To help spark your inner shopper, we gathered our most-wanted gifts, style tips and inspirations into four eye-candy collections for every personality type. Up now: The Sophisticates, a mix of LBDs, gems, jeweled shoes and other high-shine pieces for the season’s celebrations for your favorite friends (or even yourself). See the Gift Guide now.
To further get you in the spirit, we also crafted the perfect cocktail playlist.
In Gabriel Orozco’s hands, the everyday becomes utterly compelling and visually intriguing. After all, this is the artist who held a 1994 gallery show featuring four Dannon yogurt lids pinned to the wall — and it was a success.
His new exhibit at the Guggenheim (Nov. 9 – Jan. 13) works a similar transformative sensibility. Gabriel Orozco: Asterisms features a ton of debris gathered from an AstroTurf field at Pier 40 in New York (Gabriel throws boomerangs there) and Mexican wildlife reserve Isla Arena. He has organized it all into two grid-like installations, by color, size and material. Just check out the colorful landscape above. It’s pretty incredible when you consider you’re looking at, well, trash.
Cue the suspenseful music (and long, long movie lines). As James Bond’s Skyfall opens today, we pick our favorite 007 songs, starting with Adele’s latest.
We’re putting a new spin on pinning (and repinning). Every model from our Fall 2012 runway show wore our new jeweled floral hair clips in their undone-yet-sophisticated updos — and it’s a look you can easily do yourself.
First, prep with texturing spray, then blast with hairspray. Grab hair into a low ponytail, twist and pin up into a loose bun or chignon. Keep some strays — it’s part of the charm.
The finishing touch? Our vintage-inspired ladylike clips, whether you scatter multiple or just one. “Place randomly,” advises Eugene Souleiman, our hairstyling maestro. “It’s not wedding hair.”
In need of an easy shot of cool? Think leather. Take a page from blogger Mija Knezevic, who uses dark leather as a chic counterpoint. She toughens up the casual and sporty vibe of her baseball jacket-and-tee combo with our Ally Leather Pant, for instance, and pairs a leather LBD with our ladylike Katie Mohair Coat for some added edge. She adds a touch of eccentricity with embroidered cowboy boots and printed loafers.
Photos by Adam Katz Sinding
This book is so big, it comes with its own tote bag. Inside The Impossible Collection of Jewelry, jewelry historian Vivienne Becker chronicles a modern history of bijoux, touching on some of our all-time favorites, like Verdura’s creations for Chanel and Art Nouveau objets. This isn’t a book you casually read in bed. It’s more a tome to be poured over — especially for those on your gift list who love the sparkly stuff.
What’s a holiday party without a little sparkle? We enlisted fine jewelry consultant Brooke Magnaghi to tell us everything she knows about bijoux — how to wear it, style it, store it and care for it. And Brooke, who also showed us how she’d wear Tory’s Everette necklace here — gave us her tips on shopping for the jewelry lover who has it all.
What’s Tory’s holiday look? A touch of glamour for day and evening. The Abitha sweater — with its special details — is a particular favorite.
We love Nashville. The restaurants, the stores, the music! Here are some of the new things we’ve had on repeat: new and almost new.
Around here, today is more than just Halloween. It also happens to be Robert Isen’s birthday — he’s our Chief Legal Officer and President of Corporate and…Tory’s brother! So we asked Chef Dana Minuta, who makes a mean granola, to whip up a celebratory treat. Since both Tory and Robert love a good pine nut brittle — it was a staple at her home this summer — Dana’s pumpkin seed twist couldn’t have been more perfect. Get the recipe here.
If you’re looking for a traditional Halloween party with all the expected accoutrements (pumpkins, witches and spider webs), then Allison Sarofim’s New York fete isn’t for you. But if you’re in search of a wild no-holds-barred bash, then keep reading. The New York-based film producer and philanthropist is famous for extravagant revelries with themes like World of Picasso and Andy Warhol’s Studio 54. The costumes are not to be believed — as you’ll see. Here, we grilled Allison on the holiday.
Get an up-close-and-personal glimpse at Neil Young’s storied four-decades career with a photo exhibit at London’s Snap Galleries, open until November 10. The show features the work of Joel Bernstein, and dates back to the famous solarized cover of the 1970 record After the Gold Rush. Since then, Joel — whose vast archive also inspired the look of the film Almost Famous — has taken at least 10,000 shots of the music icon. If you can’t make it to London, but still need your Neil fix, the musician also just published his autobiography, Waging Heavy Peace.
Neil Young in Limo, 1970 by Joel Bernstein
Cocktails. Work. Weekend. The classic LBD is the perfect blank canvas — hence our decision to anoint it “The Little Blank Dress.” We styled one simple, versatile silhouette for multiple occasions. Shop the 3 video looks — or all black dresses.
According to Paul Simon, jeweled shoes are one way to lose the walking blues. We concur! Our Pixie is a gem- and petal-embellished shoe that comes in a classic peep-toe and a wedge, combining height and walkability (paramount while making the holiday party rounds). So go ahead and build your outfit from the bottom up. From little black dresses (and pants) to distressed denim, they’re all a great foundation for showing off these head-turning heels.
Shop the Pixie.
With the holiday season comes…many a heavy holiday meal. So we spoke to Aimee Olexy of Philadelphia’s farm-to-table restaurants Talula’s Garden (above) and Talula’s Table on how to eat healthy — and still be satisfied. The restaurateur, who named the spots after daughter Annalee Talula Rae, gave us her recommendations on everything from cookbooks to cheeses, the latter of which is a specialty of hers. Yes, you can have your cheese and eat it, too. Aimee even shared her recipe for a caramel apple and cheddar tartlet.
For Holiday 2012, it’s all about evening, as our models mingle in classic cocktail dresses and menswear-inspired pieces with jewels and sparkle thrown in. Julia Frauche, Tati Cotliar and Shu Pei gather with Tommy Dunn to the soundtrack of The White Season by London band Still Corner. Our lookbook, photographed by Lachlan Bailey and styled by Ethel Park, was brought to life by filmmaker Max Nova. Shot on location in the former New York Academy of Sciences, a NYC mansion with a long, slightly mysterious history, it sets the mood for the season ahead. As the lyrics go: Dream this winter dream…
Shop all the looks from the video.
With all things Brazil on the blog this week, we enlisted Rodman Primack, founder of The Blacklots and RP Miller Design, to break down the culture scene there. Fresh from the São Paulo Art Biennial, he gave us his full list of highlights, from 300-year-old baroque churches to a restaurant with an experimental side.
Igreja São Francisco de Assis in Ouro Preto, Brazil
What gets the crowds moving in São Paulo? DJLara Gerin always knows. This is straight from the rotation at Tory’s recent party to celebrate our São Paulo boutique opening.
Tory’s hitting the high seas — or rather, her designs are. She recently collaborated with Hinckley, designing the interiors of one of its latest models, the T34 jet boat. See the interior here, plus learn all about this legendary American yacht-builder — it dates back to 1928! — in our Q&A with owner David Howe.
As a mother of three and an admitted candy corn addict, Cristina Cuomo is the expert on celebrating family-friendly Halloweens — complete with festive petit-fours and apple-bobbing in a barn. Here, the Editor-in-Chief of Manhattan magazine reveals all, from how she decorates her house and where she gets the best pumpkins to the one Halloween she spent with the Bee Gees.
Some things are worth waiting for. For Stephanie von Watzdorf, her new collection Figue is the culmination of her life’s experience and memories, of childhood summers spent on Isola dei Galli, the Mediterranean island owned by her grandfather Leonide Massine. Massine was the legendary choreographer of the Ballets Russes, and Stephanie watched his dancers rehearse, playing among the troupe’s Picasso-designed costumes. (The island was covered in figs, or figue in French.) Stephanie, who has designed for Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren, has been an integral part of our design team since almost Day 1. Here, we asked her about her inspiration.
Congratulations, Steph, we couldn’t be more proud!
How’s this for a cocktail of muses: Brigitte Bardot, Ursula Andress and…Grandma? For jewelry designer Tara Maria Famiglietti, that’s the inspirational formula behind her collection of glamorous boho baubles, which she named Nana Fabella after her chic nonna. Here, the New York native, who’s married to musician Matt White and once spent two years living on a sailboat, talks holiday sparkle and Ménage a Trois.
When in Brazil, drink as the Brazilians drink — and that means plenty of cachaça. Here’s a recipe for a tangerine caipirinha that Tory picked up while in São Paulo.
Amalia Spinardi is a self-professed bikini addict. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t appreciate a good maillot. Her tenure as an editor at Brazil’s top fashion magazines — and working with the likes of Gisele Bündchen, Isabeli Fontana and Raquel Zimmermann — informed her own swim collection, Jo de Mer. We caught up with Spinardi on Tory’s recent trip to São Paulo and asked about all things Brazilian and beach-bound.