Carolyne Roehm's Constant Thread

With Carolyne Roehm at her book party in Susan Gutfreund's Fifth Avenue home, and the cover of her gorgeous new book.
     Carolyne Roehm, a longtime friend of this blog, has a new book out called Design & Style: A Constant Thread. Besides being impressively large and heavy (you could do bicep curls with this thing), it's unusual for Carolyne, who has produced twelve books, because this one is largely autobiographical.
     We caught up with Carolyne a few years back at home and did two video interviews on the blog when she published her book A Passion for Interiors. Her living room, with its double height ceilings and brown velvet walls, is I think the most beautiful I've been in. Two years later we did a video with Carolyne in the New York City flower district for her book Flowers.
     Throwback to a book party past –

   For this book, Carolyne's friend Susan Gutfreund hosted a party in her renowned apartment on Fifth Avenue, and that was a real treat. The Fifth Avenue building was designed by architect Rosario Candela, who I recently wrote about for Architectural Digest. The stunning apartment was decorated by Henri Samuel, who was the subject of a book by Emily Eerdmans Evans, which I wrote about here on the blog. Candles flickered in the long salon facing Fifth Avenue where the party was held, and we had the chance to duck into the celebrated Winter Garden room, which is decorated in tones of yellow and green and pink.

    Carolyne is dedicated to beauty and her books have been about her expertise and passions in decorating, gardening, fashion and entertaining. With this book she combines them all and explores how everything she does, from her fashion designs to setting a table to arranging flowers, is inspired by her consistent taste and style - her constant thread. This book is unique too because she writes about her personal life experience. 
Carolyne at home in the 80s and her gorgeous peonies –

Joyful tulips inspired this Roehm design –

     Carolyne Jane Smith grew up in a Missouri farm town and was called Janie Smith until she decided to go by her first name and married Axel Roehm. She later married Henry Kravis, the Wall Street financier, who invested in her designer fashion collection. For ten years at the height of the rollicking 80s the couple were the toast of the town. But in the early 90s came divorce, her decision to close her fashion company and an unsuccessful attempt to start a catalogue business. Carolyne writes that, "there were moments in which I genuinely believed I wouldn't find the strength or the will to continue."
      As an escape, she decided to go to a college in England to study Shakespeare's tragedies, thinking that "the Bard might help me understand what the hell had gone wrong with my life." She tells a funny story about being locked out of the college dorm while taking a shower and hanging naked by her fingertips off a windowsill three stories above ground. There were regrets about her decision to close her fashion business and walk away from her catalogue venture. In Paris she had an unpaid internship at the legendary flower shop Moulié Fleurs and had the idea to create an everyday, how-to-book about flowers.
     In one of her designs –

Carolyne in Chanel and one of her creative gift wrappings –

    Carolyne returned and writes, "...now three years after I'd slunk out of New York, feeling in every meaningful way a failure to myself, I was back. At my lowest moment, I had gotten off the floor and taken a baby step, one that liberated me to move on to a new, and very rewarding enterprise. Once that happens, you never lose the faith that no matter how difficult life becomes, if you just take that step, things will get better. That was the great lesson of my wilderness years."
     Hers is a wonderful story of resilience and strength, and how creativity, beauty and art can rescue a person. A Passion for Flowers was the first of a dozen books. Carolyne is also an accomplished watercolor painter and she announced on Instagram (@carolyneroehm) that she has just launched a collection of Chinoiserie jewelry on her website. She designs and creates boundlessly without fear or limitation. I think these traits are in fact her constant thread. Cheers to Carolyne Roehm, a great inspiration.

The Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden

(click on photos to enlarge)
I went recently with my high school friend, Suzy Ferenczy MacEnroe, to the New York Botanical Garden located in the Bronx to see the Garden's annual Orchid Show. What a treat it was. I had previously been to the gala dinner which launches the Orchid Show but not to the Show itself.

The New York Botanical Garden is situated on 250 acres where over one million living plants grow in extensive collections. Besides its different gardens, it's a major educational institution dedicated to conservation and research, employing 80 Ph.D. scientists. The Garden was created at the end of the nineteenth century and was inspired by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, near London. The great New York financiers of the day funded the Garden which was designed by Calvert Vaux, who designed Central Park with William Olmstead. At the end of the nineteenth century, New York City was becoming a great world capital, with a new library and a new art museum, and the Botanical Garden was part of that development, as it brought plants and the beauty of nature to the city and its urban dwellers.

The jewel of the Garden is surely the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, which is the largest Victorian glasshouse in the United States. Opened in 1905 and recently renovated, the glass and iron marvel includes ten glass greenhouses where all kinds of plants are displayed. Suzy and I took the MetroNorth train together to the Botanical Garden stop and headed straight to the Conservatory to see the Orchid Show.

Inside, we followed the signs to the Orchid Show. We filed through the various plant exhibitions - the rain forest garden, the desert garden, the water lily garden. It felt like we went through all ten greenhouses! "Where are the orchids?" we thought, "Did we miss it?" We kept following the signs. Finally, we came upon it - an explosion of orchids -

The Orchid Show was in two rooms and there were orchids everywhere - sprouting out of rocks, hanging from trees, lining a waterfall, displayed on tables. It really was an eyeful.




On the clear sunny day, outside the glass windows, the beautiful garden was in view and the blue sky beyond.

There was Debussy piano music playing in the background which added to the delight -

Suzy and I paused in front of a orchid-covered waterfall for a pic -

Orchids were crowded onto tables - what luxury.

Boxes of orchids packed in a crate on the floor were ready to be displayed. It would be nice to have just one!

We kept walking around looking at everything. There were so many flowers to take in. Each petal looked like it was handpainted.

Finally we left, satisfied that we had found it. We walked to a nearby cafe and sat outside and ate lunch. Inside the gift shop, an array of orchids were presented for sale - smart!

A ride on a tram offers a tour of the full Garden and all that it includes. As it was early in the season, there was not a lot in bloom on our view from the tram as it rolled up and down the verdant hills -

but I know from experience that the Garden is glorious in season. Go in June to see the rose garden in bloom! The Brooklyn Botanic Garden also offers a rapturous rose garden in June. Suzy and I were so glad to see the annual Orchid Show, which ended on April 17. Coming up May 14 - Sept. 11 is an exhibition called Impressionism: American Gardens on Canvas, which sounds wonderful too.

"How I Look" Ebook for Kindle

My style memoir How I Look is now available as an ebook for Kindle for a reasonable $6.99!
You can check it out here.
And read the Women's Wear Daily review here.
Recently at work we were discussing a free give-away gift and a bookmark was suggested. One of my young associates said, "Who uses a bookmark?" The kids like the ebooks!
Hope you enjoy this one.

If You Like My Blog You May Like My Book

Dear Reader, I have written a book! It's called How I Look, and it's a style memoir about the people and places and experiences that have shaped my sense of style and taste, from growing up in upstate New York to college in Montreal to summers on Martha's Vineyard to living and working in New York City. It's a paperback with about 130 of my black and white photographs, and is available on Amazon.com for the low Amazon price of $12.27!
I am grateful to TD, a graphic designer and art director, and designed the book and the cover. I like "how it looks."

I was happily surprised recently when the book got a good review from the fashion bible Women's Wear Daily.

Read the WWD review here.
The book is really born out of encouragement I received from this blog. As I was writing it, with stories about Perry Ellis and Polly Mellen and Jackie Kennedy and Bergdorf Goodman, a theme emerged, which was American style. Chic but casual, sophisticated but simple, and elegant but effortless, the theme of American style kept emerging, and became a thread through the stories in the book.
It's available now on Amazon here. I hope you like it! 

Rowing Blazers Book and Book Party at Polo Ralph Lauren

The cover of Rowing Blazers, the new book by Jack Carlson, and the living version, top, at the book party. 
It turns out that my friend George Carr knows Jack Carlson, the author of the new book from Vendome Press called Rowing Blazers, and so I was invited to the recent party to celebrate the book at the new Polo Ralph Lauren flagship store on Fifth Avenue and 55th Street.
Also, I am now working at Ralph Lauren! Yes dear reader, I was offered a job as senior writer, special projects, in the internal creative agency at Ralph Lauren, and I most happily accepted. So I am very familiar with the gleaming new Polo store which offers the Polo brand for women that has just been introduced, as well as Ralph's Coffee, a charming coffee shop on the second floor. Check it out.
Rowing Blazers, with photographs by F. E. Castleberry, thoroughly explores the dapper blazers which boating teams have worn since the nineteenth century. The author Jack Carlson himself has rowed for Georgetown and Oxford, and his friends came out in droves for the book party which was already packed with rowers and their admirers by the time my friend Paul from work and I arrived. Sporting mates gathered together and moved throughout the party so there were crowds of color, like the fellows in red above, wherever you looked. It brought to mind the recent Ivy Style exhibit at F.I.T.
A display at the front door of the Polo Ralph Lauren store set the scene –

Gents in navy and white –

Gold and blue and white stripes – 

At the party George Carr introduced me to Jack Carlson who told me that he is now studying for a Ph.D in archeology at Oxford. When I asked him what about the rowing blazer interested him, he said, "It's a combination of all the things I love – rowing and style and pageantry and history and heritage."
In his book, he explores the boating jacket which first came about at the end of the nineteenth century in distinctive contrasting colors so that spectators could identify the different teams as they rowed past. Rowing teams still wear their signature colors today, as illustrated in the book.
Pale blue with white trim at Eton College –

Will Satch of the Shiplake College Boat Club in Henley-on-Thames, England, in a boldly striped blazer –

The Georgetown Univeristy Boat Club in blue with grey trim –

I'm a big fan of these blazers which have a distinctly Edwardian feel; they look like they're right out of Downton Abbey. Once, at a vintage store in Montreal, when I was at college at McGill University, I bought a navy blue Bill Blass blazer with white piping. I wore that jacket all the time, with jeans and everything. The rowing jacket combines good health and exercise with a sophisticated, elegant line. In one garment, the boating blazer captures the spirit of the sporting gentleman.

My Feature in the October Fashion Issue of Elle Decor Magazine

I hope you will be able to check out my feature in the October Fashion issue of Elle Decor magazine which begins on page 95! Editors Michael Boodro and Peter Terzian asked me to talk to ten American fashion designers about their very first apartment in New York City. Peter Som, Stephen Burrows, Anna Sui, Michael Bastian, Betsey Johnson, Ralph Rucci, Jill Stuart, Adam Lippes, Josie Natori, and the the boys at Rag & Bone, Marcus Wainwright and David Neville, all shared their very charming memories with me. I hope you enjoy it and the issue.

Talking to the designers reminded me of my first apartment in New York. When I moved to New York I crashed with some acquaintances from Martha's Vineyard in a loft in Tribeca, but my first real apartment was on Second Avenue between 51st and 52nd Streets. I had a temporary job at the time working as the chauffeur for Mr. Perry Ellis, which is another story. One morning as I sat waiting for Perry in his bottle-green Jaguar at the curb, I looked through the classifieds (remember those?) in the back of The New York Times and spotted an ad for a three bedroom apartment with a big deck out the back on Second Avenue. It was $1,200. My brother Thom and his high school friend Bob Manogue and I were looking for an apartment together, so I rushed to the corner pay phone (remember those?) on Columbus Avenue and called them, and we met that night at the apartment's open house. There were scores of other groups looking at the apartment. I sought out the superintendent, one Mrs. O'Brien, to whom we politely introduced ourselves.

And we got the apartment!

But Thom and Bob and I did not have the security deposit! I called my friend Abby who was good with this sort of thing and she loaned us the money. We all met at a bar inside the Port Authority bus terminal and then headed over to meet with Mrs. O'Brien, who we subsequently nicknamed Obie.

After we signed the lease and got the keys, the four of us went over to the vacant apartment. It was kind of a strange configuration; two apartments had been combined together, so the kitchen was the hallway which you passed through to get to the bedrooms. We were thrilled to have it. We ordered a pizza and sat on the floor under one light bulb. And there our lives in New York began.

A Visit to Fine and Dandy in Hell's Kitchen

With Matt Fox, one of the proprietors of Fine And Dandy.  
I recently had fun stopping in to visit the newish Fine and Dandy shop at 445 West 49th Street in Hell's Kitchen. Matt Fox and Enrique Crame, the boys at Fine and Dandy, have an online business which sells "accessories for dapper guys." With its success, they decided to expand and open a permanent "bricks and mortar" store in the neighborhood where they live, Hell's Kitchen. When I visited recently I found Matt tending the shop as Enrique was entertaining out-of-town friends.
Matt and Enrique have their goods made here in New York City and their prices are gentle. I like their aesthetic and taste, and always find something irresistible. The accessories also make great gifts. The small, charming ground level shop is jammed with unique discoveries - including ties, scarves, pocket squares, jewelry, and leather goods. It's like a well curated attic. There are also toys and games and vintage finds –

Some of the wool scarves are edged with colorful piping. I bought a grey scarf finished with light blue piping, very dandy indeed –

College pennants are stacked next to bowls of silk knot cufflinks that are colored like candy -

Fun suspenders to wear under a conservative suit –

Ties and bow ties in all different hues and patterns – 

A view to the front door –

The charming front window of Fine and Dandy at 449 W. 49th Street –

Matt reports that he and Enrique are now recognized on the street by their neighbors in Hell's Kitchen. Check out the shop, and tell them I sent you!

Carter's New Book and Book Party

With Carter at the party for her new book in Soho.
My friend Mary Randolph Carter, who is a long-time creative director at Ralph Lauren and who is known as Carter, just published a new book, and Ralph Lauren hosted a party to celebrate in the RRL store in Soho. I met Carter some years ago when I freelanced at Ralph Lauren (I am also freelancing there now), and we have remained friends since. At Ralph Lauren, she had the most unique office that I have ever encountered in the work place. Layered with antiques, art, textiles, blankets, books and magazines, it was like a trip to a cabin in Maine although it was located at Madison and 60th. Carter has written several books and a favorite of mine is called For the Love of Old which captures in words and pictures her passion for things from the past that have a history. Carter loves antique finds and vintage clothes, and her personal style is completely unique to her and always inspiring.

The new book is about collecting and it's called Never Stop to Think...Do I Have a Place For This? (Carter's last book was A Perfectly Kept House is the Sign of a Misspent Life - Carter likes long titles!) 

In this book, she encourages readers not to be deterred by lack of space if they find an antique or collectible they like. "If there is a place in your heart, then there is a place in your home," Carter said to me at her book party. "It gives you permission to find the wackiest thing and embrace it. If you see something and it speaks to you then you don't have to say no. I never have."
Inside, the book profiles nineteen collectors who proudly display their passions. I like the typography of the titles which looks like handmade paper cut outs -

This is the "price tag room" in Stephanie Lloyd's home where she prices items for her shop, Hudson Mercantile, in Hudson, New York -

Here is the New Orleans kitchen of Allain Bush. I like the simplicity of the colors -

Jennifer Lanne's studio in a barn in Saratoga, New York, is a great spot for an artist -

The photography is by Carter Berg who is Carter's son, and it reminds me of The World of Interiors magazine which lovingly captures splendors of the past. This book celebrates following your own voice and pursuing what appeals to you to create a singular personal style that is above and beyond passing trends. I'm a big fan of Carter's artistic approach and it has definitely influenced me.
I love how she signed our book

at her book signing party which was a big ta-doo at the Ralph Lauren RRL store on West Broadway. Carter's many friends and fans mobbed the place -

There was a long bar set up on one counter -

and Carter's book was for sale at the register -

Ralph Lauren himself came to congratulate Carter. The room quieted down and Carter thanked Ralph and noted that when they were introduced she realized that "I met someone who loves more things than I do." Ralph complimented Carter saying, "She's been a great asset to me and the company and she's better than ever."

The RRL store on West Broadway is one of my favorite places, with its vintage-inspired clothes and evocative displays.

It's a trip back in time, and there is a vignette to look at in every corner, like the combination of this antique industrial lamp, leather and canvas messenger bag, and old-fashioned cotton shirt. 

Outside as the party wound down, dusk was falling in Soho -

It was kind of magical.