letter from the editor
Dear Readers,
editor, Janet allon
If you have ever been out and about, and have spotted alina Cho across the room, you have probably thought, “Wow! She looks great!” her fashion sense is daring and fun and always au courant, and she never fails to look impeccably turned out and put together. Then, you have to square this thought with the fact that the woman was probably up, and has to be up again, hours before the crack of dawn, coherent and just as fresh, performing her television reporting duties at five a.m. how does she do it? Cristina Cuomo, our newest contributor, produced a stunning shoot of CNN’s early morning correspondent this month, and gets to the bottom of how alina does it. Cristina, alina, photographer Carlos ruiz, who has long assisted and shot for the great fashion lensman arthur elgort, and stylist rory McDonough, along with various intrepid assistants braved what is hopefully now a distant memory—a really cold late april day in the hamptons—just when everyone was more than ready for the weather to warm up. alina, having traveled to North Korea, and various other challenging destinations on assignment, may have been used to such inconveniences—for our shoot, she soldiered into the water in a Bottega veneta gown, worked it in armani, braved the wind in oscar de la renta and kept her composure in the hamptons elements, all in the service of great visuals, and has thus helped us get into that hamptons state of mind. This is our annual inaugural hamptons issue, and we’ve done our best to bring you up to date about who is out there, what is opening, and why, suddenly, Montauk is back as the epicenter of cool. you will find in these pages our hamptons a-list, along with a few updates about some of our favorite residents there. (hint, wedding bells: alec Baldwin and rufus Wainwright will soon be marrying their sweethearts out east.) a few more treats are in store for you in this issue as well. Michael Gross, our real estate editor and author of bestsellers like unreal estate and 740 Park, offers up the fascinating provenance of three ballrooms-turned-penthouses atop the city’s most luxurious hotels. Mara Siegler gives a rundown of some of the less savory incidents that happened at erstwhile hotspot Bungalow 8. (There was a chance it was going to reopen, in case you didn’t know.) So pack up this issue of aveNue when you get ready to head out for those hamptons beaches, and enjoy!
4 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • JUNE 2012
Janet Allon
Editor
LeNa aLLoN
Alina Cho, having traveled to North Korea, soldiered into the water in a Bottega Veneta gown, worked it in Armani, and braved the wind in Oscar de la Renta.