Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2023 i Town & Country

1959 MARIA CALLAS IN VENICE “Sure I’m fiery, and I’ll stick up every minute of the day and night for art!” the legendary Maria Callas told T&C in January 1959. The American-born Greek soprano, photographed here in Venice, had just wrapped up a whirlwind itinerary, including a run in Cherubini’s Medea with the Dallas Civic Opera and a nearly sold-out show at Carnegie Hall, of which we noted, “and this without a single line of newspaper advertisement. Reason: Callas is, today, the most ‘mythogenic’ personality on both the operatic and dramatic stages.” This year, to mark the centenary of the diva’s birth, her former residence in Athens will become the home of the Academy of Lyric Art Maria Callas, a nonprofit for aspiring opera singers. La Divina will soon get…

WHERE ARE WE GOING? Grandes dames have the Paris couture shows, and major art collectors convene at Basel. For those whose tastes skew more vintage Cord than Calder (#IYKYK), there is the Amelia, the annual classic car show that takes place on the eponymous island in Florida. There are drives, reveals, auctions, and, of course, the ne plus ultra of horsepowered pageantry, the Concours d’Elegance. MARCH 2–5, AMELIACONCOURS.COM WHAT ARE WE WEARING? Like any gathering of serious—and seriously loaded—hobbyists, the Amelia is as much about oneupmanship as it is about the automobiles. Bidding a couple mil on a 1930s Packard at auction, for instance, is a sure way to stand out. So is flashing the rose gold glint of Chopard’s Alpine Eagle watch, which may give you the swagger of…

Two of history’s most visible women have at least one thing in common: staying power. Nearly three decades after her death, Jackie Kennedy is an inescapable Instagram mainstay, and the Mona Lisa recently had a starring role in the hit Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion. Nicole Alphand hasn’t been so lucky—until now. When the Mona Lisa made its U.S. debut 60 years ago—first hanging at the National Gallery of Art and then at the Metropolitan Museum—the loan from the Louvre dazzled nearly 2 million visitors and was considered nothing short of a diplomatic triumph.“In the American capital, the Mona Lisa will be the artistic attraction of all time,” British Pathé reported at the time. What was less obvious was the international effort it took to make the loan happen—and the…

A bad breakup with Clark Gable brought Millicent Rogers to Taos, New Mexico, in 1947. There, the Standard Oil heiress found more than just solace. She discovered a rich Native American culture that would inspire her to become a passionate champion for indigenous rights and a prolific collector of Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi jewelry. Layers of turquoise and silver, paired with Charles James couture, became her signature—her trove was so vast a museum was created to hold it all after her death in 1953. If Rogers popularized the craft of Southwestern tribes among her high society set, the late Hopi designer Charles Loloma brought it global acclaim. “He revolutionized jewelrymaking in the 1960s and is perhaps the single most collectible Native American jeweler of all time,” says Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos,…

Yes, Nancy Cunard was a rich girl. Her father was the heir to the Cunard Line shipping fortune, and her mother Maud, who later changed her name to Emerald, was one of London’s best-known hostesses. Nancy grew up with every advantage, but that isn’t what makes her fascinating. Instead, it was the way she chose to live her life—among an army of artists, writers, agitators, and rabble-rousers, many of whom she dated—that captivated generations of admirers. Her habit of putting her money where her mouth was, supporting human rights and political freedom in Europe and America alike, has become her enduring legacy. In Anne de Courcy’s new biography, Magnificent Rebel: Nancy Cunard in Jazz Age Paris, Cunard’s hijinks and heroics are explored, in a book that tells the story of…

COVER ALBERTUS SWANEPOEL HAT ($450), ALBERTUSSWANEPOEL.COM. DIOR MEN COAT ($4,000) AND SHIRT ($650), DIOR.COM. FRED LEIGHTON STICKPIN ($1,350), FREDLEIGHTON.COM. NEWEL VINTAGE CANE ($240), NEWEL.COM. PAUL STUART TIE ($165), PAULSTUART.COM INSIDE COVER DAVID YURMAN, DAVIDYURMAN.COM. MAX MARA, MAXMARA.COM. TONY DUQUETTE, TONYDUQUETTE.COM. TORY BURCH, TORYBURCH.COM CULTURE WATCH PAGE 38 CHOPARD ALPINE EAGLE XL CHRONO, CHOPARD.COM. MONTBLANC FOUNTAIN PEN, MONTBLANC.COM. RALPH LAUREN HOME DESK BLOTTER, RALPHLAUREN.COM. SMYTHSON PAPER, SMYTHSON.COM THE LIFE OF BRIAN PAGE 72–79 ALBERTUS SWANEPOEL, ALBERTUSSWANEPOEL.COM. ALEXANDER OLCH, OLCH.COM. CHARVET, BERGDORF GOODMAN.COM. DAVID YURMAN, DAVIDYURMAN.COM. DEL TORO, DELTOROSHOES.COM. DIOR MEN, DIOR.COM. DITA, DITA.COM. ETRO, ETRO.COM. FRED LEIGHTON, FREDLEIGHTON.COM. GUCCI, GUCCI.COM. LOUIS VUITTON MEN’S, LOUISVUITTON.COM. PAUL STUART, PAULSTUART.COM. PRADA, PRADA.COM. VALEXTRA, VALEXTRA.COM VERONICA’S CLOSET PAGE 94–101 BLANCPAIN, BLANCPAIN.COM. BOTTEGA VENETA, BOTTEGAVENETA.COM. CHANEL, CHANEL FINE JEWELRY, 800-550-0005. DIOR FINE JEWELRY, BY SPECIAL ORDER,…

On a recent afternoon a prominent society doyenne who splits her time between New York and Palm Beach took a look at the scene down in her winter getaway and noticed a perceptible shift in the casting. “It used to be the typical older crowd. You know, Wilbur and Hilary Ross eating dinner in 45 minutes flat at the Mark before speeding to Teterboro to take off before the clock struck 12,” she said. Then Covid came. “People who already had Florida homes realized they were naturally spending enough time outside of New York to file as Florida residents. Plus, all these young people who came so their kids could be outdoors got them into the Benjamin School. And suddenly Sant Ambroeus at the Royal Poinciana Plaza isn’t all ladies…

“The first time I read Great Expectations,” Shalom Brune-Franklin says, “it was against my will.” In her defense, Brune-Franklin was only a high school student at the time. Luckily, her most recent experience with the novel proved more enjoyable. That’s because the British-Australian actress plays Estella, perhaps literature’s ultimate girl who got away, in a new FX adaptation of Expectations airing this month on Hulu. The six-part series, which also stars Fionn Whitehead as Pip and Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham, is a visual riot—all period costumes, cavernous ballrooms, and flickering candelabras—that makes Charles Dickens’s 162-year-old story feel at once classic and timely. “I remember reading that first episode and thinking, It’s really modern,”Brune-Franklin says. “And it feels quite dangerous.” That’s because while Expectations tells a story about a time…

In recent months the saga of the Sassoon family has been a hot topic. It was chronicled onscreen in Benediction, a biopic directed by Terence Davies that focuses on the tormented, glamorous life of First World War–era poet Siegfried Sassoon, and in print in The Sassoons: The Great Global Merchants and the Making of an Empire, by historian (and descendant) Joseph Sassoon, which charts the rise and fall of the family’s empire, across three continents and two centuries. Now a major museum exhibition, “The Sassoons,” is opening March 3 at the Jewish Museum in New York. It presents perhaps the most vivid picture yet of the family, through more than 120 superlative works of art they commissioned or collected. The story begins in the 1830s, when patriarch David Sassoon, son…

At the start of a recently acclaimed feature film, an exacting conductor is seen picking out fabrics for a series of custom shirts, suits, and coats. The tailor’s dressing room oozes luxury, but a logo is nowhere in sight. Lydia Tár doesn’t wear labels on her sleeves. As if. In her soft-pedal bespoke finery, she is the spiritual lodestar of an increasingly visible type, the woman who doesn’t need to use fashion to broadcast her power—or deep pockets. Call her the low-key rich bitch. Look around and you’ll spy her everywhere: pushing a cart around Erewhon in Los Angeles in a buttery nappa leather bomber. Is that the new…Loewe? Yep. Or slipping into an afternoon screening of The Conformist at New York’s Film Forum in a broad-shouldered, floorlength trench that…

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1 Her publishing operation, the Hours Press, which was founded in her Normandy home, put out work by firebrand writers like Samuel Beckett and Norman Douglas. 2 She was an activist devoted to civil rights. In 1932 Cunard made a now famous visit to New York City, and she edited an anthology featuring Harlem Renaissance authors including Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. 3 nHer opposition to fascism was more than a passing interest—she reportedly organized relief efforts in Spain and served as a translator for the French resistance. 4 In an era when many women wore diamonds, she adorned her arms with bangles of wood, Bakelite, and ivory—a look that became iconic. 5 She had a keen eye for art. She was an early supporter of Dadaism, Surrealism, and…

BARBARA WALTERS “She was a heat-seeking missile, one that never failed. She’d come off a plane from Israel and be told to go to Poland as soon as she landed, and she’d go. I wouldn’t. I’d tell them to fuck off.” —Cindy Adams MADELEINE ALBRIGHT A legacy of diplomacy—and brooches. • ROGER ANGELL • JAMES CAAN • IRENE CARA • PATRICK DEMARCHELIER • JEAN-LUC GODARD • LESLIE JORDAN ANGELA LANSBURY Jessica Fletcher’s posthumous appearance in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery was a fitting send-off. • RAY LIOTTA • LORETTA LYNN • TANYA Mc QUOID ISSEY MIYAKE Pleats, if you please. • OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN • CLAES OLDENBURG PELE Suffice it to say: #goals. • QUEEN ELIZABETH II • STEPHEN SONDHEIM • RONNIE SPECTOR • IVANA TRUMP VIVIENNE WESTWOOD Fashion’s resident rebel…

GET THE APP Download TaxBird or Monaeo to track the precise amount of time spent in each location where you own a home. When the auditor comes a-knocking, it’s more solid evidence than an Excel spreadsheet. BRING YOUR STUFF Do not leave the good jewelry in New York. That, plus art, family heirlooms, and anything else you truly treasure should be relocated to your new official home. Time to call the shipping company about that Peloton. MAKE A SCENE Cozy up to Shannon Donnelly, the society editor at the Palm Beach Daily News, and get that tanned mug of yours into the Shiny Sheet on the regular. THROW A PARTY When else will your lawyer tell you to do that? Entertaining friends and hosting holidays at your Florida home is…

The Serpent me beguiled, and I did eat.” It has always been my favorite line from Milton’s Paradise Lost—and yes, I am aware that it first appeared elsewhere. “Beguiled” suggests a kind of witchcraft laced with wit and whimsy. One beguiles another with a sparkle in the eye. Let’s say, for the purposes of this story, it’s with an emerald, maybe two. And let’s—with apologies to Milton and Genesis and Vassar professor Mark C. Amodio—put it this way: “The Bulgari Serpenti me beguiled, and I did write.” The Serpenti, a snakelike jewel introduced in abstract form in 1948 (and with scales and head and all around 1950), is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year with a special collection that will be revealed—true to its namesake—little by little over the course…

Over salt air margaritas at the Ritz-Carlton NoMad, Hao Life co-founder and T&C contributor William Li shares the importance of an underexplored pairing in the inner-outer beauty realm. “In Chinese medicine,” he says, “the skin is known as the external lungs of the body.” At that, we both take a deep breath and a big sip. Depending on the season and what’s trending on TikTok, it can feel as if our skin is in a game of organ roulette. Bloated and breaking out? Focus on your digestion. Shortfused and skin that’s just as pissed? Could be a stress response. There’s no shortage of clues on the surface of our bodies and theories about what they mean. And this is far from a new approach. Ancient practices like traditional Chinese medicine…

DENISE HALE “I have always admired Denise. She is the most truthful woman I know. Ever since I was a little child, she never steered away from telling me exactly how it is.” —model Ivy Getty SYLVESTER STALLONE “Sly is the embodiment of optimism. His indelible characters, who stand up for themselves and go the distance, no matter how hard the world pushes back, have inspired me every day of my life. He has helped define the modern hero, and he reminds us what the fighter in all of us is capable of accomplishing.” —David Lauren, Ralph Lauren Corp. chief brand and innovation offcer MADONNA “The anticipation is not merely in hearing a fresh take on the old tunes. It’s the exhilaration of this Madonna, still disruptive and full of…

Our 10-day trip through the Luberon and the Côte d’Azur was excellently organized in all its details by France-based travel adviser Philip Haslett, the man to call (PHILIP@KAIROS-TRAVEL.COM). The hotels were impeccably hospitable, each with what the French call an acceuil chaleureux—not just a warm welcome but one that, according to a French dictionary, manifests “de l’enthousiasme, de l’ardeur.” Nor did we have a bad meal, a reassuring fact for those of us who sometimes doubt, and often pray for, the continuities of French civilization. The Bastide de Gordes, which hangs over the rock face of the little town of that name, is exquisite for its rooms, service, and Parisian-superintended restaurant, Clover Gordes. The servers are local and have a gravity we recognize from French tradition. The town itself, which…

There’s something ineffably tantalizing about the scent of leather. The warm, velvety smell of a new handbag’s untouched interior; the grassy, chestnutty aroma of an old book binding; the horsey tang of a weathered saddle. Leather has an umami-like olfactive deliciousness, but it also offers up a whiff of… What is that? Sex? Danger? Money? Although distilling the smell of actual leather is possible—Louis Vuitton perfumer Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud achieved it, pairing a bespoke leather infusion with raspberry and osmanthus in the masterful Mille Feux—virtually all leather notes in perfumery are created from other ingredients. Resins gathered from styrax and labdanum shrubs, birch and juniper tar, essential oils of cassia and everlasting flower, not to mention an alphabet soup of synthetic molecules, can all be used to create a sort of…

PISCES FEBRUARY 20–MARCH 20 A certain amount of tumult is in the air this month, but you’ll be clearing the way for an interesting new chapter. Confusion about plans and your own feelings is inevitable as Neptune, your otherworldly ruler, makes many aspects. Practical schemes that present themselves will turn out to be both promising and doable as March winds down. Lighten up and enjoy. MINDI MOND NEW YORK ($22,800), MINDIMONDNY.COM VIRGO AUGUST 24–SEPTEMBER 23 The Sun always visits the part of your chart that’s all about close relationships in March, and this year, with Mars and Neptune also in the picture, it will be a challenge to avoid crossed wires and to refrain from overreacting to testy situations. Saturn entering Pisces signals that you’re at the start of a growth…

The day doesn’t exist that can’t be improved by a martini. A martini is a celebration or a solace. It’s an indulgence or a home bartender’s best friend. But above all, a martini is the quintessential beverage of adulthood. No other cocktail has so firm a grip on society and culture, showing up as a signifier of sophistication in everything from James Bond to The Queen’s Gambit. When Samantha threw a drink in her ex-lover’s face on Sex and the City, it wasn’t a Cosmo. It was a dirty martini. The martini even usurped the original purpose of its iconic glass, which was initially designed as an Art Deco riff on the champagne coupe. The drink itself feels almost Deco. The quintessential recipe for a martini is two thirds spirits…