June 2007

June 28th 2007
Southampton, LI

I’m still recovering from last weekend, which began on Friday with dinner with Kate Schelter at La Esquina, and then the surprise birthday party on the roof of 60 Thompson for the lovely Ashley Wick (see photos right).   HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY!!!

I woke up at 6am on Saturday and drove down to the store where I was picking up my 3 interns Michela, Mariana, and Patricia, along with our store manager Regina for a day in the Hamptons.  As you can imagine, 6am is a rough hour to be called to rise, but we were on a mission for a one day sale at Mecox Gardens, and knew we had to arrive on time. 

After sitting trapped in Hampton’s traffic for a full hour stuck next to a serious Slayer fan with a serious sound system, we were happy to finally arrive to the tranquil paradise that is Mecox Gardens.  If you haven’t been to Mecox in the Hamptons or Palm Beach, you must at least visit their website to see all of the treasures they sell (mecoxgardens.com).  Just being at their store all day made us realize how much we all desperately need mansions by the sea.  Alas.

That evening Michela, Mariana, Patricia, Regina, Rachel and I headed for drinks at the oh-so-lowbrow Barrister’s on the main drag in Southampton.  Barrister’s if my favorite joint in the SH ‘hood because its blue collar sports bar vibe is fabulously out of place in ultra glitzy Southampton.  After a few too many unsavory margaritas we headed over the the Southampton Cinema for the premiere of my favorite new movie, Fierce People.  What an amazing film!  I see a lot of movies, but this one left me blown away by the story, acting, and stunning visuals, and I will definitely be in line to see it all over again.   I highly recommend it for anyone but my Mom, who only likes movies starring Doris Day & Rock Hudson.  Sorry Mom.

On Monday night I hit the town again with my fabulous & hilarious friend Jen Bell, and the story is too long & juicy to tell and will definitely one day have its own diary entry, so stay tuned…

June 22nd 2007
New York City

This just in: Maggie Gyllenhaal has just left our Nolita store, where she picked up a pair of everyone’s favorite shoe for all occasions, the Black Audrey ballet flat.  Maggie is one of our favorite actresses, with tons of talent, loads of beauty, and indisputably great taste.  Thank you Maggie for shopping chez HOLLYWOULD!

This week I’ve been burning the candle at both ends as usual, and the photos (right) attest to a few too many late nights out on the town.  I am currently sitting at my desk struggling to keep my head from banging into the keyboard, so there will be more elaboration on late night disco dancing once I’ve managed to have a full night’s sleep.  Stay tuned…

June 20th 2007
Fort Drum, NY

While you may think the highlight of my year was meeting George Clooney, I have to say that even my rendez-vous with GC paled in comparison to last weekend when by brother Boots returned from 18 months of Army service in Afghanistan.  The photo (right) says it all, and big shout-out to all our awesome troops and their amazing families.

PS - If you're single and looking for foxes, head up to Fort Drum, NY.  You'll never see so many Stone Cold Super Deluxe Hottie Hero Foxes in one place, and those cute unforms are très divine.

June 9th 2007
New York City

My apartment currently looks like Will Smith’s apartment in Enemy of the State - just after it was thoroughly ransacked by the CIA looking for the incriminating missing video, which had been unwittingly slipped into Will Smith’s pocket without him even knowing it.  I hate it when that happens.  Unlike Will Smith, however, I do not have the excuse of being stuck in the middle of a high-stakes government conspiracy, but rather stuck in the middle of a non-stop party week which required trying on multiple outfits for multiple occasions in a short amount of time.  Different plotline, same results.

After my fun night out until 3am at the CFDAs I really should have called it a week, but instead decided to head out to the Whitney Museum’s “Summer of Love” party on Wednesday night.  For the occasion I chose a vintage HOLLYWOULD batik moo-moo which was supposed to look like Talitha Getty in Morocco and ended up looking a bit more like Mrs. Roper on Three’s Company, but whatevs.  I always liked Mrs. Roper’s style.

The evening began with a pre-party cocktail hour at the lovely lower Fifth Ave home of Phoebe Gubelmann.  Aside from being loads of fun and having a fabulous apartment, Phoebe also happens to be Carolina Herrera’s PR Star, and is definitely a class act girl who knows how to entertain.  Her apartment was decked out with gorgeous flowers, and Dark & Stormy cocktails were served while everyone geared up for a night on the town.

From Phoebe’s we all headed to Skylight Studios in Soho, where the party was already in full effect. Thankfully everyone else had taken the hippie “Summer of Love” theme to heart, not only in dress but also in cocktailing with reckless abandon.  The party proved to be a big hit, and by the time they were playing “It Takes Two” on the dance floor, no one wanted to leave.  As anyone knows, all good things must come to an end, so around midnight we all headed to The Beatrice Inn.

Needless to say, I’ve been spending far too much time at The Beatrice lately, and despite always planning to stay just for one drink I get sucked in by the good vibes and excellent choice of music and crowd, and end up staying much longer than humanly healthy.  Thankfully, at 3am Kate Schelter pulled me away from the sounds of the Jackson Five and took me up to the 14^th Street Diner where I was introduced to the new love of my life… Disco Fries.  Nothing beats French fries covered in melted cheese whiz and gravy at 3am, although something tells me that at 3pm they would not have quite the same allure.  Nevertheless, we devoured them and headed to bed by 4am, which again, made my 9am appointment the next day all the more enjoyable.

As you can imagine, my Thursday was exhausting, but my Dad has always taught me it’s important not to be a quitter, so I got back in the game Thursday evening and headed to a screening of the new French film, La Vie En Rose.  If you love Edith Piaf like I do you will definitely adore this film, and I was pleased as punch to be seated next to my favorite Valentino girl, the lovely Annelise Peterson, for the movie, and then with fellow “Summer of Love” refugees Arden Wohl, Kate Schelter, Luigi Tandini, Claire Bernard, and Moby for dinner a the Hotel Plaza Athénée. 

Also at dinner was my first-ever boss and fashion mentor Carolyne Roehm, who looked amazingly beautiful and is still the pinnacle of grace, taste and style.  While many could be envious of having dinner with rock stars like Moby, my mother, sisters, and female cousins will be très jalouse that I got to even be in the same room with Carolyne, as she is the true rock star when it comes to party décor, gardening, and flower arrangements.  According to them, dear girls, Carolyne puts Martha to shame, and is the one true shaman when it comes to home beautification.   Take note.

On top of having all of the fabulous aforementioned friends in attendance, also joining me for dinner was my long lost Parisian partner in crime, Polina Aranova (see March 10, 2007), who has become like a sister to me.  After the dinner Polina and I decided to sit on an Upper East Side stoop high school style, and chat about boys while all of the cool kids with fake I.D.s were probably at Dorrian’s.  Gosh.  No sooner were we deep into conversation than the stoop’s owner came home, and ended up being the lovely social maven Nina Griscom.  Polina and I really know how to choose our stoops and Nina, being as gracious as can be, said she was thrilled to have two nicely dressed girls perched on her steps on a breezy summer night, and almost offered us to join her inside for lemonade. Instead, perched on her lucky stoop we ended up meeting three foxy young Argentineans who reminded us ever so slightly of Borat, but rather than take them up on their offer to head downtown to Tenjune, we decided to call it an evening.

Last night I headed to an art opening and then delish Mexican dinner with Kate Schelter at Chino on the lower Lower East Side (yes, that’s lower Lower); where I highly recommend you go for the chips, guacamole, enchiladas, margaritas, and super cute bartender.  Ay yay yay.

June 6th 2007
New York City

Big, huge, gigantic, mega shout-out to Miss Chloe Sevigny for being my awesome date to this year’s CFDA Awards.  As any avid fashion follower knows, CFDA stands for Council of Fashion Designers of America, and their annual awards ceremony is likened to The Oscars of the fashion world.  I was lucky enough to attend this year with Chloe as my date, and she looked gorgeous as ever in her HOLLYWOULD and we had a ball.

Though you wouldn’t guess it based on Chloe’s superb acting as “the mean wife” in HBO’s hit series Big Love (which premieres Monday, June 11 at 9PM), she is nothing short of a dream in person – gorgeous, sweet, polite, chic and exceedingly fun; the rarest kind of gem of a girl.  And, on top of being all of those things, she is widely known as the ultimate fashion muse of Hollywood, so having her in head-to-toe HOLLYWOULD for such an important event was très magnifique.

The evening began when I picked up Chloe and headed uptown to the New York Public Library where the event was being held.  The library was decked out with a tented red carpet that seemed to go on forever, and the minute Chloe stepped on the photographer’s flashes began to explode.  Upstairs we had cocktails in a star-studded setting, which included one-namers Oprah, Uma, Diddy and Iman, two-namers Eva Mendes, Heidi Klum, Rashida Jones, Ellen Barkin, Debra Messing, Kate Bosworth, Petra Nemcova, and yes, even three-namers, The Olsen Twins.  Of course, all of fashion stars were there too, including Ralph, Donna, Calvin and beyond, and the evening’s hostess was one of my personal faves, Diane von Furstenberg.

From cocktails we headed to dinner and the awards, and from dinner onto the hottest spot in town, The Beatrice Inn.  If you live in NYC and have any sense of pride when it comes to nightlife you have surely been to The Beatrice Inn, which has been likened to Studio 54 and is the new “it” spot for now and years to come.  Needless to say, The Inn was so much fun that despite our original plan to just stay for one drink we ended up sipping many, many more, as everyone from the awards trickled in to join us until the place was packet to the rafters with UsWeekly-worthy patrons.  By the time we headed home it was nearly 3am, which made my 9am meeting the next morning all the more enjoyable.

Big ups to Chloe and the CFDA!

June 4th 2007
NYC via Florence

I have just returned from warn and sunny Italy to cold and rainy NYC.  I had planned to be in flip-flops, dresses, and sun hats by now, but the weather outside calls for rubber boots, trenches and seriously sturdy umbrellas.  If I were more skilled at dressing for the rain I could attempt something chic, like Catherine Deneuve in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, but sadly this kind of pouring down rain has inspired an outfit that looks more like the villain from I Know What You Did Last Summer.  It is hopeless.

Thankfully, before leaving my little Italian utopia I did manage to have a fabulously fun night on the town to celebrate my birthday.  The evening began with apertivo at The Gallery Hotel with Edgardo Osorio, who despite having more friends in Florence than any native Florentine, actually hails from Columbia.  We were shortly thereafter joined by Karine Warda via Monaco and Jeanette Greaux via St. Barths, so by the time our Capiroskas arrived we could have written a book for Conde Nast Traveler.  From there art dealer Fabio Bechelli enrolled in the fun, and we all headed to Edgardo’s favorite restaurant (and now mine), il Troia.

It’s embarrassing to admit that I have lived in Florence for nearly five years and had never been to the famous il Troia, so please don’t make the same mistake if you happen to be in town anytime soon.  The food was beyond delicious and so was the wine, and by the time the restaurant closed and kicked us out, we were ready for post-dinner cocktails at eternal Florence hot spot, Capocaccia.  God only knows how long we stayed there or what time we got home, but I do know that the next day I had our Italian production team laughing when it made my head spin too much to even look at striped fabric at our factory. 

I guess now that I’m getting older I just can’t go out like I used to, and big thanks to Edgardo, Karine, Jeanette, and Fabio for making my 24^th birthday so much fun!