Lux Lotus

How to Clutch Your Cloche

On the FDR. Jewelry, all gifts; brooch and one bracelet from Estate Jewels; lipstick: Guerlain's Rouge d'Enfer. Hat: Sally Cohen Vintage.

It's been that kind of a day, and it's only 10am. Stellar breakfast meeting, off shortly to meet critic Shya Scanlon at the Swedish cafe (there seems to be one a stone's throw of wherever I live in New York, blessedly) to give him a copy of Bohemian Girl, then back to book some Pacific NW action for Lightning People to coincide with its B&N "Discover" recognition for the holiday season, then to work on some publicity-oriented things for Booktrack, with which I'll be traveling to Frankfurt, to the biggest and most important bookfair on the globe next week – exciting news of-this-moment, VP Brooke Geahan is on the same conference line-up as timelessly elegant movie star Rupert Everett; promo for Japanther's next album, out next month (try to listen to "Porcupine" once, and get it out of your head; let me know if you do, and how); then to make a galley list for Figment, publishing Blake Nelson's Dream School this December, publicize the next edition of "Upstairs at the Square" for Barnes & Noble, Ann Beattie (The New Yorker Stories) and Markéta Irglová (Oscar winner for Once, half of the Swell Season, and now her solo album, Anar, arrives) on October 13th; editing for landscape and urban designer Diana Balmori, I'm currently delighted by her From the Desk of..., shaping up nicely; and you know... other things. I hope to achieve it all by 9pm tonight. Wish me luck.

Luxloves: Twenty Thirty Forty x Badaude

The U.S. retailer has asked the Europe-based illustrator, who goes by the name "Badaude," to illustrate a series of stylish women on the go in chic capitals, that you can shop directly from at the site. Without question, the cleverest creative move I've seen in ages.

On Passion

Portrait by of Sand and Chopin by Delacroix, as it was painted. Moody C. was said to have hated it, while her portrait is generally preferred for its emotiveness. I can imagine the crazy love, which impacted the painting: the two were cut apart and one half is in Paris, the other in Copenhagen.

All I really know of Chopin is the broad sketches of his Romantic (complete with consumption, emotive discord, a piano trapped in customs, and unhospitable locals in Majorca) love affair with "Amandine Aurore Lucille Dupin, the Baroness Dudevant," nom de plume, George Sand. So, in the name of art, I'm looking forward to this: historic "John Street Church will host a lovely concert of cello and piano pieces by Franchomme and Chopin Thursday, 9/29, at 7:30. Tickets $15 ($10 sr./student) suggested donation."

Everyone Gets "Men Undressed"

The ten entries to last week's contest were so sublime (seriously, go and read them all) that I've decided to order a copy for each of the ten readers who participated. If that means you, please write me with your address: correspondence at laurencerand dot com.

Postcard From New York

Snapped in Chelsea, in front of David Byrne's "Tight Spot" show, under the High Line, by one of my Australian director friends, Alex, who's in town to make a documentary on Polly Borland.

On Steps

Is it too early to look back at the year? If anything, 2011 has been a bridge over a gap for me, a time of massive transition if not quite transformation. I always hope for adventure, romance, and riches when I read my horoscope for the year ahead, but, truth be told, this one's gone pretty well. There's little to report. Few hard facts. And yet something has shifted in me. Tonight I looked out the window of the cab I was riding home in, and thought, are you doing what you were meant to do? would it all be alright if you turned to dust? The answer, of course, was no. The big answer? I'm not sure. I was talking to a friend today on my old phone, explaining how much I look forward to reinventing myself each January when all of my projects begin anew and I can re-design outmoded relationships, models and ways of thinking as they pertain to how I conduct my business, and life. I said that, while I don't have the answers yet, I'm confident they'll come to mind. I do know, though, that I thought about Rome today, three different times, and all in the context of steps. First, slipping as I descended the marble spiral stairs in between floors in my hotel, in the dark, and being profoundly grateful to have landed with a simple thump, seated, my dress, pooling, with my fur, in a dark cascade around me, nothing more than surprised. Second, the Spanish Steps, where I stopped in at Sermoneta and came out with long saffron gloves. They, more than anything, harbinger the harvest season to me now. Third, wandering the vast halls of the Palazzo Barberini, across the piazza from where I stayed, and becoming lost in the endless twisting stairwells; frustrated, until I appreciated my challenge for what it was: a princippessa problem, and my path.

Related, from the Lux Lotus archive: Letter From Rome (2009).

Windowlicker (Weekend Edition)

Beware the bull, unless you can take him.

[19th C. Matador Cape, $3,500 at Tova's Vintage]

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

Lux Lotus Films: Cool Cab, Warm Heart

Lux Lotus: Cool Cab, Warm Heart from Lauren Cerand on Vimeo. 

En route to dinner, Friday night, in a cab driving through the streets of Chinatown in the rain.

On Constellations

A truly magical sort of New York evening, with Christopher Bollen and Eleanor Friedberger at Upstairs at the Square (with alums John Wesley Harding, and Dave Parnell of Runaway Dorothy spotted in the crowd), and then dinner with Bill Clegg. It was one of those "everything happens at parties" kind of nights, talking about Metropolitan and Joan As Police Woman, and it meant so much to me that some of my friends came out, and not just any, but Mark the playwright who has a premiere in January, plus Fette from Berlin, and Amy from Omaha, and I suppose it's no coincidence that I'm headed to both of those places on next month's circuit because they seem to send forth all the stars.

Lux Lotus Giveaway: MEN UNDRESSED

Inspired by lovely Lola is Beauty and her "Chanel Giveaway," I have received two copies of Men Undressed: Women Writers and the Male Sexual Experience, an anthology of writing that includes contributions by Jennifer Egan and A.M. Holmes, and I am willing to share. All you have to do to be eligible to win it is complete the sentence, "I dress for..." and leave it in a comment below. I'll choose the winner on Sunday evening-ish.

Previously: Victor & Rolf on Men, Style.