Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2020 i Town & Country

I have been thinking about twists of fate lately as I pore over jewelry history for my second book. How do some pieces survive for centuries while others are dismantled, lost forever? Imagine if the Vladimir tiara, worn regularly by Queen Elizabeth, had not been smuggled out of Russia by a British agent in disguise. Or where the diamonds Napoleon gave Marie Louise would have gone if not for Marjorie Merriweather Post. Would we have seen that cameo tiara at a Swedish royal wedding if Josephine hadn’t kept it after the divorce? At some point we’ll be asking the same of the Dresden Green diamond. On November 25, thieves broke into the Green Vault in Dresden and made off with several of the crown jewels of Saxony, but they did…

SARA LATHAM The DC veteran, who has worked with Hillary Clinton, was hired last year to form a press operation just for Harry and Meghan. JASON STEIN The 28-year-old PR man started working to rehab Prince Andrew’s image in September but quit before the disastrous interview. SALLY OSMAN Her attempt to centralize the royal family’s fragmented press offices failed; she left Clarence House last year. PADDY HARVERSON He launched the palace’s first Twitter account as PR man for Charles and Camilla before departing in 2013.…

AMERICAN ART POSTERS Norton Museum Leonard Lauder’s collection of American Art Nouveau posters lands in Palm Beach on Feb. 21. PORTRAITS IN CHARCOAL National Portrait Gallery John Singer Sargent gave up oil painting for charcoal in 1907. His drawings are in DC starting Feb. 28. GORDON PARKS X MUHAMMAD ALI Nelson-Atkins Museum More than 50 of the photographer’s portraits of the boxing legend will be in Kansas City beginning Feb. 14. THINK OF THEM AS SPACES Menil Drawing Institute A show of drawings by Brice Marden from throughout his 50-year career opens in Houston on Feb. 21.…

FOR THE DOWAGER COUNTESS: Jamala Madikwe, South Africa An hour’s flight from Johannesburg, it’s famous for its “sofa safari”: There’s a watering hole right out front that attracts animals 24/7. FOR THE HONEYMOONERS: Angama Mara, Kenya Out of Africa was filmed here, so you can finally live out IRL the Meryl Streep–Robert Redford fantasy you’ve always wanted. FOR THE “MOMMY, ARE WE RICH?” SET: Sabi Sabi Bush Lodge, South Africa At the EleFun Centre kids learn vital skills to survive in the bush (or the Upper East Side), like navigation and tracking. FOR THE SPIRITUAL SNOB: Segera Retreat, Kenya Between Mount Kenya and the Great Rift Valley, Segera is about luxe sustainability. Highlights include walks with anti-poaching units. FOR THE JETSET EXPEDITIONIST: The Private Jet Safari is a 12-day journey…

The Major Breakthrough ANA KHOURI HIGH JEWELRY It was the diamond and Paraiba tourmaline torque du jour of Paris Couture! The Brazilian designer Ana Khouri had already established herself as a skilled sculptor of metal and stones with ear cuffs and a Mirian semicircle ring that have become modern classics, but the Harmony High Jewelry Collection of diamonds and rare stones she showed this year at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs signaled the evolution of a rising talent into a celebrated member of the establishment. The Red Carpet Appearance LADY GAGA IN THE TIFFANY DIAMOND Was it the most expensive jewel ever worn to the Academy Awards? Worth a reported $30 million, it’s likely that Lady Gaga’s Tiffany diamond necklace claims that title. (The previous record was held by Titanic…

WHO’S AFRAID TO WEAR PEARLS? Equating pearls with grandmothers and staid pink cardigans is a vast miscalculation. See the power of multiple strands on Queen Elizabeth I in her Armada Portrait, a female leader proclaiming victory wearing a dress of gold thread and mollusks in the extreme. Or note the haute bohemian Marisa Berenson in this photo taken by Gianni Penati for Vogue in 1970, in which she’s standing, arms akimbo, with Japanese cultured pearls draped casually down her back. HOW TO MATCH A DIAMOND The suite, earrings and matching necklace worn together, has lost favor in recent years—“too matchy-matchy,” they would say—but we hear it’s making a comeback: The collective power of all those perfectly paired stones worn together is undeniable. Perhaps the secret, as this 1968 Francesco Scavullo…

ROCK GATE One of Rossiter’s bestknown shingle style houses, the 1885 summer retreat, just a block from the Rocks, is on the market for $5.75 million. THE SUMACS From 1894, this six-bed, six-bath “cottage” was once on the market for $4.75 million. It’s owned by Kohn Pedersen Fox co-founder Gene Kohn and his wife Barbara, who renovated it in 2005. RESTMORE On the National Register of Historic Places, this Southport country retreat has hosted such notable guests as John D. Rockefeller Sr. since 1912. Recently sold for $1.3 million, down from $2.6 million a year ago. KIRBY CORNERS Built in 1898 for U.S. senator Orville Platt, the Colonial Revival estate, now privately owned, is peak Rossiter. Historian Ann Y. Smith used its façade on the cover of her biography of…

HELEN WARD (MOHAMMED) FIRM Stewarts London. MONIKER “A tigress who never sleeps” is how one client described her. Ward is a workaholic who puts in 17- or 18-hour days; she is also a classical pianist. CLIENTS Andrew Lloyd Webber, Paloma Picasso, Bernie Ecclestone, Ian McEwan, and Guy Ritchie (in his divorce from Madonna). FIONA SHACKLETON (HAYA) FIRM Payne Hicks Beach, London. MONIKER “The Steel Magnolia,” due to her charm and determination. Her husband Ian is a descendant of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. CLIENTS Prince Charles and Paul McCartney (in their divorces). She is also solicitor to princes William and Harry in other matters.…

Après-ski? Après vous! In St. Moritz, the alpine playground of the haut monde since the late 1800s, there are two ways to do cocktail hour: indoors and out. Alfred Hitchcock so liked a cozy nook in Badrutt’s Palace that the hotel named a suite in his honor. Others, like Coco Chanel, Jacques Cartier, and Philippe de Rothschild, were cold weather enthusiasts. But now, as then, a no-expense-spared soirée—like a luxurious picnic in the snow—is the perfect way to bring everyone together.…

Certain things at Cartier can be attained via a price tag. A double loop Panthère watch in gold and diamonds, for instance. Or maybe another Love bracelet to add to your collection. But for select well-established Cartier clients there is another tier of membership—one to which access can’t be bought. Instead you must be invited by the maison to its London flagship, where the staff will show you this top secret book of monograms and help you design your own, which you can have imprinted on any Cartier item you please (size permitting). Imagine: Now your Panthère, once indistinguishable from all the rest, bears a coded message, a discreet tell visible only to those who know, that you’re in the club too.…

This past July, regulars of Le Veau d’Or, an 82-year-old bistro on East 60th Street in Manhattan, received a letter from the restaurant’s proprietor, Cathy Treboux. After 34 years of her family owning the place, she wrote, she was selling it. “Hidden in ‘Le Veau d’Or,’” Treboux wrote, “is the word lover. The Veau has been a refuge, a second home for lovers of food and wine, lovers of the written word, lovers of art, history, and style. But most importantly, lovers of each other.” Among the lovers of Le Veau d’Or, which opened in 1937, reaction was swift and impassioned. While the Veau once played host to the likes of Truman Capote and Marlene Dietrich (and Jackie O is still listed among the charge account holders), in recent years…

OVER THE RAINBOW The mosaic of vibrant gems in these showstopping earrings showcase the beauty and range of natural gemstones, and David Webb is the master of mixing colorful jewels. DAVID WEBB EARRINGS WITH RUBELLITES, BLUE AND YELLOW SAPPHIRES, CHROME TOURMALINES, CITRINES, AND DIAMONDS ($255,000), SAKS FIFTH AVENUE, NYC, 212-753-4000 GARDEN VARIETY A collectors piece, this Roger Dubuis watch features Grand Feu enamel with blue flowers dancing around a mother-ofpearl dial and encircled with a ring of diamonds. ROGER DUBUIS BLOSSOM VELVET GOLD WATCH WITH SCULPTED GRAND FEU ENAMEL FLOWERS AND DIAMONDS ON A SATIN FINISH STRAP ($83,500), SAKS FIFTH AVENUE, NYC, 212-753-4000 GOLDEN HOUR Not only do bright yellow sapphires glow with warmth, they’re said to attract prosperity. That’s why Robert Procop’s mesmerizing pendant will be an heirloom for…

Anyone who has spent time on Twitter knows the arguments for staying out of the public eye in the year 2020. The reputational massacres pile up hourly, often for infractions that are, for most of us, essentially imperceptible. But the internet can’t seem to ever satisfy its appetite for burnings at the stake. Which made it particularly curious to watch the Democratic debates, especially the early ones, in which so many candidates were vying for national attention that the events had to be split over two nights. Few of the people onstage had any real hope of occupying the White House, and yet there they were, bravely (or foolishly, or egomaniacally) opening themselves up to criticism, investigation, scrutiny, or ridicule far beyond an SNL impersonation (which is now among the…

Autumn de Wilde has a pressing question. “Should I,” she asks, “have kissed my best friend when I was 17?” It isn’t that she regrets a missed opportunity; it’s that, as the director of this month’s Emma, a candy-colored but sharp-elbowed adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1815 novel about an aimless teenage heiress who finds her calling as a matchmaker, she can’t help considering the question—and hope that movie audiences do as well. History seems to be on her side. After all, Emma has been a literary touchstone for two centuries and has spawned numerous interpretations, from BBC productions to stage musicals, movies (including Clueless), and even a YouTube series. The idea of a young woman who pairs up everyone around her only to make a mess of her own life…

“When you have kids, people tell you, ‘All you need is love,’” says Cécile David-Weill. “I found that to be very untrue.” What you really need is David-Weill’s latest book. In Parents Under the Influence: Words of Wisdom from a Former Bad Mother ($16, Other Press), the French-American writer and mom of three explores the unexpected challenges of parenting and offers hard-won advice on how to make raising successful children easier on parents and kids alike. Some of her tips? Let them fail (but only a little), don’t overschedule activities (often that’s more about busy parents assuaging their guilt), and don’t make them clean up their rooms just to prove a point (let them discover the pitfalls of being disorganized). And what did David-Weill’s children—two of whom are now parents…

AQUARIUS JANUARY 21–FEBRUARY 19 Focus on professional priorities as February begins, because once Mars slips into a hidden angle of your chart midmonth, you’ll find yourself pulled into distracting personal activities. Happily, the planets are in your favor this month, and financially you appear to be in a position to get on a beneficial track. Details won’t fall into place easily, so be patient. VHERNIER ($10,550), 646-343-9551 LEO JULY 23–AUGUST 23 Being amenable will work in your favor in February, and the full Moon in your birth sign on the 9th will give you a boost and tune you into your hidden emotions. Much planetary activity in the part of your chart emphasizing joint finances and new arrangements means it’s time to pay attention to minute details, even if they…

Houses of a certain pedigree endure on their own terms. Their owners might best be described as stewards, watching over them for a while. Two hours from Manhattan, in Washington, Connecticut, a discreet redoubt that has long been a summer retreat for New York’s privileged, with Norman Rockwell hills punctuated by weathered stone walls and ample mansions (locals fondly call them “cottages”), there is one such home. Tucked away off a lush tree-lined road, the Rocks was the personal residence of architect Ehrick Rossiter, who designed scores of crisp, shingled cottages in the early 20th century, shaping the now iconic look of gracious country living in the Northeast. Today only 17 of the country houses Rossiter built in Washington remain, and when one becomes available, aesthetes perk up. In 1989…