halston

If you have any interest in fashion, branding, the 1970's or Liza Minelli, you must watch Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston. 

taliesin: the site

One of the things that's hard to describe about Taliesin is the vastness of the landscape. The 600 acre site played an important role in the design of the home, providing inspiration for both where the buildings should be built and how they would appear in the landscape.

© all photos by me

taliesin: the buildings

In addition to the house, we also got to tour some of the other buildings on the property. The earliest structure built was the Hillside School (above), a boarding school for local children run by FLW's aunts. Today, the structure still functions as a school - it's a graduate architecture program. The building also houses a large dining room and theater.

Most of the students and faculty live on the property. Many of the original farm buildings have been converted into housing (below).

The Midway Barn (below) is one of the most unique buildings on the property. It currently houses the preservation's archives.

© all photos by me

taliesin: the house

Taliesin is the home that Frank Lloyd Wright built for himself and his mistress (if you've read Loving Frank, you are familier with the story) on land owned by his family in Spring Green, Wisconsin. We took a fascinating 4-hour tour that led through the house, as well as some of the other structures on the property. In addition to the living quarters, the house also contains a drafting studio, a chicken coop and stables (the latter has now been converted into living quarters) all with expansive views of the valley below. Again, this is a must if you find yourself in this part of the country!

Like the Hollyhock house, we weren't allowed to take photos inside, so this is my only shot of the interior:

© all photos by me.

schiaparelli and prada

Trekked uptown to see this exhibit and you should do the same. Like, immediately.

Images from here.

the glass house: environs

In addition to the Glass House, there are 13 other structures on the 47-acre property (Johnson built a new structure roughly every ten years) including his library and study (above). There are also a few site specific installations, like the concrete structure by Donald Judd (below).

 Johnson also built the Brick House (below) to serve as a guest quarters and art gallery.

It soon turned out that the Brick House was too small to hold his entire art collection, so he added a separate bunker-like painting gallery (below) and sculpture gallery.

One of my favorite structures was the Ghost House, originally built to encase a collection of lilies. Now it fills with the local grasses until you can't even distinguish it from the surrounding landscape.

More photos here.
© all photos by me.

the glass house: interior

As I mentioned earlier, I thought the Glass House was pretty much perfectly proportioned for living. It didn't hurt that almost all the furniture was by Mies van ser Rohe either.

More photos here.

© all photos by me.

the glass house

It's been a long time dream of mine to visit all the buildings I studied in school and I become exceptionally happy when I get to cross something off my list. My parents were in town this weekend, so I dragged them out to Connecticut to visit the Glass House, Philip Johnson's private residence until his death in 2005. At 1700 square feet, the space is pretty much perfectly proportioned and exceptionally thoughtful. And if you are concerned about the neighbors seeing in, he owned the surrounding 47 acres....so, that really wasn't an issue. Interiors and the rest of the campus to come!

More photos here.
© all photos by me.

fashion week

(view from my seat)
Going to a big time fashion show has been a dream of mine for a long time. I may be strict about what I buy, but don't get me wrong - I love fashion. When a buyer friend mentioned that she had an extra ticket for the Anna Sui show I probably squealed with delight.

The show was everything I wanted it to be and more - crowded, glamourous, loud and colorful. The people watching was beyond amazing...just across from me was Karen Elson, Russell Simmons and Coco Rocha. I saw Bill Cunningham as we exited the show.

And the clothes! I was actually too busy trying to shoot everything (those girls walk fast!) to really study the collection, but there were some really beautiful pieces. To see the full fall collection, click here.

Since you are probably going to ask, I wore a green silk dress (80's most likely) from Shareen's, an old coat from Banana Republic, and my vintage Gucci purse...

....and the swag included blush, perfume and socks:

CAG - thanks again for taking me!
©photos by me

argentina: day one

Photo from here.
We arrived in Buenos Aires mid-morning after a 12 hour flight. Keep in mind there is no time change, so thats how far it is from NYC. We ate lunch (octopus, jamon, papas braves and Malbec), walked down Florida street to the Plaza de Mayo and explored Puerto Madero by crossing over Santiago Calatrava's Puente de la Mujer ("Bridge of the Woman"), above. In Puerto Madero, we checked out the very trendy Faena Hotel (I'm a sucker for Philippe Stark) and ate dulce de leche gelato. Dinner at La Brigada was the beginning of my weeklong red meat stupor.

union church

We stopped by Union Church on our way to Stone Barns. Unfortunately, we got there about ten minutes before they closed, but their volunteer gave us such an incredible tour that it seemed well worth the brief visit. I wasn't allowed to take photos inside, but the church hosts some breathtaking stained glass windows from Chagall and Matisse.

Photos by me.