Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2020 i Town & Country

1994 WELCOME HOME Architect Paul Revere Williams was “synonymous with gracious living in Hollywood’s Golden Age,” Pilar Viladas wrote in T&C’s January 1994 issue. Williams’s houses, like Jay Paley’s Bel Air residence (seen here), were—and still are—highly coveted, and his public buildings, including his renovation of the Beverly Hills Hotel, are icons. But Williams wasn’t just one of the most prominent architects of the mid–20th century, he was Black; he had to overcome immense prejudice to achieve recognition. Today his granddaughter Karen E. Hudson continues his legacy, and this year she shared his archives (which had been thought destroyed) with USC and the Getty Research Institute, which will digitize them for exhibitions and research.…

WHAT’S #VERYTANDC HERE? The history: It’s a watch inspired by a historical moment: Louis Cartier modeled it on the tanks that fought in WWI. But it’s also timeless, and it continues to be sold and collected around the world. The fans: This particular Cartier Tank was given to Jacqueline Kennedy by her brother-in-law Stanislas Radziwill to mark his completion of a challenge issued by JFK: to walk 50 miles as part of a national health initiative. How long did it take Stas to do it? See the inscription on the back: “Stas to Jackie 23 Feb. 63, 2:05 AM to 9:35 PM” The news: The watch was sold at Christie’s for $379,500 in 2017; the buyer was rumored to be Kim Kardashian West. Cartier has it now, and they will…

DAVID SOLOMON, AKA DJ D-SOL, GOLDMAN SACHS Lose the turntable and take a spin in a self-cleaning Kone private elevator. TIM COOK, APPLE Enhance the already rarefied air you breathe with a state-of-the-art Airdog X5 purifier worthy of Jony Ive. JEFF BEZOS, AMAZON Swap the Executive Protection Agents for the security of a decontamination tunnel courtesy of Stretch Structures. MARK ZUCKERBERG, FACEBOOK Use the disinfecting power of UV light technology by Nexos—and maybe get some color in the process.…

Your phone is not an art gallery. Or at least it wasn’t until recently, when galleries and museums around the world took to hosting virtual exhibitions, and formerly exclusive events like auctions and far-flung fairs became accessible at the touch of a screen. But as galleries reopen, and in-person exhibitions are once again on the calendar, some digital shows are going strong. What’s the best from each category for the connoisseur? Let us break it down. IN-PERSON EXHIBITIONS VS DIGITAL SHOWS PIERRE ET GILLES: “MOTIONLESS WANDERINGS” French duo Pierre et Gilles’s joint practice is a labor of love, on both the emotional and technical levels. Since the late 1970s, their approach has remained the same: Pierre photographs the models within flamboyant vignettes, and Gilles paints his partner’s images with lavish brushstrokes. Galerie…

Ayear ago, international high rollers celebrated Bulgari’s 135th anniversary and new collection at a major show at the Castel Sant’Angelo, the ancient fortress across the Tiber from the Roman jewel house’s headquarters. This year no exhibit is planned; the new collection can be tried on only virtually, with a specially designed app. To be allowed to see the stones in person, I needed to take a blood test. The coronavirus has hit high jewelry, too, but Bulgari believes that through plagues and other assorted scourges, some things—namely diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, and pearls—are forever. “Jewels have existed since the birth of man. As long as there have been people, they have sought to adorn things,” said Lucia Silvestri, Bulgari’s creative director. She added that the beauty and the energy of the…

As Michelle Obama’s personal tailor ever since she was first lady, the New York–based couturier Christy Rilling has perfected the art of fitting gowns on the fly, a skill that has been invaluable to her brides. When the pandemic prevented her from fitting her clients in person, Rilling devised a system to measure, nip, and tuck remotely via video call, using her mannequins and a custom virtual fitting kit. TAKE MEASUREMENTS “No one looks forward to having their measurements taken, but usually it’s less stressful than they thought. Measurements are key to getting a custom dress perfect. I’ve created a color-coded measuring tape, so I can see the numbers accurately on FaceTime.” TOILE FITTING “This is tricky, because a toile is a basic fabric, so we’re only looking for fit…

She has thrown fetes for the likes of Cartier and Valentino, so Colleen Kennedy Cohen can pull off a backyard wedding to remember. The former event director for Goop planned Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Falchuk’s wedding at Paltrow’s house in Amagansett, arranging an idyllic Hamptons weekend for 70 guests by bringing in two chefs (one from Argentina), their staffs, and a handful of musical performers, including a bluegrass band and the DJ Girl Talk. A memorable affair requires effort, even at home. “Most people don’t consider the staff it takes to produce a wedding, big or small,” Cohen says. She recommends dedicating space for staff to safely set up, plus offsite parking and a clear schedule. The results are worth it. “A home wedding is a unique way to showcase…

When The Goop Lab premiered on Netflix this past January, Gwyneth Paltrow devotees tuned in to binge-watch the wellness entrepreneur, along with her loyal employees, test out everything from extreme cold therapy to psychedelic mushrooms. But the breakout star was ProLon FMD (Fasting Mimicking Diet), a program that was said to lower one’s molecular age (as well as the number on the scale). Something about this five-day slimdown struck a chord with one-percenters trying to reverse the aftereffects of lockdown martinis and sourdough. After months of hermetic indulgence, it seemed like the perfect antidote to “Covid cushion.” ProLon FMD was developed by Dr. Valter Longo, the director of the Longevity Institute at USC. The program is low in proteins and sugars but rich in healthy fats, and it is designed…

When Barbie Ferreira, one of the stars of HBO’s Euphoria, went browsing for a new outfit recently, she didn’t visit a trendy boutique or her favorite online bazaars. She did something that was more like a combination of the two. She turned on her Nintendo Switch and headed to the Able Sisters Shop, one of the virtual emporiums in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the video game sensation of the lockdown era. There she rummaged through the season’s new wares, donned fantastical creations, and indulged in a little fashion wanderlust. Or, anyway, her avatar did. The new age of window shopping is here, and you don’t have to leave your home to play dress-up anymore. “You can change your outfit all the time and ‘buy’ new stuff every day,” Ferreira says.…

The obsession began with peacock fascinators. Quarantined, exhausted, preoccupied with the daily onslaught of terrible news, I still had it in me to spend time online looking up fascinators: the delicate, intricate marvels of netting and plumage that sit tall on one’s head, formed to be admired. Next I looked into silk opera gloves. Stiletto over-the-knee boots in soft calf leather, a cigarette holder, a tippet. Chandelier earrings, tailored gowns. I felt bedeviled by a free-floating craving for velvet. Crushed velvet, paisley-patterned; burnout velvet. For texture. No—for regalia. Hanboks, again in silk. I lusted after florid robes, dress shirts frilled with old-fashioned jabots. A floor-length dress filled out with crinoline. I hadn’t known I could identify so many kinds of finery. In thrift stores online, on resale sites, I gazed…

Perhaps there’s something in the water. Or maybe it’s the light that shelters this sliver of sand at the very tip of Cape Cod. For as long as history has been recorded around these parts, Provincetown has been a refuge. We tend to forget that the Pilgrims, America’s original renegades, landed here in 1620 before deciding Plymouth was more to their liking—safer, less complicated. Those who followed them here, to what some call Land’s End, sought something riskier but far more sacred, a sanctuary from conformity. Exactly 400 years later, this New World oasis is a friendly port again, this time from the turbulence of 2020. Right on the harbor, at the heart of what’s known as the historic district, the former home of the journalist and labor organizer Mary…

It is not a stretch to say that everyone is taking stock, sifting through personal archives and reflecting on value of all types. At the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, visitors can gaze at the objects we have cherished (or forgotten) in the exhibition “Luxuries,” which takes an encyclopedic approach to how the elite have been expressing themselves since ancient times. Opening October 15, it will be in the museum’s Drawing Room and Salon des Boiseries, two spaces that are often closed to the public. It promises to hold the allure of exclusive access and mysterious fortunes—a combination with timeless appeal. NOW The finer things in life are still appreciated, but an unsettling year (to say the least) has emphasized the necessity of appreciating the more meaningful luxuries. Whether one is…

While reviewing a cache of old drawings last year, Milton Glaser declared that the brain and the hand were the same instrument—not just connected but literally one unit. Drawing, in his view, was simply thinking. When he died in June, he left behind a rich paper trail that revealed his kinetic, inquisitive mind, a treasure trove celebrated in his last book, to be published next month, Sketch and Finish: The Journey from Here to There (Princeton Architectural Press). Flipping through it, one senses how much Glaser relished the metamorphosis of a notion into a fully fleshed idea, from the loose studies that became the triumphant marquee for Tony Kushner’s Angels in America to the original version of his famous psychedelic Bob Dylan poster, which featured the musician’s signature harmonica. “In…

Marie-Antoinette has set her frilled foot on many a runway in her long afterlife, but when Jeremy Scott unveiled his rococo royal at the fall 2020 Moschino show, she looked a little different. Along with the usual bows and ruffles were motifs inspired by The Rose of Versailles, a canonical text in the world of Japanese comics and graphic novels known as manga. “I studied Japanese growing up and ended up living in Tokyo for a summer when I was 16,” Scott tells T&C. “Reading manga was one of the ways I worked on my language skills, so naturally anime is a source of artistic inspiration for me.” Et voilà, “Anime Antoinette was born.” When the year in fashion draws to a close, the high art of Japanese animation may…

Three years ago, on a visit to Naoshima, Japan’s remote island paradise for contemporary art lovers, Claire Choisne, Boucheron’s creative director, spent hours in deep contemplation in the James Turrell installation Open Sky, gazing at the heavens above through an aperture in the ceiling. Turrell’s works tend to have that meditative effect on people. For Choisne it was a life-changing moment, one she was determined to capture and channel into something lasting. As a dreamer and alchemist, Choisne already has a track record of immortalizing the ephemeral. For Boucheron’s 2018 Nature Triomphante collection, she transformed real flowers into exquisite jewels using 3D printing technology. Seizing passing clouds, though, would require imagining fine jewelry in a wholly different context. It took Choisne two years to complete the Fenêtre sur Ciel necklace…

THE RECEPTION “I love the ‘secret garden’ aesthetic. Use lots of greenery and flowers: roses, peonies, fruit branches, and vines, things that feel as if they could actually be growing in the back yard. And bring in a dance floor. Nothing is worse than trying to dance on grass.” THE CEREMONY “Go all out for the ceremony—it’s where the majority of the photos are going to be taken in which everyone is standing still and posing. Create a stunning floral moment with fantastical elements, like a crescent that looks as if it’s growing out of the ground, or a pergola dripping with wisteria.” THE PREPARATION “Depending on how much you want to transform the space, it can take three months to plant trees and foliage, so book someone first thing.…

When lockdown restrictions began to ease, what was your first appointment? The dentist? The hairdresser? For a certain swath of society, it was the plastic surgeon. “The demand for all kinds of procedures right now is just unbelievable,” says Dara Liotta, a Manhattan surgeon who specializes in rhinoplasties. “Before Covid, I was doing about 18 rhinoplasties a month. Now I’m doing more than 30. And whereas it used to be just a rhinoplasty, now people are like, ‘I’m going under anesthesia, so let’s do rhinoplasty and a chin implant, or rhinoplasty and upper eyelids, or rhinoplasty and submental liposuction. And can you do lip filler while you’re at it?’ They want to do all the things.” While some people’s idea of beauty hoarding might be filling the fridge with sheet…

My mother, the writer Foumiko Kometani, has taped to her office wall a line from the 1933 film version of Noel Coward’s play Design for Living: “The sorrows of life are the joys of art.” She’s 89 years old; she survived the firebombing of Osaka, and she vividly remembers World War II. The meaning of that sentence and the reason for its placement has always been clear to me. Like many of her generation of Japanese artists and writers, sorrow and brutality are the inspiration for her art. In her case they were also the impetus for her immigration to the United States in 1960—an escape from the experience of, and guilt from, coming of age in a fascist country. Her eldest granddaughter, Esmee, is 21 and an aspiring musician…

LIBRA SEPTEMBER 24–OCTOBER 23 Mars is in the relationship angle of your solar chart until January, intensifying close connections. Also, with Pluto changing direction at the base of your chart, you appear to be settling into new patterns. Another challenge is to focus on what you can control, and the last week of October is a time to tune in to others and strengthen ties that bind. RUCHI NEW YORK ($3,000), RUCHINEWYORK.COM ARIES MARCH 21–APRIL 20 Because your ruling planet is out of sync in your birth sign, you won’t succeed if you try to dictate terms. The Sun in Libra is all about harmony, so borrow a leaf from Libra’s book and sidestep conflicts. Next month will be a turning point, and toward the end of October you’ll be…

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been felt by all, but most acutely by society’s most vulnerable. To help the millions experiencing food insecurity due to Covid-19, Hearst Magazines is partnering with Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization. Donate at FEEDINGAMERICA.ORG.…

Growing up in Paris, Alexia Leleu listened to stories about the fantastical Maison Leleu, an interior design and furniture house founded by her great-grandfather Jules Leleu and his brother Marcel in 1910. “Our dinners were punctuated with anecdotes of outfitting the private residences of President Eisenhower, Prince Pierre of Monaco, and Brigitte Bardot, and crafting the dining room of the Elysée Palace,” she says. Jules’s children André, Paule, and Alexia’s grandfather Jean all worked in the family business, taking on such ambitious projects as luxurious ocean liners and the United Nations office in Geneva. Maison Leleu furniture and designs adorned homes around the world, including royal residences. Then it abruptly closed, in 1973. As a child Alexia accepted the stories as just that; for a career, she went into the…

“It’s the most obnoxious or provocative decision.” That’s what the abstract painter Josh Smith said when he received his most recent commission from an unlikely source, one that required him to work on an unfamiliar canvas: a luxury handbag. Louis Vuitton called on the New York–based artist and five other contemporary masters, including the American painter Henry Taylor and the French sculptor Jean-Michel Othoniel, to turn its Capucines bags into works of art. Best known for abstract oil paintings that feature his name boldly rendered in various incarnations, Smith couldn’t resist the opportunity to unleash his signature on this most coveted of status symbols. The result is like a technicolor movie presented by Robert Bresson, the bold brushstrokes of Smith’s loopy handwriting against the restrained LV logo. “I can imagine…

PRINCESS MONONOKE Tired of Disney princesses? This fierce protagonist is something very different. SPIRITED AWAY The Oscar-winning opus imagines a fantastical world inspired by Japanese folklore and Shinto traditions. HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE The beloved novel is the source material for this (literally) magical tale of love and curses.…

Like so many couples who were planning to get married this year, Briana Henry and Kris Bowers had only a Plan A. Their June wedding was supposed to take place among the soaring redwoods of the Santa Lucia Preserve, in California’s Monterey County, with 70 guests and the bride in Vera Wang. Then Covid-19 began to spread, and in April the Los Angeles–based couple officially pulled the plug. “It was a lot of crying,” says Briana, an actress on General Hospital. At the end of May, though, they decided to look for a way to celebrate—safely. They opted to throw together a small ceremony in the back yard of Kris’s music studio; he’s the composer behind films such as the Oscar-winning Green Book and Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us.…

Forgo baby lasers such as Clear + Brilliant, saysDr. Dendy Engelman, and go for majorresurfacing with Fraxel, which will improvetexture, obliterate brown spots, and MagicEraser–away wrinkles. A longer-lasting neurotoxin is set to be availablesoon, but for now Engelman says filler, such asthe new Revance RHA, might be a betterinvestment. “Filler is going to last at least sixmonths, and some can last a year.” For long-term lifting and tightening, radiofrequencymicroneedling—which can leaveskin red for days—beats basic microneedling(such as you might get with a facial), whichimparts a temporary glow.…

Gertrude Stein is said to have coined the term Lost Generation while she and Ernest Hemingway were discussing how he and other young men and women were irrevocably altered by the carnage and social upheaval of World War I. The label has since broadened to include any “unfulfilled generation coming to maturity during a period of instability.” Expatriate derives from the Latin ex (out of) and patria (homeland) and is used to describe everybody from corporate lawyers stationed at foreign offices to grad students riding out visas to retirees stretching their dollars abroad. Add “artist” or “writer” and it is generally understood to be someone who has fled one place (because it’s artistically stifling) for another (tolerant, inspiring) place. The term exile, meanwhile, has been used for centuries to describe…

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