The Tastemaker's Issue No. 9

DVE IGHT S P R I N G 2 018 I S S U E 9

T H E TA S T E M A K E R S I S S U E

T H E TA S T E M A K E R S I S S U E

EDITOR’S NOTE

Steven Kolb photographed by Noah Kalina See A CONVERSATION WITH page 52

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DVE IGHT ISSUE 9

Editor in Chief NHI MUNDY

Executive Editor MICHAEL MUNDY Design Director STEPHEN MALE Style Director JOHN PAUL TRAN Senior Editor MIMI VU Associate Editor ALEXANDRA MARVAR Market Editor VICTORIA BARTLETT Contributing Writers EDDIE BRANNAN JILLIAN SCHEINFELD KAREN SCHOEMER SANDY SOOHOO Contributing Photographers ALEX FREUND CHRISTIAN HARDER MATT NOVAK NICHOLAS ROUTZEN NOAH KALINA STEPHAN SCHACHER Contributing Artists LISA MOSKO MICHAEL THOMAS LOLLO MOANI LEE Advertising Executive ESTHER DE JONG

WHY DO WE live upstate? On the surface, this seems like a fairly straightforward question. But dig deeper, and it turns out the answer is more complex. Yes, it’s beautiful, and yes, it’s affordable, but let’s be frank: So many other areas in the country have the same geographic and economic benefits. The real difference is that upstate is an extension of NYC. It offers a lifeline to the greatest city in the world, where many of the very best artists, chefs, thinkers, and designers—the “tastemakers”—reside.

Editorial Assistants ISAAC LEE KURT MAJKA Photo Assistants CAELUM ROGERS MICHAEL DAVIS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DVEIGHT Magazine Issue 9 © 2018 Delaware Valley 8

In this issue, we pose the next logical question: What is it that draws so many tastemakers upstate?

Designer (and my childhood hero) Todd Oldham, who bought a house in Milford, PA almost 20 years ago, describes upstate as, “the right kind of sophisticated, but also really low-key,” in our Ruralist interview.

When our cover girl, Sunrise Ruffalo, turned her back on Los Angeles a decade ago, she was at a critical moment in her life. Upstate NY offered her the restorative tranquility her family needed, she tells senior editor Mimi Vu. Aside from being known as Mrs. Ruffalo, Sunrise is a model, jeweler, mother, now a Narrowsburg shopkeeper—and just one of the many fascinating women in our Tastemakers issue.

Finally, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the Michelin-starred big-city chef, has a similar take on upstate life.

“Everyone knows each other, everyone says hello,” he says, referring to the customers who patronize his restaurant, The Inn at Pound Ridge, NY. Jean-Georges, who owns restaurants worldwide, prefers to spend weekends at his house in Waccabuc, NY.

See the magazine online at dveightmag.com Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

For customer service or advertising inquiries, please email nhi@dveightmag.com or write us at P.O. Box 41, Jeffersonville, NY 12748

Judging by the sheer diversity of our subjects—from CFDA president Steven Kolb to artisans Kiva Motnyk and Taylor Forrest to interior designer Juliette Hermant—it’s clear that the creative scene in our little neck of the woods is thriving.

NHI MUNDY Editor in Chief 7

UP & COMING

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MOUNTAINDALE REIMAGINED

Butch Resnick is best known to Sullivan County residents as “the guy with

the camels,” (you read that right: he keeps a flock of dromedaries on his land), but he’s also the majority owner of downtown Mountaindale, NY. Like many upstate small towns, Mountaindale went into decline in the late 20th century and the once pictureperfect Main Street suffered the all-too-familiar ignominy of shut-down mom-and-pop businesses and boarded-up windows. But Resnick, a local entrepreneur who grew up in Sullivan County, is about to reverse Mountaindale’s reverses. Future plans include a revitalized Main Street complete with Brooklyn worthy restaurants, shopping and galleries, a lakefront bungalow colony and an artist residency. Expect Mountaindale to burst back onto the list of Sullivan County destinations, riding the wave of the region’s reemergence as a prime getaway for urban New Yorkers. mountaindale.com Photograph Bill Carpio

EAS T WIND

Located in Windham, NY, this new boutique hotel is a Scandinavian-

inspired remix of what was originally a hunting and fly fishing lodge that dates back to the 1920s. Guests can choose between 19 accommodation options, from rooms in the Bunk House or the Hill House to glamping in prefab Lushna cabins. True to its Scando-style, the property includes a barrel hot tub, sauna and pool, and the aesthetic throughout, executed by Eastwind’s creative director, Julija Stoliarova, blends a mid-century eclectic with sleek minimalism, embodying the concept of lagom, Swedish for “just the right amount.”

5088 Route 23, Windham NY 12496 eastwindny.com

DIXIE’S LIQUOR Brought to you by the folks behind Brushland Eating House in Bovina, and taking over the former Ray’s Fine Wine and Spirits’ location in

YOUR GUIDE TO WHAT’S UPSTATE /

Delhi, Dixie’s—named in honor of Brushland partner Sara Elbert’s mother, a confirmed Scotch drinker—carries an

UP& COMING

unostentatious mix of everything from everyday amaro (for who doesn’t drink amaro every day?), Sunday-supper chianti and anniversary-worthy sparkling wines. Plus liquor, of course. 70 Main St, Delhi NY 13753 dixieswineandliquor.com Photograph Christian Harder

By EDDIE BRANN AN

F OGWOOD & FIG Clean comfort food with a seasonal twist is Diana Bezanski’s goal. A California-born photographer-turned upstate New York purveyor of vegan dining experiences, Bezanski has come to love the diverse seasons that the north-east offers and the full range of culinary options that provides. She is now the proprietor of Fogwood & Fig, a season-driven vegan and gluten-free café in Port Jervis, plus an eminently bookmarkable website, where she archives the café’s recipes.

24 Front Street, Port Jervis, NY 12771 fogwoodfig.com

SPEEGLE S TUDIO, GALLERY 52, THE REPOP SHOP Trey Speegle came to New York in the 1980s to work in fashion magazines.

The combination of image and text resonated with the young designer, who turned his obsession with paint-by-numbers art into pop art paintings. Now he is opening a space in Jeffersonville, NY, comprising his studio, Gallery 52—whose inaugural show presents ten years of Speegle’s vintage shadow box pieces, with works from 2007 to 2017—and The Repop Shop, selling limited-edition prints, original art, cards, books, t-shirts and more.

4849 State Route 52, Jeffersonville NY treyspeegle.com

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A CONVERSATION WITH

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SEEKING PERFECTION/ STEVEN KOLB Interview MIC HAEL MUNDY Photography N OAH KALIN A

Since 2006, the CFDA president has led the organization through some of the most fundamental changes in the fashion industry and society at large. The “gatekeeper of the industry” sat down with us in his home in Hawley, Pennsylvania to discuss the ever-evolving importance of keeping up as fashion embraces the digital age.

MM: Thanks for meeting with us. It’s great to be here in your cozy home in the

that too. But we’re not always at the same pace as some of the change. It’s being a

Poconos. This is the Tastemakers issue, so it’s really cool that we’re getting to talk

part of that. So it’s tricky.

to you about an industry that defines the taste for so many Americans. I just want to start by discussing a little bit about the Council of Fashion Designers of America

MM: Even influencers have multiplied and diversified. 20 years ago, Vogue was

(CFDA) and your role in it. What is the CFDA and how do you fit into it all?

the pinnacle and everything underneath it was under that umbrella. But these days it could be a kid in Ohio who’s got a big influence on people. How do you

SK: When I got to the CFDA it was a different organization, founded as an arts and

manage that?

culture organization by Pauline Trigere, Bill Blass, Arnold Scaasi—iconic American names. By the time I was there, it had morphed into a kind of trade organization.

SK: I embrace that. I remember when bloggers were starting to really become present

And I think that what the organization is today probably has a little bit to do with the

in Fashion Week. We made the decision to actually include bloggers as part of the

timing and how the world changed. I came at a time when technology was really

nominating, and some of the traditional designers were aghast. I mean it was a bit of a…

influencing the way we live our lives. That was something that helped propel us as an organization to look at how clothes were created, or products were made and sold.

MM: Disruption.

The industry was beginning to change. So we worked to build value by helping designers with licensing deals, helping them find jobs, really putting a business focus

SK: Yeah, but now, fast forward. I go to fashion shows or events and you see those

on how we could promote American fashion in the global economy. This was in 2006.

influencers really driving the industry. It’s interesting because you think of any industry that hasn’t really kept up, like Kodak. Like why didn’t Kodak figure out digital? You

MM: In that time the world has changed almost entirely. It’s a different place now.

see a lot of those parts of our industry that have been really smart about it and kept

How do you deal with that constant change?

up with it and others have not. I think the influencers that started in blogging are basically driving social media. And what’s most interesting to me about them is that

SK: Over the course of the years that I’ve been there, I’ve felt a lot of change and

they sometimes appear to be frivolous in terms of their content, but there are really

a lot of growth, and a lot of positive energy around that growth. But in recent years

smart business people behind those profiles that we follow. I was recently in Paris

it’s been more complex. We rode the change that was influenced by technology and

for Fashion Week, and we do something called Americans in Paris where we bring a

were able to take advantage of it. Now it’s become this wheel with some rocks in it.

group of young designers for three days as part of a showroom. It’s part of the CFDA

It’s harder to figure out. And I think that because of what CFDA has become, people

Vogue Fashion Fund. We have a sponsor every year to help pay for it, and it was

look to CFDA to be perfect.

Diesel. So Diesel is owned by Renzo Rosso who also owns Only the Brave, Margiela, and Marni. He’s kind of a legendary guy and he’s been in the business for 40 years.

MM: To be this sort of authority.

And he was talking to the nine designers at a breakfast and what he said was so interesting. He was saying what drove success and sales was the product. But if you

SK: Yeah, to lead consistently. Retail has changed, right? The way things are made,

had a good product 40 years ago, people would come and they would find your

where they’re made, all of that has changed. So we need to be rapidly changing with

product. They would seek it out and drive to it, and that would drive them. But now,

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he said, you still have to have a good product, but more important than the product is the communication: selling the product, talking about the product, promoting the product. Because if you don’t have a good strategy, a good digital strategy, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. So here’s a guy who comes from just product now saying, ‘Yeah, product’s important, but more important than that is the digital strategy.’

MM: I find that so interesting because you’re old enough to have lived both sides of this now, and you kind of answered one of the questions I was going to ask, which was what’s more important, the product or the brand? And it seems to me now, the brand has become key.

SK: Well that’s where the success is, right? So many designers are trying to figure out how to reinvent themselves. If you look at what’s driving success in fashion right now, it’s Everlane, Warby Parker, Greats (which is a sneaker company from Brooklyn)—all online. These are business people, entrepreneurs who had a business idea. That’s what drove them and then they sold product, right? So it’s been this flip. But on top of that, you have to have a really excellent strategy to communicate that product. Social media is not going away.

MM: At one point, it was literally about word-of-mouth and now if you think about it, Instagram is kind of a word-of-mouth thing. I look at one picture, I get influenced, I pass it on to someone else, they get influenced. It just happens so quickly in sort of a multitude. Because of this sort of decentrification, this diversification and leveling of the playing field, will we be able to have the stars that we once had? Will we have the Ralphs, the Calvins?

SK: Yeah, that’s a good question. I think that the stars of the future will be different types of creatives than those names—Ralph, Donna, Calvin. I mean, those are iconic, legendary names. And you know, Polo’s a relevant company, but also a fifty year old company that is…

MM: Really associated with the twentieth century.

SK: Yeah.

MM: Which we keep forgetting we’re not in anymore.

SK: And everyone’s trying to connect to the consumer in 2017. I think they’re going to be different. I think the stars are going to be driven by their content. What’s the visual of it? What’s the story of it? What’s the cult of it? It’s always been important for designers to be their own and best muses, but I think it’s more important now. So I think it’s really the storytelling, and the ability to tell really good, compelling stories about brands.

MM: And what do you like these days in terms of fashion? Is there some sort of style or clothing that you feel kind of reflects our time more than others?

SK: I think streetwear continues to have an influence both on the way men and women dress. So I don’t think that it’s going to go away. I think that the exciting future of fashion really is going to be whether it’s streetwear or tailored clothing. It’s also how clothes are made. I think consumers for a while now (particularly a younger generation) care about sustainability. The way our industry makes clothes can be pretty harmful—look at fast fashion. So I see the future as a more circular economy.

MM: That’s really interesting. I think those of us who have chosen to live upstate are acutely aware of our impact on the environment.

SK: I also see a shared economy. We see it with Airbnb and with Uber or Lyft.

You probably have heard of Rent the Runway. I think you’ll see more of that. People borrowing things and sharing things so it has less of an impact in a negative way.

That’s a big piece of it, whether that be fibers that are connected somehow to the sun, heat and power. That’s really the future.

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THE RURALIST

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TODD OLDHAM Interview & Photography MIC HAEL MUNDY

In the 1990s, few names shone as brightly in the New York fashion world as Todd Oldham’s. Along with other style icons of the decade such as Betsey Johnson and Anna Sui, Oldham ruled the city’s fashion scene, sending riotous bursts of color (chartreuse, crimson, and teal) and pattern (garden flowers, wallpaper prints, and polka dots) down catwalks for the better part of the decade. Since he stepped away from fashion nearly 20 years ago, he’s kept busy with a host of design collaborations, including his pet project, a collection of crafting kits called Kid Made Modern and Hand Made Modern. Here, he talks to Michael Mundy about his design philosophy, gardening, and living the good life upstate.

Michael Mundy: It’s really wonderful to meet you.

our efforts, thank you.

I’ve always been a fan of your work. I’ve always

the cracks of things and thought, ‘We can make things different, but more than that, we can make them better.’

MM: It’s wonderful to see your current project, Kid

And that’s what was really exciting. So, we started

Made Modern, and what you’re doing for children.

sawing some of the children’s art-making supplies, the

Todd Oldham: Thank you. Oh, it’s very joyous for me

This is going to breed a whole new generation of

pencils, in half and realized the lead didn’t even extend

to make things. That’s my great pleasure in life, so I

people who appreciate creativity.

through the pencil. Their stuff was so crappy that kids

loved the fun you bring to things.

weren’t even going to use it past a certain point.

appreciate that you would enjoy what I get to do, too.

TO: Well, making things for children or being a service MM: I think the whole world does. I mean, things can

to them is such an honor and a pleasure, and a fero-

get so serious, and you bring levity and allow others

cious obligation, too. I don’t take anything I do lightly.

to have fun.

When you’re working with children, you have to be

I thought, ‘Wow, that’s just the saddest thing in the world!’

MM: It is!

exemplary and try to get something at the formation

TO: So we don’t do that [laughs]. We find ways to

TO: Well, that’s sweet of you to say. That’s funny, too,

of their ideas. If you let them down—through maybe

make everything work at artist quality. We’re really the

because I think I feel that I’m a pretty serious person.

supplies not working as well or something—it would just

first that I’ve seen, to make artist-quality supplies for

It’s not scientific, but everything I do is very thought out

be tragic. When we started exploring whether to go into

young makers.

to make sure that it can have maximum oomph, you

this, it was very clear that there was nothing left to do.

know, at the end. So I appreciate that you would notice

Like, everything was out there. So we started looking in

MM: How did this all start? Because it’s quite specific 21

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and not what we associate with your usual work.

which is really a joy, because if you can just make things

T H E TA S T E M A K E R S I S S U E

anybody [laughs].

that are just for pleasure, then we can stir in learning TO: If you think about my fashion designs or the furni-

tenets and all these other things. I feel like we’re making

MM: Home Depot is a good spot [laughs]. How do

ture, these are more of adult opinions, and you have a

magic tricks every day.

you spend most of your time up there?

sorts of things. But with children, you have to be very

MM: From what I remember now, I have always

TO: Well, I arrive on Thursdays, and then I come back

available. Whether you’re a cognitive learner or a visual

associated you using unusual fabrics or going beyond

to the city on Mondays. I work out there a lot, so I mean,

learner or whatever your door is to creativity, it has to

that as a fashion designer. You were always trying

it’s my quiet time to get a lot of my city obligations taken

be wide open here. It’s more of a scientific, heart-led

new things and pushing the envelope, I don’t think

care of. But I’m a massive gardener. I just built a new

approach to service that gets us to these places. We

with the intention to be cool. It just seemed like it

greenhouse this year that I’m loving.

have a lot of fun. We’re not childlike, but we understand

came from the heart all the time.

different kind of hat you put on when you design these

MM: Really? What do you like to garden?

that joy. And because of our taste level, and not wanting to wreck the planet, and using woods and biodegrad-

TO: Well, it was what was interesting, you know?

able supplies—we’re just trying to be the best Earth

I have a resistance to anything that is rote or done

TO: Everything. I have a huge vegetable garden, but I

citizens. Because you can very easily see that the planet

before. I know that’s a big idea, but I have a natural

love propagating. It’s really gone kinda crazy this year.

doesn’t need any more debris or misuse. If you’re going

urge to want to do something irregular or not done

I just expanded the side, so I have a big collection of

to make lots of things, then you have to be conscious of

before. That’s what feels well to me. So it’s just kind of

South African and tropical plants. And then in the green-

that these days.

my natural turn to find the odd way to do it. Plus, I’m

house, I installed a movie theater. So at night we go and

unschooled. I’m very skilled but unschooled. I have

watch films in there, it’s really nice. Then in February,

MM: You use the word “service” a few times. Is there

autodidacted through all of anything that was interesting

you start your seedlings and then propagation. It’s been

a sense of responsibility you feel?

to me. So I have a lot of knowledge about anything that

a good year. This whole side of the greenhouse is all of

was interesting to me, and virtually none of the stuff that

the seedlings and such. That keeps me pretty busy.

TO: Oh, absolutely. You should not play in this arena

aren’t. I think that makes me uniquely good for getting

unless you’re practically monastic about it. I mean,

to design this stuff.

like to cook?

that’s just my opinion. I did a book on a children’s artist named Ed Emberley, an astonishing man who taught

MM: Let’s talk a little bit about your life outside the

most children how to draw. If you were born in the ’70s

city. How long have you been going upstate?

TO: Yeah, I’m a long-term vegetarian, so it’s nice to pretty much grow everything you eat.

and ’80s, you had an Ed Emberley book that showed you how to look at things. Ed had the same approach

MM: With the vegetable garden, does that mean you

TO: Since ’98 or so. Gosh, it’s almost 20 years now.

MM: Do you actually grow nearly everything

that we had. He had a conversation with somebody that MM: And what brought you up there?

you eat?

It’s for kids! They deserve the very best.’ So, I can see

TO: Well, I wanted to get out of the city, and I was very

TO: In the summertime, yeah. It’s really nice.

there is a lineage of wanting to hold this dear. It’s not

stupidly arrogant and said I don’t want to live in New

I don’t grow corn because, you know, Jersey corn is

shared by many, but for those of us that are sincere

Jersey and I don’t want to drive past 90 miles. So I had

so delicious, and five ears for a dollar, so…

about it, it’s so important.

a friend of mine—at the time I was super busy, but I

was like, ‘Well, it’s just for kids, you don’t have to go that far.’ And he was like, ‘What are you talking about?

wanted to build—he went and found this town called

MM: I’m actually partial to Long Island corn.

MM: That’s wonderful. It’s something that I’m just

Milford in Pennsylvania that he had had some friends

conscious of all the time, but I often feel the world

in. I went up and I just loved it. And so once I found that

doesn’t feel the same. So when I see people who do,

neck of the woods, it was easy. I bought land and I was

it’s really inspiring.

going to build, and we just got busier and busier and I

MM: So you garden and then…is there a particular

thought, ‘This is never going to work.’ So we just lucked

season that you prefer to be upstate?

TO: Oh yeah, I bet [laughs].

TO: Well, thank you. I’m not one to lament a broken

out and found this house that had just been finished.

system. It’s just a waste of time. So, there’s many other

Super peculiar, looked like things I had been drawing,

TO: Oh, I love it all because I make such good use of

people who sell these things. They sell crayons and

just complete kismet. So we lucked out and got it. We

the winter. There is so much that you can’t do outside,

those kind of things, but it feels so much like they’re

just continued to buy everything around it as it became

so I have my studio in my house that I usually work in.

just trying to sell you something and not trying to create

available and planted over 600 trees. It’s really beautiful.

I have three kilns. I do a lot of ceramic work up there.

MM: Really? Wow!

MM: What is it that you like about ceramics?

It always goes up, up, up. You don’t go down. There

TO: Yeah, it was a golf course that we reforested.

TO: It’s once again the magic trick. You’re literally

is no amount of knowledge that sends you back down

It’s really nice. Still find the golf balls occasionally.

mushing dirt from the ground, and then you put it in

a new neural pathway, you know? We’re really trying to excite you and cause some sort of newness that is permanent. With creativity, it’s like stairs in my opinion.

this insane oven that is so bizarre and full of tricks,

the stairs. The more you know, the brighter and more vibrant you are. So we want to be a part of that.

MM: So what do you love about Milford?

MM: So, you’re kind of laying seeds with all this, no?

TO: I liked that it was not the Hamptons and that it was

You have to be really process-oriented, because there is

the right kind of sophisticated, but also really low-key.

a great chance it’s going to explode in the kiln, so you

TO: It is indeed seeds, yes. Creativity is a garden for

I just didn’t want to have a place where you go and have

just have to kinda go with it. I like it. It’s really fun.

sure, and you have to tend to it, to use your analogy.

everybody you tried to avoid all week in the city, and

We’re very serious about it, and because we don’t want

they’re there. Milford is not that. I’ve seen Eric Bogosian

To find out more about Todd Oldham’s company,

to be very duplicative. Nobody needs anything we do,

in the line at the Home Depot, that’s about as far as like

Kid Made Modern, visit kidmademodern.com

you know? That’s the thing, it’s very unstable, and I just love it. You never really know what’s going to happen.

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FREE RANGE

IN PEARL AND BONE Photography & Creative Direction ALEX FREUND

Fashion Director LISA MOSKO

Cotton, linen, canvas, lace. Elegant natural fabrics are the perfect balance of airy and embracing – textiles for the season between ice and steam. Suited for welcoming back the brighter, lighter, more forgiving weather, for sylvan strolls on a day that starts with a light frost and peaks with the sleeves-off Spring warmth of the sun, here are our Equinox-toLabor Day wardrobe inspirations in pearl, in bone, in swan, in oyster mushroom, in pale moonflower, in ivory, in milk, in the edges of waves... but not in snow.

DAKOTA at NEXT MODELS wears Cotton Ruffle Dress by St. Roche

THIS PAGE Cotton Overalls by LACAUSA OPPOSITE Cotton Gauze Dress by Raquel Allegra

THIS PAGE Cotton Sleeve Top by Lily Ashwell Denim Jacket and Jeans by Frame Denim Vintage sneakers from Western Costume OPPOSITE Repurposed Antique Lace Dress

by Magda Berliner

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IN PERSON

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WHEN YOU FIRST MEET SUNRISE RUFFALO, WHAT STRIKES YOU IS THE UNMISTAKABLE SUSPICION THAT SHE IS A “SOMEBODY”

By MIMI VU Photography MIC HAEL MUNDY

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With her tousled blonde mane, her slim gray wool blazer, her pristine Adidas Stan Smiths, and a level, assured voice, she exudes a stealthy glamour that makes her stand out, even in a stylish town crawling with stylish city weekenders like Narrowsburg, NY. Even if you didn’t know she was married to an Oscarnominated movie star (that would be Mark Ruffalo), or that she pals around with the likes of Kirsten Dunst and Dakota Johnson, or that she’s a red carpet regular in Valentino and Chloé, you would understand instinctively that she was, at the very least...not exactly a local.

SUNNY IS STANDING in her newly minted store, Sunny’s Pop, on Narrowsburg’s

the Rolling Stones from city to city (“My dad dressed like Mick Jagger up until the day

Main Street, briskly rearranging her stock of elegant housewares and antique

he died—with the spandex pants and everything”). The other half was spent in France

furnishings, chatting to neighbors who come from up and down the street to say hi,

with a more “normal” aunt who had a steady job and owned a children’s clothing

and running ideas past her longtime assistant, Noelle. She is prepping for a photo

shop, where Sunny would spend her days lovingly wrapping people’s purchases. She

shoot for her website and there is a lengthy to-do list and—”Oh no, my dustpans,

dropped out of high school at age 14 and left her home city of New Orleans to model,

where are the dustpans?” She stops to tell me the beautiful, sleek chair I’m admiring

making her way to Paris, Italy, and Japan before landing in Los Angeles, where she

is “actually a potty chair,” and breaks into a good-natured laugh.

ultimately met her husband. With no proper education or training, she tells me, she

I’ve never spent time around celebrities, or even their next of kin for that matter.

has always thrived on pure instinct.

Despite my initial apprehension, Sunny turns out to be a thoroughly charming, funny,

It was instinct that eventually brought her to live in the Catskills. Many people who

intelligent, down-to-earth spirit, with not a shred of pretense in her being. She has no

come to roost upstate are fleeing something, even if it’s just the high rents and noise

hesitation in talking about her itinerant childhood living on food stamps. Half of her

and chaos of city living. But for Sunny and her family, the flight turned out to be much

life was spent with her hippie father, who took her on the road in a VW bus, following

more dramatic.

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IN PERSON

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THIS PAGE Red dress by Uzi at Velvet Maple Jewelry by Melissa Easton at Mayer Wasner PREVIOUS PAGE Poplin jacket in navy blue, Embroidered ivory camisole, both at Sunny’s Pop

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“TRAGEDY AND DRAMA PROPEL YOU TO EITHER SINK OR SWIM.” Back in 2007, Sunny was the co-owner of a jewelry boutique, Kaviar and Kind,

focus than the rarefied bling she specialized in during the Bush years in L.A. “I’m a

in L.A.—a much buzzed-about shop that showcased the new designers, such as

mother of three, I spend a lot of time in my home, and I love my home,” she says.

Jennifer Meyer, Solange Azagury-Partridge, and Lorraine Schwartz, then making a

“[The shop] reflects how closely knit I am to my family, and how much it means to me.

name for themselves with playful, ethically leaning jewelry for a clientele of young

It’s much more democratic, having a store that’s home goods. There’s something for

Hollywood stars. When she and Mark had their third child that year, Sunny made

everyone in my shop.”

a difficult decision to close the wildly successful shop and focus on her family. Then disaster struck: Mark’s younger brother, Scott Ruffalo, was killed in L.A. “Literally

Indeed, browsing her selection, I found at least a dozen things that were very much

everything happened within months,” she says. “We had another baby, we decided

“for me.” The shop is quietly impeccable, with an array of beautiful yet unshowy

to shut the business down, Scott died.” They soon dropped everything and ran.

goods, arrayed nonchalantly on simple and utilitarian shelving. Functionality

“Mark fired all of his agents, everybody. Our kids needed something different, we

dominates here, even in the more decorative items. Sunny enthusiastically shows me

needed something different. We decided to come here. It became a place of refuge

a “seed pod” clutch purse by Albuquerque-based accessories line Oropopo—it’s a

and peace and calm.”

neat little pouch that sort of resembles a fruit husk, made of laser-cut leather and

The move was a perfectly natural one for the family. Sunny and Mark had owned

just big enough to hold “lady accoutrements.” It hangs next to a set of military-green

a house upstate since 1999, and had faithfully been spending every summer there

metal tool and storage boxes from Parma, Italy, and fold-up travel totes from the

with their kids, who could run wild in the surrounding fields and woods. Soon they

NYC label 8.6.4. Along the opposite wall are an array of ceramics from artisans such

were full-timers, people who did chores and salted their roads in the winter and

as the upstate-based Kelli Cain; measuring spoons and spatulas made of ethically

hauled their trash to the dump like everyone else. It turned out to be precisely the

sourced exotic woods from Guatemala; hand-crafted brooms from Thailand; and

salve they needed. “Tragedy and drama propel you to either sink or swim,” she says.

even gorgeous birch-handled toilet brushes from Iris Hantverk in Sweden, which nest

“And for us, it felt like a very survival move.”

into minimalist concrete bowls nice enough to eat soup out of. “I find things that have

What helped them mend their spirits were their neighbors. Their first winter here,

the human touch, of some kind of craftsmanship to it,” she explains. “And things of

Sunny broke her leg in a riding accident. There was an outpouring of support, not

some socially conscious message, too. There’s wonderful artists all over the world,

to mention a procession of homemade tuna casseroles, soups, and stews. “It really

and people are championing them and helping them survive by bringing their work

shows you the grit of your community when you’re sick,” she says. “I have found the

out of those countries.”

most amazing friends here, and I could not have done it without them. The locals really embraced Mark and me and my kids and brought us into the fold.”

For Sunny, connecting small communities of artisans and shoppers is the right way to have a voice in retail in 2018. “Smaller towns are benefitting and supporting

After several years of raising their kids in the Catskills, Sunny and Mark decamped

the artist,” she says. “They want us to be here, because it brings in food, it brings

to NYC, largely for the kids’ schooling. But they are still regulars upstate, and last

in people. This was a great tourist community at one time, and it’s coming back.”

summer, with her youngest child approaching 10, Sunny started thinking about retail

And she’s clearly thrilled to be doing her part to revive it.

once again, and how much she’d missed it. When she heard that a local antiques shop in Callicoon was vacating its space, she pounced and got to work. The result, Sunny’s Callicoon Pop, a pop-up selling home décor and antiques that she’d sourced in her travels, was her way of gingerly sticking one toe back into commerce. “I was

OPPOSITE Sunny wears French floral shirt dress by Elena, fleece pullover in blue by

nervous because I hadn’t been in retail in ten years,” she admits. “I thought, ‘Is it

Isamu, both at Mayer Wasner

going to embrace me? Are people still going to think what I have to say is relevant?’ ” It turns out her fears were unfounded. The pop-up did so well that she officially

CREATIVE DIRECTOR John Paul Tran

transplanted it to this Narrowsburg storefront—a longterm commitment—this past

PHOTOGRAPHER Michael Mundy

December.

HAIR Michael Thomas Lollo MAKE-UP Moani Lee

Perhaps it was her uncertain childhood, or the trauma of losing her brother-in-law, or

PHOTO ASSISTANT Michael Davis

the years spent raising her own clan—but this time around, she has a very different

SECOND PHOTO ASSISTANT Caelum Rogers

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FLAVOR

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JEAN GEORGES/ TUNA TARTARE WITH A SPRINKLING OF MOB LORE

By KAREN SC HOEMER Portrait by MIC HAEL MUNDY Photography by MATT N OVAK

IN THE FOYER of the Inn at Pound Ridge, in the lull between lunch and dinner

powered only by candlelight—and the kitchen, where prep cooks buzz, stir and

service, a short man in a spotless white coat is on his hands and knees. He unloads

chop amid gleaming chrome, bright ceramic bakeware and the intoxicating smell

oranges into a rustic wooden crate on the floor, pushing them around to give

of freshly torn basil. “Don’t take a picture of anything dirty,” Ron says. “You’ll get

the right intimation of bounty, then fusses with another crate full of fresh fennel,

me in trouble.” Ron, I want to say, there isn’t anything dirty. Even lugs of glassware

arranging bulbs and fluffing feathery tops. He stands up, assesses his work,

in the corner seem to sparkle. Next we’re whooshed downstairs, where a parade of

brushes himself off and scurries toward the kitchen. I haven’t been introduced yet

dishes arrives to be photographed. Ron hovers over each one, pouring sauce on a

to Ron Gallo, the chef de cuisine at this two-story, 250-seat, seven-days-a-week,

fat lamb chop plateside so it doesn’t break, explaining that the recipe for the yogurt

farm-to-table institution, but instinct tells me that at the Inn, attentiveness to detail

on the red snapper has been tweaked to give it more visual body. He enthuses most

starts at the top. Watching from the bar, where my date and I were served drinks

about sushi-grade salmon over a cube of fried rice, moistened with chili dressing

approximately three seconds after sitting down, I feel that strange mixture of anxiety

and a drizzle of honey soy (“it’s flippin’ delicious”) and a plump disk of tuna tartare

and smug satisfaction that only an extremely fine restaurant can produce. If this

on mashed avocado (“it’s not quite guacamole”) with petals of radish arrayed on

amount of energy goes into a casual display near the front door, can you imagine

top. As soon as the photographer finishes snapping, Ron pushes plates in front of

what’s happening in the kitchen?

us. “You can eat it! And I’m going to feed you dinner. You’re going to have plenty to

Open since January 2014, the Inn is a relative newcomer in the portfolio of chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, proprietor of the Michelin-starred Jean-

eat, don’t worry.”

Ron, I want to say, do you have us confused with the New York Times? “We’re

Georges on Central Park West and some three dozen other restaurants worldwide,

here to pamper,” says Jean-Georges a few days later, phoning from his Central

from Miami and Las Vegas to St. Barths, Paris, Tokyo, and Dubai. JG, as he’s

Park flagship after returning from an opening in Jakarta. “Everybody is important.”

affectionately known to those who work for him, has a weekend place in Waccabuc,

In the history books, he’s known for updating classic French cuisine in the late

ten minutes from the Inn, so he pops in two or three weekends a month, but even

‘80s, replacing heavy sauces based on cream and butter with lighter versions

when he’s not there, he’s there. Attentiveness to detail starts in the ether. Gallo

built around fruit and vegetable juices and flavored oils, and introducing Asian

emerges from the kitchen, shakes our hands and sets about an uncompromising

ingredients. Ron first worked with Jean-Georges as a prep cook in Manhattan in

attempt to dazzle. We’re given a tour of the restaurant—a completely redone

1987. “I’d never heard anybody talk about food like him,” Ron remembers. “He

1833 farmhouse with five fireplaces, cathedral ceilings and a private dining room

was two decades ahead of his time. Once, after lunch service, he said, ‘Ron, for

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dinner service we’re going to have a special on your fish station, I want you to make me asparagus juice.’ I was like, ‘Chef, I don’t need to be the one to tell you—I don’t think asparagus has juice.’ He rolled his eyes and said, ‘Get me the asparagus, get me the juicer.’ The plate was roasted salmon with asparagus jus. We put cayenne pepper and a touch of lemon juice, and he mounted just a teaspoon of olive oil, and lots of fresh thyme.”

Other than a couple of short stints where he wandered elsewhere, Ron has been one of his staunchest lieutenants ever since, working his way up through kitchens at NYC locations like Vong and JoJo. I tell Jean-Georges that he must not have thrown many pots and pans at Ron’s head for him to have stuck around so long. “Lots of love, lots of love!” he says. The Inn at Pound Ridge isn’t breaking new culinary ground—it’s a seriously high-end place where the affluent of Westchester can kick back and bring the kids. The wait staff wears jeans and plaid; there are pizzas on the menu (one comes with black truffle and fontina) and a grass-fed burger with yuzu pickles. “In the end, when you open a restaurant, you create cravings,” says Jean-Georges. “You create dishes that people come back for. If the tuna is not as good as last week, then we have an issue. Consistency is probably the most important part of it.”

After the photography is done, we’re seated in the main dining room. It’s early on a Tuesday evening, and we’re the only people there; by 7 pm, it’s pretty much full. The room is open and airy, like a house with the interior walls taken out.

Outside I see evergreens, the white clapboard and black shutters of neighboring colonial homes. The Inn is located on a three-way intersection a mile or two outside the hamlet of Scotts Corners, in a gentle hollow with a nursery across the street. The building itself has been a restaurant since the late ‘30s, when it was known as Emily Shaw’s Inn. I tell Jean-Goerges that my mom used to go there as a child when her father took Sunday drives. She claims it had a reputation as a mob joint in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Jean-Georges laughs. “It’s still a family restaurant! When I go there on a Saturday or Sunday, everyone knows each other, everyone says hello. We haven’t killed anybody yet. Very similar, but without the guns.”

A meal is never just food—it’s a complex stew of memory and present moment, details the senses take in and the responses they evoke. I’m not the kind of person who likes to be pampered—usually the experience of being fussed over makes me feel guilty as hell. But on this evening at the Inn, the tide of pampering is so expert and so insistent, I sort of crumble. Dinner is served: green chickpea hummus with garden peas sprinkled on top, salmon with a nest of shaved Brussel sprouts in truffle vinaigrette, seared scallops in a passion fruit sauce, adorned with parsnip chips that lay across the dish like fallen leaves. Four desserts, including a blood orange sorbet, a chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting and bullets of chocolate candy, a sundae where the sauce is smeared up the sides of the bowl and sprinkled with house-made Cracker Jack. I’m done in, destroyed. Hail Jean-George, hail Ron. Throw pots and pans at my head. Shoot me.

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MEETING IN THE

The sunlit ground floor living room with colorful congeries of naïve paintings, and Ludick’s creation Chair-Nobyl at lower right

MIDDLE

By ALEXANDRA MARVAR Photography C HRIS TIAN HARDER 41

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Black countertops in the master suite bathroom are part of the home’s passive solar heating plan; The master bedroom; Bill Anton (seated) and Paul Ludick, in their dining room, plants provided by Fox Hill Farm; The guest bedroom, a painting of Narrowsburg above the headboard

“THE WARMTH YOU feel is from the sun,” Paul Ludick tells me.

In Paul and his partner Bill Anton’s home just over the Pennsylvania border from

slide them aside to get at his food when he’s feeling particularly demanding.

Calicoon, passive solar warms the room – with its vast wall of windows – on a

The doors upstairs are just as clever: “We have lots of pocket doors,”

day when patches of snow still grace the grass. Standing in that room on a

Paul explains, sliding one out of its sheath. “Bill hates doors.” This was

Solstice, you’ll see the sun intentionally hit the seam where the wall meets the

their compromise.

dark, stone floor.

We tour the house Paul and Bill built together – Paul having overseen the

Paul is a designer, an artist, a furniture maker. In 1989, The New York Times called him a “furniture terrorist,” and his work has also been pointed to as

design and construction, Bill, a graphic designer, perfecting it to the note. Half

“craftivism.” His World Theater series features chairs and stools representative of

the kitchen cabinets are a glowing walnut patchwork of drawers and doors, and

Apartheid and ozone depletion. (He indicates a Chair-Nobyl across the room –

the other half are hidden in plain sight: A wall above the stove appears to be a

a hollow wooden stool with the contour of a nuclear tower – currently serving as

simple grid of white panels, but, Paul reveals, they’re another world of storage.

a plant-stand.) Bill has a graphic design agency, Service Station, which serves

Inspired by the paper-like Japanese doors that hide their contents from a room,

clients like Estée Lauder and Smithsonian Books. “We used to do invites for

the panels are made of formica sheets so lightweight that the cat, Romulus, can

Howard Greenberg Gallery,” he mentions while we’re passing a vast collection

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In the guest wing, nested kids bunks and a library nook bedecked with an eclectic collection of illustrations

P EDRO BO R E GA A R D A R T I S A N J E W E L E R A N D S C U L P TO R

101 MAIN ST, NARROWSBURG, NY 12764 (845) 252-3833

BOREGAARD.COM

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“IF PAUL HAD HIS WAY, EVERYTHING WOULD BE BLUE. HIS ANSWER TO EVERY QUESTION IS ‘BLUE.’ ” of black-and-white photography by the likes of Weegee and Cartier-Bresson.

With Maude Alley came garden parties, and soon followed Bill and Paul’s

He had occasionally been paid in prints. They left New York City in 1992. Their

other contributions, from new traffic signage, to seventeen saplings along Main

first Pennsylvania outpost was a reclaimed barn, which they renovated into a

Street, to the Great Wall. One day, Paul was contemplating the blank canvas of a

home with a guest wing, their personal wing, and a common middle section with

brick building at a stoplight downtown; the next, the Great Wall of Honesdale is

the rafters exposed. “New York made our careers,” said Bill. “And gave us what

a community-funded, large-scale exhibition of artworks sourced from the locals,

we have here,” added Paul. “And it will always feel like going home. But you

curated and project-managed from behind Bill and Paul’s pocket doors.

move on. And here we are.”

The layout of this place on the rutty single lane of Bush Road, which they

Off the front balcony, which we reach from the master bedroom, a patch of desert glistens in the distance. “Our property goes down to that,” Paul says.

built in 2003, is not so different. A free-standing flight of stairs cut smack through

A reservoir was held back by a dam that needed rethinking, so the reservoir

the center of the high-ceilinged floor level. On one side of the ground floor is

was drained. Now it’s in ecological limbo – but soon, the town of Honesdale

a kitchen, and on the other side, a wood burning stove, sofa, a pair of checked

will convert it into wetlands. I ask what kind of person they hope will buy their

mid-century-style Eero Saarinen womb chairs. When you reach the top of the

inhabitable work of art here in Pleasant Mount. “Someone who appreciates

stairs, a backlit cedar lath snowfence wall insists you branch off to the left or to

what they have, like we did here,” Paul muses. Plenty have already appreciated

the right.

this house on the ridge – its clever cabinets and portrait walls splashing across

To the right, Chilewich pinstripes line the last steps up to a floor of Tretford woven

the pages of various lifestyle and design magazines over the past fifteen years.

goat hair tiles in graphic blocks of deep red and rust orange, which warm up the

But Paul is thinking more of their 78 acres of trails, woods, rolling hills, and the

master bedroom suite. To the left, the guest wing is a cooler set of hues. “If Paul

nameless stream that stretches just the short distance from north of Route 371

had his way, everything would be blue. His answer to every question is ‘Blue.’”

across their property toward the wetlands. We talk about how they’ll soon be

They met in the middle on this — when it comes to colors, the upper level is half

giving up this place to move to a town called Plymouth, Wisconsin – the town

warm, half cool. Every acquisition, every design decision, they say, takes two

where Bill grew up. Behind us is a portrait wall of mounted antlers each on a

votes, but the decór division of labor might be best described as: “Paul has a

unique carved wooden base, rescued from a Black Forest hunting club by an

bigger vision, and as a graphic designer you just move things a quarter of an inch

antiques store in the Rockies, and in turn rescued, the whole lot at once, by Bill

here and there, so I’m a bit more about the details,” Bill explains.

and Paul to hang above a swath of Cole & Son lotus wallpaper. “You move on.

And here we are. And here we go.”

Bill’s attention to detail, his knack for curation, and his love of beautiful things have also been brought to purpose outside the walls of the Pleasant Mount

Plymouth is an hour outside Milwaukee, close also to Madison, and two hours

house, in the nearby town of Honesdale. Maude Alley, in downtown Honesdale,

from Chicago, whence hailed Bill’s mother, a fashion illustrator for the Tribune.

was named for Paul’s grandmother. It began with one 1845 building that the

After Bill’s grandfather passed away in 1979, the family sold his house – a prairie-

couple purchased and renovated back to its 1920s self, based on photographs.

style ranch by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. Three years ago, they had the

It houses Milkweed, Bill’s two-story mercantile, which vends wares like wooden

opportunity to buy it back. They made the leap. Now, this season or the next,

swings, pillar candles, throw pillows. They were approached about buying the

they’ll leave Bush Road and head West. This month, Paul will bring his table saw

neighboring building as well – another renovation on which to collaborate.

to Plymouth and join the contractors who are opening up the space and revealing

Of course, they didn’t harness their New York energy and buy up a corner of

its heart.

Honesdale just to open one shop. “We sort of recruited the businesses we wanted

Paul: “We’re at a place in our life where we’re looking for change, looking to

there alongside us,” Bill explained. “If there was something that seemed like a

slow down.”

good fit, we said, ‘Hey, move to Honesdale, we’ll find a space for you there.’”

Bill: “We need a new project.”

Soon Maude Alley was a bustling market, where one could find everything: Fresh-

For purchase information, check out “Sprawling Contemporary” in our Real

cut flowers, roquefort, Italian leather footwear, hand-dipped ice cream, banh mi.

Estate section on page 69.

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MEET YOUR MAKERS

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RULE OF 3 / MEET TAYLOR FORREST, KIVA MOTNYK & JULIETTE HERMANT These three designers may work in diverse fields—Motnyk creates textiles, Forrest makes furniture, and Hermant designs interiors—but they have all found a home in upstate New York. And in doing so, each has seen her work transformed by the materials, approaches, experiences, and inspirations the region has to offer. For each maker, the move upstate has brought with it the realization that design is not just about aesthetic and technique: It is also about terroir.

By EDDIE BRANN AN Photography S TEPHAN SC HAC HER 46

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“MIG welding is pretty easy,” says TAYLOR FORREST. It’s not something you typically hear from a Parsons fashion graduate.

But after working with a leather designer, becoming obsessed with thick furnituregrade saddlery hides, and meeting a boy with a furniture fabrication workshop, Forrest took some sideways career turns.

BEFORE LONG, SHE and the boy, Jimmy, were an item—“I just showed up at the workshop and never left,” she says—and soon she was learning woodworking techniques from him in his NYC studio, making her own furniture, and yes, taking a welding class. “If I want this thing,” she says, ostensibly talking about welding but perhaps thinking of more, “I have to figure out how to get there.”

Getting there, it turned out, wasn’t too much of a stretch. With her minimalist aesthetic and an eye for objects that combine function with high form, Forrest found a natural fit between the draping techniques she learned as a fashion student and the crafting of sinuous, sweeping curves of leather into her delicate steel chairs and chaises. Her first piece was a stool with a sling seat that, she says, recalls the saddles she’d ridden as a child in Illinois.

Forrest soon made a small collection of pieces, shot them against a roll of seamless paper 48

she found in a Lower East Side Dumpster, and sent the pictures out to every store and showroom she could think of. The very next day, a showroom in L.A. requested that she send them pieces on consignment. Press came soon after, and just like that, a furniture business was born.

The couple soon decided they would need more space. They’d been heading upstate on weekends, and both of them realized what the calm and the natural beauty of the region—not to mention the extra square footage—would bring to their work, so they decided to make it a full-time thing. Now they’re into their first year in a place with a workshop, a warehouse, and of course a home, just north of Hudson. While Forrest says she’s not been up here long enough to notice a change in her design influences, she will admit that “what it has done has improved the process, making everything possible and a little easier. That’s enough for now.” taylorforrest.com

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Textile maker KIVA MOTNYK describes herself first and foremost as an artist. “I grew up around art,” she says.

“My dad is a painter and my mom is a dancer.”

THEIR NURTURING OF her creative instincts eventually led Motnyk to enroll at RISD to pursue a fashion degree. But then she discovered RISD’s fine-art-focused textiles program, where students are taught a range of traditional techniques such as weaving on hand looms and organic hand-dyeing. What drew Motnyk’s eye was their earthy beauty, a rarity in the commercial fashion world dominated by mass production. She transferred out of fashion and into textiles and dove right in: “I learned and use embroidery, patchwork, knitting, weaving— really everything.”

In 2014, she founded Thompson Street Studio, and her practice, both creative and commercial, embraces a broad range of techniques. She has a studio in Delhi, NY, and one in NYC, and divides the work between them. She collaborates extensively with others, in particular the artist Susan Cianciolo (with whom she launched a line of home goods, the Run Home Collection), making works that are meant to be paired with furniture, ceramics, dance performances, and more. Many of her pieces are one-of-a-kind, designed to be hung on a wall or against a light fixture. “I create a lot of the pieces with the idea of an installation in mind,” she explains, showing me a filmy, wonderfully ethereal patchwork piece consisting of tiled rectangles of different sizes, in a range of pale hues—from purest white to a buttery cream—through which the light appears to skip and dance. She explains that this is

a Korean style of patchwork called Pojagi, which utilizes no quilting in order to achieve this otherworldly delicacy.

But don’t despair if you’re not able to commission one of these one-offs. Thompson Street also produces a small run of more accessible pieces such as pillows, coasters, and placemats.

Motnyk believes that one of the joys of fabric is its versatility, and she’s just as happy for one of her fine art pieces to be draped over the back of a chair or thrown over your shoulders as she is to see it on a wall or a window. “I want people to feel like they can use the pieces as they see fit,” she says.

Creating natural dyes is one of her favorite parts of the process, all the more so since she began making pieces upstate, because here she can forage for materials. “Goldenrod is a great material we have plenty of,” she explains. “Sumac. I have a big evergreen forest, so I dye with evergreen needles. All the blueberries that come out in the summer… I even use some of the mosses.” Motnyk loves how the time of year, even the very location where she gathers her materials, affects the outcome. “Each bush of blueberries gives a different hue,” she says, “and each fabric takes it in a different way, so there’s an element of chance.” It’s the very definition of terroir, and it’s what thrills her most. “People always ask,” she says, laughing, “is it art or is it science?” thompsonstreetstudio.com 49

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JULIETTE HERMANT is a familiar figure to those who frequent Narrowsburg, high above the Delaware River on the New York/ Pennsylvania border.

A Parisienne of infinite charm and style, she operates her shop, Maison Bergogne—a treasure trove of antiques, objets, and just cool stuff—out of a characterful 1920s brick warehouse in the heart of town. But Maison Bergogne is not just a shop, and Hermant is not just a… Well, let’s take it a step at a time.

HERMANT IS ORIGINALLY an artist. She left Paris for Los Angeles in 2007, and lived there making work while also designing interiors. Missing the close community of artists that was then hard to find in L.A., she moved east, to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. But that wasn’t right either, and eventually she discovered upstate New York, and in particular the Catskills, on her frequent forays to source the natural and found materials she incorporates into both her artwork and her design process. “Finding the countryside was an important event when I arrived on the East Coast,” she says. So was finding the Narrowsburg warehouse, which allowed her to set up a studio. There were no windows, no running water—“a perfect painting studio!” she says with a laugh—but it was a beautiful building, a tall single-story structure with beams high across the span. Hermant saw its huge potential for making art and much more. She bought the warehouse in 2012 and set to work.

Hermant had been an antiques dealer of sorts for a long time—a sidebar to her interiors practice—and although retail didn’t particularly appeal to her, it made sense as one way to utilize the space. Tapping into local stories, “what people fabricate, what people keep, what they discard,” was also compelling to her. Hermant loves how the storefront gives her direct 50

access to the customers who bring her goods and take them away. It gives her unique insights into sustainable living.

Cultivating relationships with people eventually led to cultivating a neighborhood garden two blocks away, and also to beekeeping (she maintains hives on the warehouse’s roof). She further built on her interest in community, food, and sustainability by opening Fish & Bicycle, a concept for a bar revolving around workshops and education in locally sourced ingredients.

At present, she throws seasonally themed invitational events (a recent one was a maple tree “tapping and tasting”) and offers private catering while she sources funding to set up a standalone restaurant within the Maison Bergogne property.

In essence, Maison Bergogne is a complete synthesis of Hermant’s diverse passions, inspirations, and talents. As with so many artists who have ventured upstate, her idyllic setting—with its natural beauty and emphasis on community connection—lies at the heart of her neighborhood-focused practice. “It’s about keeping people on track,” she says. “Standing up for food, water and for air, for art, for community, in terms of quality and respect. I think this is key.” maisonbergogne.com

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AMY BRACCO BIDEN/ MODEL BEHAVIOUR

By JILLIAN SC HEINFELD Photography NIC HOL AS ROUTZEN

Amy Bracco Biden’s path to modeling, in many ways, is a classic tale: Awkward girl with braces gets spotted at the mall. Girl competes in the Elite modeling contest. Girl soon jets off to New York, Paris, and London, eventually landing in the pages of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Elle. It’s the time-honored origin story of any number of models. Slightly less typical, however, is the rest of Amy’s story: Girl ends up marrying into one of America’s most prominent political families.

THAT FAMILY, AS one might guess, would be the Bidens, whose most famous

years ago. “When I was starting out, the idea of taking a selfie or bragging about

member, former vice president Joe Biden, is the uncle of Amy’s husband, Jamie

what campaign you were in was sort of corny. At first, it felt painful to adjust to

Biden. When I speculate about what it’s like to marry into a politically adjacent

the new norm, but if you don’t, it hurts your livelihood.” When asked how many

family—if it’s ever intimidating to be around such big-name powerbrokers—she

followers she has, Biden facetiously tells casting agents: “a billion.”

quickly responds, “I never felt like I had to be someone else in order to be around them. They’re the most wonderful, laid-back kind of people.”

Having successfully transitioned into today’s new normal, Bracco Biden is well aware that models are not just models these days. Similar to rappers and actors and everyone else in the public eye, they need to be “influencers” and

A born-and-bred northern Californian, Bracco Biden has her own mellow,

“tastemakers” and marketable multi-hyphenates. And when it comes to side

chameleonic vibe, something that has served her well in her career, posing for

projects, her passion is writing. Culling from years of experience working her

everything from Guess and Gap to Garnier and Clinique. When she first started

way up the good old-fashioned way, she spent the past two years writing a

out in the early aughts, “you built your portfolio up. It was more about what

satirical web series with a friend tentatively titled “Models Wrote This.” Although

editorials you were doing and which photographers you were working with.”

she’s tabled the series for now, Bracco Biden is keen on creating a podcast

Nowadays, she says, casting agents couldn’t care less about a polished portfolio,

where she can pool together her network of “incredibly talented photographer,

longevity, or experience. In the alternate universe that is 2018, it all boils down to

painter, musician, writer, chef, and designer” friends in conversation. She’s been

the number of social media followers you have. The industry is now dominated by

coaxing most of them to get their own houses upstate, although she’d rather her

a sort of dogged self-promotion that would’ve been deemed in poor taste just 15

residence, nicknamed “The Pine Palace,” act as home base. “Then it becomes

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AMY BRACCO-BIDEN wears Frida Drop Earrings by Moonstoned Tie Neck Blouse by Ritual Vintage

Gold Necklace by Melissa Easton Jewelry, Lace Collar Blouse by Ritual Vintage

CREATIVE DIRECTOR John Paul Tran PHOTOGRAPHER Nicholas Routzen STYLIST Amy Bracco Biden HAIR Michael Thomas Lollo MAKE-UP Moani Lee PHOTO ASSISTANT Caelum Rogers

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STYLE

Gold Watch by Jean Andre, Tube Top by Ritual Vintage

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Ophia Gold Hoop Earrings by The Moonstoned, Gold Ring by Pedro Boregaard, Ruffle Cardigan by Ritual Vintage

WHEN ASKED HOW MANY FOLLOWERS SHE HAS, BIDEN TELLS CASTING AGENTS: “A BILLION.” a conversation of which house to hang out at, and everyone will just end up

the downtown music scene in NYC, they’re filled with the rural rituals of hiking,

staying at their own,” she says.

swimming, yoga, nature walks, and cooking.

Although diplomacy isn’t in her actual lineage, she may have peripherally

While her travels have taken her to places like Australia, Argentina,

picked up a thing or two about connecting people. When I ask if Bracco Biden

Sri Lanka, and South Africa, Bracco Biden is a California girl to the core, even

would call herself a social instigator, she smiles but shies away from the term.

sartorially. “I’m always in denim. I go for casual, comfortable, but with a little bit

“I do love bringing my friends together as often as I can, and our house upstate

of a tailored edge.” And despite being a picturesque model, she can still relate

has ended up being a really amazing place to do that.” Friends and neighbors

to the personal agony of trying on pants, no matter how good the lighting or the

gather at the Palace for a wholly American 4th of July fête each year, where

mirror angle.

she plays hostess, organizing games of corn hole and darts, a bonfire, and

“It doesn’t matter who you are—you have to be in a very good head space to

fireworks. As for weekends kicking back with Jamie, a DJ whom she met on

try on jeans.”

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TRANSFORMATIONS/

HUDSON

FROM LEFT: Bright, unique textiles at Minna; Kate Darling and Antony Katz of Moto cafe; Chef David Chicane of Food Studio; Food Studio’s grapefruit and pea shoot salad, made with coconut oil and sriacha. Highly recommended. I practically licked the bowl

I can’t say I was born with discerning taste. It was something I developed over time, as a snob who likes fancy things she can’t afford and lives in places where those kinds of things proliferate. Hudson, New York, is a town that caters to all the Instagram-friendly shops and brunch spots of my dreams. It’s populated by a cast of characters searching for the same things: good food, good drinks, and pretty places to lay your head. But that is not the whole story. Hudson is a place with a large, diverse population in a rural setting that struggles to serve both the ever-changing weekenders and the local residents alike.

Words and Photography SANDY SOOHOO 56

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FROM LEFT: The Hudson Area Library, housed in a former armory; Jonathan Osofsky of Kasuri in his shop on Warren Street; Sam Logan of Mutiny

I ARRIVED ON a Thursday. I wanted to understand what this place was all about. I’d, of course, read all the articles about it, and had many friends every weekend making trips up during the summer months. The town is so popular among city dwellers that it is sometimes, somewhat pejoratively, known as the Brooklyn of the North—and I can see how that’s happened.

I parked my car on and walked up and down the main drag of Warren Street: full of cool clothing stores, vintage shops, and antiques. There are the coffee shops: Supernatural, Rev, and Moto—at the last of which you can also peruse motorcycle goods and eat delicious savory waffles made with cheese and prosciutto, or any number of toppings, by chef Kate Darling.

There are the brunch spots. Among them, Home/Made where Brooklynites Monica Byrne and Lesiah Swenson serve strong coffee, savory cobblers, and comforting toasts with ricotta and jam on their elegant marble bar as if they’d always been here. For dinner, chef Dave Chicane at Food Studio offers up delicious, creative Asian cuisine in a clean white setting. Minna is an elegant textiles shop full of designs by Sara Berks, who works with artisan collectives in Mexico, Guatemala, and Uruguay to bring her beautiful rugs, towels, and blankets to life.

It’s easy to imagine yourself living here in a wood-floored apartment overlooking the town, like the one I stayed in at the Hudson Milliner. The room was actually a large apartment complete with kitchen and an extra lofted bed, renovated and filled with antique appliances and vintage furniture by local artist/photographer couple Charlotta Janssen and Shannon Greer. In fact, all the places I stayed were the result of some kind of transformation. Up the street at the Rivertown Lodge, it was hard to visualize what the place had been in its many previous lives: a movie theatre, a motel. The lobby is spacious and bright, flanked on either side by two wood-burning stoves and seating areas made of mid-century furniture that’s somehow both stylish and cozy at the same time. Revived by longtime hotel managers Ray Pirkle and Kim Bucci, the two worked with the designers at Worksteady to create a timeless feel in a once very dated, purely functional lodging house. Downstairs, the tavern is copper hued and intimate. Its ceiling peppered with Edison bulbs, the deep blue walls and leathersaddled seats at the bar inviting guests to enjoy cocktails and the Mediterranean inspired small plates. Dishes like chickpea crepes with roasted eggplant, peperonata, smoked cashew cream 57

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CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Modern, cozy cabin vibes in the lobby at Rivertown Lodge; Bedroom of my dreams in the Rivertown Lodge suite; Rivertown Tavern’s gnocchi with lamb, muhammara and buttermilk; The loft room in the Top Hat suite at the Hudson Milliner; Home/Made; Shannon Greer of the Hudson Milliner

and duck confit function as something for everyone to share with drinks before a night out.

The community experience seems to be a common thread among many of the places I visited. There were just as many regulars in the tavern that night as people from afar, and that seems unique to a hotel bar in any destination town. I guess the difference here, as I came to understand, is that Hudson is much more than just a stylish spot to spend a weekend.

Places like the Tiger House on Allen Street not only offer five rooms in the stately mansion for guests to stay, but also hold events like weekly screenings of Ru Paul’s Drag Race and monthly Tiger Tantrums salons that feature musical guests or other performance artists who put on shows in the large, elegant living room under the epically carved mantel. The Tiger House is a building in its third or fourth life, having been a mansion built by a soap family, a brothel, an asylum, a bed and breakfast, and now the inn and cultural spot that it is today. It seems to embody the fascinating and somewhat sordid history of Hudson itself, all in one place.

“It’s a fascinating moment to be here,” Jonathan Osofsky of Kasuri told me as we sat on the simple leather couches in his shop. Kasuri is a high-end fashion boutique at the bottom of 58

Warren Street, next to the river. The shop features designers from all over the world including Yohji Yamamoto, Vivienne Westwood, Issey Miyake, Comme Des Garçons, among others. But with the availability of e-commerce, the shop itself functions less as a fashion boutique and more as a living art gallery for everyone in town to come into contact with and experience pieces made by some of the best working artists today. “Fashion is not about trends or hype,” Mr. Osofsky said, bedecked from head to toe in pieces from the shop: Yamamoto layered under the latest Comme Des Garçons jacket, an Italian still life of florals painted on a floorlength black coat, finished with some Raf Simons Adidas. “The people we carry are not only incredibly talented, but they think about clothes in a different way.” Mr. Osofsky admitted that while pieces like these are not necessarily accessible to the general population— wearable art comes at a premium, the ability to interact with and see and touch and even try on these kinds of constructions helps expand the horizon of what people think is art.

Hudson is full of living art projects. Just ask the ladies at Lil’ Deb’s Oasis on Columbia Street, a place built with art in mind, as its chefs/owners/artists Hannah Black and Carla Perez

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CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: The sun room at the Tiger House; A cozy corner with one of the (many) majestic taxidermy birds in the Tiger House’s library; The Banana Loca dessert at Lil Deb’s Oasis; Hannah Black and Carla Perez Gallardo of Lil Deb’s

Gallardo created it as a space that was not only built to feed people food, but to nourish them as well. Everyone in town sent me to them, so I was glad when we were finally able to stop by and experience the joyful chaos that is a popular restaurant in full swing on a Friday night. We sat at the bar decorated with plantains and pineapples in the pink and blue neon lights. Ms. Black described the place to us as an “immersive experience,” so we experienced it, all of it. Wheeler, our host, led us on a “wine journey” and brought us something special and funky from Greece while an 8-year-old named Flor ran around and around, alerting the staff that new guests had arrived and drinking what looked like an iced coffee at 8 pm. “Flor is going to be famous,” Wheeler sighed and suggested we get the garlic toast to go with our ceviche, which was, possibly, the best decision we’d made all day.

There were two parties still happening when we left at 9, and I can only imagine how fun and packed the place is for the performance nights of curated drag that happen monthly.

Hudson is an oddly liminal place: a diverse population set in a grid-like setting, small for a city but large for a town, left-leaning amidst its conservative, rural surroundings. The complications

arise from the collisions between people coming and going from near and far. How does one sustain the ideals of a large city in a remote community, with a large population of both diverse and transient residents? In spite of all these amazing places developed by smart, caring individuals, you’ll find many year-round residents at the singular, timeless institution of any community: the library. Acting as a conduit between the many, many local artists and the members of the community who might not have had access to the very real possibilities of creative lives. Program directors Shanekia McIntosh and Brenda Schufelt offer programs that help all residents, young and old alike, to develop their literacy and have access to worlds they otherwise might never have known.

The transformation of taste is not limited to the kinds of people who have artists and professors as parents. It’s important that platforms for self-expression span race, class, and cultural divides. Hudson struggles against the raging tides of sameness brought in by people from afar, but with the help from its caring, impassioned, visionary residents more and more people have access to resources and places that encourage them to participate actively in their own lives and agendas, making this small urban center every bit a thriving community as it is an upstate oasis.

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THE EIGHT LIST Market Editor VICTORIA BARTLETT

GR AYS ARE GIVING way to springy greens, Red-winged Blackbirds are making their first cameos across the Catskills, and inspiration for a brighter 2018 abounds: In our Spring Tastemakers issue, illustrious stylist VICTORIA BARTLETT shines a light on a few of her favorites in fashion, beauty, art, and pizza from her perch on the Delaware River.

1 Designer TAMAR MOGENDORFF’s intricately stitched “soft sculptures” of swans, seals, and seashells tug at the heartstrings of adults and kids alike: This “taxidermy” mounted donkey trophy is hand-crafted of wool and mohair for an adorably charming ‘Velveteen Rabbit meets rustic hunter’s cabin’ aesthetic. $585 tamarmogendorff.com 4

2 In her Brooklyn studio, Reykjavík-born jeweler, metalsmith, and bone collector JOHANNA METHUSALEMSDOTTIR hand-crafts mystical adornments inspired by the collision of natural phenomena and human attention, from avian migrations, to cod, to the privilege and rarity of having a spine. Our pick: Her delicate cable chain of tiny branches in silver and 10K gold. $255 kriajewelry.com 3 The most heavenly seasonal, organic, foraged, housemade, and otherwise-locally-sourced ingredients are devoted to artisanal pizzas in this gem of a restored 1860s house in Bloomsville, which also offers guest rooms. The wood-fired pie of marinated fennel, preserved meyer lemon, feta, and parsley is the stuff of dreams.

TABLE ON TEN 52030 NY-10, Bloomville, NY (607) 643-6509 4 Inspired by vintage doctor bags, FLEA BAG’s handsome and time-tested items of utility are numbered by edition and custommonogrammed at will on durable cotton canvas with a Pecan brushed leather base made to weather elegantly. Go for the Flea Bag in its signature Original style, now with shoulder straps. $380 fleabg.com 5 Photographer and stylist ANDREA MENKE channels our exact taste in rugs, poetry, knives… the list goes on. Her barber shop-turned-boutique bazaar in the Western Catskills village of Delhi is a dreamworld of irresistible artifacts for the home.

Shop for Turkish and Moroccan textiles, must-have ceramics, and other treasures. THE STONE HOUSE 92 Main St, Delhi, NY 917-224-6718 thestonehouse.nyc

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6 JIM R AGLIONE This Portland, Oregon-born artist oscillates between Manhattan and Long Eddy, New York while he sculpts and paints organic works that breathe irony, humor and sensitivity.

His portraits of split wood and his wooden sculptures on varying scales are worth coveting. jraglione.com 7 Model and apothecary Shanon Shultz creates small-batch tinctures and potions at home in Bethel, New York, including this quintessential face oil of rose hip, moringa, aragon, baobab, yarrow, frankincense, palmarosa, vetiver and surely some secret ingredients.

MILDRED’S ORGANIC FACE OIL $45 oilsbymildred@gmail.com

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8 This army and navy gear company based in Hawley is a best kept secret. From “Kids’ Camo,” to “Women’s Military Streetwear Fashion,” to outdoors and camping attire, the potential for turning up a treasure in the surplus piles is massive. Grab a classic Swiss Army jacket that can be regularly mistaken for Comme des Garcons.

FATIGUES ARMY NAV Y 84 Texas Palmyra Hwy, Hawley, PA fatiguesarmynavy.com