Town & Country April 2017

I couldn’t say for sure, but I bet T&C style director Whitney Robinson sent the e-mail below from a hotel room. I imagine he composed it post–room service breakfast, preswim in the lap pool, and just before a McCarthy salad lunch in the lobby. It has the thoughtful, utterly relaxed, contemplative, well-coddled tone of suite life. As editors we are required to feel at home in all parts of the world—but certain well-appointed environments make that easier than others. I had asked Whitney, from my own room at Chicago’s Park Hyatt (I was in town to sign copies of my book at Kelly Golden’s Neapolitan boutique), for a few words on the role decor plays in our magazine and in the life we chronicle in its pages. In between masterminding…

CEDRIC BUCHET A frequent Town & Country contributor, Buchet photographed the actress Katie Holmes at the Four Seasons Hotel New York Downtown for this issue’s cover story, “MOMENT OF TRUTH” (page 120). His last cover subject was Matt Damon, for our June/July 2016 issue. NINA YASHAR Nilufar, the influential Milan design gallery founded by Yashar (left), was the perfect backdrop for “ENVIRONMENTAL STUDY” (page 128), a fashion feature styled by her childhood friend, T&C creative director at large Nicoletta Santoro (right). Yashar describes her aesthetic as “interconceptual, multicultural, and unpredictable.” ALEX HITZ What made Betsy Bloomingdale’s parties so fun? “She never stopped smiling,” says Hitz of the legendary hostess (pictured with the author at a 2014 T&C shoot). Another reason: attention to detail. “Her onion puffs and peanut butter and…

I N T E R N A T I O N A L R E L A T I O N S ESTATE VS EMBASSY LOCATION: A 269-acre property in Bedminster, NJ, which he had designated a farm for the tax breaks; plus a cozy summer house in East Hampton. AMENITIES: Trump National Golf Club is across the street, while his Hamptons house sits behind the Maidstone Club’s 18th hole. NEIGHBORS: Steve Forbes in New Jersey; the Seinfelds on the East End. ENTERTAINING: Hosted a $25,000-a-head fundraiser for Donald Trump in 2016. LOCATION: Winfield House, the official residence of the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James’s (as the gig is formally known), occupies just 12 and a half acres in London’s Regent’s Park. It used to be the…

A HAVE YOU SEEN MY LATEST EGGLESTON ACQUISITION? Last year a cache of never-before-seen works by the Memphis-born living-legend photographer William Eggleston turned up in a most unexpected place: on fabric. Electra Eggleston, the Nashville textile company founded by Andra Eggleston, William’s daughter, has salvaged, scaled, and printed his pen, marker, and watercolor sketches—some done in his little black book, others on hotel stationery— directly onto Belgian linen. “I’ve always felt more connected to his drawings than his photographs,” says Andra, an actress who recently moved back to her home state. “When you look at one of them you just have this profound feeling of want. I wanted to give that to people in a much more accessible way.” The project has also reconnected father and daughter, so much so that…

For more than 500 years Italy’s Borromeo family has fixed its attention— and vast wealth—on a cluster of small islands in Lake Maggiore. Lancellotto was the first Borromeo to see the potential, obtaining ownership of Isola Madre in 1501. In 1632, Carlo III built a palace on Isola Bella. And so it has gone, each generation adding to the perfection of what have become two of the world’s most revered landscapes. In a new book, Gardens of Beauty (Rizzoli, $45), Paolo Pejrone, who has designed gardens for the Aga Khan and Marella Agnelli, extols the islands’ significance. “They are living encyclopedias of centuries of aesthetic and botanic experimentation,” he tells T&C. Both islands, now open to the public, have also hosted some of Europe’s most glamorous parties, including the 2015…

Since opening her studio in 2001, Milan-based architect and designer Patricia Urquiola has had commissions from clients including Alessi, B&B Italia, Kartell, and Molteni & C. She’s also the art director at Cassina, and she will release new works for the brand this month at Salone del Mobile. As an architect, she has worked on projects as wide-ranging as Missoni’s Milan flagship, a restaurant on Ibiza, and the recently completed Il Sereno Lago di Como hotel, the first new building on Lake Como in decades. Here, the protégée of Achille Castiglioni opens up about her process for our peek inside the habits of a creative mastermind. How do you prepare yourself to be creative? What’s your ritual? I have my studio and home in the same building, so I can…