NYT Styles: Women's Fashion

Vain Glorious: Spray Your Vitamins

By Julie Earle-Levine
Jan 5, 2012

Women's Fashion

Mila Radulovic

With 2012 under way and New Year’s resolutions established (eat fewer frites, exercise more, drink less), why not add a less challenging one — take more vitamins.

You could just pop them, but we were intrigued to hear about a new treatment where vitamins are sprayed onto your face, and whatever body part to which you want to impart a glowing, healthy look. The vitamin spray, called “Ageless,” is by Suvara and applied the same way as a spray tan. The machine breaks down the formula into molecules which the company claims penetrate the first layer of the skin in about 30 minutes to an hour.

“You see the biggest difference in your face, since it makes the skin plump, and look revitalized,” says Anna Stankiewicz, a Suvara airbrush tanning expert whose clients include Fergie, Iman and Jessica Simpson. The vitamin spray is a cocktail of vitamins A and C (anti-aging, cell renewal and anti-cellulite), B5 and B12 (to protect and boost) and E and F (to moisturize), as well as organic aloe vera and larch-tree extract.

I stripped down to my underwear to test it out (you can opt for no clothing at all). The spray is clear, and feels icy cold. It takes about ten minutes to be applied, but dries quickly. The result? A fresh, dewy face and my body felt moisturized and soft. The face effect lasted a few days but Stankiewicz says the treatments have a cumulative effect over several weeks, reducing fine lines and fading sun spots. She has clients lining up for weekly facials at Ricardo Rojas Salon, where it costs $50 for a face spray, or $70 for the entire body. She does house calls for $200.

Ricardo Rojas Salon, 30 East 67th Street; (212) 721-5900. For more information on the treatment, go to suvaraworld.com.

NYT Sunday Styles: London's Latest In Spot

SundayStyles
October 18, 2011

By Julie Earle-Levine

The Arts Club

Ed Reeve

London may be brimming with private members’ clubs, but its latest — the newly revamped Arts Club in Mayfair — is creating quite a stir. Founded in 1863 by a group of friends (including Charles Dickens), the formerly fusty establishment has reopened with Gwyneth Paltrow (an investor) as its creative director. The stylish Art Deco-inspired interior designed by David D’Almada features marble floors, cashmere walls and art by Tomas Saraceno, John Baldessari and George Condo. Boldface names like Cameron Diaz, Mario Testino and Charlotte Dellal have been spotted supping in the restaurant, and Paltrow is known to belt out a few tunes at Club Nouveau, the nightclub downstairs that’s run by Mark Ronson. Also on the mike at times are Ronnie Wood, Mica Paris and Noel Gallagher. It costs £1,000 to join, the same fee applies each year, and the first list closes on Oct. 31. Being famous and fabulous is not a requirement, but it doesn’t hurt to be either, or both.

The Arts Club, 40 Dover Street; 011-44-20-7499-8581; theartsclub.co.uk.

NYT: Vain Glorious - Hugh Jackman's Favorite Spa

By JULIE EARLE-LEVINE

What: Tribal Dreaming Ritual

Where: Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat, Australia

Why Bother: Let’s face it — the idea of Hugh Jackman naked, in a serene bush setting, being painted with natural clay dots is not an unappealing one. We’ll never see it (sigh) but it happens, and according to Jackman, the spa treatment, called Tribal Dreaming, is life changing. The two-and-a-half hour journey that combines massage, dance and movement is one of 25 new treatments at the Gwinganna spa.

The idea is “to light the fire of creativity and energy in each person, to help them reach their full potential,” according to Stephen McInnes, the therapist who created it. It starts outdoors on a forest walk with an initiation ceremony, followed by didgeridoo healing, the ocher clay dot painting and a customized 80-minute massage that draws from Myotherapy, hot stones and Chi Ne Tsang elements. “It delivers a powerful mix of movement, voice and deep stillness.”

Jackman, who is a part-owner in the spa (he invested after his first visit), said Tribal Dreaming left him and his wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, “in a state that neither of us have reached before — incredibly relaxed, revitalized, inspired and looking at the world with new eyes.” Jackman told us he often gets massages but said it was the combination of the ritual and all its elements that took him to a new level of calm. He especially likes the natural local clays used to paint the body. The Australian setting takes him home. The spa at Gwinganna (which means “lookout,” and is the name given to the land by the Kombumerri Aborigines) is lush, with huge eucalyptus trees and native birds. You can’t use the spa as a day guest; you need to stay at least two nights. The therapies are organic, and some are Eastern, including acupuncture and cupping, but thankfully, beauty classics like scrubs, tanning and lash extensions are also available. Just in case Hugh’s in town.

How Much: $395 (Tribal Dreaming Treatment)

Address: 92 Syndicate Road, Tallebudgera Valley; 011-61-7-558- 5000; gwinganna.com

Philippe Starck: Dining & Designing

Welcome back to Dining & Designing, in which Julie Earle-Levine profiles and explores the design of restaurants. Earle-Levine, who has contributed to The Financial Times of London, New York Magazine, and the New York Times, among others, has both a passion for real estate and a passion for eating. This will be fun.

(left) La Cuisine, the French restaurant and (right) Il Carpaccio, the Italian restaurant at Le Royal Monceau in Paris.

Philippe Starck, the prolific French designer whose stylized, streamlined work spans everything from his famed Juicy Salif citrus squeezer to a beer hall in Tokyo, not to mention an ever-growing list of dizzyingly chic restaurants, hotels, and super-yachts, is a world-traversing figure. Some say he’s just too everywhere, and too over-the-top: “Not another Starck hotel!” But we love his unstoppable pizzazz. Among his best-known hotels are the Royalton and the Hudson in NYC, the Delano in Miami, the Palazzina Grassi in Venice, and the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills. His restaurant interior design work ranges from the Felix restaurant at The Peninsula Hong Kong, Katsuya and XIV by Michael Mina, both in L.A., José Andrés' The Bazaar at SLS Beverly Hills, and La Corniche in France. He has also spent the last two years revamping Paris' stunning Royal Monceau "for globetrotting executives and jet-setting billionaires who seldom get to sleep in their own bed," he told the New York Times, which called the revamped space a "pleasantly odd experience." We caught up Starck in Paris, where his design agency is headquartered, and spoke with him about phantasmagoric universes, eating organic, and why his hotels are like movies.

Is it true that you don't know the alphabet, nor division or subtraction?
Yes. I am a monster of intuition. I have two types of activities. One is real work, which is dreaming. My subconscious delivers me all of the concepts, finished, completely done. That is my real work. My other job is communications and meetings. I’ve spent my life in airplanes, traveling for obligations (work). I clearly prefer mental travels through books, poetry, or a good dream.

The Raffles Royal Monceau was a $100M-plus renovation. Tell us about your work here.
I did the entire property—the hotel, five restaurants and bars, a cinema, and apartments. It reflects the French and Parisian spirit. My influence here was not style, culture, trends, aesthetics, but only the essence, and spirit which gives birth to the concept of ‘mental space.’ Influence is not something you can describe, or name. It’s just the magic of a special quality of air you’ve never known before, like the sound is a word created by waves. Like perfume creates another sentimental or phantasmagoric universe, we have created a space where somebody is living with you, but you cannot know who, and when.

Someone is living with you in the hotel? In your room?
Yes. The guest rooms are not empty, they are full of a feeling, a spirit, a presence, as if someone invisible is welcoming you. For the public spaces, I created many fertile surprises that shall awaken people, whether they spend three minutes or three hours, while in the rooms it is quieter. I let the rooms have space so that guests can create their own egg in an inhabited space.

Who did you have in mind when you redesigned this historic palace?
I never make architecture for architecture. I am not interested by stone, aluminium, glass or concrete—I am interested by life. That is why a hotel for me is a movie. I imagine what people will feel. I hope for them they will feel more creative, more intelligent, more elegant, more sparkling, more poetic, more foolish, more in love.

What happens in this movie?
This movie is about the cross of many roads. These roads shall bring different tribes from all around the world—very diverse tribes—other roads shall bring the Parisian tribe. Some of this tribe shall be artists, managers, stars, nobodies, old, young, diverse and rich like life must be. Paris is very exclusive and this open boiling bucket of intelligence and energy shall be new and useful. I created here what I think is a new concept: mental space. It is no more about interior design style and trends. It is more making air in vibration like music, giving to the air spirit like a perfume.

Tell us about the restaurants.
The Italian Il Carpaccio (lede photo, right) has oyster shell ‘grotto’ walls. It is part grotto, part solarium with seashells embedded in the walls, ceilings, and chandeliers. The contemporary French La Cuisine (lede photo, left) is open-dining with a spacious, 16-seat shared table and cathedral ceilings. I wanted it to have the atmosphere of a large family room on a scale of cathedral. In the lobby bar, Le Bar Long (second photo) there are colored Parisian vintage glasses, sourced from flea markets. Guests can choose a glass. They have a drink, and then, the glasses are washed and re-positioned exactly as they were displayed. The layout seating here extends perpendicularly from the bartender’s station, rather than parallel to it, for face-to-face action by those seated at the table, rather than side-to-side conversations that take place at most bars.

What are your favorite restaurants in the world and why?
I actually do not care about food as long as it is organic. I’ve eaten organic all my life, from pasta to Champagne and wine. Now my battle is to refuse sulfites in wine. My choice on restaurants is based on honesty—honest food. Amongst them: Da Romano, on the island of Burano, a real perfection through a line of family members who welcomes you like family.

Do you like to cook?
I am not a great cook, but I can cook anything with the leftovers in the fridge for 30 people, and everybody has a lot of fun.

When designing restaurants, do you collaborate with owners and chefs on design?
I take into consideration their needs, of course, especially in terms of urbanism.

How about hotels? You’ve designed all kinds of hotels—everything from sleek and modern, to simple, wooden houses in Slovenia, to inflatable houses. What would you like to design next?
I strictly have no desire to create more materiality. I wish I could mainly dedicate to political actions. I’ve worked for 30 years on democratization of design, then more recently on democratization of ecology with my personal windmills and ecological architecture without going through the objects. My passion for now is to focus on my laboratory on fundamental research, on creativity and its derived creativity school.

What else has been interesting you these days?
We will launch in a few months D.E.A.R.S: Democratic Ecological Architecture with Riko by Starck. Theses are prefab wooden ecological houses with the utmost technology starting at very affordable prices. The first one shall be our house in the countryside around Paris. I’m also working on several Mama Shelters in Europe, my concept of the “jeans of the hotels”. A port in Palma de Majorca that shall open early next year. We are also finalizing an electric car and of course I am working on several boats including a gas-and-solar mega yacht. I am amphibious and have a real passion for the sea—that is my element. If it is a house, it is always by the water.

How many homes do you own? You told me once you owned many “shacks.”
With my wife we mainly live in places in the middle of nowhere: in the middle of the forest, or the islands of the Venice laguna [Burano] or another island in the southwest of France where we have an oyster farm. The idea is to live far from cars, from everything to remain pure and awake. And indeed, they are shacks but in the closest environment to humanity, in the primal mud.

NYT Style: Ruschmeyer's in Montauk

Now Booking: Ruschmeyer's in Montauk
By Julie Earle-Levine
June 21, 2011

The newly opened Ruschmeyer’s in Montauk, N.Y., is a 20-room hotel, restaurant and bar that feels like a cross between an old-school camp (it was one in the 1950s) and a hippie-chic commune with tepees on the lawn.

Formerly the Second House Tavern, Ruschmeyer’s now has white paper “moons” hanging from the trees in the Magic Garden, a quiet spot that sits right on Fort Pond, a short walk but a world away from the heaving Surf Lodge. (Rob McKinley, one of the owners of Surf Lodge, designed both properties and owns Ruschmeyer’s with Ben Pundole and Ed Sheetz.)

Inside the restaurant at Ruschmeyer’s.

The food alone is worth the fuss. It’s by the guys behind the Fat Radish on Orchard Street. Order the delicious Montauk white clam pizza with chili or the flavorful green monkfish curry.

The Nook, a coffee/juice bar at the hotel.

The maître d’hôtel Spanky Van Dyke oversees an army of attractive staff — the men are in J. Crew shirts and Tom’s boat shoes, while the ladies wear Madewell striped shirts and shorts. They deliver cocktails like the Gin Dandy, with cucumber and ginger. There’s also a buzzy late night bar, the Electric Eel.

Patrons include locals, surfers, musicians and families, who can play table tennis or even try stand-up paddle-boarding. If it’s blustery out, watching the ducks get blown across Fort Pond is another pastime.

Rooms start at $475 on weekends. Call (631) 668-2877 or go to visitruschmeyers.com.

UK Vogue: Trump's Kids

Vogue, British GQ, Tatler, July 2011
By Julie Earle-Levine

Donald Trump, the brash American property tycoon and aspiring president likes to shout, a lot. He also is known to hurls obscenities in the boardroom. His office is on the 26^th floor at Trump Tower, his spectacularly glitzy Fifth Avenue skyscraper, where the song Big Spender can often be heard booming out in the pink and white marbled foyer.

Donald is a roaring lion compared to his more reserved children, three of whom work for him, a floor below. But don’t be fooled, Ivanka, 29, and her brothers Don Junior, 33 and Eric, 27 are fierce overachievers. They just don’t rub it in our faces like Papa Bear.

The Trump kids appear to be well-adjusted and industrious as they travel the world eyeing real estate deals and snapping up hotels at a feverish pace.

Their normalcy appears surprising, even to them. Ivanka, who is six months pregnant (at March 14) with her first child to her husband publisher Jared Kushner once said, “You look at your brothers and yourself and are proud of the fact that nobody’s, like, totally fucked up. “ “Nobody’s a drug addict, nobody’s driving around chasing women, snorting coke.”

Ivanka is looking utterly gorgeous at 9am. She’s blonde with piercing eyes and pale, glossy lips. She’s in all-black, her earlobes glittering with rock crystal drop earrings with black enamel and diamond accents (her own jewelry collection) and wearing heels (from her own shoe line – they are not her usual five or six-inch heels) She takes a sip of her Tazzo passion tea and then laughs. “We try to walk the straight and narrow. We are young, but we don’t have crazy outlandish lifestyles,” she says, noting it’s a combination of how they grew up, having a close family and the way they supported each other.

“Don and I are married, very happily so. But we also have jobs we love waking up to, and going to and feel very fulfilled professionally. If I hadn’t found work which makes me happy in the daylight hours, maybe I would be out late at night.”

Ivanka also thanks her mother, Ivana, Donald’s ex-wife and Czech-born former model and Olympic skier who we saw recently rocking it out on the dance floor at Round Hill Hotel & Villas in Jamaica. “She is amazing. She has more energy in her pinkie than most people have in their whole body.”

The Trumps have been closely scrutinized since working for their father, who has made clear his dream for his family is to build on the Trump success.

Most speculation has focused on who will snare the top job: Ivanka, the former model who joined her father’s business in 2005, Don Jnr who has worked for Trump since 2001 or Eric, who began at Trump in 2006.

Initially, they worked on all projects together. “We were all young and didn’t want to forgo the opportunity that each project afforded us to learn something new.” Now they tend to divide up work projects. They consult each other each day, and have lunch once a week to talk about all projects.

How much does Donald weigh in? “Obviously, my father is still the ultimate boss, and for high level issues, challenges and questions, we always seek his counsel.”

Ivanka has long been touted as heir apparent. She denies it. “I think I’m the most publicly prominent of my siblings only because there is some novelty to being a woman in the business.” “We are far too young to know what 30 years down the track will look like.”

So who makes the decisions? “We disagree a lot, but in a constructive way. I would say we discuss and debate things. I don’t think there has ever been a high level disagreement where one of us is very bullish on an opportunity and the other is not.”

Their father has mentored each of them. Eric says:“He put us in the best schools, but he made us work. There was no free time in the Trump family. We either studied or worked.” Don Jnr like Ivanka, also spent a lot of time working in his father’s office, and following him around construction sites.

Ivanka says she has lost count of the number of projects they are managing, but in classic Trump style “all our projects are going phenomenally well.” After opening a string of Trump hotel properties in the US including Trump International in Chicago three years ago, Vegas a year later, Waikiki, Honolulu and then Trump Soho, they are now starting to open properties under the Trump International Hotel & Town brand. They have a large project under construction in Scotland, and will open a hotel and residential project in Panama, and in Toronto in the fall of this year. They just announced a deal in Mumbai, India and in the Philippines and Trump is starting to explore growth in China, the Middle East and Brazil.

Trump’s possible presidential run is not unexpected (he previously pondered a presidential bid in 1998, and again in 199 but dropped the idea) and would allow the next generation of Trumps to march full steam ahead, without him.

“My father loves having three children in the business. It enables us to divide and conquer.”

NYT Style: Local Colors

---

The New York Times Style Magazine: Men's Fashion
June 14, 2011

By Julie Earle-Levine

Montauk, N.Y., may be the last hold out against the looming tide of Hamptonization, but its stuck-in-time fisherman’s-village feeling is fading fast. Which might explain the appeal of a new collection of T-shirts by Local Knit, featuring the logos from Montauk institutions like Duryea’s Lobster Deck, the Montauket and Paulie’s Tackle. Montaukers are snapping them up, as are weekenders. (Curbed’s Lockhart Steele is a fan and ordered a Herb’s Market shirt in beach plum with the slogan “You Can’t Beat Herb’s Meat.”) Amagansett and East Hampton — two towns ripe for nostalgia — will get their own logo tees next.

Local Knit T-shirts are $24 at the Surf Bazaar Store at Surf Lodge, 183 South Edgemere Street, Montauk; go to thesurflodge.com.

FT Weekend: Kate Middleton's wardrobe

By Royal Approval
Julie Earle-Levine

April 8 2011 21:58 | Last updated: April 8 2011 21:58

Kate Middleton at weddings in 2009 and 2010; on official visits this year

Forget the romance, for many in the fashion industry, Kate Middleton’s fairy tale is a financial one. During her transition from “Waity Katie” to blushing bride, the soon-to-be-royal’s impact on sales and what we wear has intensified. This will culminate with the revelation of the Dress, complete with intense press coverage and soaring sales for its still-secret creator. But is hers a sustainable commercial influence, à la Michelle Obama, whose every sartorial move is still breathlessly chronicled by no fewer than 10 blogs, or will it fade with time? For British designers, to whom Middleton is bound by national loyalty, the answer is crucial.

When Middleton wore an Issa blue silk dress to announce her engagement, it sold out on Net-a-Porter, while pre-collection sales for the same label’s 2011 autumn/winter range went up by 45 per cent on the previous year, and a Burberry trench she wore last month sold out online within a day. And when the high-street chain Reiss re-released the white Nanette dress Middleton wore for her official engagement picture, the dress sold at the rate of one every minute. That sort of boost can transform a brand’s bottom line.

Yet David Yermack, professor of finance and business at New York University’s Stern School who studied the effect of Michelle Obama’s fashion choices for a forthcoming paper, “The Michelle Mark-up”, doesn’t believe Middleton can create an enduring phenomenon. “This obsession with Kate Middleton’s wardrobe will be episodic,” he says, pointing out that Middleton’s wardrobe has been in the public eye since 2003 when she started dating Prince William. “I don’t think she can morph into a fashion icon when everyone knows her so well.” By comparison, Obama burst upon the scene, taking people by surprise.

Yermack studied the stock price of companies whose clothes Obama wore – 29 brands in total. “The stock price gains persist days after the outfit is worn. In some cases, [they] even trend slightly higher three weeks later,” he says, noting that the market valuation of Richemont, the group behind Azzedine Alaïa’s label, rose by $1.1bn after Obama wore an Alaïa dress.

Relaxed in 2010 and 2005

Other fashion pundits, however, think Middleton can do something similar. Valerie Steele, director of the Fashion Institute of Technology museum in New York, says Middleton might have “a tremendous influence. People are primed to look at what the princess is wearing.” However, Steele believes her fashion sense is still undefined. “She’s young ... it’s only now she will have a very visible role,” says Steele. “We need to see how she’ll grow into that.”

Julie Gilhart, consultant and former fashion director at Barneys New York, agrees. “She’s a beautiful girl but still developing her style. Kate may not have the global impact Michelle Obama has.”

Lars von Bennigsen, chief executive of Temperley London, believes Middleton will be “rather understated, independent and will not look to stand in the limelight nor fight to be recognised as a fashion icon.”

Mary Tomer, whose Mrs-O.org blog follows Obama’s every fashion move and attracts 10,000 daily visits, thinks there will be a “Katie effect”. “Just as Michelle Obama sold out J Crew cardigans, Middleton is selling out Reiss dresses,” she says, adding that the interest in Obama shows no signs of slowing: in February, a $24.99 polka dot H&M dress Obama wore for an interview on NBC’s The Today Show sold out within hours at H&M stores across the US. Tomer says: “There is an obvious parallel in how the public interest is playing out in the media and at retail.”

Simon Doonan, creative ambassador-at-large for Barneys, thinks Middleton could be the next Michelle Obama. Doonan would like to see Middleton continue to embrace British brands, but he says her largest contribution might be moderating the “super slutty trend” for young women. “It has been fairly out of control on both sides of the Atlantic,” Doonan says. “I think Kate will make girls think twice before dressing in a sexually available way.”

Steele thinks there’s hope, however, for a more racy Kate, as Lady Diana started out demure, and “then she looked va-va-voom, in Versace”.

New York Magazine: Winter Travel

Julie Earle-Levine
Maybe your moment won’t hit until January. Or maybe you’re starting to feel it already. But at some point, we all reach that wintertime breaking point, when we’d rather be doing something else, somewhere else. I'd rather be....

1 Comment | Add Yours

00 Comments | Add Yours

Sunning and Slurping in Sydney
It’s summer in Sydney, so you can’t really go wrong, hedonistically speaking. But for top-notch carousing, join the models, foodies, and surfer-scenesters migrating from overly touristy Bondi Beach to casually hip Manly. Inside Manly Pavilion, originally a thirties bathing house, hotshot chef Jonathan Barthelmess dishes up sweet native snapper ($39) and superfresh Sydney rock oysters ($39 per dozen; manlypavilion.com.au). Launch your post-beach bar crawl in Surry Hills, Sydney’s answer to the Lower East Side, where Café Lounge serves stiff martinis (from $15) in a courtyard furnished with comfy velvet armchairs (cafelounge.com.au). Ching-a-Lings has the area’s best rooftop views (133 Oxford St.), and Pocket Bar is a hole-in-the-wall serving surprisingly great wines by the carafe ($19 to $44, pocketsydney.com.au). The harbor-hugging Park Hyatt is within walking distance (from $645; sydney.park.hyatt.com).

FT Weekend: Ian Schrager, From Studio 54 to Surfboards

Ian Schrager meets Marriott? Julie Earle-Levine on the genesis of a global hotel chain that is opening in Hawaii this weekend

Published: October 15 2010 23:41

The Waikiki’s Sunrise Pool

“It’s unlike anything anyone has ever seen before!” says Ian Schrager, the legendary hotelier, waving his hands around excitedly, then pummelling his fist into his palm. “All the cool people will be there – it will be really energetic – a bit tribal!”

We are meeting in Schrager’s New York studio to discuss his latest project, an unlikely-seeming collaboration with the hospitality giant Marriott International. Together they are rolling out a global chain of 100 hotels under the brand name Edition, the first of which opens in Waikiki this weekend. But it’s not the rooms, or lobby, or the pool or spa Schrager is talking excitedly about – it’s the nightclub.

“It’s down two flights of stairs, a very raw concrete space,” he continues. “The dancefloor has bleacher seating to one side, a bar to the other, and the VIP section has silver banquettes. There’s a light installation in the dance floor, with thousands of reclaimed lightbulbs on top of this concrete box...”

Of course, it’s no surprise that Schrager is interested in clubs. He made his name with Studio 54, the New York club he founded in 1977 which counted Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger and Truman Capote as regulars. In fact he only got the idea to move into hotels while in jail for tax evasion relating to the club.

“I was reading the New York Times,” he says. “At that moment Donald Trump was building hotels and so was Harry Helmsley, and the media was building up the competitiveness of it and I thought: ‘Hang on, I could do that’.”

He went on to open influential properties such as Morgans and Gramercy Park in New York, the Sanderson and St Martins Lane Hotel in London, the Clift in San Francisco and the Mondrian in Miami. In the process he has been credited with inventing the “design hotel”, not to mention the concepts of “lobby socialising”, “cheap chic” and the “urban resort”.

So why is this club-loving, design-obsessed creative getting into bed with Marriott, which his contemporaries might think of as the blandest, most mainstream accommodation provider around. Is the 64-year-old selling out?

“People always ask me that,” he says. “But there’s a certain integrity in what I do, and I don’t think I could violate it. There couldn’t be enough money in the world for me to do that.”

He does accept though, that the deal is something of a compromise. “It is different from having complete autonomy and the freedom to be as quirky as I want. Really, what I am getting out of this is the chance to serve a bigger market than I would ever be able to serve on my own. That is gratifying. It’s something I’ve never done before.”

Schrager is Edition’s “creative director”, overseeing concept, design, marketing, branding and food and beverages, while Marriott oversees development and operations. As is the norm in the industry today, the hotels will be owned by third parties.

Edition will compete head on with other stylish sub-brands being created by big chains, including Starwood’s W, Hyatt’s Andaz and InterContinental’s Indigo. But Schrager and Marriott insist that Edition will not be a chain in the usual, homogenised sense – rather, “a collection of individualised, one-of-a-kind hotels that is the antithesis of an institutional ‘hotel chain’.” So how will it work?

“Each hotel will reflect the locale it’s in,” says Schrager. “When I see a city I am able to very quickly understand what needs to be done with the design, to fit the local environment and vibe.”

Such individual attention sounds like a big task for a chain that is rolling out so rapidly – the next Edition opens in Istanbul in 2011, to be followed by Barcelona, Bangkok, Mexico City and Miami. But in Waikiki, Schrager clearly has made an effort to capture a Hawaiian flavour. Guests will be confronted by the kind of surprise details Schrager is known for – a bookcase that “swings” open at 4pm to reveal a sleek, spacious lobby bar – but the art installation hanging above the reception desk is definitely locally inspired. Smashed-up surfboards from superstar surfers have been transformed by the artist (and former professional surfer) Herbie Fletcher. The air is fragrant with a custom black-tea-based scent.

Music changes in tempo and mood depending on the time of day. Breakfast might bring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Bebel Gilberto, or Koop. It picks up a few notches in the evening to feature music including Miike Snow, Grace Jones or Lykke Li.

Décor is understated. In each of the hotel’s 353 rooms, a chic, grey throw is casually (but perfectly) tossed on each bed and Hawaiian-style teak louvres, when open, catch the breeze and natural light. The hotel is surrounded by lush gardens of palm trees, pink bougainvillea, jasmine and orchards. Pathways of smooth pebbles lead to a constructed private beach using sand from nearby islands, and its own shallow, infinity-edge lagoon.

“People say: ‘How can you do a really different hotel in each city?’ But to me it is like getting up and breathing. I never want to repeat myself in any way,” says Schrager. How his attention to detail, and the global expansion, play out will be fascinating to watch. He concedes he did not have control over everything. “We were building one of the Edition hotels and they wanted a grab bar in the bathtub,” he says. “So I asked, is that required by law? If it is, by all means do so but if not, then don’t, because I don’t like the look of it. Needless to say, it was put in.

“If this was a movie, I wouldn’t be the director or the producer and I wouldn’t have the final cut. The process by definition is more of a compromise, so I can’t have the autonomy that I’m used to in my private-label hotels.”

Although designing 100 hotels that fit with their surroundings might seem work enough for anyone, Schrager will still be simultaneously developing “private-label” hotels. And it’s with mention of these other projects that his eyes light up as they did with the nightclub chat. He whips out drawings for a new property in Chicago, and he’s off again: “Don’t tell anyone about this! Look at the desk – see the chair – see the throw...”

www.editionhotels.com

..................................................

Cool clubs, hot hotels

1946

Schrager is born to a Brooklyn garment-worker.

1968

Attends Syracuse University and meets Studio 54 co-founder Steve Rubell while they are dating the same woman.

1977

With Rubell, he sets up Manhattan nightclub Studio 54. Within a month the club is raided and briefly closed by the New York State Liquor Authority.

1980

Studio 54 raided by police; Schrager and Rubell charged with tax evasion and obstruction of justice. They are each sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.

1984

Freed from prison, Schrager and Rubell move into the hotel business and launch New York’s Morgans Hotel.

1998

Schrager becomes New York’s largest private hotelier.

2005

Schrager founds the Ian Schrager Company, collaborating with filmmaker Julian Schnabel on the Gramercy Park Hotel.

2007

Schrager enters into a £2bn joint venture with Marriott to create a chain of boutique hotels.

Weekend FT: Operation Denim

By Julie Earle-Levine

August 21 2010

A pair of jeans before (above) and after reconstruction (below)

Finding the “perfect” pair of jeans among the hundreds on offer can be a daunting endeavour – and once you’ve found them, they are always almost impossible to replicate. But rather than buying one’s favourites in duplicate (or triplicate), there is another option for denim enthusiasts: specialists dedicated to preserving jeans in as good shape as possible for as long as possible.

Francine Rabinovich founded Denim Therapy, a Manhattan company that mends everything from ripped crotches to holey knees and torn hems, in 2006, and currently repairs about 600 pairs of jeans a month from places as far afield as Australia, Britain, Canada and France.

While dry cleaners and tailors often use patches to repair jeans, Denim Therapy reconstructs the original material using new cotton thread. Repairs usually take less than two weeks, and cost $7 per inch plus shipping (about $12); variables include “weight”, “wear” and “indigo saturation” to select the right thread. (Repairs to Gap jeans, for example, can run to $150.) The company also restores colour, turns light blue jeans dark ($85), and tie-dye jeans to grey, light blue and charcoal for $95.

“A lot of people are still trying to keep that relationship with their denim,” says Rabinovich. “They love their jeans. They love the fit. In many cases these brands stopped making the model of jean. A rocker musician – sorry, we can’t say who – came to see us with his favourite Simon Miller jeans, which had been discontinued, and he paid $600 to have extensive repairs done to both pairs.”

The main repairs? The crotch. “When you walk, there is a lot of rubbing, and the fabric starts to thin out,” explains Rabinovich. Putting jeans in the dryer makes them tight and stresses the fabric, which also leads to crotch splits, as does weight gain. Other common repairs include the back pockets for men (the problem is wallets) and torn hems, since many people don’t tailor them to the right height and walk on them.

Rabinovich said most of her customers own between five and 10 pairs of jeans, and buy between one and three every year. “They have an emotional connection,” she says. “They have jeans to go out in, jeans to travel with, jeans for housework. Some jeans they don’t wear any more but keep for some memory.”

www.denimtherapy.com

T: The NYT Style Magazine: Montauk dining

High Season | Montauk’s Navy Beach

By Julie Earle-Levine

| May 14, 2010

Even with the raucous Surf Lodge (locals tend to sidestep it) and summer visitors Robert De Niro and Gwyneth Paltrow on the scene, the vibe in Montauk is still decidedly laid-back.

The easygoing restaurant Navy Beach, which opened on Thursday in the old Sunset Saloon, should help keep the “un-Hamptons” atmosphere intact, while quietly injecting some style. Boaters can come into Fort Pond Bay (once occupied by the U.S. Navy), drop anchor and dinghy in to dine, à la Sunset Beach. It also helps that Leyla Marchetto is on the scene.

Marchetto, 30, is the daughter of the ebullient Silvano Marchetto of Da Silvano and a co-owner of neighboring Scuderia. The Navy Beach partner knows the food and celebrity scene well. As a student at the Little Red School house in Greenwich Village, she would take her class next door to Da Silvano to eat spaghetti. “Once when I was four, I waited up to see Tom Cruise” at Da Silvano, she recalled. Then there was the time Gianni Versace drew a dress for her on a napkin.

Marchetto’s fiancé, Franklin Ferguson, and their friends Frank and Kristina Davis are the other partners. Chef Paul LaBue (most recently at The Laundry in East Hampton, and before that The Beacon and Nick & Toni’s) plans to serve local seafood cooked with flair: lobster pot pie is updated with wild mushrooms, snow peas and corn in lobster stock; steak with hand-cut frites rivals Raoul’s. And then there are juicy littleneck clams with white beans and chorizo, and plates of Mexican-style corn topped with chili powder, melted cheese and lime. Sticky bread-and-butter pudding is one of the less bikini-friendly desserts.

The restaurant’s decor blends vintage beach club and yacht club, with whitewashed walls, wood beams, nautical flags and shadowboxed retro swimsuits and bathing caps. Photos of bathing beauties Raquel Welch, Grace Kelly, Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren grace the walls. Out on the beach, there are picnic tables set in the sand with Adirondack chairs and “tree trunk” stools. The bar, with nautical flags that spell out “drink,” has Argentine and Venezuelan bartenders and attracted a crowd during previews. Peter Beard, Bruce Weber, Lauren Bush and Mickey Drexler are likely to be early patrons, said Marchetto, while restaurateur Serge Becker stopped by last Saturday night.

It’s not easy to find (even helpful locals aren’t sure). Getting to the tucked-away beach involves veering past the former Navy yards and down a winding lane. It may be hidden, but in Montauk word travels fast.

Navy Beach, 16 Navy Road, Montauk; (631) 668-6868. Open until the end of October

Travel: New York Magazine Spring Travel

New York Magazine
Spring Travel issue

By Julie Earle-Levine

Time, or the lack thereof, has squashed many a New Yorker’s getaway fantasy. The average harried city dweller can reasonably squeeze in a few long-weekend jaunts to Miami or L.A., or maybe even a week in Tuscany or Tulúm, if one is really lucky. But a paid multi-week relaxation marathon? Probably not. However, there is an argument to be made for NYC-style efficiency in trip-taking. Mark the calendar, clear your schedule, and you’re off.

The-Party-Around-The-Clocker

Brisbane, Australia
Brisbane’s booming bar, restaurant, and art scenes mean it’s no longer playing third fiddle to Sydney and Melbourne. Start at the Gallery of Modern Art (gaq.gld.gov.au), which has an exhibit of contemporary New Zealand art coming May 1 and a hot-ticket Valentino retrospective starting August 7.

The gallery-concert-venue hybrid the Fort (thefort.org.au) displays local artists and stages live bands. For dinner, you’ve got options: There’s Beccofino for spicy pizza bianche (beccofino.com.au); the Buffalo Club for a foodie-stalked fourteen-course degustation menu ($160; thebuffaloclub.com.au); and Bar Barossa (purplepalate.com) for the stellar local wine list and views of Brisbane’s Story Bridge.

Order flights of martinis at La Ruche Bar & Supperclub (laruche.com), followed by shots at mega–bar complex Cloudland (cloudland.tv). Last rounds are at the rooftop lounge of the Limes Hotel, where you can ask for a late-night check-in for $99, less than half the standard room rate (from $249; limeshotel.com.au).

The Pampered Escapist

Vieques, Puerto Rico

Vieques’s white-sand beaches, packs of wild horses, and surreal bioluminescent bay aren’t the only reasons to visit the Edenic islet six miles off the coast of Puerto Rico. There’s now an Alain Ducasse restaurant, a spa that treats seaweed wraps like a science, and a poolside cocktail scene, all courtesy of the brand-new W Retreat & Spa–Vieques Island (from $289; whotels.com), which represents the island’s first dalliance with a big-time resort.

The hotel can arrange trips to the surrounding cays to snorkel, scuba-dive, and kayak alongside leatherback turtles. Zip around the island on a moped ($50 for 24 hours; rent through the hotel), with a stop at the lush Navio beach. Last stop before sundown: Duffy’s (duffysesperanza.com), for spicy mahi mahi tacos and a Parcharita cocktail.

ends

Travel: Town & Country, Sydney's Rockpool

Town & Country, December/January 2010

Neil Perry opens Australia's finest steak house

Courtesy Earl Carter Photography

By Julie Earle-Levine

Twenty years ago, chef Neil Perry made a splash Down Under when he launched his first restaurant, Sydney's Rockpool, a haven of fresh and inventive seafood dishes. Two decades later, Perry has finally opened a second Rockpool in Australia's cultural hub, this time with a focus on steak. Located inside an Art Deco building in the Financial District, the grand Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney has thirty-foot columns and a soaring atrium.

On a typical weeknight, the ponytailed Perry hops between tables, offering advice to foodies, financial types and stylish travelers. His picks: the smoky, wood-fire-grilled Tasmanian steak, served with horseradish cream, and the aged-Wagyu burger. If you can't snag a seat in the austere dining room, pull up a stool at the bar, where you can witness Perry's team working its magic in the open kitchen while you sample one of the 3,700 wines on the list. 66 Hunter Street; 011-61-2-8078-1900; rockpool.com.

Travel: New York Times, Sydney's Potts Point

Surfacing, New York Times

A Sharper Point in Sydney

Sydney's Potts Point district is drawing a younger crowd with its handsome buildings and new shops and cafes.

By JULIE EARLE-LEVINE

December 20, 2009

FOR decades, Potts Point has enjoyed a reputation as Sydney’s bohemian center. Over the last few years, a new wave of openings has re-established the neighborhood as a destination for the young and beautiful, despite — or maybe because of — its proximity to Kings Cross, an area best known for its prostitutes, strip clubs and tattoo parlors. On Macleay Street, the main artery of Potts Point, gorgeous Art Deco apartment buildings and Victorian terrace houses sit amid new restaurants and cafes where hipsters and celebrities mingle.Sign in to Recommend

“When I first came to Potts Point 15 years ago, there wasn’t anywhere to even have lunch or breakfast,” said Christopher Becker, an owner of Becker Minty, a furnishings and clothing store with two outlets in Potts Point.

Toby’s (Shop 6, 81 Macleay Street; 61-2-8356-9264; www.tobysestate.com.au) is the cafe outpost of a brand that also includes a coffee bean retailer and a barista school. Mothers sip espresso while their toddlers enjoy “babyccinos” (steamed milk without the coffee).

Another brand that has a strong presence in the neighborhood is Fratelli, which offers a retail store, Fratelli Fresh (No. 81; 61-2-9368-6655; www.fratellifresh.com.au), and Café Sopra, a casual restaurant. Diners choose from a daily blackboard menu, with offerings like linguine with lemon, chili and pangrattato (16 Australian dollars, or $14.50 at 1.10 Australian dollars to the U. S. dollar). Later, you can shop for everything from fresh passion fruit to two dozen types of house-made pasta.

The latest addition to the local dining scene is No. 9 (Shop 2, 9 Ward Avenue; 61-2-9331-1399), a popular breakfast and lunch spot that Walter Herman, an interior designer, opened in July. The cafe has the feel of a classical French library, with an electric fireplace and original artwork lining the walls. The menu includes items like the Full Monty breakfast, with organic eggs, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms and baked beans (16.50 Australian dollars).

For upscale shopping, try Becker Minty (No. 81; 61-2-8356-9999; www.beckerminty.com) and its new branch (corner of Macleay and Greenknowe Avenues; 61-2-8356-9908), with luxury women’s clothing and accessories. On a midsummer visit to the flagship store, some of the more unusual items included five stuffed peacocks (5,650 dollars a peacock) and throws made of Patagonian fox (6,950 dollars).

The neighborhood’s gentrification has brought safer streets, so there’s no need to stay in at night. The Champagne bar Velluto (No. 50; 61-2-935-71100; www.velluto.com.au), where Jason Minty of Becker Minty is a partner, attracts the fashion set in the evening. Order a flute of vintage Krug (70 Australian dollars) alongside a plate of tasty French and Australian cheeses (17 dollars).

All of this has attracted a combination of empty nesters, students and young executives to the neighborhood. “Ten years ago there were no apartments in the 5-to-20-million-dollar range,” said Tony Dowling, a local real estate agent. “Now there are some fantastic new buildings, and still a handful being constructed.” Of course, the polished Potts Point doesn’t come cheap: some studio apartments now command a healthy price of 700,000 Australian dollars.

UK Vogue: Aby Rosen

UK Vogue, GQ, Tatler, November 2009 issues

Photographed by Trujillo-Paumier


Aby Rosen, the New York City real estate mogul and contemporary art collector has just jetted in from Europe where he has been on holidays.

Standing in his art packed office in the prestigious Lever House (he owns the building) Rosen, 49, takes in the Manhattan skyline. There are many spectacular terraces in New York, but somehow standing on his, with sweeping views of Park Avenue and his landmarked Seagram office building, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Roh feels like looking out at his kingdom. New York is clearly this superstar developer’s playground.

Dressed in all black: black polo shirt, black pants and brown suede loafers, his demeanor is both New York aristocrat and billionaire casual Friday. “I don’t like to wear suits unless I have meetings.”

Rosen’s signature silver hair frames a tan, mostly seriously face that only occasionally relaxes in to a smile, on the subjects of deals, his prolific art collection, and his gorgeous psychiatrist and socialite wife, Samantha Boardman.

Yes, there is a recession of course and property has been hit hard. Some developers in this city are falling by the wayside. At Lever House, which is favoured by hedge fund and financial firms, some tenants are crying for rent reductions, but overall Rosen is feeling optimistic.

“Basically I’m very opportunistic. Whenever the market is down we take control of something. I want to do something with office buildings, hotels, retail.” Shoppers do not know where they are right now,” he adds, noting that even he stopped shopping – briefly - but is back. “I get my shopping fix from art and furniture – 20th century stuff.”

He is also shopping for existing hotels. “"We are looking to buy 10 to 12 assets to rework and rebrand them."

Rosen’s offices, his swank Upper East Side townhouse (and another townhouse he is selling for $75million that would be the most expensive Manhattan property sale) and his Hamptons estate are all showcases for art. Lever House is adorned with Warhols and Basquiats. Rosen admires a recent addition, Marc Newson’s Voronoi Shelf made of white Carrerra marble. At last count, he had more than 450 works. “I’ve always loved art. I love photography and have a huge collection of American art from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. I believe you have to have great art in buildings.”

Rosen, who was born in Frankfurt Germany in 1960, moved to New York in 1987 where he apprenticed at a real estate brokerage firm. He co-founded RFR in 1991, which now has an impressive portfolio of hotels, 21 office buildings and nine residential buildings, mostly in New York. He also has projects in Miami and Tel Aviv.

Not bad for a kid who started working for his father’s small real estate business in Frankfurt when he was 16, while he went to law school.

Rosen has many collaborations with long time friend and hotelier turned developer Ian Schrager, including 40 Bond, a swank residential building, plus the chic Gramercy Park Hotel. Rosen met Schrager in 1991. Rosen was a silent partner in the Delano hotel in Miami. Then 15 years on, they decided to work together again. They are planning two hotels in the area of the High Line on the West Side of Manhattan, bordering the Meatpacking district and Chelsea. Rosen is also working on a Shangri-La hotel project on Lexington and 53rd St, but currently everything is on hold. “No one wants to pull the rigger. I think by spring next year, it will all be a lot better.”

In Miami, he has just finished the W South Beach, a stylish 408-unit condo hotel – every room has beach views –and W’s first property in Miami that he says are selling in spite of a soft market.

His next big project is an entertainment centre in Germany, that will be a residential hotel. “We are doing lots of prototype stuff where I can take something and make it into something new, try to replicate it. Something that can be branded.” He also just opened a business hotel in Frankfurt. “But it’s cool. The city didn’t have that.”

Did Rosen ever think he’d be so successful? “I am really ballsy and very determined, he says. “Greed is the challenge. You don’t want to be carried away by ambition. You know in hindsight the projects you ought to be in, and out of.”

So what does Rosen consider crucial for beautiful residential design? “High quality.” In New York this means uptown layouts, in downtown buildings. “Layouts the way Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue used to be – high ceilings and powder rooms, beautiful bathrooms. “If the apartment ages you still want to have classic. You find great architects and designers.”

The most important room? “Every residence must have very beautiful bathrooms, spacious, marble and well designed. I take a bubble bath every day.”

UK Vogue: IM Pei, The High Priest of Modernism

By Julie Earle-Levine

Photograph by Sacha Waldman

UK Vogue, GQ, Tatler
August 2009


Ieoh Ming Pei, commonly known by his initials, IM, is dressed in an immaculate grey suit, signature tortoise shell glasses magnifying bright eyes. The renowned Chinese-born American architect, who is 92, extends a firm handshake and beams energetically. He is just back from Paris. “They put on a little party for me because it was the 20th year of the Louvre pyramid,” he explains.

Pei’s Grand Louvre glass pyramid project is regarded as one of his greatest achievements. ““It was a very emotional trip for me. Twenty years! “

Pei’s entire life has been a remarkable journey. At 17, he left China for the US where he would study at Harvard and then work as an architect, designing more than 50 buildings, all over the world. As a young architect, he was selected by Jackie Kennedy to design the JFK National Library in Boston. He would later design the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington and earn the Pritzker Prize in 1983. The jury said he had given this century some of its most beautiful interior spaces and exterior forms.

When asked about his career, Pei cites the Louvre and the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar, that opened last year as among his most important work. But he admits this is a difficult question to ponder in a 70-year-architecture career. “It is like a man with many, many daughters. Which is the prettiest? Which is the one I like best? I can’t say, but these projects are of interest to me and also of great interest to the world.”

The Islamic museum was tipped to be his final project. “Did I say that?’ he laughs. “Well, it is a project I had not expected to do. Now I know more because I really entered into it out of curiosity. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to learn bout Islam, which is a great religion.” The Suzhou Museum, in his hometown in China is also important, he says, since it is where his family comes from.

Any regrets? “I would have liked to have done more houses. I am not known as a house architect but I would have liked to have done more.” In New York, he designed several highly regarded housing projects, including Kips Bay Plaza, and Silver Towers in Greenwich Village, which was recently landmarked.



Im Pei’s latest project, with his son Sandi Pei, is The Centurion, a modern, glass condo building in mid-town Manhattan. Sandi and his brother Didi are also architects and launched their own company, Pei Partnership Architects in 1992, after working in-house with Pei.

Pei’s eyes twinkle when he talks about New York. “I was educated in Massachusetts. I used to say Cambridge and Boston. No longer, it is New York, New York, New York!”

Pei may be a New Yorker, but he is a citizen of the world. Is there anything the last master of high modernist architecture has not yet done, that he’d like to? Pei pauses for a moment and sighs. “I would like to have been a painter. That is my secret.”

www.ppa-ny.com
www.centurioncondominium.com

Grazia: Alexandra Richards

Weekend FT: Nicaragua's Carlos Pellas

By Julie Earle-Levine

Carlos Pellas owns Nicaragua’s Flor de Caña rum distilleries, Toyota and Suzuki motor dealerships, an energy company and banks. The head of one of the country’s wealthiest families, he is descended from Italians who immigrated from the US in the 19th century. A frequent traveller, he has six homes dotted around the world in locations mostly close to the sea, to accommodate his love of fishing. He counts a family weekender in Lake Nicaragua’s “isletas”, reached only by boat with views of lush mountains, as his favourite.

Have you always lived in Nicaragua?

Yes, I was born here. During my early childhood I lived with my parents at our coffee plantation in San Marcos, about a 45-minute drive from Managua. The house was built in 1952 and it resembled the traditional Spanish haciendas. I have the best recollections of those times as there were 16 of us – between my brothers, my sister and cousins – who lived together. There was no TV then, so we rode bicycles and horses, and played board and card games. The home still serves as a weekend retreat for my cousins.

Then you moved to the city?

Yes, we moved to Managua when I was 10. My father built a beautiful house with lacquered Japanese-style doors and gardens with lakes with fish and oriental plants. In 1972 an earthquake destroyed it. I was at a party with my girlfriend, who would later become my wife. The house we were at caught fire. I told her my house was earthquake-proof. She was very concerned for her parents’ home. But it was my house that was destroyed. My parents and sister survived, miraculously. My girlfriend’s parents’ home was intact.

MY FAVOURITE THINGS

Old cards and ancient pots

My boat is customised to make it the perfect fishing machine. It has underwater fishing cameras. I never get tired of looking at the sea. I can spend hours just sitting in the mezzanine waiting for the fish to show.

A coin from Aristotle’s era given to me by my good friend Mike Wood, my roommate at Stanford, as a token of our 35-year friendship.

My top drawer in my closet, where I keep all the cards and notes sent to me by my kids. Frequently I open one and read it again. It brightens the day.

My hammock. I love to lay on it while watching the sunset and enjoying a 12-year old Flor de Caña Centenario.

My Nicaraguan stamp collection. I bought my first stamp 47 years ago, for $1. I own 18 of the first 20 stamps printed in Nicaragua. My collection is probably the only one of its kind in the world.

My pre-Colombian Indian artefact collection. I have more than 100 pieces of ceramic, dating back 1,200-2,000 years.

My wife’s picture when I first met her. Vivian still looks like that first day. It’s an inspiration. We have had three beautiful children together.

What about school?

I went to prep school in Woodside, California. It was my first time away from Nicaragua in a whole new world where I didn’t even understand the language. It was a great experience. Later, I attended Stanford [University], where I obtained my bachelor degree in economics and later on my MBA. During all these years I would come home to Nicaragua at Christmas and in summer, when I would go to the sugar plantation and the Flor de Caña distillery to work. Ironically, summer vacation was harder work than college.

Why is the isletas home your favourite?

It’s beautiful and peaceful. My family owns an island called Abuela Nena’s Island [Grandmother Nena’s Island]. There are mango and coconut trees, a domesticated white heron and two native parrots. My parents built a home that blends with nature in a very special way. It is a ranch that is made from local wood. It’s nice to sit on locally made, wood rocking chairs and hammocks right by the pool. We have another house there, too, which is two storeys with a balcony that overlooks the lake. The island has belonged to us since the early 1930s but it was confiscated by the Sandinistas in the mid-1980s. It was not until the mid-1990s that we got it back and began our building plans. My mother’s idea was to build a place where she and my dad could spend time with their children and grandchildren and enjoy the serenity of the lake and the beautiful view of the colonial city of Granada. That’s what eventually got her to rename the island El Descanso, which means “the resting place”. The views are amazing. On one side of the island you can see the Mombacho volcano and the city. On the other side is Lake Nicaragua, with its two volcanoes that are islands in the middle of it. The lake is so big that in some parts you cannot see where it ends and land begins.

How do you buy one of these islands?

Often by word of mouth. There are more than 360 islands, so sometimes there will be one for sale.

How often do you go to your island?

I try to go whenever I can. It is my favourite place to entertain my most important guests and closest friends who visit from other countries. I also love to spend time there with my children, brothers and nephews.

What about your main residence?

My home in Managua is where I have lived since 1978. It was meant to be a ”transition” home while I built my permanent home. But the Sandinista revolution changed those plans. As our family gradually grew, my wife and I decided not to move. I would best characterise it as a home in the city that makes you feel you are in a private resort in the countryside. It’s full of open spaces and has a pool, a cabana and a tennis court. Many trees are now close to 30 years old, which provide an ambience difficult to duplicate. I also have a beach home in San Juan del Sur, where I love to go on weekends when I am not fishing from my home in Tulemar, Costa Rica. The seven-bedroom house is right on the beach and it has a Caribbean feeling.

And your other homes?

My home in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica, is in the middle of a plush rainforest that serves as habitat to three different families of monkeys. The terrace is as high as the top of the trees, which makes you feel like you are flying on top of them. It is secluded and close to the best billfish action in the world. Deep sea fishing has been my passion since I was 13 years old. I have released over 1,500 sailfish and more than 300 marlin. I own a home on the San Juan river, close to an orange plantation where I am a partner. It’s more like a lodge, with great views of the river. My son Eduardo, 22, is the one who enjoys it the most as he is a keen tarpon fisherman. I also have an apartment at the Four Season Residences in Miami. It’s on the 55th floor and has a spectacular view of the port of Miami, the bay and Key Biscayne. My wife Vivian loves it for the privacy – no maids, no drivers, just us.

New York magazine: Murdoch selling North Shore home

Intelligencer: Rupert, Brangelina Beached Here

Julie Earle-Levine
June 5, 2009

(Photo: Courtesy of Prudential)

Rupert and Wendi Murdoch have put Rosehearty, their North Shore summer getaway, on the market for $12.8 million; they just weren’t using it enough, given all their other homes. In the meantime, they’ve been renting it to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, for more than $100,000 a month. It’s set on around five acres, with eleven bedrooms, seven fireplaces, guest house, and tennis court, on its own stretch of beach, with a dock. A Murdoch rep declined to comment. The broker, Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Dolly Lenz, wouldn’t identify the rental tenants, but noted it’s available for walk-throughs only when they’re out of town—like, say, at Cannes.

New York Times: Travel Nicaragua

Check In, Check Out

By JULIE EARLE-LEVINE

Published: May 10, 2009

THE BASICS Once a home belonging to Hope Somoza, the widow of the former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle, this Pacific beachfront Victorian has been carefully restored into a comfortable, 21-room hotel, which opened a year ago. A suite has been named after Mark Twain, who arrived in San Juan del Sur by sea in 1886, and wrote that “bright green hills never looked so welcome, so enchanting, so altogether lovely.”

THE LOCATION San Juan del Sur, a perfect horseshoe-shaped beach and surfers’ haven nestled into the side of a lush mountain, has long been a refuge for wealthy Nicaraguans. The hotel’s sweeping verandas provide glimpses of these palatial beach retreats, including an eye-catching pink house owned by Eduardo Montealegre, a politician who ran for the presidency of Nicaragua in 2006. The hotel overlooks the beach, where couples in rainbow-hued T-shirts, arms linked at the hips, cuddle at night in the shadows of swaying palm trees. Also a port, the town is about a two-and-a-half hour drive from Managua airport. (A shuttle costs about $45 each way.)

THE ROOMS In spite of the Pottery Barn-like palette — cream-colored drapes with silk tassels, white walls and dark wood furniture — the Victoriano still feels Nicaraguan. The bedspread is a vibrant, orange and green hibiscus print, and the double bed is hand-carved teak, as is a large freestanding mirror and desk. Six rooms have French doors that open out onto balconies overlooking a small pool, with deck chairs and umbrellas, and the beach. Other rooms face a pretty courtyard.

THE BATHROOMS Tiny — the door will hit the sink if you don’t open it carefully — but have large shower stalls (no bathtub) with medium water pressure. The hotel provides a refreshing oatmeal-peppermint body bar, plenty of towels and a robe.

THE LOBBY Airy and spacious, guests can sink into a chocolate leather sofa or check e-mail (free Wi-Fi), with views of the beach and men on scooters selling milk, rice and beans. Paintings by Nicaraguan artists adorn the walls, and the polished wooden floors are covered with antique rugs.

ROOM SERVICE Available from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. It is best to speak some Spanish when in Nicaragua. One order over the phone, for coffee, was interpreted as tea, then finally a man arrived at the door to ask in person. Once it was understood what I was ordering, service was prompt, just 10 minutes ($1.50). And it was delicious Nicaraguan coffee. The food is excellent and fresh, a simple sandwich of ham and cheese ($4) was delivered in 20 minutes, but breakfast, which is included in the rate, is best en plein air on the veranda.

AMENITIES There is no gym, but San Juan del Sur is perfect for exploring on foot. Its streets are lined with cafes, bars, surf shops and a bookstore.

THE BOTTOM LINE With rates for double rooms starting at $100, this hotel is on the high end of the local spectrum (surfer-style accommodations can be found for as little as $20 a night), but no one could call it overpriced, given its idyllic location. While service is sometimes a bit slow — my checkout took 15 minutes, and involved much official stamping of a wad of receipts — the staff was friendly and helpful.

Victoriano Hotel; Paseo de la Mar, Costado Norte Enitel, San Juan del Sur; (505-2) 568-2006; www.hotelvictoriano.com.ni.

Weekend FT: Elemental Architecture

March 21, 2009

By Julie Earle-Levine

Architectural designer Todd Shultz searched for more than a year to find the perfect wood for his client’s basement wine room. The heart pine he found in a cotton mill in Eatonville, Georgia had a golden colour, tight growth rings and blue veins – signs of its authenticity and age.

But when the client saw the beams, he was horrified. “He was like: ‘What are these dark black marks? Can you get rid of that?’,” Shultz recalls.

It was only after the man heard about the wood’s history – the marks were caused by a rare mould that had formed in the tree more than 200 years before – that he became enamoured with it.

The story is a familiar one to Richard McFarland, who co-founded California-based TerraMai, a reclaimed woods company, in the 1990s. Homeowners appreciate the aesthetics and eco-friendly credentials of his products, he says, but mainly “it is the story behind it that they fall in love with”.

Finding the wood, processing it, then building from it can take years. Once a source is located, the beams are photographed and their history researched. Every piece is sorted, cleaned, graded and then de-metalled and possibly re-milled. “The first reaction of someone is: ‘There is a lot of damage to this stuff’. But once it is re-milled and the spike holes are plugged, the overall effect is stunning,” McFarland says.

He says about half of TerraMai’s projects are residential, including houses in Florida, New York’s Hudson Valley, Nevada’s Lake Tahoe and Aspen, Colorado. The wood is not cheap; flooring made from 100-year-old exotics sourced from as far afield as India, South America and south-east Asia cost about $15-$25 per sq ft, about 30 per cent more than floors made from new or “virgin” wood.

But McFarland insists that “people will pay for quality”. “Because it is reclaimed, old-growth tropical hardwood – among the hardest wood on the planet – will last much longer,” he says. “With proper care, these floors can last generations”, compared with about 20 years for just-cut alternatives.

Plus, the reduced environmental impact cannot be ignored. “With every foot of reclaimed wood, you are offsetting destruction of a forest.” Yes, there is a carbon footprint in securing the beams, he acknowledges, but specialists say it is insignificant compared with cutting down new trees.

Shultz grew up on a farm, where he was taught to recycle everything. “You didn’t tear down a barn because it was 100 years old, you painted it and fixed it,” he says. “Nothing makes me sicker than seeing a dumpster full of wood. I’m the one pulling up my truck and grabbing the stuff.”

Any surplus wood goes back to his studio to be repurposed for other projects, he adds. “It is not really for cost. It’s for karma.”

Jim Ruig is another reclaimed wood specialist whose business, Australian Salvage, harvests wood from old wharves, French oak wine barrels, old buildings and industrial factories. His first purchase was 10,000 tonnes of wharf timbers, which took 400 semi-trailers to deliver to industrial land he had bought on Brisbane’s outskirts.

But since then demand has been strong. He recently sold A$3.5m (£1.6m) of reclaimed wood to actor Hugh Jackman for his health resort on Queensland’s Gold Coast and outfitted singer Jack Johnson’s seaside home in Byron Bay. He also works with developers eager to add complexity to their building interiors, as well as exporting to the US. Clients choose from a “menu” of recycled timbers, including native blackbutt, spotted gum and ironbark, then decide the finish – raw, lime washed, oil, smoked or antique.

Given the popularity of reclaimed wood – more than 40m board feet is sold a year in the US, five times the amount sold a decade ago – some are concerned about supply. But McFarland is not one of them. “Yes, it is a limited resource but the timber will be recycled again,” he says. “There will be new stories to tell – so many lives from one tree.”

ends