Town & Country September 2018

ONE WOMAN SHOW “Imagine if your mother-in-law is Yoko Ono,” says Charlotte Kemp Muhl, who has been with Ono’s son Sean Lennon for more than a decade. She is looking at T&C’s September 1987 photo by Arnold Newman of the artist and activist in her home at the Dakota, shot for a story on the creative residents of Central Park West. “On Christmas morning she’s in haute couture. Her small talk is about hanging out with Marcel Duchamp, or how to save the world,” says Muhl, a musician who just wrapped a tour with her band, Uni. “Yoko is punk to the core, yet supremely elegant. The stuff of legends.”…

A few years ago, when we launched Town & Country’s annual list of 50 Modern Swans, we decided to define the term clearly. Modern Swans are not, we stated, “to be confused with their more overexposed sibling, the mere ‘It girl.’” The Modern Swan is young, free, always invited, obsessively followed, and frequently photographed, but, to use a distinction first made by swankeeper Truman Capote, she is worthy not just of our attention but of our admiration. Swans are, in his words, “fledglings of the prettiest promise who may one day lead the flock.” Town & Country has, during its 172 years, chronicled the rise of great young women all over the world. And while earlier in our history their entries into public life were noted by their appearances at…

NICOLETTA SANTORO & MAX VADUKUL Frequent collaborators (and husband and wife), T&C creative director at large Santoro (left) and photographer Vadukul joined forces with choreographer Benjamin Millepied to produce “ANSWERED PRAYERS!” (page 144). “It was a majestic treat to see a dance piece unfold in front of Max’s lens,” Santoro says. They are pictured here with actress and dancer Margaret Qualley, who stars in the reimagined Black & White Ball. CLAIBORNE SWANSON FRANK While photographing Sailor Brinkley-Cook, daughter of model Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook, for “RESIDENT MISCHIEF” (page 164), Swanson Frank wanted to capture a type of American beauty that “reaches back in time and honors the old and the new.” Her task was made easy, she says, because Sailor’s smile “reminded me of her MATT VISER As deputy…

Every few weeks, usually on Sunday, a curious foursome get together for lunch at Cipriani at the Sherry-Netherland in New York. On the face of it they have little in common. Two of them are society royalty, a couple of 50 years who symbolize a sort of bygone elegance, while the other two are relative newcomers to the scene. But they all share an interest. The patrician woman is Carolina Herrera, 79, and the gregarious 32-year-old, as lanky as a martini glass, is Wes Gordon, who has succeeded Herrera at the label she founded 38 years ago with a show around the corner at the Metropolitan Club. Gordon, describing the ritual (whose other members are their respective partners, Reinaldo Herrera and Paul Arnhold), beams. For him it’s the ultimate blessing.…

HAPPENINGS SAKS FIFTH AVENUE “JEWELRY ON 2” On Tuesday, June 5, Town & Country Editor in Chief Stellene Volandes and Saks Fifth Avenue President Marc Metrick hosted guests at the Saks Fifth Avenue New York flagship for a cocktail party to celebrate the opening of Jewelry on 2. Saks’ new floor provides clients with the quintessential luxury jewelry experience, including exclusive product and private viewing rooms, as well as design, repair, and cleaning services. SAKS.com SAN FRANCISCO OPERA BALL San Francisco Opera opens its 96th season on September 7 with the double bill of one-act operas, Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. The evening begins with the premiere benefit gala, Opera Ball 2018, chaired by the Opera Guild’s Shannon Cronan and Kathy Huber, and designed by renowned event…

The dark cult with billionaires, stars, and allegations of sex slavery In 2011, actress Catherine Oxenberg (the onetime Dynasty star) decided to go to a free presentation that was supposed to help her with communication and other business skills, because a friend would not stop singing its praises. It so happened that Oxenberg’s daughter India, then 20, was home the night her mother was invited, so she came along. It was a decision that has haunted Oxenberg ever since. The presentation turned out to be run by Executive Success Programs, the consumer-facing branch of the now notorious cult Nxivm, and India Oxenberg soon fell prey to it. Seven years later, Oxenberg is struggling to free her daughter from the Albany-based Nxivm’s clutches. The cult’s leader, Keith Raniere, has been arrested,…