The Life of a Showman
KELLY WEARSTLER Introduces Her Side Hustle
JAY JEFFERS
A High-Tech Haven for a Meta Mogul
BOB MACKIE
TESSA THOMPSON’S Star Power and Style Prowess
Christian Dior
BEVERLY HILLS SOUTH COAST PLAZA WYNN LAS VEGAS
Van Cleef & Arpels
Van Cleef & Arpels
Brilliant. This issue is brimming with Californians living their passions at the highest level, and the word feels just right.
Take our jewelry feature — starring original supermodel Karen Alexander, captured by Victor Demarchelier, and styled by the incomparable Paul Cavaco — in a series that channels the poise and drama of John Singer Sargent. Her luminous gaze complements the incredible jewels: animal bracelets, coiled snake cuffs, and golden treasures to create portraits worthy of the Gilded Age. Her own resilience, having lost her home during the Altadena fires earlier this year, only makes her glow brighter.
Our cover star, Tessa Thompson, continues to define what it means to lead on- and off-screen. A born-and-bred Californian, she moves seamlessly between acting and producing, carving a career built to last while lighting up the red carpet. Shot in a John Lautner home with views of the Hollywood Hills, her portfolio presents the season’s most sultry designs.
Editors’ Picks
This month’s wish list
CARTIER
Watch, $44,000, cartier.com
CHANEL
Handbag, $5,600, chanel.com
Founders Note
For those dreaming of escape, Jay Jeffers’ newest project in Carmel Valley is the ultimate winter retreat: a ground-up modern estancia for a tech mogul that marries the rugged California landscape with timeless elegance of a stone barn. While in Beverly Hills, Kelly Wearstler’s Side Hustle gallery, which features a collaboration with Sam Klemick, brings a new stage to the inventive, boundary-pushing spirit of Los Angeles design.
And as we are at the most glamorous time of the year, who better to sit down with than designer Bob Mackie? His six-decade career has shaped the sparkle of the City of Angels — from Cher to Madonna, Miley Cyrus to Sabrina Carpenter — and an upcoming L.A. auction of his work transports you to a sequined, showstopping world of California maximalism. Shine on!
JENNIFER SMITH Founder, Editorial Director and CEO
DIOR Bow, $820, dior.com
On the Cover
Photography by KURT ISWARIENKO. Fashion Direction by KATIE MOSSMAN.
Hair by KIM KIMBLE at The Only Agency. Makeup by ALEX BABSKY at The Visionaries Agency.
TESSA THOMPSON wearing TOM FORD and DAVID WEBB.
IWC Ingenieur. Form und Technik.
Ingenieur Automatic 35, Ref. 3249
It’s no secret that some engineers have slimmer wrists than others. So, for them, we’ve created the new Ingenieur Automatic 35. Crafted entirely from 18 ct 5N gold, we housed the watch in a case measuring 35 millimeters in diameter, paying particular attention to the proportions of the case, bezel and bracelet to guarantee perfect ergonomics and wear ability. Despite its compact dimensions, this model has all the design features you’d expect of an IWC Ingenieur, such as Gérald Genta’s unmistakable artistic signature, a bezel with five screws and a grid-patterned dial. Which goes to show that caliber is often more than a question of mere size. IWC. Engineered.
TWENTY AND TIMELESS
C Magazine celebrates two decades with a series of soirées
VINCE SKELLY
The artist who turns fallen trees into furniture
58
STATUS SHIELD
Is a security detail the ultimate flex? 64
TESSA THOMPSON
The actor-producer is a triple threat of style, substance, and self-possession 78
KELLY WEARSTLER & SAM KLEMICK
Talk craft, collaboration, and staying ahead of the design curve 84
JEWELRY PORTFOLIO
Original supermodel Karen Alexander sits for her portrait in sparkling gems
92
BOB MACKIE
Six decades of showstopping designs are celebrated in a new auction
98
JAY JEFFERS
How the interiors guru created a modern estancia for a tech mogul
WEDDING SPECIAL
Nuptials in Santa Ynez, Santa Barbara, and Beverly Hills
Coastal
ZEN MOMENT
How Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt relaxes
FEATURING
EXCLUSIVE
VIDEOS
We go behind the scenes with the Hedda actor
STYLE NEWS
The hottest trends of the season
DESIGN
Haute homes from California’s foremost tastemakers
Laurent Perrier
JENNIFER SMITH
Founder, Editorial Director & CEO
JENNY MURRAY Editor & President
Style & Content Director ANDREW BARKER | Creative & Design Director JAMES TIMMINS
Beauty Director
KELLY ATTERTON
Contributing Fashion Editor
REBECCA RUSSELL
Senior Editors
GINA TOLLESON
ELIZABETH VARNELL
Photo Editor
LAUREN WHITE
Graphic Designer
DEAN ALARI
Managing Editor
SARAH RUTLEDGE
Masthead
Contributing Editors: Caroline Cagney, Elizabeth Khuri Chandler, Kendall Conrad, Kelsey McKinnon, David Nash, Stephanie Rafanelli, Diane Dorrans Saeks, Nathan Turner
Contributing Writers: Anush J. Benliyan, Max Berlinger, Catherine Bigelow, Samantha Brooks, Alessandra Codinha, Kerstin Czarra, Helena de Bertodano, Richard Godwin, Robert Haskell, Martha Hayes, Christine Lennon, Degen Pener, Jessica Ritz, S. Irene Virbila, Chris Wallace
Contributing Photographers: Juan Aldabaldetrecu, Christian Anwander, Guy Aroch, Mark Griffin Champion, Gia Coppola, Roger Davies, Victor Demarchelier, Amanda Demme, Francois Dischinger, Graham Dunn, Sam Frost, Adrian Gaut, Lance Gerber, Alanna Hale, Rainer Hosch, Bjorn Iooss, Danielle Levitt, Blair Getz Mezibov, Dewey Nicks, Frank Ockenfels, David Roemer, Jessica Sample, Jack Waterlot, Ben Weller
Contributing Fashion Directors: Chris Campbell, Cristina Ehrlich, Petra Flannery, Fabio Immediato, Maryam Malakpour, Katie Mossman, Jessica Paster, James Sleaford, Christian Stroble, Samantha Traina
RENEE MARCELLO Publisher
Executive Director, West Coast
SUE CHRISPELL
Director Digital, Sales & Marketing
AMY LIPSON
Sales Development Manager
Executive Director, Information Technology
SANDY HUBBARD
LEILA ALLEN
ANNE MARIE PROVENZA Controller
C PUBLISHING
2064 ALAMEDA PADRE SERRA, SUITE 120, SANTA BARBARA, CA 93103 T: 310-393-3800 SUBSCRIBE@MAGAZINEC.COM MAGAZINEC.COM
New York–based photographer Victor Demarchelier, who shot the jewelry portfolio for this issue (“The Gilded Gaze,” p. 84), has worked with fashion clients like Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein, Dior, H&M, and Lancôme. Editorial collaborations include Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Numéro, Esquire, GQ, and Interview. He has also held exhibitions in galleries including A. Galerie, Karl Hutter Fine Art, and Camera Work. MY C SPOTS Peterson Automotive Museum • American Contemporary Ballet • Hearst Castle.
Ira Madison III is a cultural critic and author of the nationally best-selling Pure Innocent Fun: Essays. For this issue, he penned our cover story on actor-producer Tessa Thompson, “Heroine of the Day” (p. 64). He lives in New York City. MY C SPOTS Found Oyster has the best oysters in L.A. • Joinery, the only place to stop for lunch in Sausalito on the drive back to San Francisco from Napa • Damian DTLA, from the same team behind two of my favorite spots: Cosme in New York and Pujol in Mexico City.
Contributors
The author of “The Barn Identity” (p. 98), our profile on Jay Jeffers, Elizabeth Khuri Chandler is a cofounder of Goodreads who has written for a range of national and international publications. Her work is also featured in the anthology The End of the Golden Gate. She is currently preparing for the relaunch of her podcast, Books of Your Life with Elizabeth. She lives in Santa Barbara. MY C SPOTS Lounge at the Coral Casino in Montecito • Wine Tasting at Les Petites Canailles in Paso Robles • Music Center in L.A. to watch some top-notch dance.
Kurt Iswarienko is the lensman behind our cover and feature on Tessa Thompson (“Heroine of the Day,” p. 64). He shoots intimate emotional portraits that are like close-ups inside vast cinematic panoramas. His career has taken him around the world shooting advertising and entertainment campaigns for a range of clients, including Lincoln, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Visa, Delta, Universal, Sony, Netflix, Amazon, and Apple. MY C SPOTS Carnitas Michoacan (the original one on Broadway near Chinatown) • The beaches in Santa Barbara • Palm Springs for desert air.
IRA MADISON III
VICTOR DEMARCHELIER
ELIZABETH KHURI CHANDLER
KURT ISWARIENKO
Caruso WINTERLAND
Discover Holiday Happenings
Photos with Santa Tree Lightings
Menorah Lightings
Nightly Snowfall
Live Entertainment
Exclusive Offers
Twenty and Timeless
In honor of its 20th anniversary, C MAGAZINE gathered its muses and tastemakers at a series of soirées
A T E M E N T S
Top row, from left: C Magazine ’s James Timmins, Jennifer Smith, Jenny Murray, Andrew Barker; C ’s 20th Anniversary issue; B. Akerlund and Johnson Hartig; California Dream State at Ralph Lauren. Second row, from left: Buck Palmer and Alessandra Ambrosio; Carolyn Murphy, Jennifer Smith, Cindy Crawford; Cindy Crawford.
Third row, from left: Mitch Glazer and Kelly Lynch; Montecito dinner celebrating California Dream State ; Victor Demarchelier, Cindy Crawford, Matthew Brookes; Doug Aitken. Bottom row, from left: Rosetta Getty; California Dream State ; Bo Derek, Jennifer Smith, John Corbett.
Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL
Twenty years after C Magazine’s launch party at Chateau Marmont, the hotel’s courtyard was again abuzz with an alfresco anniversary dinner that brought together Cindy Crawford, who graced the 20th Anniversary issue’s cover, along with former cover stars Carolyn Murphy and Alessandra Ambrosio; California designers Nick Fouquet, Rosetta Getty, Monique Lhuillier, Greg Chait (The Elder Statesman), and Johnson Hartig (Libertine); artists Doug Aitken, Alex Israel, and Simon Haas; and chef Dominique Crenn.
Statement - Turn
The night brought to life the elegance of California living as documented in the book.
A week earlier, flickering candles lit the entrance to Ralph Lauren’s Rodeo Drive flagship as guests gathered to celebrate C Magazine’s first book, California Dream State: Stylish Living From Canyon to Coast. The palm trees swayed in the breeze, much as they do in the volume covering two decades of people and places across the state from Palm Springs to Big Sur, San Francisco to Sonoma, and Malibu to San Diego. The magic continued to unfold up the coast in Montecito as Ralph Lauren and C Magazine founder Jennifer Smith hosted an intimate dinner under the stars at a private home. Guests wandered through cypresses and hedgerows at dusk, sipping cocktails from the garden bar before gathering at a long dining table beautifully set by Ralph Lauren Home. The dinner continued the celebration of C Magazine’s book and the night brought to life the effortless elegance of California living as documented in the volume’s pages.
A curated weekend of fashiondriven gatherings and an editor’s panel followed at Maison Miramar, held at Rosewood Miramar Beach.
C Magazine’s founder and the publication’s editors discussed the new book’s themes. A story on actor Kelly Lynch and screenwriter Mitch Glazer’s Richard Neutra house in Lone Pine encapsulated many of them, from its mountain location to its starry owners and their love of fashion and design. •
Top row, from left: Valerie von Sobel; Paul Cavaco and Cayli Cavaco Reck; Elaine Irwin, Cindy Crawford, Karen Alexander. Second row, from left: Jennifer Smith; Ethan Tobman and Dominique Crenn; Chateau Marmont. Bottom : C editors Andrew Barker, Jenny Murray, James Timmins, Jennifer Smith, and Gina Tolleson at Maison Miramar.
GREAT GRAINS
CHERRY ON TOP
Statement - Style News
BOUCHERON’s Quatre collection — known for distinct bands patterned with Clou de Paris that evoke Parisian cobblestones and ribbon references to haute couture — is undergoing a transformation in the hands of Claire Choisne, the French jewelry house’s creative director. With water as a guiding idée fixe, she traveled to Iceland to see the contrast between the country’s black sand and blue water for the new Quatre Sand capsule collection. In a nod to
SET IN STONE
A carved facade of slip-cast white blocks evoking POMELLATO ’s square-shaped Nudo gemstone motif, and the L.A. commissions of architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, gives the Italian fine jeweler’s new Rodeo Drive flagship a bold new geometric look. Each hand-cast porcelain tile produced in Nove is unique, and the grid-like exterior is as
Choisne’s ongoing search for innovative methods and materials, the house used a 3D-printing technique borrowed from auto and aeronautics industries to layer sand (barely a millimeter thick) onto geometric cuff bracelets and bangles. The black grains pair with brushed yellow gold in a seven-piece set: a large bracelet, two smaller versions, and four bangles designed to be worn separately or stacked for a bold, maximalist effect. 449 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills, 424-421-3993; boucheron.com E.V.
The culmination of a twodecade partnership between French fashion house LOUIS VUITTON and Japanese contemporary artist TAKASHI MURAKAMI is marked by the release of the third and final installment of their re-edition collection. The collaboration introduces a playful resort capsule featuring more than 70 pieces — including bags and luggage, footwear, a bicycle, silk squares, and bag charms — featuring Murakami’s distinctive mark. The Tokyo-based artist, known for his techniques alongside the vibrant, commercial aesthetics of anime, manga, and pop art, brings a splash of animation. A central feature is his signature ultra-glossy cherry icon. This motif is depicted on the house’s signature bag creations, including Speedy, Side Trunk, and Capucines. louisvuitton. com. R.R.
1. Quatre Sand, BOUCHERON’s bold new collection, pairs black sand with yellow gold. 2. LOUIS VUITTON x TAKASHI MURAKAMI’s final re-edition collection. 3. POMELLATO brings geometric flair to Rodeo Drive.
striking as the Montenapoleone Red interiors mixed with hues of pink and hand-painted and embroidered silk wallpapers by MISHA Milano artisans lit with a sculptural Paysage chandelier by 6:AM Glassworks. The front door handle takes its shape from the Iconica collection’s emblematic ring, evoking the jewelry designs displayed inside. 445 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills, 310-550-5639; pomellato.com. E.V.
Italian architectural mainstays — modernized to optimum effect — shape the newly redesigned BOTTEGA VENETA boutique in Costa Mesa, where multicolored terrazzo tiling covers floors, ceilings, walls and even shelves and tables. Furniture constructed in Italian walnut holds the house’s inimitable intrecciato leather handbags, clutches, shoes, sunglasses, accessories, and all manner of luggage. The newly launched, made-in-Vicenza fine jewelry collection is here, crafted from ethically sourced gold and diamonds with pieces shaped into the house’s Drop motif and other designs. Come February, creative director Louise Trotter’s debut ready-to-wear will arrive. 3333 Bristol St., South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, 714-540-9760; bottegaveneta.com.
ICE, ICE BABY
Statement - Style News
WEBB SITE
DAVID WEBB ’s imaginative trove of animals encrusted in colored gemstones have arrived in Montecito at the jewelry house’s new Rosewood Miramar Beach boutique. Webb, who was known to draw up ideas at his desk daily, left an archive of nearly 100,000 sketches. Most have never been produced, and a team of long-tenured master jewelers on New York’s Upper East Side continues to create new pieces based on Webb’s designs for his namesake stores. The bold baubles are derived from the archive, complete with colorful enamel work or the precise hammering patterns that he pioneered and the stones he favored, including coral, azurmalachite, turquoise, and a host of colorful gemstones. 1759 S. Jameson Ln., Montecito, Rosewood Miramar Beach, 310-858-8006; davidwebb.com. E.V.
TORY BURCH ’s newly relocated Costa Mesa boutique is taking a page from the design of her Rodeo Drive flagship, itself recently renovated to include eclectic decor in line with her everevolving eye. A marble tilework floor was inspired by Italian architect Carlos Scarpa, and the new shop includes a bespoke daybed and ceramic pieces hand-
Elaborating on the concept of evolution, CHOPARD ’s most recent iteration of its high jewelry capsule collection, Ice Cube — which launched in 1999 and developed into a high jewelry collection in 2024 — is characterized by sophisticated urban design and geometric precision. The Swiss house’s sharp, refined designs showcase a contemporary composition, featuring statement necklaces, versatile pins, luminous bracelets, and striking rings. Crafted from highly reflective, polished, and ethically sourced rose and white gold, with some cubes set with diamond brilliants, the modular designs offer adaptability for any occasion. “I wanted the pieces to feel like modern art for the body,” says artistic director Caroline Scheufele. chopard.com. R.R.
selected by the designer as well as a high-gloss oxblood-hued etagere. The boutique also houses ready-to-wear and accessories like Pierced handbags and Reva ballet flats behind a facade of green ceramic tiles. Vibrant tapestry jacquards on high-back chairs are designed in-house, along with all the holiday-ready looks. 3333 Bristol St., South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, 714-6890450; toryburch.com. E.V.
1. BOTTEGA VENETA has modernized its SCP boutique. 2. The Ice Cube collection at CHOPARD is red hot. 3. DAVID WEBB debuts at Rosewood Miramar Beach. 4. Visit reimagined TORY BURCH at SCP.
BURCH BOX
Statement - Trend
Wrap up in sumptuous layers and cozy knits when you make for the mountains
Edited by REBECCA RUSSELL
1. BOUCHERON earrings, $14,150. 2. MARCO BICEGO necklace, $37,950. 3. G/FORE vest, $325. 4. POLO RALPH LAUREN snood, $128. 5. GENNY sweater, $1,150. 6. LOEWE scarf, $850. 7. BURBERRY coat, $2,595. 8. GIORGIO ARMANI boots, $3,295. 9. IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN watch, $11,200. 10. BALENCIAGA bag, $3,090.
MARA RESORT 26
Photo by Kelly Marshall, shot on location in
LIP SERVICE
Marilyn Minter’s mouths have arrived at REGEN PROJECTS alongside steamy new paintings of sculptor Nick Cave, actor and activist Jane Fonda, and artists Jeff Koons and Cindy Sherman, herself a master of portraiture. The Southern-born, New York–based visual artist’s exploration of beauty and desire rendered in glossy enamel includes Odalisque paintings subverting the genre. Subjects Lizzo and Padma Lakshmi present themselves in defiant poses, attire, and accessories. Minter’s After Guston series of shoes and objects also furthers an ongoing conversation with the artist Philip Guston, who explored racism, social complicity, and the human condition in an earlier era. “These are loaded images,” Minter says. Through Dec. 20. 6750 Santa Monica Blvd., L.A., 310-276-5424; regenprojects.com. E.V.
GALLERY HOP
When Sara Lee Hantman opened SEA VIEW two-and-ahalf years ago, she didn’t want to open a gallery; instead, she wanted to create a space that was an intimate window into an artist’s work. This fall, the gallery has changed its address to Hollywood’s burgeoning gallery district, but the endeavor remains the same. Chosen to inaugurate the two-story gallery and apartment, in a 1930s Old Hollywood corner lot on N. Orange Drive and Fountain Avenue, is esteemed Mumbai-based artist Amitesh Shrivastava. His first solo exhibition in California, Talking to the Moon, is a meditation on the interconnectedness of all things, a collection of paintings that draw on his childhood in the dense forests of Chhattisgarh, India, by layering earthy browns with vibrant greens and oranges. 1300 N. Orange Dr., L.A., 323-2300362; sea-view.us. M.H.
Statement - art + design
HOUSE PROUD
JUST KAWS
Mined from a cross-section of pop culture and product design, KAWS characters, with their distinct X-shaped eyes and emotional expressions, have gathered at SFMOMA. Installed throughout the museum’s fourth floor, KAWS: Family chronicles three decades of the New Jersey–born artist’s work, from its graffiti origins to a globally recognized practice. In addition to largescale works and illustrations, there are cereal boxes, shoes, album covers, and even a loveseat made of plush animals (Bert and Ernie, we see you) created in partnership with Brazilian design Estúdio Campana. Through spring 2026. 151 3rd St., S.F., 415-357-4000; sfmoma.org E.V.
Behind eight-foot glass and bronzefinished doors, RH SAN DIEGO is filled with furniture and decor elements spanning 24,000 square feet and encompassing the line’s Interiors, Modern, and Outdoor collections as well as a selection of unique antiques and artifacts. Natural light and chandeliers cast a glow on parchment-cream plastered walls housing a plethora of room
arrangements on the first level. There are also outdoor lounge installations and an interactive workspace filled with design libraries brimming with textiles, furniture, and lighting. A grand staircase leads to one-off pieces collected during founder Gary Friedman’s travels abroad alongside rugs, bedding, drapery, and pillows. 4545 La Jolla Village Dr., Westfield UTC, San Diego, 858-7840575; rh.com. E.V.
1. Marilyn Minter, Lizzo Odalisque, at REGEN PROJECTS. 2. Amitesh Shrivastava’s Talking to the Moon is part of an exhibition by the same name at Sea View. 3. Catch Kaws at SFMOMA. 4. RH opens in San Diego.
TIME AND SPACE
Examining the nature of space and its many facets, from physicality to emotional and psychological responses, PACE ’s latest group exhibition, Land Marks , delves into the deeper meanings of the spaces we inhabit. Featuring more than 25 artworks from 17 international artists, the show traces life’s inscriptions on the world and how a “mark” can be colossal or insubstantial, deliberate or unexpected. Compositions by L.A.-based artists Jarvis Boyland, Patricia Iglesias Peco, and Kate Spencer Stewart explore themes of presence and vulnerability, while the gestural work of London-based Sophia Loeb digs into the sensorial dimensions of space and landscape. Curated by Joshua Friedman, with a strong emphasis on paintings, the visual feast reveals how the marks we make on the world cannot be separated from those we carry inside. Nov. 8, 2025–Jan. 17, 2026. 1201 S. La Brea Ave., L.A., 310-586-6886; pacegallery.com. D.N.
GOLD RUSH
RUG CLUB
Statement - art + design
At NORTON SIMON MUSEUM in Pasadena, an exploration of precious metal is timed to the 50th anniversary of the institution’s renaming. Gold: Enduring Power, Sacred Craft charts the material’s path through time and across the globe. Direct access to the element gave regions in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America power and authority; artists used it to convey wealth and status; and its beauty, durability, and ability to be shaped without corrosion is ideal for sacred images. The show explores artistic alchemy while the museum building itself ushers in a new golden age with the extensive restoration of 115,000 tiles initially designed by Edith Heath and a revitalization of the sculpture garden in partnership with Architectural Resources Group. Through Feb. 16, 2026. 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, 626-449-6840; nortonsimon.org E.V.
CERAMIC POETIC
Contemporary English artist, potter, and writer Edmund de Waal has a yearlong show at The Huntington in San Marino, and GAGOSIAN BEVERLY HILLS beckons enthusiasts and collectors with an exhibition of the artist’s newest works, including, for the first time, gilded vitrines to display the ornamental objets d’art. His distinctive porcelain
Industrial designer TREVOR CHENEY is no stranger to curating exceptional works for both his eponymous Melrose Avenue gallery and the Seventh House, the fine vintage and contemporary design gallery he founded in 2021. This fall, he is showcasing his six-piece swimming pool–inspired collection of rugs, a collaboration with textile designer CHRISTOPHER FARR at Frank Gehry’s 1960s Danziger Studio & Residence. Cheney says, “Translating those memories into rugs with Christopher Farr has been a way of turning movement and discipline into something tactile, architectural, and lasting.” For Farr, the collaboration was equally rewarding.
“Trevor’s approach aligns beautifully with our own philosophy: that a rug should not dominate a room, but rather elevate it, anchoring everything around it.” seventhhouse.la; christopherfarr.com. M.H.
1. Janaina Tschäpe, Ocean Heart , is on display at PACE. 2. Don’t miss the TREVOR CHENEY x CHRISTOPHER FARR collab.
3. NORTON SIMON MUSEUM has struck gold. 4. Edmund de Waal at GAGOSIAN.
vessels are arranged harmoniously alongside those incorporating materials like gold, silver, marble, alabaster, and Kilkenny stone. The show’s large-scale installations feature groupings of vessels that form topographies mirroring lines in sheet music and poems by T. S. Eliot and Louise Glück. Nov. 13–Dec. 20. 456 N. Camden Dr., Beverly Hills, 310-271-9400; gagosian .com. D.N.
PERSIAN PLATES
From a family kebab recipe, Tehran native Kian Samyani has grown BERENJAK , the cozy London spot he opened in 2018 into a restaurant group with outposts in Emirates, Dubai, Brooklyn, and now DTLA, all with the same menu and warm, hospitable vibe. In L.A., Berenjak moves into the private club Soho Warehouse, but the Persian restaurant is open to the public. You’ll want to head there for wood-fired sesame seeded flatbread, hummus made with black chickpeas and sunflower tahini, and velvety eggplant dishes. Juicy kebabs grilled over coal include a classic minced lamb shoulder seasoned with onions and black pepper, boneless chicken marinated in saffron and lemon, and barbecued prawns dosed with glorious Kashmiri chile. Come cooler weather, angle for a slow-simmered stew, maybe lamb and kidney beans, or eggplant and split yellow peas, both seasoned with dried lime and herbs. An Earl Grey martini with a hint of orange blossom is perfect. 1010 S. Santa Fe Ave., L.A.; berenjak.com. S.I.V.
PEAK PERFECT
Statement - Dining News
The famously chic, laid-back town of Montecito has a new restaurant to celebrate: LITTLE MOUNTAIN. Call it a neighborhood sophisticate, cozy in all the right ways, with lots of warm wood and leather banquettes. The center of the action is an open kitchen and a wood-burning grill where chef Diego Moya turns out a beautifully calibrated menu. No surprise: He has cooked all over the world, including at Astrid y Gastón in Lima, Nahm in Bangkok, Le Comptoir and L’Arpège in Paris, and Casa Mono in New York. The first menu lists local sea urchin with winter citrus, grilled pork with coal-roasted apples, and wild salmon with pistachio and embered greens. The cozy-cool interior comes courtesy of Venice Beach’s Andrew Cosbie. 516 San Ysidro Rd., Montecito; littlemountainsb.com. S.I.V.
1. Enjoy a Persian dinner at BERENJAK Wed. through Sat., 5:30–11 p.m. 2. Dining hours at LITTLE MOUNTAIN in Montecito are Wed. through Sun., 5–9 p.m. 3. Sip and snack at BAR AVOJA Thurs. through Sat., 6–11 p.m.
Want to spend an evening somewhere lush and somewhat private? BAR AVOJA is a secret bar tucked at the back of Mother Wolf, Evan Funke’s celebration of all things Roman. Velvet curtains, russet leather sofas, and soft lighting give the bar a cosseted feel, far removed from his exuberant Hollywood restaurant. Here, the allure is all about savoring Italian spritzes and complicated cocktails. Italians never drink without having a snack, so you’ll want the golden arancini, cacio e pepe, Funke’s signature focaccia, and a plate of marinated Cantabrian anchovies or a grilled octopus skewer. The wood-fired Palermo pizza is topped with onion sugo, caciocavallo cheese, wild oregano, and breadcrumbs. Then there’s Funke’s tribute to Wolfgang Puck’s famous smoked salmon pizza, which subs trout roe for the caviar. 1545 Wilcox Ave., L.A., 323-505-1077; baravoja.com. S.I.V.
SLOPE STYLE
For lives lived outdoors, LORO PIANA has devised avantgarde fabrics that are crafted into elegant designs but fortified to withstand plummeting temperatures and driving winds. The Italian house’s ski capsule is headlined by unisex Defender and Traveller jackets fitted with weightlessly thin Graphene weatherproof membranes. Ski jackets and trousers include Techno Bistretch 3L Storm material created using yarns from coffee waste with caffeine to boost circulation for body temperature regulation, and a collaboration with Roa on suede shearling-lined hiking boots includes performance rubber soles. 337 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills, 310-860-0765; 3333 Bristol St., South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, 714-432-1302; 233 Geary St., S.F., 415-593-3303; us.loropiana.com. E.V.
LADY LUCK
A multiplicity of styling possibilities is driving VAN CLEEF & ARPELS ’ latest launch, which encompasses changeable necklaces, reversible rings, and a fanciful Sweet Alhambra watch combining diamonds, chalcedony stones, guilloché white gold, and a bit of luck. Magic Alhambra necklaces, with shapes inspired by a fourleaf clover, transform from long strands to shorter versions. The variously sized motifs and lengths of chain are meticulously balanced for both iterations, and new English blade clasps ensure the mechanics work seamlessly. Vintage Alhambra rings mix white gold or rose gold and a centered diamond with a reversible gray mother-ofpearl or chalcedony emblems for a more casual look that can turn on a dime. 300 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills, 310-276-1161; 3333 Bristol St., South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, 714-545-9500; vancleefarpels.com. E.V.
Statement - Style News
HAPPY FEET
MANOLO BLAHNIK, known for its artistry and use of premium materials like silk and crystal buckle adornments, will open its inaugural Southern California boutique at South Coast Plaza. “Opening here is a tremendous honor,” the London-based designer says. “This historic center has long stood as a beacon of fashion and culture in California.” Conceptualized by Nick Leith-Smith Architecture and Design, the space spans 1,900 sq. ft. and features custom English houndstooth by Holland & Sherry adorning the chairs and benches and rotating wall slats that form floating shelves, ideal for showcasing shoes, bags, and accessories. The adaptable, tailored displays suit each new capsule, starting with the Fall/Winter 25 collection. 3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa; manoloblahnik.com. R.R.
ESSENTIALS REVISITED
At the heart of VERONICA BEARD ’s newly redesigned Fillmore boutique in San Francisco is a curved sofa covered in Guy Goodfellow chocolate brown fabric. Designed by Carolina de Neufville, the seating area is surrounded by curved walls covered in creamy grasscloth and floral Claremont curtains, as well as the clothes sisters-
1. The LORO PIANA ski capsule marries fashion with utility. 2. VAN CLEEF & ARPELS unveils an adaptable collection. 3. South Coast Plaza welcomes MANOLO BLAHNIK. 4. Stop by the revamped VERONICA BEARD.
in-law Veronica Swanson Beard and Veronica Miele Beard design for multitasking women. A seat in the middle of the boutique offers a perfect vantage point for viewing wardrobe staples like cold-weather essentials, festive dresses in fluid silk, faux mink outerwear, embellished Loop bags, croc-embossed Dash clutches, and maxi skirts. 2241 Fillmore St., S.F., 415-796-6445; veronicabeard.com. E.V.
AN L.A. STORY
Designer SANDER LAK was born in Brunei, studied menswear in London, and spent his formative years in Antwerp at Dries Van Noten before launching his label Sies Marjan in New York. It’s no wonder his recently launched namesake brand is rooted in a sense of place. What’s more surprising is that he would choose Los Angeles as the setting of the inaugural collection. But for a globe-trotting designer famous for his poetic use of color, it was hard not to feel the pull of the city of light. “There’s something about the light in Los Angeles that always gets me,” Lak says. “It’s soft, yet harsh and dry, and it settles over everything in this quiet way.” Expect L.A.-made denim and cotton in sun-bleached shades like corn masa, ocean eyes, desert sage, and strawberry milkshake, designed to be worn — like the sunshine itself — year-round. sanderlak.com. M.H.
GO WILD
Statement - Style News
REFORM CLUB
Celebrated for its sustainable women’s clothing, L.A.based fashion house REFORMATION , established in January 2009, has since expanded into bridal, accessories, and footwear. Following the triumph of a limited-edition jewelry capsule last winter — a collaboration with former Givenchy creative director Clare Waight Keller — the brand has launched a permanent luxe demi-fine jewelry collection. Bold and impactful earrings, cuffs, necklaces, pendants, and rings are meticulously crafted from recycled materials, including 24k gold, sterling silver, and brass. Showcasing a sophisticated and modern aesthetic, harmonizing contemporary elements with ’90s-inspired designs, the selection is designed to complement the brand’s signature feminine and romantic apparel. reformation.com. R.R.
PRADA ’s pastel green joins another of the Italian house’s signatures, black-and-white checkered marble floors (evoking its original Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II boutique), inside a new 5,000-sq.-ft. store at Westfield Topanga. A backlit facade with a three-dimensional triangular pattern leads to men’s and women’s ready-to-wear designed
Esteemed shoe brand JIMMY CHOO and womenswear designer CONNER IVES have unveiled a masterful collaboration, inspired by the Choo archives, that showcases ’70s glamour. First shown at Conner Ives’s Fall/ Winter 25 runway show in February, this Londonbased partnership between Ives and Sandra Choi, Choo creative director, developed custom animal print fabrics and color palettes through a synergistic effort. American-born designer Ives reconceptualized two iconic styles: the Gloria knee-high boot 85, which features a striking graphic cheetahand-zebra print, and the Gloria mule 88, a sleek silhouette distinguished by a sculptural stiletto heel. “Working with nextgeneration talent like Conner is so inspiring. His vision is bold, intelligent, and deeply personal.” Choi says. jimmychoo.com. R.R.
1. SANDER LAK has launched an eponymous brand. 2. JIMMY CHOO x CONNER IVES collab. 3. Explore the fine jewelry offerings at REFORMATION. 4. PRADA opens at Westfield Topanga.
by co–creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, including paper-bag-waist shifts and floral house dresses, shoes, and all manner of accessories. Wool and shearling designs for women are paired with boots, ballerina flats, and loafers. Men’s shirts and knitwear join trousers with sportswear details and denim. 6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Westfield Topanga, Canoga Park, 747-444-1138; prada.com. E.V.
GREEN MARKET
1. SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO romper, $3,100.
2. THE BACK VAULT DAVID WEBB earrings, $17,800. 3. DÔEN dress, $798. 4. BALENCIAGA sunglasses, $520. 5. HARRY WINSTON ring, price upon request.
6. ZIMMERMANN skirt, $1,350. 7. LOUIS VUITTON fan, $510.
8. HERMÈS sandals, $840. 9. DIOR bag, $3,450. 10. MARGOT McKINNEY cuff, price upon request.
11. FENDI wrappy, $250.
True Love Always
A PATH CARVING
needed to focus on the eagle’s talons.”
He came away with a couple of “pretty good” bears of his own, as well as a new appreciation for the unique properties and differences between the varieties of trees that are harvested across California. He spent 10 years honing his craft.
“I talked to an arborist, and he taught me about kiln drying to kill the bugs in the wood. I would rough out the form with a chain saw and throw it in the kiln, sand, oil, and finish it from there,” he says. “For the first year, I gave myself lessons as if I were in a sculpture class, making a sphere, an hourglass, then a three-legged stool. I evolved from there, looking at more ancient references, like Dolmens and other megalithic structures. There was this cool thing happening between megalithic design and mid-century modern design.”
Statement - Artist Profile
VINCE SKELLY turns fallen trees into monoliths in the footsteps of the California design giants
Vince Skelly was “timid” around power tools before he tried his hand at large-scale carved-wood sculptures. As a child of two painters who worked in academia, he was surrounded by infinite materials for experimentation and play in his family home in Claremont. But Skelly took a more practical detour on his career path: He went to San Francisco to study graphic design and was working, mostly happily, in Portland, Oregon. Then he had a change of heart.
“I never wanted to do art as a profession, so I went into graphic design to support myself,” Skelly says.
“Then, in 2011, I found Handcrafted Modern: At Home With Mid-Century Designers , a book by Leslie Williamson,
Words by CHRISTINE LENNON
and saw the feature on JB Blunk.”
Discovering Blunk’s rough-hewn aesthetic flipped a switch, especially the way he used fallen trees and stumps from the Northern California forests to build his own home in Inverness and blurred the line between sculpture and furniture with artful stools and tables. Skelly was inspired to experiment with small carved-wood objects in his garage, striving to imitate the deceptively simple geometry achieved by artists like Blunk, Constantin Brâncuşi, and Isamu Noguchi. To level up to larger sculptures, Skelly dove into a two-day course in chain saw carving.
“It was one of those kitschy roadside-attraction places where they had 200 bears carved into logs,” he says. “I went with pictures of the simple forms I was interested in, but the teacher said we
A friend in Portland owned Lowell, a home design and vintage shop, where Skelly sold a handful of his early hourglass stools. That’s where his work caught the eye of illustrator Lisa Congdon. She invited him to participate in a gallery show, some favorable press followed, and the momentum picked up.
Today, 80 percent of Skelly’s work is direct commission to clients, primarily through interior designers like Commune and Kelly Behun. A custom piece was commissioned for the Burberry store on Rodeo Drive. The rest is designated for galleries, like TIWA, where Skelly says he can experiment with new forms that help his practice evolve.
He sources his wood from trees that have become dangerous and have to be removed, or he visits fallen wood yards, like Street Tree Revival in Anaheim, where giant logs are organized and neatly stacked by species and size. He transports the wood he selects in the back of his truck to
his studio near his childhood home in Claremont. Skelly and his wife, Jessie, returned to their shared hometown to live and work and raise their children — a 2-year-old daughter and a baby due later this year.
Starting with a chain saw, Skelly works reductively, carving out chairs, benches, and abstract forms from a single piece of wood. Once he has determined a rough shape, influenced by the natural knots and grain in the wood, he moves on to smaller tools like a mallet and chisel to refine the form. He sands pieces by hand and dries them in a kiln off-site.
You just can’t grow that anymore.”
mood and the character of the space.”
Statement - Artist Profile
“In Southern California, a lot of the wood is 50 to 100 years old, but old-growth redwood is almost like a different species than second-growth redwood,” he says. “Trees that were planted 1,500 years ago, or 500 years ago, grew in a totally different climate.
“There’s more emphasis on an object when it’s made by hand and one-off.”
Recently, Skelly was invited to participate in a group show at the Craft Contemporary museum in Los Angeles. Material Curiosity by Design: Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman , open until May 2026, highlights the influential mid-century modern polymaths’ work in ceramics, textiles, mosaics, and woodwork. The exhibit frames the Ackermans’ modernist legacy alongside a new generation of artists — Porfirio Gutiérrez, Jolie Ngo, and Skelly — whose practices are rooted in “material exploration” and tradition. Skelly will showcase four new large-scale carved wooden works: a bench, a chair, an offering bowl, and his first bookcase.
“In February and March, I’m doing a residency at the museum, re-creating my studio on their entire second floor,” he says. “I’ll be working on small pieces on-site one day a week.” Skelly’s work, which blurs the line among furniture, art, and artifact, appeals to collectors who appreciate its one-of-a-kind nature along with its functional elements.
“There’s more emphasis on an object when it’s made by hand and a one-off,” he says. “The world has gotten so fast, and everything is so accessible — from information to commodities — that when you see a handmade thing and bring it into your home, it changes the
Skelly is aware that he’s continuing an artistic legacy that’s unique to California, and that he’s only one generation removed from his heroes. “I met JB Blunk’s daughter, Mariah, at an opening and told her, ‘Your dad’s work changed my life.’ He is the person who has influenced me most,” he says. And despite his initial misgivings, Skelly has carved his way into California’s artistic legacy. vinceskelly.com. •
Clockwise from opposite left: Vince Skelly at his Claremont studio; a bowl and bench; materials used in his practice; a stool.
EFFORTLESSLY ELEGANT
Mgoal,” Baldassari says, “is to make people look young and cool — not through trends, but through confidence.”
Each piece is designed to move between meetings, dinners, and departures — winter whites included.
That understated sophistication — available in 18 standalone stores worldwide — has found a natural home in California, with boutiques in Beverly Hills and Costa Mesa.
“California is a casual, chic life,” Baldassari says. “People care about balance, about wellness. It’s very close to the Italian way of living.” Indeed, both cultures share a love of sunlight, the great outdoors, and dressing up without pretense.
For Baldassari, luxury is never about excess; instead, it’s about intention.
Statement - Eleventy
“Our idea of luxury is respect,” he says. “Respect for time, for craftsmanship, for how you feel in what you wear.” He is more than Eleventy’s founder — he is its living expression: elegance without effort, confidence without ego, and the rare ability to turn the simple into the sublime. eleventymilano.com. •
arco Baldassari has built ELEVENTY on an Italian philosophy that transcends fashion: sprezzatura , the art of appearing effortlessly composed. As a cofounder and the creative director, he embodies the brand’s quiet confidence, creating clothes that whisper refinement rather than shout luxury. “There are two kinds of wealthy people,” he says. “The ones who arrive in a Lamborghini, and the ones who don’t want to show off. We are the brand for the second group.”
Inspired by Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren, Baldassari founded Eleventy in Milan in 2007 with a single men’s jacket and polo. Today the brand stands at the forefront of modern Italian tailoring for men and women, known for its unstructured jackets handmade in
Italy using Zegna and Loro Piana fabrics in proprietary colors and designs. The result: a fluid silhouette and a youthful, natural look. For fall/winter, there are soft-shouldered topcoats for evenings out, cashmere sweaters, and padded gilets for weekends in the mountains. “Our
“Our goal is to make people look cool — not through trends, but through confidence.”
From top: Baldassari takes a run through Beverly Hills; ready-to-wear looks from Fall 25; the newly opened Costa Mesa boutique.
Marco Baldassari’s ELEVENTY is elevating Californa style
For an increasing number of Californians, the ultimate flex is a fortified home and ROUND-THE-CLOCK SECURITY detail
Jenny Letts first noticed them on her morning walks: multiple black SUVs parked on her quiet street in Berkeley. She also noticed the men — beefy and stone-faced in tight-fitting muscle tees and sunglasses. They trailed her neighbor Bill every time he left his home. For most of his life, Bill was an academic, but then he started an artificial intelligence company. It did so well that Bill became a billionaire, which meant he was also a target. He hired 24-hour security.
Bill, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, is not alone. In the wake of
the public murders of political activist Charlie Kirk and United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, demand for private security for high-net-worth individuals has skyrocketed.
Dino Zografos, a 36-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department who worked in special operations before retiring six years ago, said his company, Spartan International, has seen demand explode over the past year.
“A lot of it is companies telling their executives, ‘You need this. It’s not a choice,’ ” he says. “Unfortunately, it often takes this public loss of life to get people to act.” Bill Rigdon, the founder of Panic Room Builders, which specializes in constructing safe rooms for the ultrarich has never been busier.
Safe rooms can range from $100,000 to
Words by STEVE SANDERS Illustration
$1 million. On the pricier end, bank-style safe doors can be disguised to look like any other room entrance, or a false bookcase can hide a door that is opened by pulling on a specific book. A door handle can be electrified to jolt anyone who grabs it, and pepper spray jets are ready to blast intruders. Inside, safe rooms are often outfitted with drinking water, food, medications, firearms, and chemical toilets (installing plumbing in an armor-clad room can be tricky). “People have to have everything they need for a sustained period of time,” Rigdon said. “Response time on those narrow streets in Beverly Hills could take hours if there’s a fire or a garbage truck in the way.” He is outfitting mansions from Los Angeles to London with safe rooms at an unprecedented rate.
bigger engines to account for the extra weight of armor plating and inches-thick bulletproof glass. Some are outfitted with a smoke screen system that can be switched on to confuse pursuers, as well as razor spikes dropped from a box under the vehicle. “If you dump those on the road, the bad guys aren’t going anywhere,” Rigdon said.
Security can take many forms. James Hamilton, a former FBI agent and the founder of Hamilton Security Group, said it typically starts with a vulnerability assessment that encompasses the safety of a home or workplace, the route to work, cyberthreats, and the profile of the client. This review can cost $12,000.
“Companies are telling executives, ‘You need this. It’s not a choice.’ ”
DINO ZOGRAFOS
political violence was justified. “We’re in a place now where some people are celebrating the Kirk killing. High-net-worth people are seeing that folks in America — not everybody, but a lot — are fine with just killing a guy for nothing more than speech. That’s very, very serious,” Hamilton said. “They look at it as, I need protection and I need it more than I probably ever have needed it in the past.” In the affluent neighborhood of Encino, the Los Angeles Police Department deployed horseback sheriffs to patrol the streets after a series of break-ins.
Statement - Long Read
A recent analysis by the Financial Times revealed that 10 tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, and Meta, spent $45 million last year protecting their executives. That number reflects a small portion of the picture. The AI boom has turned previously anonymous executives, like Bill, into centimillionaires. Either by choice or company mandate, they suddenly find themselves surrounded by bodyguards and being hustled from one event to the next in SUVs that may be outfitted with an array of James Bond–level countermeasures. Typically, armored cars are Chevrolet Suburbans or Cadillac Escalades because General Motors will build them with reinforced frames and braking systems, plus
For someone like Elon Musk, who said last year that “two homicidal maniacs in the last roughly seven months came to aspirationally try to kill me,” something akin to presidentiallevel security might be required. This means house-hardening measures, such as installing bulletproof windows and doors, cameras, motion sensors, and industriallocking systems you might see in a bank or a jewelry store. It would also likely include multiple armored cars and 24-hour bodyguard protection. The price tag can easily exceed $10 million annually. Last year Meta paid $27 million to protect Mark Zuckerberg and his family as they traveled among their homes in the Bay Area, Lake Tahoe, and Hawaii.
Reid Hoffman, the tech billionaire and prominent Democratic Party donor, recently put on an annual tech conference in San Francisco where he was flanked by security at all times. German shepherd and Labrador retriever sniffer dogs patrolled the grounds and guards with tactical vests and walkie-talkies stood sentinel on rooftops at the event, all because of its leader.
On the other end of the spectrum, people can opt for simpler measures. Installing a basic panic room can cost at least $25,000, Hamilton said. Short of that, he can offer training to individuals who don’t want aroundthe clock guards. “I’ll teach them situational awareness, listening to their intuition, where attacks happen, how to lose a tail, what to do if confronted,” he said. “It’s be-your-ownbodyguard type of stuff.”
One reason for the surge in demand is changing public attitudes. In a YouGov poll conducted in June, after Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed at home by a stalker posing as a police officer, 14 percent of respondents said
Of course, no measure is guaranteed to stop a determined bad actor, especially a sniper, as in the case of Kirk. The key, said Zografos, is to slow down the aggressors or simply make it harder for them. “Making them think twice, buying time, is key,” he says. “If your house is hardened, for example, it gives you more time for help to arrive.”
The security boom has also led to a flowering of less reputable operators in an industry with no real standards. Although some providers are highly professional and steeped in law enforcement training, others are less skilled or trying to turn a quick buck. “They all expect us to be like John Wick. And some guys really look the part but just don’t know what they’re doing,” Zografos said. “I called them the bullet catchers.”
Many well-to-do people settle into having a consultant. After a threat assessment, house hardening, or other measures, a family or an individual will hire a provider on retainer, “like a doctor,” Hamilton said. “I do that a lot. Clients call me, we talk it through, and it’s an hourly bill. You can really help them with their anxiety and give them real, no-nonsense, practical advice. Because, man, at the end of the day, it’s always that question: How much imposition in your life are you willing to accept?” X
This party season, make an entrance in metallic garments
Crescent Heights
Orange County’s tallest residence, Skyline OC rises above a 2.5-acre lake and offers panoramic views, 60,000 square feet of resort-style amenities, and seamless access to culture, commerce, and the coast.
Actor-producer TESSA THOMPSON is a triple threat of style, substance, and self-possession p. 64 . Designers KELLY WEARSTLER & SAM KLEMICK talk craft, collaboration, and staying ahead of the curve p. 78 . JEWELRY PORTFOLIO: Original supermodel KAREN ALEXANDER sits for her portrait in winter’s most sparkling gems p. 84. Six decades of showstopping designs from BOB MACKIE are celebrated in a new auction p. 92 . How the interiors guru JAY JEFFERS created a modern estancia for a tech mogul p. 98.
CALIFORNIA STYLE & CULTURE
GUCCI coat, $16,500, skirt, $21,000, bodysuit, $2,300, belt, $690, and shoes, price upon request. VAN CLEEF & ARPELS necklace, $2,850.
HEROINE
TESSA THOMPSON is rewriting what it means to be a leading woman, taking the reins behind the camera before she steps in front—a triple threat of style, substance, and self-possession
Photography by KURT ISWARIENKO
Styling by KATIE MOSSMAN
Words by IRA MADISON III
SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO top, $3,250, skirt, $2,700, and earrings, $1,700.
Opposite: TORY BURCH top, $775, skirt, $1,895, shoes, $500, and bracelet, $250. DAVID WEBB earrings, $18,000.
Feature - Thompson
n case there was any doubt that Tessa Thompson is no longer just an actor, the first thing we discuss is books. I arrive at The Whitby Hotel in midtown Manhattan 20 minutes early to finish a novel. When Thompson arrives, cheerfully embracing me, she asks what I’m reading. “It feels like a great time for books,” she says. “I’m reading for pleasure, but I’m also reading more toward thinking about adaptation.”
Thompson has embarked on a new journey: producer. She’s already a movie star who can deftly switch between a franchise — playing Valkyrie four times within the Marvelverse and Michael B. Jordan’s musician-wife in the Creed films — as well as a capital-A actor with two BAFTA nominations: as a rising star in 2017 for Thor: Ragnarok and best leading actress in 2021 for Passing (more on that later). Next up, she’s working on an adaptation of a Katie Kitamura novel. “It’s been so incredible over the last handful of years to develop things, to learn so much ideation of story from the ground up,” she says. “To really lean in as a producer. Until we had something in the culture, it just felt hypothetical.”
Feature - Thompson
We are here to have lunch, sip Arnold Palmers, and discuss Thompson’s latest film, Hedda, in which she stars as the titular antiheroine who marries into society but remains trapped in a life she never truly chose, suffocated by privilege and expectation. In one charged evening at her sprawling estate, she manipulates guests, revisits a lost love, and unleashes a cascade of desire, power plays, and emotional havoc. In the end, she stands at the edge of her own ruin — not quite broken, not quite free — with her fate hauntingly ambiguous. The role has been one of theater’s most coveted since Henrik Ibsen wrote the play Hedda Gabler in 1890, famously played by the likes of Ingrid Bergman, Maggie Smith, and Cate Blanchett. Hedda sees Thompson, 42, reunite with director Nia DaCosta. Their first film together was DaCosta’s feature debut, Little Woods, in 2018. “I also produced that, and then we became friends. I think we always felt we would work together
KHAITE jacket, price upon request. JIMMY CHOO sunglasses, $285. CARTIER earrings, $24,100, and rings, from $13,900.
CHLOÉ shirt and pants, prices upon request. ARAK bra, $175, and underpants, $100. POMELLATO ring, $6,000. Opposite: PRADA sweater, $3,400. HARRY WINSTON earrings, price upon request.
again,” she says. In their second collaboration, The Marvels in 2023, their pairing was serendipitous because Thompson had already portrayed the character Valkyrie in three previous Marvel movies. “When Marvel plops you in somewhere, you show up,” she says. “It just happened to be Nia’s movie, which was so cool.”
Hedda is their third film, but they have maintained a friendship that dances between personal and professional, seeking each other’s advice on scripts and life. “We were kind of shadow managers to each other; helping each other and staying really supportive as friends,” Thompson says. “But then she called and said she was thinking about an adaptation of Hedda Gabler. I thought it was so brilliant. For her, it was wanting to return — after being in sort of these bigger studio spaces — to get back to making something that felt like she had more creative control.”
Thompson was already familiar with the source material, having studied classical theater as a teenager in Santa Monica. “I read A Doll’s House when I was 16 and really fell in love with Ibsen,” she says. “One of the things that first interested me about his work is that at the end of [A Doll’s House], Nora leaves her children. I had always assumed that if you’re a mother, you’re forever a mother. This idea of deciding to make another choice felt surprising, maybe because I was raised in part by a single mother. I was so aware of watching her and realizing that because she had made this choice to have my sister and me, there were all sorts of choices that she could probably not make. I think about that in relation to my life now. So much of the piece, and playing Hedda in particular, is about playing a person who has woken up inside of the choices they’ve made and realizing those choices are not their own. And then wanting to burn everything down.”
shortly before our interview. “I’m a massive fan. But so much of what was written about her centered around how she never married and didn’t have, or adopt, her children until she was in her 40s,” Thompson says. “I think we still live inside a culture where we define women by the choices they make. I don’t know that I have a salient, complete thought, but it’s something I wrestle with a lot.”
Before the premiere of Hedda, the last time I saw Thompson was three years ago for her birthday and the launch of Viva Maude, a production company she began with producer Kishori Rajan. Its mission statement, as described by Rajan, is “reclaiming who gets to be in the center of the frame and finding new ways into stories we thought we already knew.” Thompson credits Passing with helping her realize her love for adaptation. The film, directed
ideas, and you’re generous with your time,” she says. “But really producing on the ground, having to solve problems and see a project from inception to post and distribution and exhibition, is a completely different beast.”
Thompson addresses the irony of starring in Passing: “I sort of pass as an extrovert in this business. I pass for someone who doesn’t experience social anxiety or self-consciousness.” Although she seems to exude self-assurance, she describes her style as a bit more musician-like, thanks to Grace Jones, Prince, and David Bowie, all of whom live within a performance. “I’ve heard actors say they see fashion as a kind of armor. I think a past version of me felt like I needed to be armored more because of the anxiety I felt entering some spaces. I also think about my early experiences growing up, where I was kind of one of one in a lot of spaces, until I could get to schools where that wasn’t the case. But I would walk into spaces and everyone would be looking at me. From early on, fashion was a way to be like, ‘Well, you’re staring at me anyway, so let me give you an actual reason to stare.’”
“I don’t have children. It can be a very vulnerable thing to unpack.”
Feature - Thompson
TESSA THOMPSON
DaCosta’s adaption is all about motherhood, and Thompson finds herself thinking about her choice not to become a parent. “I think there are certain things that I have probably been able to do in my career, or how much of the world I’ve seen, or the kind of autonomy or freedom that I feel, that I’ve always felt inside of my life and my choices. That has a lot to do with the fact that I don’t have children,” she says. “But I also think my relationship to my work — and how much of my identity sometimes I have felt gets entangled in that — also has to do with the fact that I don’t have children. It can be a very vulnerable thing to unpack and deal with as a woman.”
Discussion turns to Diane Keaton, who died
by Rebecca Hall, starred Thompson as a light-skinned Black woman with a childhood friend (played by Ruth Negga) who has been passing as a white woman. “That prose [in Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel] is so beautiful,” Thompson says. “Married with what Rebecca Hall did so brilliantly with the adaptation, it felt like I had this piece of music I was playing, because I could always go back to Nella’s prose. And the viscera of the way she describes Irene’s experience is such a gold mine for an actor. It made me really interested in challenging books and trying to understand how to make a cinematic comparative for them.”
Nina Yang Bongiovi, a producer on Passing, told Thompson she thought like a producer and should think about becoming one. “I produced [Passing], but it was more in the way that an actor comes in, and you give some
A third-generation Californian, Thompson was born mixed race and attended Santa Monica High School, living part time with her mother, a painter and ceramist, and her father, a musician who started the musical collective Chocolate Genius Inc. “I love California,” she says. “It’s so rich culturally. My mom is half Mexican. My grandfather came from Mexico and eventually settled in California. I don’t eat Mexican food anywhere else in the world.” She grew up going to see Thanksgiving movies at theaters like the Grauman’s Chinese, where she would later appear on the red carpet at the Thor: Ragnarok premiere. Her first Hollywood apartment was a studio off Hollywood Boulevard.
With the help of her stylist, Karla Welch, Thompson has been nailing her red carpet looks this year, recently donning a piece from Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Balenciaga debut at the annual Academy Museum Gala in L.A. and a shimmering high-necked Gucci number with an open back to the LACMA Art+Film Gala. “I’m really interested in identity and how we construct it,” she says. “Maybe because of the early things that I was interested in as a kid, or as an early performer, were all sort of masters of identity. That’s one of the reasons I love Eartha Kitt and other people who made up themselves. But their constructions are also expressions of their real and truest ideals. They were pushing us culturally toward a kind of freedom and singularity. I am
ALAÏA top, $3,650, and skirt, $8,100. BULGARI rings, from $4,950.
TOM FORD dress, $6,990, and shoes, $1,370. DAVID WEBB earrings, $28,500. BULGARI ring, $4,950.
“From early on, fashion was a way to be like, ‘let me give you an actual reason to stare.’ ”
TESSA THOMPSON
Feature - Thompson
interested in how you construct a persona as a way of also reserving privacy, in a weird way. You make a thing that people can engage with, full stop, and it becomes your avatar. But behind the avatar is your own mushy private self.” Thompson has spoken openly about being attracted to both men and women, but she keeps her personal life to herself. Coming up is His & Hers, a psychological thriller premiering on Netflix in January. The six-episode series follows Anna — both victim and investigator, played by Thompson — a former Atlanta news anchor who returns to her Georgia hometown to chase a murder story and collides with her estranged husband (Jon Bernthal), the detective on the case. “At its core,” Thompson says, “it’s about truth — how dangerous it becomes when shared between two people who once loved each other.”
Having already conquered movies and TV, theater is her next big challenge. “I feel not only compelled to do that; I sort of fundamentally feel like I have to,” she says. “Hedda reminded me of what I’ve missed. I love making films, and sometimes the experience can feel very siloed, and I long for the experience of the ensemble and the company. I went to see Oh Mary! [and] this amazing one-person Broadway show called Can I Be Frank? Both are wholly original and really personal. I found them really exciting in terms of new works and what’s possible on stage now. I need to understand more about it because I don’t know anything about producing theater. But it feels like it would be a natural extension of where I come from and what I’m already doing.”
And for her next act, Tessa Thompson isn’t chasing the spotlight — she’s building the stage. •
Hair by KIM KIMBLE at The Only Agency. Makeup by ALEX BABSKY at The Visionaries Agency. Manicure by ERI ISHIZUI at The Wall Group.
In a city defined by reinvention, KELLY WEARSTLER and SAM KLEMICK sit down to discuss craft, collaboration, and how one generation of L.A. designer is shaping the next
From
and
Feature - Kelly + Sam
Clockwise from left: Hollywood chair, side table, floor lamp, and mirror, 2025, prices upon request through Side Hustle.
left: Furniture designer Sam Klemick
interior designer Kelly Wearstler inside Wearstler’s Beverly Hills pool house.
Photography by RAINER HOSCH
Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL
“You think you’ve seen them all, and then some new raw talent surprises you.”
KELLY WEARSTLER
Kelly Wearstler seated on Sam Klemick’s Hollywood chair, which was inspired by an Emanuel Ungaro gown the interior designer acquired at a vintage fair.
Sam Klemick sees wood as a textile. The design furniture and objects she creates in L.A. have the smooth curves of cloth honed through sculpting rigid planks, revealing her roots in fashion as a knitwear designer. “I have a very intimate and personal relationship with fabric,” says the Miami native, who studied at FIDM and logged years at Rag & Bone. Klemick’s background in a notoriously unsustainable industry makes her particularly averse to waste and informs her furniture practice. She relies on deadstock materials for upholstery and reclaimed wood to cut and carve. While Klemick was newly immersed in her second career, the telltale elegance of her furniture caught the eye of interiors virtuoso Kelly Wearstler, just as it captivated the organizers of the London Design Fair, New York’s Objective Gallery, Alcova Miami, and the Patricia Urquiola–chaired Haworth DesignLab at NeoCon. Wearstler’s decades-long career, filled with boundarypushing California houses coupled with her role in launching the designer hotel era, has changed the look of American design. She and her studio have commissioned work from artists like Klemick for projects over the years, and Wearstler wanted a way to continue the dialogue. “It’s been a dream to have a curatorial platform to work with them,” says Wearstler, who relishes the process of collaborating and watching artists experiment with new or different directions. This is the genesis of Side Hustle, a series of partnerships with creatives whose made-to-order pieces are sold in editions. When Wearstler, known for her bold, expressive eye, looked for artists to include in the first launch, she thought of Klemick. As they prepped a four-piece collection
KW: So many. When I moved here there were galleries, but now they’re everywhere. And the emerging galleries have such a great point of view. The landscape is really diverse. It’s grown into something quite beautiful and important globally.
SK: Back to being a fashion nerd. The dress has pleating, circle-cut ruffles, ruffles that are sheared in. It has all these techniques within one dress that are really beautiful. I brought it home and laid it over a chair. Just looking at the way the back of the dress was draped, it was instant; it was so sculptural. It’s taffeta, so it holds the structure. I started sketching, and in my head there was an idea that Kelly is at a party and a ruffle falls on a chair, on a lamp, on a mirror.
KW: You start on the piece, and you step back and continue to work on it.
comprising a sculptural chair, a side table, a mirror, and a lamp Klemick devised from reclaimed Douglas fir for the drop, the two women sat down for a conversation about the art world, power tools, and the spirit of creativity in L.A.
Kelly Wearstler: You’re a female working in timber, which is really unique. We were introduced through Instagram, and you really stood out. I also love that you’re in L.A. We have to represent our beautiful city.
Sam Klemick: I actually first learned about you when you were a judge on Top Design years ago, and I remember thinking, This woman can dress. In our first meeting, we talked about your love for fashion, my background in it, and you pulling from your wardrobe because I work with clothes and fabric. It all felt really organic.
KW: The idea of using clothes as a starting point to design the furniture really came from a conversation, just sitting around
a table. I’m such a big believer in having a great discussion. I realized I had the perfect Emanuel Ungaro dress from the 1980s from a vintage fair in New York. I wore it for a photo shoot, but I haven’t gone anywhere in it. I’m going to Performa [the biennial New York festival of performance art], so maybe I’ll wear it for the gala.
Feature - Kelly + Sam
SK: You have to. It would be perfect. Where else do you go for art?
KW: I go to galleries and museums — the established, the emerging, all of them. When I travel, I make time for galleries. I go to Frieze in the different cities, and Zona Maco, founded by Zélika García, in Mexico City. What about you?
SK: Art Basel, Design Miami, openings at Hauser & Wirth, Rhett Baruch Gallery — Marta gallery is a big one for me. I also love Carpenters Workshop Gallery and Friedman Benda. There are so many accessible, collectible galleries in L.A.
SK: Once we decided on sketches, I created the whole collection out of fabric. Then I made bases at the wood shop and draped everything in fabric to get a more to-scale 3D model. I don’t know how to 3D model on the computer, but I know how to drape fabric on a dress form. So I created my own furniture forms and 3D scanned all the fabric drapes so it’s not total freehand carving. Creating with fabric first is important to
From top: Sam Klemick’s Hollywood mirror; a ruffled edge of the furniture designer’s Hollywood side table.
me — that it’s not just modeled on a computer.
Next, I prepare the wood. This is all reclaimed Douglas fir from demolition on construction sites in L.A. Old-growth beams get salvaged, but I remove all the nails and screws. It takes hours; it’s a labor of love. I mill the lumber, square it, and start to cut it. The pieces are created by stacked lamination. That’s how we sandwich the pieces together and get this large form.
KW: And everything is functional — a lamp, a table, things at different scales that are appealing for different reasons. Sculptural but functional. This work is free-spirited. A lot of galleries focus on art that is sculpture or wall works or video. But this curatorial platform we created crosses over — we have scent, music, performance art, and more. It’s just unfolding naturally. Emerging artists are so free. You think you’ve seen them all, and then some new raw talent surprises you.
SK: There’s this conversation of design versus art.
KW: It’s all art.
nuanced. If you look at the pedestal, the tapered structure, it’s a sculptural piece. Also, the glass was handblown, and all the metal components are burnished brass. Everything’s really considered. And with the timber, the [reclaimed] Douglas fir — you can speak more to this — it’s finding the best side. And everyone’s got a good side.
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SK: I agree; it’s all art. We’re all creating things. And our art that we created for this also has a function. I don’t know that I’ve really thought too much about my work within the greater context of design. I’m still getting used to being in this world and having my work so visible. I guess my work is pretty overtly feminine. I’m not trying to make a point; it’s just what I’m drawn to. I’m trying to make work that genuinely comes from me and pulls from my background. I love that it looks soft but is made from something hard.
KW: There are more women artists today working in materials that are unexpected. If asked to describe your work, based on your personality, you might not think you’re working in timber. The pieces are very
SK: The lamp has burnished brass. You wanted that finish. And a handblown glass globe created by Austin Fields, a glass artist based here. It’s wired by someone local in L.A. All this work is done by artists and friends. When I’m working on a sculptural piece, I’m at the shop every day. There’s so much invisible work. The sanding is insane. I probably don’t have fingerprints anymore. Even though it’s machine carved, there’s still a lot of handchiseling and carving, and then the whole finishing process. Kelly, you loved the idea of this bone finish. So I bleached the pieces and used a white wax. A lot of my work is very warm, naturally colored wood, but I also love whitewashed woods.
KW: It’s all finished by hand.
SK: You wonder if it’s marble.
KW: And now it’s here.
SK: The collection is called “Hollywood.” There’s a bit of a play on words. The source was this glamorous dress, a celebration of nightlife, and now these glamorous pieces of furniture.
KW: L.A. is a city of collaboration, and Hollywood represents this incredible convergence of creative minds. Naming the collection “Hollywood” felt like a nod to our shared city, to that spirit of imagination and creativity that defines L.A. and our work. sidehustlegallery.com. X
Klemick with her Hollywood collection, debuting on Wearstler’s curatorial platform, Side Hustle.
“My work is pretty feminine. I love that it looks soft but is made from something hard.”
SAM KLEMICK
VAN CLEEF & ARPELS 18K white gold Palmyre earrings with diamonds, $20,000, and necklace, $214,000. ERDEM gown, $8,995. THE FRANKIE SHOP gloves, $159. Opposite: DAVID WEBB 18K white gold and platinum Alpine earrings with rock crystal and brilliant-cut diamonds, $74,000. MIU MIU coat, $12,000, and knitwear, from $1,350.
THE GILDED
Supermodel KAREN ALEXANDER channels the hauteur of Sargent’s sitters, adorned in modern jewels that shimmer like bygone heirlooms
Photography by VICTOR DEMARCHELIER
Styling by PAUL CAVACO
CARTIER Panthère de Cartier 18K yellow gold necklace and bracelet with onyx, emeralds, and diamonds, prices upon request.
DIOR skirt, $3,000, jacket, $4,600, and shirt, price upon request.
GRAFF yellow and white gold Tilda’s Bow necklace with yellow and white diamonds, price upon request. KHAITE top, $3,400, and gloves, $1,100.
HARRY WINSTON earrings, price upon request. MARC JACOBS dress, price upon request.
TIFFANY & CO. Jean Schlumberger by Tiffany Paris yellow gold Flames brooch with diamonds, $39,600, and 18K gold Maltese Cross clip with diamonds, $33,400. McQUEEN jacket, $9,600. McQUEEN PHILIP TREACY FOR McQUEEN hat, price upon request.
Hair by TEDDY CHARLES at Nevermind Agency. Makeup by BEAU NELSON at The Wall Group. Manicure by ASHLIE JOHNSON at Forward Artists. Model KAREN ALEXANDER @iamkarenalexander.
POMELLATO rings, from $2,800, and bracelets, from $5,150. CELINE top, $890, and coat, price upon request.
CHOPARD 18K white gold and titanium Haute Joaillerie earrings with diamonds, lapis lazulis, and tanzanites, price upon request. LOUIS VUITTON dress, $7,250.
Feature - Bob Mackie
Sixty years into his career, BOB MACKIE has found a new audience, thanks to the modern showgirls lighting up the charts
Words by BOOTH MOORE
Clockwise from left: Singer and Oscar winner Cher poses in a bugle beaded Bob Mackie dress, c. 1978; the designer with Bernadette Peters wearing one of his costumes for the 1981 remake of Pennies from Heaven ; Miley Cyrus performs in a vintage Mackie dress at the 68th Grammys in 2024, where she won two awards.
Every inch of Bob Mackie’s colorful Palm Springs house is covered with souvenirs of a life well lived: hand-carved wooden banana trees from Bali, Pacific Northwest masks stacked like totems, and so many tchotchkes that — surprise! —they’re even inside the kitchen cabinets.
Global maximalism feels right for the legendary costume designer, now 86. “When I’m walking around in the stores, I always see something I can’t live without,” he says, adding that the Palm Springs Vintage Market and Michaels (for art supplies) are regular stops closer to home.
Bob Mackie–designed Barbies pose on a shelf packed with research books, including Paul Colin’s lithographs of Josephine Baker, a history of the American musical, and Jimmy Nelson’s photographs of the customs and costumes of Indigenous communities. He’s also surrounded by personal mementos, including photographs of his partner and collaborator, Ray Aghayan, who died in 2011; his grandchildren; and the legendary performers who made him famous, including Cher, Carol Burnett, and Diana Ross.
For Mackie, whose career has spanned more than six decades, from Hollywood’s
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Bob Mackie
“So many people want to own something a person performed in — it isn’t just girls.”
beaming at the mention of Cyrus, who wooed him with flowers and ended up buying at auction the dress she wore to the Grammys. “We don’t just loan out clothes for people to try on; we have to fit them,” he says, adding that when they worked together, “[Cyrus] did the whole number for us. She showed us her choreography. We put the dress on her, and honest to God, we moved one hook, and that was it. It fit her like it was made for her.”
Carpenter, too, has embraced the Mackie spirit. “She could spin, she could do all this stuff,” he says of her performance in Nashville. “In her mind, I’m sure she was seeing
Ann-Margret or Tina [Turner] in one of those strip dresses. It gave her a whole new way of thinking.” And then there’s Swift. “We had no control over how those pieces were worn or how she got them,” Mackie says, explaining that he doesn’t own his costumes from “Jubilee,” which ran from 1981 to 2016 at Bally’s Hotel in Las Vegas. Still, he was delighted to see her wear the diamond-inspired look, especially because her team had approached him to design for her before, but he wasn’t able to do so in the time allotted.
With his intergenerational appeal at an all-time high, it’s an opportune moment
constantly, replicating costumes of chorus girls and movie queens. By his early 20s, he was studying on scholarship at Chouinard Art Institute, now part of CalArts, when restlessness got the better of him. “I finally just said, ‘You know, I need to make some money. I’m 21, this is silly.’” He quit school and took a job as a sketch artist with Frank Thompson at Paramount Studios.
One day, Edith Head — Hollywood’s reigning costume queen, and Paramount’s head designer for nearly 30 years — walked in. “She looked at my sketch and said, ‘That’s pretty good.’ Then she asked, ‘Do you know how to do strippers?’ ” Mackie says, laughing. “I said, ‘Yeah, I bet I could.’ ”
Feature - Bob Mackie
He had started his research fresh out of high school. “There was this burlesque house half a block from where I worked at Bullock’s department store downtown. I walked in, and there was Tempest Storm…with long red hair and white, white skin. And I thought, ‘Oh, this is good,’ ” he says of the famous midcentury burlesque performer whose breasts were said to have been insured for $1 million by Lloyd’s of London. He loved the bawdiness, and it was the beginning of a visual education in the glamour, humor, and sex appeal that would become signatures of his designs for stage and screen.
to open up his archive to Julien’s Auctions, which in June held a $5 million sale of Princess Diana’s wardrobe. He’s preparing to let go of some of his signature pieces — including Cher’s nude-illusion look from a 1978 TV special and a gold-and-silver chain fringe bodysuit with pleated gold lamé wings Turner wore at her 1977 Caesar’s Palace residency in Las Vegas.
“When we put things up for auction, we try to pick things that would amuse people to own,” he says. “So many people want to own something that a person has worn and performed in — it becomes very special. And it isn’t just girls. There are a lot of men out there with mannequins in their living rooms.”
Mackie was born in Monterey Park and raised by his grandparents in Inglewood, not far from Hollywood Park racetrack and the airport. His childhood seemed as if it was one long audition for the dream factory. “I went to so many movies as a child — that was always where I wanted to be,” he says. “I never missed a musical, and I always loved movies about show business — how they’d all get on a train and go off to Cleveland, then Chicago. Before you know it, they were playing the Palace.” Cyd Charisse’s dance moves, Betty Grable’s legs, Carmen Miranda’s tropical flamboyance — they all made an impression. “She was my favorite,” he says of Miranda. As a boy, he drew
By the early 1960s, Mackie’s sketches had caught the attention of Aghayan, who invited him to work on The Judy Garland Show at CBS. “Before I knew it, there I was in the audience watching Barbra Streisand, Ethel Merman, and Judy Garland singing together,” Mackie says. “As
Clockwise from top: Bob Mackie (left) with his partner Ray Aghayan at his L.A. atelier, c. 1970; with longtime friend and collaborator Carol Burnett at his 1969 presentation; Anya Taylor-Joy wore vintage Bob Mackie to the Emma premiere in 2020; Zendaya borrowed a hand-beaded halter neck gown from Mackie’s Fall 2001 couture collection to Cher’s induction to the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame event.
“Raquel Welch said, ‘I want a dress that Tina Turner might wear.’ A week later, Tina called me: ‘I have to have that dress.’ ”
far as I was concerned, I was in show business.” It was the start of a long career in television, most famously with The Carol Burnett Show, where his genius for visual comedy shined. “I didn’t expect to be able to do any comedy,” he says. “Then I’d read the script and I’d talk to Carol — ‘What if you wore this, or what if you did that? And don’t black that tooth out; black out the one in the back so when you smile they’ll see it.’ They were the stupidest things.”
He still remembers their surreal first meeting, when Burnett was living in a home that had belonged to Grable, one of his idols. “Carol said, ‘In the first show I fall out of an upstairs window — I’d better wear pants.’ And I said, ‘Oh no, you’re a lady. You should wear a very tight skirt. Nobody has funnier knees or elbows than you. You know how to use your body.’ ” Burnett became more than a muse. “There are certain people that you have so much in common with that before you know it, they’re one of your best friends,” he says. “Carol was one of the first.” If Burnett made him a television legend, Cher made him an icon. Their first meeting was in 1967, when she and Sonny Bono were guests on The Carol Burnett Show. “She said to me, ‘One day I’d like to have a dress with beads on it like that,’ ” Mackie recalls of her admiring his rack of costumes backstage. “I said, ‘Well, we can do that. Just call me when you’re ready.’ She said, ‘We’re broke right now, but we’ll get there.’ ” They got there. From her sequined gowns and feathered headdresses on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour to the daring nude illusion dress she wore to the 1974 Met Gala, Mackie’s designs turned Cher into the ultimate pop deity. “It was nothing like it is now,” he says about attending the Met Gala with Cher. “She walked in, and suddenly the empty front room at the Met was full of photographers — maybe 100 of them. Nobody knew what to think.”
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By February, she was wearing the same gown on the cover of Time magazine. “She wasn’t afraid of anything,” Mackie says. “Nobody looked better in the tiniest bikini than she did. Once the censors came running in right before we taped and said, ‘This is disgusting — you
Tina Turner’s winged bodysuit from a Caesar’s Palace performance in 1977 plus a Mackie sketch, both available in the Julien’s auction; the designer with Bernadette Peters in 1975; Sabrina Carpenter wore a Mackie dress to the 2024 MTV VMAs previously worn by Madonna to the 1991 Oscars; once worn by Ann-Margret for her Caesar’s Palace shows in the 1970s and again by Sabrina Carpenter for her Grand Ole Opry debut this fall, this Bob Mackie sequin-and-fringe black gown forms part of the Julien’s sale; a recent portrait of Mackie. can see her underboob!’ And I said, ‘Well, why don’t you have her stand on her head and call it cleavage.’ That line ended up in The Cher Show on Broadway [in 2018]. I was delighted.”
Cher’s collaboration with Mackie would become one of fashion’s longest-running creative partnerships, stretching from the 1960s through her Las Vegas residencies to one of the most famous Oscars dresses of all time. He still maintains some pieces from her private wardrobe. “I met her when she was 19,” he says.
Then there was Turner. “First time I saw her was at Studio One with Ike and the Ikettes,” Mackie says. “I was just visiting, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, who is that?’ ” Before long they were working together. There was a friendly rivalry of sparkle and skin among his divas.
“They were always trying to one-up each other,” Mackie says, smiling.
He tells a story about Raquel Welch, who called asking for costumes for a nightclub act. “She said, ‘In this one rock number, I want a dress that Tina Turner might wear.’ I said, ‘Well, what do you think that looks like?’ She said, ‘I don’t know.’ I said, ‘Like a cavewoman would wear it,’ ” he says. They made her a plunging root beer–colored sequin halter dress with sheer cutouts. “A week later, Tina saw the photo in a magazine and called me: ‘I have to have that dress.’ ”
Mackie adored Welch, even if she was “a little high-maintenance.” He recalls one time she came to the studio for a fitting. “We fitted and fitted and stared and stared…and I said, ‘Well, I think we’re done now. I think we’re looking really good.’ And she says, ‘Yeah, can I just stay here for a while?’ ” Two hours later, she was still staring at herself in the mirror. “But you know, in her life, that was very important,” Mackie says.
So why the sudden resurgence among the world’s biggest stars? Mackie credits stylists like Law Roach for bringing his designs back to the red carpet and introducing them to a new generation. “Law came to us for Zendaya,” he says. “In the beginning, I told him she was too young for the more outrageous things. We loaned her a ball gown, and she wore it to the Time 100 Gala in 2022. Then two years later, when she was inducting Cher into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she called and said, ‘Am I old enough now?’ And I said, ‘Of course.’ ” When Cher saw Zendaya’s bugle-beaded bare midriff crisscrossing look onstage, she said, “What’s she doing in my dress?’’
dismissed him as “Barnum Bob” for having too much Hollywood flash.
All have continued to increase in value, with a Cher look from last year’s sale fetching more than $101,600, more than 20 times the estimate.
opened at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 2023, opens in Melbourne, Australia, in December and then moves to Denver, its only U.S. stop.
Today, Mackie still sketches — by hand, never on a computer. “That’s how I learned,” he says. Asked if he thinks about retiring, he smiles. “I won’t always be working,” he says. “I’m an old fart. What are you gonna do?” But then he adds, “You want to keep working as long as you can. It’s what I always intended to do. And how often do you get to do what you intended to do?”
Feature - Bob Mackie
Mackie’s archive still holds hundreds of pieces — some celebrity-worn, others showgirl costumes with roulette wheels that light up, still others runway looks from his brief and inglorious career as a fashion designer showing in New York, where the industry
“Years ago, no one wanted that stuff. Then one or two people wanted it, and suddenly everyone did. ”
“A lot of people are wanting to create their own archive of vintage fashion. It could be a personality or a celebrity, it could be a stylist, it could even be a production studio wanting to have it,” says Michael Amato, a senior fashion specialist at Julien’s Auctions, adding that the value of Mackie’s costumes has gone up overall because of the high-profile younger stars who have embraced his work. Touring for screenings and Q&As with his 2024 documentary, Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion, has also put the designer back in the spotlight — and in stores.
But even as his creations change hands, Mackie’s imagination hasn’t slowed. He’s developing a Las Vegas show about his life, and he’s still promoting the film. The Diva exhibition featuring his work, which first
He admits to a couple of regrets. “I would like to design more ballets or operas. People don’t come to me for that so much.” But the fans, it turns out, have never stopped coming. “When we went on tour with the documentary, I didn’t realize how many fans I had,” he says. “You don’t think about that — it’s just your job.” Even in Palm Springs, fame finds him. “Sometimes someone stops me in the frozen food aisle, and I hear my name from behind: ‘Is that Bob Mackie?’ ” he says. For fashion’s greatest showman, all the world’s a stage — even the frozen food aisle. X
THE BARN
In one of his biggest projects yet, JAY JEFFERS creates a modern estancia for a tech mogul in the heart of the Carmel Valley
Around the pool, Jeffers arranged deck umbrellas by Santa Barbara Designs, as well as lounge chairs from McKinnon and Harris covered in fabric by C & C Milano, via De Sousa Hughes.
Photography by SAM FROST Words by ELIZABETH KHURI CHANDLER
Interior designer Jay Jeffers, who is based in San Francisco and New York City, knew from the beginning that Estancia Madera would be one of the standout projects of his life. “It’s rare when you have such a match of architect, builder, landscape designer, and client,” he says. “The Bosworths really trusted us and had great feedback, which made for a better project.”
and he still has a line with male singletons; three more bachelor pads are featured in his newest book, Modern Classic: Tailored Homes, Timeless Style (Simon & Schuster), due out next fall. Jeffers also co-owns and designed the interiors for the boutique Madrona Hotel in Healdsburg, a historic property and carriage house that got a refresh in 2021.
Jeffers’ philosophy is to focus on the clients’ tastes, rather than putting his own stamp on a property. This venture marked his second joint effort with April and Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, the current Chief Technology Officer of Meta. The first go-round resulted in a stunning San Mateo abode — featured in a C Magazine Men’s Edition in 2018 — and was celebrated among the tech cognoscenti for its fabulous cantilevered hot tub, which perches 35 feet off the ground.
Feature - Jay Jeffers
And what an undertaking it was. In collaboration with Richard Beard Architects, Jeffers set out to imagine an entirely new estate — a 12,300-square-foot main residence and guest house, along with a collection of outbuildings — all furnished soup to nuts on 65 acres of pristine land nestled between Carmel Valley and Carmel-by-the-Sea. Budget: $45 million.
Texas-born Jeffers has been designing in the Bay Area for more than 25 years, first getting into the business as a second career after working in advertising at Gap and Old Navy. When he took a night class at UC Berkeley, he realized he had a new calling. “I could see myself making a living doing it and loving my job,” he says. The newly minted designer set up his own firm in 1999 and got his big break when the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a piece about up-and-comers, calling him a “brave new talent.” He has never looked back.
Many of his first clients were bachelors,
In many ways the oh-so-modern first house was Boz’s project, Jeffers says. The new house, in a way, was April’s baby. The couple envisioned a home that felt eternal — one that seemed to have always belonged in the historic Santa Lucia Preserve, a landscape that has evolved from Mexican land grant to cattle ranch to 1920s luxury estate to a private gated community. Inspired by their travels to South America — particularly Argentina, where the Bosworths had visited several large-scale horse properties, called estancias — they asked Jeffers to create a domicile with the same sense of timelessness.
Beard crafted a site plan built around three courtyards: an arrival courtyard, a central spot, and a lateral one. Together the two teams decided on materials that would be Tundra Cream limestone, tile, and wood. Jeffers owned the color choices and furnishings that would embody what he calls “New Rustic.”
Outdoors, Jeffers used yellows, warm tones, and playful greens to echo the springtime
grasses that grow on the property. Inside, he skewed toward dusky blues and rich reds to create a cool, retreating vibe.
Jeffers wanted the boundaries between exterior and interior to remain distinct yet harmonious. “It’s very much an indooroutdoor house,” he says. “And I really love for the outdoors to feel like you’re outside and the indoors to feel like you’re inside. There’s such
“My vision was that this room was a 100-year-old stone barn and we built the house around it.” JAY JEFFERS
a huge selection of outdoor fabrics these days it can almost look like you are in a living room outside, but I want it to feel like you’re still outside.” For the ample shady veranda that lined the Great Room, Jeffers placed a salvaged stone coffee table and custom Fisher Weisman Collection dining table, with Mimi London chairs, and benches in cheerful green-andwhite striped Jasper fabric.
For the interior, Jeffers particularly loved setting the stage for the Great Room. “My vision was that this room was an old stone barn that could have been on the property for 100 years and then we refurbished it and built the rest of the house around it,” he says.
To create that authentic country feel,
Jeffers dipped into his vocabulary of vintage and antiques. With new construction, that aesthetic is even more important, he explains.
“When you are in a very modern home and you put modern furniture in it, it feels like you’re in a showroom,” he says. “You need pieces that already have a scratch or two on them. Those are the things that bring soul to a place.”
But with anything classic, he likes a spot of modern to “amp it up.” The custom curved sofas by Thomas Sellars have dramatic bronze legs, and are juxtaposed with a vintage coffee table with a new custom leather top by Casey Gunschel. Made-to-order banquettes, vintage rugs and mirrors, and antique chandeliers are accented by a modern floor lamp from Paul
Ferrante. And for the pièce de résistance, Jeffers sourced a magnificent 12-foot limestone fireplace from an Italian estate, in order to fulfill the request by Bosworth, who stands at 6 feet, 3 inches, for “a fireplace he could stand in.”
Every piece was chosen to balance authenticity with a modern edge — and that principle extended to lighting. For a connoisseur like Jeffers, who has his own hardware line, a great lamp or fixture adds a moment of drama to even the simplest
For the Great Room, Jeffers sourced a12-foot limestone fireplace from an Italian estate in order to fulfill his 6'3" client Andrew Bosworth’s request for “a fireplace he could stand in.” Opposite: Jay Jeffers.
Feature - Jay Jeffers
Clockwise from top left: The salmon-pink cinema room, with seats designed by theater interiors company Cineak, was conceived with the Navajo aesthetic in mind; the mudroom is painted in a rich Benjamin Moore Cushing Green with sconces by Soane; the guest suite features a lounge chair by Berman Rosetti, in fabric by Mokum, via Hewn, an ottoman by Rose Tarlow, and wall-to-wall carpet by Mark Nelson Designs.
when he
informed
Jeffers knew he had fulfilled the brief
was
that April Bosworth’s favorite thing was having a 360-degree view of her family while she was cooking in the kitchen.
The limestone home is built around three courtyards: arrival, central, and lateral one, which Jeffers added clusters of lounge chairs from Manuel Palos sculptures and coffee tables from Formations.
room. The entryway centers around a fringed mirror from McGuire, flanked on each side by caterpillar-like cirriform bronze sconces that were designed by Netherlands artist Frederik Molenschot. They are sculptural, Jeffers says, but also very “of the earth.”
Feature - Jay Jeffers
That grounded Gaucho feel pervades throughout. An expansive salmon-pink cinema room, with seats designed by theater interiors company Cineak, was conceived with the Navajo aesthetic in mind. Elsewhere in the house, the cozy family room, used for cuddling and watching TV, was fashioned into a little garden room. Hand-painted wallpaper by Fromental features ferns and Japanese aralia and wisteria, and then the eye is drawn upward to a dramatic chandelier of metal leaves by former jewelry designers Delos & Ubiedo. It’s almost as though the plants are growing inside the room, in both two- and three-dimensional forms.
For the annex and guest spaces, the couple and Jeffers went even more personal with their choices. “I want things to feel like they belong, and then juxtapose them with things that might not belong but may have been something you found when you were traveling or in your grandmother’s attic,” he says.
The guest room entry offered a perfect opportunity to play with that paradox. The Bosworths had purchased an inlaid mother-ofpearl settee in Morocco. They reupholstered it
“You need pieces that already have a scratch or two on them to bring soul to a place.”
JAY JEFFERS
with peacock fabric by Holland and Sherry and set it on a honeycomb mandala-shaped rug by PFM. Next they tiled the walls with an array of works from The Lost Art Salon, a longtime San Francisco gallery filled with vintage art often priced from a few hundred dollars to the low thousands. Jeffers thought the gallery would be a perfect place to find reasonably priced, hyperpersonal art. “They’re cat people. She’s a horse person. She’s into photography, and they travel a lot.” The Bosworths provided lots of input, returning to comb through the gallery as well. That attention to detail extended to the rest of their art collection. The couple gave the design team a list of artists they were interested in, and the team provided presentations and renderings of possibilities
throughout the dwelling. “They’d come back to us and say, ‘We like this on this wall, but how does it relate to this wall?’ ” Eventually the team placed 40 pieces throughout the estate, including a 3,000-piece Yoshitomo Saito installation made out of bronze fragments of leaves and fruit. “Oh God, it took two installers five days to install it!” he says. They also hung a charming geometric piece by Lucy Williams set against lustrous red tiles in the guest bathroom.
Estancia Madera will be available to be savored and enjoyed by art and interior lovers when Jeffers’ new book comes out next. It’s an exciting time, as he hasn’t published a book since Be Bold in 2018. This time he’s highlighting 13 homes from new and returning clients, mostly from the tech and finance worlds.
Reflecting on his career — particularly since COVID — he thinks his work has become more edited. But ultimately, a home has to be a place that brings happiness. Jeffers knew he had done his job when April told him the best part about her new retreat was being able to have a 360-degree view of her multigenerational family while she was cooking in the kitchen. “Ultimately, it’s a home for gathering,” he says. X
The guest bedroom has a bed frame by Aesthetic; headboard by Lisa Fine textiles, via Holland & Sherry; and bedding by C & C Milano, via De Sousa Hughes; and a chandelier from COX London. Opposite: The primary bathroom.
CALIFORNIA
C MAGAZINE'S FIRST BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE
The Ripple Effect
A wave of inspiration from forest feasts to toasts by the shore
BY THE SEA
Georgian goldsmithing techniques used
’s workshops are ideally suited to the London-based jewelry designer’s new collection, Tempest, inspired by mythical sea creatures. The 20-piece offering includes matching necklaces and bracelets in two widths, as well as earrings, all made with interlocking links that form a scale stack chain adorned with diamonds, sapphires (something blue), emeralds, or rubies and undulate like waves when worn on the body. The pieces evoke far-flung honeymoons or weddings held overseas with the play of reflected or absorbed sunlight or moonlight across the abundance of stones — the necklaces alone use up to 580 of them. us.jessicamccormack.com. E.V.
SCENTIMENTAL VALUE
Natasha Gregson Wagner has turned generational love into perfume. Her new line, L’AMOUR MÈRE (French for “a mother’s love”) is a collection of three floral scents, each inspired by a woman in her life. The journey began with her original scent, which is now part of a more expansive story. Natalie, centered around gardenia, was created in honor of her mother, Natalie Wood. C Love, with its soft rose notes, is named for her daughter (“add an R to C Love and you get Clover,” she says). The newest, Lyublyu (Russian for “I love you”), draws from her grandmother’s roots, with deeper notes of honey and tuberose. Wagner worked with top perfumers to bring her memories to life, translating emotion into something wearable. “These are scents I want to wear,” she says. “White florals that feel fresh and alive.” lamourmere.com. K.A.
Weddings - News
MODERN PALETTE
Makeup artist Hung Vanngo, whose work with Selena Gomez, Scarlett Johansson, and Penélope Cruz defines modern glamour, brings his painter’s eye to his new line, HUNG VANNGO BEAUTY . The collection reflects his instinct for color and texture. “Long-lasting makeup starts with proper prep,” Vanngo says. For brides, he reaches for the Color Story Eyeshadow Palette, with richly pigmented neutrals and statement tones in matte, satin, and metallic finishes that blend easily and stay true. He also uses the Very Beautiful Velvet Blush for lasting warmth and the Accentuating Longwear Lip Liner and Creamy Matte Lipstick “for a soft comfortable matte lip that lasts from ceremony to reception.” hungvanngobeauty.com. K.A.
BRANCHING OUT
AMANDA LUU ’s floral compositions, which read sculptural but contain an easy elegance, are often informed by nature’s imperfections. She encourages couples to be open to this foundational approach when embarking on their collaboration. “The most harmonious designs emerge when you allow the season, the light, and the landscape to lead the way,” says Luu, owner of Studio Mondine in San Francisco. She sees brides embracing a natural sophistication this season, moving toward pieces that feel rooted in their environment. Whatever the form, she emphasizes an earthier palette — think chestnut, plum, and ochre paired with unexpected blue clematis, mauve lisianthus, or lilacs. studiomondine.com. C.C.
1. JESSICA McCORMACK’s new collection is tempting. 2. HUNG VANNGO’s beauty line has lipstick that will stick. 3. L’AMOUR MÈRE debuts a new scent. 4. Go natural with AMANDA LUU. 2.
The
by master craftspeople in JESSICA McCORMACK
2.
PIERCED PEARLS
Bay Area-based jewelry designer Juliet Sutton-Gee cites the semi-abstract work of artists Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore and their ability to create meaning and emotion without being literal as a lodestar for her modern fine jewelry line OUVELLE . Having worked for a decade in London under Solange Azagury-Partridge, she’s adept at innovative takes on down-the-aisle classics like mother-of-pearl earrings. Her version includes pierced South Sea pearls worn on rectangular 18K gold hoops with a matte finish, pieces that can also be transferred to a necklace. “Sometimes I wear just one, asymmetrically,” Sutton-Gee says. Her bold, sculptural designs are imbued with meaning, from Circle of Life rings with a tension between presence and absence to pavé diamond-set Egg Drop earrings meant to explore dualities or two partners who are in balance but different people. From $3,180. ouvelle.com. E.V.
SWEET DREAMS
SHEER NAILS
Weddings - News
Although many brides seize the opportunity to present a maximalist confectionery centerpiece, there’s been a recent shift toward simplicity. “Pushing creative boundaries is out for the moment,” says San Francisco sugar artist JASMINE RAE DE LUNG . “Couples are more interested in refining what is personal within the realm of tradition, but the classic look has been redefined.” Case in point: de Lung’s ruffled cake style, which has recently gained a resurgence in popularity among her inquiring clients. The technique yields irregular pieces deftly layered to resemble fabric and can be presented bare or adorned with handmade blossoms. “It’s a look that will stand the test of time,” she says. jasmineraecakes.com C.C.
Phoebe Philo’s latest campaign set off a frenzy over the sheer, glass-like nails created by SYLVIE MACMILLAN . Their stainedglass effect sparked a wave of inspiration, and now brides are asking for same understated polish on their wedding day. “The key is balance,” Macmillan says. “If your dress and ring can handle something more editorial, go for it. There’s no better day to be extra. Otherwise, soften the tones and shape for something that complements rather than competes.” She suggests milky creams and nudes with a touch of chrome or a single “something blue” nail for sentiment. Her most important tips: find a nail artist fluent in Korean-inspired sheer gels, come with a mood board, and use words like transparent, jelly, and chrome to guide the look. The result: nails that feel both of the moment and made for forever. @sylvie .macmillan. K.A.
abstract
While the idea of making a home with your partner is romantic, the reality can be a tricky balancing act. THE NEWLYWED HOME: A COUPLE’S GUIDE TO SETTING UP HOUSE WITH STYLE (Artisan Books, $30), penned by L.A.-based writer and C contributor Anush J. Benliyan, is a detailed guide to making the experience more streamlined. “My goal was to help couples get on the same page [and] understand their respective hopes and needs,” says Benliyan, who explains how to rethink rooms so they are both welcoming and rooted in functionality — all the while honoring aesthetic visions so the results feel deeply personal. The compilation is organized by living area and is accompanied by inspirational images and imaginative tips for every budget. C.C.
1. Explore
jewels with OUVELLE. 2. SYLVIE MACMILLAN breaks down the sheer nails trend. 3. JASMINE RAE DELUNG’s ruffled cakes complement any dress. 4. THE NEWLYWED HOME offers tips and tricks.
AISLE STYLE Altar-ready ideas
Cold Shoulder
Birds of a Feather
Weddings - Runway
Tears for Tiers
Celebrate the season with meaningful moments.
Omni La Costa Resort & Spa welcomes the return of Blitzen’s, our festive holiday pop-up where the cocktails sleigh . Celebrate among vibrant poinsettia trees and create meaningful moments with Traditions to Table , where our chefs bring your family’s favorite recipes to life.
LEARN MORE
Under the Pines
Weddings - Feature
Erin Pederson and Chris Squier wed in a ceremony overlooking Zaca Lake
Photography by ALANNA DURKEE
Words by CAROLINE CAGNEY
“Zaca Lake represents a special version of what California has offered us.”
Weddings - Feature
While Erin Pederson and Chris Squier’s mutual friends were busy planning the perfect introduction, Erin took matters into her own hands and asked Chris out via Instagram. “I slid into his DMs after a bout of courage made up of mostly liquid and the rest, my persistent girlfriends,” she says. It was spring 2019, and both photographers had moved to Philadelphia for work. A few nights later, they shut down Royal Tavern in Queen Village over a basket of French fries and IPAs. “We’ve been inseparable ever since,” Erin says.
Two years later, the couple relocated to L.A. While on their favorite sunset hike through the Angeles National Forest in the San Gabriel Mountains last July, Chris, who skillfully set his camera on a long self-timer, ran down to pose with Erin, then dropped down to one knee and proposed. “The time lapse is so silly and perfect, and I still love rewatching it over and over,” Erin says. That evening, they celebrated with friends at Bar Flores in Echo Park, and the following morning, they flew to
Cape Cod to further toast with family.
Erin and Chris’s next move was to book Zaca Lake, a bespoke group guest ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley. It was a clear choice, given the couple’s tie to style and the outdoors. “Zaca Lake represents a special version of what California has offered us over the years,” Erin says of the sought-after property’s unique blend of exquisite grounds and unparalleled privacy, which upon entering, feels like you have discovered a well-kept secret. “It’s truly a hidden gem,” Erin says. The lake is the centerpiece of a 320-acre resort and is lined with 16 luxurious cabins, each outfitted in chic, camp-style decor, with additional houses and a barn at the center the property, all available for corporate retreats and exclusive private events. “We wanted our loved ones to be immersed in what is most important to us: nature and shared experiences.”
On a balmy afternoon last July, 120 guests joined lakeside to witness Erin and Chris exchange their vows with the hazy San Rafael mountains looming in the backround. After the ceremony, the festivities remained outdoors with friends and family gathering
beneath a dense canopy of redwoods for a sitdown dinner of grilled halibut, robust salads, and grilled vegetables lit in the romantic glow of candles among verdant floral arrangements. The cutting of the cake then led to dancing, late night canoeing, cannonballs, and bonfire karaoke. The affair continued for two more days with everyone staying at the lake together. “To see all of your loved ones from different chapters of your life having a blast, taking selfies, drinking delicious wine, all transported to this oasis in the middle of nowhere,” Erin says. “It’s an unexplainable feeling.” •
VENUE Zaca Lake • PLANNING Laine Palm Planning • PHOTOGRAPHY Alanna Durkee • FLOWERS Brophy Blooms • DJ Isabella Behravan • CAKE Kady Lone • DESIGN Whitney James Event + Design • QUARTET Pink Mozart • STATIONERY Jill Elaine • TRANSPORTATION Jump on the School Bus • HAIR AND MAKEUP Amber Rose Hair & Makeup • CATERING Woodfired Craft
Clockwise from top: A beaming couple; cake by Kady Lone; chantilly lace ribbons; the rings and vintage pearl earrings; Erin wore a beaded Ìlkyaz Özel gown with a veil by Maya and Company; the alfresco reception; Waterford crystal and delicate florals.
Weddings - Feature
Dream World
Ariel Rezek and Lindsay Apatow throw a lavish feast for
the
eyes at the historic Dawnridge estate
they were celebrating Ariel’s birthday at The Parker Hotel in Palm Springs. “I slept with the ring under my pillow for easy access in the morning,” Lindsay says. “I was so nervous that I asked her to marry me before she’d even had her first sip of coffee.”
Weddings - Feature
Photography by JILLIAN MITCHELL
Words by CAROLINE CAGNEY
When Lindsay Apatow dropped off Ariel Rezek after their third date, she looked at her hand to find a crumpled bar napkin with “I love you” written on it. “I felt the same way,” Lindsay says. “We both somehow knew. I still have that napkin framed in our bedroom.” Lindsay, a documentary photographer, and Ariel, a fashion designer, initially connected in March 2022 via Raya by accident: “Ariel’s profile, which wasn’t supposed to appear in searches for women, somehow showed up on my page,” Lindsay says. “It kind of felt like the universe was stepping in.” Six months after their first date at Little Dom’s in Los Feliz, which left Lindsay “absolutely beyond smitten,” she popped the question while
After a two-year engagement, the couple exchanged vows in June 2025 before 80 guests at design icon Tony Duquette’s Dawnridge estate in Beverly Hills. Ariel had already bookmarked the venue for her dream wedding since discovering it in 2018 while scouting locations for her brand Rezek Studio’s campaign. “It’s a magical place [and] we wanted our guests to feel as though they’d stepped out of Beverly Hills and into another world,” says Ariel, whose whimsical vision came to life with the help of event planner Melissa Sullivan of Studio Sully.
To balance the delightfully delirious aesthetic with personal elements, Sullivan wove in rich hues like chartreuse, Ariel’s line’s signature color, which appeared everywhere from the tablescapes to the performers’ feather-trimmed gowns.
Cocktail hour featured a raw bar, followed candlelit courtyard reception with live performances by a Supremes cover band that brought everyone to their feet mid-meal.
“There was so much love and energy in the air,” Lindsay says. “It felt electric.” •
PHOTOGRAPHY Jillian Mitchell • EVENT
PRODUCTION Studio Sully • FLOWERS Renko Floral • INVITATIONS Studio Sully • DESSERT Sasha Piligian • DJ Dart Collective • CATERING Hungry Bear Catering • HAIR AND MAKEUP Chanel Cross • REHEARSAL DINNER Il Cielo Beverly Hills • RECEPTION The Dawnridge Estate • AFTER-PARTY Chateau Marmont
Clockwise from top left: The newlyweds; first kiss as a married couple; the tablescape features blooms by Renko Floral; Lindsay and Ariel share a private moment; The Supremes cover band performs; guests heading to the after-party; cake by Sasha Piligian.
gazebo overlooking the water. His wellorchestrated surprise had Rachel believe that they were having dinner with his family. “I saw flowers and cameras and I thought we were about to ruin someone else’s proposal,” Rachel says. “I then realized it was for me.”
The pair wed on September 6, 2025, before 180 guests at the Bella Vista Estate surrounded by sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean. Rachel discovered the venue in a TikTok post and enlisted event planner Tal Orion to execute her “timeless” vision. “I loved that it overlooked the water, and the polo field was just calling for an epic party,” Rachel says. Right before their vows — which were led by the couple’s cousin and best friend — the two held a traditional Native American blanket-wrapping ceremony guided by Elliot’s uncle, Steve, in honor of Elliott’s Ramapough Lenape heritage. The bride then made her entrance in a strapless embroidered Falguni Shane Peacock gown and was accompanied by her father as they walked down the roseflanked aisle.
Weddings - Feature
Heart & Soul
It began in May 2019 at a brewery in Washington, D.C., for senior political correspondent for ABC News Rachel Scott and Yale University administrator Elliott Smith. Sparks flew and the two talked for hours before exchanging numbers. When Rachel left that evening, she immediately texted her best friends to tell them about Elliott. “I felt like I was talking to someone I had known for years, even though I had just met him that night,” says the Diamond Bar–born anchor, who later found out that Elliott’s best friend, Jose, who was also at the bar, looked at him when she left and said, “She’s the one.”
Fast-forward to December 2023 in Dana Point, when Elliott popped the question at the Waldorf Astoria by a
After cocktail hour by the infinity pool, guests gathered for the reception amid candlelight and white ranunculus, while the newlyweds headed straight to the dance floor for a bachata-style moment to “Stand by Me” by Prince Royce. They didn’t have to wait long for friends and family to join in, including the bride’s 88-year-old grandfather, Gene Chandler, an oldies crooner best known for the hit “Duke of Earl,” which the band performed, bringing Chandler to his feet. “Having that moment was so special,” says Rachel. From there, the magical evening continued with flowing cocktails, a taco bar, and more dancing under a canopy of glowing lights. •
Clockwise from top left: The newlyweds; the groom in Enzo Custom; the bride in Falguni Shane Peacock; Bella Vista Estate; bride hugging her grandfather; tablescape; blanket ceremony; husband and wife; afterparty; dance floor; celebrations continue; groomsmen; rehearsal dinner looks; bridal party.
Photography by VICTORIA GOLD Words by CAROLINE CAGNEY
Weddings - Feature
GET THE ULTIMATE INSIDER’S GUIDE
Winter Glow
Coastal cabins and boutique lodgings to soak up some off-season California sun
Words by MARTHA HAYES and DAVID NASH
I S C
E R I E S
The hot tub at Third Rock, one of four new properties at THE SEA RANCH LODGE.
Le Petit Pali St. Helena
Palisociety has finally put down roots in Napa Valley with the arrival of LE PETIT PALI ST. HELENA, the fifth bed-andbreakfast-style outpost blending its irreverent attitude with the wine country’s classic, laid-back aesthetic. Situated on nearly three picturesque acres — with 24 guest rooms and five independent cottages — the property melds seamlessly into the natural landscape with its signature dark green and cream exterior and lush landscaping. After pulling up the tree-lined drive, guests are welcomed in the cozy Main House, which serves as the hotel’s reception and lounge area, complete with two dining rooms for enjoying the region’s bounties.
Ranging in size from 285 to 730 square feet, the warm, preppyaccented guest rooms are split among the Main House, Cascade House, and nearby Flora House Courtyard. Each larger separate cottage includes a fireplace and stunning vineyard views, and some come with a clawfoot soaking tub. Amenities like Diptyque bath products, locally sourced provisions, A guest-exclusive pool and spa deck overlooking nearby vineyards and rolling foothills, as well as pathways and a garden bar, further set the stage for a truly restorative retreat. lepetiitpali.com. D.N.
Each cottage includes a fireplace and stunning vineyard views .
NAPA COUNTY | ST. HELENA
Clockwise from top left: The inviting main entrance; natural beauty envelops the property; inside the Main House; one of 24 guest rooms; the inviting pool.
Madeira House
Eighty miles north of San Francisco, MADEIRA HOUSE is an idyllic 11-room waterfront hotel in the west Sonoma town of Jenner. After starting life as an early 20th-century fisherman’s cabin, it expanded into its previous incarnation as the Jenner Inn, and is now a dreamy retreat offering tranquil views of the Russian River. Divided into three distinct houses — the eponymous Madeira House, with five suites; Boat House, with three suites; and River House, inclusive of three more — each king or queen room is rustically charming but full of modern amenities (Keetsa mattresses, heated bathroom floors, and rain showers).
Travel
Conceived by co-owners Arthur Moretti, Ryan Shore, Jeffrey Yamashiroya, and Moksa Studio founder Jacqueline Gonçalves, it’s a perfect base to explore the nearby Jenner Headlands, kayak to Penny Island, play a 9-hole round at Northwood Gold Club, or pedal over to the nearby village of Duncan Mills for some antiquing. “We wanted to preserve the spirit of Jenner’s coastal cabins while reimagining them for today’s traveler,” Moretti says. “This has always been a place where people come to exhale — to watch the fog roll over the river, to hear the ocean in the distance, to feel time move a little slower.” themadeirahouse.com. D.N.
A
one-time fisherman’s cabin has been transformed into a dreamy retreat offering tranquil views of the Russian River.
SONOMA COUNTY | JENNER
Clockwise from top left: The charming entrance; panoramic windows frame the Russian river estuary; light-filled spaces draw from the region’s farmstead legacy.
Sea Ranch Lodge
Travel
The iconic SEA RANCH LODGE was built in 1968 and stylishly reimagined in July 2023 to inspire guests craving a quiet, coastal escape to live “lightly on the land,” according to the ethos of its community. It’s hard to imagine how sea worshipers could be made to feel any more at home. But with the addition of four new properties crafted by acclaimed architects to its Sea Ranch Living Program — Shanti House, Third Rock, Cedar + Skye, and Compass Close — the 53-acre site in Sonoma County, 100 miles north of San Francisco, is offering its most immersive home-awayfrom-home experience yet.
Four new properties have been added to Sea Ranch Living.
According to general manager Kristina Jetton, the additions encompass “the best of Sea Ranch in a residential setting.” And we’re not just referring to the thoughtfully curated interiors, indoor-outdoor living, or chef’s kitchens. Think customized pre-arrival groceries, in-room spa treatments, and an attention to detail that includes everything from Brooklinen linens to board games and sketching supplies.
How to choose which property is right for you? Opt for Third Rock, designed by the acclaimed Obie Bowman FAIA, if you want panoramic views; Shanti House for serene star-gazing; Cedar + Skye for cozy-cabin-in-the-woods vibes; and the hill-perched Compass Close if you’re looking for something more spacious. No matter which one you opt for, you won’t want to leave. thesearanchlodge.com. M.H.
SONOMA COUNTY | SEA RANCH
From top: Thoughtfully curated interiors at Third Rock include vintage furniture by Alvar Aalto, Marimekko fabrics, and period artwork by Robert Rauschenberg; located 1.6 miles from the Lodge, the Third Rock property provides a coastal sanctuary of serenity; a bedroom at Cedar + Skye, designed by Ralph Matheson and nestled in the forest.
THIS SEASON, LIFE IS SUITE
Bay Shores Peninsula
A 1960s seaside motel in Newport Beach has found new life as the reimagined BAY SHORES PENINSULA HOTEL, which owner Blake Marriott describes as “a love letter to Newport.” Now a 25-room retreat overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the former surf lodge offers a nod to midcentury styling with a fresh, contemporary feel thanks to Southern California designers Courtney and Christian Peña of CPD Studio. Each guest room incorporates a mix of modern coastal textures, striped wallcoverings, gingham upholstery, custom furnishings, handcrafted lighting by Robert Gordon, and local photography from Mariah Bink. Bathrooms feature brass-accented marble vanities, Bellino Italian linens, luxurious Simone Fan robes, and Kiehl’s bath products.
The hotel’s sleek all-day café serves Coffee Manufactory espresso drinks, Crema Artisan Bakery pastries, Mediterraneaninspired salads and sandwiches, and other tasty seasonal items. If you need activity ideas, the Beach Concierge can curate experiences, including a beach setup with chairs, umbrella, and stocked Stanley cooler; bicycle rides past Balboa pier; and shopping trips along Marine Avenue. bayshoreshotel.com. D.N.
ORANGE COUNTY | NEWPORT BEACH
Clockwise from top left: The 25-room retreat’s contemporary design incorporates midcentury styling; the property offers sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean; the hotel’s sleek new exterior.
The Big Chill
Beauty
FJORD brings Nordic sauna culture and a floating sanctuary to Sausalito’s waters
Fjord, the Bay Area’s first floating sauna, is a minimalist Nordic-inspired retreat that puts sunlight, salt air, and cold water on the menu. Docked in Sausalito and built atop a salvaged barge, the space offers guests a chance to warm up in a dry sauna, plunge into the Bay, and reconnect with the raw beauty of Northern California.
After stepping away from careers in marketing and technology, cofounders Alex Yenni and Gabe Turner set out to help people experience California’s landscape not just as a backdrop, but also as something to be felt. “We were deeply inspired by what we’d seen in Copenhagen and Oslo, both of which have amazing thermal contrast sauna and plunge sites, often located right on the water,” Yenni says. “Given the temperate, cool year-round climate and the presence of this big, beautiful body of water, it felt like a missed
Words by KELLY ATTERTON
The site feels far removed from the routines of daily life.
opportunity that nothing similar existed in the San Francisco Bay Area.” Their idea came to life in collaboration with architect Nick Polansky, who drew from the area’s industrial shipbuilding history. The structure repurposes Corten steel shipping containers and is wrapped in local redwood. “We wanted to blend some minimalist California design elements with more of an industrial look and feel,” Yenni says.
Fjord has quickly become something of a local institution. Guests check in
above the marina, then follow a wooden walkway lined with sailboats to reach the barge at the dock’s end. Surrounded by views of Angel Island and Tiburon, the site feels far removed from the routines of daily life. “That was always our dream,” Yenni explains, “to create a welcoming third space where people connect with each other and with nature in a deeply sensory way.”
While the concept might suggest a younger, fitness-forward crowd, Fjord’s most devoted visitors have been women around age 50 — a demographic the founders didn’t expect but now see as a core pillar of its story. That broader appeal reflects their philosophy.
“We actually don’t talk much about Fjord in wellness terms, even though we’re clearly adjacent to that space,” Yenni says. “We think of it more as a recreational activity. The wellness benefits, physical and mental, are absolutely real, but to us, they’re a happy by-product. Our focus is on joy. Social connections and the simple human pleasure of heat, cold, water, and nature.” thisisfjord.com . •
FJORD is a Nordic-inspired floating retreat in Sausalito that allows guests to experience sauna, cold splash, and the natural beauty of the San Francisco Bay.
Zen Moments
Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt
How the author, podcaster, mother, and lifelong horse girl stays calm beyond the barn
WHERE DO YOU LIVE? Los Angeles.
WHERE DO YOU FEEL MOST ZEN?
At the barn outside Carpenteria. Whenever I’m in the presence of horses, I feel calm.
FAVORITE PARK?
Will Rogers Park. It was a casualty of the Palisades fire in January, but I hope it will be rebuilt.
FAVORITE HORSEBACK RIDE?
I grew up riding in Sullivan Canyon in L.A. It was like being in the city, but also fully immersed in nature.
FAVORITE BEACH?
Butterfly Beach in Santa Barbara and Broad Beach in Malibu.
DO YOU FOLLOW A DIET? No, but I should. I definitely don’t eat enough protein.
FAVORITE HEALTH FOOD FIX? Mosh bars. I eat one every morning and sometimes in the afternoon too.
FAVORITE DRIVE?
Down San Vicente toward the ocean.
FAVORITE WORKOUT?
I’ve been doing Pilates with the same teacher, Julianna Robinson at Physical Artistry Pilates, since I started college. She totally kicks my butt and has changed my body.
FAVORITE SPA? TREATMENT?
I’ve been going to Vanessa Hernandez Skincare for around 10 years and I love getting the facial and the vbeam collagen boost laser.
WHERE DO YOU TAKE VISITING FRIENDS?
I usually take them to Montecito or Ojai if we want to do a day trip, but I tend to take people to Santa Monica and walk along Montana Avenue, which I think is the best part of L.A.
WHAT’S IN YOUR COSMETICS BAG?
Supergoop Tinted SPF and Glowscreen; Clé de Peau undereye concealer; Merit Complexion stick, blush, and Bronze balm; Bare Minerals lip liner; and Summer Fridays lip balm.
FAVORITE SKINCARE?
Colorscience, SkinCeuticals, EltaMD, iS Clinical, Iris&Romeo, and I use Peter Thomas Roth eye patches every day and a Nicole Caroline Skincare ice sphere each morning when I wake up.
FAVORITE HAIR PRODUCTS?
I use everything ROZ hair care, a Sheila Stotts brush, and Crown Affair when I’m air-drying my hair.
FAVORITE HOME ITEMS?
I love Häti Home products, which are so well made. I use Force of Nature spray for literally everything in my house; it smells great and also sanitizes. I am obsessed with Lola Blankets.
FAVORITE FLOWERS?
Eucalyptus because they do amazing wonders for the air in your home. They also smell good and last a long time.
FAVORITE MUSICIAN/ALBUM TO HELP YOU RELAX?
My favorite music era is the ’70s, so when I’m doing busywork or need to unwind, I listen to the songs from my childhood.
WHAT ARE YOU READING?
Kat and Brandy, my new children’s book! •
FOG Design+Art brings together an international roster of leading contemporary design and art galleries, o ering visitors the opportunity to experience the best of art and design from around the world all in one place. On view January 21-25, 2026 in San Francisco, FOG Design+Art features more than 50 exhibitors, including those presenting in the third edition of FOG FOCUS.
Fog Design + Art
Tickets are available at fogfair.com
A Preview Gala will take place on January 21 benefiting SFMOMA’s education initiatives.
With thanks to our early sponsors
FOG DESIGN+ART
JANUARY 21 - 25, 2026 fogfair.com
FOG PREVIEW GALA
JANUARY 21, 2026 sfmoma.org/fog
Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture San Francisco
Thank you to our beneficiary partner
