I wrote a piece, by request and popular demand, about private clubs for Fathom. If there's any sort of global club membership marketing organization: my favorite jeweler is William & Son.
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Entries from June 2011
Windowlicker (Bonus Edition)
To quote: Inspired by the scent of the Turkish Baths on Jermyn Street, Piccadilly, Hammam Bouquet is an daring oriental created by William Penhaligon in 1872. Animalic and golden, it is warm and mature, redolent of old books, powdered resins and ancient rooms. At its heart is dusky Turkish rose, with jasmine, woods, musk and powdery orris. Heady and glamorous, Hammam Bouquet is evocative of the Edwardian era of decadence and excess. No further comment necessary.
[On sale for $56, from Penhaligon's]
Windowlicker - from the French for window shopping: faire du lèche-vitrine - often appears on Tuesday and Thursdays at 10am EST-ish.
Windowlicker
I am search of a soft day lipstick, as I prefer red at night. Dolce & Gabbana's "Mandorla" has caught my eye. The name means "almond" in Italian, which I'm guessing is the literal reference, although I also like the definition in iconography: an "almond-shaped aureole of light surrounding the entire figure of a holy person; it was used in Christian art usually for the figure of Christ and is also found in the art of Buddhism. Its origins are uncertain. The Western mandorla first appears in 5th-century mosaics decorating the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, where it surrounds certain Old Testament figures." Brilliant. Shine on.
[D&G Shine Lipstick, $30 at Saks Fifth Avenue]
Windowlicker - from the French for window shopping: faire du lèche-vitrine - often appears on Tuesday and Thursdays at 10am EST-ish.
On Adornment
Look at these darling little earrings my friend Rachel gave me over lunch at India House today, coral and cream, kind of a sunburst flower motif, from a shop called "Old Hollywood," and reminding me in a way of her fellow New Mexican, by choice, Standard Oil heiress Millicent Rogers. Topics discussed: the pleasure of coming into town, and the pleasures of leaving it, Los Angeles vs. Paris vs. London vs. New York, finding one's milieu, and the importance of having eight things in your closet that are truly, absolutely perfect. The little Louboutin wedges that she whipped out precisely underlined her point. She's writing a book on the romance between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sheilah Graham, and I'd have paid the hardcover price just to hear her research tales alone. Lucky me, I'm spoiled absolutely rotten. It's a peach.
On Gifts
I thought my time in New York was over, and then I moved to the historic waterfront. Suddenly, Bentleys rolling through dappled shade, shop windows shimmering with champagne and vintage Cartier watches... Old New York is the new New York. So many momentous things happened today, and I thought I would list them, and then someone gave* me this gorgeous bracelet and I've decided to let it speak for itself. Isn't that lavender satin dress divine? I know, I think so, too... I walked through the door a moment ago and I said to my sister, "How was your night?" "Oh, marvelous," she replied, "I've been invited to the Colony Club."
*'It's not quite a fair count, but... a stone for every facet of your brilliance.'
LuxLoves: Care Packages, Redux
How much do I adore Lux Lotus readers? In the mail today, a lovely note enclosed with a beautifully wrapped notebook. Inside: She is a gatherer: moonlight, found wishes, moments of gratitude.
Image: 'Head of a Muse,' Raphael.
LuxLoves: Care Packages
Everyone has a price, it seems, and all it takes to have me scanning fares is two issues of The Lady wrapped up with tea and truffles from Fortnum & Mason. Oh, and the fact that one of my favorite people lives in London –– there's no one I'd rather giggle in a royal venue, stroll a deer park, or ride through Mayfair, with.
LuxLoves: Bill Cunningham
I was on 1010 WINS today, which is the hyper-local news station that seems always to be blaring in taxis, talking about why the ferry was full of flappers like me (I mentioned my grandparents, and how it definitely runs in the family). Will one of the seemingly dozen or so photographs Bill Cunningham took of me at three different intervals today at the 6th Bi-Annual Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governors Island make it into the New York Times? Who knows? Much more meaningful to me was when he finally came up and said, "You look great!" –– the lift of a lifetime. If you haven't seen the recent documentary on his work, check it out.
Windowlicker
Me want.
[Leica, $849 at B&H]
Windowlicker - from the French for window shopping: faire du lèche-vitrine - often appears on Tuesday and Thursdays at 10am EST-ish.