Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2025 i Town & Country

1998 GIORGIO ARMANI “There is an air of mystery about Giorgio Armani. Some say he cultivates it—by avoiding the press; by giving interviews only in Italian, sometimes in French; by traveling little and sticking close to his home, family and business in Milan.” So wrote former T&C editor in chief Pamela Fiori in her January 1998 cover story on the designer, who passed away in September. The accompanying spread was a family album taken at his weekend villa in Broni, near Milan, during the wedding of his niece Roberta Armani. True to Fiori’s point, Armani wasn’t interviewed for that story, but his policy had changed by 2022, when we featured him in our OGs issue. The then-87-year-old king of the red carpet (and of a multibillion-dollar empire of fashion, hospitality,…

A certain type of architecture has never been properly documented but comes up in campfire stories, and it’s time we talked about it. Like doomscrolling or kink shaming, this building category, like anything catchy and new, deserves a new name: fuck you buildings. The stories behind their design (with FU buildings, there’s always a story) are as interesting as their form. Why, for instance, at Paul Mellon’s estate in Virginia, does a huge earthen mound obscure views of the exceptionally pretty William Adams Delano house Mellon built with his first wife? Because Bunny Mellon quietly used landscaping to rewrite the past. Whether inspired by grudges, financial motives, score-settling after romantic disappointment, or just FU moments that happened to go down that way, these are equal parts architecture and revenge. Let’s…

1. You recently left L’Oréal after 40 years. What was your first move? I finally had access to my long-term employment incentives, one of them being a 401(k), and I began the process of transferring some of those funds to UNICEF. Since 2015 my and my husband’s wills have been completely dedicated to UNICEF, but I thought, when I left L’Oréal, Why wait to use these dollars when they’re needed so much now? 2. You’re donating to a specific program at UNICEF, right? It’s a recently launched global initiative called Power4Girls, which seeks to advance the rights, well-being, and leadership of adolescent girls. I felt that it was an ideal thing for me to support, and it was in an early development stage, so I’m able to be much more…

IN THEORY & PRACTICE TIP 1: LEARN THE LANGUAGE Horns have been used as adornments, protective talismans, and status symbols since the Stone Age. The Italians later came up with their own twist: the cornicello. TIP 2: IDENTIFY YOUR IDOLS Alexander the Great is said to have accessorized with horns on his head to promote the claim that he was the son of a god. We prefer Diana Vreeland’s method. TIP 3: EXERCISE GRAND GESTURES Michael Rider seemed to be manifesting a season of abundance, with horns aplenty in his debut for Celine. Channel that energy. You have nothing to lose.…

There are certain physicians, hairstylists, and facialists who are so renowned they make the “fly to see” list. As in, patients secure an appointment with them, then make their travel arrangements. At the tippy top there is Dr. Maurice Dray. The legendary dermatologist has been transforming faces in Paris, London, and Abu Dhabi for more than three decades (clients include Salma Hayek and Gwyneth Paltrow), and he is widely credited with popularizing threads and pioneering the mesolift. The latter is a series of superficial injections designed to improve skin quality. In the beginning vitamins and minerals were deposited just under the epidermis. Today Dray uses a bespoke mix of those, plus PDRN (aka salmon sperm), vegetable exosomes, and liquid hyaluronic acid. Lately Dray has also been using his mesolift technique…

It is not an easy moment to try to save the world. Just ask the current leader of any nonprofit: Government grants have seemingly dried up overnight. As a result, large foundations are being inundated with grant requests from smaller philanthropies that they can’t begin to fulfill. Meanwhile, intractable problems appear to be multiplying, and progress on many fronts is suddenly at a standstill. Throughout all this turmoil, individual donors are being pulled in a thousand different directions. Add to all that the discouraging fact that there are fewer Americans than ever engaging in philanthropic giving. That was a major revelation of Bank of America’s 2025 Study of Philanthropy: “While the vast majority of affiuent households give (81 percent), this share has steadily declined over the last nine years from…

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Sade Lythcott and Dasha Zhukova Niarchos’s first encounter was like the collision of two galaxies—dazzling, radiant, rare, producing a new whole greater than the sum of its parts. They talked about their work and passions, about their journeys and ambitions, about art, theater, design, architecture, business, and philanthropy. But before any of that, they talked about their mothers: the formidable Barbara Ann Teer and Elena Zhukova, PhDs both. Dasha spoke of the ways her mother, a molecular biologist, challenged her to dream without limit, Sade of the passion she felt for upholding her late mother’s legacy in Black theater and community building. Both spoke of the ways they hoped to honor the fierce, fearless women who transfixed and transformed the worlds around them. Over that first lunch, over these stories,…

Michael Jordan Earlier this year, after making a $10 million gift, the six-time NBA champ opened his fourth Michael Jordan Family Medical Clinic in North Carolina, bringing free care to patients in his hometown of Wilmington. Bad Bunny Every ticket for his current world tour includes a donation to his Good Bunny Foundation, and his Puerto Rico residency brought more than $250 million to the island. Miranda Lambert In August the “A Song to Sing” crooner’s Band Together Texas benefit concert, co-hosted by Parker McCollum, raised more than $8.5 million for flood relief. The Cast of Dawson’s Creek The stars of the ’90s TV drama did a September reading of the pilot episode to raise money for F Cancer and for James Van Der Beek, who’s battling the disease. Rihanna…

1. Earlier this year you launched a $550 million fundraising drive to go tuition-free. Why? I know far too many people who did not apply to Juilliard in past years because they thought it was out of reach. The first thing is to say, “This is a place that cares about accessibility for those who can thrive here.” It can’t be about the money, and it can’t be only for certain people. One of the other things that must be said is that there is tremendous need. I’ve been asked, “Why 100 percent tuition-free?” Because very few students are actually paying the full cost right now. As of this fall we’re 40 percent tuition-free, and about 95 percent of the students are getting some form of scholarship. That tells you…

Agnes Gund (or Aggie, as she was called by almost everyone) was born into one type of Town & Country world and went on to create another. She grew up in Cleveland, the daughter of Jessica Roesler Gund and George Gund II, whose real estate, brewing, and banking interests made him one of the wealthiest men in Ohio. She attended Miss Porter’s School and studied art at Connecticut College. She became an avid collector in her late twenties, and almost as soon as she began acquiring art she started lending and donating it—the beginning of a long career in philanthropy. Gund possessed a unique ability to identify problems that needed immediate remedies and introduce long-term solutions. In the 1970s, when New York City’s budget crisis forced schools to cut arts…

There is nothing little about the star at the center of Chanel High Jewelry’s one-of-a-kind Dreams Come True necklace. It is big enough to host a 6.06-carat DFL diamond inside it. And, as a matter of fact, it’s not a star at all. That is a comet center stage, against the sculpted long black gold chains. A star is static; a comet is constantly in motion, reaching and searching for the light. Doesn’t that make all the difference? That celestial quest is at the heart of the house. “I love everything that is above,” said founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (below), “the sky, the moon, I believe in the stars.” Matthieu Blazy’s triumphant debut ready-to-wear collection for Chanel echoed this, in the interplanetary runway set and in his words: “For this…

A few months before chef Daniel Humm announced in August that Eleven Madison Park would abandon its strictly vegan policy on its almost $400 tasting menu, he made waves in New York’s rarefied dining circles for another change: The restaurant would no longer be cooking with seed oils. Instead Humm switched to algae-based oil (specifically Algae Cooking Club; he is the company’s “culinary officer”). At Coqodaq, a buzzy Manhattan destination for caviar bumps and fried chicken, said chicken is now fried in vats of sugarcane-based oil from Zero Acre Farms. (Gwyneth Paltrow is a fan, and chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns was an early adopter.) While most chefs sidelining seed oil say it’s about flavor and performance, online the conversation—which is being fueled by MAHA moms,…

The road to Sesame Street goes straight through Astoria, Queens, to an 8,000-square-foot soundstage in the historic Kaufman Astoria Studios. That’s where a group of Netflix executives found themselves in early June, strolling around one of the world’s most famous fictional neighborhoods. The executives, led by chief content officer Bela Bajaria, had picked a fine time for their first visit since announcing a deal with Sesame Workshop to distribute the beloved children’s show, now entering its 56th season. It just so happened that Miley Cyrus was on set as a guest, an appearance that left some of Sesame Street’s younger crew members starstruck. They had grown up watching Cyrus as Hannah Montana on—cover your ears, PBS—the Disney Channel. But the real stars in the room, brought to life by a…

The talk of Paris this month is something brilliantly designed, terribly sophisticated, and, of course, from Cartier. The sparkler that has tongues wagging isn’t jewelry—it’s the new Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a 91,500-square-foot temple to art and culture that has just opened at 2 Place du Palais-Royal, in a building dating back to 1855 that’s just steps from the Louvre. Having relocated from its former 14th Arrondissement home, the Fondation, redesigned by Jean Nouvel, has reopened with “Exposition Générale,” a show of nearly 600 works in various mediums by artists including James Turrell, Malick Sidibé, Vija Celmins, Matthew Barney, Agnès Varda, David Lynch, and Patti Smith. The exhibition references the wide-ranging expositions once held at the Grands Magasins du Louvre department store and touches on not only fine art…

WHERE ARE WE GOING? Margot Tenenbaum’s fur. Mr. Fox’s motorcycle. The pink façade of the Grand Budapest Hotel. Asteroid City’s vending machines. Wes Anderson has boundless imagination, and he’s a hoarder, too. More than 600 items from his personal archive, including storyboards, miniature models, props, and costumes, are on view at the Design Museum in London. NOVEMBER 21–JULY 26, 2026, DESIGNMUSEUM.ORG WHAT ARE WE WEARING? What does individuality look like in a watch? Glashütte Original, the 180­year­old German brand, has perfected the formula with the Serenade Luna. Start with a solid foundation of state­ of­ the­ art tech and a 60­hour power reserve. Add diamonds and a mother­-of­pearl moon phase display. Then throw in a surprise: an orange alligator leather strap. It’s probably what Wes would do.…

Venus and Serena Williams may be among the world’s most celebrated athletes, but in early September Venus, a seven-time Grand Slam and four-time Olympic gold medal winner, told the crowd gathered at the U.S. Open, “Tennis is just the start.” That’s because the sisters recently launched the Williams Family Excellence Program, in partnership with the United States Tennis Association Foundation. The program will focus on supporting athletes ages 13 to 25 from underresourced communities with scholarships, mentoring programs, performance training, and internship opportunities. The aim, the sisters say, is to help families like theirs. “Their story is one of courage and resilience. This program will carry that legacy forward by giving young people the same sense of possibility that the Williams family has given all of us,” says Brian Vahaly,…

Every social group has one. She is the high priestess of one-upmanship, always armed with a riposte to signal (none too subtly) that she is better than you. A modern-day Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham (may she rest in peace). Your Italian cashmere sweater is nice. Hers is fairtrade vicuña sourced from the foothills of the Bolivian Andes. Did you just give a million to the Met Opera? Well, she forked over a mil and a half. She can turn just about anything into a moment of performative superiority—and lately she has taken this expertise to a new battleground: archival designer fashion. And, best of all, she can let it do the talking. Consider the optics of, say, a Tom Ford – era Gucci leather jacket. First, it suggests…

Les Roberts wasn’t like other art dealers in Miami, or anywhere really. He stood a tidy five-foot-three, spoke softly, had dark, bushy eyebrows, and wore a toupee, jet black. On Tik-Tok, where he had more than half a million followers, he’d sit behind the grand piano in his Miami high-rise and play Billy Joel classics, or don a black-pearl-snap western shirt and strum his guitar. There was something campy about it all, but it seemed harmless. The man was all joy. His kitschy look (head to toe black, with a pink tie, or a red one) could border on theatrical, and it was a bit odd that he served Dunkin’ Donuts at art openings rather than sparkling wine like other gallerists. But it all seemed very Miami, charming even, as…

SCORPIO OCTOBER 24–NOVEMBER 22 This is your birthday month, and the way the planets are behaving it’s a good time to find your feet and determine what’s next. Many indications are in your favor, especially at midmonth, but you’ll lack the certainty you’re looking for until the new Moon of the 20th is in your birth sign. Venus in Scorpio all month brings affection and attention your way. YVONNE LEON ($2,600), MODAOPERANDI.COM SAGITTARIUS NOVEMBER 23–DECEMBER 21 Survey the landscape before making crucial moves this month. An emphasis on security and financial arrangements gives you much to contemplate. Luck is on your side now that Jupiter is in Cancer, but because it will go out of sync until March, details around new plans will be unclear. You’re in the mood to…