Milan: Milan: Vionnet Boutique Opening.

Milan: Vionnet Boutique Opening.  Vionnet opened its new Milan flagship boutique in Palazzo Premoli on Corso Monforte, just round the corner from Piazza San Babila. The store presents a showcase of the world of Vionnet as well as homage to the brand’s legendary founder, MadeleineVionnet.   Barbara and Lucia Croce, creative directors of Vionnet, collaborated to ensure that the powerful influence of Madeleine Vionnet has infused every element of the 220 square meter space. Rigorous lines coupled with rich materials, like marble and brass; refer back to the renowned Parisian atelier of Avenue Montaigne opened by Vionnet, a potent reference of French fashion from 1912 until 1939. Carefully honed details reference the work of Thayaht, the Italian Futurist who’s artistic and design collaboration with Vionnet spanned two decades.

Above: One of the dresses from 2012 Spring-Summer collection, inspired by femininity and a magical trip into the meanders of an enchanted garden where romanticism meets irony, and flashes of nocturnal languor combine with the unbridled vitality of luxuriant nature.

Vionnet's president Matteo Marzotto

Vionnet's creative directors Lucia and Barbara Croce

partners with Matteo Marzotto in Vionnet, Gianni and Carolina Castiglioni

jeweled bangles

Wallpaper Magazine's Ursula Geisselmann, editor Tony Chambers, Eve Kalinik and Nick Vinson

Design scout extraordinaire Marva Griffin and  the only interior designer to be included in AD's top 100, Roberto Peregalli

Busy and beautiful, You boutique owner (Torino) which sells emerging designers, blogger for Grazia.it and beauty blogger for Dolce and Gabbana's blog Swide, Eleonora Carisi.

refreshing and dietetic crudites served in a small glass with just a tiny bit of dressing in the bottom.

anchor for World Fashion Channel Kasia Borowicz

International Herald Tribune's Suzy Menkes is photographed with Valentino's creative directors Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri.

Pr and art director Marcelo Burlon. I love the jets embroidery on his shirt and jacket.

Gaetano and Albertina Marzotto

detail of a baguette bag

Antonella Rana daughter of Giovanni Rana of the "tortellini" dynasty.

Melba Ruffo di Calabria

Milanese grand dame Cicci Locatelli

Hair stylist Alberto Corda, Marta Marzotto and Albertina Marzotto 

Marta's dolphin "bangle" in morganite, diamonds and rubies, like her personality she designs exuberant jewels.

Wait and See's Uberta Zambelletti and Pitti's Sibilla della Gherardesca

Carlotta Oddi is Anna dello Russo's assistant at Vogue Japan. Love the combination of leather, lace leggings and mini Gucci bag.

Vogue.it's Cesare Cunaccia and Marta Brivio Sforza

Maureen Salmona

mozzarella and pomodoro kebabs

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Venice: The Basilica of Saint Mark’s – The Venice Foundation - The Mario Brunello Concert.

photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati

Venice: The Basilica of Saint Mark’s – The Venice Foundation - The Mario Brunello Concert. Once again The Venice Foundation treated its patrons to an extraordinary concert in honor of the conclusion of the restoration of the Cupola of Creation. The Project, dear to the heart of the Venice Foundation’s president Franca Coin, who for fifteen years collected funds for this magnificent restoration which was celebrated with a concert by Maestro cellist Mario Brunello and his L’Orchestra d’Archi Italiana.  They performed works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Giovanni Sollima and John Tavener in the magical setting of the Basilica itself.

The Basilica of Saint Mark’s – The Venice Foundation - The Mario Brunello Concert.  Maestro cellist Mario Brunello was photographed in the Loggia dei Patriarchi the gallery where portraits of the patriarch’s of Saint Mark's are hung. Mario Brunello is a renowned worldwide Italian cellist and musician. The turning point in his artistic life was the 1986 victory of the International Tchaikovsky Competition. In 1994, Brunello founded the Orchestra d'Archi Italiana (Italian String Orchestra) starting double performing activities as a conductor in addition to that of soloist. During the years Brunello has widened his world going beyond classical music and working on projects that mix different artistic expressions and music genres with the aim to reach a wider public and to convey a new idea of music performances and musicians. To this idea he has devoted himself by turning a run-down factory sited in his hometown Castelfranco Veneto in a laboratory for concerts and for teaching, for conferences and for visual art exhibitions. This laboratory is named Antiruggine (Italian for Anti-rust) after the ironwork activity that the place used to host but also with the meaning of urging people to keep their minds awake and always working, "don't let your mind go to rust" is the motto.

 photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati

 

Saint Mark's Basilica - The Cupola of Creation. If you look up, just inside the front door on the right of the Basilica, you can see the magnificent restoration of the Cupola of Creation. The cupola is also known as the Cupola of Angels because in each of the seven segments winged figures are depicted. The Cupola of Creation is the work of Venetian artisans who learnt the art of mosaics from the Byzantines in the XIII Century. Though the restoration is complete, fundraising continues.  For more information go to The Venice Foundation website and see all the other projects in the works that need your help.

 

Walter Hartsarich, president of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and Franca Coin, president of The Venice Foundation.

The Basilica of Saint Mark’s – The Venice Foundation - The Mario Brunello Concert.  Mario Brunello explains The Protecting Veil piece composed by John Tavener which he splendidly and dexterously executed.  The Feast of the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God was instituted in the Orthodox Church to commemorate her appearance in the Church at Vlacherni (Constantinople) in the early tenth century. John Tavener elucidates “In my piece entitled The Protecting Veil for cello and strings, I have tried to capture some of the almost cosmic power of the Mother of God. The cello represents The Mother of God and never stops singing throughout. One can think of the strings as a gigantic extension of her unending song.  The music falls into eight continuous sections and use is made of the eight Byzantine tones …., it is perfectly possible to listen to The Protecting Veil as ‘pure’ music but I think that it may be helpful if I recount what was in my mind during the composition. It is an attempt to make a lyrical icon in sound, rather than in wood, and using the music of the cellist to paint rather than a brush. The music is highly stylized, geometrically formed and meditative in character.” 

 

The Basilica of Saint Mark’s.  Pews are pushed aside to accommodate the deck chairs for the Mario Brunello concert.

Note.  The famous Lion of Saint Mark’s, traditional symbol of Venice on the carpets.  Also, note the marble wall that looks like a blurred watercolor and the mosaic floor, one of the many patterns found inside the Basilica.  I love the contrast between the hard marble mosaic floor and the softness of the wooden floor.

The Basilica of Saint Mark’s. One of the many patterns of the marble mosaic floors found inside the Basilica. There are 4,000 meters of mosaic that cover every surface of the church which date from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries.   The floors of the Basilica are credited with inspiring those in the rest of Venice.

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FIAT 500 Abarth - 2012 Super Bowl Commercial - Seduction

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PARIS: Maison et Objet - Art - Design - Food - Restaurants - Fashion - People... and more

Paris:  Restaurant – Le Ralph’s.  In the former stables of the seventeenth century hotel particulier that houses the Ralph Lauren flagship store on the Boulevard Saint Germain is Le Ralph's restaurant. It is fabulous and it’s all the rage, so book a table at least a week in advance, otherwise you might be disappointed. The dinning experience and the place itself is worth a visit; it evokes the world of elegance of men’s clubs, of horses and dogs, the Hamptons and luxury.

Above: a detail of the bar area.

Le Ralph’s.  A small intimate table by the window of the bar area.  In the courtyard the outdoor tables must be wonderful in the spring and summertime for dinning al fresco.

Note: The crisp tablecloths the high back leather chairs and the pretty red roses scattered all over the restaurant.

 

Le Ralph’s. The "old school" American menu offers the freshest and best ingredients, as you can see from this Caesar salad. Also on the menu New England clam chowder, Maine lobster, Maryland crab cakes, shrimp cocktail, fried chicken, meat loaf, steaks, turkey, veggie and tuna burgers, and of course the all American cheeseburger.

Le Ralph’s.  One of the elegant table settings.   I loved the mix of leopard and tartan cushions on the banquettes.

Le Ralph’s.  Chef Stephane D’Aboville from Le Bristol spent a week in New York learning from Danny Meyers of Union Square Hospitality Group, how to cook a hamburger and other American specialties.  The burgers and steaks are made with Angus beef from the cattle on Ralph Lauren’s ranch in Colorado.

Note: The avocado slices, an unusual accompaniment to the classic hamburger, as is the way of serving, the not very good and a bit soggy French fries in a silver-plated mint julep glass.

 

Le Ralph’s.  Stripes and stripes.  The elegant and handsome young waiters wear crisp striped blue and white cotton shirts, pinstriped trousers and long white cotton aprons and were trained in New York.

 

Le Ralph’s.  The desserts are served on these pretty blue and white flower plates.  The cheesecake was good and very appealing to the eye.

 

Le Ralph’s.  Espresso is served not with petit fours but with the surprise of yummy and irresistible caramel popcorn in a silver bowl.

Le Ralph’s.  The main dinning room is centered around a gigantic fireplace.  On collecting the Legion d’Honneur medal from president Sarkozy, Ralph Lauren said, “I’m in love with Paris — everywhere you look my heart is high, and when I go into the store it feels so good. I was a little intimidated by Paris. I didn’t speak the language. But now I have three stores, it feels like I’m living here — I am much more at ease and comfortable.”

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PARIS: Maison et Objet - Art - Design - Food - Restaurants - Fashion - People... and more

Paris:  Art – Gagosian Gallery – Damien Hirst

“I was always a colorist, I’ve always had a phenomenal love of color... I mean, I just move color around on its own. So that’s where the spot paintings came from—to create that structure to do those colors, and do nothing. I suddenly got what I wanted. It was just a way of pinning down the joy of color.” Damien Hirst.

The Damien Hirst, The Complete Spot Paintings 1986– 2011 exhibition opened worldwide on January 12 and is taking place at once across all of Gagosian Gallery’s eleven locations in New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Athens, Geneva, and Hong Kong.   Conceived as a single exhibition in multiple locations, it makes use of this demographic fact to determine the content of each exhibition according to locality.

Paris:  Art – Gagosian Gallery – Damien Hirst

"I often get asked about the spot paintings – “I love your work, but why do you do those stupide spots? They’re not good paintings.” Or “The paintings are great/better than your other works, but (Gerhard) Richter already did it.”  They have nothing to do with Richter or Larry Poons or Bridget Riley or Josef Albers or even Op art.   They’re about an urge or the need to be a painter above and beyond the object of a painting.   I’ve often said that they are like sculptures of paintings.” Damien Hirst.

Included in the exhibition are more than 300 paintings, from the first spot on board that Hirst created in 1986; to the smallest spot painting comprising half a spot and measuring 1 x 1/2 inch (1996); to a monumental work comprising only four spots, each 60 inches in diameter; and up to the most recent spot painting completed in 2011 containing 25,781 spots that are each 1 millimeter in diameter, with no single color ever repeated.

 

Paris:  Art – Gagosian Gallery – Damien Hirst 

“With the spot paintings, I probably discovered the most fundamentally important thing in any kind of art.  Which is the harmony of where color can exist on its own, interacting with other colors in a perfect format… It’s like they don’t go wrong.” Damien Hirst.

Save the Date: “Damien Hirst: The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011” precedes the first major museum retrospective of Hirst’s work opening at TateModern in London in April, 2012.

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PARIS: Maison et Objet - Art - Design - Food - Restaurants - Fashion - People... and more

Paris: Boutique – Mary Beyer. These Falconry gloves made for Saudi princes, where the sport still flourishes today, are just some of the most beautiful gloves I have ever seen.  Mary Beyer has a boutique in one of the world’s most beautiful squares, the Jardin du Palais Royale, where a universe of shimmering colors, first choice materials, and new collections for men and women twice a year are on show.  Refined gloves that are made to measure, customized and fitted specially for the customer and naturally the gallery is solely dedicated to high-quality aesthetic.

 

Mary Beyer. Exquisite and luxurious men’s crocodile gloves.  Mary Beyer's models are designed with a know-how for construction of excellence, using top-of-the-line materials for designs that combine tradition and modernity.

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PARIS: Maison et Objet - Art - Design - Food - Restaurants - Fashion - People... and more

Paris: Boutique – Moynat. The new Moynat boutique (now owned by LVMH) opened in December, it is situated next to Hermes (it’s parent company) on the rue Saint Honore. Moynat Malletier, established in 1849 is one of the oldest French trunk-makers; it is the very first leather goods houses of its day. Known for its traditional know-how and skills-base in handcrafting made to order luggage and travel goods. The house became famous for its designs for the automobiles, as well as for its technical innovations such as making its trunks lighter and waterproof, and for its notable participation in the various World’s Fairs. The new graphic and architectural design of Moynat is by French architect Gwenael Nicolas of Curiosity, based in Tokyo. Nicholas describes himself as a “choreographer of space” as his work concentrates on “the art of encounter”.

Above: One of the windows shows the coming together of two worlds, the famous1902 limousine trunk for automobiles, with it’s concave bottom that closely follows the rounded roof of the car and the new reversible tote. 

 

Moynat.  The interior of the boutique revolves around a circular space that encircles a column.   As you walk around the new collection is displayed next to it’s original products. 

Note.  The curved car trunks in the foreground sit next to the new collection, which has been given new meaning by transforming the curved forms and unique details from the past into contemporary leather goods.

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