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Looking
east across 57th Street and 7th Avenue towards Carnegie
Hall. 8:45 PM. Photo: JH.
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Uptown, downtown, all around the town. Olivier the
florist on 14th Street just west of Seventh Avenue held a reception
last night
for Michael Vollbracht and some of his “new
works.” Michael
is now the very successful designer of the Bill Blass fashion house
here in New York. He’s an artist who’s LIVED and seen
it all — New York, Hollywood, Miami, Europe. He’s
done two fantastic books — Nothing Sacred and Nothing
Sacred II. They are the most engagingly beautiful documents
of American culture of the past forty years.
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Michael
Vollbracht's Nothing Sacred.
Click image to order.
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Michael is one
of those artists who despite his “commercial” commitments
and the pressures of creating collections for each season, remains
like that child who nurtured the artist within himself by drawing,
painting, cutting, pasting and making. He grew up fascinated by
movie stars and eventually got to know many of them, along with
a lot of other fast lane, fashion, and society types. And he draws
them and reminisces about them in a most personal tell-all (about
himself too) way. The “new works” are collage-oriented,
vaguely reminiscent of the Cornell boxes. Intriguing as in intrigue.
Beautiful as in the life of the image.
Olivier’s shop is large and simple. Behind the shop is a
small forest of evergreens which at this time of the year are covered
with lights. There was a sumptuous buffet laid out on the big cutting
counters and a bar set up by the stainless steel sinks. With a
surrounding crowd. The only thing that allowed my resistance was
that I was due at a dinner uptown at 8 o’clock. |
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L'Olivier
on 14th Street between 7th and 8th
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Roberta
Greene
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Michael
Vollbracht
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A
Vollbracht collage
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Olivier
Guigni
and Joan Rivers
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The
scene inside L'Olivier
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Nikki
Haskell. Click image to order the StarCruncher.
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From
L’Olivier JH and I caught the Sixth Avenue subway uptown
to 57th Street (the only way to make time in New York at this
time of the year).
Ten minutes later we were walking down West
57th Street to Zitomer’s, or Pharmacy Z where our friend Nikki
Haskell was having a cocktail reception to introduce
her newest weight-watching/muscle toning product, the “StarCruncher.”
The “StarCruncher” is
Nikki’s own invention, years in the making and years of
exercising experience. It’s an aspects/all-purpose portable
machine that weighs about two pounds and comes in a bag so that
you can take it with you wherever you go and get those limbs
working lithesomely everyday of your life. Visit her web site
and see for yourself ... |
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Lee
Mellis and Paola Rosenshein
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Ivana
Trump and Catherine Saxton
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Arnie
Rosenshein and Larry Wohl
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Beverly
Johnson and Nikki Haskell
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From
Nikki’s party, we walked a block and a half east on 57th
Street, past Tiffany, past Nike, past Chanel, past Dior, to the
corner of Madison Avenue and the Montblanc flagship boutique
where they were launching the “Montblanc Special Edition
Juilliard Centennial Fountain Pen.”
The evening was hosted by Cynthia and Dan Lufkin who are the
chairs of the upcoming
Juilliard Centennial Gala (April 3, 2006), along with Jan Patrick Schmitz, President
and CEO of Montblanc, Joseph Polisi, President of Juilliard
and Bruce
Kovner, Chairman of Juilliard. The special guest of the evening was Audra
McDonald who
was there to unveil the exquisite $34,000 pen which is decorated with 6,689 sparkling
diamonds. The pen is made of solid white 18 karat gold and black precious lacquer.
The “J” shaped clip pays homage to the institution that inspired
it, and a portrait of A. D. Juilliard is etched into the 18 karat gold nib. There
will be only 8 piece available worldwide. For the occasion Montblanc also produced
a second pen, the Juilliard Centennial Celebration Limited Edition Fountain Pen
which has 140 sparkling diamonds and is priced at $16,000. |
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Dan
Lufkin, Cynthia Lufkin with Schuyler, Muffie Potter Aston,
Jill Brooke, and Grace Hightower De Niro
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In
the crowd: Muffie Potter Aston, Debbie Bancroft, Mario
Buatta, Arnold Scaasi and Parker Ladd, Geoffrey Bradfield, Jim
and Lauren Thierry Watkins, Grace Hightower De Niro, Ann Dexter
Jones, Felicia Taylor, Jill Brooke, Wendy Carduner, Sharon Sondes
and Geoffrey Thomas, Virginia Coleman, Chris and Grace Meigher,
Mark Gilbertson,
Alison Mazzola.
A trio from Juilliard provided the background music along with the clinking glasses
of the cocktails provided by Chopin vodka and their specialties – “the
Modern Chopin,” “Chopin White Cosmopolitan,” and the “Chopin
Cuban.” All of this came together because Montblanc is participating as
a contributor in the centennial celebration of Juilliard which is one of New
York’s finest institutions and one of the greatest schools for musical
artists in the world. Renee Fleming, Leontyne Price, Bradley Whiteford,
Laura
Linney, Wynton Marsalis, Itzhak Perman, John Williams, and Emanuel
Ax will
perform
at the April 3rd gala and the show will be a “Live At Lincoln Center” telecast. |
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L.
to r.: Montblanc storefront; Dan Lufkin greets
Grace Hightower De Niro while Cynthia Lufkin, Muffie
Potter Aston, and Schuyler look on.
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Joseph
Polisi, Audra McDonald, and Elizabeth Marlowe Polisi
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Inside
the Montblanc boutique
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Michel
Witmer and Janna Bullock
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Alice
Judelson
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Mark
Gilbertson and Cynthia Lufkin
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Dan
Lufkin and Jan Patrick Schmitz
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Matt
Semino
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Wendy
Carduner and Roger Webster
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I
left Montblanc to rush up the avenue to a small dinner party that Patricia
Patterson was giving for Suzanne and Bill McDonough who
were moving back to New York after his stint serving as chairman
of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board at the Securities
and Exchange Commission. The PCAOB is a not-for-profit organization
created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to protect investors in U.S.
securities by ensuring that public company financial statements
are audited according to the highest standards. Sound like something
that there’s a need for? Before moving to Washington, the
McDonoughs were very popular here in New York where he served
as the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from
July
1993 to June 2003.
At cocktails before, I got into a conversation for Warren Hoge who covers the
United Nations for the New York Times. Warren and I got onto the subject of tabloids,
recalling how much we both loved the New York tabs when were much younger. In
those days, the top two tabloids were the New York Daily News which had the largest
circulation of any paper in America, and the Hearsts’ Daily Mirror (where
Walter Winchell had his column and where Suzy first wrote her society column).
The Post in those days was owned by Dorothy (Dolly) Schiff, the
daughter of fabled
banker/philanthropist Jacob Schiff. Although it had a tabloid
size, the Postwas ultra-liberal to the point of being grey and lacking
in the razz-matazz of
the News and the Mirror. Warren pointed out that the News also
had the greatest, the most memorable headlines.
He recalled two especially funny
ones. The first
had to do with a court case involving Gloria Vanderbilt who
was in California at the time she was expected to appear in court to testify.
She had taken sick,
however, and had to postpone her appearance. The News’ headline for the
report was: “Sick Gloria In Transit Monday.” The second had to do
with the famous English scandal, the Profumo Case which involved call-girls and
well known society types including Douglas Fairbanks Jr. One of the girls involved
in the case was Mandy Rice-Davies. When she gave her testimony, she was very
critical of Mr. Fairbanks who was evidently quite well-known between the sheets
for his randy ways. The News’ headline: “Queen of Tarts Find Fairbanks
A Real Crumb.” |
More
than 150 guests filled Club Colette to capacity last week for the 6th Annual Archival Evening event to benefit
the Historical
Society of Palm Beach County.
The theme of this year’s elegant dinner dance was “Wonder
Women:
The Late Great Grande Dames of Palm Beach.” The event paid tribute to five
former doyennes of Palm Beach society, Barton Gubelmann, Estee Lauder,
Marjorie
Merriweather Post, Mary Sanford, and Sue Whitmore, who made a memorable
impact
on the philanthropic and social landscape of Palm Beach.
Archival Evening chairman Steven Stolman, vice-chair Ross
W.W. Meltzer and special
benefactor, Dame Celia Lipton Farris, assembled a nostalgic display of historic
photographs that offered a glimpse into the lives of these former leading ladies
of island life.
Guests at the event included Kate Gubelmann, Pauline Pitt, Grace and Christopher
Meigher, Frances Scaife, Cece Farris, Emilia Fanjul, Kathy and Alan Bleznak,
Diana and Llywd Ecclestone, Jean Tailor, Kenn Karakul, Cynthia Boardman, Arnold
Scaasi, Mario Nievera, Jaime and Mac Zahringer, Lili and Ambrose Monell, Sandra
Heine, Hope and John Annan, and Maureen Donnell.
The Evening was presented by Corcoran Group Palm Beach and Deutsche Bank Alex.Brown.
The Historical Society’s annual Archival Evening honors the contributions
of notable individuals whose accomplishments and influence have helped to define
the history of Palm Beach. Lilly Pulitzer, a leading symbol of tropical resort
wear and the true icon of Palm Beach style, was honored at the 2004 Archival
Evening. Previous honorees include 1920s New York and Palm Beach architect Maurice
Fatio, fashion designer Philip Hulitar and society family photographer Betty
Kuhner. |
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L.
to r.: Emilia Fanjul, Grace Meigher, and Pauline
Pitt; Anita and Ross Meltzer with Gillian Miniter.
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Mac
and Jamie Zahringer
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Kathy
and Alan Bleznak
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Diana
and Llwyd Ecclestone
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Amy
Lagae, Nicole Munder, and Tracy Smith
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Parker
Ladd and Arnold Scaasi
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L.
to r.: Steven
Stolman and Kate Gubelmann wearing the late Barton
Gubelmann’s silk coat; Sir Donald Gordon and
Rosalind Clarke; Ross Meltzer and CeCe Farris.
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Emilia
Fanjul and Alyne Massey
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Sandy
Heine
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Gillian
Miniter and Cricket Burns
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