Spring Shopping Sprees

I've been doing a lot of spring shopping lately.  I mean it: I've been doing A LOT.  Anyone else?  My theory is collecting pretty spring things helps us get through the February–March hump.  But now that April is here, and the weather is finally getting better in Chicagoland, I think I will slow it down a bit.  (Sitting down and making an inventory will help a person identify their weaknesses.)  Here are some of my finds.  They're all great—in case you need a little something, yourself.  Wink, wink. ; )

Blakely Wrap Blouse from J.Crew

Easy Straight Destructed Jeans from the Gap

Kate Spade Ballet Flat from Piperlime

Tretorn Sneaker from J.Crew

Pippy Top from J.Crew

Midnight by Carole Hochman Chemise from Tresor Intimates

I got this necklace in the black onyx beads.

Simon Sebbag Necklace from Nordstrom

J.Crew Bikini Bottom

Le Creuset Caribbean Blue Grill Pan from Sur La Table

Cuisinart 14-Cup Food Processor from Sur La Table

Renee Rouleau Sheer Facial Moisturizer

Currant-Scented Woodwick Candle

Garden Gates

They serve both aesthetic and practical purposes.  And they could look either remarkable or unremarkable.  But either way, the best garden gates invite visitors while providing an air of expectation for something special beyond.  I love how garden gates simultaneously convey both invitation and mystery.  Have you ever tried to guess what is behind a gate you've walked past?

The Conservatory

A conservatory:  To me, this is the ultimate luxury—the one thing missing from my life*.

*If I don't count the Maserati GranTurismo, an original Chagall, or the Jimmy Choo Logan D'Orsays.

How uplifting it is to be in a space filled with light and plants and to feel a connection with nature all year round.  For those lucky to have one, I am sure your conservatory is the favored spot for reading, relaxing, dining, and socializing. 

While the height of conservatory building was in the nineteenth century, you can see from the pictures below that über-elegant conservatories are in style again.  Buh, bye to the "sunrooms" of the 70s and 80s.

Photos courtesy of Tanglewood Conservatories, Oak Leaf Conservatories, Renaissance Conservatories, Town & Country Conservatories, and House Beautiful

Coco Chanel

Has anyone heard about Audrey Tatou doing a sequel next year to Coco Before Chanel?  No?  Me neither.  Wishful thinking, I guess.  I did just finish reading Karen Karbo's The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman—delightful little book.  Went to check out one of the three other Chanel books owned by my library, but those were all already loaned out.  Evidently, I'm not the only one needing an additional Chanel fix.

So, for the others out there needing more "glamour soup for the soul," I'd like to share an excerpt from an August 1928 Time article titled "Business: Haute Couture." 

"From Paris, last week, came reports of feverish activity around Place Vendôme and particularly, along that brief but important, severe but incredibly expensive street known as the Rue de la Paix.  Crowds milled about sternly-guarded doorways; ultra-fashionable women sought admission as to the most coveted box at the Opera; Parisian celebrities entered with an air of triumph, emerged with subdued cries of 'Oh!' and 'Ah!'

To the Parisian, even to the accustomed tourist, the mêlée in the Rue de la Paix was not unfamiliar.  Similar scenes had been observable just a year ago...as every true follower of fashion knows, there are two months in the year when the couturiers open their magnificent salons to the view of a favored few, display their latest triumphs of design, reveal what the well-dressed woman will wear for the next six months.

Many a fortunate Parisian hastened, last week, from the grand opening of the dressmakers to ponder how she should persuade her husband that no matter how chic she might appear in his eyes, in truth she would be in rags unless her wardrobe conformed to these newly pronounced edicts.

[The latest trends] were seen last week in the salons of the 200 French dressmakers who pretend to Haute Couture.  But of these 200, not more than 15 or 20 had originated new and startling designs.  It was possible, therefore, for Parisians to discuss, eliminate, select the real titans of post-War fashions.  And Parisians chose, not without acrid debate and violent disagreement, the Big Six of the dressmaking industry."

Of course, Chanel was among this "Big Six."  The article continued with the following on Chanel:

"Chanel. The fame of Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel has waxed since the War.  Sweaters have made her name and her fortune, the light, boyish sweaters which form the sports costume of many an American and English woman.  The story of Gabrielle is shrouded in mystery.  Some say she is of Basque origin, the daughter of a peasant.  Others declare her youth was spent in Marseilles, where the jerseys of sailors gave her the idea for the emancipated woman's golfing costume.  Even today she is something of an enigma to gossip-loving Paris.  'Coco' Chanel is not beautiful, yet her name is linked with that of Prince Dimitri, Parisian man of the world, famed connoisseur of beautiful women."

Style advice from 1926: always wear your hat at a jaunty angle.

1929: The modern woman's sportswear

1936: statement pearls

1937: the Chanel jacket

A lesson in layering.

c. 1927: the little black dress—simple wool jersey becomes elegant through superior tailoring techniques.

1938: an evening dress with fireworks motif worn by Countess Madeleine de Montgomery

Photos courtesy of The Guardian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Darker Side of Light

Illuminating, dramatic, and actually, a little shocking.  If you will be in Chicago between now and June, I highly recommend that you go see The Darker Side of Light: Arts of Privacy, 1850-1900 at the University of Chicago's Smart Museum of Art.  Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, the exhibition explores private, mysterious worlds of late-nineteenth century Paris, London, and Berlin.

Although the art of this period is most often associated with impressionism—art that evoked the pleasures of the landscape and the radiance of Paris—there is another dimension to this period.  The Darker Side of Light—a title chosen for its play on "the city of light" and impressionist art, which captured light in its brushstrokes and combinations of colors—focuses on works of art (primarily etchings) that would not have been displayed in the parlor.

Some of the art would have been considered unsuitable (some drug addiction, death, and demons), but mostly the art was meant for private contemplation.  This art will make you think of Edgar Allan Poe and his dark romanticism prose.  Well known artsists represented in the exhibition include Edvard Munch, Edouard Manet, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Victor Hugo, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.  The exhibition is at the Smart Museum until June 13, 2010.  Peter Parshall, Curator of Old Master Prints at the National Gallery of Art will present a free lecture on the prints and private worlds of The Darker Side of Light on April 15 at 5:30 p.m.

Sleep by Eugene Carriere, 1897

Memory of Flanders: A Canal by Fernand Khnopff, 1904

Morphine Addicts by Albert Besnard, 1887

An Irish Girl by Anders Zorn, 1894

Le Tocsin by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1895

Le Stryge (The Vampire) by Charles Meryon, 1853

Fantasies in the Manner of Rembrandt and Callot by Felicien Rops, 1868

Cholera in Paris by Francois-Nicolas Chifflart, 1865

All photos courtesy of the National Gallery of Art

Pink Hotels for You and Me

Three things I love: pink, the Roaring Twenties, and vacation.  Combine these three and you get the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Boca Raton Resort, the Chesterfield, the Don CeSar, the Royal Hawaiian, or the Vinoy Resort.  Although pink palaces of Mediterranean design were extremely fashionable in the 1920s—Chicago even had its own—these are no shabby remnants from the past.  All of the hotels above have undergone millions of dollars in restoration; they still retain a Gatsbyesque grandeur, but they are now equipped with modern, world-class amenities.

My husband and I are in the process of planning a romantic getaway, and I've been imagining ourselves pool-side in a tropical setting with a pink grande dame to call home for a week.  Aren't these photos fabulous?! Doesn't take long to get the fantasizing started.

Lilly Pink:  The Chesterfield, Palm Beach, Florida
Pack your Lilly Pulitzer, and indulge yourself at this Palm Beach landmark, which is only a couple blocks from your new best friend, Worth Avenue.  The hotel's retro-chic Leopard Lounge is the cocktail hour hangout of the elite.  Show your spots by ordering the $300 Millionaire's Martini.  The hotel was built in 1926.

Frothy Pink:  Boca Raton Resort and Club, Boca Raton, Florida
Sea foam green water, frothy pink hotel, activities galore.  Can I live here?  Yes, as a matter of fact.  This super-sized hotel also features condominiums, a yacht club, a country club, and two conference halls.  Good times since 1926.

Flamingo Pink:  Don CeSar Beach Resort and Spa, St. Pete Beach, Florida

The pinkest of the hotels and every bit as elegant as the architects originally intended in 1928.  During a stay with Zelda, F. Scott Fitzgerald called it "the hotel in an island wilderness."  Pets are welcome and treated like VIPs: gourmet room service, pet-sitting services, maps of dog-walking routes.  Oh, and get this: in-room massages by a certified canine massage therapist!

Salmon Pink:  Vinoy Resaissance Resort and Golf Club, St. Petersburg, Florida
Vintage luxury—the only four-diamond resort on Florida's west coast.  MVPs come here for the tennis, golf, croquet, two swimming pools connected by a waterfall, and sunset champagne cruises.  The Vinoy was built in 1925 and is adjacent to Vinoy Park, one of the top ten parks in Florida.

Coral Pink:  The Royal Hawaiian, Honolulu, Hawaii

This is where the Hawaiian honeymoon was invented, along with the Mai Tai.  Waikiki Beach, luaus, catch of the day direct from the source, and a spa situated within a tropical garden—a pink paradise.  This hotel was built in 1927.

Power Pink: The Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows, Beverly Hills, California

Timeless glamour.  Host to the well-to-do and the well-known since 1912, and a classic spot for Hollywood soirees.  The Polo Lounge is the place to come for "power breakfasts," "power lunches," and the opportunity to see and be seen.  For pool-side reading, get your hands on The Pink Palace Revisited: Behind Closed Doors at the Beverly Hills Hotel by Sandra Lee Stuart and John Prince.

Photos courtesy of The Chesterfield Hotel, The Boca Raton Resort, The Don CeSar, The Vinoy, The Royal Hawaiian, The Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows, and Fine Art America