Category Archives for Uncategorized
Vive le Ralph
You don’t just want to shop in Ralph Lauren‘s new Left Bank flagship. You want to move in, immediately, and never leave. “We wanted to do something authentic,” Lauren told Style.com, and on that score, he may have out-Frenched the French. For three years, the designer has been painstakingly restoring what was most recently a grim government building on the Boulevard Saint-Germain to its original stature as a seventeenth-century hôtel particulier. “C’est extraordinaire,” decided Gérard Depardieu, arriving from on set, as he surveyed the first of the five floors that make up the brand’s largest store in Europe. The actor’s admiration wasn’t just reserved for the architectural details, though. Upon meeting Lauren Bush, he shared his impression with a group behind him: “Très belle.”
Other guests—Jean Reno, Vincent Perez, Elisa Sednaoui, Carine Roitfeld, Gilles Dufour, Isabelle Huppert, and Karl Lagerfeld, among them—were flocking through the chandeliered, gilt-trimmed salons to pay their respects. “The courtyard is very French, but the flowers are very American,” noted late arrival Mélanie Laurent, adding, “More than anything, c’est très fun.” Also American and fun: the menu at what looks set to be this summer’s most coveted terrace restaurant. Ralph’s, which will open in two weeks, plans to offer such fare as clam chowder, Maine lobster salad, and, the designer promises, the best burger in town. (Price: €24.)
Of the culmination of this project, Lauren said, “I usually show up at the beginning, when everything is a mess and it’s going to be beautiful, and at the end. I’ve been walking around smiling for four days.” That’s not likely to stop anytime soon, as the designer is set to receive the Légion d’Honneur today, from the hands of President Sarkozy himself.
—Tina Isaac Continue reading
An Education
Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a cameo appearance at Turnaround for Children’s first-ever fundraising benefit last night at the Plaza, providing moms like Tory Burch, Uma Thurman, and Emily Mortimer with a couple of different talking points during the speech he gave while appetizers were being served: He’s an avid sports fan, and he’s extremely dedicated to New York City’s public schools. While the Boston-born New Yorker was cagey about his favorite hometown baseball team (“I’m a Celtics fan,” he teased), he wasn’t playing around when it came to education. “It’s not the kids that are failing in our schools,” Bloomberg stated. “It’s the schools that are failing our kids.”
Turnaround’s tagline is “Transforming the Most Challenged Public Schools,” and the guests of honor—Merryl Tisch, Perri Peltz, and New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein—were all recognized for their contributions to the cause. Klein, who grew up in public housing in Queens, made this analogy: “It’s been said we’re not going to fix education until we fix poverty, but I say we’re not going to fix poverty until we fix the educational system.” Hopefully, last night’s dinner and live auction, which raised $1.1 million, is a step in the right direction.
—Derek Blasberg Continue reading
“The Most Glamorous Open Studio Ever”
There were plenty of scantily clad models at last night’s Tribeca Ball, but not necessarily of the fashion variety. While most of the students at the New York Academy of Art’s annual fundraiser merely showed their work, others were busy making it—hence the models—and for extra fun, guests were invited to insert themselves into a tableau vivant of Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe for a photo op.
Helena Christensen, no stranger to baring flesh, took a moment on her way in to recall the time she sat for Francesco Clemente. “He did a watercolor portrait of my face, and I looked eerily like my mom.” Posing for Irving Penn, she added, was like having an old-fashioned portrait done. “He would get you in a position that you kept for so long that your muscles ended up trembling—and that’s when he shot it, when you were literally about to collapse,” Christensen said. Then she was off, joining the likes of Parker Posey, the Richards sisters, and Beatrix Ost (the German artist who inspired the Olsen twins’ latest collection) for a haphazard tour of the school’s five floors of artist studios.
Later on, dinner was served atop swatches of pinstriped suiting fabric from Brooks Brothers, which co-sponsored with Van Cleef & Arpels. Most everyone stole a glance at Jennifer Connelly, who was seated in the middle of the room with husband Paul Bettany. The whole thing was enough to impress painter Rosson Crow, who’s got a foot in the fashion world thanks to her collaborations with Zac Posen and knows a good soirée when she sees it: “This is the most glamorous open studio I’ve ever seen!”
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading
An Education
Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a cameo appearance at Turnaround for Children’s first-ever fundraising benefit last night at the Plaza, providing moms like Tory Burch, Uma Thurman, and Emily Mortimer with a couple of different talking points during the speech he gave while appetizers were being served: He’s an avid sports fan, and he’s extremely dedicated to New York City’s public schools. While the Boston-born New Yorker was cagey about his favorite hometown baseball team (“I’m a Celtics fan,” he teased), he wasn’t playing around when it came to education. “It’s not the kids that are failing in our schools,” Bloomberg stated. “It’s the schools that are failing our kids.”
Turnaround’s tagline is “Transforming the Most Challenged Public Schools,” and the guests of honor—Merryl Tisch, Perri Peltz, and New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein—were all recognized for their contributions to the cause. Klein, who grew up in public housing in Queens, made this analogy: “It’s been said we’re not going to fix education until we fix poverty, but I say we’re not going to fix poverty until we fix the educational system.” Hopefully, last night’s dinner and live auction, which raised $1.1 million, is a step in the right direction.
—Derek Blasberg Continue reading
Frock Opera
Inside Lincoln Center last night, it wasn’t your typical night at the opera. With Yves Saint Laurent sponsoring the Met’s gala premiere of Rossini’s Armida, girls in gowns lit up the cocktail hour, and the show itself (which stars Renée Fleming as a Syrian sorceress who puts an army of Crusaders under her spell) got a bit of a glamour boost from the stars in the audience.
One of them was Camilla Belle, who apparently feels right at home in the box seats. She’d spent the weekend seeing Broadway shows (In the Heights, Red) and grew up listening to Mozart (“he inspired me to play the piano”) and singing in her high school choir. “It was a really respected group at my school. Luckily, we weren’t made fun of at all,” Belle assured us. “And my choir director was obsessed with Renée Fleming, so he’s going to have a breakdown when I tell him that I watched her.”
Meanwhile, Chloë Sevigny chatted with her Big Love co-star Ginnifer Goodwin, Maggie Gyllenhaal paired off with Patricia Clarkson, and Bette Midler explained that she was one of very few guests at the pre-show dinner to have played the Met before. “I sang for a private individual—a man with a lot of money,” she recalled. “And exquisite taste!”
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading
Decade Hopping
The Art Production Fund hit a milestone on Monday night: its tenth anniversary. To celebrate, founders Yvonne Force Villareal and Doreen Remen threw themselves a birthday party on the top floor of the Standard Hotel, a party that doubled as the organization’s first-ever fundraising benefit. “It was important for us to source our own funding in the beginning, to be independent and be obliged only to our own projects,” explained Remen, who accessorized her leopard-print gown with temporary tattoos created by the artist Kiki Smith (take that, Chanel). “But tonight is more of a celebration than anything, and we’re going to have fun.”
She meant it. APF organized a slew of art carnival activities, including performance pieces from Kembra Pfahler and Terence Koh, “Personal Genius” sessions in which Linda Yablonsky answered questions about absolutely anything, and one-of-a-kind body scans courtesy of Steven Klein. But the highlight for many was a set from Janelle Monáe, whose ability to wow the crowd was particularly impressive when you take into account her diminutive stature and the preponderance of statement headwear on the guests: Baby Jane Holzer sported a splashy blow-out, Pfahler’s troupe wore giant black Afros, and one ambitious cross-dresser had affixed a suction cup complete with feathers and Christmas lights to their head. “That’s one good thing about the art world: the personal style,” Arden Wohl noted. “You don’t get many borrowed dresses or personal stylists in this crowd.”
—Derek Blasberg Continue reading
Test Red Carpet
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum lobortis justo sollicitudin eros ullamcorper tempor sit amet ac justo. Morbi sapien magna, vestibulum vitae egestas eget, imperdiet sed massa. Phasellus sit amet neque ut diam venenatis mollis vitae eget risus. Vivamus pellentesque euismod pharetra. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Proin ornare sodales magna id sagittis. Maecenas eros sem, lobortis ac sodales vitae, dictum a justo. Vivamus augue lectus, imperdiet et iaculis sed, bibendum at purus. Donec tortor turpis, facilisis ut laoreet et, molestie id arcu. Sed lacinia porta lorem quis tincidunt. Donec blandit euismod convallis. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aliquam erat volutpat. Mauris mi ligula, placerat at ultrices non, interdum sed mauris. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque congue bibendum nibh, et elementum nisl aliquam ut. Suspendisse sed lacus nec dolor dapibus sodales.
Aenean a hendrerit purus. Nam placerat, nisl id sodales dictum, tortor est sagittis mi, vel sodales nisl augue eget eros. Donec eget quam enim, ut dictum elit. Maecenas fringilla, velit in dictum tristique, magna lacus congue elit, eget semper augue lorem non sapien. Praesent urna turpis, ullamcorper ut luctus ut, tincidunt nec nisi. Curabitur tellus nunc, venenatis non aliquam sed, blandit quis erat. In facilisis, mi eu sodales rutrum, orci neque sodales tortor, quis hendrerit tortor massa cursus massa. Quisque posuere mi eget odio aliquet id ultrices libero aliquet. Sed ultricies posuere felis sed aliquam. Ut tempor placerat risus, vitae suscipit diam luctus vitae. Maecenas purus libero, fermentum ut vestibulum id, laoreet sed velit. Aliquam quis risus sit amet nulla dictum pharetra id eu lacus. Cras a urna at mi laoreet porta.
—Johnny McWeaksauce Continue reading
Fall 2010
—Candy Pratts Price Continue reading