AVENUE July | August 2023

JULIETTE BINOCHE

From Paris avec Amour

VINTAGE TRAVEL SATCHEL

38

VOL.47 NO.4

FEATURES

BELLE DE JOUR

Oscar winner Juliette Binoche discusses her passion for the grittiness of downtown New York, the misconceptions of French fashion, and her new film, Between Two Worlds

By Faran Krentcil

44 BOLDFACE BELLPORT

Known as the “Unhampton,” the tiny, charming village of Bellport is New York’s best-kept secret escape—which is just how South Shore habitués like Isabella Rossellini, Amanda Burden, and Billy Porter want to keep it.

By Bob Morris

50 HIPPIES OF THE HAMPTONS

Micro-dosing tennis moms, THC gummy treats at country club clambakes, ketamine treatments on Main Street in Southampton: it’s getting more out-there out East than ever before.

By Nancy Kane

54 THE THE REAL SCOOP ON HAMPTONS REAL ESTATE

The top brokers out East reveal trends that are stoking increasing demand in the Hamptons: resort-style amenities, turnkey houses, and the rise of the area west of the Shinnecock Canal.

By Julie Dannenberg

62 MAN OF THE PEOPLE

Between blockbuster movies, heartfelt TV shows, and a Broadway hit, Colman Domingo is having a busy year. Avenue catches up with the actor, writer, director, and producer who just released his most personal project yet.

By Aria Darcella

The immensely talented—and dashing—Colman Domingo might just be the busiest man in show business.

Photo by Jai Lennard.

16 VERNISSAGE Avenue’s insider preview of all that’s new and noteworthy: Once-local hot spots are expanding around the country, and the celebrity scions turning attention to their parents’ legacies. BY

ANN BINLOT AND JOSHUA GLASS

20 BUY CURIOUS

Something for him, something for her, and something for your beach bag.

BY NOLAN MEADER

24 HUNGRY HUNGRY HAMPTONS

Forget the clambake for now, three restaurants out East bring haute cuisine to the Hamptons.

BY JOSHUA DAVID STEIN

CULTURE

28 REVERBERATION ON THE HUDSON

Artist Rita McBride’s new show is bringing conceptual works and interactive, site-specific performances to Dia Beacon.

BY ANNABEL KEENAN

30

BACK IN TIME OUT EAST

Anniversary exhibitions and major legacy shows along the East Coast this summer offer new and profound lenses through which to explore four leading artists from the last two centuries.

BY ANNABEL KEENAN

34

NEW YORK, WE LOVE YOU

From the late 1980s grit of the LES to a crime-ridden, Nixon-era Harlem and the current glittering skyscrapers of Billionaire’s Row, these five new books have distinctly NYC points of view. BY

TOM SHONE

JOURNEYS

70

92 NOTORIOUS NEW YORKERS

78

BREAKING THE ICE

On a luxury liner heading straight toward the Arctic Circle, one daredevil passenger takes on embarks on an awe-inducing voyage.

BY PETER DAVIS

ARTISTIC ESCAPE

Inside the agriturismo paradise beloved by trendy honeymooners and meaningful artists alike—you never know who you’ll meet over spritzes or splashes by the pool at Villa Lena, a neo-Renaissance respite in the vast hills of Tuscany.

BY JOSHUA GLASS

86 CLOSE AND AWAY

Stylish hotels from the Hamptons to Hong Kong.

BY PETER DAVIS AND JOSHUA GLASS

Jackie Rogers was a muse to Coco Chanel and Federico Fellini before making a name for herself as a sharp-tongued fashion designer. Here’s how a girl from Boston had society matrons in Manhattan, the Hamptons, and Palm Beach shaking.

BY TODD PLUMMER

96 Q&AVE.

Evan Ross Katz’s Instagram page has become a celebrity clubhouse with loyal followers including Pedro Pascal, Jamie Lee Curtis, and muse-turned-collaborator Sarah Michelle Gellar. He reveals the secret sauce to his success, and exactly how he became so chummy with Jennifer Coolidge.

BY PETER DAVIS

COVER: Illustration by Cecilia Carlstedt

PARADISE PRIVÉE Tucked away in the Amagansett Dunes is 74 Cranberry Hole Road.

Editor’s Letter

At Avenue, we celebrate all that is great in New York and beyond: from the beautiful summer months in the Hamptons to the creative visionaries that shape our future and set the tone of our times. In this issue, we speak to Juliette Binoche on the eve of the release of her new, intimate film Between Two Worlds, which is directed by Emmanuel Carrère. From Paris, the Oscar winner talks to Faran Krentcil about her love of New York’s gritty Bowery, and how Americans so often misinterpret French fashion. The filmic superstar knows a few things about style—her next project is playing Coco Chanel in the Apple TV+ series The New Look opposite Ben Mendelsohn, who portrays the designer’s bitter rival, Christian Dior.

In New York, Jai Lennard photographs actor, writer, producer, and Emmy winner Colman Domingo, who is having a spectacularly busy year after his role on the wildly popular HBO series Euphoria. The actor speaks about his most personal project to date: You Are Here, a four-part AMC series that marries a travel journal with confessional memoir, as Domingo visits Savannah, Chicago, New York, and his hometown of Philadelphia. Although a successful performer (he even voices the villain in this year’s blockbuster film Transformers: Rise of the Beasts), Domingo didn’t produce the new series to get rich. “You don’t create a show like You Are Here for profit,” Domingo tells Avenue. “You create it because you think, this is an important exercise and journey into the world to discover who we are.”

Summer, of course, is still in full swing. Bellport’s local style scribe Bob Morris (he once ran for town mayor!) gives us the inside scoop on why the sleepy town has become a summer playground for New York’s boldface names. In Journeys, we visit the artist-driven Villa Lena in Italy and go aboard an Arctic icebreaker to the frozen coast of Greenland to explore ice sheets that have never been set foot upon before. Closer to home, we drop in to two of the Hamptons’ newest haute-tels: the quiet luxury of the Roundtree in Amagansett and Canoe Place Inn, which has made Hampton Bays lose its rep as being on the wrong side of the Shinnecock Canal. We also check in with the power brokers out East and discover what is making the post-pandemic Hamptons real estate market so hot once again.

PETER DAVIS Editor-in-Chief

WHEEL HAPPY Beach carts in Bellport.

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Joshua Glass (Artistic Escape, page 78) is an editor and creative consultant based in New York. Over the past ten years, he’s held positions at CR Fashion Book, Document Journal, and Cultured magazine, and has written for Vogue, T magazine, and more. He now joins Avenue as a contributing editor. For his debut, he recounts his experience at Villa Lena in Tuscany. “For the past almost-decade, I’ve gone to Italy four times a year solely to cover fashion shows in extreme conditions: either sweltering heat or under the duress of start-of-the-year anxieties,” he explains. “It was such a pleasure to go this time to Palaia to observe the art of unwinding.”

Annabel Keenan (Reverberation on the Hudson, page 28) is a Brooklyn-based writer who has covered art and design for publications like the Art Newspaper, Flaunt, and the Brooklyn Rail. “It’s rare when exhibitions make me think of art and artists in ways I had never considered,” she says of the museum shows she covered for this issue. “[They all] have the unique quality of highlighting some of the most recognizable artists from the last two centuries in new and expansive ways, broadening my understanding of their careers and reminding me why I became interested in art to begin with.”

Faran Krentcil (Belle de Jour, page 38) grew up watching Juliette Binoche movies, and, as such, found the opportunity to interview the actress for Avenue “surreal.” For Krentcil—whose work has appeared in Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and InStyle, among other publications—speaking to Binoche was even better than she imagined. “When we finished the interview, she even kept me on the phone for 20 minutes to talk about how New York was doing after lockdown, and what it was like to go out downtown again,” she says of the experience.

Fernando Axelrud (Hippies of the Hamptons, page 50), better known as “Drawingzilla,” is a São Paulo-based illustrator with both editorial and commercial clients. For this issue, he created artwork for both the Vernissage section and a story about a surprising new trend out east. “To dive into the hallucinogen habits of Hamptons residents at the same time that I had to study the globalization of the most beloved New York brands was pure joy for someone like me, who is a big fan of the multiculturalism that New York represents,” he says.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Peter Davis

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Heather Hodson

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Natalie D. Kaczinski

FASHION & FEATURES WRITER

Aria Darcella

DEPUTY PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Mickey McCranor

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Joshua Glass

EDITOR-AT-LARGE

Celia McGee

FASHION EDITOR

Nolan Meader

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

Jessica Lee

COPY CHIEF

Danielle Whalen

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Joshua David Stein, Constance C.R. White, Judd Tully, Todd Plummer, Mike Albo, Tom Shone

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Jai Lennard, Nick Mele, Sophie Elgort, Richard Kern, Landon Nordeman, Johnny Miller, Martin Vallin

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VERNISSAGE

These Family Jewels Still Glisten

Illustrations by Fernando Axelrud

For as long as she can remember, people have asked Jamie Bernstein what it was like to grow up with her dad. So much so that she—the daughter of legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein, who penned West Side Story with Stephen Sondheim—kept a standard reply ready on command: “Well, it wasn’t boring!” In 2018, the actress, director, and author finally gave the world the response it was due in her memoir, Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein. Being the child of famous parents has its ups and downs. While you’re always in the shadow of someone adored by the public and their peers, you also get to be around all their famous friends, and maybe—most likely—gain career connec -

tions thanks to their celebrity. Gen Z donned it the “nepo baby” effect, and this past year New York magazine dedicated an entire issue to its millennial boom in Hollywood, including the likes of Maya Hawke (daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke), Jack Quaid (son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan), Zoë Kravitz (daughter of Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz), and more. Creativity has literally flowed through these second-generation genes, and now several nepo babies are paying homage to their bold-named family legacies through creative outlets of their own, with documentaries, memoirs, and even a literary salon.

Take Beckett Rosset, the 53-year-old son of Barney Rosset, who helmed Grove Press and published then-controversial, now-iconic books like The Autobiography of Malcolm X and

ALEXANDRA AUDER WAS NEARLY BORN IN THE LOBBY OF NEW YORK’S CHELSEA HOTEL

IN 1971 TO MICHEL AUDER, THE EXPERIMENTAL FRENCH FILMMAKER, AND ACTRESS AND WARHOL SUPERSTAR, VIVA.

Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. (The late Rosset was the first to publish Samuel Beckett in the U.S., and was so taken with the author that he named his son after him.) Beckett mingled with John Lennon and Norman Mailer, but the elder Rosset’s absentee parenting took a toll on his son, who battled addiction while supporting himself with random jobs. Last year, New York’s young creative class filled Beckett’s West Village town house for salon-like literary happenings that recalled the smoke-filled intellectualism that his father used to abandon him to chase.

Alexandra Auder is looking backward, too. The Philadelphia-based creative was nearly born in the lobby of New York’s Chelsea Hotel in 1971 to Michel Auder, the experimental French filmmaker, and actress and Warhol superstar, Viva. Joan Didion once referred to their lives at the infamous bohemian enclave as “an extraordinary verbal videotape of a life in the process of being lived.” But the youngest

Auder remembers her chaotic childhood a bit differently. “I think of it as my story rather than my mother’s—and it took me 30 years to refine and revise it, find my voice, and gain a hopefully mature perspective on my childhood,” admits Auder, who first began Don’t Call Me Home: A Memoir as part of her thesis project at Bard College. “I hated when people assumed [my mother] was a drug addict because they associated her with Warhol’s Factory scene,” she says. “It enraged me, and I thought they were complete idiots.”

The pandemic turned fortuitous for Leah Hennessey. Martin Scorsese was working on a Showtime documentary dedicated to her stepfather, New York Dolls front man David Johansen, when lockdown halted the world and production closed. The director turned to the then 31-year-old lead singer of the Band Hennessey—whose music prompted fashion designer Hedi Slimane to have her produce the

soundtrack for the Winter 2022 Celine show— to conduct interviews for use in Personality Crisis: One Night Only . The conversations between Johansen and Hennessey were so honest and intimate that the pair earned starring roles in the film, which was just released this spring.

Intentionally or not, the imprints parents leave on their children are as irrecoverable as they are eternal. These recent works might be the product of legacy offspring but, more broadly, they prove our collective need for reflection on our childhoods by expressing the realizations that come with age and experience. As the world becomes more open about these traumas, we can expect to see more work about it. As for advice for other children with famous parents? Bernstein says, “not to expect to get it all figured out right away, but rather to be patient, and live their own lives to the fullest in the meantime.” Auder is more a matter of fact: “Fend for yourselves and Godspeed.” —Ann Binlot

The New York Diet

Transplanted Manhattanites sunbathing their way through Miami this summer might find themselves scratching their heads when what seems like a familiar sight appears smack-dab in the middle of Wynwood. Amidst the neighborhood’s deluge of colorful murals and hipster hangouts, the vision reveals itself to be no mirage, with Pastis’s unmistakably New York look, from its Art Deco logo to its grenache-red awning. Indeed, the Manhattan meatpacking district eatery—whose dirty martinis are nearly as salty as its coproprietor Keith McNally, who catapulted the hot spot into the cultural zeitgeist with chef Stephen Starr in 1999—has headed south for

the summer. And, no, not as a pop-up. In some kind of Freaky Friday restaurant dramedy, Pastis Miami is a living, breathing, eating contradiction; one of two opposing ideas—of two opposing cultures—cut-and-pasted onto one another. And it’s really weird.

Of course, we’re talking about Miami, a city for New Yorkers who don’t own land out east to call their second backyard. Carbone, the red-sauce Italian American celebrity spot that first opened in Greenwich Village, already made the snowbird migration during the pandemic. As did Cote in 2021, and Avra Estiatorio last year. But for McNally—perhaps the sourest of all sour New York locals—to trade in his driver’s cap for a Panama hat… something seems off.

At least, the phenomenon is not just beholden to Florida, for once. This past fall, Major Food Group, which owns Carbone, raised eyebrows when it flew its SoHo gem, Sadelle’s, to Saudi Arabia. The high-end bagel shop is as infamous for its pricey towers of tricolored spreads as it is for the chance to encounter a Hadid sister slathering lox on top of carbs. Its decision to branch out to Riyadh was baffling to say the least. (Sadelle’s also opened a second location in Miami this April.)

You see it on our home turf, too. After decades of servicing Paris’s most fashionable in the city’s 8th arrondissement, Caviar Kaspia unveiled its first U.S. outpost on the Upper East Side this spring at the Mark hotel and a short walk away from Casa Cruz, that made the skip across the pond from London last year. And, later this summer, Erewhon—the infamously fancy Los Angeles health food store that can, and will, turn anything into a blankety smoothie—is rumored to have its own Big Apple moment very soon.

Global franchising is at the core of the mass hospitality ecosystem, but in these select and recent happenings, the act of replication hits closer to home. By taking a beloved locale from New York and dropping it off into the foreign abyss of another culture that is the antithesis of the city, there is a glitch effect that feels like bumping into a childhood teacher at a nightclub at 4 AM: “What are you doing here?” It also discounts the experience. Pastis is iconic for its menu, yes, but also for the fact that nothing else feels quite like it.

So why, exactly, is this city swapping happening with New York establishments? Are we New Yorkers so needy that we can’t fare without McNally’s lobster-ham cobb for one week while away? Or is the allure of NYC—the dream that you can move here, be whomever you want to be, and eat whatever you want—still so well and alive that others can’t help but emulate the culture? We may never have the answer to why our Resy notifications will never go off at home, but now, at least, we can make sure to schedule time at our local favorites when traveling. —JOSHUA

GLASS

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Don’t Sweat It

Alexander McQueen navy jacket. $2,990; alexandermcqueen.com

Cartier gold “Santos” watch.

Alexander McQueen cigarette trouser in sage. $880; alexandermcqueen.com

UniqueDesignMilano “Sempre in Due” sunglasses. $489; uniquedesignmilano.com

Gucci suede “Jordaan” loafer. $920; gucci.com

Chanel mules. $1,150; chanel.com

Krewe “Brigitte” sunglasses. $285; krewe.com

Susan Gordon 22k gold and diamond “Leaf Cuff.” $58,000; susangordon.com

Tangerine “Cannon Beach” pickleball paddle. $85; tangerinepaddle.com

Hermès “Leopards” beach towel. $680; hermes.com

Sunday Riley “Light Hearted” sunscreen. $35; sundayriley.com

Hungry Hungry Hamptons

Forget the clambake for now, three restaurants out East bring haute cuisine to

the Hamptons

BY JOSHUA DAVID STEIN

Rich in riches and blessed by nature, one would assume the Hamptons to be engorged with an incandescent restaurant scene. It’s not: the restaurants in the East End tend toward conservatism. Many are just good enough, and all are wildly expensive. Why? Two theories have emerged and one, both, and neither might be true. First, socializing in the Hamptons is centered around houses more than public spaces like restaurants. When one can afford a private chef in their own kitchen, restaurants, even the expensive ones, are still a bit déclassé. Secondly, the Hamptons

is a seasonal game. Even the best of restaurants operates on a profit margin so thin that to contemplate bleeding money for more than half the year is unthinkable. What normally happens is that a few marquee city restaurants open seasonal outposts, day-trippers and weekenders crowd into what tables they can find, and those locals who can stay well behind their hedgerows, do. Scarce though they may be, however, the Hamptons are not a restaurant wasteland. A crop of new ones has opened, including François Payard’s Southold Social on the North Fork and Mavericks in Montauk, joining a new stable of surprisingly delicious options.

The best place to eat on the South Fork

SEE YOU BY THE SEA

The dining room at Il Buco al Mare in Amagansett.

is Il Buco al Mare, but I might be biased. (I cowrote Il Buco’s cookbook with its founder, Donna Lennard.) Though the Il Bucos in Manhattan tend to focus on the aspirational distillation of Umbrian and Spanish cuisine, its Amagansett outpost marries a landward glance with, naturally, the sea. Using heritage Triticum durum grain from Sicily, a somewhat misleading focaccia section—it’s pizza, dammit!—features a few precious pies, some with seasonal toppings like forest mushrooms with grilled onion and provolone, and some classics like a margherita and a bracingly anchovian eggplant pizza. But so much of the restaurant’s strengths rest not only in its manipulation of ingredients but also its rigorous curation of them. Among the best things I ate at Il Buco al Mare were those least touched by the human hand: a half dozen sweet, briny, teardrop-shaped Beau Soleil oysters augmented only by a pinch of turmeric and cava vinegar; tautog, a local blackfish simply grilled and

served with olives and greens; five large prawns, chargrilled, charmoula-marinated, and heads on; littleneck clams in a bracing citrus-chili sauce. Nowhere was man’s hand made showy. For all the conspicuousness that is part of the Hamptons scene, Il Buco al Mare is the most lovingly understated and the most delicious. Only a few minutes away, the Topping Rose House appeals to both those staying in the 19th-century mansion-turned-luxury hotel and locals in need of truffles. The property’s restaurant is run by Jean-Georges Vongerichten—who, coincidentally, was sitting next to us at Il Buco al Mare—and headed by Paul Eschbach, who previously oversaw Vongerichten’s restaurants in China and Hong Kong. The French chef has a special knack for catering to the tastes of the very wealthy, using luxury ingredients but never relying on them. It is here that truffles, naturally, make an appearance, as do caviar, dry-aged rib eye, and lobster. They are necessary, I suppose,

Among the best things

I ate at Il Buco al Mare were those least touched by the human hand.

IL BUCO AL MARE

FEAST YOUR EYES Two tables of delectable plates at Il Buco al mare.

but not sufficient, and Vongerichten knows this. The caviar, for instance, rests atop a toasted brioche, and three sous-vide egg yolks in one of his classics, the egg toast caviar. Any habitué of a Jean-Georges joint knows the appetizer, it’s nothing new, and yet, every time the sweetness of the brioche, the surprising give of the yolk, and the shot of salty caviar touches one’s mouth, the jolt of pleasure remains unfaded. Elsewhere on the menu, his facility with herbs turns what could be leaden cuisine lively. A sea bass comes alive with a green olive vinaigrette. A beef tenderloin is pierced

through with mustard butter, atop silken asparagus. Burrata arrives with a rhubarb compote and enough black pepper and basil to turn the creamy orb into something interesting. And for dessert, even the most militant novelty seeker must surrender to the charms of a molten chocolate cake, the often imitated classic. Here it is in its original form: a thin chocolate cake crust which yields into a liquid flow of rich chocolate. All that is comforting, all that is good, is on that plate.

The newest restaurant in the mix, the Good Ground Tavern, had the added benefit of being

STATELY STATEMENTS

Clockwise from left: Topping Rose House’s reimagined 19th-century mansion in Bridgehampton is both a gourmet restaurant and luxury hotel; Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who heads the kitchen; one of his creations.

Any habitué of a Jean-Georges joint knows the appetizer, it’s nothing new, and yet, every time the sweetness of the brioche, the surprising give of the yolk, and the shot of salty caviar touches one’s mouth, the jolt of pleasure remains unfaded.

As the latest joint on the block, Good Ground Tavern is a hard table to book, but try anyway. The restaurant’s chef, Ülfet Ralph, mines the Mediterranean for flavors that crackle and pop.

downstairs from where I was staying. Canoe Place Inn & Cottages in Hampton Bays was once called the “Good Ground,” as in a good ground over which to traipse to portage one’s canoe. Now it’s a good ground on which to have dinner—if, of course, if you can get in. As the latest joint on the block, Good Ground Tavern is a hard table to book, but try anyway. The restaurant’s chef, Ülfet Ralph, mines the Mediterranean for flavors that crackle and pop. She’s not averse to a certain over-the-top

showiness. The homemade grissini must be at least three feet high, but when it comes to flavors, Ralph lets the bounty of the East End speak for itself with dishes ranging from a Peconic Bay clam pie to a simple olive oil-poached black bass. But it is a tavern, and if a tavern must have a burger, this one is one to have: a thick American Wagyu patty under two squares of cheddar cheese on a brioche bun. It comes with a side of fries and, of course this being the Hamptons, they must come truffled.

GREAT CATCH At top, the dining room of Good Ground Tavern at Canoe Place Inn & Cottages in Hampton Bays. Above, an entrée of locally caught fish.

Reverberation on the Hudson

Artist Rita McBride talks to Annabel Keenan about her new show that’s bringing conceptual works and interactive, site-specific performances to Dia Beacon.

There are few artists more in tune with the visitor’s body than Rita McBride. For over 30 years, the interdisciplinary artist has been creating large-scale, architectural sculptures that distill, rethink, and propel the experiences of being human in the spaces we occupy. This summer, one of her most seminal works, Arena, 1997, will be on view at Dia’s historic outpost in a former Nabisco box-printing factory in Beacon, New York, as part of a new solo show from the 63-year-old artist.

HUMAN CONTACT Los Angeles and Düsseldorf, Germanybased Rita McBride creates large-scale sculptures that embrace public interaction.

Acquired by the nonprofit foundation in 2021, McBride’s 13-by-66-by-99-foot experiential sculpture looks more like a wooden riser one might find in a stadium or concert hall than a work on display in a gallery. The artist resists easy categorization, and Arena is no exception. Happening upon the structure constructed of Twaron fiber and wood, passersby are given the option to sit atop it or walk through the area it carves out within the gallery. As part of McBride’s conceptual practice, the physical work becomes “activated” by its visitors and the movement of their bodies—but that’s only one part of its overall piece.

Arena is “more a feeling I get on a molecular level,” the artist explains to Avenue. “It’s about many bodies reverberating. I feel the emptiness and the fullness, the spaces where air breezes through the structure, the yawing and pitching. I feel the movement of the structure itself, and the sound of the material stretching and compacting under the weight of the audience.”

That concept is emblematic of its maker, who has had a long-standing interest in visual art, design, and architecture in relation to the human body and public spaces. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, and now living between Düsseldorf and Los Angeles, McBride often exaggerates objects— through unexpected materials, context, or scale— to reconsider form and function and challenge notions of industry, mass production, and modern systems. Collaboration is at the heart of her practice, and she frequently works with other artists, architects, performers, engineers, and, crucially, the people who experience her work.

McBride also has a long history with Dia, including a previous exhibition of her science fiction-inspired installation of green lasers,

Particulates, 2017, at its Chelsea location in 2017. “I’ve been struck for a long time by how Rita’s work relates to the collection and history of Dia,” says curator Alexis Lowry. “Rita’s strategies and interest in the architecture of social space, bodies in space, and communal modes of working expanded my own understanding of conceptual and minimalist art. She thinks of the ways things exist, how information is produced, and how our bodies interact.”

For Arena’s recent acquisition, McBride transformed its original file into a copyleft license, which Dia will oversee and make available to anyone. The only stipulation? That all modified or extended iterations remain free. The decision parallels the work itself, pushing back against the idea of art as a finite, singular thing, and offering a glimpse of what its future may hold. “Arena evolved beyond its own physical structure into a more ethereal presence,” the artist says. “As the world becomes more about illusion and fantasy, Arena should be able to move into a more meta level of existence.”

Reflecting the expansive and collaborative nature of her practice, McBride’s eponymous show will include a program of live and virtual activations collectively called “Momentum,” developed with choreographer Alexandra Waierstall and the experimental collective Discoteca Flaming Star. “‘Momentum’ is pure duration,” explains McBride. “It is timing, rhythm, and sporadic movement. It’s dispersed and gathered energy and reverberations and resonances. All this visceral material is registered through the bodies sharing the structure that is Arena.”

“Rita McBride” runs July 1, 2023–January 2025 at Dia Beacon. diaart.org.

“I feel the movement of the structure itself, and the sound of the material stretching and compacting under the weight of the audience.”

—Rita McBride

SUPER SEAT At the core of McBride’s summer show is the artist’s monumental structure, Arena, 1997, a participatory work that fills the space of the noted art museum.

Back in Time Out East

Anniversary exhibitions and major legacy shows along the East Coast this summer offer new and profound lenses through which to explore four leading artists from the last two centuries.

BY ANNABEL KEENAN

ELLSWORTH KELLY AT 100

Through March 2024 Glenstone

12100 Glen Road, Potomac

← Marking what would have been the 100th birthday of the renowned abstract artist Ellsworth Kelly, Glenstone is presenting a major survey of paintings, sculptures, collages, works on paper, and photographs in Potomac, Maryland. Until his death in 2015, the artist was a leading figure in American abstraction, exploring shape, space, color, and line with ceaseless fervor. Across mediums, he consistently featured the same shapes and colors, revisiting each with subtle alterations and juxtapositions to push the boundaries of sensory effects. Kelly’s strong grasp of his subjects resulted in colors that seem to vibrate and shapes that slowly move as the eye works to understand each crisp, dynamic composition. Spanning the artist’s seven-decade career, “Ellsworth Kelly at 100” offers a comprehensive look at his expansive practice in one of the largest retrospectives of his work. Included in the Glenstone exhibition, and on view for the first time since it was made in 1990, is Yellow Curve, a monumental floor painting that stretches nearly 1,000 square feet. The earliest in a series of large floor installations, the work demonstrates Kelly’s remarkable ability to work across a range of scales, as well as his understanding of architecture and the relationships between the space of the gallery and the viewer. Also on display are examples from Kelly’s iconic “Spectrum” series, which feature stunning, vibrant stripes that explore color and reveal the artist’s ability to strategically juxtapose hues for heightened visual effects. glenstone.org

COLOR ME AMAZED

From top: Ellsworth Kelly’s Spectrum IX, 2014, painted on canvas, and Painting for a White Wall, 1952, on five conjoined panels.

THE GOLDEN DAYS

Clockwise from top: Pablo Picasso’s Leaving the Exposition

Universelle, Paris (La sortie de l’Exposition

Universelle, Paris), 1900, charcoal and crayon on paper; Self-Portrait (Autoportrait), 1901, oil on canvas; and Courtesan with Hat (Courtesan au chapeau), 1901, oil on paperboard.

YOUNG PICASSO IN PARIS

Through August 6

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

1071 5th Avenue, New York

← Part of a worldwide celebration of Pablo Picasso on the 50th anniversary of his death, “Young Picasso in Paris” joins nearly 50 other exhibitions and events this summer that explore the career and legacy of the illustrious artist. In New York, the Guggenheim show focuses on a formative period in Picasso’s life when he first arrived in Paris from Spain in the fall of 1900 at the age of 19. Staying in the city for two months, the youthful painter became enamored with Paris and the artistic scene. He returned for several months the following year, and eventually settled in the city in 1904. Among Picasso’s subjects during this period were the lively cafés, dance halls, and nightclubs in the Montmartre neighborhood. Capturing the energy and vibrancy of these events, Picasso depicted men and women dancing and drinking in the dimly lit rooms. Of note is Le Moulin de la Galette, a famous former grain mill, portrayed by many of the artist’s predecessors and contemporaries, that produced a popular bread known as galette, hence its name. Painted circa November 1900 and recently conserved, Picasso’s rendition offers an intimate view of life in the early 20th century, including the people, fashion, and even the technology as scintillating electric lights line the wall of the room. Alongside this work are additional paintings and drawings that show the artist’s interest in social gatherings and the development of modern life, marking the early stages of an artistic practice that would come to define his time and leave a lasting impact on the history of art.

guggenheim.org

VAN GOGH’S CYPRESSES

Through August 27

The Metropolitan Museum of Art 1000 5th Ave, New York

↑ Presenting a refreshing opportunity to examine the art of Vincent van Gogh through a new lens, the Metropolitan Museum of Art brings together a rich selection of 44 works that focus on the iconic artist’s fascination with cypress trees. The show features nearly 30 loans from esteemed collections and some of van Gogh’s most famous paintings, including The Starry Night and Wheat Field with Cypresses, which were both made in June 1889 when the Dutch artist was in a mental hospital and are on view together for the first time since 1901. It was during this period at the hospital in SaintRémy-de-Provence, France, that the postimpressionist was thought to have become fixated on cypresses, a symbol of rebirth, immortality, and protection. He featured them widely in his works and created a highly regarded series while in the hospital. However, the exhibition reconsiders this theory and offers a different analysis of the origin of the artist's interest. Through paintings, drawings, and illustrated letters, all made between 1888 and 1890, the show traces van Gogh’s fascination with the flamelike tree to earlier works that he made immediately upon his arrival in the South of France. Arranged chronologically, the exhibition reveals glimpses of cypress trees painted over a year before his hospital stay began. metmuseum.org

SKYGAZER From top: Vincent van Gogh’s oil-oncanvas A Wheatfield, with Cypresses, and The Starry Night, both from 1889.

JAMES

BROOKS: A PAINTING IS A REAL THING

August 6–October 15

Parrish Art Museum

279 Montauk Highway, Water Mill

← Bringing together over 100 paintings, works on paper, and prints, “James Brooks: A Painting Is a Real Thing” explores the American artist’s seven-decade career. An early proponent of techniques and aesthetic qualities that would become known as abstract expressionism, Brooks was a pioneer of 20th-century art and pushed the boundaries of the medium of paint. He constantly experimented with technique and style, though he maintained a consistent interest in color and the primacy of paint itself. He was an advocate for the thinned hues of the staining method that became popular in the 1950s. Brooks also embraced the aesthetics of contemporaries like Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock, creating similarly colorful compositions with gestural brushwork and drips. But despite his general association with that school of art, Brooks resisted easy categorization. He began his career with an interest in social realism, sign painting, and large-scale narrative murals. He mastered and eventually rejected these forms of painting as he and his contemporaries sought an aesthetic that embraced spontaneity, emotion, and the mark-making capacity of paint. “James Brooks: A Painting Is a Real Thing” includes key examples of work from the artist’s entire career, revealing how his practice evolved in tandem with developments in American art. The Parrish’s new exhibition is the first major retrospective of Brooks’ work in nearly 35 years, marking a significant moment in preserving his entire legacy, as well as telling the broader story of 20th-century art. parrishart.org

Clockwise from top: James Brooks’ Mardon, 1973, acrylic on canvas; Untitled (Study for Downed Plane), 1944, watercolor on paper; and Bowditch, 1970, silkscreen.

New York, We Love You

From the late 1980s grit of the LES to a crime-ridden, Nixon-era Harlem and the current glittering skyscrapers of Billionaire’s Row, Tom Shone reviews five new books with distinctly NYC points of view.

Few people noticed them at first. New Yorkers were too busy being stuck in traffic jams created by the supply trucks to pay much attention to what was being built. So, there were a bunch more cranes in uptown Manhattan—what else is new? Then, in 2014, a $1.5 billion condominium tower, One57, was completed opposite Carnegie Hall, casting long shadows over Central Park and obscuring a children’s playground. Who lived there? Russians? The Saudis? The Chinese? Nobody?

HARLEM HUSTLE

A 1971 photograph of two couples walking in upper Manhattan.

One57 was soon joined by 432 Park, Harry Macklowe’s 1,396-foot tower that snatched the record for tallest residential building by 292 feet—until developer Gary Barnett struck back with the 1,550-foot Central Park Tower, “a shimmering beacon of class, optimism, and chutzpah,” according to its promo video, with a massive ballroom overlooking the city, and a 63-foot saltwater indoor pool inspired by the one at Hearst’s San Simeon castle. Within the space of a few years, 57th Street, once a schlocky patchwork of luxury stores, souvenir shops, and kitschy-themed restaurants selling branded T-shirts and baby back ribs to fanny-packwearing tourists, had transformed itself into a dazzling row of “gilded, gated communities in the sky,” as Katherine Clarke puts it in her new book, Billionaire’s Row: Tycoons, High Rollers, and the Epic Race to Build the World’s Most Exclusive Skyscrapers (Currency, $30).

With backward glances to Edith Wharton, the Gilded Age, and her novelistic first-person style (“Gary Barnett could see the future and it involved a real estate gold rush”), Clarke intends a rollicking tribute to what she calls a “dying breed” of real-estate high rollers, but the story that emerges is both bigger and less American than is first suggested by her Trumpian subtitle. Her moguls

are, for the most part, a rather bloodless, interchangeable bunch: “Harry Macklowe traversed Manhattan in designer loafers and silk pocket squares; Barnett was more likely to be seen in a comfortable pair of black sneakers.” Footwear is doing a lot of work here. Their buildings boasted no observation decks, or public areas. “We have not run a single advertisement and I don’t think we will,” said developer Steven Roth of his 952-foot limestone tower, 220 Central Park South, signaling the discretion that would recommend it to the likes of Sting and Trudie Styler, who paid $65.75 million to customize their airy penthouse-in-the-sky.

Their identities shielded by LLC’s, the buyers for this American dream were, as often as not, a new breed of superrich who circled the globe looking for a place to park their cash, paying designers handsomely to furnish penthouses they never once set foot in. Who lives on “Billionaire’s Row”? Money. Money lives there. Clarke does not skimp on the bling. We get elevators lined with Hermès leather. Climate-controlled wine cellars. Penthouse suites with solid oak floors. Bathrooms fitted with freestanding egg-shaped soaking tubs crafted from the same marble as the Parthenon and Michelangelo’s David. Fifty-eight-foot heated infinity pools with operable atrium windows that retreat with the push of a button to reveal a bird’s-eye view of the Manhattan skyline. And all perched on 60-foot plots of land that could fit into most American’s backyards. The trick to building so tall, apparently, is to buy up “air rights” from

Who lives on “Billionaire’s Row”? Money. Money lives there.

CAN WE TALK? Tria Giovan’s 1988 photograph of a woman at a pay phone on East Houston Street.

THE MONEY SHOT Sunrise at Billionaire’s Row in Midtown Manhattan.

a fistful of neighboring properties and then leave some floors empty to reduce wind shear. What could be more American? A dick-swinging contest built on nothing more than thin air.

After allegations of money-laundering, lawsuits over dangling cranes, foreclosures, and Covid slowed sales to a trickle, the supply of billionaires seems, in recent years, to be running dry. “It’s like the ‘greater fools’ theory,” said appraiser Jonathan Miller. “They were running out of fools to send the market further up.” A study by the residential brokerage firm Serhant found that as of 2021, roughly 44 percent of the new units along Billionaire’s Row remained vacant, whistling in the wind like Charles Foster Kane’s Xanadu. Clarke ends her book with an attack of vertigo while attending a cocktail party in Brooklyn’s 93-story tower atop the Dime Savings Bank. The top of the building was yet to be built: the only thing standing between the guests and a 1,000foot drop was some bright orange construction netting. It didn’t look particularly safe to her.

No head for heights is required for Tria Giovan’s new book of photographs, Loisaida: New York Street Work 1984–1990 (Damiani, $55)— just a feel for the sun-faded splendor of the pre-

gentrified Lower East Side. Families crowd the fire escape of a salmon-pink tenement. A father and his daughters eating a lunch of boiled crabs on the sidewalk. A family hangs out in front of a dusty bodega. Graffiti snakes the walls of crumbling concrete. The title comes from the Spanish pronunciation of “Lower East Side” (“Loisaida”) and was coined by Puerto Rican poet Bimbo Rivas. Born in Chicago, Giovan grew up in the Virgin Islands, and, in 1984, moved into a tenement on Clinton Street. She left the city in

1990, and her work from those six years offers a time-capsule of the Lower East Side before the galleries and charcuteries took over: funky, exotic, vibrant, colorful. Even the empty car lots and faded advertising hoardings take on a dusty piquancy. The book feels like a street party, or perhaps the cleanup after one. You can practically smell the hot asphalt.

Pushing further back in time, and heading uptown, Colson Whitehead’s splendid new novel, Crook Manifesto (Doubleday, $29), is a sequel to his 2021 caper Harlem Shuffle, about a furniture dealer named Ray Carney caught up in a jewel heist. The new novel finds him on the point of retiring from his store on 125th Street, when his teenage daughter, May, pesters him for tickets to see the Jackson 5 at Madison Square Garden. So, he looks up a crooked NYPD officer named Munson, who wants to dispose of a paper bag of stolen diamonds, and in the time it takes the streetlights to change from “Don’t Walk’” to “Walk,” Carney is sucked back into the underworld of pimps and fat cats, hustlers, chumps, and showboats. “Deeper you went the more crooked,” writes Whitehead. “Crooked stays crooked and bent hates straight. All the rest was survival.”

STREETWISE A photograph of kids in New York from Tria Giovan’s book Loisaida: New York Street Work 1984-1990

The book feels like a street party, or perhaps the clean-up after one. You can practically smell the hot asphalt.

The shift of registers from writing Pulitzer winners like The Underground Railroad seems to suit Whitehead down to the ground. The Serpico-era corruption feels snug as a slipper, and the social history as layered as the graffiti that covers the drugstores. Pimps in purple suits and spangled, broad-brimmed hats lounge on warm summer nights, illumined by the klieg lights of a blaxploitation movie shooting nearby. You sink into the book like a retiree sinking one of Carney’s polyurethane sofa suites. It’s a more downbeat book than Harlem Shuffle, swapping out the gleam of Kennedy-era New York for the scuzz and gloom of the Nixon era, but like all the best crime novels, from Chandler to Chester Himes, the lower the city sinks, the richer the writing seems to get. For all its smashed windshields and overflowing garbage cans, the book has a jaunty, capering rhythm, not unlike the Jackson 5 themselves, whom we glimpse twirling in rainbow-colored vests to a wave of squeals in Madison Square Garden.

In Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World (Penguin Press, $30), Slate columnist Henry Graber has pulled off the seemingly impossible, and written a genuinely interesting book about parking. Roaming far and wide, from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York, he meets traffic agent Ana Russi, who once gave out 135 parking tickets in a day, and “the country’s foremost parking scholar,” UCLA professor and engineer Donald Shoup, who calls for the return of parking meters. Finding a parking spot in Manhattan, Jerry Seinfeld once quipped, is “like musical chairs except everyone sat down around 1964.” Grabar’s solution—allow developers to provide less parking rather than meet mandatory minimums—may sound head-spinning to most New Yorkers, but for a moment back there, during Covid, when restaurants set up curbside gazebos hung with paper lanterns, and thoroughfares opened up for ambulance and firetrucks to whizz by unimpeded, anything seemed possible.

The search for space in the big city also haunts Hilary Leichter’s second novel, Terrace Story (HarperCollins, $28), about a young couple, Annie and Edward, who move into a new apart-

ment with their baby daughter, Rose. It is a little cramped, “but the amicable kind of cramped, the colorful balls and bags and dolls on the floor.” But when Annie’s workmate Stephanie comes to visit, one of their closet doors mysteriously opens onto a terrace that had never been there before—with amazing views, plenty of room, a grill, and fantastic weather. But it only appears when Stephanie is around, and within the space of several more visits, Annie begins to feel like she is beginning to take over their lives. Such is the premise of Leichter’s sweet, dotty fable, which began life as a short story for Harper’s, and has now been unfolded into a series of interlinked stories, as airy as a child’s mobile, whose theme might be something like: why do our lives feel like penthouses one moment and six-story walk-ups the next? Why can’t our souls be rent-controlled?

Carney is sucked back into the underworld of pimps and fat cats, hustlers, chumps, and showboats.

PHOTO: CAMILO JOSÉ VERGARA, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

CHILD’S PLAY Kids on an abandoned car in the South Bronx in a photo by Camilo José Vergara.

BELLE DE JOUR

OSCAR WINNER JULIETTE BINOCHE SPEAKS TO FARAN KRENTCIL ABOUT HER PASSION FOR THE GRITTINESS OF DOWNTOWN NEW YORK, THE MISCONCEPTIONS OF FRENCH FASHION, AND HER NEW FILM, BETWEEN TWO WORLDS .

SWEPT AWAY Binoche in director Amos Gitai’s 2007 film Disengagement

DON’T TELL ANYONE, BUT JULIETTE BINOCHE IS RATHER PUNK ROCK.

The acclaimed French movie star, who won a best supporting actress Academy Award in 1997 for The English Patient , may pose in Armani Privé and Schiaparelli couture on the red carpet, but her preferred New York pied-à-terre is right on the Bowery, the adopted homeland of the Ramones, Patti Smith, and more graffiti than a Brooklyn subway station in the ’80s. “What I love about it is the friendships you make there— you walk to restaurants, to gallery exhibits, to see people’s work,” says the 59-year-old actor, speaking from her home in Paris. “I can walk around forever, because the energy I feel is so good.” And the late-night noise that comes from living on the epicenter of hipster chaos? “No, it is fine!” she laughs. “It’s cool.”

Binoche is equally unassuming when it comes to her film roles. In the streaming era of prestige TV, French style icons are often cast as opulent Versailles schemers—in the past year alone, Ludivine Sagnier played the castoff countess Diane de Poitiers in The Serpent Queen while Isabelle Adjani served the same role in The King’s Favorite . Eva Green courted similar Sun King-scandal as a corseted assassin in The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan. Meanwhile, Binoche spent the bulk of the 2020 pandemic fighting to make Between Two Worlds , a drama based on the work of French journalist Florence Aubenas that chronicles the hardships of cleaning women working aboard a ferry.

The actor spends much of Between Two Worlds scrubbing floors, sinks, and toilets in close quarters with other women trying to stay financially afloat while drifting across the English Channel. “In real life, I am actually a perfectionist about cleaning!” Binoche laughs. “So that part, I could do very easily.” The challenge, she notes, was ensuring the audience fully connected with “les invisibles,” a class of oftenignored domestic and industrial workers that keep the white-collar worlds of France—and, indeed, Europe—functional as truckers, line cooks, janitors, electricians, and garbagemen. “They are running like crazy in their lives, and not making enough money to survive despite working long hours and working so hard. For me, that knowledge was enough to have me sign onto the film.”

She also had a personal connection. “My grandmother was a cook, a seamstress; she had many jobs after [escaping] Poland in 1939 during the war,” Binoche says. “She went through some traumatic events, but she still had to work when she got to France, so she did hard jobs that did not pay that well. Then my mother did some different jobs too as a young student. She did clean, actually! I always wanted to talk about that. How do you find your way as a migrant or someone who is lost? The strength these women have… I wanted to make sure it was captured on screen.”

There was also something of a struggle behind the camera. In the beginning, Aubenas didn’t want to sell the rights—until Binoche spent two years arranging face-to-face meetings and workshops

PARIS CHIC Binoche’s effortless French style on display.

EVENTS, BUT SHE STILL HAD TO WORK WHEN SHE GOT TO FRANCE, SO SHE DID HARD JOBS THAT DID NOT PAY THAT WELL. I ALWAYS WANTED TO TALK ABOUT THAT. HOW DO YOU FIND YOUR WAY AS A MIGRANT OR SOMEONE WHO IS LOST? ”

with director Emmanuel Carrère. “Right before we began shooting, Emmanuel said to me, ‘Even though you did all this work, I’d rather you not name yourself as a producer. It would feel [like] too much for me to deal with.’ It was a little humiliating for me,” she concedes. “But I said, ‘Well, I have to be humble in the movie,’ so… you know, it’s fine.”

Judging from the reviews, it’s more than fine— Variety dubbed Binoche “a master of empathy” for her performance, while the Evening Standard declared her work both “hilarious” and “emotionally devastating.” “I’m very proud of its impact,” Binoche says of the film, which is due for release this August in the U.S. The week before Between Two Worlds hits theaters, New York’s Quad Cinema is running a retrospective of the movie star’s most notable films including Hail Mary , The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Damage, to name a few.

Next Binoche will play legendary and controversial fashion designer Coco Chanel in The New Look, which chronicles the rise of Christian Dior

in the early 1950s. Penned by Sopranos auteur Todd Kessler, the ten-episode series from Apple TV+ will explore Madame Chanel’s willing partnership with Nazi officers, as documented in Hal Vaughan’s 2011 biography of the style icon, Sleeping with the Enemy. “We’re definitely going to have to start talking about collaboration,” says Binoche, whose maternal grandfather— like Christian Dior’s sister, Catherine—was imprisoned in a Nazi work camp. In a tacit nod to the project, Binoche wore a Dior haute couture ensemble at this year’s Cannes Film Festival that directly riffed on Dior’s past original gowns. Her red-carpet looks are—to quote the skaters who often swarm Binoche’s Bowery neighborhood—“so sick.” But the actor is a bit amused when I ask how we can adopt her classic style vibes in the U.S. “You know, I cannot help you for this!” she laughs. “You think French women are all running around in black and white all the time, just looking so much like an ad or something? It’s like Emily in Paris, I guess—it is the idea of French women being written by

“[MY GRANDMOTHER] WENT THROUGH SOME TRAUMATIC

–JULIETTE BINOCHE

THE GAZE Left: Binoche in director Jean-Luc Godard’s 1985 avant-garde erotic drama Hail Mary. Right: Binoche stars as the undercover journalist Marianne Winckler in Between Two Worlds.

Americans. It is super cute,” she admits, “but it is not accurate… although,” she adds with a pause, “Yes. Okay. I wear a lot of all-black in the winter in Paris. We all do.”

Alas, Binoche can’t offer any concrete style advice. Can she at least pass on some cleaning tips she learned during research for Between Two Worlds? “Oh, actually, I can!” she exclaims eagerly. “Although I learned this much earlier in my life. You know Akira Kurosawa, the film director?” she asks. I confirm Seven Samurai is on my Criterion Collection watch list, and she continues. “Okay, so one time I met with him in Japan, and he said to always make your bed in the morning. You know, clear your space for a new day. I have done it ever since. If you can make your bed, you can make your life.”

VARIETY CALLED BINOCHE “A MASTER OF EMPATHY” FOR HER PERFORMANCE, WHILE THE EVENING STANDARD DECLARED HER WORK BOTH “HILARIOUS” AND “ EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATING.”

“YOU THINK FRENCH WOMEN ARE ALL RUNNING AROUND IN BLACK AND WHITE ALL THE TIME, JUST LOOKING SO MUCH LIKE AN AD OR SOMETHING? BUT IT IS NOT ACCURATE.”

–JULIETTE BINOCHE

BOLDFACE BELLPORT

It was a cold first Friday in May and the Bellport restaurant was packed. The small country bistro, at the end of the pretty little main street of the South Shore, Long Island, village, didn’t even have a barstool for me. Right at the window by the door, Alexandra Lebenthal and Jay Diamond, Friday regulars ever since their now-college-age daughter was born, greeted old friends walking in from the cold. With the gleeful air of country clubbers who hadn’t seen each other all winter or giddy college students returning for the fall, quietly stylish people hugged and air-kissed while cute young servers in bow ties and white button-downs scurried around them.

Katia and Howard Read—she’s an artist who cofounded Friends of Bellport Bay to seed oysters here and he’s an art dealer whose Peter Shear show at Cheim & Read gallery in Chelsea had just gotten a warm Times review—sat down with Peter Schlesinger. The artist, author, and former lover of David Hockney had come out to check on his garden. He was busy in the city archiving the work of his recently deceased partner, Eric Boman, the Vogue photographer whose memorial service last summer had been organized by

Anna Wintour on the nearby Brookhaven farm of Isabella Rossellini. Lucy Danziger, the triathlete, former editor-in-chief of Self, and gregarious host-about-town was there, too. Stefan Beckman, the affable creative director with a chic boutique across the street, Bellport General, towered over the hobnobbing crowd. He had just come from the city after the Richard Avedon opening at Gagosian, which he had designed.

“It turned out pretty well,” he said, with typical Bellport modesty.

Within moments, Lisa, the restaurant’s chic host (the place is owned by the beloved guitar-playing Taylor Alonso, whose flamboyant late wife, Patricia Trainor, reigned as hostess for years) found me a bar spot. “It already feels like summer,” she said. “Everyone’s here.”

Welcome to the Long Island weekend retreat often called the “Unhampton.” Closer to the city than the fraught and posh East End and tiny by comparison, Bellport village and Brookhaven hamlet, its agrarian neighbor (where Nicky Hilton and James Rothschild bought the former home of designer Francisco Costa on the same road as Hugo Guinness, photographer Douglas Friedman, Jay Johnson, and Tom Cashin), have been

hopping with real estate prices popping lately— although in this compact, pastoral bayside enclave, growth remains controlled and as modest as the dress code.

“I don’t mind all the new people coming into my store for coffee,” Beckman told me. “They’re nice and can’t overbuild or tear down too many houses, so it’s all good.”

That may not be 100 percent true; I’ve seen my share of flipping recently. And kerfuffles can occur when plans for oversized, modern homes rankle a protective, tight-knit community that feels closer to remote Maine than Manhattan, which is located just 90 minutes to its west. Did that finance couple need something so big and close to a flood zone that it required pile drivers? Did that respected, environmentally sensitive architect need to go against local wishes and build up on the waterfront spot where everyone enjoys strolling for the view? And what about that super-high roof commissioned by that late art-collecting media mogul and his wife? I used to admire them motoring over in a Boston Whaler across the Great South Bay to wander the remote ocean beach on the end of Fire Island. Now a charm-

KNOWN AS THE “UNHAMPTON,” THE TINY, CHARMING VILLAGE OF BELLPORT IS NEW YORK’S BEST-KEPT SECRET ESCAPE—WHICH IS JUST HOW SOUTH SHORE HABITUÉS LIKE ISABELLA ROSSELLINI, AMANDA BURDEN, AND BILLY PORTER WANT TO KEEP IT. LONGTIME RESIDENT BOB MORRIS REVEALS WHAT MAKES THIS SEASIDE SUMMER PARADISE JUST SO POPULAR WITH ALL THE RIGHT PEOPLE.

BELLES OF BELLPORT

A lighthouse-style home on Beaverdam Creek and, below, Howie Guja’s red skiff, anchored on the flats of Bellport Bay.

PRIVATE PARADISE

less statement house dominates the water’s edge.

“There’s an embraceable scale here and the renegades have little respect,” says Amanda Burden, the former commissioner of planning in New York City, who first moved to Bellport in the 1990s when she was with Charlie Rose. “They violate what we hold dear.”

But if resentment occurs with changes, it dissipates in Bellport soon enough. Even onetime favorite neighbor Rose, an affable dinner guest who has been supportive of community needs for decades, has been getting invited around again since he was accused of misconduct in 2017. Last summer, ahead of her 70th birthday, Rossellini pushed for Rose to interview her at a fundraiser, at which he dubbed her Bellport’s “queen.” But unlike a fashion queen or Hamptons celebrity, the bohemian actress and model circulates and engages visitors on the street or at her farm (named, simply, “Mama Farm”), where she gives tours and draws on her master’s in animal behavior with quirky

details about her heritage chickens, sheep, and goats. Rossellini first came to Bellport in the 1980s because of Bruce Weber, the photographer who was the subject of a 2012 show at the lively Bellport-Brookhaven Historical Society.

“Bellport is such a sweet, fun, easy community to live in, full of wonderful and fascinating people,” says Rossellini’s daughter Elettra Wiedemann, a former model with her own master’s degree—from the London School of Economics—who oversees Mama Farm for her mother. She moved out here with her partner, Caleb Lane, from Brooklyn a few years ago, before the more recent Covid-induced influx of young creatives. “Everything just felt easier, and we were so much calmer and happier.”

Other relatively recent arrivals, whether parttime or full-time, seem equally content. Whenever I see Billy Porter at a party or the liquor store (I once let him go ahead of me with his bottles of champagne) he tells me he loves it. Although he

The home of Howie Guja. Shingled houses pervade the village of Bellport.

is one of only a handful of people of color, he is by no means the only gay one, with a recent influx of young male couples. Maneesh Goyal, a co-owner of Sona and Temple Bar in Manhattan, arrived not long ago and started throwing pink parties and louche bacchanals with what seemed like half the village on his guest list. His dinners and soirées (including late-night sing-alongs at my piano where the signature cocktails are vodka stingers) are chronicled in a recent Rizzoli book by Tricia Foley called Entertaining by the Sea: A Summer Place. Another notable resident, Brian Sawyer, whose firm Sawyer/Berson designed homes for the Seinfelds, Julianne Moore, and Vera Wang, has a large white colonial farmhouse with ample room for his garden beds and a free-roaming black pug named Alice. “The light and land might be more impressive in the Hamptons, but I like it here because it’s small and I can walk around and run into the best people,” he tells me while on an evening stroll on tree-lined streets to the

marina where a boisterous party is just breaking up in the tiny yacht club building. “I walk out of my house and it’s like walking out of my building on Ninth Street.”

Nicky Hilton, another newbie who surprised people by giving up on the Hamptons, fits right in. She shows up on Saturdays with her three young children at Early Girl Farm and the Hamlet Organic Garden on the roads we share. (We don’t honk here, by the way.) She likes the local “chilled, creative vibe” and told the New York Post in 2021 that “you are more likely to see chickens in someone’s yard than a sports car.” A few years after her arrival, she and Rothschild, her good-natured husband, generously offered their brick Georgian colonial to the Boys & Girls Club of Bellport for their Beach Ball, the community’s mainstay summer fundraiser. These days the fundraisers, music events, and farm dinners with escalated prices have multiplied like trumpet flowers or, for the more cynically minded, the biting greenhead

Bellport’s popular Good Merch consignment store is full of eclectic items for the Bellport decorator.

fly population on our beach.

But, along with the boom in citified benefit parties and high-end shops, including Copper Beech by Aero Studio’s Thomas O’Brien and his husband, Dan Fink, a sophisticated art scene has taken root. The Storefront, opened before Covid by art world party planner and city transplant Melissa Feldman, offers curated shows in addition to quality books—a welcome addition after years without a place to buy them. Marquee Projects shows challenging and playful work curated by artist Mark Van Wagner and Tonja Pulfer, including the Guggenheim Fellowship-awarded Brookhaven photographer Gary Schneider. The latest gallery addition is in the garage of a gas station: The Something Machine is a spare white space with challenging international conceptual art run by art advisor Esther Flury and world-class curator Jeffrey Uslip.

“There’s an interesting art scene,” says Angela Westwater of Sperone Westwater gallery on the

TASTEFUL TABLEAU

THESE DAYS THE FUNDRAISERS, MUSIC EVENTS, AND FARM DINNERS WITH ESCALATED PRICES HAVE MULTIPLIED LIKE TRUMPET FLOWERS OR, FOR THE MORE CYNICALLY MINDED, THE BITING GREENHEAD FLY POPULATION ON OUR BEACH.

Bowery, who represents Bruce Nauman, Tom Sachs, and the late Malcolm Morley, who lived in Brookhaven. “And the art galleries add to the diverse and stimulating mix of shops.”

If I sound like I’m dropping names and dripping with pride here, I am. I’m proud to be a part of this thoughtful and talented community, and I enjoy knowing everyone: from local teachers, professors, and social workers to style arbiters like Bruce Pask, the men’s fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus, and entertainment moguls like Colin Callender, producer of BBC hits and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway. He and his wife, Elizabeth, give the best post-Thanksgiving bash and include the entire community.

In a place as sweet as this you feel both inclusive and protective (there will be plenty of

residents who object to this article, as they do to any Bellport publicity) and want the best for it. That’s why I once ran for mayor—a rogue move and a way to get some new ideas across to a caring but ensconced administration. I have had my issues, as many people do, about how things are run here. It makes for lively, and at times contentious, village board meetings in the community center on Mondays. But, when the politics of zoning and the complexity of party juggling (not to mention all the parades) get to be too much, there’s always the natural beauty.

The other day, Nicolas Mirzayantz, a former head of International Flavors & Fragrances and excellent photographer who has shown his work at the Storefront here, called to ask me to join him for an ocean sunset. We zipped across the choppy dark bay, tied up, said hello to Howie Guja, a

young relator with a stylish Instagram of Bellport life (there are several now), who was having a cocktail picnic by the dock. Then we walked several miles by the art-director-perfect waves conversing about life, love, and more. Nicolas and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Greece, an artist, have an international life, with homes in New York, Athens, and time spent with her parents on Patmos. But Bellport will always be a base. He loves the depth of conversations he has here. “And the beauty of all this nature,” he said, above the purr of his heritage Chris-Craft, as we buzzed home past houses on the shore lit up like Japanese lanterns. “It’s so restorative.”

After that, with windburned cheeks and a smile as wide as the bay, I popped back into the Bellport restaurant. It was another preseason Friday and, once again, everyone was there.

LONG ISLAND LOVE STORY Left: a house with a pink door and flowers growing in the front lawn on Beaver Dam Road in Brookhaven hamlet; Below: vintage items for sale at Good Merch on Bell Street.

THERE WILL BE PLENTY OF RESIDENTS WHO OBJECT TO THIS ARTICLE, AS THEY DO TO ANY BELLPORT PUBLICITY.

AMANDA BURDEN’S LOVE LETTER TO BELLPORT

It’s informal and spontaneous, diverse and congenial, beautiful but not showy. Invitations to dinner or drinks generally come last minute. Dressing up is the exception.

Once I arrive, I immediately switch from four wheels to two. I can do all my errands on my bike. I love that when I bike into town in the morning, runners and walkers all wave “hi” or say, “Good morning!” It’s an exceedingly friendly place.

The main street is pretty small, just a little more than a block and a half, very charming and compact—but it has everything I need. The houses in the village are a mix of architectural styles. Hedges are the exception. Development in Bellport village has been constrained for the most part by a strong architectural preservation committee, the scale and building envelopes are usually kept in check. The breakout renegades are very annoying and the source of collective angst and irritation.

Bellport is not stuffy.

Every Saturday, for as long as I can remember, a group of about nine protesters gather on the main corner waving signs clamoring for world peace and justice. I love that they are there, an authentic staple of our lives.

I happen to love sports, and tennis and golf are both within five minutes of my house, and sailing is off my dock.

What a luxury!

We all love our Bellport Bay, the center of our lives. We do everything we can to make it thriving and healthy, including planting more than one million oysters through Friends of Bellport Bay. A sevenminute ferry ride takes us from the marina to Ho-Hum Beach on Fire Island and from there we walk a boardwalk to the ocean in another couple of minutes.

On Saturday mornings, many of us drop by Early Girl Farm to pick up our allotment of produce grown by the eloquent and amazing Patty Gentry, who lets us know by poetic email the day before what treasures are in our bag and how to cook them. Many linger long at the farm into the morning, eating the fresh dosas Patty creates and making weekend plans.

Perhaps best of all, it takes only one and one-half hours, sometimes less, on a busy traffic day to get from the city to Bellport—and that is not an exaggeration. I open my front door and the stress of city life melts away.

HELLO MY DEER

Four whitetail deer on the dunes of Bellport’s Ho-Hum Beach.

HOWIE GUJA

Micro-dosing tennis moms, THC gummy treats at country club clambakes, ketamine treatments on Main Street in Southampton: Nancy Kane finds that it’s becoming more out-there out East than ever before.

Afull moon illuminates a circle of women holding hands around a firepit on a beach off Gin Lane. After dining at Le Charlot, the pricey French bistro on Southampton’s Main Street, Ross School moms cross the street to take ketamine-assisted trips. Up the hill, the Shinnecock Reservation has built a legal cannabis store. Micro- (and macro-) dosing is more popular at blue-blazer cocktail parties than cocktails themselves.

Nope, this isn’t Woodstock. Welcome to the Age of Aquarius. The Hamptons have totally gone hippie.

Long a bastion of conservative, WASPy close-mindedness, the Hamptons have found a spiritual awakening: some say it’s a return to the freewheeling ’60s and others say it’s a new wave of consciousness. Whatever “it” is, it’s everywhere this summer.

Zuzanna von Salm, a former fashion model, discovered meditation and, through it, her true purpose. Having delivered her twins with a combination of self-hypnosis, visualization, and breathing techniques, she now coaches other women through natural birthing. “I wanted to offer an effective meditation method for my pregnant and birthing clients, and hypnobirthing is that and so much more,” she explains. “It educates

and empowers women and reminds us about the incredible abilities of our minds and bodies.” Every full moon, at different Hamptons locations, von Salm leads “Ceremonia Meditation”—a gathering of well-off women craving connection through rituals like sage-smudging, combined with music, meditation, and plant-based food. Von Salm also offers classes in meditation when she’s not leading spiritual retreats for Hamptonites (her next one is in Morocco).

In 2019, von Salm married Count Graff Karl Ludwig Constantin Georg Julio Maria von Salm Hoogstraeten (“Ludi” for short) at his family home, called the Port of Missing Men, where they now reside. The house belonged to Ludi’s grandmother, Mary Millicent Abigail Rogers, granddaughter of Henry Huttleston Rogers, an early senior executive at Standard Oil. In a 1996 study, Rogers was ranked as the 22nd-wealthiest American to have ever lived. Ludi and Zuzanna von Salm were Hamptons hippie pioneers. The couple’s wedding featured a fire ceremony, a tarot card reader, a poetry station, and an “aura” photo booth. Three hundred guests, including Lauren Santo Domingo and Zani Gugelmann, joined in the celestial-themed, bohemian celebration—a combination of serenity and psychedelic energy that would foreshadow the bride’s career path. “I’m excited about the psychedelic renaissance,” von Salm says. “The mental health crisis is real

Illustration by Fernando Axelrud

and the more choices we have—to be physically, mentally, spiritually healthy—the better. If they are authentic, safe, and practiced properly, of course.”

Once the domain of Timothy Leary and the radical “turn on, tune in, drop out” accolades of the 1960s, today, mental health advocates are recognizing that substances such as DMT (the active ingredient in ayahuasca), LSD, and psilocybin (found in magic mushrooms) may lessen the effects of PTSD, depression, and addiction. It’s now commonplace at seated East Hampton dinner parties for guests to skip cocktail hour and microdose mushrooms or pop a THC gummy bear.

Psychedelics continue to trend. Michael Pollan’s bestseller, How to Change Your Mind, chronicles new research into the medicinal properties of psychedelics. Gwyneth Paltrow’s Netflix show, The Goop Lab, showed staffers in ayahuasca healing sessions in Jamaica. Last season, football star Aaron Rodgers credited psychedelics for giving him his best year in the NFL yet.

In 2022, Dr. Lea Lis debuted the Hampton Insight for Psychedelic Therapy in Southampton, where she treats patients with ketamine-assisted therapy. First synthesized in 1962, ketamine was known mostly as a horse tranquilizer and, later, a club drug (Special K). But recently it has been recognized as a powerful tool for treating mental health issues. A double board-certified adult and child psychiatrist, Dr. Lis offers comprehensive assessments and guided spiritual journeys, in addition to professional psychotherapy. “We recommend six sessions to really feel the effects,” she says. “It takes time to process it.” Dr. Lis sees a wide range of patients, some with severe depression and some who want to quit smoking or drinking, begin a new exercise routine, or learn how to communicate with their family in a more loving way.

Patients relax in soundproofed rooms with comfortable reclining chairs and are led through the experience of letting go of years of trauma—“a core release,” as what Dr. Lis calls it. “You drop your ego and can really see where your adopted ideas have come from. The process rewires the brain to believe that anything is possible,” she explains, en route to

THE HAMPTONS HAVE FOUND A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING: SOME SAY IT’S A RETURN TO THE FREEWHEELING ’60S AND OTHERS SAY IT’S A NEW WAVE OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

FIELDS OF DREAMING Zuzanna von Salm leads “Ceremonia Meditation” gatherings that include sage-smudging, music, meditation, and plant-based food.

A NEW AGE OF MEDICINE Dr. Lea Lis of Hampton Insight.

a retreat in Montauk, organized by Cristina Cuomo. “Psychotropics like Prozac or Zoloft can be a bit of a Band-Aid; but with psychedelics the promise is lasting healing,” she promises. “And ketamine is just the start. There is a 67 percent cure rate of PTSD for MDMA for use in trauma. It’s so profound, the FDA is fast-tracking it.” (MDMA’s more common names are Molly or Ecstasy).

Last year, actor Lucas Baker, who lives in Bellport, was struggling with depression. At 32, he was in “a very dark place” and, while highly functioning, he realized his life was driven by anxiety. “After life started opening up after the pandemic, it became overwhelming to me and I didn’t know how to vocalize it to anyone,” he admits. It reached a point where he was considering suicide. “I had worked with suicidal teens at the Trevor Project, so I knew where my safety level was at,” he says. “And I understood the steps I had to take, but it is so difficult to navigate mental healthcare, and no one was really telling me what to do.” When a friend told him about ketamine-assisted therapy, he decided to try it. “I immediately got a new perspective: life is a swirling ball of darkness, but I’m still here,” he says. “A moment came over me when I knew:

I am going to be ok.” Baker continued treatment after two weeks (ketamine can be administered via nasal sprays, infusions, and orally) and then he felt like he had reached a plateau, so he stopped. But its effects have stayed with him. “[Ketamine] can connect you to a higher power, connect you to the

COCKTAIL HOUR AND MICRO-DOSE MUSHROOMS OR POP A THC GUMMY BEAR.

universe, and connect you to yourself,” says Dr. Lis.

At a recent party in the estate section of Southampton, several guests, including a well-known photographer and a successful event planner, eschew drinking in favor of “shrooming.”

“Busy working people don’t have time for hangovers,” the photographer reasons. At the Southampton Arts Center, a popular summer program is their “Sound Bath & Meditative Music Concert.” Described as “blissful,” one devotee credits sound baths for bringing inner peace into her hectic life. Wave Wellness of the Hamptons just opened a center in Sag Harbor, offering infrared sauna sweat sessions, chromotherapy, CBD treatments, and energy and healing sessions. And, at the luxe Marram hotel on the beach in Montauk, tarot card and astrology readings, as well as private energy healing (from an in-residence intuitive

healer), are all popular programs with their guests. Cristina Cuomo, the editor-in-chief of the health and wellness magazine Purist , isn’t surprised by people turning to alternative medicine in today’s chaotic climate. “In these times of heightened mental health stressors, any opportunity for insight and inward reflection is going to help alleviate the effects of trauma and move one into tranquility,” Cuomo says.

“Most participants are looking for connection, whether it be a deeper connection to self, looking to connect with others, or needing to be reminded about our connection to nature, spirits, higher powers, or God,” concludes von Salm of her full-moon gatherings. “Smartphones and social media create the illusion of being connected, but nothing replaces being present with another human in person.”

IT’S NOW COMMONPLACE AT SEATED EAST HAMPTON DINNER PARTIES FOR GUESTS TO SKIP

BEACH VIBES The Marram in Montauk offers tarot card readings, private energy healing, sound circles with singing bowls, stargazing, and salt cave therapy sessions.

THE AVENUE REPORT:

THE REAL SCOOP ON THE HAMPTONS REAL ESTATE MARKET

To understand the current state of real estate in the Hamptons, Julie Dannenberg spoke to the experts, discussing trends, the effects of Covid on the market, and magnificent properties with historical pedigree, like the buzzy “Jackie O House” in East Hampton.

MASSIVE APPEAL Jackie O’s childhood home “Lasata” at 121 Further Lane in East Hampton.

Corcoran; Broker: Eileen O’Neill

SALES: GOING, GOING, GONE!

“When something comes onto the market that is reasonably priced, it goes immediately. We are finding ourselves with multiple bids and one in four listings end up going over ask. During Covid a lot of land was purchased—it took until now to get the houses up. There is good inventory coming on. In many cases these homes are being sold from renderings before the foundation has even been poured. Inventory is down. Everyone who did not buy a home in the last two years during Covid is still out here trying to purchase. The one thing people lose sight of is that the Hamptons are a gorgeous place to live and have historically been a great investment.”

—Todd

Bourgard, CEO, Long Island, Hamptons, and North Fork, Douglas Elliman

“So many homes were sold during the past couple of years of Covid. Because of the interest environment and the rate lock effect, people who bought a couple of years ago are married to these historically low rates and the idea of trading up or selling and buying something else is not appealing. However, if something’s properly priced and the buyers perceive it as such, it will attract a minimum of three interested parties and will sell quickly. We are less rate sensitive historically than any other market because, for starters, we are not a primary housing market. We are primarily a resort luxury market for seasonal use. Most of our buyers are cash buyers. That’s not to say they are immune, but it is not as impactful as, say, a primary housing market in the middle of the country.”

—Nanette Hansen, Brokerage Manager, East Hampton, Sotheby’s International Realty

“Properties that are priced well—and by that, I mean comparable to the price of a recent close— sell quickly. In fact, they will frequently result in multiple offers, sometimes escalating to sealed bid situations. There is a story to be told; that is, despite statistics showing dollar and volume amounts lagging, demand remains strong. What the statistics do not factor in is the lack of inventory.”

—Philip V. O’Connell, Executive Managing Director, Hamptons, Brown Harris Stevens

“The Hamptons market boomed once the pandemic lockdown was ordered. With New Yorkers fleeing the city, we experienced a true buying frenzy–one that was impossible to sustain. Naturally, the market is transitioning. Right now, people are buying where they’re finding availability. East End prices shattered records on a quarterly basis between the tail end of 2020 through 2021. Since then, prices have cooled, but overall average and median sales prices remain almost 70 percent higher this past quarter than they were in 2019. The market out here is a little different than the rest of the country. A lot of purchases aren’t contingent upon mortgages, and buyers can almost always secure private funding. That said, while not all luxury buyers use mortgages, they are affected by the broader economy and, more specifically, the stock market. Volatility in the financial markets can have an outsized effect on the high end of the real estate market.”

—Ernie Cervi, Regional Senior Vice President, East End, Corcoran

AMAGANSETT’S ALLURE

An inside and overhead view of 74 Cranberry Hole Road.

Douglas Elliman; Broker: Adam Hofer

“EVERYONE WHO DID NOT BUY A HOME IN THE LAST TWO YEARS DURING COVID IS STILL OUT HERE TRYING TO PURCHASE.”

–TODD BOURGARD, THE CEO OF DOUGLAS ELLIMAN LONG ISLAND, HAMPTONS, AND NORTH FORK

THE RENTAL MARKET: GOING GANGBUSTERS

“The rental market is very strong. What has changed is a lot of people these days do not want to rent from Labor Day to Memorial Day. It is almost a thing of the past; people still do it, but now it is more likely July and August. Remember that owners want to be in their houses for a month in the summer.”

—Todd Bourgard

“The key to rentals is having the right property. We have a house, located at 213 Old Northwest Road in East Hampton, that is the definition of a high-end rental. Built by Phil Kouffman, its many attributes include a pickleball court. It was asking an ambitious number in what would have been viewed as aspirational for that location—a couple of miles north of town in the northwest woods. The profile for that house was an individual or family who wants a certain number of bedrooms, a lifestyle. These are people who could spend that type of money and go to the South of France or Lake Como. So it had to make sense for a rental, and it had to really offer a true experience—not just the house, but also clean linens, that top-shelf offering of the butler’s pantry that’s stocked with everything you need, the coffee bar. You do not have to do anything, you just bring your toothbrush and clothes. Renters are provided with monogrammed robes with the number of the house. Everything is done for you.”

—Nanette Hansen

“YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING, YOU JUST BRING YOUR TOOTHBRUSH AND CLOTHES. RENTERS ARE PROVIDED WITH MONOGRAMMED ROBES WITH THE NUMBER OF THE HOUSE. EVERYTHING IS DONE FOR YOU.”

–NANETTE HANSEN, SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY BROKERAGE MANAGER

FARMHOUSE-FABULOUS RENTAL 213 Old Northwest Road in East Hampton, at 9,100-plus square feet, has seven bedrooms and a state-of-the-art kitchen that can handle dinner parties for 20.

Sotheby’s International Realty; Broker: Ann Ciardullo

WEST OF THE CANAL: THE NEW FRONTIER

Referred to as “the Brooklyn” of the Hamptons by Nikola Cejic of Douglas Elliman, the emergence of the area known as “West of the (Shinnecock) Canal” might be the most significant movement since Jackson Pollock discovered the Springs. West of the Canal includes Remsenburg, Quogue, East Quogue, Westhampton, and Hampton Bays. Cejic first noticed the trend during the pandemic. As prices skyrocketed and space became a commodity, people realized that, for the price of a two-bedroom cottage east of the canal, they could score a house with multiple bedrooms, a pool, and maybe even a tennis court. Then there was the added value of time—during the busy summer season this could mean hours of commuting slashed in half. What had once been an unnoticed location is now a mix of dive bars, mom-and-pop stores, fine dining, elegant new hotels, and plenty of baby strollers. And, like Brooklyn, proximity to towns further east is just across the bridge.

Remsenburg is one of the Hampton’s most tranquil and majestic communities West of the Canal. An historic hamlet first settled in 1712, the town was home to author P.G. Wodehouse and Marvel Comics’s Stan Lee. According to Todd Bourgard, “We would get a listing in Remsenburg and we would hold on to it for a year. Now, when

those houses come up, they go.” One of those properties is 74-80 Cedar Lane. Listed with Lauren Spiegel of Douglas Elliman, the house was originally built in 1890 as a hunting lodge. The historic 6,300-square-foot home sits on over seven acres of southwest-facing waterfront. Totally refurbished in 2016, this turnkey, resort-like estate includes a four-bedroom guesthouse, pool house, and a 19th-century renovated windmill. The expansive front lawn extends down to a sandy beach, docks, a boat house, and tennis courts. The house meets all the attributes of quiet luxury, a term often used to describe the sleepy hamlet, which, to this day, does not include a single stoplight.

Six miles east of Remsenburg is the village of Quogue, established as a summer refuge for city dwellers in 1835. Preservation is Quogue’s credo, from the 300-acre wildlife preserve to numerous original homes that populate the historic district. Quogue remains an oasis of gentle beauty. “Oasis” is how Lillian Holtzclaw of Brown Harris Stevens describes the historical estate at 10 Dune Road.

Built in 1910, in the style of an English country house, 10 Dune Road has been completely upgraded while preserving its original structure. Entering the market for the first time in 50 years, the 2.6-acre property is on 275 feet of beachfront, with rolling lawns, mature trees, wisteria covered pergolas, a grandfathered dune deck, tennis court, bocci court, and pool. Quogue has always waved the banner of sophisticated, understated elegance and the same can be said of 10 Dune Road. According to Andrea Ackerman of Brown Harris Stevens, Quogue is the most polished location West of the Canal. To have the ability to be on the ocean, with extraordinary waterfront footage, comes at half the price of a similar property on Meadow Lane in Southampton.

Both 74-80 Cedar Lane and 10 Dune Road represent the upper end of the market, and yet if they were located beyond the bridge, they would be priced two to three times what they are being offered at today. According to Cejic, there are substantial homes to be had for under a million dollars, making this the last of undervalued properties in the Hamptons.

GLAMOROUS GRANDEUR

An aerial view of 74-80 Cedar Lane in Remsenburg.

Douglas Elliman; Broker: Lauren Spiegel

MANOR SUR LA MER

Right: 10 Dune Road in Quogue, built in 1910 in the style of a classic English country house, sits grandly right on the ocean.

Brown Harris Stevens; Broker: Lillian A. Holtzclaw

MONTAUK: STILL THE SPOT

“Montauk is viewed as very hip by a young, moneyed crowd, and it’s gorgeous. There is an explosion of new construction in Montauk. Land is a disappearing commodity in the Hamptons, so the teardown is the next place where the ball moves. There are grand old houses—like Dick Cavett’s that was on the market—and there are the old ranches that are slowly disappearing because people do not live like that anymore.”

—Nanette

Hansen

“The lowest amount of inventory we have ever had is in Montauk, so as soon as something comes on the market, we are finding multiple bidders.”

—Todd

Bourgard

“We were potato farmers, then builders. I went to the Ross School; I was in the first graduating class, which was wonderful. I never intended to live here when I grew up, I said that I was never coming back. Now I own multiple homes here. I live in Sag Harbor, then rent that house in the summertime and relocate to Montauk. If you look at Montauk, the listings are slim, but if you look at the marina properties that are for sale or that have sold, you see that there is a large, young, artistic generation of visionaries who are infusing a whole new energy and redesigning the community. It is exciting to watch and to be aligned with.”

—Kyle Rosko, Eklund | Gomes

MONTAUK MANSE

Renderings of 18 Maple Street. Designed with impeccable Italian craftsmanship by Lissoni Casal Ribeiro Milano, it boasts unobstructed views of the Atlantic Ocean.

Douglas Elliman–Eklund | Gomes; Broker: Kyle Rosko

“IF YOU LOOK AT MONTAUK, THE LISTINGS ARE SLIM, BUT IF YOU LOOK AT THE MARINA PROPERTIES THAT ARE FOR SALE OR THAT HAVE SOLD, YOU SEE THAT THERE IS A LARGE, YOUNG, ARTISTIC GENERATION OF VISIONARIES WHO ARE INFUSING A WHOLE NEW ENERGY AND REDESIGNING THE COMMUNITY.”

—KYLE ROSKO, EKLUND | GOMES

Sotheby’s

SHELTER ISLAND: THE RISE OF THE RECLUSIVE RETREAT!

According to the experts, Shelter Island is “on the rise”—surrounded by water, panoramic views, and offering the ultimate luxury: privacy. In recent years, Shelter Island has become home to celebrities, tech giants, and media moguls. While privacy prevails, it is no longer the “sleepy” little village it once was. Architecturally, Shelter Island is revered for its classic style, but there is one house that stands out for its masterful mid-century design: the Snyder House at 2 Charlie’s Lane. Designed by Bertrand Goldberg in 1952 as a refuge for John Snyder, the chief executive of the Pressed Steel Car Company, which manufactured Unicel freight cars. As a student in the ’30s, Goldberg discovered the relationship between the industrial process and the design industry. With panoramic views of West Neck Harbor and the Long Island Sound, the Snyder House was recognized as a marvel of mid-century design. New Yorkers would charter amphibious aircraft to hover over the property to experience what was then called the “demonstration house.” In 2002, the current owner rebuilt the 6,000-square-foot house, maintaining its original single-level, mid-century footprint while upgrading it to include the ultimate in high-end quality. Goldberg’s massive stone fireplace remains, providing a dramatic contrast to the glass wall interiors, which overlook a spectacular water setting and private beach with a 235-foot-deep water dock. For sale by Nick Brown of Sotheby’s International Realty, East Hampton, this home would make any collector’s heart quake.

GIMME SHELTER

2 Charlie’s Lane, Shelter Island, the famous “Snyder House,” designed in 1952 by Bertrand Goldberg, is recognized as a marvel of mid-century design.

International Realty; Broker: Nick Brown

YOU ARE WHERE YOU LIVE: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!

Georgica Pond is a 290-acre coastal lagoon on the west border of East Hampton and Wainscott. The area’s banks have been home to ex-presidents, film royalty, moguls, fashion icons, and countless celebrities—all drawn to the extraordinary views of the Atlantic Ocean and vast estates built on multi-acres offering absolute privacy. To find a Georgica estate on the market is a rare occurrence, and yet Douglas Elliman’s Kyle Rosko has bought one to market: the extraordinary “Goose Creek” at 30 Matthews Creek, a 14-acre waterfront estate in Wainscott. Built in 2010 and recently updated by Ash New York with 827-feet of waterfrontage and stunning views of Georgica Pond and the Atlantic Ocean, the long and winding driveway leads to serene parklike grounds, with rolling lawns and specimen trees. The 10,000-square-foot house was designed by noted architect Paul Rice. Stately and elegant, with seven bedrooms and modern amenities, including a home theater and gym, Goose Creek was designed with a mix of old world elegance and modernity. Adjacent to the formal dining room is an open kitchen and breakfast area and a family room with French doors opening onto a screened porch, blending indoor and outdoor living. The pastoral grounds include a pool overlooking Georgica Pond. As fast as things change in Hamptons real estate, nothing will ever replace the splendor of living on Georgica Pond.

THE ESTATE SECTION: OLD WORLD OPULENCE

There will always be an estate section, as Susan Harrison of Compass says: “Southampton is the original grand dame of the East End and still carries a certain air of distinction.” One such address is 540 Halsey Neck Lane. A highly coveted property, just a block from Halsey Neck Beach, the home was built in 2014 to occupy the land where the renowned 1930s playwright Joseph Fields had his residence. Masterfully designed by architect Boris Baranovich, the nine-bedroom estate was built by its European owner to resemble an English manor house, with gracious, flowing proportions and an understated quiet elegance, reminiscent of another era.

The elegant 540 Halsey Neck Lane in Southampton.

Compass; Broker: Susan Harrison

GLAMOROUS GRANDEUR The entrance to “Goose Creek” in Wainscott, which has views of Georgica Pond and the Atlantic Ocean.

Douglas Elliman–Eklund | Gomes; Broker: Kyle Rosko

OLD WORLD OPULENCE

AMENITIES RULE: FOR THOSE WHO WANT IT ALL

There was a time when the most valuable amenity in the Hamptons was a pool, maybe a tennis court, and the ocean. Today people are looking for homes that offer connectivity, open spaces, while also providing for the new way of living: working from home. The Hamptons abode is no longer seasonal, which means buyers want indoor spa accommodations, a gym, state-of-the-art kitchens, rooftop decks with a bocce ball court, catering kitchens, a screening room, a glass-enclosed garage (with ocean views), and maybe even an indoor squash court. Adam Hofer’s listing for Douglas Elliman at 74 Cranberry Hole Road in the sought-after Amagansett Dunes hits all the marks. The house is situated on 5.6 acres of luscious land, boasts panoramic ocean views, nine bedrooms, and 11 baths. As Hofer describes it: “Resort living; when you are there it feels as if you are at a very special boutique hotel.”

HISTORICAL VALUE

No home for sale in the Hamptons is getting more buzz than “Lasata” at 121 Further Lane in East Hampton. Dubbed the “Jackie O House,” it is the the Bouvier summer residence where young Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and her sister, Lee Radziwill, spent childhood vacations. Purchased by Jackie’s grandfather, John Vernou Bouvier Jr., in the 1920s, the estate was designed in 1917 by architect Arthur C. Jackson in the Arts and Crafts style and sits on almost seven acres and features an eight-bedroom main house, a two-bedroom cottage, a small house for a caretaker, a pool house, and a three-car garage. In 2018, film, television, and commercial producer David Zander bought Lasata (which comes from the Native American word for “place of peace”) for $24 million. Zander commissioned renowned designer Pierre Yovanovitch to redo the interiors and had new gardens put in by French landscape architect Louis Benech. It was money well spent: five years later and Lasata is now on the market for $55 million, Jackie O’s famed oversized sunglasses not included.

PEDIGREE PERFECTION

Above: 121 Further Lane, East Hampton. The front hall at “Lasata,” the childhood home of Jackie O. Left: Mrs. John V. Bouvier III and her daughter Jacqueline (then four years old) at their East Hampton home.

Corcoran; Broker: Eileen O’Neill

AMAGANSETT HIDEAWAY

Above: 74 Cranberry Hole Road, tucked away in the Amagansett Dunes.

Douglas Elliman; Broker: Adam Hofer

MAN OF THE PEOPLE

BETWEEN BLOCKBUSTER MOVIES, HEAR TFELT TELEVISION SHOWS, AND AN ACCLAIMED BROADWAY PLAY, COLMAN DOMINGO IS HAVING A BUSY YEAR. ARIA DARCELLA CATCHES UP WITH THE ACTOR, WRITER, DIRECTOR, AND PRODUCER WHO RELEASED HIS MOST PERSONAL PROJECT THIS SUMMER BETWEEN A SLEW OF OTHERS.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAI LENNARD

It’s May, and Colman Domingo is in Toronto shooting an eight-part Netflix series called The Madness . In a few weeks, the movie Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (in which he voices the villainous Unicron), will debut at number one at American box offices. Meanwhile, Fat Ham—the Tony-nominated, Pulitzer Prize-winning play he produced—is in its final weeks on Broadway. At 53, Domingo’s busier than ever before. He’s also gearing up to debut his most personal project yet.

You Are Here , which premiered on AMC on Juneteenth, is a four-part docuseries starring Domingo and produced by Edith Productions, the company he founded with his husband, Raúl, in 2020. Part travel show, part memoir, each episode is set in a different city—Savannah, Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago—that is tied to his life story. But how Domingo explores his history and these locations is more through the people who populate them than the places themselves.

“I have a curiosity about who we are as human beings, and how we’re all making it work. What our struggles are, and what our humanity is, and how we’re reflections of each other,” he tells me over the phone. “You don’t create a show like You Are Here for profit. You create it because you think, ‘[T]his is important.’ This is an important exercise and journey into the world to discover who we are.”

In various ways, this exploration is something that has fascinated Domingo far before he became an actor. He majored in journalism at Temple University in Philadelphia. Despite falling in love with performance instead, he still learned what made a story successful, and, more importantly, how to identify the humanity inside it. “One of my biggest problems in school, especially in my news-writing class, was that my writing was too ‘florid,’ as my teacher said. I was much more of a creative writer, I didn’t just stick to the facts and what was newsworthy,” he recalls. “I always painted the colors, which is more of an opinion than just news.”

But different mediums favor different skill sets, and Domingo quickly found his literary voice in playwriting. An early source of inspiration was his own family. Among the first shows

CENTER STAGE The talented Colman Domingo in a Richard James dinner jacket, $1,225; tuxedo shirt, $225; bow tie, $95; and cuff links, $245.

he penned was the semi-autobiographical A Boy and His Soul, which premiered Off Broadway in 2010. The coming-of-age story featured anecdotes from the performer’s childhood. When his family saw it, they were taken aback by how enthralled the audience around them was. “I think they came to the show with such reservations, wondering why anyone would care about the ordinary and mundane of what they believe their lives are,” he says. “You have no idea how fascinating you are as character studies, and what makes you strong, what makes you soft. What makes you the people that I admire the most.”

Naturally, his family is once again on full display in You Are Here’s second episode, which is set in Domingo’s hometown of Philly. In warm, but deeply intimate conversations with family and lifelong friends, the glamor of celebrity is dropped in favor of nostalgia, and a glimpse of the world that made him. “The whole intention was to really pull back the curtain,” he explains. “If I show you a little bit more of who I am—my vulnerabilities in my family, the details of where I grew up, who these people are and all their beauty and complexity— then I can help people do that examination themselves. We have to go back a little bit to find out where we come from, or what has made us who we are.”

Our era is so heavily defined by social media and commu-

PRETTY IN PINK Domingo wears a Richard James knitted polo, $225, and linen jacket, $1,195, with his own jewelry. Opposite: making moves in a corduroy jacket, $1,145, matching trousers, $425, and a turtleneck, $345, all by Richard James, with Harrys London loafers, $595.

“WE HAVE TO GO BACK A LITTLE BIT TO FIND OUT WHERE WE COME FROM, OR WHAT HAS MADE US WHO WE ARE.”

—COLMAN DOMINGO

nicating through devices that to watch Domingo sit across from his interview subjects in an effort to connect—and confidently confront the spectrum of emotions that arise, whatever they may be—feels radical.

He brings the same level of nuanced introspection to the characters he plays. This fall, Domingo has a starring role in the Netflix film Rustin , about Bayard Rustin, a gay civil rights leader who influenced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and helped organize the March on Washington in 1963. Until recently, the figure had been largely excluded from history due to his sexuality, and as such the character is dear to Domingo’s heart. The actor prepared for six months before production began, going down a “rabbit hole” of biographies and history books about the era. Even when not filming, Domingo, who does not consider himself a method actor, stayed closer to the character than usual.

Staying close is easy when the subject is beloved and revered. But perhaps his reason for only doing it rarely is because of how frequently he’s willing to explore darker subjects. Later this year he can be seen as the abusive Mister in the musical adaptation of The Color Purple. He probes both characters—one, a hero, the other, a scoundrel—as he does his interview subjects, and himself. “There has to be some of my own humanity in these characters that I play,” he says. “I never want my character to suddenly just be anglicized in some way or vilified. If anything, I want them to be that tricky in-between. To challenge audiences on what people can be.

GROOMING: LAURA COSTA FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS

PHOTO ASSISTANTS: TATUM MANGUS AND VIOLET BURBURAN STYLING: CARLOS GAONA AND ARIA DARCELLA

HOMEWARD BOUND Above: Domingo connecting with old friends in the Philadelphia episode of You Are Here. Opposite: looking dashing in a Richard James made-to-measure suit, $2,395, and Swiss poplin shirt, $435.

It can be both, sometimes in the same breath. They can be incredibly cruel and incredibly loving in the blink of an eye.”

This devotion to his craft has garnered him an impressive list of accolades. He’s won an Obie Award for his work as Mr. Franklin Jones and Mr. Venus in the 2007 musical Passing Strange . He was nominated for a 2011 Tony for portraying Mr. Bones in The Scottsboro Boys. Both Jordan Peele and Sam Levinson have written characters specifically for him (the latter of which was Ali, a recovering drug addict-turned-father figure on HBO’s Euphoria, a role which earned Domingo an Emmy award last year). In 2020, writer/director Janicza Bravo cast him as the terrifying pimp X in the A24 film, Zola

Despite all this, there’s still a lot he has yet to do. While he’s made appearances in sketch shows, Domingo would really like to do a traditional comedy (a Paul Feig film, to be specific). He also wants to use Edith Productions to lift the voices of others, with stories of joy, hope, warmth, and, of course, humanity. He considers New Moon, an animated short Edith produced that was shortlisted for an Oscar nomination, to be exemplary of the work the company is interested in.

Between portraying historical figures and reconnecting with the figures and settings that have defined his life, it’s as if Domingo is speeding forward, but navigating with the rearview mirror. This metaphor is clunky, but how else do you describe how successfully he has built a future by interpreting the past? His goal is to shape what he already has in hand.

“Nothing in my career I’ve actually imagined,” he confesses. “People will say, ‘I always dreamed of being on Broadway, I dreamed of being in TV or films.’ I didn’t have those dreams. I dreamed of being a creative and being respected and doing good work.”

HOOKED ON A FEELING On You Are Here, Domingo explores various cities to highlight what makes them unique.

“THERE HAS TO BE SOME OF MY O WN HUMANITY IN THESE CHARACTERS THAT I PLAY.

I NEVER WANT MY CHARACTER TO SUDDENLY JUST BE ANGLICIZED IN SOME WAY OR VILIFIED. IF ANYTHING, I WANT THEM TO BE THAT TRICKY IN-BETWEEN. TO CHALLENGE AUDIENCES ON WHAT PEOPLE CAN BE.”

—COLMAN DOMINGO

COMMANDING PRESENCE Ponant’s Le Commandant Charcot, the world’s first and only luxury icebreaker cruise ship.

JO UR NE YS

BREAKING THE ICE

On a luxury liner heading straight toward the Arctic Circle, daredevil passenger Peter Davis takes on one of his most awe-inducing journeys.

USING POWERFUL HYBRID

Ifancy myself an adventure-travel junkie; comfortably at home in far-flung locales like the Nayara Tented Camp in the Costa Rican rainforest and the canyons of Amangiri in Utah (I like a heavy dose of luxury while in the wild). But nothing has come close to my recent, awe-inducing voyage to the untouched Arctic polar circles around Greenland and the vast ice floes that are less trampled on than the surface of the Moon.

To our friends, my fiancé, Ted, and I seem to be on a perma-honeymoon. When we informed people that we were going on such a quest, the response was more of, “Another vacation?” than, “That’s so awesome!” We kicked off our journey jetting from New York to Reykjavík, Iceland, flying Icelandair, which hippies favored in the ’60s because it was the cheap way to get across

the Atlantic. I had been to Iceland years ago—for a Joe Fresh underwear fashion show, of all things— but had forgotten just how otherworldly the landscape is to the eye. I cued Björk’s “Earth Intruders” on Spotify and imagined we’d crash-landed on a strange planet out of a vintage Star Trek episode. The capital city of Iceland is buffered by molten rocks, thunderous geysers spewing boiling-hot water and steam, and dramatic cliffs you don’t want to slip off while snapping a selfie. Jet-lagged and puffy-eyed, we commanded our taxi to hightail it to the country’s famous Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa in a lava field on the Reykjanes Peninsula near Grindavík, a short drive from Keflavík Airport. The ethereal milky-blue lagoon water, rich in silica, salt, algae, and minerals (ideal for de-bloating) remains at 102 degrees Fahrenheit all year

WHITEOUT Broken ice sheets off the coast of Greenland.

PROPULSION, THE CHARCOT LITERALLY SLICES THROUGH ICE SHEETS, GIVING NEW MEANING TO THE TERM “ICEBREAKER.”

ARCTIC TAXI

Dogsledding huskies taking a much-deserved break.

round. We splurged for the “premium” day pass ($122), which includes three face masks you slather on while wading through massive man-made lagoons, dodging tourists sipping fizzy, electric-blue cocktails. I could have skipped the unabashed nudity on display in the changing rooms, but bare-naked showers are mandatory before entering the water. Three hours later, Ted and I left recharged and amped to board the stately sounding Le Commandant Charcot —the world’s only luxury icebreaker cruise ship—to sail to the isolated territories of the Arctic Circle.

Built by the French luxury travel outfit Ponant, Le Commandant Charcot is no ordinary ship. Named after Captain Jean-Baptiste Charcot, a French Arctic explorer who Robert Falcon Scott called the “polar gentleman,” the sustainable vessel is the first hybrid-electric polar exploration boat on the planet and is powered by liquefied natural gas and electric batteries. Using powerful hybrid propulsion, the Charcot literally slices through ice sheets, giving new meaning to the

term “icebreaker.” You slide into remote fjords, where snow-capped Alpine mountains merge with the sea and no human has ever visited.

The first leg is crossing the tempestuous Denmark Strait, a route originally traversed in the late tenth century by Vikings, led by the badass Erik the Red (named for his carrot- ed mane and fiery temper). It can be a rough passage; in 1833, Jules Poret de Blosseville and his crew of 83 men set out for Eastern Greenland on La Lilloise . They were never seen again. Soon, however, we were tearing through thick ice sheets, and the rumble knocked my matcha latte off a table. A nearby doctor from Great Neck and his wife let out a yelp. “It’s just a little turbulence,” Ted said, annoying me more than assuring me that all was safe. I flashed back to the mini 2014 earthquake I experienced in Los Angeles and did a quick Buddhist chant, which quelled my nerves for about 30 seconds.

I found the chicness of Le Commandant Charcot —a truly five-star hotel on water—to be more calming. When the ocean tossed and

1833, JULES PORET DE BLOSSEVILLE AND HIS CREW OF 83 MEN SET OUT FOR EASTERN

GREENLAND ON LA LILLOISE . THEY WERE NEVER SEEN AGAIN.

turned, I retreated to the spa, which was replete with a “snow room” for après sauna chill sessions and a heated indoor pool where I ordered “wellness smoothies” made with fresh fruit and elixirs. I also have never feasted so well for nine consecutive days—not a huge shocker as Alain Ducasse oversees the menus at the three restaurants: Nuna, the fanciest on board; Sila, with the most delectable buffet I’ve ever encountered; and Inneq, for casual munchies like grilled lobster. My sugar addiction went bonkers. “So much for quitting sweets,” Ted said as I double upped on my favorite French dessert, île flottante, and Parisian pastries that would make Marie Antoinette’s mouth water.

The design of the Charcot , with 123 staterooms (some duplexes for big spenders), is French minimalist—sleek and stylish avec dark wood paneling and brass hardware. I felt like I was on my billionaire buddy’s mega-yacht, not on a small cruise ship-cum-scientific vessel. Salma Hayek was so charmed with her Ponant experience a few years ago that she convinced her husband, François-Henri Pinault, to buy the company in 2015 (the travel outfit was originally launched as Compagnie des Îles du Ponant by JeanEmmanuel Sauvée and officers from the French merchant navy academy in 1988). With the CEO of high-end fashion conglomerate Kering in charge, Ponant now reeks of French luxury stronger than soaking in a bath of Chanel No. 5. We had a private butler and 24-hour room service (2 AM steak frites, anyone?). The observation deck lounge felt like the hottest new member’s club in Paris, albeit with views of floating icebergs. Of the around 100 guests, most are French and skew 60-plus. Tout get dressed to the nines for dinner and two formal events that include dancing. It’s a throwback to the luxury travel of yesteryear—the days when men sported suits to fly on a plane. Counting the gigantic diamonds on display became a parlor game for Ted and I at every meal. Ice, ice baby!

As fancy as the Charcot is, Arctic exploration is the agenda. Every day we met like students in the boat’s theater for “briefings” on routes, weather conditions, and activities. Ponant gifted everyone with a bright orange waterproof parka for the icy outings. We docked on day two, and a helicopter team surveyed the icescape to make sure it was safe to walk on before we ventured into the whiteout wilderness. The first outing was a lazy one: dogsledding, which was my least favorite, as the small huskies poop a lot while pulling you over the ice. The next day was

CHART TOPPER Mapping an often challenging route from the bridge of Le Commandant Charcot

REMOTE

RETREAT

Above: the town of Tasiilaq, Greenland, which is only accessible by boat, helicopter, or foot.

I FELT LIKE I WAS ON MY BILLIONAIRE BUDDY’S MEGA-YACHT, NOT ON A SMALL CRUISE SHIP-CUMSC IENTIFIC VESSEL.

Le Commandant Charcot sneaks behind a massive iceberg in the Denmark Strait.

kayaking with a team of naturalists. We paddled around massive icebergs, an activity so overthe-top that I forgot to take photos until we had almost made it back to the boat. We also snowshoed for miles (a definite workout) and cross-country skied to gaze out from vistas that were, for lack of a better word, unbelievable. Every night Ted and I could barely fall asleep; we were so excited for what crazy adventure the next day would bring. One especially memorable moment was the polar plunge, before which I had to take an EKG to even get cleared to do, despite signing a waiver basically saying that if I fall under the ice and freeze to death, it was my own responsibility. But jumping into the freezing cold water, a leash tied around my waist so I didn’t pass out and float out to sea, was not as cuckoo as it sounds—it almost felt like some sick spa treatment. My skin was tight and glowing as I emerged from the subzero water to both crew and guests hooting approval. After every challenging activity, Ponant awarded us with a patch you can iron on to your jacket— a stylishly subtle way to brag. I became obsessed with collecting the patches. Growing up in Manhattan, I was hardly a Boy Scout, and each patch I earned pumped up my ego. It was such a boost that, if I hadn’t read Into Thin Air, I might have entertained the idea of climbing Everest.

We were pretty spent during every night’s predinner recap of the day with the various glaciologists, geologists, ethnologists, and scientists on board to collect seawater, ice samples, and polar fauna to study in the high-tech research labs on the lower decks. The Ponant Foundation invests heavily in fighting climate change and employs scientific researchers for every cruise. On one morning’s visit to the research lab, I learned that the poles keep our planet balanced and regulate the earth’s climate, slowing down the warming of the oceans.

I bought the new Leica Insta360 camera for the trip, and my Instagram feed has never looked more far-out fabulous. My DMs exploded with responses like “WTF” and “OMG” and, “Where the heck are you?” followed quickly by,

“Please be safe.” But I had never felt safer than trudging through the icy wilderness, led by friendly naturalist guides, one of whom tells me he rappels off mountains for fun. The Charcot boasts a photo studio, across from Illu, the ship’s boutique (where you can score Vuarnets and nautical-themed cashmere sweaters), with professional photographers (called “photography ambassadors”) and videographers doling out editing and shooting tips and hacks. This included photographer/videographer Ian Dawson, a member of the Alpine Club, and Sue Flood, an award-winning visual artist who worked on the docuseries The Blue Planet and Planet Earth for the BBC. The two sharpshooters became our pals on the trip and schooled me on the right filters to capture the whiteout landscape and even seals sunbathing on floating icebergs in the far-off distance.

In the nine days that flew by, we hit Storo island, the Ammassalik region, the Blosseville Coast (where hapless explorer Jules vanished), and Tasiilaq, which was the only time we set foot on actual dry land. The latter is a teensy town with a population of 1,985 Inuits and is only reachable by boat when the ice melts or by helicopter. It’s as isolated as it gets. The Charcot is the town’s

most welcome visitor, as the ship cuts a pathway through the ice so that locals can then take fishing rigs out to sea to catch whales, seals, and fish, which they eat to survive. When we arrived, it felt like a national Tasiilaq holiday—crowds lined up to tour the boat, while Ponant donated crates of food to the village. A local gave us a tour of the town, which is surrounded by the mountains where Game of Thrones filmed and the second largest ice sheet on the planet. Our guide proudly showed me an iPhone photo of a (very bloody) polar bear he had slayed two days before. The villagers are allowed by law to kill 25 of the seriously dangerous animals a year. Not only do the Inuits munch on the bear meat, they also use every part of the animal to make necessities and, of course, clothes. I opted not to leave Tasiilaq with a polar bear fur coat.

On the final night, Ted and I put on bow ties and dinner jackets for the farewell gala hosted by Captain Patrick Marchesseau, a tall, elegant Frenchman. The other, oft-aloof, guests had loosened up after a week of polar plunges and Arctic exploration and everyone was swapping photos and contact info.

The next morning, we set sail for Iceland. While sipping my morning cappuccino in the

TRUE BLUE The seawater imbues vibrant color to a floating iceberg.

lounge, the boat encountered 20-foot waves. I wasn’t sure if it would turn out like A Perfect Storm or the extreme vomit scene in Triangle of Sadness, and neither option sounded fun. I was soon on a real-life aquatic roller coaster ride. The Shelley Winters death scene in The Poseidon Adventure flashed through my brain every ten seconds. During lunch, cutlery and dishes flew off tables, crashing to the floor. Waiters and busboys, who would fit in at La Grenouille, swiftly and nonchalantly scooped everything up as if it was all no biggie. My tummy churned. I couldn’t even stomach the elaborate cream-filled French pastry on my plate. Even Ted couldn’t brush this off as nothing-to-worry-about sea turbulence. My new Canadian pal Elia gave me a Gravol, a seasickness tablet. I thanked Neptune or God or whoever commands the seas, and I was knocked out within minutes. Down for the count, I snoozed through the scary storm and woke up the next morning at the port in Iceland, more concerned with the placement of my adventure activity patches on my parka than the possibility of recreating the final scene in Titanic the day before. Plus, I had hundreds of photographs to post to Instagram.

INTO THE WILD The author with fellow hikers.

ARTISTIC ESCAPE

You never know who you’ll meet over spritzes or splashes by the pool at Villa Lena, a neo-Renaissance respite in the vast hills of Tuscany. Joshua Glass visits the agriturismo paradise beloved by trendy honeymooners and meaningful artists alike in search of balance between business and pleasure.

ARTFUL ASSORTMENT

Everywhere you turn at this Tuscan stay, one-ofa-kind work created by artists—both local and visiting via residencies—excite the eye.

Is it possible to separate ourselves from what we do? To slip into the anonymous unknown, if only for a wrinkle of a holiday?

I recently pondered this idea of disconnection—at least in the creative sense—during my second vinyasa flow at Villa Lena when the yoga instructor, a nomad Swede by the name of Maria Kristensson, called me out. By some psychic feat she reminded me, along with my two fellow early-morning risers, to exhale all thoughts of home and focus on the moment at hand. Perched on a canopied wooden sundeck created by the designer Fred Rigby— with aromatic groves of olive trees on one side and Tuscany’s Apennine mountains on the other—it was hard to disagree with her. I decided to save the thought for breakfast.

Villa Lena, where I found myself in such an existential debacle, is at the end of a more-or-less equidistant trip from the historic city of Florence and the much more efficient—and thus much less romantic—city of Pisa. If you’re lucky, the car ride climaxes at just an hour. If not, you end up

The secluded 1,235-acre property has enough room for woodland, vineyards, olive groves, organic vegetable gardens—and more.

on on a tour of the canyons of the northern Italian countryside, dodging oncoming Fiats on a terrifyingly beautiful one-lane road, and feeling the sun smother every morsel of your being. The journey could not be more scenic. At the top of one particularly steep hill, the 1,235-acre property stands on an area known as San Michele. The land dates to the 19th century, when the aristocratic Del Frate family acquired it to construct an extravagant villa replete with wondrous frescos and an intimate chapel devoted to the eponymous archangel who famously slayed a seven-headed dragon. Over the last century, the property has passed through many hands, becoming grounds for socializing, hunting, and agriturismo, the Italian concept that marries nature with hospitality, which it remains today— at least partly.

Its current and most progressive concept was established in 2014 by arts curator Lena Evstafieva, musician and producer Jérôme Hadey, and Parisian restaurateur Lionel Bensemoun. Under their guidance, Villa Lena encompasses

FERTILE LAND

many things. Upon first sight, it’s a hotel, a design-friendly getaway far from Tuscany’s expected bachelorette wine outings in Chianti and the group tours of the statue of David. In a former horse stable called Fattoria, renovated by the London studio Hesselbrand, my guest room was filled to the brim with Memphis Milano works of art. A monoazo yellow, seashell-shaped lounger as brilliant to look at as it was easy to lie on paired beautifully with the building’s preserved oak floors, while a tangerine-hued, space-age lamp from the ’60s was a mod contrast to the high-beamed walls and a floor-to-ceiling

brick fireplace. A large vintage mobile overhead was nearly as impressive as another downstairs from the ’70s in the hotel’s reception by Carlo Scarpa, its rainbow-coated glass no doubt from Murano. Nearly all the furniture and décor were sourced from local flea markets and upcycled or commissionedfrom local artisans, such as basketry by Giotto Scaramelli of Scandicci or ceramics by Matteo Mirenda of Montelupo. Just a few feet away, the design shifted dramatically. At the Florentine-style San Michele, six traditional guest rooms are as inviting as inviting as the rolling hills their French doors revealed. And atop the

HISTORIC SITE Gregor Hildebrandt, one of the many artists who spent a month at Villa Lena, created this homage to its resident ghost, Elvira, by utilizing the edges of cassette tape holders.

property’s bar and provincial osteria, the ceilings were covered by what first seemed like ancient frescos—but, upon closer inspection, revealed themselves to be modern reinterpretations: words and scenes by the French graffiti artist Jay One Ramier created a clash of ideas, cultures, and images that long-standing guests have come to enjoy.

Ramier is just one of the many creatives who have called Villa Lena home, because—and here’s the twist—the site is also a fully living, breathing artist’s space. Every month, the hotel’s arts foundation invites a range of cross-disciplinary artists from around the world to fill the neoRenaissance villa’s carefully preserved, historic halls. Artists live together in the central house, make art in their own studios—converted stone lodges once used for hunting and agriculture on the other end of the property—cook together,

swim together, and yes, do yoga together. Not only do the artists engage collectively, but they also do some things—potentially everything— with the property’s guests, too. It’s an integration that is both inspiring and one that leaves the visitor with many questions about the line between work and leisure. The first of which for me was, “Where can I sign up?”

My spring visit to Villa Lena happened to overlap with the first week of a new batch of artist residents and the departure of the foundation’s last batch. There was Jess Nicholas, a Bristol-born floral artist who lives in London but is debating an exit from the U.K. entirely. Villa Lena is not only her first time trying a residency, but it’s also her attempt to dip her toes into determining where she wants to live next. “I’m tempted to stay here forever,” she told me at her Villa Lena studio, where she led me in

a one-on-one table-scape workshop, piecing together locally foraged flowers onto delicate beds of moss. “Maybe I will.” (Many artists, like Nicholas, trade their time at the property for workshops and programming.) There was also Brendon Goodmurphy, a soft-spoken writer originally from Toronto who now lives in Berlin with his boyfriend, the Spanish ceramist and fellow seasonal Villa Lena guest Mauro Fariñas. Goodmurphy, who attended the yoga class with me, has already finished his first novel, and so this summer he’s taking his time at Villa Lena to revisit it, as well as return to poetry. As we moved through our flow with Kristensson, the yogi-in-residence, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was mulling over the same questions of vacation identity that I was. Or maybe—most likely—he was just thinking about the next lines he’s yet to write.

CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER

From never-ending landscape sights to a dedicated meditative space and bottomless bubbly, there are a plethora of ways to unwind.

FARM TO TABLE

Overlooking sprawling olive gardens and romantic interiors, Osteria San Michele serves quintessential Tuscan fare and seasonal surprises.

ROMANCE IS NOT DEAD Traveling alone or with a partner, the Tuscan countryside provides a picturesque backdrop for the hotel’s intimate spaces.

At the end of their stay, each artist is asked to leave a work they’ve created that is meaningful to Villa Lena, and Goodmurphy is considering framing a new poem. Per this tradition, Lena Evstafieva, the president of the property, has accumulated many parting gifts in the near decade since she left London’s Pace Gallery for the villa. Some become part of the property forever, like the colorful textiles Nadine Goepfert designed—an abstract tablecloth, a whimsical napkin. Many keep a part of Villa Lena close when away—Evstafieva has a work by Bradley Kerl that she purchased for her home in Florence. “I always loved his style of painting,” she gushes, explaining that his work is “a recreation of a recreation.” The work has a villa-inspired backstory: the textile artist Tatiana Andersen Camre had been so taken by San Michele’s landscape that she captured a photo of it with flowers framing her view. “Kerl saw the photo on Instagram, fell in love with it, and painted it,” says Evstafieva. “Now it’s mine.”

In addition to the artist foundation and the expected luxuries of travel (two pools, secluded villas with private plunges, an impressive vineyard that renders two varying Sangioveses and one sparkling rosé, organic vegetable patches, flower gardens, and smart food snacks) there is an eye-catching light and rain pavilion at the far end of the Fattoria. A large skylight pours streams of sunrays on top of a bed of smooth water. Set before a dried flower installation delicately blowing in the Italian breeze, it’s a serene space to reflect on the greater complications of life. Needing a vacation from a vacation is not an uncommon feeling while traveling, but here at Villa Lena—beside the bamboo forests, nibbling flakey focaccia soaked in the ground’s freshpressed olive oil, and surrounded by artists— the thought never occurs to me. Even if you’re working… no, never.

GOOD COMPANY Vintage Art Deco objects and rare, Italian Radical furniture decorate private spaces and guest rooms, adding a high-concept sense of design to the art-focused hotel.

Close and Away

Stylish hotels from the Hamptons to Hong Kong

The wood-shingled Main House at the Roundtree is close to 125 years old and sits regally on Main Street, a stroll away from shops like Love Adorned, Lazypoint, and Amber Waves, the organic farm stand with a cult following. From the sidewalk, the Roundtree looks like a beautiful family home (the site originally belonged to one of the town’s first founding families). But once you slip down the gravel driveway, you are immersed into a lush, private paradise. Located on two manicured acres, the Roundtree has five stand-alone cottages (one of which is more than 250 years old), eight spacious guest rooms, and two-bedrooms in

THE STILL LIFE Left: the Roundtree offers guests bikes to get around town. Right: dogs are welcome at the Roundtree hotel.

the Main House. There is also a fully restored, 100-year-old barn and an expansive lawn where guests can lounge about on chaises while their pets roam free (dogs are welcome) and then indulge in the popular ice cream happy hour every afternoon. And for big spenders, there is the Beach House, a four-bedroom, five-bath house on nearby Surf Drive that once belonged to playwright Neil Simon.

The feel is completely residential—as if a friend with impeccable taste lent you their Hamptons hideaway for a few days (or weeks— you won’t want to ever check out). The décor has a Zen-like quality (dinnerware was commissioned by an artisan in Bali, rattan light fixtures hang overhead, and dining room tables are by Danish design house Vipp). It’s all best described as quiet luxury, replete with plush Matouk towels and crisp Frette sheets. It’s like Aman opened in the Hamptons. “I followed a very simple

approach,” owner Sylvia Wong tells Avenue. “I designed and furnished the cottages and rooms as if I or my family or dear friends were to stay there. Luxury is often associated with opulence. I prefer luxury when it is understated and simple.”

Even if you don’t splurge for the Beach House, the famously majestic and uncrowded Amagansett dunes are moments away. The hotel has an electric buggy to chauffeur you to the sand and will set up umbrellas, beach chairs, and towels as well as a cooler for you. When you’re ready to head back to the hotel, a driver scoops you up with a cool refreshment.

“Travel has always been one of my passions,” says Wong, who jetted around the globe for her past jobs. “I set out to create a beautiful property where guests are looked after, where they can experience the Hamptons at its best, and where happy memories are created.”—PETER

DAVIS

IT’S LIT The firepit in the Roundtree’s secluded, expansive back lawn.

L.A. the Right Way

Brit-chic and Cali-cool comingle like an international movie star couple at the Maybourne Beverly Hills. Checking in next to Catherine Zeta-Jones, casual in her Chanel kicks, was the perfect “welcome to LA” moment. Like the Oscarwinning actress, the Maybourne’s lobby exudes luxe grandeur (marble floors, opulent flower arrangements) with a youthful West Coast vibe. Art is everywhere, with a focus on Californian artists such as Ed Ruscha, Mary Weatherford, Kort Havens, Harmony Korine, and Jennifer Guidi, as well as names from around the globe including Damien Hirst, Petra Rös-Nickel, and JR.

Formerly the long-forgotten Montage hotel, the nine-floor Maybourne was completely redone with rooms and suites by Bryan O’Sullivan, who was named Interior Designer of the Year in 2020

SKY HIGH The handpainted ceiling in the dining room of Dante, The Maybourne’s scenes rooftop restaurant.

by Elle Decoration UK. The designer’s signature curvy couches, tabletops, and chairs (all custommade for the hotel) are perfect, mimicking the flow of ocean waves against a soothingly subtle pastel palette. The suites—with curated libraries (think: art tomes, a history of LA punk, and Bret Easton Ellis’s Less Than Zero) and massive walk-in closets for when multiple red-carpet looks are needed—feel more like Bev Hills pied-à-terres than hotel rooms. And with white-glove service a ping away, you’ll want to move in, permanently.

Nestled in Beverly Hills’ Golden Triangle, near the Gucci, Prada, Hermès et al. mega-shops, the Maybourne’s indoor/outdoor tucked-away eatery, the Terrace, has become the city’s newest power-lunch spot. It’s where Hollywood agents and actors perch amongst the verdant foliage and towering palm trees of the Beverly Cañon Gardens. Naturally, Chef Kaleo Adams serves seasonal cuisine with lots of healthy dishes: no one dares to carb load in LA. Order the seafood (Adams’ fare is influenced by his childhood in Hawaii) and save your calorie intake for the just-opened rooftop Italian restaurant Dante, which debuts its first location outside of New York. Steps from the pool and cabanas with views of the Hollywood Hills, the martini-favorite is officially Beverly Hills’ hippest hangout, with a mix of table-hopping Bel Air grande dames and Los Feliz creatives.

Like the latest blockbuster, the Maybourne Beverly Hills—the first U.S. property from the Maybourne Hotel Group, which is behind old-guard London stalwarts Claridge’s, the Connaught, and the Berkeley—is the buzz of the town. The hotel’s 20,0000-square-foot spa has an over-the-top tiled riad-style mineral pool and is the ideal spot to beautify yourself before a premiere, people watch, and, of course, make deals. This is LA, after all. —pD

SPLISH-SPLASH In addition to a rooftop pool, the spa’s skylit immersion plunge offers sweet relief from the LA heat.

THE 20,0000-SQUARE-FOOT SPA HAS AN OVER-THE-TOP TILED RIAD-STYLE MINERAL POOL AND IS THE IDEAL SPOT TO BEAUTIFY YOURSELF BEFORE A PREMIERE, PEOPLE WATCH, AND, OF COURSE, MAKE DEALS.

REQUIRED READING

China’s Casa Karl

Coco Chanel never visited China, but over her lifetime the designer was enamored with chinoiserie motifs, filling her archetypal Parisian living quarters, French Riviera villa La Pausa, and hotel stays at the Ritz with ornate, coromandel folding screens and expensive East Asian fabrics. It was a fascination shared by her most famous successor Karl Lagerfeld, and in his 36-year grandiose tenure at the French fashion house— as well as at others, like Fendi, for whom he staged a fashion show on top of the Great Wall in 2007—he often brought the two cultures together, combining the lavishness of couture with the delicate beauty of Chinese artisanship. Now the memory of the late designer, who is celebrated at this year’s Costume Institute exhibition at the Met in New York, lives on forever at an eponymous hotel in Macau. Just opened in the city’s Grand Lisboa Palace Resort, the Karl Lagerfeld is the first and only luxury stay envisioned by the creative director, whose design team brought the property to life after his death in 2019. Each of the 271 rooms and suites fuse influences of classic Chinese design and contemporary Western aesthetics in unsurprisingly extravagant ways: from custom headboards inspired by Chinese coins representing good fortune to handmade porcelain vases from Jingdezhen and circular room dividers that recall Chinese moon gates. Works by Dutch artist Marcel Wanders, French sculptor Jean-Michel Othoniel, and Florentine lighting designer Terzani count some of Lagerfeld’s many specific commissions, but perhaps the most special was the creation of the hotel’s library. Featuring over 4,000 hand-chosen titles, the book lounge is a physical space to meditate on the designer, who kept a vast collection of around 300,000 books himself and once claimed, “My paradise is a library.” Now, with the Karl Lagerfeld, he’s created a paradise for us all. —JOSHUA

GLASS

Below: before his passing, Karl Lagerfeld selected 4,000 books from his private library to fill the halls of his first-ever hotel.

Canoodling at Canoe Place Inn

Once a no-go zone, West of the Canal—the Hamptons towns west of the Shinnecock Canal that include Quogue, Westhampton, and Hampton Bays—is becoming not only highly desired real estate, but also super stylish. You can thank the uber-luxe Canoe Place Inn & Cottages in Hampton Bays for transforming the area into a prime travel destination.

The location has a wildly colorful history. The skinny spit of land that Canoe Place Inn (or “CPI,” as habitués have dubbed the spot) occupies sits between Peconic and Shinnecock Bays, and was once called Niamuck, which means “the place between the fishing places,” by the local Native Americans who settled there. It was later renamed Canoe Place in 1697 and served as a way house and trading station before eventually becoming an inn and tavern in 1756. In 1902, the Waldorf Astoria’s Ernest A. Buchmuller took over and turned Canoe Place into a fashionable retreat that counted guests like Lucille Ball, Albert Einstein, and John D. Rockefeller as regulars. But in 1921 a fire destroyed everything— save for two chimneys. A decadently popular speakeasy popped up before being shut down by federal agents disguised as rich patrons. From the 1980s to 2000, Canoe Place Inn was a raucously loud nightclub complex that held concerts by Jon Bon Jovi, Led Zeppelin, and Billy Joel. When the venue died, the building was all but forgotten until 2005, when cousins Gregg and Mitchell Rechler stepped in to buy the six-acre property.

The largest commercial landowners in Long Island, the industriously creative Rechlers spent over a decade (and millions of bucks) transforming the massive 1922 Dutch Colonial Revival building, which was designed by William Lawrence Bottomley. They painstakingly restored the historic property and enlisted Brooklyn-based Workstead (of Le Rock and Jupiter fame) to redo the interiors, which include 20 guest suites and five cottages. Think nautical chic and a dash of Swedish austerity, with claw-foot tubs, canopy beds, and roaring fireplaces. The cottages, though, are what to book, and come fully loaded; with working kitchens, back porches to lay about, private firepits, and enormous bathrooms stocked with the cult beauty brand Costa Brazil, they feel more like fancy rental houses than hotel rooms. Even the most jaded, pampered Hamptonite will be impressed.

Canoe Place Inn manages to marry its colonial provenance with the feel of a five-star resort. There’s a glamorous Hollywood-style pool to swan around in, a spa from Onda Beauty, cofounded by Naomi Watts (book the transformative “Ultimate Lift Advanced” facial), a grand ballroom with soaring ceilings that can seat 300 for dinner (attention wedding planners), and an impressive art collection that includes an oversize deer sculpture by Tony Tasset in the garden and a Doug Aitken piece constructed from reclaimed denim swatches that commands the reception area. The hotel’s restaurant, the Good Ground Tavern (see our review on page 27) is impressively helmed by Relais & Châteaux veteran chef Ülfet Ralph and serves

locally sourced seafood (the bay is just across the street), homemade pastas, and open-oven pizzas with room for 100 indoors and 120 outdoors under a curving green, awning striped canopy. And, of course, there is a beach service that will transport you to a waiting paddleboard, kayak, or canoe—a stylish throwback to Canoe Place’s rich past. —PD

CHILL ZONE Top: relaxing in a room at Canoe Place Inn & Cottages. Below: the outdoor spaces at Canoe Place Inn are ideal for socializing.

Pins and Needles

Jackie Rogers was a muse to Coco Chanel and Federico Fellini before making a name for herself as a sharp-tongued fashion designer. Todd Plummer explains how a girl from Boston had society matrons in Manhattan, the Hamptons, and Palm Beach shaking.

It’s the mark of a legendary woman when the obituaries get your age wrong.

When Jackie Rogers passed away earlier this year, the New York Times wrote that she was 90 years old. A New York Social Diary essay written by David Savage, who had known Rogers personally for many years and coauthored much of her unpublished memoir, put her at 92. And back in 2010, Rogers had told Departures that she was “sixtysomethingish,” when, at the time, she would have been closer to 80. Lying about one’s age is a trick of the trade when it comes to building a larger-than-life persona—rumor has it, she picked up the habit while spending time with Coco Chanel, another famous age exaggerator—and by every measure, Rogers’ persona was larger than the largest lives.

At different times, Rogers had been a housewife, a model, arm candy during the heyday of Europe’s jet set, a big-band singer, and an aspiring actress, before eventually settling in New York City as a fashion designer. Who knew that a middle-class girl from Brookline, Massachusetts, would end up living such an over-the-top international, glamorous life?

Born in the early 1930s (we think) to a Prohibition-era rumrunner father and a hatmaker mother, Rogers married at a young age. She should have known that the confines of mid-century domestic life were not for her. This, after all, was a girl who would skip school to catch movies at the cinema. “My first significant memory is of looking at the mirror in my mother’s bedroom,” Rogers wrote in her unpublished memoir. “I was dressed up in her satin underwear, high heels flopping all around, and thinking, ‘One day I am getting out of here and moving to NYC. I am going to have a big apartment on Park Avenue, become a famous actress, and entertain the rich and famous.”

After annulling the brief and “ill-fated marriage” (as she put it), Rogers began that lifelong process of self-mythologizing and reinvention by doing what so many do: she moved to New York.

She rented a room at the Mayflower Hotel on Central Park West with her sister, Pat, modeling by day and studying acting at the Stella Adler Studio by night. A hostess job at El Morocco introduced her to some of the period’s most outsized and notorious men, including organized crime boss Frank Costello. At the end of that decade, after a few fast and loose years dating and beguiling powerful men of means, Rogers moved to Europe to begin yet another era of her life.

Overnight, the girl from Brookline became part of European society. She befriended the film producer Sam Spiegel and summered on his yacht on the Côte d’Azur. She rubbed elbows with

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

A FILM BY EMMANUEL CARRÈRE

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Aristotle Onassis, Grace Kelly, Greta Garbo, and visited Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí in their studios. While having her hair done one weekend in Paris, she heard Coco Chanel was looking for models, and was hired at the same time as Betty Catroux.

Chanel allegedly called Rogers “The Cowboy,” perhaps because she was so coarse and American-seeming to the European elite, but also because her broad shoulders lent themselves to draping fabric (the designer famously preferred draping to sketching). Becoming a muse to one of the most famous fashion designers of all time was essentially an accident; just like her happenstance meeting of Federico Fellini, who she was introduced to through her then-roommate, the Italian actress Laura Betti. Rogers charmed him so successfully that he cast her in an uncredited bit part in his 1963 classic 8½.

Eventually, Rogers tired of wintering in the Alps and summering on the Mediterranean and returned to New York City to establish a menswear business on Madison Avenue in the mid-1960s, using her society connections to start dressing celebrities such as Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman. Her decision to work in menswear was influenced by none other than Chanel herself. “I worked for Chanel in Paris and she said, ‘Don’t go near those women, they’ll drive you insane,’” Rogers once explained. “She wasn’t too far wrong.”

And yet, over the next ten years, Rogers began to dabble in womenswear. It was during this time that she became increasingly known for her fiery temperament, her cutting wit, and sharp tongue—a certain Bostonian directness that never left her. Her booming voice (a “streetwise,

’50’s lingo that has completely vanished,” as Fran Lebowitz once described it) was intimidating and infamous, something that attracted men yet terrified women. She was a designer, yet she was all about the business of selling clothes. “We don’t work from genius, we’re tradespeople,” Rogers once declared, recalling some advice Chanel had given her about the fashion industry. “We don’t hang clothes in galleries to be seen; we sell them.”

That drive to always get her way in business would become her legacy. One urban legend alleges that Rogers delivered a bridal gown to a high-powered businesswoman in the wrong color: peach, not coral. Instead of incurring the wrath of Rogers, the client said nothing, and quietly redid the colors and table settings for her entire wedding.

Things really started to change for Rogers when Lee Radziwill became a regular client in the ’70s, preferring Rogers’ minimalist, classic designs to so much of the gaudiness happening at that time. Radziwill eventually brought her sister, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, to the store, and Rogers began creating pieces for her children

as well, including John-John’s high school graduation suit. From then on, her business enjoyed a loyal clientele of society ladies. She eventually opened stores in Manhattan, Southampton, and Palm Beach.

Her hot takes were the stuff of legend, and she was never afraid to tell it like it is. In a 2010 TV interview, Rogers plainly stated that Jackie O was anything but a fashion legend: “She was a terrific girl, but she really didn’t care about clothes very much. Everybody’s made her into this icon, I guess, about fashion, and I don’t really think she was that interested in it. I would tell her how to dress and what to wear. She was more interested in what I had to say.”

Rogers kept her businesses going for over 50 years, closing her last store in Palm Beach in 2021. She passed away in a New York City hospice in January of this year. With her death, it’s hard not to feel that a certain era has ended—an era of modeling for Chanel and acting for Fellini, of rubbing elbows with mafiosos, of dreaming out loud and screaming even louder, and, perhaps, of shaving more than a few years off your age.

CO CO CHANEL ALLEGEDLY CALLED ROGERS “THE COWBOY,” PERHAPS BECAUSE SHE WAS SO COARSE AND AMERICAN-SEEMING T O THE EUROPEAN ELITE.

DESIGNING WOMAN Left: Rogers showcasing her spring collection in 2015 in New York.

Facing page: Rogers modeling in the 1950s.

EVAN ROSS K ATZ

You’re an Instagram sensation, Evan.

I was an early adopter. I saw everyone posting selfies but that never interested me. I was always more of the type putting out headlines and reacting to pop culture news.

When you were young were you always into fandom?

I come from a time before the Internet when you really had to work for it. I was part of legit fan clubs, like [for] The Mickey Mouse Club. I wasn’t allowed to stay up and watch Letterman or Jay Leno, so I would have to get a VHS and tape them to watch the next day after school. I’m a gay kid from a small town; putting my energy into the fantasy of Hollywood and celebrity was the best form of escapism.

You wrote Into Every Generation a Slayer is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts (Hachette Books, 2022), the ultimate fandom tome on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Is that your pop culture origin story?

There were a lot of parallels between Buffy the character’s journey and mine. The outsiderness she felt really resonated with me, and it became very central to my identity growing up. My bar mitzvah was Hollywood themed. I got these cutouts of [series’ star] Sarah Michelle Gellar imported from Japan.

Do you have to live your life logged into Instagram to do what you do?

I have a couple rules. When I’m at dinner or engaged in a social setting, I will not be on Instagram. I don’t want to live my life in a way where it’s impeding my ability to socialize.

The author, podcaster, and pop culture expert’s Instagram page has become a celebrity clubhouse with loyal followers (and now friends) including Pedro Pascal, Jamie Lee Curtis, and muse-turned-collaborator Sarah Michelle Gellar. Upon the launch of his new newsletter, “Shut Up Evan,” Peter Davis learns the secret sauce to his digital success and exactly how he became so chummy with Jennifer Coolidge.

You have a Lee Pace obsession.

I began as a fan, even though now his husband, Matthew, is one of my dearest friends. I loved Lee on Pushing Daisies, and then I saw a magazine spread he had done, and I was like, “Holy fuck, Lee Pace is really hot. The world needs to know.” I started captioning photos of him: “6’5” Actor Lee Pace.” That caught on. Now everyone loves Lee.

Who are your other celeb crushes?

I’ve been on the Manu Ríos train for some time. He is going to have a crossover moment because he’s in the new Pedro Almodóvar film [Strange Way of Life] with Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, who I did a play with in the city ten years ago. That’s going to be the moment where everyone else catches on to Manu. Will Poulter is someone else I’m really into. These aren’t subversive picks by any means; they’re just people that are worth keeping an eye on.

How do you get your pop culture fix?

Random people that follow me will send me stuff, but it’s mostly through my group chats and friends that share a similar sensibility. I try and stay on the Jennifer Coolidge beat, though, that’s my tried and true.

And now she’s your pal IRL.

I remember when she first sent me a DM. I posted a screenshot. That was my bat-signal to people, like, “We’ve made contact.” Then I got her on my podcast. Have you ever gotten in hot water with a celebrity?

You can get a lot of attention going after people online, and I once was someone that enjoyed that. But several years ago, I started to think about how much toxicity exists in our culture—especially on the Internet—and I decided I didn’t want to contribute to more of it. This is the challenge at my current juncture: I have a proximity to a lot of these people now thanks to what began as parasocial relationships. And as a result, there becomes a sort of protectiveness. I’m never going to say anything bad about someone that I’m friends with.

I bet as a young boy, you never thought you’d be getting DMs from Jamie Lee Curtis.

That happened because I wrote about my love of Jamie for British Vogue—I wrote that they should erect a statue of her—and she responded to it. The older you get, your paradigm shifts. My dreams have come true on so many levels. Meeting Sarah Michelle Gellar and becoming friends with my childhood idol was the apex for me. But you realize things when you have proximity to famous people: the sadness, the loneliness, and the misconceptions out there about what it means to be famous. Although I see the highs of fame, I see the lows, too.

You mostly riff about famous folks, but your recent engagement post got over 1,300 comments.

I am not interested in being a famous person. I like to be the arbiter; the person with my camera behind the photographer, capturing that moment between takes when famous people are not camera ready. Those are the moments I live for—seeing the realness within the gloss of celebrity. But if I get engaged, I’ll post about it. And I’ll take a selfie if my skin looks particularly good.

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