Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2017 i Town & Country

1973 S A F E S P A C E S As today’s parents agonize over their children’s SAT scores, extracurricular activities, and overall enrichedness, it is tempting to look back at simpler times, when sending your offspring to a top college was… Oh, wait. In 1973, a few pages after an article subtitled “How to Get Your Son and Daughter into Harvard, Yale, or Princeton,” T&C ran a list of alternatives for those “who may not be attractive to—or attracted by—an Ivy League college.” All 50, we noted, “have selective admissions.” In other words, it has always been hard. Really hard.…

The Mona Lisa kept a watchful eye over Jeff Koons this April at a private dinner in his honor inside her room at the Louvre—a fitting location, given that the canvas bags from Koons’s new collaboration with Louis Vuitton feature Leonardo’s portrait of La Joconde, as well as reproductions of masterpieces by Titian, Rubens, Fragonard, and van Gogh. Always the provocateur, Koons says the project’s intention is to bring art to the street and encourage onlookers to view Old Masters anew. The idea is catching on. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, the new owner of a $110.5 million Basquiat, proudly showed off his acquisition on his public Instagram feed and plans to take it on tour. Could Jean-Michel be in round two?…

Is an Hermès bangle appropriate for a 15-year-old? What about a Van Cleef Alhambra, or a diamond chain to mark the end of high school? For friends, parents, and grandparents willing to spend, it’s not the idea of gold and diamonds but the recognizability of the items that gives pause. “Parents want to symbolize a milestone in a child’s life, but if you get them a Rolex watch it’s pretty obnoxious, and if you get them teeny diamond studs, they’re going to lose one,” says writer Holly Peterson. Among girls in New York, California, and Texas, there is a keen awareness of the brand name options. “A lot of girls at my school wear expensive jewelry,” says Millie Felder, a 16-year-old in Manhattan who prefers three unfussy studs in each…

FOR ADDITIONAL READINGS BY KATHARINE MERLIN, GO TO TOWNANDCOUNTRYMAG.COM LEO JULY 23–AUGUST 23 James Corden With invigorating Mars in your sign this month, now is the time to pursue your most cherished aims. Try to finalize as much as you can before Mercury changes direction on the 13th, though. And until Venus enters your sign on the 26th, give yourself plenty of time to mull over personal issues, and be ready to tune into others’ hidden agendas. For you the major solar eclipse of the 21st is all about changes of heart that set you on a new path. VIRGO AUGUST 24–SEPTEMBER 23 Stella McCartney The Sun in Leo is urging you to step back and renew your perspective, so go ahead and give yourself a break. With your ruling…

THE KL A R A G L O W C Z E W S K A R E P O R T There is a small enclosed garden in the northeast corner of the Forbidden City, Beijing’s 200-acre redwalled, yellow-roofed, built-to-intimidate immensity, where between 1420 and 1911 the emperors of China’s last two dynasties, the Ming and the Qing, lived and ruled. The garden was designed in the 1770s by the fifth Qing emperor, Qianlong, for his pleasure after retirement. Within it, atop a mountain-like rockery of fantastically eroded and pockmarked stones extracted from Lake Tiahu (so-called scholars’ rocks, nature elevated to art, found in gardens, museums, and grand houses all over China), is the Terrace for Gathering Dew. On the little platform bronze vessels were placed to collect dew,…

Joe Kennedy sat in his office, nursing a cough. Leaning back in a blue leather chair, he was quick to flash a grin familiar to anyone who has flipped through an American history book. True to his nature he was cheerful, polite, and self-deprecating. But then the conversation turned to modern-day politics. The tempo of his speech picked up—suddenly a relatively laid-back congressman from Massachusetts went into double time; mild profanities began to flow. No, he doesn’t feel good about the state of government. Yes, he is worried about the state of the presidency. His attitude toward the ongoing debates on healthcare, immigration, and the criminal justice system can only be described as moral outrage. Kennedy has grown more outspoken lately, at times sounding a lot like the grandfather he…

THE BOSTON TOUR The plan is to hit Harvard, MIT, BU, and Tufts in one swoop. Get a room at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge for a weekend—parents we know booked rooms for graduation after their first trip—and use it as your home base. Treat the family to a burger at Harvard Square mainstay Charlie’s Kitchen on the first night, but make reservations for two at the newly reopened East Coast Grill to celebrate completing the weekend. THE MID WEST TOUR Make this a long weekend. After a night at the Park Hyatt, hit Northwestern and the University of Chicago. Then enjoy the Windy City—especially since you pulled strings for a table at Roister. The next morning drive to charming Madison, where the only thing more popular than the econ…

E C O N . 4 2 0 Illin’ Chillin’ Profitin’ Advanced macroeconomic assessment of decriminalized marijuana, with special consideration of the tax code. Field trip to Burning Man. E D U C . 3 0 0 Unsafe Spaces Analysis of the “Snowflake Era” in higher education (2015–’21), when the perceived emotional frailty of millennials trumped basic pedagogy and simple common sense. Note(s): Co-meets with FILM.201: The Second Rule of Fight Club. E N G L . 1 0 1 Introduction to Emoji Note(s): Replaces ENGL.101: Introduction to Shakespeare. G E O G . 3 2 5 Good Fences, Good Neighbors Survey of modern transnational border walls, including: USA-Mexico; England-Scotland; Flanders-Wallonia; Spain- Catalonia; and the New Berlin Wall. Explores “virtual wall” technology and “drone smuggling.” G O V. 4 0 0 140 @ 1600 A…

Mark Zuckerberg, commencement speaker for Harvard’s class of 2017, didn’t go to his own graduation. When his peers received their diplomas, in 2006, Zuckerberg—who dropped out sophomore year—was about to become the world’s youngest self-made billionaire. In his speech the 33-year-old told students, “Change starts local. Even global changes start small—with people like us.” Thanks to his influence, today’s grads won’t make a beeline for Wall Street—they’ll head to Silicon Valley. In the aftermath of Zuckerberg’s rise, the school invested heavily in student entrepreneurship. In 2011 it created the Harvard Innovation Lab, which has since launched dozens of startups. My freshman roommate, Rohan Pavuluri, for example, dropped out during his junior year to work on his company Upsolve (“Turbotax for bankruptcy”), but he returned last semester, wagering that Harvard’s oncampus…

Tiny dorm rooms and shared hall bathrooms are among the least glamorous aspects of college life, and there is no denying that cramped quarters demand a pared-down routine. For starters, IGK’s 1995 is like the futuristic little sister of Pert Plus: Instead of combining shampoo and conditioner, it cleans hair while also texturizing it, depositing a fine mist of clay that gives you secondday hair straight out of the shower. Skincare is just as simple. Begin with French pharmacy favorite Collosol, a rinse-free cleansing milk new to the States; then add a dewy hit of moisture from Pixi by Petra or Shiseido’s new WASO collection. Day-to-day, Lancôme’s eye-opening mascara and Clarins lip oil offset the effects of all-nighters, and chic, discreet envelopes of soap sheets from L’Officine Universelle Buly are…

Emad Al-Zaben grew up in a family of six in a two-bedroom apartment in Kuwait City. He would visit the American embassy to flip through college brochures and fantasize about getting a degree in the United States. At age 15 he applied to 20 U.S. colleges. Almost as soon as he got his first acceptance letter—to Southern Illinois University— he leaped on a plane and enrolled in person. His father sold the family car to pay the tuition. When I first met the 57-year-old Al-Zaben, now the CEO of Bader Sultan & Brothers Co., the largest distributor of medical products in the Middle East, his own children were approaching college age, and he was facing upgrades to his American dream. His three oldest—triplets with U.S. citizenship—were completing their sophomore year…

Just because you’re living with a tiny refrigerator doesn’t mean gourmet meals are out of reach. Here, Eleven Madison Park’s Will Guidara and Momofuku Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi have stocked our minifridge with ingredients ranging from high-end (green juice, European butter) to low (powdered ranch dressing, boxed macaroni and cheese) and devised recipes for turning them into dishes that will put any dining hall to shame. D O R M R O O M S T R O M B O L I 1 . Drizzle olive oil over centers of English muffin halves. 2 . Slather with Rao’s tomato sauce and sprinkle with garlic powder. 3 . Cover surface with pepperoni and shredded Parmesan cheese. 4 . Roll both halves into two small cigars and wrap each tightly in…

It lives in a room down the hall. It is attached to mysterious machines that beep and blare. At times it claims to be “doing homework,” but it is not. Sometimes you can hear it in there, laughing, until it emerges. The laughter stops. “There’s nothing to eat around here!” it says, even though the refrigerator is full. You worry about it constantly. You are kept off balance. This goes on for years. This has gone on for what seems like most of your life. You only want it to be happy! You get it lessons: tennis, gymnastics, horseback riding— but even though it is good at these things, it does not want to do them, and you cannot force it to continue. It applies to college. It has taken…

AUGUST ARTS & CULTURE August 5 “Matisse in the Studio” His treasured objects from all over at London’s Royal Academy of Arts. Through August 18 Jeff Koons Giant ballerinas and a balloon rabbit at Gagosian Beverly Hills. Through August 20 Robert Frank The Art Institute of Chicago pays homage to the photographer, who had his first solo exhibition there in 1961. August 27–September 4 Burning Man Radical self-expression with a five-figure price tag in the Nevada desert. August 14–20 Monterey Car Week Car collector paradise, on California’s picturesque central coast. Now playing The Beguiled Sofia Coppola won Best Director at Cannes for her Civil War tale, with Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman July 28 The Last Tycoon An Amazon series based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final novel, set in 1930s…

If I hear one more person say her project is “a love letter to New York,” I’ll vomit. No one could worship my city more than I do, so, as with a real marriage, I get to poke a little fun at it. My husband always halfjokes that if he ever made me choose between the suburbs and marriage or Manhattan and divorce, I’d pick the latter. Still, when you inhabit a particular milieu for 42 years you see both the magic and the reality, the romantic montage of Manhattan moments but also the Real Housewives. Even though I’m a citizen of the whole city, my show, Odd Mom Out (coming back for its third season on Bravo this summer), holds a satirical mirror to one specific treelined neighborhood: the…

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Overhauling one’s beauty routine to eliminate endocrine disruptors and skin-irritating sulfates has become a rite of passage for the kind of woman to whom organic is not so much an adjective as a way of life. And chances are the new regimen includes a little Tata Harper. The pioneer of plant-based skincare, who uses no synthetics at all, is most closely associated with the New England farm where she grows ingredients and manufactures products—and also lives, with her husband (and co-CEO) Henry and their three young children. But the farm couldn’t be farther from her beginnings. “Everyone associates me with Vermont,” she says, “but Colombia is where my love of beauty came from.” In her hometown of Barranquilla (an industrial city that, she points out, is also the birthplace of…

S T E L L E N E V O L A N D E S Editor in chief That Was Then: Vassar, class of 1993 This Is Now: “Vassar would be tough to get into today, in part because of soft math scores. Sarah Lawrence would be a target, and Bennington likely for Stellene.” B E N R Y D E R H O W E Senior editor That Was Then: University of Chicago, class of 1994 This Is Now: “Ben wouldn’t be accepted at Chicago now—it has an acceptance rate of about 8 percent these days. He might consider Oberlin or early decision at Occidental.” J A M I E R O S E N Beauty director That Was Then: Emory, class of 2002 This Is Now: “Jamie might be accepted to Emory, but…

You’ll never get a job.” With those blunt words, repeated more than once, did my mother bemoan my decision to become an English major. In her basso profundo, ideal for dire laments about just about anything—from a scratch in a formica countertop to the seasonal prospects of the 49ers—she foresaw a dim future for me, graduating with a scarlet E branded on my forehead. And this was in the 1980s, well before STEM was even a term. Our family lived in Silicon Valley when that moniker was newly minted, but the Valley was hardly the economy-driving, pop culture–shaping force it has since become. To study literature was then not the fusty-sounding idea that it may seem today, when the choice of a major seems to have evolved, or devolved, into…

OLD SCHOOL Clara McGregor may have spent her childhood years on sets with her dad Ewan, but the acting bug didn’t bite until she left Los Angeles to study at New York University. Today the 21-year-old photographer, actress, and model is intent on following in her father’s footsteps. McGregor, photographed here with model Tyler Clinton (Roger Clinton’s son and Bill and Hillary’s nephew, he recently graduated from Loyola Marymount University and signed with IMG), appeared in her first movie, the indie Groove, last summer, but she’s approaching the business from an intellectual perspective, pursuing a BA in cinema studies. “My major is an academic approach,” she says. “I take acting classes outside of school, but I wanted to study film and learn as much as I could.” If all goes…

College party and civilized are not terms you hear together very often. But consider that amid the cheese puffs and Solo cups there is hosting happening, even on the rowdiest night, and that to attract a stimulating crowd one must entertain with humor and a steady flow of age-appropriate beverages. It’s a skill set that remains useful later in life, particularly at subdued dinner parties that could stand to go a bit wild.…