February 2012

february 2012

‘s wonderful Chris Burch love, life and retail

heart

The Buccellati renaissance tradition Courtly ways

Laurel and Mike D’Antoni

Lovers dance

Megan Fairchild and Andrew Veyette

Seeing red … and liking it

Sweet sensations

ya gotta have

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february 2012

THE ART OF THE HEART 12 MAKIN’ WHOOPEE 16 MATTERS OF THE HEART 19 A VAGINA MONOLOGUE 22 THE STATE OF DISUNION 24 Love and marriage 25 understated elegance 29 TIGER MOM 30 a couple of gems 32 ONE ON ONE 36 BEING BETTERIDGE 38 LOVE DUET 42 creating a palette for the home 44 THE BUDDY SYSTEM 47 WONDER-FUL 56 ALL HEART 58 HEARTS AND MINDS 65 SWEETS TO THE SWEET

Photograph of Christopher Burch by ©David Bravo.

2

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51 way

Features

Maison Normande, mon amour

60 wares

We ❤ hearts

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Seeing red

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A singular sensation

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Booking glamour

68 wheels

Going topless

70 wanders

We’ll always have Paris

73 wine&dine

In search of the sommelier

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The heart of plastic surgery

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Heart-healthy hormones

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Getting into the swim of exercise

77 worthy

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Heart docs and divorce lawyers

79 when&where Upcoming events

82 wit

We wonder: What’s your greatest love?

83 watch

We’re out and about

88 class&sass

With Martha Handler and Jennifer Pappas

8

Meet the waggers

10 Editor’s letter Michael Berger, Marcia Pflug, Marne Roskin and Tom Spanos

Cover photograph by ©David Bravo

4

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PUBLISHER/CREATIVE DIRECTOR Dee DelBello MANAGING EDITOR Bob Rozycki EDITOR Georgette Gouveia ART DIRECTOR Caitlin Nurge DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY David Bravo CLASS & SASS COLUMNISTS Martha Handler • Jennifer Pappas STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Anthony Carboni • Ryan Doran • Bob Rozycki MEDICAL SPECIALISTS Dr. Michael Rosenberg • Dr. Erika Schwartz FEATURES ADVISER David Hochberg CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Patricia Espinosa • Geoff Kalish, MD Mary Shustack • Zoë Zellers PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Alison Kouzmanoff Digital Media Manager Ryan Doran

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Advertising Sales DIRECTOR, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Marne Roskin ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Michael Berger • Tom Spanos • Marcia Pflug FOUNDING PUBLISHER Mary Ann Liebert WAG A division of Westfair Communications Inc. 3 Gannett Drive, White Plains, NY 10604 Telephone: (914) 358-0746 Facsimile: (914) 694-3699 Website: wagmag.com Email: ggouveia@westfairinc.com All news, comments, opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations in WAG are those of the authors and do not constitute opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations of the publication, its publisher and its editorial staff. No portion of WAG may be reproduced without permission.WAG is distributed at select locations, mailed directly and is available at $12 a year for home or office delivery. To subscribe, call (914) 694-3600, ext. 3020.

All advertising inquiries should be directed to Marne Roskin at (914) 694-3600 ext. 3016 or email mroskin@westfairinc.com. Advertisements are subject to review by the publisher and acceptance for WAG does not constitute an endorsement of the product or service.

WAG (Issn: 1931-6364) is published monthly and is owned and published by Westfair Communications Inc. Dee DelBello, CEO, dd@wagmag.com Michael Gallicchio, Chief Operating Officer Marie Orser, Chief Financial Officer

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Cappy Devlin “The Duchess of Travel” & Captain Guillou

Welcome to a special issue of WAG. It was last February at this time that we introduced our first issue of the magazine.

WAG, of course, had enjoyed a fine 10year history under our esteemed founder, Mary Ann Liebert. But we at Westfair, under the creative leadership of publisher Dee DelBello, like to think that we’ve taken that ball – Tebow-style – and run with it.

And what a run it’s been. This first year, we’ve danced with wolves, horsed around with some frisky thoroughbreds – and their four-legged friends – in the north and back country and set sail on our dreams. We’ve loved Lucie (Arnaz), been fired (up) by the Donald and listened to all that Chazz (Palminteri). We’ve gotten you, Babe (Rizzuto), and met corporate leaders who suited us to a (Bigelow and Harney) tea.

Now we’ve moved on, and in moving on, we’ve come full circle. As you’ll recall, last February we had a romantic time giving everyone the royal treatment. In this the month of amour, we reconsider “The Art of the Heart” with all that entails – the passion, the love affairs, the marriages, the scandals and les divorces that launched a thousand tomes, tabloids and tweets.

We work the state of our unions – and disunions – with marriage experts and top divorce attorneys, including Dr. Estranged Love himself, Raoul Felder. And we learn that V is not only for Valentine.

It’s for lady parts, too. (But then, if you regularly turn to Class & Sass first in this book, you already know that.)

If we’re tossing in a soupçon of Français this issue – OK, it’s schoolgirl French, but still – it’s because French is the language of love. WAGwanderer Cappy Devlin takes us to the ultimate French destination, Paris. But if that’s not on your agenda, you can relish a vicarious visit to the French countryside as Mary Shustack stops by Maison Normande in Cross River, our house of the month.

With all that running around, you’ll need a little nosh, right? And what better way to spike the old blood sugar than with a smidge from Chocolats Debauve & Gallais in Bedford Hills – historically, the chocolatier to the French royals – and Lulu Custom Cake Boutique in Scarsdale, the bakery that lets you have your designer purse and eat it, too.

It was a Frenchman, the philosophical François de La Rochefoucald, who said that “The heart has its reasons that reason knows not of.” Love takes many forms and twists. There is the relationship between a man and a woman that sometimes endures after the marriage has died. Young at heart cover guy/fashionisto Chris Burch has remained designer Tory’s business partner, even though they’re no longer husband and wife. Chris has a stylish new emporium, C. Wonder, which he tells our fashionista-in-

chief, Zoë Zellers, all about.

There’s the love of family, which sometimes manifests itself in a business and a craft that has been passed down for generations, as in the case of Buccellati’s sedately sumptuous jewelry designs. These are carried by the jewelers R&M Woodrow in Rye and Betteridge in Greenwich, family businesses in which the customer is family, too.

Then there’s the love of a vocation. New Wagger and personal trainer Sam Kopf is passionate about fitness. Over the next few months, she’ll be introducing you to select dryland moves from the swimmer Ryan Lochte’s strenuous workout, leading up to the Olympics. (Hey, you’ve got to do something while nibbling on those bonbons.)

Last but not least, there is our love for our readers and what we do. Thank you for continuing to take the journey with us. n

Oops!

The photographs that appeared in “Lightening and Enhancing Your Locks” (January WAG) were misidentified. On page 56, stylist Stephanie Arocha applies Ombre color treatment to the tresses of her friend, Jessica Gangemi, while on page 57, stylist Katie Doherty gives her client, Lisa Paradise, the Balayage treatment.

Yes, January was quite a month on the Oops front. In “Getting Down with Downward Dog” (page 60), we incorrectly stated the opening of the new Scarsdale Yoga Studios. The place opens this month. For more information, visit scarsdaleyogastudios.com.

And then in “The 1 Percent Solution” (page 64), we incorrectly stated Lou Liodori’s title. He is the general manager of Mercedes-Benz of Greenwich.

What can I say after I say that the year can only get better – I hope.

Apologies to all of the above and to our readers.

11

makin’ whoopee

By Georgette Gouveia

“T

he course of true love never did run smooth,” Shakespeare has Lysander tell his star-crossed sweetheart Hermia in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Ain’t it the truth. Passion, scandal, marriage, remarriage, divorce, murder: Sometimes you can find them all in one famous relationship. What’s missing today, however, is the poetry. I mean, Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries: Not exactly worthy of the Bard, are they? Can you just hear her announcing to him, à la Shakespeare’s Cleopatra to Marc Antony, “I’ll set a bourn how far to be beloved”? I don’t think dear Kim would know a bourn’s identity.

Having said that, we decided to comb the tomes, tabloids and tweets of history to give you a little Cook’s tour of amour.

Greek to us

Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s “Antony and Cleopatra.”

Liz and Dick on their first wedding day.

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When it comes to epic passion, we moderns have nothing on the ancient Greeks and their rustic cousins, the Macedonians.

Philip II, king of Macedon, was a kind of ancient Henry VIII – a lusty, larger-than-life figure who loved much but none too well. Among the women he took to wife was Olympias, a virginal captive teen princess from the northern Greek kingdom of Epirus whom he met at a religious rite on the island of Samothrace. She bore him two children – Alexander, the future conqueror of the Persian Empire, and Cleopatra, who would become queen of Epirus.

The virile Philip was used to having his way with any number of wives, mistresses and male lovers. Unfortunately for him, Olympias – a cross between Princess Diana and Medea – was not the kind of woman to be gainsaid. As long as her precious boy remained heir presumptive to the throne of Macedon, the hegemony of Greece and Philip’s dream of Persian conquest, Olympias was willing to tolerate the other wives, the trophy mistresses and the boy toys.

But when Philip decided to divorce Olympias and take a nice Macedonian girl to wife to make nice, pure-blooded Macedonian babies – thereby jeopardizing Alexander’s claim to the throne and her own dynastic ambitions – well, that was too much.

In a scene dramatized in Oliver Stone’s “Alexander” that would’ve been equally at home in “The Godfather,” Olympias waited until daughter Cleopatra’s wedding day, which Philip staged as a PR event for his achievements. No sooner did he arrive with the bridegroom and

son Alexander than he was met by Pausanias, a former lover with an ax to grind and a knife to wield. While Alexander – who would soon ride off to Persia and into history – mopped up the mess left

by Dad’s assassination, Mom made sure that her ex-hubby’s young wifey hanged herself and for good measure, crowned the corpse of the assassin, which was hung on a cross, with a laurel wreath, kissing it on the lips.

Whatever else you may say about her, no one can deny that Olympias was a strong woman in a kill-or-be-killed age.

That same strength characterized the last Macedonian queen of Egypt, the Cleopatra.

Carry on, Cleo

This Cleopatra was a direct descendant of Ptolemy, one of Alexander’s generals and, some historians believe, his half-brother by way of one of Philip’s many liaisons. It was Ptolemy who took Alexander’s corpse, encased in a gold sarcophagus, to Alexandria, the port city Alexander himself had founded in Egypt. There, some 250 years later, Cleopatra ruled, guarding his remains and presiding over a cosmopolitan place whose lighthouse was one of the wonders of the ancient world and whose library was its envy.

Alexander was part of Cleopatra’s allure for the Romans – first Julius Caesar and then Antony, his protégé. They wanted to be winners like him. They also liked Egypt’s strategic location as a bridge between the East and the West and its grain supplies.

But there was also plenty to like about the lady herself. Though not the siren of propaganda, she was something far more interesting – a woman of wit and charm who had been educated like a man and who could hold forth on any number of subjects.

Though proud of her Macedonian descent, she was a true daughter of Egypt, the first of the Ptolemaic dynasty to speak the Egyptian language – one of several she commanded – observe the Egyptian customs, worship the Egyptian gods. She never forgot that the first duty of a ruler is to her people. In this, she was very much like England’s Elizabeth I. But unlike Elizabeth – a head-over-heart-girl if there ever was one, who kept men at bay – Cleo backed the wrong horses, so to speak. To protect Egypt, she threw in her lot with Julius Caesar, whom she bore a son, Caesarion. Caesar then had the misfortune to be assassinated.

tments

With Antony, whom she married, Cleopatra had three children – the twins Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene and Ptolemy Philadelphus. But Antony – also husband to Caesar’s grand-niece, Octavia – proved no luckier than Caesar, winding up on the losing side of the battle for empire and Caesar’s legacy against his brother-in-law, Caesar’s heir, Octavian (later Caesar Augustus).

With Antony a suicide and the impervious Octavian longing to parade her in chains through the streets of Rome, Cleopatra applied the poisonous asp to her body and stepped into immortality.

Art and life

Much of this is captured – right down to Alexander’s golden, now lost, sarcophagus – in the 1963 movie “Cleopatra.” Has there ever been another movie in which the story served as a metaphor for what was going on off-camera? Just as Cleo and Tony fell for each other, Liz and Dick – as the tabloids dubbed Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton – fell for each other while playing Cleopatra and her Antony. Depending on whether she or he were telling the story, they either met in 1950s Hollywood at the home she then shared with her second husband, Michael Wilding (her version) or at a pool party given by Stewart Granger

and his wife (and Burton’s “The Robe” co-star) Jean Simmons (his take). In either case, he was the wild Welsh-born Shakespearean on the make, in more ways than one. (Fittingly enough, one of his early roles was Alexander the Great.)

She was the coolly appraising established star determined not to be another notch on the Burton belt.

But on the sultry, seemingly endless set of “Cleo” in the Eternal City, determination gave way to passion. Soon it was a paparazzi-punctuated, Vaticandenouncing tale of divorce, marriage, divorce, remarriage, globe-trotting, jewelry, box-office hits, a six-pack of kids from various marriages, box-office bonanzas and more jewelry that ended with his death in 1984. (Taylor died last year.)

Brangelina is nothing compared to this duo. But then, few couples ever were. According to “Furious Love,” Sam Kashner and Nancy Shoenberger’s juicy recent rehash of the Taylor-Burton romance, Burton sequestered himself on the last day of his life in the study of his Swiss home, surrounded by the 1,000 volumes Taylor had given him and wrote her a letter.

He later died in his sleep of a cerebral hemorrhage. So among his last thoughts were those of her. n

royal affairs Thank God for the British royals. They allow us to enjoy all the romantic drama of monarchy while feeling smugly superior that we don’t have one:

The lioness in summer

The French-identified Plantagenets, who ruled England through the Middle Ages, were the Rolls Royce of royal families. And no one out-Plantageneted them more than the founding matriarch, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Here was a woman who had it all – beauty, brains, talent, money, land, power, influence, a memorable brood and not one but two kingly husbands. The first was Louis VII of France, whom she accompanied on a crusade to the Holy Land. This union, which produced two girls, was a bit of a dud. So faster than you can say “irreconcilable differences,” the marriage was dissolved.

The second match proved legendary: Eleanor proposed marriage to a young nobleman some 10 years her junior.

Henry was an attractive guy with good prospects. After all, he was count of Anjou, duke of Normandy and the future

Henry II of England.

Their union was the stuff of Broadway plays and Hollywood movies (“The Lion in Winter,” anyone?), with various adulteries (his) and political intrigues and imprisonment (hers). Like Alexander the Great’s mother Olympias, Eleanor had dynasty dreams for her five sons and three daughters by Henry. The oldest two boys died young. But the third and favorite would pass into myth as Richard the Lionheart. He was succeeded by his bad-boy baby bro, John, and Eleanor – having out-lived her sparring hubby to immerse herself in the adult lives of her well-connected children – earned a place as one of the most influential women in history.

Love, Tudor-style

After some 300 years, it was time for a new dynasty to take the reins. Still, Henry Tudor (Henry VII) and his wife, Elizabeth of York, could lay claim to some Plantagenet blood. Their second son would prove to be one of England’s most famous kings, though not necessarily for the best of reasons. Henry VIII

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“I’m ’enery the eighth I am.”

was a real Renaissance man – handsome, virile, erudite, “Defender of the Faith” against the newfangled Lutheranism and chivalrous husband to his brother’s accomplished young widow, Catherine of Aragon, with whom he had a daughter, Mary.

And then it all went to Hades in a handbasket. He threw over Catherine and his Roman Catholic faith for the bewitching Rules Girl Anne Boleyn, then beheaded her when he tired of her, accusing her of being unfaithful (not) and married the slyly demure Jane Seymour, who died after giving birth to his longed-for son, Edward VI. Never the most original of lovers, Henry’s fourth, fifth and sixth marriages replayed the first three. He divorced wife number four, the dumpling-like Anne of Cleves, as he had number one (the longsuffering Catherine of Aragon). At least Anne got some perks out of the deal.

Then he beheaded number five, goodtime girl Katherine Howard, as he had number two (Anne Boleyn). Number six, the motherly widow Catherine Parr, survived him barely. But she would later remarry and die in childbirth, like number three (Jane Seymour).

Is it any wonder that Henry’s greatest progeny and England’s greatest ruler, Elizabeth I, never married? Elizabeth, who was 3 when her mother, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded, saw one kindly stepmother after another wrenched from her young life, then had to witness her half-sister Mary’s humiliating marriage 14

Charles and Diana in happier times.

to the grasping, pietistic Philip II of Spain, a man who could’ve bored Jesus himself. When Philip, whose real interest was in adding England to the Spanish empire, came sniffing around Elizabeth after Mary died, she coolly asked him what the chances were that he would make her happy, given that he had made her sister miserable.

Besides, Bess – who liked cards, games, sweets and dirty dancing – was more of a bad-boy type. She was delighted to play cougar to her “Frog,” François, the flirty young duke of Alençon, though the great love of her life was her childhood playmate, Robert Dudley, whom she made Master of the Horse and then Earl of Leicester (and who’s been played by lots of studs, including Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes and Tom Hardy). Leicester (pronounced “Lester”) scandalized the court by being too familiar with the queen, while his sickly wife, Amy, stayed at home. When Amy was found dead at the bottom of a staircase – a possible suicide – it fanned rumors of a murder driven by the queen’s illicit love.

Perhaps not so ironically, Bess would later flirt with Dudley’s dashing stepson, the Earl of Essex, who unlike his stepfather had the bad sense to overstep his political bounds and lost his head.

But the famed “Virgin Queen” probably really was so. After Alençon left to help the Protestant cause in the Netherlands and she lost her last chance for marriage and children, Elizabeth penned

this sonnet: “I grieve and dare not show my discontent, I love and yet am forced to seem to hate, I do, yet dare not say I ever meant, I seem stark mute but inwardly do prate.

I am and not, I freeze and yet am burned, Since from myself another self I turned.”

It concludes: “Or let me live with some more sweet content, Or die and so forget what love ere meant.”

The queen who was described as “more than a man but less than a woman,” was married only to her country.

“Yet this I esteem the most glory of my crown,” she told Parliament in 1601, “that I have reigned with your loves.”

Windsor (love) knots

England’s current royal family, the House of Windsor, is certainly no stranger to amorous scandals, producing one of the greatest love affairs of the 20th century as well as one of the greatest icons.

Many members of the Greatest Generation were probably schoolboys and girls tuned to the radio when Edward VIII abdicated his throne in 1936 for “the woman I love” – Wallis Warfield Simpson – a tale Madonna retells in her directorial debut, “W./E.,” opening Feb. 3. Wallis was everything the Brits despised – an American upstart and a gay divorcée,

in the old-fashioned sense of the word.

When it became clear that she could not be a queen to Edward’s king, he chose consort over crown and country. The two led a glamorous, jet-set life that sometimes crossed paths with the likes of Liz and Dick.

Revisionism has somewhat tarnished the romantic portrait. The dashing Duke and Duchess were Nazi sympathizers, and Elizabeth, the current queen’s late mother, is said to have blamed them bitterly for hastening the death of her own beloved husband, George VI, who succeeded to the pressures of the throne in depressed, soon-to-be wartime England.

But without Edward and Mrs. Simpson, there might not have been Queen Elizabeth II and Charles and Diana, the Prince and Princess of Wales. Is it not terribly ironic that Diana should be visiting the Windsors’ former home in Paris’ Bois de Boulogne with her own inamorato, Dodi Fayed, on the day she died?

After all the innuendoes, intrigues and recriminations, a visit to a temple of a world well lost seemed a sadly fitting end.

But that’s not really the end is it? Because this past year, we witnessed a truly satisfying wedding, in which Diana’s engagement ring and favorite hymn, “I Vow To Thee, My Country,” were an integral part.

Diana’s golden boy and his winning bride, the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have brought us full circle.

Maybe, just maybe we’ll get our happy ending after all. n

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Clockwise from top left: Chain metal and enamel necklace with crystal detail by Lanvin, $895; natural python bag by Kara Ross, $795; selection of evening gowns by Monique Lhuillier; and green python bag with crystal closure by Clara Kasavina, $690.

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Matters of the heart

By Georgette Gouveia

In Hans Christian

Andersen’s “The Steadfast

Tin Soldier,” the little onelegged toy soldier remains

true to himself and the paper ballerina he adores, through

many tribulations. When at

last he is thrown into a fire, his body melts but survives in the shape of a heart.

In other words, our hearts will go on.

16

Megan Fairchild and Daniel Ulbricht in George Balanchine’s “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” at the New York City Ballet. Photograph by Paul Kolnik

B

y the end of “Hannah and Her Sisters,” the hypochondriacal, seemingly infertile Mickey Sachs – one of Woody Allen’s patented nut-jobs – has not only managed to marry the equally nutty older sister of his ex, with whom he had a disastrous first date; he’s also impregnated her.

Contemplating the irresistible, irrepressible implausibility of love while nibbling on her neck to the strains of “Isn’t It Romantic?,” Mickey opines that the heart “is an extremely flexible little muscle.”

Not to mention a protean metaphor. Indeed, has there ever been another organ, symbol or word that has been so written about, fought over and yearned for? (Especially the organ: Heart disease is still the number one killer worldwide.) After all, Tony Bennett didn’t leave his liver in San Francisco.

To the ancient Egyptians, the heart was the essence of the soul, and their “Book of the Dead” depicted the gods weighing each against the feather of truth at the final judgment. (So important was the heart to the afterlife that the Egyptians would not remove it along with the other vital organs during mummification.)

The Greeks, who explored the heart’s valves, also thought of it as the receptacle of reason and the emotions – a view that the Hindus and the Romans shared.

The Romans may have been responsible for our conflating matters of the heart with the feast of St. Valentine, not one but two early Christian martyrs. The date of one of the Valentines’ executions, Feb. 14, coincided with the ancient Roman celebration Lupercalia, honoring Juno, Zeus’ long-suffering wife and thus the goddess of mar-

Now all grown-up, Eros or Cupid, takes a break from making people fall in love to try love himself in Antonio Canova’s “Cupid and Psyche” (1794). Copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco.

18

riage and the family. Hunky guys would race around Rome with their well-oiled bodies on display, tapping women with leather straps in the hopes of increasing their chances of fertility or an easy pregnancy. (Shakespeare alludes to the custom in “Julius Caesar” when he has Caesar ask Marc Antony to remember his barren wife Calpurnia as he prepares to run the course.)

Lupercalia was also associated with young men pulling the names of young women to be courted from a hat, as it were. (In the 16th century, St. Francis de Sales tried to change the custom to have the guys draw the names of females saints, to whom they would pray. Yeah, right.)

Anyway, you can see how St. Valentine’s martyrdom, a classical feast about nooky and names of potential beloveds would get all balled up into what came to be known as Valentine’s Day. (Although the literary among you may prefer the story of how one of the St. Valentines, about to be executed, left a love note for the daughter of his jailer, signed, “From your Valentine.”)

Leave it to a writer to pick up the ball of mixed metaphors and run with it. Geoffrey Chaucer of “The Canterbury Tales” fame noted that V-Day was the moment when “every bird cometh to choose his mate,” thereby forever linking the memory of a martyred priest with amore. In medieval Paris, a court would convene on St. Valentine’s Day to review marriage contracts, breaches and the cases of battered women.

By the Renaissance, Valentine’s Day was a well-established if not always happy tradition. The Bard, once again, weighed in, giving the mad Ophelia a bawdy, rueful ditty that reflects her torturous relationship with Hamlet.

Where was the heart in all this, literally as well as metaphorically? Well, it was also during the Renaissance that the French established the symbols used in the four card suits, with the heart – inspired not by an actual heart but perhaps by the intime portions of the female anatomy – representing the clergy as well as amour. At the end of the 18th century, some valentines were being printed though the vast majority were still homemade. A halfcentury later, the idea of mass-produced valentines took off and by the end of the 19th century, the heart motif as an embellishment for these cards – often accompanied by pudgy, naughty Cupid, the Greco-Roman god of love – was firmly in place.

Today the heart adorns schoolgirl notebooks, pictures of Justin Bieber, “I Love New York” T-shirts and the approximately 190 million valentines that are sent yearly in this country. Is the vital heart – broken, golden, young, achy-breaky, compared to a wheel and set on fire in countless songs – in danger of becoming trite?

Not really, not when you think of what it also symbolizes – courage, a word that shares its origins with “coeur,” the French for “heart,” from the Latin “cor.”

To have “heart,” as those struggling Washington Senators realize in “Damn Yankees,” is to buck up, even when it’s the final inning, as it surely was for the warriors captured by the Aztecs, whose still beating hearts were ripped from their bodies and sacrificed to the gods.

It takes courage to die. But it also takes courage to live and love. In Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Steadfast Tin Soldier,” the little one-legged toy soldier remains true to himself and the paper ballerina he adores, through many tribulations. When at last he is thrown into a fire, his body melts but survives in the shape of a heart.

In other words, our hearts will go on. n

A vagina monologue

By Georgette Gouveia

V is for Valentine’s Day. But just in time for V-Day comes “V is for Vagina: Your A to Z Guide to Periods, Piercings, Pleasures and So Much More” (Ulysses Press, $14.95), by Alyssa Dweck, an ob/gyn with the Mount Kisco Medical Group, and relationship, sex and health journalist Robin Westen.

Dweck knows what you’re thinking, and she wants you to know in turn that there’s nothing to be scared about. Her book – packed with up-to-date info, presented in a hip way – is designed to reassure ladies that they are sound down there. In the spirit of the book, we’ve decided to impart a little alphabetically info of our own, with the good doc’s color commentary. So without further ado: V – is for vagina. “Absolutely. Sadly, ‘vagina’ has not lost its taboo. But half the population has one.

And the other half probably knows one.”

A – is for the A spot, not to be confused with the G spot. (See below.) The A spot or anterior fornix, is an erogenous zone on the front wall of the lady parts, though some think it a myth, sort of like the Fountain of Youth.

G – is for the G spot, a more famous erogenous zone. It’s wrapped around the urethra, which is located near the, oh never mind. Just get yourself a flashlight, a road map and a GPS while you’re at it.

I – is for intercourse. Good news, Americans.

When it comes to sex, we’re No. 1. We have sex 124 times a year, seven more times than our nearest competitors, those randy Greeks.(Japan only has sex six times a year. Come on, Japan. Get in the game.)

While we’re having sex, we burn 70 to 120 calories an hour (if we’re 130-pound women) and 77 to 155 calories per hour (if we’re 170-pound men).

N – is for no-nos. No unprotected sex, no sitting around in wet bathing suits (that leads to infections), no over-douching, no neglecting those annual gyno exams.

A – is for All You Need to Know About Vaginal Rejuvenation Products and Procedures. Ah, do lady parts need a face-lift? “No, of course not,” Dweck says. A little spritzing, a little trimming and you’re good to go.

Dweck is also an assistant clinical professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Department of Ob/Gyn, in Manhattan; a consultant for Massachusetts General Hospital (Vincent Memorial Ob/ Gyn Service); and serves on the Health Advisory Board of Family Circle magazine. She’s also one of the “Working Wives of Westchester,” a pilot for a reality series that’s being shopped around. Half of the proceeds from “V is for Vagina” go to the Fistula Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting women suffering from obstetrical trauma in developing countries. n

V is for vagina. “Absolutely. Sadly, ‘vagina’ has not lost its taboo. But half the population has one. And the other half probably knows one.”

19

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The state of disunion The 411 on divorce or why you should stay single (maybe)

By Georgette Gouveia

R

aoul Lionel Felder was all ready to spend his weekdays in Connecticut. His bags were packed – five suits for five days of court appearances. Then he would go home to Manhattan on weekends and begin the process all over again on Monday.

Felder – nicknamed “Dr. Estranged Love” (GQ magazine) and the “Duke of Divorce” (Us magazine) – was all set to represent model/actress Stephanie Seymour in her divorce proceedings against Greenwich publisher and art collector Peter Brant in a case so seemingly contentious and sensational that Vanity Fair was salivating over who would get custody of the three children and the artwork, to say nothing of the sconces. (That must be some wall decor.)

Then in a blow to cynics everywhere, one of Cupid’s arrows aimed true. On Sept. 20, 2010, the couple announced they were reconciling. All’s well that ends well.

Unfortunately, that is not the case for every couple. According to divorcerate. org, 41 percent of first marriages in this country end in divorce; 60 percent of second marriages and 73 percent of third marriages. (Clearly, the third time isn’t the charm, and if you’re still at it after that, well, apparently no one cares.)

This means that at some point in your life, you may need the services of Felder, Lynn J. Maier or Faith G. Miller, the three matrimonial and family lawyers WAG contacted to bring us up to speed on the state of disunion.

First, the good news for New Yorkers eager to untie the knot: They can now get divorced on the grounds of irreconcilable differences.

“New York finally evolved, and we are now in the 21st century,” says Maier, a partner in the White Plains firm of Kurzman Eisenberg Corbin & Lever L.L.P. Time was when the only grounds for divorce in New York state were cruelty, abandonment and adultery. Now New York has joined Connecticut, New Jersey and the rest of the nation in allowing no-fault divorce, which cuts down on the mud-slinging that clogs the legal machinery – at least in theory.

Level playing field?

Many of the changes with regard to divorce revolve around the law’s response to societal shifts, in particular the ascendance of women in our post-feminist age. Today, women are the primary breadwinners in the United States – al22

Easing the split

Jamie and Frank McCourt

though this may have less to do with strides toward equality than the fact that they are still paid less than men and tend to dominate professions such as education and health care that were less affected by the recession. They’ve also made an easier transition from a manufacturing to an information-based economy.

Perhaps more important, women are primed to be the workforce of the future as they tend to seek out higher education and professional schooling more readily than men do.

“Women being financially independent allows them to assert their independence in a bad marriage,” says Miller, a partner in the White Plains firm of DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Wise & Wiederkehr L.L.P. – although she adds that there are still many women who are disadvantaged in retaining counsel as the “non-moneyed spouse.”

But financial independence creates a level legal playing field for women, right?

Well, yes and no.

While the experts agree that more money can buy them greater or better legal representation, it may also mean that they have to share more with the soon-to-be ex-spouse. The wife may be the one covering the fees of the husband’s lawyers or providing maintenance – the new term for alimony.

“Equality is a step down,” Felder says.

“There’s a dark side to women’s lib.”

Both Connecticut and New York are equitable distribution states, which

means that the marital assets are supposed to be divided fairly relative to each party’s situation in the marriage rather than 50/50. Of course, everyone has a different idea of what “equitable” and “equal” mean.

“What you don’t want at the end of the day is a battle,” Maier says.

As in the case of Los Angeles Dodgers’ owner Frank McCourt, and his ex, Jamie. Their “War of the Roses” centered on custody of the team. Ultimately, Ms. McCourt got $130 million but relinquished her rights to the team, which wound up in Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a Major League Baseball representative overseeing day-to-day operations.

Thus ended what is reported to be the costliest divorce in California history.

“This is what happens when things get so out of control,” Maier says. “Rationality goes out the door.”

Along the way, a judge had voided the postnup agreement that Mr. McCourt said gave him sole ownership of the Dodgers. Apparently, prenups and postnups are not ironclad. But they have legs.

“It all started with Donald Trump,” Felder says. “He had one prenup and seven postnups. As his fortunes changed, he kept making new ones.”

Maier thinks prenups and postnups clarify the couple’s economic picture, whether or not their last name is Trump: “It forces you to get that (financial) IQ.”

What a prenup or postnup cannot do is determine custody of the children.

Usually, it was awarded to the mother.

But that is changing. Maier sees a trend to joint physical custody, with more fathers seeking equal time with the kids.

“It may be that more fathers believe they should be a bigger part of their children’s lives.”

But Felder says men use this as a bargaining chip.

“They don’t really want joint physical custody. They use this to terrorize the mother. It’s a naked thrust to the women’s vitals. What men do like is joint legal custody. It inflates their position, even though they see the kids one day. Physical custody is still with the mother.”

Miller has a different view: “Custody will depend on the availability of the parents. If both are working, physical custody may be shared. The kindest thing divorcing parents can do is resolve their issues with as little acrimony as possible.”

Divorcing parents may want to consider nesting, in which the children remain in their home while the parents live in the house on a rotating basis, she says.

A divorcing couple may turn to a mediator to talk out their issues in a free 90-minute session, adds Miller, who is also a mediator.

Maier is a fan of the collaborative approach, in which the two parties sit down with their lawyers. However, should this process fail, those same lawyers cannot represent the couple in court.

Says Miller: “We should all be collaborative-minded.”

The gay divorces

The advent of gay marriage in New York is sure to add even more texture to the complexity of le divorce.

“It’s day-by-day,” Maier says. “We’re learning all the ins and outs.”

For example, a gay couple in New York can file a joint state tax return but not a joint federal one. That means maintenance (the old alimony, remember?) is not tax deductible on the federal level. And, of course, if you move to a place like Texas, the marriage may not be recognized at all.

Oy vey.

Two things are certain: “(Gay marriage) will increase our business, because it will be another segment of the population that is getting a divorce,” Miller says.

And, Felder adds, “Now (gays) have a right to be as miserable as everyone else.” n

Photos: Johanna Weber

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LoveYa can’t and marriage have one without the other

By Zoë Zellers “What me, marry?”

It’s the question that The Atlantic posed in a provocative November cover story that was in a way a continuation of a provocative July/August cover story, “The End of Men.” With women now the primary breadwinners in our culture and dominating higher education, the authors theorized, what was the incentive for them marrying?

24

The question comes at a time when one demographic group has been yearning to take the plunge – gays and lesbians – even as only 51 percent of the total U.S. population is actually hitched. That’s down 21 percent from 1960, thanks in part to greater acceptance for people living together outside marriage and for divorce.

Given today’s sociocultural shifts, has the landscape of marriage changed?

Well, yes and no.

“I don’t think that women being the primary breadwinners is a reason that (a woman) may or may not want to get married,” says Batya Silverman, a Fairfield marriage and family therapist. “I think that there’s still a pull for relationships. I think people really do want a partner and when they’re ready to settle, each individual approaches that at a different stage. But I think that women in their late 30s really do start thinking about it.”

David Rabinowitz, a clinical social worker and therapist in Hastings-on-Hudson, agrees that the financial role reversal – a product of the recession and a swing from a manufacturing to an information-based economy – is not keeping couples from getting married. Yet he adds, “A lot of men feel very alone with the idea that they have feelings of insecurity about

women making more money than them… It’s not what they saw in their houses growing up.… Some feel they can’t talk to their families or friends about it.”

J Peter Piepgras, a clinical psychologist with the Bronx Psychiatric Center who has a private practice in Tuckahoe, says it’s hard to generalize about the state of marriage. “Each man has a story and is complicated. One doesn’t see the forest when he’s standing next to a few trees.”

What you do see is that couples are marrying later.

In 1960, the median age of first marriage in the United States was 20 for women and 23 for men. Today it’s 26 and 28 respectively.

In 1960, more than half of 18-to-29-year-olds were married. In 1997, that figure was 29 percent. Today, it’s 20 percent.

And that may have something to do with the evolving role of women.

“People who grew up in the ’60s and ’70s used to turn on the TV and see women mopping the floor; and nowadays it’s changed,” Rabinowitz says. “There’s a freedom to not fit into a stereotype of the mother role.”

Women in Westchester and Fairfield counties tend to be more educated than their sisters in the rest of the nation and so hold off on marriage while pursuing other interests, he notes, adding that in his practice, “there are more women than men not wanting to have kids.”

Both men and women, Rabinowitz says, “are really focusing on their desires more. Some view it as narcissistic.

But now it’s more about personal fulfillment” and thus, discovering who you are before committing to marriage.

And who your potential partner is. There the field is wide open.

“A larger number of people in our very multicultural country feel the freedom to define their lives in the ways that they choose,” Piepgras says. “A hundred years ago, racial, economic and religious factors were more important in finding your match. I think that love is actually probably more important to a couple today than it might have been 50 to 100 years ago, because there’s less pressure to be married at a certain age and more freedom to choose your partner instead of focusing on things culturally expected of couples.”

The advent of gay marriage – which is now legal in New York state and Connecticut– as well as the more commonly accepted practice of marriage between people of different faiths and races would seem to support this trend. Batya Silverman says the “groundbreaking nature of gay marriage” will become “less of the exception” in years to come.”

Yet with all the changes, some things have remained the same.

“For most people, once they’re married they actually conceptualize marriage in a much more traditional way,” Silverman says. “Like if a partner has sex outside marriage, it hurts. It’s an affair, and it’s not any less painful.”

“I’d imagine the definition of marriage has changed in some ways,” Rabinowtiz adds. “But in other ways, it’s a decision between a man and a woman or same-sex partners, and it’s about a couple really wanting to share a life together. It’s not a business pact really, but a wanting to share a love together. And marriage may be stronger at end of day because of this.” n

Understated elegance For Buccellati, it’s all in the details

By Mary Shustack Photographs by ŠDavid Bravo

25

O

n a recent wintry afternoon in a Madison Av e n u e boutique in Manhattan, Alberto Milani perfectly demonstrates the philosophy of Buccellati.

As he sits at a table talking about the history, creations and enduring popularity of Buccellati, the Greenwich resident and CEO of the famed Italian jewelry company pulls up his sleeve to show that his elegant watch has no brand name blazing across its face.

“The Buccellati name is on the back,” he says with a knowing smile.

Buccellati pieces are elegant and recognizable. There is no need to be showy.

“Even in this case, we believe the style is so particular you will be recognized,” Milani says.

And that recognition is based on nearly a century of history that is never far from his thoughts, even though the company has kept up with modern sensibilities.

The history

Founded in 1919 by Mario Buccellati in Milan, the company remains a family owned and operated entity that has grown to include a fourth generation of Buccellatis.

Gianmaria Buccellati, the son of the founder, and his son, Andrea, continue to design each piece. They closely follow production to ensure that the Buccellati look and quality remain.

26

Alberto Milani, CEO of Buccellati, discusses the company’s history.

“It’s still a family company so anything that we do is designed, sold and produced through the same company,” Milani says.

“Anything you buy from us is actually done by a Buccellati. It’s very simple to say, a little more complicated to keep.”

Those creations are sold in boutiques throughout Italy, as well as in Paris, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney and Moscow. In the United States, Buccellati boutiques are found in Beverly Hills and Aspen, as well as a new store on the Upper East Side. (The company relocated from its longtime home on 57th Street in December.). A mere two dozen jewelers nationwide – including R&M Woodrow in Rye and Betteridge in Greenwich – are also authorized dealers.

From its start, the House of Buccellati found fame in Italy.

“Definitely the affluent crowd of Milan was immediately attracted to our jewels,” Milani says. Shops were established in a number of cities.

Soon, the company was expanding throughout Europe. An exhibition in Madrid caught the Queen of Spain’s eye. Her approval meant runaway success.

“Everybody was buying what the queen was buying at the time,” he says.

The company, from its start, put an emphasis on craftsmanship and artistry.

Its artisans, many of whom are descendants of original Buccellati workers, draw on techniques dating from the Renaissance to create signature pieces of fine jewelry and silver.

A world apart

The success all comes down, Milani

says, to the company’s approach.

He’ll pull out a pen to sketch an example of how the gold is precisely engraved to create a satin-like finish. This textured look has become a signature.

“It is something that doesn’t happen in any other place in the world,” Milani says.

“It became the Buccellati style. It became recognized with our name.”

Its nature also makes its execution difficult. The precise detailing is “something that cannot be re-done.”

Milani further explores the technique by taking out a magnifying glass to allow you to see it on an actual signature Buccellati cuff.

The textured look, when magnified, is truly an effect created by intense engraving.

Even the little sparkles are made by the delicate workmanship, not actual gems.

“It’s like buying 50 or 70 engagement rings,” he says.

Today, those Buccellati cuffs remain classic choices though the company creates countless bracelets, necklaces, earrings and rings.

Its strength, Milani adds, lies in its belief that it is creating something special.

“Obviously we don’t follow trends,” Milani says.

“I don’t want to sound over-the-top, but we establish trends.”

Milani shares the key components of Buccellati.

First is originality of design: “You immediately recognize it’s Buccellati.”

Second is the combination of colors.

Stones, from emeralds to sapphires to garnets and beyond, are selected very carefully.

Finally, the execution must be flawless.

It’s so intricate, he notes, that Buccellati designs are rarely knocked off.

“To be a reasonable copy would cost too much money,” he says.

And that is a reflection of the company’s goal.

The company, from its start, put an emphasis on craftsmanship and artistry. Its artisans, many of whom are descendants of original Buccellati workers, draw on techniques dating from the Renaissance to create signature pieces of fine jewelry and silver.

“This is what we’re all about,” he says.

“We’re not selling a commodity. We’re selling a piece of art.”

And that art just happens to be wearable.

“We believe that a piece of jewelry doesn’t have to overwhelm the beauty of the woman that is wearing it,” he says.

He likens Buccellati to the cool elegance of a Grace Kelly, “the opposite of an Elizabeth Taylor.”

Clients, he adds, come back to the company for their creativity, as well. He

tells of a time a few years ago when the company had the chance to buy a lot consisting of 25 baroque pearls with very unusual shapes. It was snapped up, with each pearl being transformed into a piece of jewelry based on a different animal.

“This is part of the reason why people come to Buccellati,” he says.

Buccellati, he adds, appeals to a wealthy clientele that is also “sophisticated enough” to relish something creative (and sometimes elaborate) without touching on the garish.

“They enjoy life and don’t like to show how rich they are.” Buccellati pieces, he says, are “recognized within the tribe.”

A new audience

And that tribe continues to grow.

In 2010, the company made a deliberate venture to attract a new, younger audience.

Buccellati Blossoms, the firm’s first foray into sterling-silver jewelry and also the debut of the fourth-generation of Buccellati designers, were introduced. Prices for the floral-themed line of bracelets, rings and earrings are in the $600 to $2,000 range – a marked difference from the previous “entry” price of $5,000 to $6,000 for Buccellati.

“It was an overnight success,” Milani says.

This past spring, two-tone pieces were added to the line along with the Blossoms

Oak and Vine group.

The company also continues to design limited-edition pieces, many of which draw on enduring motifs inspired by nature. Its silver line, from sculpture to flatware to frames, is growing as well.

And an audience endures.

“The (public’s) search for quality, the search for customer service is coming back dramatically,” he says.

Milani, whose 26 years in the jewelry industry included work with Bulgari, is proud to be a part of a company with such a storied history, one that was celebrated in “Buccellati: Art in Gold, Silver and Gems” at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., in 2001.

Never standing still

Buccellati continues to grow on other fronts: A new boutique in Chicago will be opened later this year, Milani shares.

The firm’s own corporate headquarters were relocated from Sleepy Hollow to a luxury penthouse office in the Bronx in 2009.

And the move within New York City has meant another chapter starting for Buccellati’s American flagship.

After decades on East 57th Street, Buccellati’s elegant new boutique – dotted with gold-accented showcase cabinets – is a bi-level space designed to give a club-

house feel. The jewels are elegantly housed on the 900-square-foot main floor, while an 8,000-square foot lounge is available for appointments, special events and social gatherings. The boutique features a bar, television screen and Champagne and espresso service for clients.

Buccellati, he adds, appeals to a wealthy clientele that is also “sophisticated enough” to relish something creative (and sometimes elaborate) without touching on the garish.

With the move, the company has also introduced its new private shopping initiative, The Buccellati Club. By invitation only, membership is offered to individuals and loyal clients with a strong purchasing history. The aim is to cultivate stronger relationships while also building a multigenerational clientele.

This year, Milani shares, marks the

firm’s 60th anniversary in New York City.

When it first opened on Fifth Avenue, it was one of three Italian companies (along with Gucci and Ferragamo) there.

So much has changed, Milani says.

“In the ’50s, as you can imagine, there is no fax machine, so if you came to Buccellati and wanted something, one brother was writing a letter to Italy and sending it to the other.”

Today, it’s quite different, with the boutique now settled in a tony stretch with neighbors ranging from Dolce & Gabbana to Cartier, Frette to La Perla and Valentino to Ralph Lauren.

It’s been a smooth move… almost.

Milani notes that the new space has at least one neighbor a bit perturbed.

Milani said he was coming into the shop one day when a man started to give him a hard time.

At first alarmed, Milani quickly understood what the man was saying: When the shop had been on 57th Street, it was an occasional destination for his wife. Now it was mere steps from her front door.

Milani says the man told him: “Now I have no choice. She comes down here and sees you all the time.”

And you just know she likes what she sees.

The Buccellati boutique is at 810 Madison Ave. in Manhattan. For more details, visit buccellati.com. n

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Tiger mom Melissa Leo takes on challeging role

February

By Georgette Gouveia “The Sea Is All I Know” – a new short starring Academy Awardwinner Melissa Leo that may snag an Oscar of its own – is about many different kinds of love.

There’s the all-consuming love of a husband and wife for each other and a parent for a child.

There’s the wild, romantic love that lures people to the sea and all too often leads them to what Henry James called “the tideless deep.”

And perhaps most mystical of all, there’s the love of suffering man for God that may be beyond the understanding of even God himself.

They’re bound up in a spare, moving narrative – from the mind of writerdirector Jordan Bayne – about a woman dying young and her parents, an estranged couple who reunite to witness her all-toobrief spring.

“It’s a very beautiful, mature love story,” Leo says.

The actress – who attended Purchase College and makes her home in Stone Ridge – has been fearless in bringing beautiful, mature characters to the screen, women whose prettiness has been worn down by struggle and calcified by the toughness they’ve had to assume. In “Frozen River” (2008), for which she received an Oscar nomination as Best Actress, Leo stunned critics with her portrayal of a single mom determined to maintain a sense of familial normalcy in an unraveling society. In “The Fighter” (2010), for which she won the Best Supporting Actress award, that mother love took on a ruthless edge.

In “Sea,” Leo peels back the edge to expose the raw wound of a woman, Sara, so in tune with her daughter, Angelina (Kelly Hutchinson), and her pain that she is willing – in the view of her horrified husband, Sonny (Peter Gerety) – to defy God and natural law to contemplate ending it.

“The question is raised, What if there were greater and greater pain, with no hope, no dreams?” Leo says. “Like a baby needs to be born into the world, this is how we need to go out, with love and understanding.”

Ultimately, however, “Sea” is not a short about the right to die or even why God permits suffering – though the film touches on these themes. It’s about how people rediscover love through tragedy.

“The couple is estranged as the film opens, although there is an adoring father-daughter relationship,” Leo says. “He can barely face (her illness).”

In bringing their daughter through the long twilight, Sara and Sonny realize that what they are now is what they once meant to each other.

“The beautiful hope for love is for me the strongest element in the story,” she says, adding that “the images of the water are worth seeing.”

Indeed, the presence of a calm sea functions as a soothing backdrop and counterpoint to the tormented principals. It’s a presence that Leo knows well.

Like Sonny, Leo’s father was a fisherman on Long Island. (His day job was as an editor at Grove Press.) She visits him and still spends holidays out there, though she makes her home in Stone Ridge. A mother of two sons, Leo notes that there are three places that have been important in her life – New York City, where she was born; the East End of Long Island; and Vermont, where she once lived.

“I found in the Catskills something that encompasses all of that,” says Leo, who enjoys rock climbing in the summer and skiing in the winter.

Whether she’s talking about the natural joys of upstate New York or the moral complexity of “Sea,” Leo exhibits a softness, warmth and humility that have often been beaten down in the lives of her characters. She wants people to know that she did not graduate from Purchase College; she only attended it. And she’s still very sorry for letting go of an F-Bomb when she accepted the Oscar, one of the most heartfelt moments in the otherwise leaden telecast.

“If you know me, then you know (my reaction) was unrehearsed,” she says. “I don’t do improv well. (Winning) was something I never dreamt of. And I was just so honored to be given the award by Kirk Douglas.”

Leo is grateful to be able to enjoy a variety of roles, including that of lawyer Antoinette “Toni” Bernette, who fights for the civil rights of her clients in a postKatrina New Orleans on HBO’s “Treme” (treh MAY).

“Mostly, the work comes about for me,” she says with a hint of wonder. “It continues to choose me.” n

at

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The Radio Show Kyle Abraham & A.I.M Fri • FeB 3 • 8PM

FA M i lY

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Shakespeare’s Songbook Newberry Consort sun • FeB 12 • 3PM

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914.251.6200 www.artscenter.org 735 Anderson Hill roAd • PurcHAse, nY The center’s 34th season is made possible, in part, by the Basic Program support Grant of artswestchester with funds from Westchester county Government. Major sponsorship for the 2011-2012 season is provided by THe ViViAn And seYMour MilsTein endoWed Fund. The Great orchestras series is made possible by generous support from the Tanaka Memorial Foundation. The tour of the Paul Taylor dance company is made possible by grants from Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation with support from the national endowment for the Arts.

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A couple of gems Woodrow brothers’ charm, knowledge keep customers loyal

By Mary Shustack Photographs by Bob Rozycki

T

here’s a charming mix of old and new on glistening display at R&M Woodrow Jewelers in Rye. The store, a staple of Purchase Street since its 1985 opening, is known just as much for its old-fashioned touches as for its contemporary outlook and offerings.

For every glance at the historic tin ceiling or the vintage wooden cream-cheese box that houses the envelopes filled with repairs, there’s a view of an elegant (and rare) Mikimoto necklace of South Sea golden pearls or a dazzling Buccellati diamond bangle bracelet with a price tag that edges near six figures.

What’s missing is any pretension. At Woodrow, customers are welcomed in the same gracious manner whether they are there to replace a watch battery or select a gift that would make its recipient swoon.

And that’s exactly how brothers Rob and Michael Woodrow want it.

The store has a staff of seven, including their sister, Wendy Weinreb, and most all have been with Woodrow for more than 10 years.

“That gives the customer a big comfort zone,” Michael says.

The brothers, who grew up in Rye Brook, were each working separately in the jewelry business before teaming up to purchase an existing store.

Since the first day, the approach has remained consistent.

“Our main objective hasn’t changed,” Rob says. “Our main objective is to make people happy.”

Business success is important, Michael adds, but it’s more about “day to day, what do we do to make people happy… Even if it’s a battery they need in their watch, it’s helping them in some way, shape or form.”

And that help is not relegated to specific times.

“There’s no hours posted on the door,” Michael notes.

“On purpose,” Rob finishes.

If the brothers are there early – as is often so – then they’ll open the doors to an early customer. Same goes for staying open late. They’ve even been known to meet customers at the nearby Metro-North train station to make an evening delivery.

Rob handles the advertising, stock and bookkeeping, while Michael is in charge of the repairs and staffing.

Both are involved in the buying.

They say they can always rely on each other, no matter the situation.

“That’s a work ethic that’s a part of our genes,” Michael says.

Brothers Rob, left, and Michael Woodrow

Their grandfather owned a jewelry store in Yonkers at the turn-of-the-20th century.

“It was in the family history,” Rob says of Woodrow’s Jewelers, the longtime shop on Palisade Avenue in Getty Square in which he worked.

At the start on Purchase Street, the brothers created two separate stores operating side by side. One was dedicated to jewelry, the other to gifts. After just about four years, things were combined into one business, though the gift items remain a key component. (Think Baccarat, Lalique and Herend.)

Distinctive offerings

Woodrow is known for a discerning eye when it comes to the brands and designers it features.

The goal, Michael says, is to have the “sense of surrounding” customers with “the greatest brands in the world.”

Take the Breitling line, lauded for its technically advanced watches, which is featured in a boutique within Woodrow. It was chosen for what it offers – and how the company operates.

“I’ve been to Switzerland, in their factory,” Michael says. “The U.S. headquarters is right in Wilton. They’re a family company and we’re very much in sync with them.”

Customers will also find selections from Roberto Coin to Hermès, Aaron Basha to Judith Ripka and Marco Bicego to Kwiat.

“We seem to have a very good sense of what’s going to work,” Michael says, adding, “They’re all lasting names.”

And the list continues to grow.

“We are always on the lookout,” Michael says. Because of space, though, new brands need to be a thoughtful decision. They were intrigued by bracelets from Meredith Frederick Design, a Brooklyn-based designer who was featured at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan. The brothers headed to the Fifth Avenue boutique to check out the line and knew they’d soon be offering local shoppers those ideal options.

“It’s the way they go on,” Rob says. “They slip over the wrist.”

The bracelets indeed add a colorful if surprisingly light touch, perfect for the on-the-go woman.

“We love something that’s new and unique that way,” Rob adds.

As much as the company seeks out the new, it revels in its association with the grand tradition. Woodrow is the exclusive place to buy Buccellati in Westchester County.

“That was a big compliment for us,” Michael says of earning that distinction. “Once you secure a brand like that, others follow.

As Rob lifts out the firm’s Tulle diamond bangle mentioned above, he says just a few words: “This is something.”

And no one would argue.

“The workmanship is amazing in this piece,” Michael adds. “It’s incredible.”

But the Buccellati pieces mean more than just potential sales to Woodrow.

“Whether it’s a candlestick or a frame or their jewelry, it is artwork,” Michael says.

Storied days

Over the years, of course, the brothers have seen their share of moments both touching and bold.

They tell a story of a man and woman shopping separately for their anniversary gifts for each other. Each was drawn to the colorful collection of Staffordshire enamel boxes.

“One said ‘I love you,’” Rob says. “We happened to have two in the store.”

So after the man picked one of those for his wife, the wife later came in and…

“She picked out the same box for him. I let it happen, because it was funny the way it played out.”

Such discretion, not surprisingly, is part of the picture. The

HyattRegGreen_Wag-FINAL_Layout 1 1/20/12 2:34 PM Page 1

style, redefined.

A Greenwich landmark reborn on the heels of our silver anniversary.

Woodrows have realized that even small talk can be tricky.

Say a husband comes in to buy the wife a present and mentions an upcoming trip.

If the Woodrows ask about the trip on the wife’s next visit, she might deduce her husband was in – spoiling a potential surprise.

“We learned at a very early stage in our development to keep our mouths shut,” Rob says with a laugh.

And in rarer cases that discretion can lead to a bit of bemusement, Rob adds.

“Michael sold five key chains to this man who wrote on it, ‘You’re the one.’

And he gave all five key chains out – to five different women.”

The stories tinged with romance, though, remain most vivid.

Michael tells a tale of traveling hours one Christmas day just to be sure an engagement ring – one he rescued after it was misdirected by the shipping agent –

made it in time for the proposal.

“We do what we have to do,” he says with a shrug, as if this were not unusual in today’s frantic retail world.

The company, as it moves ahead, is charged with keeping pace with changing times.

The Woodrows are exploring Internet sales, but Michael says people don’t want to lose “the romance of shopping in a store.”

When it comes to Valentine’s Day shopping, the brothers offer a bit of advice.

“Sometimes, people are so geared on money, something being a certain price level,” Michael says. “It’s not about that.”

Instead, Rob adds, it’s about the sentiment. “If it hits right, then it’s just the right thing.”

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R&M Woodrow Jewelers is at 21 Purchase St. in Rye. Call (914) 967-0464 or visit woodrowjewelers.com. n 31

Laurel and Mike D’Antoni at their Rye home. Photograph by Bob Rozycki.

Oneonone Knicks’ coach and wife are a team off the court

By Patricia Espinosa Theirs was a storied beginning. It was Fashion Week 1985, Milan. She was strutting down runways, while he was playing basketball for Olimpia Milano. The two met by chance one night when the young model accepted an invitation to go out to a pizzeria after work with an old friend and her husband, basketball player Wally Walker. As luck would have it, Wally’s teammate Mike D’Antoni decided to tag along. Sparks flew, and one month later, Laurel and Mike were engaged to be married.

It’s no surprise that Mike, now head coach of the New York Knicks, and Laurel are such a winning team. The dynamic duo love to laugh and have fun together. Their chemistry is palpable. Even though both feign not remembering the exact number of years they’ve been married, I’m not buying it. After 26 years of marriage (they finally agree on the number), these two genuinely seem to enjoy each other’s company.

When I asked the couple their secret for staying together so long, Mike replies, “A successful marriage is a lot like a successful basketball team. You have to work at it. It doesn’t just come naturally. You have to work on understanding other people’s needs.”

Laurel playfully adds, “Yeah, and you better have great chemistry and you better pass me the ball.”

She laughs as the two exchange smiles.

32

The adage “The family that plays together, stays together” applies here. From the very beginning, Laurel was traveling around Europe to every game, watching Mike play and later coach in Italy. It wasn’t long before her exuberance for the game led her to a job in marketing, game operations, presentation and entertainment for Mike’s team.

“I like all the, as they say in Italian, contorni (side dishes) to the game.” Both she and Mike speak fluent Italian.

These days, she juggles Knicks’ games with those at Rye High School, where the couple’s 17-year-old son, Michael, plays.

“In our home, Rye High School basketball competes with the New York Knicks,” the proud mom says.

Laurel is Mike’s point guard, controlling the ball at home, so to speak.

“She is really, really good at organizing anything. She organizes my life and lets me just think about basketball,” Mike says.

While he’s the first to admit that it’s a privilege to coach for an NBA team, “most people don’t realize how grueling the schedule can be.”

Grueling doesn’t begin to cover it. In the month of January alone, the Knicks played 17 games, eight of which were away games. That means when they’re not playing, they’re usually flying. Typically, which means no lockout, the season runs October to May. Coaches spend summers work-

ing on NBA draft picks, and this summer, Mike is headed to London for the Summer Olympics where he’ll be coaching Team USA for the second time. Surely you must take some time off for vacations, I ask. Remarkably, the answer is no – unless, of course, you count that one time the two ran off to Turks and Caicos for three or four days.

With the recent NBA lockout, Mike was able to spend time with his son and had the rare opportunity to watch him play basketball for his high school team.

“This is Michael’s junior year, so the timing was perfect in that respect,” he says. As much as Mike enjoyed spending time with his family during the lockout, he was ready to get back to coaching.

“We were anxious. We liked our team and we wanted to get started.”

Growing up in the small town of Mullens, W. Va., Mike recalls how everyone looked after one another. And even though Laurel grew up in bigger cities such as San Diego, Seattle and Puerto Rico, the two were raised with the belief that “you have an obligation to your community.” Laurel goes on to explain, “It’s not just an obligation.

It’s a natural desire to help.”

This core belief is what has led them to their extensive charity work. Using their celebrity, they have been able to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for many worthy

New York Knicks’ Mike D’Antoni coaching forward Carmelo Anthony.

Photograph by Dave Saffran

Walter Wick, At the Circus from Can You See What I See? Toyland Express, 2010. Pigmented Inkjet photograph. ©Walter Wick Studio

Walter Wick:

Games, Gizmos and toys in the attic January 28–April 22, 2012

BRUCE MUSEUM Greenwich, Connecticut www.brucemuseum.org

33

How ’bout those Knicks?

Mike D’Antoni Photograph by Avi Gerver

causes.

“We’ve found that with basketball, it’s a great platform to bring visibility to certain nonprofits that don’t have the funds to hire the PR firms,” Laurel says.

One such charity is Port Chester’s Carver Center, which since 1943 has been offering educational, recreational, cultural and civic services for individuals and families, with a particular focus on meeting the needs of underprivileged youth.

For the past three years, Mike has been able to rally his coaches and players to lend a helping hand for Thanksgiving simply by saying, “We want to feed 150 families. Will you come out and do this?” Not one person turned him down.

“The Knicks’ coaches are all in attendance and help bag and distribute dinners to the families. They create such a fun and festive atmosphere for the event, decorating the gym with balloons and Knicks-themed decor,” says Elizabeth Cook, the Carver Center’s development director.

By all accounts, the NBA and its players do a wonderful job reaching out to the community.

“That’s the brilliant thing about basketball and all the 34

It’s time to talk turkey. What about those Knicks?

They’ve been up and they’ve been down, mostly down.

Fans were hopeful last season as the Knicks, under Mike D’Antoni’s leadership, made it to the playoffs – a feat they haven’t been able to accomplish since 2004.

I ask the coach how fans are reacting, especially in the wake of the recent lockout.

“They’ve been good. I’ve been here now three years. When I got here we had a plan, which was bad. We had to tear it down. So far, I think fans bought into what we said we were going to do and so far so good. Last year was the playoffs, so that was the first positive step. Now this year we’ve made some additions to the team, so we are expected to take some big step,” Mike explains.

It’s no secret fans get nervous when the Knicks lose.

“They’re waiting. They’ve been really super. I think they like the team. It’s just that now we need to win. We will. I’m confident.

We’ve got good guys.”

Indeed, guys like Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler. The talent is there and now fans are waiting to see if D’Antoni can do for the Knicks what he did for the Phoenix Suns.

It’s crunch time, and with the recent lockout, that time as been scrunched into 66 games instead of the usual 82, which doesn’t leave much room for teaching.

“We didn’t have the four months with these guys that we’d normally have. With a young team that’s crucial. So now we’re under the gun, but then again, so is everyone else,” he says as he flashes me a huge smile.

Is there any chance, I ask him, he’ll be able to recreate the magic of the Knicks’ glory days of the late ’60s and early ’70s when Willis Reed, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Dave DeBusschere and Bill Bradley roamed Madison Square Garden, as described in Harvey Araton’s new book, “When the Garden Was Eden” ?

“You know I played against those guys when I was first starting out in ’73. They had just won a championship in ’72.” Reflecting back, he says, “Yeah, that was the best era.”

An era that’s not likely to be repeated. But if D’Antoni has his way, he’s shooting to bring a little bit of that magic back to the Garden.

“I’m confident this team can do great things,” he says.

This former NBA Coach of The Year, a title he won for his 200405 season with the Phoenix Suns, seems to be resigned to the inevitable emotional ups and downs that is the game of basketball. When I ask Mike if he’s able to turn it off when he comes home from a game, he admits he cannot.

“The hard thing is, I usually can’t go to sleep.” And with that Bob, Mike’s fluffy cat, saunters by grazing his leg and purring as he pets her.

Jokes Laurel: “Bob is Mike’s anti-blood-pressure medication.”

teams. Everybody is willing to help. No one has ever turned us down. From guys like Steve Nash to guys that get cut from the roster, everybody comes,” Laurel says.

It’s not just coaches and players who help. Laurel has been championing Carver Center causes since moving to the area.

“It is such a pleasure to work with a volunteer who digs right in and makes things happen. I really admire that about her,” Cook says. “Laurel’s involvement extends beyond the Thanksgiving event. She has been part of our benefit committee, and her energy, ideas and enthusiasm were such a terrific addition to the committee.”

Because his time is so limited, “there’s only so much hands-on that I can do, so Laurel has been amazing at using our resources to raise money for different charities,” he says about his wife.

Mike is also active in Garden of Dreams, a nonprofit charity that works closely with The Madison Square Garden Co., which includes the Knicks and the New York Rangers. Their mission is “to make dreams come true for kids facing obstacles.”

Recently, Mike and Rangers’ head coach John Tortorella participated in the second annual Coaches’ Challenge held

at the MSG Training Center, where they played host to 28 children from WHEDco, a Garden of Dreams partner organization. Each coach was team captain for the respective Rangers and Knicks’ teams. The children matched up for various fun events, including dress and dribble contests, obstacle-course races and tug-of-war matches. This year Team D’Antoni pulled off a win against Team Tortorella.

The record stands at one win Team D’Antoni and one win Team Tortorella.

Reaching out to people in need has been a grounding force for the couple.

“The truth is that as much as we hope our contributions help the community, the reality is that it helps us be better people and know where we fit,” Laurel says.

“Yes,” Mike agrees, “whatever you give, you’re getting back in spades.”

Acknowledging how tough his job can be, Mike says, “It feels like what you’re doing is worthwhile, though some days it doesn’t feel that way. But when you’re able to raise $100,000 and help so many people, you say to yourself, this is worth it.” n

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Pavé ruby bow ring in oxidized 18 karat gold by Mimi So, $6,500.

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by Paul Morelli, $16,000.

Platinum, Ceylon sapphire (38 carats total weight) and diamond drop earrings, $352,000.

Graduated emerald bead necklace on Bulgari diamond cluster clasp, $1.25 million.

Being Betteridge Siblings Win and Brooke add their touch to the family business

W

hile many kids spent their summers scooping ice cream or inflating pool floaties, Brooke and Win Betteridge were handling pieces

by Cartier or Van Cleef & Arpels.

The brother and sister had an early introduction to the family’s fine jewelry business, Betteridge Jewelers, from their dad, Terry. He in turn has expanded the business, which his ancestors started in 1897 and which today has a staff of 45 at its Greenwich Avenue headquarters, some of whom have been with the company for more than 30 years.

“Both Brooke and I had worked here from a young age and always shown some attraction to it,” Win, the older of the two, says.

But the siblings wanted to go out and do their own thing, like so many children who grow up surrounded by an established legacy and a lot of pressure to further it.

Brooke graduated from Greenwich Academy and studied art history at the University of Delaware, “a much more low-key place,” she says. Art history sharpened her eye, “but I was really thinking I wanted to go to L.A. and be a DJ or something like that,” she says, which makes Win chuckle.

“My dad was like, ‘You don’t have a job yet. You’re coming to work for me and that’s it,’ and I was like, ‘No Dad, I don’t want to be in the jewelry business,’ she remembers, “but I worked here for a week and loved it.”

As Betteridge’s jewelry inventory manager, Brooke uses those first summer lessons of polishing silver and handling merchandise in her flawless presentations, ranging from in-store displays to photo shoots. She also employs her informed taste to scout new jewelers and fabulous estate pieces.

“Brooke has such a great eye for design. It’s incredibly important to her that everything is shown in the right 36

By Zoë Zellers Photographs by James Katt way and that we have the right piece to attract a whole new generation of shoppers,” Win says.

Brooke says, “We try to keep the old so we have our classics like Seaman Schepps and Verdura, these bigger, more expensive pieces that would appeal to our more sophisticated clientele and then the products that I thought we were lacking when I first started here was stuff for my age group – and there were things that I loved but it’s not like I could afford any of them.”

That’s where her mission began.

“Brooke was really one of the first people to discover Paolo Costagli, and now he is just taking off for us,” says Win of the very happening Italian-born jeweler.

Start me up

Throughout the conversation, the two are in sync, feeding off of each other’s thoughts. Brooke buttons her brother’s cuffs. They answer the intercom simultaneously with the same short “No.” They talk about where they should lunch. They select merchandise, each asking the other, “This one or this one?” and readily listen to the other’s response.

It’s easy to see that while these siblings are different in character, they complement and understand each other so naturally. And that’s part of a great business relationship.

“Dad asked me to come back, because it was really important to him to keep the tradition of the family business going,” Win remembers.

Terry, a fourth-generation jeweler and Betteridge’s president, has taken the company to new heights with posh locations in Palm Beach and Vail. Three years ago, Win joined his sister and dad and now works as the director of business development. He appreciates that each

family member has a role that suits his or her passion and personality.

“My goal is to try to figure out how to take what I think is a really great thing that Dad has done and open it up to a much broader audience who might not be able to come into our stores directly. The primary way that we’re doing that is through the website,” he says.

Win’s background in technology is a driving force in the new direction of Betteridge. He graduated from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., with an international and political economy degree, “a kind of similar route to a lot of people (there)” and went on to work in Manhattan in equity research at Citigroup. With the tech friends he made there, Win created a startup company that offered an instant messaging service.

“The secret sauce is that it worked inside other applications and ended up really taking off in video games even though I’m not a big player…. So we called it, Got Game?”

With young success, joining Betteridge wasn’t on Win’s radar till his dad asked him.

“I assumed I’d come back here at some point, but I really wanted to go off and do my own thing first. So when I came back here we had just sold our start-up and I was really lucky in that I got to take the best of the coders who I’d worked, and at that point I’d really changed my focus to one where it was very much about technology.”

Strong genes

The website is the fastest-growing part of the business, he says.

“There are a few pieces of it that really bring people to our website and that’s that they trust the Betteridge name

and also find that we offer a really unparalleled selection of wonderful pieces and a great value, too.”

That doesn’t mean inexpensive. Both siblings fondly remember the investment pieces they were given as they grew up and talk about the wow factor of rare estate jewelry and the sentimental value of pieces like the simple silver bowl that sits on Win’s desk. In a surreal moment, one day he flipped it over and saw the Betteridge signature and realized one of his relatives had crafted it years ago. It’s something he’ll no doubt pass down to the next Betteridge generation. (On a side note, they both remember the many candy necklaces Brooke used to wear as a kid, too.)

The Betteridge siblings are proud to work with their dad and value family time, brand responsibility and their growing collection of family memorabilia, like Terry’s expansive gun collection. Their dad passed on his passion for sustainable hunting and has created a tradition with Win of shooting on safaris in Africa and fishing in Alaska. As Win talks about possibly going to hunt grizzly bears with Dad, Brooke chimes in with equal enthusiasm. There are definitely strong Betteridge genes that are at the heart of this family business.

In developing an appreciation for the fine jewelry retail platform, Win, an admitted workaholic, says, “The big thing that’s changed for me is the level of care, and I think that it’s one of the reasons that being a family business really does lead to better customer care. I mean it’s really something where Brooke and I are constantly thinking about the business, because our name is on the door.”

“We’re definitely in it for the long haul now,” Brooke says. “Once you get into a family business you kind of become obsessed, because you have so much riding on it.” n

Win and Brooke Betteridge

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Love duet Pas de deux on stage and off

By Georgette Gouveia

38

Megan Fairchild and Andrew Veyette in George Balanchine’s “Allegro Brillante” at the New York City Ballet. Photograph

by Paul Kolnik.

M

egan Fairchild and Andrew Veyette have been married to each other many times.

In “Coppélia.”

In “The Magic Flute.”

In…well, you get the idea. The New York City Ballet principals are pros at playing characters who tie the knot onstage (after some balletic Sturm und Drang) and then seal the deal in a grand pas de deux.

But when it came to the first dance at their own real-life wedding last summer at Crabtree’s Kittle House in Chappaqua, it was a case of four left feet.

“If it’s not choreographed, we just bump into each other,” Andrew says, adding that their choice of a song, The Carpenters’ “Close to You,” didn’t help.

“It was cute, but too long.”

“We’re normally playing before a huge impersonal audience,” Megan says.

“But this was in front of our family and friends,” she adds of the 80 attendees.

Andrew agrees. “It’s hard to be performing that long when you’re not playing a character.”

Still, despite their reservations about their first dance as husband and wife – it’s hard to imagine that it was anything but elegant – the couple had the country wedding of their dreams on July 24 in the ter-

raced gardens of the Kittle House, a sunny, timbered inn that dates from 1790.

“It was like getting married at home,” Andrew says, referring to their Dobbs Ferry abode, which dates from 1867. “It was charming, vintage. We’re not modern people.”

In ballet, you have to love the one you’re dancing with, even when you’re not dancing with the one you really love.

Indeed, chatting with Megan and Andrew, you get the sense that you are in the presence of old souls. They live on a block whose other residents have been there seemingly forever. They bought their house from people who had lived there a long time, as had the previous owners.

Continuity is important to the couple, who are the parents of two low-key basset hounds, 8-year-old Norman and 2-yearold Trudy.

Perhaps even more important is the

oasis of bucolic calm that Westchester affords the pair of high-flying Manhattan performers.

Previously, they lived in Manhattan and Brooklyn. But, Megan says, “We felt as if we never got to rest.”

Now they have their private nest as well as a straightforward commute down the Saw Mill and Henry Hudson parkways to Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater, the City Ballet’s home. It’s already a wellfeathered nest. Despite the house’s age, it is in mint condition, Megan says, adding that they made some improvements to the outside since they are both outdoorsy types.

No doubt the love of country living stems from Andrew and Megan being Westerners. Denver-born Andrew grew up in central California, while Megan was raised in the suburbs of her native Salt Lake City. After early training out West, they were both accepted into the prestigious City Ballet-affiliated School of American Ballet.

Like many successful couples, they are alike in values but complementary in temperament. She is petite, intense and serious. He is rangy, laidback and humorous.

The difference in temperament made for a slow romantic start. Being from Utah, Megan says, she is “more modest” than many Big Apple denizens. She wasn’t

about to lose her heart readily to any devilmay-care Californian.

But, Andrew says, “I enjoyed the challenge.” Spoken like the Prince Charming in any number of fairy-tale ballets. And like Prince Charming, Andrew proved himself worthy of the fair princess.

“He grew on me,” Megan says.

Their happy-ever-after has actually been almost 10 years and counting.

“Our relationship hasn’t changed,” Megan says, “not that it isn’t special that we got married.”

As they chat in a conference room at the Koch (pronounced “coke”) Theater, it is clear that they are very much in love, gazing at and conversing with each other as they answer questions.

That kind of intimate support is a boon in the dance world, where competition is keen and the work day can stretch easily to 12 hours, beginning with morning class, followed by any number of rehearsals and ending with a performance. (Megan and Andrew have a dog walker for the late nights.)

The couple says they don’t have to explain the pressures and pains of being a dancer to each other. They already understand and appreciate the complementary roles that men and women play in dance.

On the other hand, dancing with your offstage partner can get tricky, even

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Megan Fairchild and Andrew Veyette in Peter Martins’ “Zakouski” at the New York City Ballet. Photograph by Paul Kolnik.

Megan Fairchild and Andrew Veyette on their wedding day.

40

though they tend to perform the same works with different partners.

“We do a lot of guest appearances together,” Andrew says. “It wasn’t always easy. You don’t have the normal separation you have with other colleagues. You don’t feel the need to spare the other’s feelings.”

On the other hand, they can’t say to their other onstage partners, “Oh, Megan likes this” or “Andrew does it this way.”

In ballet, you have to love the one you’re dancing with, even when you’re not dancing with the one you really love.

Highlights of the New York City Ballet’s winter season (through Feb. 26) include the return of Peter Martins’ fulllength “Romeo + Juliet” and the first-ever All Wheeldon program Feb. 4, consisting of three ballets choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon. Tickets ($29 to $149) can be purchased in person at the David H. Koch Theater box office (located on the Lincoln Center Plaza at 63rd Street and Columbus Avenue), by phone at (212) 496-0600 or online at nycballet. com. n

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Creating a palette for the home Farrow & Ball revels in textures Story By Mary Shustack Photographs By Farrow & Ball When love is true, you want only the best for your beloved.

And if the object of your affection is your home, then the depth of that devotion is often reflected in the decor, from fine furniture to meaningful art to treasured antiques.

It can go even deeper, though, extending to the elements that tie it all together.

And for many homeowners, there is but one choice when it comes to paints and wallpapers – Farrow & Ball.

The British-based company now known around the world humbly calls itself “Manufacturers of Traditional Papers and Paint.”

Farrow & Ball, which has been making paint one batch at a time since 1946, is revered in design circles for the purity, depth and beauty of its paints. Its papers use only Farrow & Ball paints and traditional printing methods to create evocative designs that showcase historically inspired patterns. All are on view at Farrow & Ball’s 35 showrooms around the world, including one in Greenwich and several in Manhattan, which has the SoHo flagship.

Christine Klotz, Farrow & Ball’s tristate lead showroom manager, spent time on a recent morning in the Greenwich space to talk about the company’s enduring appeal.

“When we talk about love of the home, the brand has a huge following,” Klotz says. “There is a passion for the brand.”

Indeed, it’s found in homes across the globe and on the pages of the mostrespected shelter magazines. The paints are even on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. There Farrow & Ball’s saturated hues – from Hague Blue to Studio Green to Mouse’s Back – underscore the jeweled tones in the works that make up the sumptuous “The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini” (through March 18).

The tie-in is fitting, since Farrow & Ball’s latest line of wallpaper, The Broccato Papers, draws inspiration from the Renaissance paintings at The National Gallery in London.

Whether it’s the company’s paper or paints, the choices create a romantic waltz with various muses. Paints, for example, are based on inspirations ranging from 18th-century panel rooms (Olive) to the sports jacket worn at St. John’s College, Cambridge (Blazer) to the wings of a butterfly (Cabbage White).

Wallpaper motifs, in turn, can reflect a 19th-century Japanese print or the silk Sarah 42 Cole

fabric discovered in Josephine Bonaparte’s bedchamber or even the Duke of Wellington’s campaign tent.

Choices, though, never overwhelm during a showroom visit, thanks to the staff expertise.

“All of the staff are trained to do a color consultation within the showroom,” Klotz says.

“We don’t make a computerized sheet.”

Instead a client gets to see the actual paint as applied to a board.

“People do love it,” Klotz says. “That’s part of the experience.”

And it all speaks, Klotz says, to a trend in today’s world – the search for quality.

“People want artisan foods,” Klotz says.

“They want something special. People want the story behind something. Our wallpaper satisfies that need.”

An interview with Sarah Cole

As the WAG editor didn’t take me up on my offer to jet off to England to do this in person, we sent our further questions over to Farrow & Ball’s director, Sarah Cole, in Dorset, who provided this in-depth look at the company:

Can you talk a bit about the history of Farrow & Ball.

“The company was founded in Dorset, on the south coast of England by paint pioneers John Farrow and Richard Ball. From small beginnings, it rapidly established a reputation for quality which won it important contracts for the supply of paint to the Admiralty and the War Office. During the post-war period, while virtually all other paint manufacturers abandoned traditional formulations and switched to cheaper acrylic paints with a high plastic content, this privately owned company stuck to its craft and continued making paint to its original formulations, using the finest raw materials.”

How has it evolved over the years?

“While our traditional recipes and production methods have changed little over the years, we have enhanced our color palette and wallpaper patterns to create a versatile range to meet all decorating needs, from classic to contemporary interiors.

We are now reaching a wider audience around the world, with Farrow & Ball products available in over 50 countries.

Our paint and wallpaper continues to increase in popularity with designers and consumers alike.”

What makes it stand out from the rest of the home-decor companies?

“Quite simply, it’s the depth and beauty of our colors, achieved only by using the finest ingredients. We’re best-known for our chalky matt ‘Estate Emulsion’ finish, which has unrivaled depth of color and creates the signature look of Farrow & Ball… All Farrow & Ball paints and wallpapers are made at our factory in Dorset, no matter where in the world they are purchased.

“Paints: We use more high quality pigments and resins and no low quality ‘fillers,’ which gives our colors visibly greater depth and purity often referred to as the ‘Farrow & Ball look.’ Unlike many other manufacturers we use naturally occurring pigments, such as umbers in their purest form, and we continue to use natural ingredients such as chalk, lime putty and China clay.

Wallpapers: All our wallpapers are made to order using our own environmentally friendly water-based paints.

Our patterns are block-printed and our stripes and striés (faux-painted stripes) are trough-printed. Each wallpaper design has a unique texture which is achieved by using a hand-brushing technique to apply the background color. This, coupled with the application of the pattern using another layer of paint, creates wallpaper of great distinction and beauty.”

How did The Broccato Papers come about?

“The Broccato Papers is our newest wallpaper collection, launched in September.

Named after the Italian translation for ‘brocade,’ the collection features three exquisite ornamental patterns derived from rich decorative fabrics featured in 14th- and 15thcentury Renaissance paintings housed at The National Gallery, London. From these patterns, we have created a further three

wallpapers using an element of the original paintings to form a comprehensive collection of harmonious designs.

The collection is characterized by ornate floral and fruit motifs, with meticulous symmetrical detailing, distinctive of the Renaissance style and richly embossed Brocade fabrics. Each pattern is available in 10 colorways, from soft neutrals and pretty pastels to bolder colors and metallic accents.

The patterns include a pictorial print, floral stripe, soft trellis and a small scale tumbling oak-leaf pattern, amongst others.”

You’ve recently revealed “the colors of 2012.” Can you summarize these selections and discuss what trends they reflect in home decor today.

“Our top colors for 2012 are Pigeon, Brassica, Railings and Babouche, all of which are rich, nostalgic shades with an underlying quiet intensity that makes them suited to decorating trends in 2012. In particular, pale aubergine shade Brassica, with its underlying black tone, really sums up the decorating mood of 2012, as does the effervescent, positive yellow of Babouche.

Pigeon is a mix of blue, green and gray tones, which makes it feel casual but functional… Railings is a soft and velvety black, which is underscored with an element of blue that prevents it from being too hard and gives it a vintage twist...

“These colors match 2012’s decorating trends, because they can all be used to create soft, easy-to-live-with, nostalgic schemes when contrasted with sympathetic tones – or a bolder more graphic look when paired with clean whites. This bolder look incorporates the color blocking and unexpected color combinations that we are certain to see more of this year.”

Farrow & Ball has a Greenwich showroom at 32 E. Putnam Ave. Call (203) 422-0990 or visit farrow-ball.com. n 43

The buddy system

By Georgette Gouveia

I

n an enchanting moment from “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” Robert Downey Jr.’s Holmes waltzes Jude Law’s Dr. Watson around the ballroom of a Swiss castle right out of “Frankenstein,” the better to deduce the activities of Holmesian nemesis Professor Moriarty.

“Who taught you to dance like this?”

Holmes asks Watson archly.

Watson smiles before responding, “You did.”

That moment crystallizes what fans of the new series have long suspected: No matter how dastardly the villain or dire the circumstances, the new “Sherlock Holmes” is first and last a buddy movie.

The buddy narrative has, of course, a long tradition in Hollywood – and an even longer one in the fine arts and history.

Think “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and before that any number of war pictures and all those comedy teams – Laurel and Hardy; Abbott and Costello; Hope and Crosby; and Martin and Lewis.

Indeed, “Videohound’s Golden Movie Retriever,” a bible of movies on DVD, lists some 670 buddy titles.

Nor is the buddy story limited to the big screen. Among the buds who also appeared on the small screen are Oscar Madison and Felix Unger in “The Odd Couple” and Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock in “Star Trek.”

The buddy genre owes some of its inspiration to another Hollywood staple – the strong, silent hero who strides alone through the pix of John Wayne, Gary Cooper and much later, Clint Eastwood.

“Most movies are about heroes, and heroes have flaws,” says film critic Marshall Fine (hollywoodandfine.com). “As good as you think you are, you’re better when there are two of you. The two of you make up a better you.”

That’s because buddies tend to be complementary, Fine adds. Downey’s sublimely idiosyncratic Holmes exasperates Law’s Watson in his heroic quest for normalcy but also gives him a window onto the imagination. Watson in turn offers Holmes a secure foundation on which that window can be sprung. Finicky Felix provides Oscar with a haven of domesticity, while sloppy Oscar affords Felix the permission to play. Entirely logical Spock offers Kirk reason refined of any emotion and impulsive action while commanding, hot-blooded Kirk enables Spock to witness the vicarious thrill of visceral experience.

In what is perhaps the quintessential buddy pix, “Butch Cassidy,” and its Newman-Redford follow-up, “The Sting,”

44

“Achilles Binding the Wounds of Patroclus,” 6th century B.C., ceramic.

Newman’s sage sex symbol balances Redford’s relatively rookie hunk.

It’s a case, Fine says, of “Jerry Maguire’s” famous tagline: “You complete me.”

Not so black and white

The complementary nature of the buddy relationship is often accompanied by a tension born of circumstance, as in the movie “The Defiant Ones,” which finds Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier cast as members of a chain gang. The two loathe each other and not merely because they are a white guy and a black man on the wrong side of the law in the segregated South of the 1950s. As they struggle to free themselves, they come to understand that they are bound by a mutual respect and liking that extends beyond fear and even the grave.

Less than 15 years later, Hollywood would transcend racial differences in a small-screen pix that has come to define the oxymoronic male weeper and made stars of James Caan and Billy Dee Wil-

liams – “Brian’s Song.” It tells the story of Chicago Bears’ intense Hall of Fame running back Gale Sayers (Williams) and his relationship with the easy-going Piccolo (Caan), a football player stricken with terminal cancer not long after turning pro.

In one of the finest scenes in what many critics think is the best TV-movie ever made, Sayers accepts the George S. Halas Award for courage by noting that there’s one far worthier of it: “It’s mine tonight and Brian Piccolo’s tomorrow. I love Brian Piccolo, and I’d like all of you to love him, too. And tonight when you hit your knees, please ask God to love him.”

What gives this scene, the film and the entire buddy genre such a searing poignance is the emotional vulnerability and depth of connection displayed by the sex that is supposed to display neither.

“Women are much more social,” Fine says. “Guys are expected to do for themselves. Women are cooperative. All women are girlfriends. Not all guys are buddies.”

You may not agree with Fine that all of us ladies are girlfriends – the various versions of Claire Boothe Luce’s play “The Women” contain a number of backstabbers. But certainly the greater socialization attributed to women could explain why there are few female equivalents of the buddy picture. Every chick flick is a potential buddy movie. Yet two stand out as female buddy pictures – the provocative “Thelma and Louise,” which sets our heroines on the buddy road of trial and relationship development; and the recent “Bridesmaids,” which proved that when it comes to being smart and sexy, the gals have it all over the guys.

A fine bromance

The buddy genre has come a long way from the days of Newman and Redford and even Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as the sartorially splendid cops on “Miami Vice.” Which is not necessarily a good thing.

On the one hand, the advent of equal

rights for women and gays has enabled the buddy genre to branch out into the bromance, where the latent homosexuality – or at least, latent homoeroticism – of the buddy story is acknowledged or played for laughs, as it is in the new “Sherlock” movies and the big-screen adaptation of TV’s “Starsky and Hutch.”

“As homosexuality has become more acceptable, people are starting to read into two guys as close friends,” Fine observes.

On the other hand, the buddy pix has descended to the low-bro depths of films like “Pineapple Express” and “The Hangover”and the “Harold & Kumar” series, indeed almost anything starring Seth Rogen and Zach Galifianakis, who are not likely to make any woman forget Newman and Redford.

Still, on still another hand – yes, we’re a dancing Shiva of other hands – this past summer gave us “Crazy Stupid Love,” in which swoon-worthy lone-wolf Ryan Gosling went all Pygmalion on hapless everyman Steve Carell and learned something about being a domesticated mensch in the process.

It is a buddy comedy that lets the ladies in. Rather than serve as the jealous wedge, they are the emotional glue that weaves the guys into what Bogie’s world-weary Rick – out for a stroll in the desert with Claude Rains’ slippery Louie – would call “a beautiful friendship.” n

This bud’s for you The buddy narrative long predates the buddy movie. You can date it at least from the “Epic of Gilgamesh” (circa 2000 B.C.) a Babylonian poem found amid the clay tablets that made up the library of Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668626 B.C.). In the epic, King Gilgamesh so bedevils the Sumerian (Babylonian) people that they pray for relief. It comes from heaven in the form of a wild, hairy man named Enkidu, who challenges Gilgamesh, defeats him in wrestling and, of course, becomes his BFF. So tight are the two in fact that when Enkidu dies, a grieving Gilgamesh risks death itself in a vain attempt to discover the secret of eternal life.

“Gilgamesh” established important threads in the buddy narrative, including the notion of enemies turned friends and the hero and his sidekick on a series of adventures.

Other ancient buddy stories center on comrades in arms. No doubt the greatest of these is Homer’s “The Iliad” (9th century B.C.), which unspools the riveting tale of the dreadful consequences of the Greek warrior Achilles’ prideful wrath in the 10th and final year of the Greeks’

conquest of Troy. A complex antihero if there ever was one, Achilles does have a tender side, revealed in his relationship with his kinsman Patroclus. A stunning red on black ceramic plate from the 6th century B.C. depicts the younger, beardless Achilles gently binding his friend’s wounded arm as the bearded Patroclus cowboys up, turning his head so Achilles and the viewer cannot read his pain.

So intense is their relationship that when Patroclus is killed by the Trojan hero Hector, Achilles goes on a rampage that is not sated until he has defeated Hector in single-handed combat and dragged his body around the gates of Troy.

The real-life warrior Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) fancied himself an actual Achilles and his childhood soulmate Hephaistion his own Patroclus, so much so that the two men paid homage to the mythic Greek warriors’ tombs at Troy as Alexander embarked on his conquest of the Persian Empire. So great was his grief when Hephaistion died in Ecbatana (modern-day Hamadan, Iran), that he had his friend’s physician crucified, ordered all the horses tails to be shorn and staged a funeral the likes of

which the ancient world had never seen.

Eight months later, Alexander himself was dead, worn out at age 32 by a lifetime of combat and loss.

War makes some buddies. Art provides the rest. Who can forget Huck helping Jim escape from slavery in Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” or Huck’s misadventures with Tom Sawyer?

Opera more your thing? Consider then Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” in which the rebellious Spanish prince of the title and the Marquis of Posa pledge their undying loyalty, which Posa makes good on by sacrificing himself to save Don Carlo from the Inquisition.

In Bizet’s “Les Pêcheurs de perles” (“The Pearl Fishers”), pals Zurga and Nadir warble a similar pledge in one of opera’s most moving duets (“Au fond du temple saint”). But when mutual love Leila rekindles a forbidden romance with Nadir, noble Zurga dies helping them to escape.

These may be the ultimate buddy stories, in which the words of Jesus ring true: “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend.”

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Wonderful Chris Burch on his new brand and new life

By Zoë Zellers Photographs by ©David Bravo

47

“I

’m a really romantic guy, but I’m also well, I’ll tell you a little bit later,” J. Christopher Burch says, joking as he bends his elbows, crosses his legs and leans back onto an oversized circular velvet ottoman in apple green. The sweet smell of success along with ’60s pop lingers in the air as he looks down at his monogrammed velvet slip-on shoes, which spell out in large red letters, “HE-ART.” “I love fashion, but I really love my shoes. I wear them everywhere and I’m not embarrassed.”

As he talks about having “like 25 pairs” that offer inspirational reminders such as “COOL” and “WOW” and “BAD BOY,” Burch’s playful personality comes out and with it, a certain self-awareness.

He wears the shoes, he says, “because I like to make people laugh… and I’m making more of them.”

Burch is a diehard venture capitalist at J. Christopher Capital L.L.C. with current and past investments in technology, hotels and even bottled water. But he is perhaps best-known about town for creating the preppy-chic instant favorite fashion line that bears the name of his co-founder, business partner and ex-wife, Tory Burch.

“You know we went through a divorce and that’s never easy,” he says with a sigh.

“We’re really, really, really close to our kids and really dear friends.”

Even though he’s not in the Manhattan office on a daily basis, he remains involved in that business.

“No, I haven’t sold. I’m the largest shareholder with Tory at the company and I’m on the board (of directors).”

The bottom line, he says, is that he feels “very fortunate” and has come to terms with their changing relationship.

That said, it’s his own new retail brand and hip emporium, C. Wonder, which offers everything from green bicycles to poodle-printed china to calf-hair fringe bags that’s generating buzz from SoHo to The Westchester to the blogosphere and beyond.

Brilliant branding

At the bright green 5,000-square-foot flagship space on Spring Street at Crosby Street, it’s clear that C. Wonder is what Burch is really about.

“This is the best period in my life,” he says. “I think it’s really exciting what’s happening in Westchester. I’m not bullshitting. They are embracing us at the highest level. It’s beyond comprehension and it’s all about word of mouth,” Burch says. The oversized apple green and pink shopping bags and full-page ads in The 48

Burch with Roberta Anderson, general manager of C. Wonder in SoHo.

New York Times don’t hurt, either.

“I can’t tell you the amount of conversations I’ve had with that (Westchester) community where they’ve just said, ‘This is just fabulous.’ We’re kind of overwhelmed by how much business we’re doing there.”

Using the bags as a marketing vehicle is a strategic symbol of pride.

“We want the customer to reuse our packaging so yes, because the price point is good (many items are under $40), you would expect to get kind of a cheap bag in a no-name color. But it’s very important to be noticed, and we’re proud of what we do.

“The customer is suburban. I think all women are 39, because a gorgeous 60-year-old looks like she’s 39 and there can be a 23-year-old girl as sophisticated as a 39-year-old woman,” Burch adds with a smile. “She’s independent. She’s dynamic. She’s full of life. She wants to make her own decisions. She loves color.

She’s happy. And she’s kind of classic and traditional, but traditional in a cool, hip sense.”

An exciting, technology-driven, luxuryinspired in-store experience is also a key factor to the identity of the C. Wonder brand, which took 18 months to go from conception to execution.

“This whole store is about entering different rooms and being embraced by different environments as you do. You’re surrounded by different colors (and fabulous wallpaper) in the rooms and that’s a big thing for us. Again, it’s done with the high shine of our stores. We’re all about that presentation.”

C. Wonder boasts innovative attention to visual merchandising, creating little vignettes throughout sections and offering customer perks like a killer return policy (“You can return anything, anytime”), line-free checkouts with sales associates carrying iPod Touches on the floor and customized “mood” music and lighting in the wood-paneled dressing rooms (hence the ’60s pop).

“We believe the customer wants to come here and spend time. So even if our pricing is effective, we still want to be an upgraded environment,” Burch says.

The SoHo store launched in October and was immediately followed by the ones in White Plains, Garden City, L.I., and Paramus, N.J. They’re just the beginning.

“We’re going to open 300 worldwide and then we’re going to stop. In the United States, we’ll open 120. “We’re very global, so I have to be too.”

Burch can be found virtually anywhere.

Sometimes he likes to eat down the street at Balthazar and work out at Equinox.

Other times, he’s scouting the surf scene on an “investment island” off the coast of Bali. (“I’d like to be a surfer, but I can be a badass sometimes”) or going to the movies with a couple of his “smart-as-hell” kids – Sawyer and identical twins Henry and Nick (from his marriage to Tory) and Alexandra (Pookie), Louisa and Elizabeth (Izzie) (from a previous marriage).

“I live in Miami. I live in New York. I live in Shanghai. I live all over the world.

Each apartment and each house is totally different,” Burch says, and this eclectic feel is certainly incorporated into the inspired C. Wonder merchandise.

“Look, I’m traveling in the air seven months a year and yes, I do have it calculated, because I had a bet with somebody,” Burch says with a laugh. “In fact, I spend more than 1,000 hours actually flying, which when you calculate it, is a lot of days.… I get on a plane with my pajama pants and a sweatshirt and I’m very casual about it. But actually getting on a plane is something I enjoy. I think well up there.”

New outlook, love

Burch was also quick on his feet on the streets of New York City when his upcoming venture more or less bumped into

him. The rock ’n’ roll Electric Love Army women’s sportswear line, set to launch in “about nine months,” was born out of a coincidental meeting with Kelly Cutrone.

She’s the fashion publicist of the People’s Revolution PR firm, the reality star of “Kell on Earth,” a best-selling author and André Leon Talley’s upcoming replacement as a judge on “America’s Next Top Model.”

“You know how we met? We met on the street by mistake” as Burch was asking his daughter Louisa if a retail space was available for rent. As it turns out, Louisa and Pookie are starting their own fashion label without daddy’s supervision.

Overhearing him, Cutrone called out, “‘Alexander Wang’s taking that. You can’t have it,” which prompted Burch to say, “What’re you, the mayor of the city?”

“No, I’m the mayor of Grand Street,” she said. (Her home and office are on Grand).

“And we just started to talk and I noticed that all these people kept walking up to her while we were talking.”

Initially, neither realized the other’s fame. “We just connected and started to talk, and she had a vision and I said, ‘You know what? I’ll be your partner in that vision.’”

The line is about “bringing back the 49

“I actually believe that whether it’s your children or it’s the love of a woman, it’s important to lead with your heart and it’s actually important to lead with your soul. Your heart and your soul are attached.”

Brilliant branding is key: Each room of C. Wonder’s flagship store has a different mood and palette.

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whole concept of rock ’n’ roll in the store where girls really take control of their lives. It’s focused on a woman in her college years. It’s high-quality, very cool, contemporary stuff and Kelly’s really got her shit together,” he said.

“We love working together,” he says, so much so that Cutrone and Burch paired again to launch the sexy-cool-couture lifestyle brand Monika Chiang, which is worth a trip to SoHo to check out at the temporary Prince Street store. Chiang just happens to be Burch’s new boo, but he asserted that “there’s no coincidence” he’s in love and in business with another beautiful fashion designer.

“I actually love women from 25 to 60, and there’s no correlation. I just like people who are bright, dynamic, fun and full of life. Monika’s just a very cool person.”

Burch is visibly excited to treat his girlfriend to something special the Saturday before Valentine’s Day but can’t reveal too much in print.

“I gave her a very special Christmas present, so I think this time I’ll give her something a little more intimate and unusual,” he hints. “When I give gifts, in some cases it may be something like diamonds. But other times it may be very, very personal like writing a letter or doing something very sweet.

“I actually believe that whether it’s your children or it’s the love of a woman, it’s important to lead with your heart and it’s actually important to lead with your soul.

Your heart and your soul are attached.”

A power combo of adventurous business deals, cool collaborations, an appreciation for the wit and willpower of his staff, a trust in his own taste level and an inspiring young love has done Burch so well that he says he’s never felt better.

“At one moment I feel I’m your age and then another moment I feel I can have the most intimate conversation with an 80-year-old guy that’s into religion. So I’m about the texture of life.”

Is Burch for real? Just a moment ago he was talking about the clubby Meatpacking District asking, “Have you been to this new restaurant, Catch? You gotta go.

It’s really hard to get in, but it’s the hippest place in the world.”

Burch answers with a slap on the knee and a set, engaging gaze that doesn’t reveal he’s already five minutes late to his speaking engagement.

“Really, yeah. Like I can hang with the 80-year-old and we can talk about life and regrets, things like that, because I actually think life is really about the moment and I wish I’d learned that when I was younger.” n

way

mon amour Maison Normande,

By Mary Shustack Photographs by Bob Rozycki and Tim Lee

Presented by Houlihan Lawrence

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Jane Amsterdam

It’s a very special property that can captivate you the moment you see it.

But Maison Normande in Cross River is the rare one that combines both rustic charm and understated elegance.

There is a main house, a converted 1790 barn filled with architectural touches. It’s the centerpiece of the French Norman complex that unfolds over more than 12 acres that you enter through a break in a stone wall leading into a gravel courtyard. There are three ponds, a stream and daffodil meadows that have given Maison Normande its nickname – “The Daffodil House.”

The estate also features a guesthouse complete with an enclosed sun porch and a carriage house with a

MAISON NORMANDE at a Glance • Cross River • 3,420 square feet • 12.4 acres • Bedrooms: 4 • Baths: 4 full.

• Amenities: Close to train, shops, school and major roadways; three ponds, mature orchard and gardens; main residence with first-level master suite, two-bedroom guest cottage, studio apartment, three-car garage; equestrian property with barn and paddocks.

• Price: $1,795,000

studio apartment and a new barn, all tied together by matching stucco and half-timbered exteriors. One can only imagine this paradise when the wisteria, lilac and hydrangea are in bloom, or when the orchards burst with apples and pears. There’s even a “magic peach tree.” Owner Jane Amsterdam notes that everyone who samples its fruit says the peaches are “the best in the world.”

It’s a property ideal for a family. Amsterdam shares stories of her son, Teddy, now 21 and soon to graduate college, who had a few “little Huck Finn adventures” over the years.

A walk toward the sprawling barn and paddocks is completed by crossing over a wooden bridge.

“I love this bridge,” Amsterdam says as she steps across.

“It takes you to the other world of the place.”

The horse lover will delight in the barn, added to accommodate Amsterdam’s equestrian interests. The space, accessed by a separate drive, includes four stalls with inside and outside doors, a 12-foot wide central aisle to allow passage of a carriage or vehicle, heated wash stalls, a tack room and a large storage loft.

And if the next owner’s not into horses? Amsterdam had that in mind during the barn’s creation, making sure it was “pretty enough that if it’s not a horse barn, it’s a Ferrari barn or a playhouse.”

Conversation piece

A quick tour of the property leads back to the main living space, which is filled with details of the original barn building, artfully supplemented by accents collected by the previous owner in her world travels.

“I added a cabinet. I added a barn. I did little things…

It was so perfect,” Amsterdam says.

There is a great room, a cozy-yet-airy space that features a two-story vaulted ceiling, exposed beams, a wooden saint from a French chapel anchoring the staircase and a Renaissance-style fireplace.

The kitchen is a wonder, its original silo shape retained to give the room an unusual feel. Spend any time here and you’ll find your eyes darting from curved stones and cabinets to a delightfully high window set into the curved wall.

With radiant heat, it’s ideal for a late-morning breakfast but just as suitable for larger-scale entertaining, such as Amsterdam’s traditional Christmas Eve party.

“Because of the circular aspect, it turns into one big conversation,” she says.

The library is carved out of a cozy loft adjacent to the living room.

“You sit up there and read or work and overlook the fireplace,” Amsterdam says.

On the desk, sits a National Magazine Award – a nod to Amsterdam’s days as an award-winning journalist who edited Manhattan, inc., and The New York Post in the 1980s.

Behind the loft is a bedroom, a surprisingly airy space that has been her son’s room but could easily be transformed into an art studio, music room or the like.

The master bedroom suite is back on the main floor, a serene space that offers a picturesque glimpse into another part of the courtyard.

“There’s not a window here where you don’t get a great view.”

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Beyond the main

The gracious feel of the main house extends to the other buildings. A large guesthouse echoes the interior style of the main house, as does a delightful carriage house/living space. Each could be used for extended family members, guests or staff.

In the 12 years Amsterdam has lived here after moving from a farm in North Salem, Maison Normande has served as a nature-filled country retreat. She followed her media career with years on the competitive horse-drawn carriage circuit, another “phase to my life.”

These days, she is dealing in antiques, specializing in gold charms as she heads into life’s next phase.

But no matter where Amsterdam moves, it’s clear that she will never forget her time at Maison Normande.

“If you’re not in France here, I don’t know where you are. It’s magical.”

For more information, contact Susan Stillman at (914) 589-4477 or (914) 764-5762, ext. 334. n 54

Michael Attubato

Melvin Weiss

Two docs who are all heart

By Jane K. Dove Photographs by ©David Bravo

S

imply put, it’s all in the art of the heart.

Dedicated cardiologists Michael Attubato and Melvin Weiss add a large measure of understanding, compassion and “taking that extra time” caring for their patients, sharing an approach to medicine that provides much more than just technical expertise.

Attubato, a Greenwich resident, has a varied practice that includes New York University’s Langone Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital, as well as work with patients in Harlem.

Weiss, who lives in Bedford, prides himself on treating patients as “complete individuals” in his thriving practice in Hawthorne. He is also a member of the department of cardiology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan.

Attubato said Bellevue Hospital – affiliated with the New York University School of Medicine, from which he graduated 56

in 1981 – still holds a special place in his heart.

“My main area of specialization is interventional cardiology, including cardiac catheterization,” he said. “I do procedures to open blocked arteries and train cardiology fellows, medical students and house staff. I spend one full day a week working at Bellevue and I love being there.”

The 800-bed Bellevue Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the country, provides an extremely rich and varied experience for the medical students and doctors that work there, he said.

“Bellevue has a big cardiac division. We see patients from all over the city, including transfers from other municipal hospitals. In addition to being one of the largest hospitals in the country, Bellevue is one of the oldest, founded in 1736.”

Variety of patients

The majority of the patients Attubato sees at Bellevue are medically and financially indigent, with no insurance.

“A lot of them have not had very good care, so when they come to Bellevue, they may present some special challenges.”

Some of his Bellevue patients come from homeless shelters and many do not speak English.

“As a result, starting in medical school, I learned to speak some basic Spanish, along with most of our other staff members,” he said. “It’s not perfect, but it works.”

Attubato said New York City’s hospital system, including Bellevue, provides excellent care to the uninsured.

“The quality of care at Bellevue is as good as any in the country. We are a teaching hospital for New York University’s medical school and are on top of the very latest that cardiology and other disciplines have to offer. All of our equipment is the finest available, and our patients lack for nothing.”

His work at Bellevue also includes the men’s medical prison.

“We have about 30 beds in a secure

location at the very top of the hospital,” he said. “Prisoners are transported to Bellevue for different procedures. I also treat patients at the Manhattan Veterans Affairs Medical Center, another part of the big NYU-Bellevue complex, which runs from 23rd to 34th Street between First Avenue and the FDR Drive.”

Attubato gives Bellevue and its staff the highest marks in terms of dedication.

Many of us were there as medical students and feel a real connection. I have several colleagues who, like me, now live in Greenwich but got training at Bellevue.

There is something special about the place that holds onto you.”

In addition to his work at Bellevue and the Langone Medical Center, Attubato also spends a half-day a week working in an office in Harlem.

“There, I provide treatment for patients with peripheral vascular problems. I enjoy this part of my work tremendously. The patients I see are very appreciative of our help, and it’s a good feeling.”

‘On a roll’

Looking back over a career that begin with his graduation from Downstate Medical Center in 1967, Melvin Weiss said that one of the most rewarding aspects of his cardiology practice is that he enjoys so much success with his patients.

“In cardiology, we are on a roll,” he said.

“Patients now live better and longer lives thanks to advances in technology. I now successfully treat patients who would have had a limited chance of survival when I first got out of medical school more than three decades ago.”

Weiss did his internship at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn. He was chief of cardiology at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla from 1996 until July of 2011 and is now a member of the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center department of cardiology faculty.

He previously served there as director of cardiac catheterization.

Weiss said he is gratified by the tremendous improvement in tools and techniques for treating cardiac patients.

“We also now have a different and better approach to treating cardiac patients.

We treat the whole patient, not just the heart.”

The complete patient

“In cardiology, we are on a roll.

Patients now live better and longer lives thanks to advances in technology. ” — Melvin Weiss

Share. Elegance. Laughter.

Join us for an evening of Elegance & Laughter to support

“Often I wind up providing a lot of advice in many areas and am happy to do it,” he said. “My patients are free to call me up and ask me questions whenever they feel the need. I try to be accessible and will always take that extra time with them.”

The 80- and 90 year-old heart patient is no longer that rare.

“When I first started out, they were a real rarity. Now you see many being successfully treated and living long, productive lives. The reduction in mortality in older patients is miraculous.”

The advent of cardiac catheterization as a widely used procedure is one of the main factors Weiss credits for improved patients outcomes.

“The ability to open up blocked arteries without major invasive surgery has brought us a long way. I performed my first cardiac catheterization in 1982. Since then the procedure has taken off, with many doctors specializing in it.”

Weiss looks forward to cardiology advancing even further in the years to come.

“New medicines are constantly under research and development, and we are working on things like implant defibrillators. The increase in longevity will only continue.”

He enjoys following his patients over long periods of time, ensuring that they are doing everything possible to get the best results.

“I believe that personal contact is very, very important,” he said. “You need to be able to sit down with your patients, talk to them and spend some meaningful time. I really believe that spending that extra time and being available can make a difference.

The doctor-patient relationships must be strong and caring.” n

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One of the most enjoyable aspects of his practice, he said, is guiding patients through the entire process of cardiac care and exploring and giving advice on many related issues.

“I try to treat the individual, not just the heart. It is wonderful to see what has happened in my field. Mortality from heart attacks has dropped radically. Cardiac catheterization has worked wonders, and our success rates continue to climb.”

Weiss said the widespread use of the new generation of cholesterol-lowering drugs has also had a major impact.

“We are now at the point where car-

diac disease is no longer an old-fashioned ‘death sentence’ but can almost be looked upon as a chronic, treatable condition.

The days of patients as ‘cardiac cripples’ are thankfully long gone.”

Spending time with his patients to support their recovery is one of the things Weiss finds most satisfying about his practice.

ST

ER

He also takes great pleasure in teaching, from high school students on through medical students and house staff.

“Every summer I have a small program where three or four high school students work with me at NYU,” he said. “The idea is to see if they are really interested in medicine as a career.”

Reflecting on his own, Attubato said.

“The nicest thing about it is that I found something that I really like to do and it works for my patients.

“We have come a long way in cardiology. Success is high, and complications are low. I also enjoy being able to provide the very best care to patients who would ordinarily not be able to receive it. Everyone, no matter what their financial or insurance status, deserves great medical care and those of us who work in the New York City hospital system do an excellent job of providing it.”

CHES

T

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Hearts and minds Psychotherapist Robi Ludwig works to heal both

By Georgette Gouveia Interviewing Robi Ludwig over lunch on the Upper East Side is like spending time with your best girlfriend – a generous best girlfriend. No sooner do you sit down than she presents you with a lovely postholiday gift, a heart-shaped jade and palladium ring from the new Gems en Vogue II, a jewelry collection she collaborated on with gemologist Michael Valitutti to benefit the American Heart Association and its Go Red for Women campaign.

“What girl doesn’t like a little jewelry,” she says.

“Look, it fits you perfectly.”

Clearly, jewelry is a subject close to this girl’s heart.

On this particularly day, Ludwig sports green beads, double-looped to form a choker and a longer strand, and silver accents that stand out against a form-fitting black outfit that in turn underscores her shapely blond looks. It is a style that she describes as “bohemian.”

Closer to her heart, however, is the heart itself. Several years ago, the Westchester and Fairfield counties’ chapter of Go Red for Women contacted the clinical psychotherapist, a contributor to NBC’s “Today” show, to serve as the moderator for one of its events.

She has been involved with the heart association and its Go Red campaign ever since, donating $5,000

58

to the association last year through Gems en Vogue II and serving as guest speaker recently at Go Red’s “Bling & Bubbly at Belotta at 42” event at The Ritz Carlton, Westchester in White Plains.

“It’s about heart awareness with an overlapping theme of women taking care of themselves,” Ludwig says.

Heart disease is not only the number one killer of women, it can have significant psychological and social repercussions.

“Women are more vulnerable to depression postheart attack,” she says.

Then there is the resentment that attends women, still the primary caregivers in our society, when they fall ill.

“Women really are the heart and center of the home,”

Robi observes. “When a woman is ill, it sends a ripple effect. We’ve made great strides in terms of equality.

But there’s always that division of labor.”

Murder, they wrote

Ludwig is, of course, better-known for the tell-itlike-it-is psychological insights she has offered on “Today,” CNN, Headline News, Fox News, E!, ABC’s “The View” and the former “Regis and Kelly” and “Oprah.”

She is just as she appears on TV – sensitive and polite but unwaveringly honest, as good at listening as she is at dispensing advice.

It will come as no surprise to talk-show fans that Ludwig, who has commented on some of the most sensational murder cases in recent years, has written a book (with reporter Matt Birkbeck) called “Till Death Do Us Part: Love, Marriage, and the Mind of the Killer Spouse” (Atria Books). In it, she identifies different types of spousal murderers. They include the betrayal/abandonment killer (dentist Clara Harris, who ran over her philandering hubby, David, with her Mercedes); the temper-tantrum killer (Scott Peterson, who killed his pregnant wife, Laci); the nar-

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Though often called on to discuss love on the rocks,

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Heart disease is not only the number one killer of women, it can have significant psychological and social repercussions.

“Women are more vulnerable to depression post-heart attack,” ludwig says.

Then there is the resentment that attends women, still the primary caregivers in our society, when they fall ill.

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Ludwig’s own marriage is anything but. She and husband David Ludwig, a psychiatrist, are the parents of a 12-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter and live in Manhattan.

Says she of her husband: “I have a lot of respect for his intellect and perspective.” At the same time, he knows she won’t be afraid to share her intellect and perspective with him.

Respect is one of her five keys to a successful marriage.

“There has to be respect. Without it, there can be no love.”

Her other four tips are: 1. Know thyself – “Know who you are. Know what you want, so when picking a partner, you pick someone in sync with your life goals.”

2. Get to know the person you’re with.

3. Be forgiving – “There has to be a limit, but I’m talking about being forgiving of idiosyncracies. You’re imperfect. The other person isn’t perfect. Make room for the imperfection.”

4. Have realistic expectations – “You’re not going to get everything in one person.”

For more information, visit drrobiludwig.com and heart. org. You can find Gems en Vogue II at shopnbc.com. n

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cissistic killer (aspiring TV personality Pamela Smart, who did in husband Greg); and the sociopathic killer (Christian Longo, who murdered his wife, Mary Jane, and three young children).

Among the common threads in these crimes is their familial specificity. Generally speaking, Ludwig says, “People who commit marital homicide aren’t going to harm anyone else. They’re not career criminals.”

Rather, these murderers see the spouse and his or her actions as a threat to their very existence. Perhaps that’s why they can’t just walk away.

“People who get divorced have better coping skills.”

Of course, sometimes the spouse is seen as a literal threat to the murderer’s survival, as in the case of Barbara Sheehan, who was acquitted of shooting her husband, Raymond, a retired New York City Police Department sergeant, 11 times with his two guns on the grounds of prolonged abuse. (She was sentenced to five years on a weapons charge, which she is appealing.)

Men can be abused as well, Ludwig notes, but it is not as common, because of the disparity in physical strength between men and women.

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1.

2.

3.

4.

1. Swarovski’s large Love Heart features two crystal colors, Kakadu Red Satin crystal and Kakadu Red crystal living side by side. It’s an object ideal for display and sells for $165. Available through Swarovski boutiques, swarovski. com and Macy’s.

2. Lalique’s heart paperweight is an artistic way to bring order to any desk or coffee table. It comes in fuchsia (pictured), pink, opal and clear and sells for $325. Available at Lalique in Manhattan. Call (212) 355-6550 or visit lalique.com.

3. Juliska’s Berry & Thread Ruby Heart cocktail trays, 6.5 inches wide, come in a set of four and carry a suggested retail price of $89 for the set. Available through the Juliska flagship in Stamford, by calling (203) 316-9118 or visiting juliska.com.

4. The Baccarat ZinZin heart, in lead crystal with flat, beveled edges, adds a note of grace to any setting. The large ruby version is $290 and available at the Baccarat boutique in Greenwich, by calling (800) 777-0100 or visiting baccarat.com.

5. Tiffany’s Elsa Peretti Open Heart frame offers an understated-yet-artful way to display a picture of someone you love. It’s $425 and available through Tiffany boutiques and tiffany.com. Photograph by Josh Haskin.

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5.

❤ hearts

By Mary Shustack

The old saying is “Home is where the heart is.”

Well, how about home is where the hearts are?

This month, when St. Valentine’s Day puts the spotlight on all things romantic, is the perfect time to add a touch more “love” – in the form of heart-shaped accents and accessories – to your home.

The heart as an image can easily be spotted this time of year on tiles or rugs, linens or mirrors. Even artwork with a heart motif gets its moment in the sun.

Sure, you can go all out with the theme, but we suggest a lighter touch – an elegant addition of a vase, paperweight or platter as a subtle underscoring of the love that fills a home throughout the year.

Livia Marotta, the Manhattan-based director of communications for Swarovski, says the heart is a design theme that continues to captivate.

“Swarovski hearts are very popular both in the jewelry and the home decor collection,” she says.

While the company’s home line features everything from candleholders to vases, the hearts primarily are interpreted through paperweights.

“Hearts are very popular during Valentine’s Day because it’s a special occasion to remember people you love,” Marotta says, adding that items purchased now also serve as a reminder of those enduring sentiments long after the gifts are unwrapped.

Jaime Jiménez, the director of marketing and communications for Baccarat, which has a boutique in Greenwich, agrees that the heart is an enduring favorite when it comes to design motifs.

“I believe that the popularity of heartshaped objects stems from the fact that in many cultures the heart represents life and love, while in others it represents intelligence and intuition.”

A gift that incorporates a heart design, then, carries a deeper meaning.

“When one offers a heart paperweight, or a heart pendant for example, one is symbolically offering the recipient love and life,” Jiménez says, via email.

And the heart image is sought after no matter the season.

“Our crystal hearts are best-sellers throughout the year. However, we do see a spike in sales during special gift-giving occasions, not only for Valentine’s Day but also for Mother’s Day and the holiday season,” Jiménez says. “We have also found that our crystal hearts have been particularly popular with corporations who give them out to employees and customers as gifts.”

Nothing like sharing the love. n

wear

Seeing red Written and modeled by ZoĂŤ Zellers Eveningwear from Mary Jane Denzer in White Plains Makeup by Tom Ford Beauty Photographs by Bob Rozycki

Kick off the month of love and embrace the romance of red with elegant eveningwear and swoon-worthy cocktail dresses at Mary Jane Denzer in White Plains, a wonderland for the luxury-driven customer of any age.

From left, strapless ruby-red gown in silk gazar by Raphael Cenamo, $2,100, with ruby drop earrings by Gerard Yosca, $185, and a festive Oscar de la Renta garnet bow pin, $495.

Watermelon and lilac chiffon dress with ombre shading by Monique Lhuillier, $5,290, paired with gold, pearl and pink-stone leaf earrings by Oscar de la Renta, $290.

Sophisticated poppy silk one-shoulder strap dress by J. Mendel, $3,350, with gold tassel Paige Novick earrings, $200.

A stunning Tony Ward red stretch lace gown with a bow, $4,540, worn with diamond drop earrings by Fantasia, $645. 61

Tom Ford models in his ad for Tom Ford Beauty. All photographs courtesy Tom Ford Beauty

wear

One singular sensation

By Zoë Zellers

T

om Ford is the kind of guy who wore a suit and carried a briefcase to third grade in Texas. In other words, not like other kids.

Yet this international designer, fashionisto, auteur and now makeup artiste has demonstrated he can fit in and play nice with the other fashion kids while remaining a little bit different.

Ford is the savior who revamped the nearly bankrupt House of Gucci and injected cool into Yves Saint Laurent in the 1990s before launching the Tom Ford label, reminding the world of the importance of glamour, elegance and sex appeal with polished men’s and women’s apparel, accessories and provocative campaigns, some starring himself.

He took a fashion hiatus to add film director, writer and producer to his résumé when he presented the standout “A Single Man,” which was nominated for an Oscar and three Golden Globes. The movie – which follows a smartly dressed English professor, played by Colin Firth, as he struggles with thoughts of suicide one year after the sudden death of his longtime partner – is said to have been triggered by Ford’s own midlife crisis.

Back from his fashion break, Ford is continuing to make his mark in clothing and pop culture. Exclusive guests are invited to secret runway shows that feature handpicked models such as Beyoncé and Lauren Hutton – and a serious no-cameras code of conduct. Last month in Miami, racy pop star Rihanna was photographed wearing a very sheer Tom Ford dress to Diddy’s New Year’s Eve

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party. And this November’s latest James Bond film, “Skyfall,” will feature Daniel Craig suiting up in Tom Ford.

Paging makeup

But the handsome 50-year-old’s knack for playing new parts goes beyond fashion and film. Following up on the response to the launch of his men’s and women’s fragrances, Ford has masterfully branched out yet again, this time hitting the cosmetics counter with a wildly successful high-end beauty line that’s available at luxury retailers like Neiman Marcus (check out this month’s new inventory there), Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman.

On the night of the makeup and skin care line’s debut, shoppers at Bergdorf’s reportedly bought $52,000 worth of goodies in just one hour – one of the store’s biggest launches ever. The best-seller that night was a rich chocolate brown nail polish called Bitter Bitch ($30).

Soon after at WWD’s Beauty Inc Awards, Ford, along with fellow celebrity cosmetician Salma Hayek, took home the Launch of the Year Award. That moment announced that his beauty line was no name-lending gimmick hidden behind ultra-sleek black and gold packaging but a fabulous freshman effort unexpectedly worth the splurge.

Tom Ford Beauty’s intensive infusion ultra-rich moisturizer ($230) is both pricy and flying off the shelves. It’s a miracle whipped cream, if you will, that stimulates cells to replenish and hydrate the skin. Follow up with Ford’s illuminating protective primer with SPF 12 ($70), which comes in a fun-to-open bottle. It’s light, easy to apply and

creates a flawless canvas that’s long-lasting. It brightens, tones and smoothes the skin’s texture before you apply foundation. The designer has listed it as one of the everyday products he uses in addition to his traceless foundation stick ($78).

Another basic that Ford does well are makeup brushes.

He offers 12 of them. The shade and illuminate brush ($70) is made from natural and synthetic fibers with a sturdy mahogany handle that makes it simple to apply color.

His 10 eye shadow quads ($75), available in a gorgeous range from smoky Violet Dusk to earthy green Sahara Haze to bright Cobalt Rush, are the stars of the makeup line. Made with state-of-the-art color processes, the quads contain four complementary eye shadow colors and textures including sheer, sparkle, shimmer and matte that offer so many options for all occasions.

At first glance, the Titanium Smoke quad with its shades of black, gray, gold shimmer and black sparkle seems dramatic and reserved for late night affairs. But surprisingly, the pigmentation is so versatile and the application brushes so precise, that the wearer can easily blend gray and a light shimmer for a daytime look or go seductive with black on black sparkles at night. With the option to go subtle or bold with sumptuous color that stays in place and matches your mood, the quad is practical and worth the price tag.

Ford is very much about expressing beauty in a sensual and personal way and names his line a “paragon of luxury and effectiveness.” His signature look, from his photo

shoots to the makeup he sells, is decidedly seductive, featuring strong eyes paired with bright cheeks and lacquered lips. Add a youthful, warm glow with his powder cheek color ($55), formulated with spherical pearls and rich emollients. It’s no wonder the bright pink Wicked is a best-seller. It absolutely feels like velvet when it’s applied and is potent so start light and layer on the drama.

Word of mouth

Let’s talk about lips. As good (and expensive) as his perfumes like Violet Blonde are ($145, 3.4 oz), the color range and quality of his lipsticks is the number-one reason we support the designer’s cosmetics takeover and predict more good things to come. For a man who’s typically pictured in black suits with a contrasting crisp white collar, Ford really cares about the saturation of lip color and executes this with exotic ingredients like soja seed extract, Brazilian murumuru butter and chamomilla flower oil.

At $48 a pop and 18 lip color choices, a girl can really change her look from spunky sweet with the adventurous orange-toned Wild Ginger to severe by pairing deep, smoky eyes with creamy Nude Vanilla. (It’s so light you’ll need to go heavier on the blush to avoid washing out the face.)

The classic woman of the hour will opt for his rich Scarlet Rouge, the purest of blended purple reds with a luminous finish that lasts. Top it off with his clear lip lacquer ($30) for high shine.

With his foot in fashion, cosmetics and film, the “It” man has set a high standard for the next designer-slash-etcetera to follow and we have to wonder: What comes next?

All we know is that we can’t wait.

Tom Ford Beauty is available exclusively at Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Nordstrom, Sephora and Bloomingdale’s. n

Scarlet Rouge lip color, $48.

Eye color quad in burnished amber, $75. Nail lacquer in Fever Pink, $30.

Blonde brow sculptor, $42.

Traceless foundation stick in Pale Dune, $78.

Noir Absolute gel for eyes, $35.

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63

wear

‘Fashionisto’ – flaunting male cool

By Zoë Zellers

We all know what a fashionista is. She’s the glam girl who glides through life sporting wedges one month, then swearing off them a season later in a quest for the next best thing (like Stuart Weitzman’s spring 2012 Mary Janes in pretty pastel pink).

But a fashionisto? That’s the male equivalent and a lessused term, because – let’s face it – real men are not supposed to be stylish, right? (Even though we think many of them are.)

So does fashion journalist Simone Werle. In “Fashionisto: A Century of Style Icons” (Prestel), she surveys well-plumed men. It’s a beautifully presented coffee-table book that deserves as much attention as any Audrey Hepburn or Jackie O. style tome.

The immortals

All the usual suspects make the cut. There’s John F. Kennedy looking presidentially preppy, Westchester resident Ralph Lauren in fringed leather pants, Johnny Cash as the “Man in Black,” Mick Jagger reppin’ skinny rockers, Kurt Cobain in his ripped mustard-yellow cardigan and Converse glory days, John Lennon sporting a Sporran, Karl Lagerfeld doing, well Karl Lagerfeld and Cary Grant, George Clooney and a variety of James Bonds playing charmers in trim suits.

Spotlights on rebels like James Dean, the King of Cool, Steve McQueen and Marlon Brando are good examples of how attractive an understated wardrobe can be. Dean and Brando were the originals who pulled off plain white round-neck Ts as outer garments, paired with denim and leather, initiating a shift away from the buttoned-up ’50s, writes Werle. It’s not about what McQueen wore, but how he wore it. He donned basics like khakis, windbreakers, shawl-collar cardigans, cotton Ts and black turtleneck sweaters with a laidback flair that demonstrated how cool casual could be.

“Fashionisto” also praises the more polished men who are perhaps best represented by Mr. Metrosexual himself, Brit soccer sensation David Beckham. Despite his love of Dolce & Gabbana suits and expensive trainers for the field, his best claim to fashion fame might be his hairstyle.

The way the good-looking gent is ever changing his image, whether it be a platinum dye one day or high-set ponytail the next, embodies the superstar’s confidence and the zeitgeist’s forward thrust. Beckham is also appearing in an H+M underwear campaign, proving you don’t have to wear much to show off your iconic status.

ETs: Phone home

Then there are less expected spotlights on funk and hip-hop fashion, starting with the colorful bassist Bootsy Collins in “The Extra-Terrestrials” section. His fashion choices – including bell-bottoms, tight shorts, exaggerated top hats, high platform boots and star-shaped glasses to match his star-shaped glitzy instrument – garner as 64

André Leon Talley. Photograph by Elisabetta Villa/Getty Images.

David Beckham. Photograph by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for AEG.

much, if not more, attention than his tunes. Collins surely took a hint from the man that introduced him to showbiz, James Brown himself.

Run-D.M.C is crowned in music fame as the first rap group to make the cover of Rolling Stone. It was the perfect mainstream platform to showcase pioneering hiphop fashion with their all-phat-everything M.O. Think chunky gold chains, black leather jackets, black pants, with DJ Run in thick-framed glasses and uniform Adidas Superstars without laces. It was the brand that inspired the song “My Adidas.” The group definitely gets the hipster seal of approval with modern lookalikes on the streets and imitation ensembles from major retailers like American Apparel.

The importance of eccentric extravagance is celebrated with the likes of a heavily made-up Boy George, Westchester resident André Leon Talley, a 1957 gold lamésuited Elvis Presley and the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson. The author applauds Vogue contributing editor Talley – who will be honored during the EMERGE! runway show Feb. 14 as part of New York Fashion Week – for always making surprising statements. Like the resplendent black silk kimono, patent-leather buckle shoes and signature sunglasses he wore in Rome at a gala dinner after a 2007 Valentino show. His style is as enormous as his wide-set 6’7” frame. “Only the craziest of the eccentrics,” Werle writes, “is immune to falling victim to it.”

Bring on that skunk-fur cape.

Perhaps the ultimate “E.T.,” Michael Jackson, rocketed into style stardom when he wore one white-sequined glove – to accompany a black-sequined jacket, silver shirt, black hat, shortened trousers and white socks – as he

moonwalked into TV history with an electrifying appearance in the 1983 silver anniversary Motown tribute. The fashion legend continues to inform contemporary wear like studded military jackets by Balmain, proving that the afterlife is indeed stylish.

Singular men

Beyond great portraits of the stars, “Fashionisto” is filled with a fun collection of quotes from style-conscious men.

Crooner Frank Sinatra asserted, “For me, a tuxedo is a way of life,” so much so that he avoided sitting down to keep his classic black custom-made suits wrinkle free. And famously outspoken American designer Tom Ford said, “Sunglasses are like a car on your face – a status symbol.”

He split from the house of Gucci in 2003 to establish his own line, Tom Ford, which reflects his sharp, minimalist, elegant wardrobe. That line is seen in ad appearances that reveal him to be his own favorite model, too.

The singular man, who’s also directed the dapper Colin Firth in the much-lauded film “A Single Man,” is consistent. He pairs his signature aviators with a three-day beard, a crisp white shirt, slender suits from dark gray to midnight blue made from his own wool-silk or woolcashmere blends and a simple handkerchief.

A pullout quote from the self-aware Ford reads, “I would love to change my look. It’s just that nothing else suits me.”

It’s delightfully insouciant. And speaking of insouciance, let’s give that man of literary and sartorial style, Oscar Wilde, the last words, shall we?

“Fashionisto” quotes the dandy as saying, “I have the simplest tastes. I’m always satisfied with the best.” n

Sweets to the sweet Let ‘em eat cake

And rugelach and cupcakes, too

By Georgette Gouveia

O

K, let’s get the joke out of the way first: The shop on Scarsdale’s Garth Road that appears to be a designer handbag store is really one Lulu of a bakery.

That’s because Lulu Custom Cake Boutique makes cakes that look like the distinctive designer purses. There’s a pink-Champagne and vanillaquilted Chanel bag and the summer version of the signature Louis Vuitton bag (the interlocking letters on a white background) that’s chocolate inside.

“I want you to have your handbag and eat it, too,” says the appropriately named Jay Muse, owner and designer of Lulu, which also includes The Tasting Salon by Lulu in Manhattan and Lulu Kosher Cake Boutique in Brooklyn.

But designer-handbag cakes are just the tip of the icing, so to speak.

Lulu has also created cakes that mirror pet bulldogs and the classic Chanel No. 5 bottle, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty, even a hot-air balloon.

“Custom cakes are what we’re known for,” Muse muses, having designed confections for the likes of Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, Chloë Sevigny andWhoopi Goldberg. (The cakes have been featured on ABC’s “The View,” where Goldberg is part of the high-powered kaffeeklatsch.)

But custom cakes aren’t all Lulu is known for. There’s a retro quality to the shop and its sweet temptations. The chocolate and red velvet layer cakes are tall and thickly frosted. They’re the kind of cakes mom used to make and you wish you could. The cupcakes appear to have popped right over the cupcake tin and are topped with swirls of frosting that look like they came out of a soft-serve icecream machine. And for the ultimate retro feel, there are variations on the Hostess Twinkie and Sno Ball.

The taste may say 1950s. But the environmentally conscious standards are strictly 2012.

65

“We use organic ingredients, and we focus on locally grown fruit,” Muse says.

Even the chocolate and coffees are locally sourced, traveling in diesel trucks to Lulu where they are processed in energy-efficient appliances.

The focus on organic is one of the things that makes Lulu an unusual Westchester bakery, Muse says. But the other has to be the arresting blend of flavors, as creative as the painterly, sculpted designs.

Looking for a cake to carry your Super Bowl party into the end zone? Why not try the Pretzilla (dark chocolate cake and Guinness beer ganache with crushed pretzels, salty caramel and Spanish peanut feullitine) or the Kettle Korn Crunch (honey-drizzled butter cake, popcorn buttercream, popcorn crunch and sea salt).

Looking to spice up your Valentine’s Day night? Why not offer your honey a slice of the popular Some Like It Hot (vanilla cake, dark chocolate ganache, dark chocolate mouse and raspberry-Tabasco gelée)?

There’s also the Subourbon, which has a buttermilk/ bourbon kick, and the Nutter Clutter ’n’ Jelly, a twist on PB & J. No wonder patrons looking to satisfy a sweet tooth with a cookie, a biscotti or one of the offbeat rugelach selections don’t merely enter the shop. They rush up to the counters.

Says one satisfied customer on exiting: “It’s such a gorgeous place.”

Let ‘em eat chocolate

At this hidden Bedford Hills treasure, they can

By Mary Shustack When slipping a richly understated morsel from Chocolats Debauve & Gallais into your mouth, be sure to offer up a quiet word of thanks to Marie Antoinette.

The roots of the worldwide chocolate company date from late-18th century France and the royal family’s chemist, Sulpice Debauve.

This pharmacist to Louis XVI (Marie Antoinette’s husband) and official purveyor to the French royal court was charged with finding a way to make the queen’s medicine more palatable.

He did so – by incorporating it into a piece of chocolate.

From that serendipitous introduction to the world of making chocolate, Debauve went on to open a chocolate shop in 1800 Paris and within five years had more than 60 shops throughout France. In 1823, he brought on his nephew, Antoine Gallais, and the company was well on the way to its enduring association with royals, dignitaries and notables.

Today, its American corporate headquarters is housed in an airy, elegant space surprisingly tucked among the businesses along Babbitt Road in Bedford Hills – a space that also just happens to host a well-appointed retail boutique (think marble counter, glass-fronted armoires and silk-upholstered chairs).

It’s an undiscovered gem sought out primarily by those in the know. And a big difference from France, where the company’s trademark blue, gray and gold boxes with the 66

royal emblem are as known – and revered – as, say, an Hermès scarf.

“They have customers who have grown up with us,” Sean Seo, Debauve & Gallais’ vice president, says. “Here we have to educate them a little bit more.”

But these are the kind of lessons most anyone would welcome.

All the chocolates are made in “workshops” in France using artisanal recipes. Debauve & Gallais selections are made with pure cocoa butter and without soy lecithin (which adds the gloss to many mass-produced chocolates), dyes, preservatives or additives.

Most of the Debauve & Gallais chocolate is dark, coated with 72-percent cocoa or more.

There are ganache-filled bonbons, traditional truffles and chocolate squares called Carrés.

“We order it and it all comes overnight,” Seo says. “A lot of companies freeze it. We don’t.”

And that’s what keeps customers coming back to splurge on choices such as Le Royale Collection, a line available only to royalty until 1913. These tastefully presented boxes hold anywhere from a few dozen candies up to the $650 showpiece.

“We have the 176 (-piece) boxes,” Seo says, which he describes as simply “wonderful.”

They make the perfect Valentines, he says with a laugh, “if you really love her, love him…”

The Le Livre collection is presented in a book-shaped keepsake box, a line introduced for the company’s 200th anniversary in 2000.

The chocolates in De Marie Antoinette Collection are the descendants of those chocolates made for the French queen, coin-shaped pieces called Pistoles. They come in different gradations of chocolate or flavors such as Earl Grey, orange blossom and almond milk ($36 for a quarter-pound box.)

For many, though, the introduction to Debauve & Gallais is more straightforward.

“The first-timers here usually buy the Tablettes,” says sales manager Donny Lee, referring to the option that resembles the traditional chocolate bar. No matter what they buy, Lee adds that he loves seeing people sample Debauve & Gallais for the first time: “It’s always fun to see their eyes light up, to see what they feel.”

The boutique also features tea, some eight varieties of the company’s more extensive line. One choice is the light and refreshing “Saints-Pères,” which is billed as “a secret blend of red berries, chocolate and the rarest flowers.”

Debauve & Gallais first came to America in 2004.

With the company executives key to the introduction living locally, Westchester was a logical choice for a new shop after the first venture, a Madison Avenue boutique, was closed. While looking to expand both locally and across the country, Debauve & Gallais can still be found in its exclusive Manhattan outlet, Barneys New York.

Getting the word – and taste – to a wider audience is proceeding on pace, Seo says.

“Once they taste our chocolate, they cannot go back to anything else,” Seo says. “People still want something better, which is very nice to see.”

And the search that brings someone to Debauve & Gallais, Seo says, is part of a grand tradition. He shares that none other than Vincent van Gogh was known to barter his paintings for Debauve & Gallais treats.

We may not be Vincent, but lucky for us, we can simply head to Bedford Hills and buy them outright.

Chocolats Debauve & Gallais is at 56 Babbitt Road in Bedford Hills. Call (914) 244-8998 or visit debauveandgallais.com. n

Chocolats Debauve & Gallais in Bedford Hills.

Sean Seo

The chocolates of Debauve & Gallais are crafted in France and flown to the U.S.

67

wheels

Going topless In love with ragtops

Carmen Moretti

By Bob Rozycki

A

merica has always had a love affair with the convertible – Hollywood especially.

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz served up their madcap travel adventure “The Long, Long Trailer” tooling around in a 1953 Mercury Monterey convertible. A well-worn 1964 Cadillac DeVille ragtop served as the vehicle – figuratively and literally – for Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte in “48 Hours.”

It was a 1966 Alfa Romeo Spider Duetto that ran out of gas at the end of “The Graduate” forcing Dustin Hoffman to hoof it to the church to sweep Katharine Ross from the altar. Ferris Bueller and his friends took on Chicago in another Spider, a red 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spider, which had an untimely demise as it crashed back-end through the window of his pal’s garage as they tried to reverse the odometer.

Gap-toothed Austin Powers’ love machine was a 1967 Jaguar E Type convertible transformed into a “Shaguar, baby.”

Hoffman popped up in another convertible, a 1949 Buick Roadmaster Model 76-C, owned by on-screen brother Tom Cruise, in the movie “Rain Man.” Before we got to meet his “liddle friend,” Tony Montana, aka Al Pacino, cruised the streets of South Florida in a 1963 vintage Cadillac DeVille complete with tiger-skin print upholstery.

Still on the rough-and-tumble, cocaine dusted streets of Miami, but on the small screen, we met the metrosexual (before it was even coined) duo of Crockett and Tubbs on “Miami Vice.” Detective Sonny Crockett drove a black 1972 Ferrari Daytona Spyder 365 GTS/4 until it was blown up one season. The show’s producers upped 68

the car’s profile the following season with a 1986 Ferrari Testarossa. And speaking of black convertibles, who doesn’t remember Adam West’s Batmobile? What was it?

A Lincoln Futura.

The greatest injustice to a convertible occurred when Thelma and Louise drove their 1966 Thunderbird off a canyon cliff. The more humane option would have been to drive it to the edge and have Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis hold hands and take the leap.

For Carmen Moretti of Greenwich, his headlong adventure into what would be a lifetime of love for the convertible came at age 5.

He was cruising around his mom’s kitchen in his metal, pedal-powered car when he decided he would expand his driving horizons. His exit to the big wide world was an open kitchen door. Funny thing about that family home on Sheephill Road, the kitchen was not on the ground floor, but rather the third floor. Thirty-odd wooden stairs, a concrete landing and a few cement stairs later, Carmen was in the front yard – unscathed.

“I never tipped over,” he still says proudly.

Pedal power gave way to gas-powered go-karts and eventually a 1950 Ford custom convertible with a 1948 Oldsmobile grille. Carmen bought the car when he was 15, giving him the cool and unique distinction of being the first student at Eastern Junior High in Greenwich to have a car and no license. He said he did not drive it, but depended on an older friend to handle that chore for him. That car eventually got totaled in a three-car chain reaction crash on Post Road in Cos Cob. “I ended up under the dash with the back seat on top of me.”

To help get him back on the road, Carmen’s cousin gave him a 1952 Ford convertible that had a seized en-

gine. Carmen worked on it and then worked on trying to get a girl named Judy Niman to take a ride and go out on a date with him.

It took two years, but he finally got Judy in the front seat and much to his chagrin she did not cuddle up to him. The trip to the ice cream shop was memorable because it was the middle of winter, and while the top was up, there was no back window. Judy – now Mrs. Moretti – still shivers at the mention of the date.

Over the years, the three constants in his life would be his wife, his childhood friend Frank “Skeets” Yantorno and convertibles.

After a stint in the U.S. Navy, Carmen worked as a mechanic for Allen Bros. Cadillac dealership and in 1984 he and his wife bought a Shell gas station on West Putnam Avenue. It was also the first year that he became involved in a major restoration of a car – a 1930 five-window, Model A coupe. It was a veritable hit parade of cars that followed from more Model A’s including one with right-hand drive that he got from Brazil, a 1951 Custom Ford convertible, a Cadillac Allanté and Ford Mustangs, including a 1966 red Mustang convertible that is close to his heart. He loves it so much he already willed it to his daughter.

His latest and greatest restoration is a 1951 Ford Custom convertible. From teardown to completion took about a year. And it was done at the hands of his “crackerjack technicians” “Skeets” Yantorno and John Telesco.

Jose Flores at Economy Auto Body in Stamford did the restoration work with Royal Auto Interiors in Norwalk handling the upholstery.

So, is Carmen done with convertibles?

He smiles.

We read that as probably not. n

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wanders

Paris

We’ll always have

By Cappy Devlin

70

Louvre museum.

I

n my early 20s, I drove a Volkswagen with a friend to Paris. Tears of joy came down my cheeks as I saw the lights of the city for the first time – tooling up and down the ChampsÉlysées and around the Arc de Triomphe, looking up at the Eiffel Tower. Having been to Paris several times since, I couldn’t resist the latest Woody Allen, “Midnight in Paris,” a romantic comedy based on magical experiences in The City of Light. How it brought back memories of drinking wine and dancing on the tables in Montmartre.

Founded by the Romans and named for the tribe that was its earliest inhabitants, Paris is the capital city of France. It is also said to be the city of lovers, the most romantic place on earth, with French being the language of the troubadours, chanson and amour. With so much romance in the air, you can understand why Paris is a mecca for artists as well, who get inspired by the beautiful city. Paris is also one of Europe’s foremost centers of learning and is a major influence in politics, fashion, business and science.

Stroll along its breezy boulevards; gaze upon sparkling fountains, majestic monuments and lush, intimate gardens; relish great works of art; and savor a gourmet selection of cheeses, chocolates, breads, wines and seafood. In winter, the city is alive with numerous cultural events while during the lazy summers, you can tour the

many museums by day and roadside cafes by night. In August, most Parisians head for the beaches. Bastille Day (July 14) and the end of the year are the busiest times, so keep that in mind while planning your vacation.

Above all, take your time to explore Paris, because there are just too many things to see and each requires special attention.

A feast for the eye

The Musée du Louvre is one of the finest museums in the world. Like all worldclass institutions, it is actually several museums in one, holding treasures from the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Islamic and Middle Eastern cultures. The main attraction, though, is the Western painting and sculpture galleries, with around 6,000 of the most famous paintings in the world on display. Among the most famous works are Leonardo da Vinci’s “La Gioconda,” known to all as the “Mona Lisa,” and Paolo Veronese’s panoramic “The Wedding at Cana,” a triumph of perspective.

While the Musée d’Orsay – known for its Impressionist and Postimpressionist collection – is perhaps the museum-goers’ museum, the Musée Rodin, also on the Left Bank, is one of my favorites, because it is in a charming hotel with an elegant garden. There you can sit and reflect on Rodin’s sensuous masterpieces, including

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“The Kiss,” “The Thinker,” “The Gates of Hell” and “The Burghers of Calais.”

Rivaling the museums in splendor are Paris’ towers, churches, palaces, archways, bridges and fountains, a survey of a glorious 2,000-year-old past. The Eiffel Tower, arguably the most famous landmark in the world, is the capital’s most visited attraction. Some 20,000 bulbs light up the edifice at night, which makes it even more stunning. The impressive Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris is a masterwork of Gothic architecture, constructed between 1163 and 1334. It was plundered during the French Revolution and has been undergoing restoration since the 19th century. It was there that Mary Queen of Scots married the Dauphin Francis (later Francis II), Napoleon was anointed emperor and Joan of Arc was beatified and subsequently canonized. The Basilica of Sacré Coeur in Montmartre, another can’t-miss religious site, is perched atop the highest point in Paris and affords tourists spectacular views of the whole city.

All that sightseeing is bound to give you an appetite. Fortunately, you’re in the right place, with hundreds of traditional bistros, sidewalk cafes and premium restaurants to choose from. For Parisians, meals are not only about great food but also the experience. Take a look at where the locals dine – particularly if you’re on a budget – and follow accordingly.

Other must-dos for your first time in Paris – dinner on the Eiffel Tower, a cruise on the Seine, a show at the Moulin Rouge and climbing up the stairs to Montmartre.

Isn’t it romantic?

Now for amour. Heather StimmlerHall, author of “Naughty Paris,” offers these suggestions: Champagne at Flute – This tiny venue, hidden on an intimate side street just off the Place de l’Etoile was once a “gentleman’s bar,” and still has an illicit feel to it.

Take a seat on the red velour banquette next to the fireplace with a Champagne cocktail or find a quiet alcove upstairs for a more intimate tête-à-tête.

Afternoon Tea at the Ritz – If you’re going to do tea, do it in style in one of the most posh settings in Paris, surrounded by sparkling crystal, priceless antiques and polished silver. Your gourmet tea (or an amazingly thick hot chocolate) is served with a tower of delectable pastries, tiny sandwiches and scones with cream and jam. And, of course, no one will bat an eye if you and your amoureux – or amoureuse – steal a few kisses at the table.

Cocktails and Wagyu Burgers at Prescription Cocktail Club – An anonymous black façade gives no indication of the stylish speakeasy-style cocktail bar hidden inside, which is just the way the jeunese dorée of Paris like it. The decor

Montmarte Restaurant

has an elegant 1930s style, with Magritteinspired bowler hats used as lampshades and comfy upholstered sofas. Come for aperitifs. But if you find it hard to tear yourself away for dinner, the divine Wagyu beef mini-burgers made with foie gras will fill you up without slowing you down.

Chocolate Massage at the Four Seasons – Instead of the traditional box of chocolates, impress your sweetheart with a

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decadent “All About Chocolate” spa treatment at the Four Seasons Hotel, George V, Paris. A chocolate-mint body scrub is followed by a Swiss chocolate and toffee body wrap and then a deep-tissue massage using cocoa oil. In short, two and a half hours of pure bliss – without the calorie counting.

And then you and your “sweetheart” are ready to nibble on each other.

Visit Cappy at travel-by-net.com. n

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wine&dine

Billy Ratner

Olivier Flosse

Matthew Christoff

In search of the romantic sommelier

By Geoff Kalish, MD

E

ven in this age of dining sophistication, sommeliers remain rarer than albino squirrels (to borrow a comparison from former New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton). However, like a pretty room with starched white tablecloths, elegant tableware, comfy chairs and soft lighting and music, a sommelier can enhance the romance of a dining experience.

How, you ask? And why are there so few of them?

Here’s what three of the sparse breed had to say: Billy Ratner is wine director for Chef Peter Kelly’s acclaimed establishments. He started out with a parttime job as a waiter right after college, working as a sommelier at each of Kelly’s restaurants – X20 Xaviars on the Hudson in Yonkers; Xaviars at Piermont and the Freelance Café & Wine Bar, also in Piermont; Restaurant X and Bully Boy Bar in Congers; and the former Xaviar’s in Garrison – over the past 20-plus years. Essentially self-taught – with Kelly providing the “stories, facts and figures about wine and its place in the dining experience,” Ratner now teaches others the trade and makes sure the cellars are stocked with what’s in vogue.

“The reason there are so few (sommeliers) is probably a matter of population density, strategic differences in the running of suburban restaurants and

perhaps the continuing trend toward casual, less formal dining,” Ratner says, not to mention that waiters, maître d’s, managers and bartenders are performing certain aspects of the sommelier’s role.

As for the sommelier as a kind of culinary cupid, Ratner says, “wine contributes romance on its own, and the role of the sommelier is to enhance it as a helpful guide – primarily advising patrons and assisting with their pairing of food with an appropriate selection.”

Not every entrepreneur is aware of this.

Olivier Flosse is wine director for the MARC restaurants in America, who oversees the wine program at Bistro Morello in Greenwich.

“Some restaurant owners don’t understand the importance of good wine service, and that it involves not only the actual serving but buying and educating the staff and customers,” he says.

But in his experience, “People appreciate top-quality wine and food service and will return to an establishment even if the fare wasn’t great, (because) they were treated well.”

“Poor service is very unromantic,” adds Flosse, the former sommelier at Café Boulud in Manhattan, who earned the most prestigious wine diploma in Europe (the Diploma-Universitaire d’Aptitude à la Degustation à Bordeaux) and increased his knowledge under

the tutelage of renowned former Restaurant Daniel sommelier, Jean-Luc Le Dû.

Matthew Christoff, chief sommelier/wine director for the bustling Moderne Barn in Armonk, says great wine service demands a complex training – another reason there are so few sommeliers today.

It means “learning the likes and dislikes of patrons in terms of taste, knowing what foods pair well with which wines, taking into consideration what price range customers are comfortable with and the various aspects of service, like chilling and decanting.”

For Christoff, the son of a chef, the training began early with a job in the kitchen of the West Point Officers’ Club at age 14. While completing a bachelor’s degree with a major in English literature, he continued to work at eateries in a range of positions from prep cook to captain and became passionate about wine, learning all he could. After a stint at BLT Steak in White Plains, he became general manager/wine director at Richard Gere’s The Farmhouse at Bedford Post.

That culinary journey enables Christoff to take Moderne Barn patrons on one of their own.

“It’s not only making appropriate (wine) recommendations, but providing service throughout the meal that adds to the romance of a dining experience.” n 73

well

Make sure to check out the doc

I

By Michael Rosenberg, MD

n February when our thoughts turn to Valentine’s Day and affairs of the heart, I am reminded of an interesting medical phenomenon that is quite rare. Broken Heart Syndrome is characterized by temporary ballooning of the left ventricle of the heart, usually presented in postmenopausal women. Because it is associated with acute emotional distress, the name “Broken Heart” has taken hold. As with other medical conditions, early recognition and treatment result in faster recovery.

This syndrome has been reported in only two patients in the plastic surgery literature (Aesthetic Surgery Journal Volume 32, No. 1, January 2012, pages 58-60).

But I bring it up to remind all my readers that plastic surgery procedures, like any other medical treatment, have inherent risks and should not be undertaken lightly. When considering any cosmetic treat-

ment, from Botox injections to eyelid surgery, the prudent consumer will analyze two important factors. The first is his or her own suitability for the procedure and the second is the training, experience and expertise of the person providing the treatment. Most of us would not simply walk into any store and pick out a diamond or fine watch, and we are wise to be just as or more careful when choosing a provider of cosmetic surgery services.

A careful medical history is critical in determining the safety and suitability of any treatment. For example, for someone who has chronic issues with dry eyes, eyelid surgery is probably not a good option.

Smoking should be avoided prior to any surgical procedure as it has adverse effects on healing. Good nutrition and vitamin balance can improve healing, on the other hand. Aspirin can increase bruising when getting filler or other injections. In sum, you always want to be sure you are a good

medical candidate for any procedure and want to optimize conditions for a speedy, uneventful recovery.

With that addressed, you can decide which plastic or cosmetic surgeon is right for you. Background and training are important considerations. Board certification in a specialty that provides cosmetic surgery services is an important indicator of a solid foundation of knowledge. Next you want to look at a doctor’s experience with the procedures you are interested in, and there are a number of ways to try to get a handle on this. Word of mouth (or text, email, etc.) from friends, relatives and trusted physicians is often a good start.

For plastic surgeons, you can also evaluate photographs (in person or online) that represent a selected body of their work. Testimonials from their patients can be helpful and often can allow you to ask questions about recovery and the overall experience as

well as the result of treatment.

In February when our thoughts turn to Valentine’s Day and affairs of the heart, I am reminded of an interesting medical phenomenon that is quite rare.

2 Finally, don’t forget to ask as many questions as you need in order to feel comfortable with your physician. Getting a feel for his or her personality and style before beginning treatment can help get you through your treatment as comfortably as possible.

Please send any questions or comments to mrosenberg@nwhc.net. n

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation / Fairfield County Chapter

catwalk InvItes you to

An Afternoon of fAshion, food & friends for A Cure fashion show by MitCheLLs|riChArds

thursday, March 1, 2012 • 11am to 2pm at THE LOADING DOCK 375 fairfield Avenue in stamford featuring the “IT BAG” raffle

Visit www.jdrf.org/fairfieldcounty to purchase your event tickets online.

Call the Jdrf office today at 203-854-0658 to reserve your it-Bag raffle tickets or if you have any questions.

View the incredible handbags for the it-Bag raffle at facebook - Jdrf Catwalk

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well

Mind your heart with hormones

By Erika Schwartz, MD

In case you haven’t heard it yet, heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in the U.S. To put it in more concrete terms 306,000 women died of heart disease in 2007, more than died from breast cancer, the flu or in motor vehicle accidents.

It’s a staggering number that means we need to look at what happens to increase the risk of heart disease in women as they age.

It’s a simple connection between heart disease and menopause. Estrogen, the hormone women have an abundance before menopause, is a major protector of the heart and once that disappears, women catch up with men and even surpass them in having more heart attacks, strokes and cardiac disease.

There are 52 million women over age 50 today who should run to get prescriptions for bioidentical hormones, which would immediately drop their risk of

heart disease by more than 60 percent.

Let me explain why.

When we are in our 20s and 30s, we are full of hormones. By that I mean we are full of estradiol (estrogen of youth), progesterone (the hormone that balances estrogen) and yes, even testosterone. We are full of energy, want to have sex and don’t have wrinkles. Our skin glows and weight loss is easy with diet and exercise.

Hormones are the root reason we are healthy when we are young.

They also support our immune function so we get over a cold in 48 hours and eliminate inflammation so we don’t suffer with arthritic joints.

In our 40s, things change. We manufacture fewer hormones, ovulate irregularly and the quality diminishes until we stop making them altogether at menopause.

On the outside, wrinkles appear, midriff bulge spills over, energy drops and sleep becomes a nightmare, accompanied

by hot flashes, night sweats, palpitations and, of course, anxiety.

Inside, the loss of hormones increases bad-cholesterol levels, plaque in our arteries and shortness of breath.

Complicating the picture for women is the fact that they do not experience or manifest heart disease like men.

Chest pain may not be the presenting symptom. Heart disease in women can be a nagging toothache, jaw aches, arm pain and often exhaustion and persistent cough.

Too many women who die are misdiagnosed, because studies on and treatments for heart disease have been conducted with men.

If women would learn to be unafraid of bioidentical hormones – which are manufactured to look identical to their own hormones – and take them before menopause, heart disease would claim fewer women’s lives.

Let’s start today, shall we?

GEORGE C. SHAPIRO, M.D., F.A.C.C. JEFFREY T. SHAPIRO, M.D. CARMELINA A. ABATE, F.N.P. KATIE ATTUBATO, F.N.P. Affiliations – New York Presbyterian Hospital, Lawrence Hospital, NYU Langone Medical Center

Here are some tips:

1. Become aware that hormones are your saviors and protectors.

2. Start taking bioidentical hormones as soon as you begin experiencing symptoms of pre-menopause.

3. If you have a family history of heart disease, start bioidentical hormones as early as possible.

4. Change your diet to low carbs, low animal fat, high vegetable and fruit by age 40.

5. Cut down on alcohol, caffeine, soda and sugar substitutes.

6. Increase the amount of cardio exercise and strength building to 30 minutes a day.

7. Sleep eight hours every night.

8. Eliminate fear and anxiety from your life. They are dangerous to your heart.

9. Work with doctors who support and encourage you, not fear-mongers.

10. Don’t fear heart disease or cancer. Take control of your life and enjoy every minute.

Stay young and full of hormones forever. n

700 White Plains Road Suite 19

(Vernon Hills Shopping Center)

Scarsdale, New York 10583

(914) 472-1900 Specializing in: Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease Vascular Studies EECP Therapy (patients who suffer from angina) Stress Echocardiography Carotid Sonogram Ultrasound Pace Maker Evaluation Cardiac Catheterization X-Ray Bone Density

Also providing prevention and early detection of heart disease and stroke which are the keys to longevity • Nutritional programs for weight management •Natural supplements for cellular repair (www.orosine.com and www.max.com) •Age Management medicine with bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (www.cenegenics-nyc.com)

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well

Getting into the swim of exercise

By Sam Kopf

I

n five short months, the world’s elite athletes will gather in London for the Games of the XXX Olympiad, where few stories will be bigger than Ryan Lochte’s quest to out-duel Michael Phelps and succeed him as the best swimmer in the world.

For the past two years, the 27-year-old Lochte really has been just that, winning six medals (five gold, one bronze) at the 2011 World Aquatic Championships last summer in Shanghai to go along with his six Olympic medals.

He is, then, an embodiment of what the ancient Greeks, originators of the Olympics, called “arête,” or excellence.

But Olympian excellence requires great effort. Each day, Ryan wakes up at 5:30 a.m., swims three to five miles and works out with industrial equipment like tires, chains and boulders, fueled by 12,000 calories devoid of his beloved junk food. In the YouTube clips of Ryan training on dry land that have gone viral, the characteristically laidback athlete oozes perseverance and determination. It is the poetic heart that motivates Ryan to hit the wall first.

But it is a strong physical heart – and conditioned back, chest, leg, shoulder and core muscles – that propel Ryan to do so at record-breaking pace.

We can’t all compete at Ryan’s level (he’s 6 feet 2 inches, the son of a swimming coach and has size 12 feet), but we can all strengthen our tickers and prime movers as Ryan does. Over the next few months, I will introduce, explain and demonstrate moves that will add up to a circuit that is similar to Ryan’s in design, not difficulty.

Use the following two exercises to get started. Do 10 (men) – 15 (women) reps of each. Like Ryan, move between exercises with little to no rest to keep the heart rate up and pump more blood with every beat.

Plyometric push-ups (equals Ryan’s medicine ball pass) Area worked – chest, core 1) Get into a push-up position. If on your toes, keep the feet together. If on your knees, keep knees and feet

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together with toes flat on the floor. Place your hands wider than shoulder width apart. Gaze between hands.

2) With abs and glutes tight, lower your chest and nose as close to the floor as possible. Do not arch the back or tuck the chin.

3) Keeping good form, forcefully push the body away from the floor, releasing the hands. Land with hands in original position, reassess your form and lower back down for the next rep. To increase the difficulty, clap hands together after releasing them from the floor. To increase the difficulty even more, propel feet off of the floor as well.

Swings (equals Ryan’s cleans, full body movements with barbells)

Area worked – full body 1) With arms hanging straight down in front of the body, hold a dumbbell or kettle bell (around eight pounds) in both hands, palms facing the body. Position feet wider than hip distance apart, toes turned out slightly. Tighten the abs and tuck the pelvis under. Look straight ahead.

2) Lower into a squat, tracking knees over feet, until hips are at knee height. Do not lean forward. Reach the hands toward the ankles.

3) In one swinging motion, drive the arms upward to shoulder height as you come out of the squat. At the top, squeeze glutes as tight as possible. Quickly lower weight and return to the bottom of the squat to repeat. n

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when&where

SATURDAY, MARCH 12 Our own Jennifer Pappas of Class & Sass will be dancing the waltz with her instructor, Marcel Helms of The Fred Astaire Studios, as part of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra’s “Dancing with the RSO Gala,” 7 to 11 p.m. at the Salem Country Club, 18 Bloomer Road, North Salem. There will be seven couples from Ridgefield dancing to live music provided

by Jerry Steichen and the Gala Dance Band. Ira Joe Fisher, CBS television personality and poet, will emcee the event. All proceeds benefit the outreach and musical programs of the orchestra. Tickets are $175. For information, or to vote for your favorite couple, visit ridgefieldsymphony.org 79

when&where THROUGH FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10 A TASTE OF RESTAURANT WEEK

Fig & Olive extends New York City Restaurant Week to include its Westchester location with a three-course prix fixe menu featuring fine Riviera and Coastal cuisine, weekdays, 696 White Plains Road, Eastchester. $20.95 lunch; $29.95 dinner.

(914) 725-2900, figandolive.com.

“Off to the races” from the “Piano as Art” exhibit.

“Mended II” by Doughba Hamilton Caranda-Martin

THROUGH MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20 ‘MEND’

An exhibit featuring Liberian artist Doughba Hamilton Caranda-Martin’s large-scale multimedia pieces on themes of love and war, antiquity and modernity and racial identity, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Mondays to Thursdays; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, the Art Gallery at Yonkers Riverfront Library, 1 Larkin Center. (914) 3371500, ypl.org.

“Trilobite” from the “Piano as Art” exhibit.

Among the works by Darlene Farris-Labar to be featured in the “Natural Cartographies” exhibit

THROUGH SATURDAY, MARCH 10 ‘NATURAL CARTOGRAPHIES’

A show featuring works by Darlene Farris-Labar and Steven Gwon, as they map out time, space and motion in the world, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays; 4 to 6 p.m. Thursdays, Westchester Community College, Academic Arts Building, 75 Grasslands Road, Valhalla. (914) 606-7867, sunywcc.edu/gallery.

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THROUGH, SUNDAY, APRIL 29 ARNHOLD HIGHLIGHTS

“White Gold: Highlights from the Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain” is at The Frick Collection, whose new director is Westchester resident Ian Wardropper. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays; 11a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays, The Frick’s Portico Gallery, 1 E. 70th St., Manhattan. $18; $15 seniors; $10 students; pay what you wish 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays. (Children under age 10 are not admitted.) (212) 288-0700, frick.org.

THROUGH THURSDAY, MAY 3 ‘PIANO AS ART’

A post-modern exhibit featuring Shauna Holliman and Penny Putnam, with works inspired and, in many cases made of piano parts, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Mondays to Saturdays, Faust Harrison Pianos, 214 Central Ave., White Plains; moves to the Flinn Gallery, 101 W. Putnam, Greenwich March 22. (914) 288-4000, faustharrisonpianos.com.

ites. 8 to 10:30 p.m., 700 N. Salem Road, Ridgefield. $25. (203) 438-3889, ridgefieldsymphony.org.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4 THROUGH SUNDAY, MAY 6

Film Festival taken by Stéphane Kossmann, opening reception: 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 9; gallery hours: 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays, Samuel Owen Gallery of Greenwich, 378 Greenwich Ave. (203) 422-6500 or (203) 325-1924, info@samuelowen.com.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11 CAUSE-WORTHY NIGHT OF IMPROV

Westchester Jewish Council hosts its annual gala, featuring comedy by Chicago City Limits, raffles and silent auction, 7:15 cocktails and buffet; 8:30 p.m. program and entertainment, followed by dessert reception, 175 Rockland Ave., Mamaroneck. $75. (914) 328-7001, nancy@wjcouncil.org.

‘GO THE DISTANCE’ Detail from a stained glass window inside the Weir House. © Xiomáro 2011.

THROUGH SUNDAY, MAY 31 ‘WEIR WAS HERE – SECRET ROOMS, DOORS AND WINDOWS’

A photography exhibit offers a glimpse into three ‘secret’ buildings on the Weir Farm National Historic Site – structures that remain closed to the public, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through March 31; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays to Sundays, April 1 through May 31, Burlingham House Visitor Center, 735 Nod Hill Road, Wilton.

(203) 834-1896, ext. 12.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2 ‘GIRLS’ NIGHT OUT’

A benefit for Westchester Medical Center’s cardiovascular center, features cocktails, dinner, an auction and comedian Cory Kaheny, 7 p.m., DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Tarrytown, 455 S. Broadway. $100.

(914) 493-2575, westchestermedicalcenter.com.

WINE, WARMTH AND WELLNESS A wine-tasting benefit for Open Door Family Medical Centers, 6 to 8 p.m., Crabtree’s Kittle House, 11 Kittle Road, Chappaqua. $40; $35 in advance.

(914) 502-1414, opendoormedical.org.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4 ON KEY

Pianists Alon Goldstein and Lucille Chung perform a version of Mozart’s “Concerto for Three Pianos, No. 7, K. 242” as the centerpiece of the Westchester Chamber Symphony’s concert, 7 p.m., Iona College’s Christopher J. Murphy Auditorium, 715 North Ave., New Rochelle. $50; $40 seniors; $15 students. (914) 654-4926, westchesterchambersymphony.org.

RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN CELEBRATION

The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra and Broadway Pops International in a concert of Broadway favor-

“Blue Moon III”, a 2011 bronze by Kiki Smith © Kiki Smith, courtesy The Pace Gallery. Photograph by G. R. Christmas, courtesy The Pace Gallery.

Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center hosts its kick-off breakfast for the annual Go the Distance walk, 9:30 a.m., Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, Conference Room, 100 Woods Road, Valhalla. (914) 493-2575, westchestermedicalcenter.com/walk.

‘VISIONARY SUGAR’

A constellation of new works by Kiki Smith that explores the natural and spiritual realms, noon to 5 p.m.

Tuesdays to Sundays, Neuberger Museum of Art of Purchase College, 735 Anderson Hill Road. $5; $3 seniors and students. (914) 251-6100, neuberger.org.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8 ‘HEARTS OF HOPE’

Women’s Center of Greater Danbury hosts its fourth annual Hearts of Hope breakfast featuring guest speaker Debbie Zegas Berman, a bullying prevention advocate, 7:30 to 9 a.m. Fox Hill Inn, 257 Federal Road, Brookfield. $20. (203) 7315200, womenscenterofgreaterdanbury.org.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9 ‘MEETNOW’

The WestField chapter of Meeting Professionals International (MPI) explores team building during its annual Education Day, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. registration, networking lunch and exhibits, 1 to 5:30 p.m. sessions; 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. reception and exhibits, Stamford Plaza Hotel, 2701 Summer St. $85; $75 members; $50 students. mpiwc.org.

SWEET TASTING

The third annual Chocolate Dessert & Wine Lover’s Tasting features 70 exhibitors and music, to benefit the Shelter for the Homeless, 6 to 9 p.m., the Stamford Marriott Hotel & Spa, 243 Tresser Blvd. $50 after Feb. 8; $45 in advance. (203) 4060017, shelterforhomeless.org.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9 – THROUGH SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26 ‘BLACK AND WHITE CARPET’

An exhibit of candid celebrity black-and-white photography from the red carpet of the Cannes

Guest artist, Rebecca Ringle, Metropolitan Opera mezzosoprano.

‘WORLD WITHOUT END’

A concert by Ars Antiqua, a period-instrument ensemble comprised of Baroque music specialists, followed by coffee and dessert, 7:30 p.m. ticket desk opens; 8 p.m. show, The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, 191 S. Greeley Ave., Chappaqua. $30. (914) 238-8015, ars-antiqua.org.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12 WHITE PLAINS ANTIQUE SHOW

A show featuring 70 exhibitors in formal room displays with a wide range of antiques art and decor, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Westchester County Center, 198 Central Ave., White Plains. $9. (973) 927-2794, jmkshows.com.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23 ‘WINTERBOWL’

Music Conservatory of Westchester’s first annual Winterbowl benefit for its Music Therapy Institute, featuring bowling, kart racing, food, drinks and live music, 6 to 10 p.m., Grand Prix New York, 333 N. Bedford Road, Mount Kisco. $60; $50 children (16 and under). (914) 761-3900, winterbowl. eventbrite.com.

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Cieza

fva

geraci-miranda

imbrogno

knief

Mccoy

wit wonders: What’s your greatest love?

“Apart from my daughter and husband, a great love of mine is watching the sunset over the Hudson from my backyard in Ossining. Professionally, I love knowing that I make a difference in the financial lives of my clients.”

– Fely J. Cieza financial representative, Strategies for Wealth in Rye Brook, Ossining resident

“The love I have for my two boys and my golden retriever.

There’s nothing like coming home after a long crazy work day to a long chaotic night with teenagers! What more could one possibly ask for? Really, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

– Dawn Knief sales agent, Julia B. Sotheby’s International Realty, Scarsdale resident

“My greatest loves in life are my family, my community and gourmet food. I’ve been blessed to have a career that enables me to combine all three of my passions, as I own four restaurants in Westchester. The restaurant business is a strong and important part of my heritage. My main ambition is that people walk out of my restaurants feeling that not only did they enjoy a delicious meal, but that they were treated as family.”

– Mario Fava owner, Lusardi’s and Chat 19 in Larchmont, and Moscato and Chat in Scarsdale, Eastchester resident

“I have two greatest loves. First, is my wonderful son, Morgan. My second greatest love is also my vocation.

I am a teacher. My business partner, Kathleen Dineen, and I own and operate the Pied Piper Pre-School in Yorktown. There is no greater satisfaction than seeing a former student all grown up and hearing about his or her life’s accomplishments. Over the past 30 years, we have seen more than 3,000 area children come through our doors, and we continue to love them all.”

– Marsha McCoy co-founder, Pied Piper Pre-School in Yorktown, Yorktown resident

“Learning from and capitalizing on my past personal and professional experiences, which allow me to continually grow.”

– Lucille Geraci-Miranda co-president, Association of Development Officers, Peekskill resident “I discovered my greatest love at the young age of 23.

I got a part-time job at a M.A.C. counter and instantly fell in love with the creative opportunity that makeup allowed me to exercise. I enjoy transforming people and making them feel even better about themselves. I was so inspired by the makeup industry that in 2007, I founded JKFlashy Makeup Service Inc. This business has taken me to wonderful places around the world, and I have met so many amazing people. I love sharing my passion for makeup and educating clients and the artists that I employ.”

– Jill K. Imbrogno founder, JKFlashy Makeup Service Inc. in White Plains, White Plains resident

mcshane

“Imagine having the best job in the world – a job that helps people to find their dreams and start to live them.

Well, in fact, that is my job. I keep saying I have to find another name for it. To me, it isn’t a job but an avocation.

I work with women who want to launch a business and don’t really know where to go for help. When women gain confidence and recognize that it is okay to pursue their dreams, amazing things happen. I get great satisfaction, ideas, friends and energy from what I do.”

– Kathy McShane managing director, Ladies Who Launch Connecticut, New Canaan resident “Seeing a woman’s body as though it were a blank canvas, regardless of its shape, color, age or size and transforming it into what she appreciates as beauty. Watching her go from unfit to feeling wonderful is my passion. That’s what makes me get up every day – the challenge of creating a new piece of art, one lady at a time.”

– Nicole Sanders president, Ladimax Sports and Fitness in Valhalla, Elmsford resident

sanders

savigny

“Since the question was what and not who, my wife can’t complain. My greatest love is the love of quality time, time spent totally enthralled and oblivious to distractions – without feeling guilty that I should be doing something else, when I can pause in the moment and relish whatever it is I have chosen to do. To be deep within a captivating paragraph of a book; watching family and friends interact; listening to an emotive song; literally stopping to smell the roses. To quote William Blake, ‘To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.’”

Oh, yes. And time for using my Kitewing.

– Peter Savigny president, TimeStories, White Plains resident “I truly love the generosity and kindness that I have found in people in both our area and throughout the country.

Through my involvement with nonprofit organizations, I’ve learned how vital it is to have the support of your family, friends and the community that surrounds you.

So many of the great benefits that nonprofits offer would not be available to those in need it if it weren’t for the generous donations and compassion displayed by those around us. The kindness of others continuously impresses me and the lessons I learn from the community I live in is definitely my greatest love.”

– Brian Skanes executive director, Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester, Mount Kisco resident “My greatest love is the Earth – the symbiotic relationships that support life, extraordinary places to experience, natural resources to explore, flora and fauna to discover, and so much more. How lucky are we to call this amazing planet, teeming with life and wonder, our home.”

– Courtney White executive director, Greenburgh Nature Center in Greenburgh, Bronx resident

skanes

Compiled by Alissa Frey Contact her at afrey@westfairinc.com 82

white

watch holiday memories

Ron Burton, president of the Westchester Jewish Council and Jason Friedland

Mitchell Ostrove, Jamie Schwartz, Judith Stern Rosen and Scott Shay

UJA-Federation’s Westchester Business and Professional division held its Hanukkah reception at the Renaissance Westchester Hotel in West Harrison. The evening attracted more than 100 attendees, who came together to support the organization, celebrate the holiday and hear from guest speaker Scott Shay, founder and chairman of the board of directors at Signature Bank. Guests brought gifts to be distributed to disadvantaged clients of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, a UJA-Federation beneficiary agency.

All photograph identifications are from left unless otherwise noted.

Barbara Bel, Joy Rosenzweig, Eric Marks, and Heidi Widom

Budd Wiesenberg, Ken Fuirst and Pam Wexler with toy donations

Deann and Daniel Murphy, hospital board co-chairpersons, with Kelly Mulderry

Vicki and Fred Feiner, hospital board member

Actress Carrie Fisher honored

Janine and Larry Haynes

Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan held its second annual gala recently at Cipriani’s in Manhattan, raising more than $350,000 for its scholarship fund, supporting those who need long-term psychiatric treatment but cannot afford it. Actress and author Carrie Fisher, a former Silver Hill patient, was the honoree.

Carrie Fisher and Dr. Sigurd Ackerman, medical director and president of Silver Hill

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watch Fabulous night

Ponce de Leon sought the fabled Fountain of Youth in Florida. But he would’ve been right at home among the 300 guests who thronged Manhattanville College’s baronial Reid Hall Jan. 12 as WAG presented its Forever Fabulous anti-aging event. Waggers Michael Rosenberg, MD and Erika Schwartz, MD were the main draws, along with dermatologist David E. Bank.

But gregarious WAG lovers also relished the chance to wander amid the 13 vendors on a night that was part-bazaar, part-conference and a whole lot of fun.

Photographs by Bob Rozycki

Dr. Michael Rosenberg

Dr. Erika Schwartz

Halley Potter of 12 Sparkling Beverage

Lia Grasso, Anne Adams, Lisa White Emilia Nuccio and and Aminah Castellano Paula Cortona

Evelyn Anastos, Carrie O’Donnell, Amy Nussbaum, Christine Belich and Irene Corsaro

Gayle Morris, Frank Carr and Eve Fogler

Christine Schettini, Cappy Devlin of Cappy’s Travel and Carol Herron of Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Kellie King of White Plains Hospital

84

Carly and Anthony D’Arpino of Harrison Wine Vault

Ed Hardesty, Theresa Ferraro of AgeLoc and Julie Jansen

McKenzie Richards, Diane Soracco, Carolyn Trapp, Bonni Kisberg and Christine Kinney of Merz Aesthetics

Dana Reidy and Danielle Cervi of Equinox

Stacy Rubin, Stacy Cohen, Rebecca Adams and Tracy Conte

Pat Gourlay and Susan Meyers

David Hochberg, Lisa Lisiewski and Tim Donahue

Alex Levitt and Lourdes Basmajian of LV2BFIT

Elizabeth Villa , Gene Calderon, Dr. Erika Schwartz, Joanne Delle Bovi and Tamika Garner

Martha Handler and Jennifer Pappas

Sophiz Cruz

Michael Berger, Milo Fuscaldo and Frank J. Carr

Lailee Clemons, Dominick Lombardo and Dina Khader of Dina’s Organic Chocolate

Iris Simens, Janet Scully-Dooley and Carrie Rabuse

Dr. Michael Rosenberg and Louann Streeter

Nancy Lopez, Krisitin Pitkin and Danielle O’Malley of Hudson Valley Hospital Center

Nancy Yih, Marcia Pflug and Mimi Sternlicht

Renee Harriston and Anne Phiri

Laura Hanley, sales rep of Sculptra

Lou Veltri of Natural Balance

Joseph Gecaj, Jessica Sposato and Billy Galasso of Billy’s Salon, Mount Kisco

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watch Spirit of Hope gala

Javier Colon, Deborah Norville, Michael McDonald, Kathy Giusti, CEO and founder, MMRF; and Darius Rucker

Carl Quintanilla Stevie Wonder and Judy Chung

Dennis Gillings, chairman and chief executive of Quintiles and recipient of the MMRF Corporate Leadership Award, and Mireille Gingras

Charley Zahringer, Kimberly and Chris Clarke with Lynne Wheat

86

David and Anne Ogilvy

The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation recently honored music industry icon Stevie Wonder with the MMRF Spirit of Hope Award at its 15th annual fall gala at the Hyatt Regency, Greenwich. The Spirit of Hope Award is presented to individuals who inspire with their perseverance in overcoming obstacles. Michael McDonald, Darius Rucker and Javier Colon performed the tribute concert.

Photographs by Elaine Ubina

Lisa Boyle, Helena Thorne-Grant and Phebe Thorne

Natalie Monfiston, Shannon Powell and Renee Leach

Lori Alf, Marion Leber and Ann Curry

Spirit of Hope gala continues

Chris and Lori Melancon

Richard and AJ Bellas with Maureen Adams

Sandra and Jim Funk with Jennifer and Gerry McDougall

Chris Clarke and Lynne Wheat

Bruce and Kathleen Elsey

Chris and Julie Church

Michael Reinert, Merril Gretchen and Wasserman-Serling and Gene Grisanti Joe Serling

Dana LaForge and Kathleen McCabe

Steve and Marion Leber

Gregory Plage, executive director, March of Dimes, Fairfield County Division, and Randy Salvatore

Fundraising on the menu

The 16th annual March of Dimes Real Estate Award Breakfast at the Stamford Hilton attracted 750 attendees from the real estate and nonprofit communities, raising approximately $414,000 to benefit the March of Dimes. Randy Salvatore, founder and president, RMS Companies, was honored for his outstanding commercial real estate efforts and commitment to the Greater Stamford community.

From left, Jack Barnes, president and CEO, People’s United Bank; Martin D. Schwartz, president and CEO, The Kennedy Center; Mayor Bill Finch of Bridgeport; Armando F. Goncalves, president, People’s United Bank, Connecticut-South; and Vince Santilli, executive director, People’s United Community Foundation.

Dates of our lives

The March of Dimes 2011 Mission Family – Brenda, Paul, Alex and Ella Breitenbach

More than 200 art lovers attended The Kennedy Center’s “A Unique Perspective” calendar reception, which was held at the Bridgeport City Hall Annex and Gallery@999. People’s United Community Foundation was the top calendar sponsor.

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class&sass

As you know, I’m working on my master’s degree in literature. I love it, but it’s much harder than I thought it was going to be. I remember being smarter. There’s been a lot of sputtering and backfiring going on, as my mind has tried to re-engage after its long slumber – kind of like starting up an old car engine.

Anyway, I was walking to my class the other day and I overheard a teacher from across the hall say to her class, “The electric home vibrator was on the market 10 years before the electric vacuum cleaner.”

Imagine. Flushed with excitement, I immediately rushed home to Google that.

(I can’t even remember what life was like without Google.) So come to find out that it is true. They developed it (the vibrator) back in the mid-1800s, right around the time that they invented the ladies’ bicycle: It had a special hole in the seat so that you wouldn’t get aroused while cycling. Jeez.

If that isn’t a juxtaposition of recreational devices, I can’t imagine what is! You can Google it if you don’t believe me.

J

First of all, I want you to sign me up for whatever class you overheard and secondly, how in the heck do you get aroused from riding a bicycle? I usually dismount feeling chafed and sore as hell. Am I doing something wrong? But I digress. Are you saying that they were simultaneously developing “tools” to help us get aroused at the same time that they were developing “toys” to make sure we didn’t get aroused?

M

By Martha Handler and Jennifer Pappas

Yes, they were both in the same, J revolutionary Sears and Roebuck catalog, the go-to place for everything from wedding gowns to windmills.

Apparently we females, and whatever does or doesn’t turn us on, have been a mystery since the dawn of man. Plato’s “Timaeus” compares a woman’s uterus to a living creature that wanders throughout a woman’s body, “blocking passages, obstructing breathing and causing disease.”

This in turn led to the idea of women contracting a disease called “hysteria,” which they believed was caused by sexual deprivation in particularly passionate women.

To “cure” them, doctors would perform “pelvic massage” – manual stimulation of the genitals until the patient experienced “hysterical paroxysm” (orgasm). Sounds like a happy ending to me.

M

J

I think that you should adopt a new “position” on the bike. I am very

fond of pedaling around on mine. I also think that there must have been quite a few women who were anxious to visit their doctors’ offices every month to be “relieved” of their hysteria. Did you know that back in the early 1900s, there was a doctor named E.H. Clarke, who wrote a very well-received book called “No Sex in Education.” It stated that women should not seek out a higher education (college), because it would thwart reproduction. His theory was that when women thought too hard, the blood flow that would normally go to the uterus got diverted to the brain, causing the ovaries to shrink, thereby making it impossible to produce a healthy infant. Unbelievable. We’ve come a long way, baby!

We have. Wouldn’t it make more sense for men to just accept the fact that women are mysterious and leave it at that? Heck, with my hormones in major flux these days, I’m a mystery even to myself. Besides, mysteries keep life interesting, don’t they? During my 20-plus years of marriage, my husband’s experienced many different versions of me. I’m anything but predictable. Surely, the last thing he expected the other evening was for me to show up at his business dinner and expose my newly painted back to his clients. What a fun adventure we had that night. My bed sheets didn’t fair so well, but sometimes that’s the price you pay for shaking it up a bit.

M

Right. My green dragon looked amazing that night when I went to bed. But in the morning, when I woke up, it had smeared all over and I looked like Idina Menzel from “Wicked.” Shake, rattle and roll.

J

Wag Up: • Body Painting – denartny.com/specialbody-painting-experience/. We got our amazing deal from a Living Social offer. (M) • Sunset – anywhere, but especially at Jimmy’s, on top of the James Hotel in Manhattan. (J) Wag down: • Roses that fall over and die after a day or two. (M) • Single-ply toilet paper in public restrooms that you have to scratch off a piece at a time with one hand, because it’s always stuck up in those plastic containers on the wall. Come on. You shouldn’t have to be an acrobatic act just to wipe yourself. (J)

Email Class & Sass at marthaandjen@wagmag.com.

You can also follow Martha and Jen on Facebook at Jennifer Pappas Wag Writer.

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