D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E D C R O S S B A L L AT M A R - A - L A G O I N PA L M B E AC H
Shirley MacLaine and Patty Myura
they’ve turned out the lights, locked the door, and gone home or out to dinner, exhausted. But I’ll bet their life is always very interesting. And so are the wonderful canines, rescued and fed, sheltered and loved in the Williams-Rosselli domains. The other thing that has always fascinated me about Williams is that she is a reader who, every morning when she awakens, remains in bed and reads for an hour. A novel. That’s how she begins her days. There’s a kind of spiritual discipline there that indicates many things besides imagination. Strength. Commitment and nourishment for the mind. Rosselli is a quiet legend in 40 QUEST
Donald and Melania Trump
Paul and Julie Thomas
the New York interior design business. He’s been the go-to guru for interior designers and many of the ladies among the rich, the chic and the shameless, for decades. The Master of Taste. He has the “eye” on which you can put no price. The eye for the practical, the beautiful, the sensible, the exotic, and the exquisite. Williams has the eye too. And the Southern girl that she is, she has a matching eye (always open). And both are always working. They also, it should be recognized, live well. They live like you’d imagine a highly successful decorative arts and antiques dealer and a top flight international interior designer would live. In a Technicolor
Bonnie McElveen-Hunter and Stuart Bernstein
movie. There is the sensational house in northwestern Connecticut and the villa in the Dominican Republic. And they work. Hard. But happily. That’s the ultimate achievement if you ask me. Reading that last paragraph over, I realize you could almost think the awardees live in a kind of La La Land. No, no. I’m sure that, like the rest of us, they have all their issues to tend to. But whatever that might be, there’s the welcome they present. Always warm. Thinking about this dinner when I got the invitation and saw the name Albert Hadley among the awards, I was reminded that the so-called “legends” of the interior de-
Ramon Tebar and Lola Astanova
Lawrence DeGeorge and Suzanne Niedland
sign business of the previous generation have almost all left us for greener pastures. Sister Parish, Billy Baldwin, etc. Williams and Rosselli are exponents of that time, that era, and their art. It’s a business with its own traditions. It’s a highly creative business, an artist’s business—but a shrewd businessman’s business too. Bunny Williams and John Rosselli have succeeded to replace the aforementioned in today’s design world. That is what the Albert Hadley Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes. Important matters. On a Thursday I had lunch at Michael’s with Jilly Stephens, executive director of City
C A P E H A RT P H OTO G R A P H Y
Wayne Newton and Patrick Park