Ralph Lauren Volunteers at the Farmers Market for City Harvest

My associate Anne and I in the office before we headed down to the Farmers Market. 
    My employer Ralph Lauren is super-committed to volunteering and philanthropy and making the world better. For instance, a big initiative of the company each October is the Pink Pony program which raises money and awareness for cancer care and research. In fact, The Polo Ralph Lauren Foundation funds the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention in Harlem in order to provide excellent care in an underserved community.
    Four times a year the Company sponsors Gives Back weeks, when employees around the world volunteer for a wide variety of organizations. Recently, myself and some associates signed up to help out City Harvest at the Union Square Farmers Market. TD and I love the Union Square Farmers Market where we shop for food and flowers every Saturday. The last chapter of my book is about the Market. City Harvest is an important organization here in New York which works to feed the city's hungry by gathering or "rescuing" food from restaurants, groceries, bakeries and farms. Our job at the end of the day at the Farmer's Market would be to gather leftover food from the farmers.
    On a Wednesday night, my department associate Anne and I took the subway down to Union Square where we gathered with other Ralph Lauren volunteers and met a volunteer from City Harvest who gave us instructions. Armed with big plastic bags, we were directed to approach the farmers and ask if they had any leftovers to donate. The farmers had been through this drill before so they were familiar with the request.
   We split up in groups and off we went. Some farmers had nothing to donate and some had A LOT. We filled the plastic bags and then the bags went in big plastic rolling carts.
We packed up loads of basil and herbs -

Beautiful red and yellow tomatoes - 

Luscious peaches and firm green beans -

We stripped the tables bare -

The bags piled up in the big rolling carts -

     All of the fresh food smelled and looked so good - I wanted to take it home myself!
     We rolled the plastic carts to a big City Harvest truck. An employee there emptied the carts into the truck. It all happened pretty quickly as the farmers were packing up and going home. When we were done we were told that we had gathered 6,500 pounds of food in 190 bags which were going directly to a food bank in Brooklyn that night! That was satisfying.
   That evening I posted a picture from the Market on Facebook, and a friend of ours who is a minister in Brooklyn left a comment saying that her church's food bank got a delivery from City Harvest every Wednesday night, and that perhaps the guests there were enjoying the very food that we had just packed up. Amazing!
   Check out City Harvest - it's a great organization. And kudos to Ralph Lauren for encouraging employees to volunteer and help in important ways.

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.

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. 

Charlotte Moss at Ralph Lauren

Decorator Charlotte Moss signing copies of her new book at the Ralph Lauren women's store this week.

"Decorating is a personal art, and your house is your studio, where there are no boundaries."
From Charlotte Moss Decorates

This week I hightailed it uptown to the new Ralph Lauren women's store on Madison Avenue for a party celebrating decorator Charlotte Moss's new book. Ralph Lauren "store" doesn't quite cover it because the building is pretty amazing but more about that later. Charlotte Moss you know is the great American decorator who specializes in interiors that are luxurious, elegant, and welcoming. A Charlotte Moss room is a masterful composition with rich layers of textiles, colors, art and antiques – a thoroughly modern Edwardian take. Her new book, Charlotte Moss Decorates (Rizzoli), written with Mitchell Owens, is her seventh.

Charlotte Moss grew up in Virginia, and her Southern roots inform her aesthetic and style. She had a successful career on Wall Street where she met her husband, financier Barry Friedberg – the couple have homes in New York City, East Hampton, and Aspen – and in 1985 she changed gears to start her decorating firm. This new book features rooms which Charlotte created for designer showhouses so it's a lavish array of luxe interiors. Charlotte has a wonderful eye for color and textures; a good example is this bedroom which was inspired by the famously stylish Pauline de Rothschild –

"Every book is different and this book was intended to address the muse in design and the thought process that follows," said Charlotte, who was wearing a very chic black hammered Swiss silk eyelet cage jacket by Lee Anderson. I asked her how a person could create more style or beauty in their life. "From the moment you wake up, everything you do, everything you see, everything you touch should express just that... beauty," she said. "It is how you carry yourself, how you dress, how you decorate, entertain, and how you write a letter... The smallest gestures are where to begin... start small!"
Another view of the blue bedroom

At the party I ran into Mitchell Owens, who is the special projects editor at Architectural Digest, and helped Charlotte write the book. "We were a grand team," he reported, "partly because we are both Virginians, had fathers who were military officers, and love beautiful houses and
gardens. Charlotte talked, I listened, we batted around ideas, and the
book just grew. And because of those long conversations, the book
sounds exactly like Charlotte because the words are Charlotte's – I
was just the medium. Basically, we had a lot of fun. She's a designer
I greatly admire, and like me, she's a serious design-history nut,
obsessed with everything from Madame de Pompadour's private rooms at Versailles to the kind of flowers Jackie Kennedy used at the White House."
A profusion of blooms

and champagne.

Held in the rather intimate confines of the fourth floor home department, the party was a bubbly swirl of editors, decorators and Charlotte's friends. I took the elevator up to the fourth floor where the party was held. Display by the fourth floor elevator –

But when I left I took the staircase down, which was quite amazing.

At the corner of Madison Avenue and 72nd Street, Ralph Lauren built from scratch this limestone store that complements the Rhinelander Mansion across the street which now houses just the men's collections. This women's store opened last summer but it looks like it has been here forever.

The limestone steps and handwrought French metal railings evoke a Parisian department store from the turn of the last century.

Here is the ground floor near the front door. I love the silk pleated lamp shades and simple palette of white and black in this store which contrasts with the rich, deep colors of the men's store across the street.

This is a view toward the jewelry salon, with Ralph Lauren staff in black and waiters in white. Trés chic.

Visit this beautiful store if you are in New York, and pick up Charlotte Moss's gorgeous book, on sale on the fourth floor.

For the Love of Old

We got this metal box at the antique store. Its black paint is scratched and chipped to reveal silver metal underneath.


It opens up which is nice. We can store books in it.


I love metal furnishings, and for me the more scratched and rusted the better. I like old things; I'm not a suburban Ethan Allen boy. I picture living in a loft with metal furniture and wood country furniture, overlooking the river. Very nineteenth century industrial. The idea of living with rusty, antique things was validated for me by a book called For the Love of Old by my friend Mary Randolph Carter, who was in charge of advertising and is now the editorial and creative director at Polo Ralph Lauren. Gorgeous book, written and photographed by Carter, as she is called. The subtitle of the book is "living with chipped, frayed, tarnished, faded, tattered, worn and weathered things that bring comfort, character and joy to the places we call home."

Carter had the most fantastic office at Ralph Lauren that I have ever been in – a big modern corner office on Madison Avenue but it was layered in rugs and antique textiles, piles of books everywhere. She had a roll-top desk, but we met at a big country wooden table. Going into that office was like taking a trip to an Adirondack Lake. It was very inspirational to me.

This black box will look nice next to the black leather and silver chrome Mies van der Rohe chair.