Lux Lotus

Lux Lotus Look Book: Mary Beth

Had lunch on Rivington Street with my friend Mary Beth today. Isn't she a dream? She's building her modeling portfolio, so if you need someone to pose, get in touch (marybeth.doran at gmail). 

Find Your Own Desert Nights, in Joshua Tree

You may know that Palm Springs is one of my favorite places. While resolutely Mid-Century in many ways, it's certainly no longer the town that Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner drove into late one night in the 1950s. I like to think that when she gave him that watch, engraved "To Frank and Desert Nights," they were the endless span of swirling, inky depths one might associate with modern day Joshua Tree, that must have seemed like they belonged only to them. Well, aren't we lucky then, that my dear friends Jay and Stephanie have a homesteaders cabin there (as seen in the New York Times), now accepting guests. You can also read their amazing diary, Learning to Live Here, where they photograph local flora and fauna, and much more. Do stop by.

LuxLoves: Jackie Paris

No time to count the ways. Fans of Kitty Kallen, look him up.

On Restraint

 

I am soon to turn thirty-two, and am in the midst of that annual reckoning, not to mention that I moved and things are different now. It's an expression of a longer trend in my life. In that past year, I've relaxed, and I've let some things go. Even in my soul-searching, West Coast-based, itinerant ashram-hopping period (Summer 2008), I was a stickler about many things: I can forgive anything but bad manners. My standards are not of this realm, and I've found that holding people to the same level of effort, elegance and empathy that I expect for myself has failed as a strategy for happiness. People are who they are, and they do what they want to do.  I'm more discerning about who surrounds me.

Yesterday, my mother, sister and I went to the Jewish Museum for the Cone Sisters exhibition, one of the most charming and well-done shows I've seen in years, and then to the Cooper-Hewitt, where we popped by the Van Cleef & Arpels show (I'd seen many things there, and more, last year, but some objects - see above, image from Sotheby's-  were new to me), and it delighted me to remark, with exaggerated exasperation, on how it was just as crowded as the show of Elizabeth Taylor's Bulgari jewels in Paris, before we rounded out the day at Cafe Sabarsky (where I once saw Anne Slater, and return to, hopefully, evermore).

Last night, everyone's favorite venture capitalist emailed me, in his always refreshingly forthright manner: What do you want for your birthday? Now, you must remember, this is a man who is apt to say, in Hermes, "See anything you like?" and mean it, so old me reflexively acted on habit, searching for the precise answers (with colors, styles, and sizes) that used to roll so quickly off my tongue. It wasn't there this time, and so I replied: Ever since I saw Daisy Fellowes' diamond cuffs (!) with emerald tassels (!) today, I can't think of anything else, so... the exquisite pleasure of having you in my life for another year'll do just fine. And, wouldn't you know, I meant it.

What We Do on Saturday Night

My mother's in town, and she always teaches me a thing or two. 'I had imagined Rose having dozens and dozens of dresses - you can get such beauties for two or three pounds each; but perhaps it gives you a glorious, valuable feeling to wear little black suits of fabulous price - like wearing real jewellery.' –– I Capture the Castle

Windowlicker

I love it when all my dreams just run together.

["Lucite table, with racetrack shaped glass," price upon request at Majestic Reproductions (made to order in New York)]

Windowlicker - from the French for window shopping: faire du lèche-vitrine - often appears on Tuesday and Thursdays at 10am EST-ish.

On Cruise Control

This week has been wild, and it's still very much in full swing! Pictured, Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow, and one of my PR clients, and me at the Authors Guild gala, which I publicized as well (photo from Shelf Awareness, credit: Bethanne Patrick); The New Yorker on "a very good reason for us all to raise a glass."

Exhausted after so many long days and evenings out, I briefly wondered what the point of it all is today. And then my coromandel screen was delivered, from Gottlieb Gallery in Hudson, via the very courteous and conscientious Meticulous Inc. Bettertex is starting on my creamy linen drapes –– with tassels, and a Cunard vibe –– and vintage chintz slipcovers today. I see the point, and it's exquisite. What's the next big thing? A nap.

That's What She Said

My best friend since the tenth grade has been here this weekend helping me unpack boxes in my new place and so I repaid him with a dramatic reading from a selection of my private diaries of the past decade, over breakfast. All the parts about him are so flowery and worshipful that we quickly became bored, so I read him a few of the bits about boys and promised he can publish the unexpurgated versions when I die and spend the rest of his days living in luxury by the sea. A sampling, from the past five years:

"At the bar, X bought me a drink. Y offered, and I said he could get the next one. At one point towards the end, he said something like (in his posh accent), 'I have got a massive crush on you.'... We left and took a cab. [In a bar in the East Village], I kissed his neck and earlobe. The bartender said, 'Whatever you did, don't stop–– you should have seen his eyes!'"

"I didn't know anything about Z besides that he was cute & had an expense account. I suggested we meet at [expensive bar in the Flatiron District] and then go to [fantastically extravagant place for dinner], which he said sounded great. He walked in looking very attractive... He went to kiss me on both cheeks, which I didn't expect and we had an awkward laugh; I said, 'Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get another chance.'"

Windowlicker (Weekend Edition)

I may need this for my kitchen. Related, read Nancy Mitford's Mme. de Pompadour bio on NYRB Classics? Sparkling, natch.

[The origin of the coupe, print by Lisa Falzon, $15]

Windowlicker - from the French for window shopping: faire du lèche-vitrine - often appears on Tuesday and Thursdays at 10am EST-ish.

My Life in Pictures: On the Move

Last Wednesday when I moved, I ran into Terese Svoboda, one of my publicity clients, walking her dog. "Who looks like that at 9 in the morning?" she said, which made me laugh, because she is one of those effortlessly elegant people who I admired from afar long before we met. So I took this snapshot while waiting for the (very good) movers, and it's probably all that'll be here for a few days, because Monday I'll be at the black tie Authors Guild Dinner, which I'm publicizing, Tuesday I'll be at Bar Pleiades celebrating the publication of Silver Sparrow with another client, Tayari Jones, and Wednesday, I'll be at "Upstairs at the Square" (my key project, celebrating five years in June) with Jimmy Fallon. Join us!