modaoperandi.com in April. hollyfowler.com NECK & NECK An addendum to a trend noted at the World Economic Forum in Davos. IF, AS THE NEW YORK TIMES FASHION critic…

WHEN SPY MAGAZINE RAN a tribute to the 1970s (in the late ’80s), the editors titled it “A Return to the Decade of Mood Rings, Ultrasuede, Sideburns and Disco Sex-Machine Tony Orlando." Designers of the spring 2015 collections chose to ignore those totems in favor of more palatable elements of the time. Leather and python were prominent, as were long suede trench coats worn over fared pants. Te term bell-bottom has, wisely, been avoided.…

HAIR AFTER I HAD MY second baby, Jemma, I entered the time vortex. As life around me whirled with demands—to feed little mouths, work, tweet, exercise, occasionally sleep—I rarely had more than 15 minutes to myself. I multitasked by doing everything conceivable on my iPhone (ordering groceries, scheduling interviews), but I could never fee up enough time for a monthly salon visit to refesh my blond shoulder-length hair. My hyperpacked schedule was doing nothing for my looks. Without regular trims my blunt bangs began to obscure my eyes, and not in a sexy way. Out of desperation I grabbed the kitchen scissors one morning and sliced away. And, you know, the results weren’t that bad. My newly fayed bangs had the imperfect-perfect look of Jane Birkin. I patted myself on…

Katharine Merlin’s new book, THE PRIVATE LIVE SOFT HE SUN SIGNS (Glitterati, $30), is out now. For additional readings go to TOWNANDCOUNTRYMAG.COM. ARIES March 21–april 20 Jessica Chastain This month Mars in Taurus is bringing you down to earth where plans are concerned—especially financial ones. Consistency equals success right now, so stick to the programs you’ve mapped out. Minor skirmishes will throw you off balance if you take them to heart; your best course is to step away. Once Pluto turns direct on the 17th, a powerful adversary may change his or her tune, and bold new projects you initiate near the 22nd promise to take you far. TAURUS April 21–May 21 Daniel Day-Lewis The Sun in the most hidden angle of your chart is telling you to slow down…

THE RUMOR SPED THROUGH THE CROWD LIKE A MISSILE. It was December, and the art world had gathered under the sun for Art Basel Miami Beach, the industry’s last big celebration of 2014. On Tuesday there was the opening reception; while dealers were putting the finishing touches on their booths at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the Design Miami fair was kicking of in a tent next door, and that was where many of the week’s guests were (the organizers anticipated 73,000), chattering about the night’s dinner options, when the news landed. Steven P. Murphy, the fast-talking 60-yearold CEO of Christie’s, who was unexpectedly anointed in 2010—the first American to head the 250-year-old British auction house—had stepped down. Suddenly. He was scheduled to sit on a panel on luxury goods…

DRESS CODE IDEAS AND INSPIRATION…