fashion designers

December 9, 2006

'I have always had a love of design'
By Julie Earle-Levine

Jorge Perez, 61, is a Miami-based property developer, architecture enthusiast and art collector. He is chairman of The Related Group, a $13bn company that is the largest multi-family builder in the US. It has already built 55,000 units in Miami and has plans to build another 15,000 in markets including south Florida and Atlanta.

As someone who was born in Argentina to Cuban-exiled parents and who relocated to Colombia following Castro's rise to power in Cuba (in 1959), what are your earliest memories of a family home?
Because of Castro we moved a lot, so the first house I can remember was in Argentina when I was eight or nine years old. It was an older, two-storey, English-type, brick house on a lot of land in a very pretty neighbourhood in Buenos Aires. There was a library, a very tall room filled completely with books. My mother had a very good book collection. When we were in Cuba, I would go to my grandparents' house in Guantánamo Bay (not the American side, the Cuban side). It was an old Spanish house. You couldn't tell anything from the front and then on the inside it had a fountain in the middle and all the rooms going around. In exile in Colombia we lived in a beautiful apartment in Bogotá. Furniture for my parents was always secondary to the books, great limited edition collections. There were always books, even when they lost everything.

How many homes do you own?
Three: our home, Villa Cristina, a Venetian-style three-storey home in Coconut Grove, Miami, on a waterfront parcel that once belonged to aviation tycoon Howard Hughes; a condo designed by Philippe Stark in Palm Beach; and a home in Utah.

Villa Cristina looks like an art gallery. How important is art to your home aesthetic?
I could not live in a house that did not have art. When I look at it every day it is a wonderful feeling. In Miami, it is all Latin American art inside and out. I have a sculpture garden I walk in every day. In Palm Beach every wall is filled with art. I have Chuck Close; he is like a chess master who knows the 700th move. Even if I have no wall space, I am always buying. I have hundreds of pieces in storage and then I also put art in my buildings and in my office.

Who are your favourite artists and why?
I have a wonderful collection of works by Wifredo Lam, one of the great Cuban painters. I particularly like his early period but also have pieces throughout his Afro-Cuban period. The Colombian artist Fernando Botero is one of the greatest artists ever. I have many of his early paintings and several bronze sculptures. The Mexican artist Diego Rivera is incredible. I love his work. Jose Bedia, the Cuban artist who uses African tribalism in his art, is amazing and a good friend. Right now I am concentrating on young artists. I love Art Basel because it electrifies Miami. It gives me the chance to meet collectors from all over the world and to reconnect with my non-Miami friends in the art world. All our galleries and museums put their best foot forward.

How involved were you in the design aspect of Villa Cristina?
I was single at the time and put a lot of energy into it. To get the stone we needed I bought a quarry. I used French and English designers but I have always had a love of design and know the things I want in my life. I was in a classical mood, my "Ralph Lauren" mood. I went to Paris to buy antiques, to London for silver and Persian rugs, to California for Rachel Ashwell's super-comfortable couches. I have many antiques, from Mexico and India, and very good oriental rugs.

What is your favourite room at Villa Cristina?
My library. I love this room: the deep leather seats, the quiet and art books. It is conducive to work.

You just spent some time repairing your home after hurricane Katrina. Was there much damage?
Yes. We lived at the Ritz Carlton Coconut Grove for months. The water had broken through all the villa's windows and destroyed carpets. We all worked through the night moving art to safety.

Do you spend much time at the Palm Beach apartment?
In winter we go every weekend. It is a completely different mood to Villa Cristina. It is all Philippe Starck, very funky, very American, all black and white. He says it is the only private residence he has designed other than his own and the president of France's.

Which designers and architects do you favour?
I think I have great ability to capture well done design. I'm not a designer, neither am I an architect, but I get very, very involved in the physical designs of buildings. I hired Philippe Starck to work on my Icon project at South Beach. He is brilliant. I said: "You have to design my Palm Beach apartment, too, and he did. More than anything, I want Santiago Calatrava to do a building for me - he is an artist more than anything - or to get Frank Gehry to do a building.

You have a master's degree in urban planning and started out working on affordable housing projects in Florida before graduating to building luxury condominiums in the 1990s. Were these first buildings
good design?

I refurbished homes for low-income seniors in Miami's Little Havana and Homstead neighbourhoods, then started developing two-storey apartments and suburban homes. I thought each of them was the Taj Mahal. I look today and think: "Oh my God, did I do that?" I can't compare to what I'm doing now, I've grown up in my design
standard and have larger budgets. Those buildings might not be
the best architecturally but they acted like catalysts to change in
the city. The City Place project is not the best design but it
changed the city of West Palm Beach into an urban city and increased values. One Miami is definitely not the best project but it is a good project for the young and provided a catalyst for downtown Miami's revival.

In Florida, some people call you "the king of condos?" How do you feel about that title?
I have always loved cities. I feel great looking at buildings in Paris, New York, in Barcelona, the Maldives, Miami, wherever. It doesn't have to be high-rise architecture; it just needs to be well done. Architecture is just art in buildings.

Beauty is in the eye of the freeholder

By Julie Earle-Levine

Published:November 20 2006

At first glance, Paolo Zampolli's premises in downtown Manhattan looks like those of any other luxury real estate broker. Listings for multi-million-dollar condominiums are displayed on Paramount Realty's floor-to-ceiling windows. The usual glossy magazines, comfortable leather sofas and Italian espresso maker are all present.

What is striking is that the real estate brokers in Mr Zampolli's Greene Street office are as eye-catching as the sleek apartments they are selling. These agents are mostly fashion models, many of whom have swapped the catwalk for what they hope will be another lucrative career.

Zampolli's strategy of training models as real estate brokers is an intriguing response to an increasingly competitive real estate market. "It is all aboutluxury and attractiveness," he says. "If you are going to buy an apartment, why not with a beautiful, smart woman?" Mr Zampolli, the owner and president of a modelling agency, ID Model Management, decided two years ago to branch out into real estate at the suggestion of his friend Donald Trump, the property developer.

He recently formed a partnership with Prudential Douglas Elliman, New York, the state's largest real estate services company. ID Model Management, which is in the same building as ID, has a stream of models on their way to fashion shoots. The models leaving Paramount are on their way to show off apartments in much the same way as they might launch a designer's fashion collection.

"For me, the focus is now more on square footage than on fashion magazines," says Mr Zampolli. He says 12 models will be working for by early next year. Six already have broker's licences while the others are still studying for their real estate exams.

Good looks are not the only factor. After years spent attending glitzy parties, many models have acquired a valuable network of wealthy contacts. Angie Everhart, a 37-year-old actor and supermodel, has become one of Mr Zampolli's agents after a 20-year modelling career. "Fashion is the centre of a lot of worlds and lifestyles. You get to meet rock stars, presidents, sports stars and your regular Joes on the street," she says after sweeping into Mr Zampolli's office in knee-high boots, silk blouse and dark designer jeans. All such contacts are possible buyers. "I know a lot of wealthy people round the world, so it made sense for me to get paid to tell them about apartments," she says. With other projects on the go, she intends to sell real estate part-time. "I am only going to sell ultra-luxury properties. No sixth-floor walk-ups. I'm sorry if it sounds snobby but it's just not my style," she says.

Maria Markova, a 21-year-old Russian model with a real estate broker's licence, works part-time for Mr Zampolli while studying philosophy and literature at Colombia University. "I started modelling at 17 and got bored. Now I'm selling real estate to make extra money," she says. Ms Markova has sold two multi-million-dollar apartments at a development on Wall Street.

Aleksandra Slowinska, a Polish-German model in her 20s, worked for ID be-fore studying architecture and interior design in New York and real estate at another firm before joining Paramount Realty. "Real estate is a wonderful transition for a model. You meet all the people when you are modelling and your contact sheet is important. It is almost the same in real estate," she says. Ms Slowinska has not sold any properties yet because, she says, she has focused on her full-time job at Costas Kondylis & Partners, a New York architectural firm that specialises in residential high-rise buildings, but she is confident she will. "One of my goals in real estate is to sell whole buildings," says the blonde, 6ft model.

Mr Zampolli has plans for developments in New York, Brazil and Milan, and believes prime real estate is "easy to sell, whatever the city". He says models can compete with more seasoned brokers. "Some models are not only extremely beautiful, but they are also exceptionally driven." For models, whose careers start at 15 and often end at 24, real estate is a new way to make money.

Sydney
By Julie Earle-Levine

After years of swaggering self-promotion, the dream is finally coming true: Sydney really is on the verge of joining the ranks of the world’s great cities. Sydneysiders are starting to rise to the top of the fashion, art, architecture, and food worlds. (Not to mention the city’s Hollywood connection: Heath Ledger, Naomi Watts, and Nicole Kidman call the city home.) With success comes prosperity—apartment prices have doubled in the past five years and the stock market just broke the magical 5,000 mark—and there is no end in sight. The country is primed to become America’s gateway to China: This year, the Opera House introduced guided tours in Mandarin, Qantas started flying direct from Sydney to Beijing, and Prime Minister John Howard started negotiating a free-trade agreement with the Chinese premier. Of course, big successes also bring problems—big-city problems. The riots that exploded in the southern suburb of Cronulla in December divided the town along ugly ethnic lines. Sydneysiders were forced to take a long, hard look at themselves. Then Howard announced, “I do not believe Australians are racist.” That nasty business over, they’ve gone back to wining, dining, beaching, and generally enjoying a quality of life—hyperbole alert—unmatched in the world. - J.E.

Hotel Finder:
If you like the City Club’s oversize glass showers, you’ll love the soaking tubs at Establishment.
If you like the historic feel of The Library, you’ll love the Chelsea Guest House.
If you like the harbor views from the Ritz Carlton Battery Park, you’ll love looking out over the Opera House at Park Hyatt Sydney.

Glossary: Sydneysider Slang
Bottle-O: Liquor store, where you load up on a “slab of amber fluid” (a case of beer).
Budgie smugglers: Speedos, also called “dick pointers.”
Crack a coldie: Open a beer, quite possibly over a barbie.
Dinkum: Real, genuine.
Dog’s eye: A flaky meat pie.
Fancy a cheeky shampoo?: Want to get a drink?
Good on ya, mate: Thanks a lot.
Pacific peso: A$1; i.e., 70 cents.
Pom: A Brit (“bloody Poms”).
Root rat: Sex addict.
Shark biscuit: Surfing novice, a kook.
Spunk: A hottie, especially a male (“what a hunk of spunk”).
Westies: From the Western suburbs; i.e., the bridge-and-tunnel crowd.

Sydney
BEACHES
Step Into Liquid
The city has 40 beaches to choose from, and each has its own style, from its most famous, Bondi, to Palm Beach, Sydney’s version of the Hamptons. Surf lessons are a cliché, but one you should indulge in wholeheartedly. And if you’re gonna learn to shred, it ought to be with Tony Morley, one of a team of mostly blond-haired, tan pros at Lets Go Surfing, a school at North Bondi known for its small classes and highly trained instructors. Morley, 26, has been surfing since he was 10 and specializes in teaching beginners to stand up on Bondi waves, which look tame but can have gnarly rips (A$69 for two-hour group classes; 61-2-9365-1800).

BONDI - Yes, it can be a tourist trap—expect busloads of Japanese visitors and swarming British backpackers—but without the crowds, it can be truly gorgeous. To experience the quiet, beautiful Bondi, go at 6 a.m. for laps with the locals along Campbell Parade; after, have an espresso at the Bondi Tratt (61-2-9365-4303), serving “brekkie” from 7 a.m.

TAMARAMA - Barely-there bikinis rule at Tamarama, a tiny beach around the cliff from Bondi that’s big on attitude and style. Prime flaunting hours are weekends, from noon to 4 p.m. Stop by the Beach Café (61-2-9130-2419) for a fresh mango smoothie. Don’t miss the regular surf lifesavers’ drill, when good-looking, athletic bodies scramble into the surf and power through the waves. If you feel like you might need to be rescued, this is the place to do it.

MANLY - Families go to Manly Beach, on Sydney’s northern shores, for laid-back surf breaks. Leave the city from Circular Quay; it’s a quick trip by ferry. If you miss the boat back, wait for the next one at the Manly Wharf Hotel (61-2-9977-1266), a good spot for a Carlton Cold and a bird’s-eye view of the dock.

PALM - An hour’s drive from the city, Palm Beach is a glamorous day trip, especially in a ragtop—or even better, by private seaplane (Sydney Harbor Seaplanes, 61-2-9388-1978). Aussie film types, financiers, and other movers and shakers own mansions at “Palmie” and lunch at the Beach Road Restaurant (61-2-9974-1159). Try the roasted blue-eyed cod.

BALMORAL - Balmoral Beach is like its own small island, with lovely swimming beaches: no surf and no rips to worry about. Don’t drive here—parking is impossible—just catch the ferry or bus from Circular Quay. Every weekend in summer, there is free Shakespeare in the Rotunda. Go to the Bathers’ Pavilion (61-2-9969-5050), a changing shed from the twenties that’s now a chic light-filled café and restaurant: the perfect spot for sundowners right on the beach. -J.E.

PLACE TO BUY FISH YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF -
Christie’s SeafoodsSydney Fish Market (61-2-9552-3333) Go at ten on a weekday to avoid the early-morning rush. Christie’s, the first shop on the left-hand side as you walk into the New Arcade, sells the sea: from sweet, pink king prawns to black-lip abalone. Select your fish, and have it cut for sashimi or cooked to order at the grill counter. Christie’s has tables, but sitting by the docks with screeching seagulls is more fun.

WAY TO GET PIPES LIKE RUSSELL CROWE’S - Kayak Touring, The Spit Bridge, Mosman (61-2-9960-4389) On a half-day guided kayak tour of Sydney’s Middle Harbor, you’ll work your way past waterfront mansions with megayachts and the serene Garigal National Park with its bush vistas and stunning sandstone formations. Expect to see bandicoot below and white-bellied sea eagles soaring overhead. (A$99 for three and a half hours).

SHITKICKERS YOU CAN’T GET AT HOME - R.M. Williams389 George St. (61-2-9262-2228) Now that the whole Ugg debacle is more or less behind us, go for what Australia does best: leather boots (cowboy and others). Guys should buy the Comfort Craftsman in chestnut, black, or the new must-have tone, whiskey. Sheilas (that’s Aussie for fair-dinkum women) should snare the black suede Aberfeldy boot with white stitching. Neither is available yet at R.M.’s Manhattan store.

PLAN FOR NOT GETTING RIPPED OFF - Hogarth Galleries7 Walker Lane, Paddington (61-2- 9360-6839) Dodging the tourist traps of Sydney’s Aboriginal art scene is a bit like unguided shopping for diamonds on 47th Street. Stick to Hogarth, the oldest commercial dealer in Australia with the hottest painter around: Rosella Namok, a 26-year-old abstract artist who paints with her fingers. -J.E.

Sydney
THE TOP FIVE Seafood Restaurant

1. If you can’t score a beach-view table at Icebergs Dining Room and Bar, hit nearby Swell for plump Sydney rock oysters and crispy skinned salmon (61-2-9386-5001).

2. For four-star fare to rival Eric Ripert’s, there’s only one option: Tetsuya’s. A confit of trout served with daikon and fennel is chef Tetsuya Wakuda’s signature dish (61-2-9267-2900).

3. At Glass Brasserie, demand a table close to the open kitchen to watch (if you’re lucky) chef Luke Mangan prepare your line-caught barramundi, served whole (61-2-9265-6068).

4. Foodies hang out at Flying Fish, in inner-city Pyrmont. Ask for a table on the outside deck and try chef Peter Kuruvita’s spicy Sri Lankan snapper curry with basmati rice (61-2-9518-6677).

5. Golden Century is as crowded, noisy—and delicious—as Joe’s Shanghai. Fish and crabs are brought wriggling to your table before being dispatched to the kitchen (61-2-9212-3901). -J.E.

TREND -D.O.M. Pubs“Dirty old man pubs” are making a comeback—especially those that haven’t been renovated and therefore still have charming features like spittoons underneath the bar. Try the Darlo in Darlinghurst, the historic Cooper’s Arms in Newtown, the Nelson in Bondi Junction, the Shakespeare (a.k.a. “the Shakey”) in Surry Hills, or the Beauchamp, which just reopened in Paddington. -J.E.


Sydney, Woollahra
Antiques Road Map - The new neighborhood for old things.
Sydney is the oldest city in Australia, settled in 1788, so the antiquing is fabulous. Not only are there treasures still to be found, but the favorable exchange rate makes shopping here a much better deal than in, say, London. Start at Anne Schofield Antiques, known for its stunning South Sea pearl earrings, then make your way along Queen Street; stop for lunch at Bistro Moncur before venturing toward nearby Oxford Street for the grand finale: the Woollahra Antique Centre, with 50 shops. Avoid Sundays, when many stores are closed.

1. Anne Schofield Antiques36 Queen St. Jewelry—Georgian neoclassical cameos, French Deco baubles—from the eighteenth century to the fiffties.
Simon Johnson

2. Simon Johnson55 Queen St. Not antiques but a gourmet store worth a stop: Buy the preserved lemons and satay paste to bring home; salt caramels for the walk.

3. The Art of Wine & Food80 Queen St. Everything from absinthe glasses to hippopotamus-tooth corkscrews.

4. Howell & Howell84 Queen St. Antique mirrors, lamps, and stools from France, Italy, and Spain.

5. Tim McCormick’s 92 Queen St. Rare books, prints, and maps; ask to see the Colonial manuscripts.

6. Three Antiques stores in a row 104-108 Queen St. Tortoiseshell brushes and vintage pens at Michael A. Greene, early-Victorian dining tables and chairs at Gaslight, and unusual pieces like a Charles X cherrywood birdcage at Martyn Cook’s.

7. Bistro Moncur116 Queen St. Break for a bistro lunch: Order the grilled sea scallops or the popular pure pork sausages with potato mash.

8. Woollahra Antique Centre160 Oxford St. The three best specialty shops: Cast, Tin and Other Toys; Art Nouveau; English and Continental Glass. -J.E.

BAR CRAWL
WHERE TO DRINK NOW - Kings Cross
Acclimate at the Crest Hotel’s Goldfish Bowl bar, right above Kings Cross station, where all the Westies arrive by train. Watch the world outside through greasy windows, with a chilled, A$3 schmiddy in hand.

Dine across the street at Bayswater Brasserie. It’s a bit like Balthazar and caters to a young, savvy fashion-and-art crowd. Bartender Naren Young serves stiff drinks: Try his Shanghai Charlie.

Move on to LadyLux, just off Darlinghurst Road. The best nights, Fridays and Saturdays, tend to be packed with a model-gorgeous crowd. Secure a spot on the guest list by e-mailing mailto:Rochelle@ladylux.com.au.

End the night at the Bourbon, formerly the Bourbon and Beefsteak. The place has great history: Originally it catered to GIs on R&R leave from Vietnam.

DOWN UNDER FASHION DECODER
There’s a parallel universe Down Under: The fashion looks familiar, but the names (and the prices) are not. Right now the Sydney boutiques are putting deep discounts on their remaining summer stock. To take advantage of the seasonal flop, start at the Centennial Park end of Oxford Street, and shop your way north.-J.E.

From left to right:Jayson Brunsdon = a young Yves Saint Laurent
Lisa Ho = Vera Wang
Josh Goot = Helmut Lang
Lover = Marc Jacobs
Kirrily Johnston = Proenza Schouler + Jil Sander
The hookers are out in full force after 2 a.m. (Prostitution is legal here.) Time to call it a night. -J.E.

The Wonder Boy of Watches - Swiss watch magnate Christian Bedat likes to heli-ski in Canada, relax in the Maldives and vacation with his family in Forte dei Marmi. We caught up with him between trips.

Spring 2006

IN the 400-year-old Swiss watch business, where legacy is practically a prerequisite, Christian Bedat has achieved enormous success in a remarkably short eight years. He launched Bedat & Co in 1996, and almost immediately it was heralded for its luxury designs (think handstitched hot pink alligator straps). Watchmaking is in Bedat's blood: His mother Simone, was a founding partner in the Geneva-based Ramond Weil.

A former Swiss army officer, Christian spent most of the 1980s in Hong Kong, manufacturing watches for United Colors of Benetton by Bulova. He returned to Switzerland to collaborate with his mother, first at Raymond Weil, where he led the design team, then in the launch of Bedat & Co. The company was purchased in 2001 by the Gucci Group. Today, the forty-one-year old is the vice president and creative director of Gucci Group Watches, as well as the CEO of Bedat & Co, whose signature, square faced watches are sold in the United States, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Japan, Hong Kong and Brazil.

Overseeing the prosperous company, Bedat spends his days traversing time zones, traveling frequently from his home in Geneva to New York, Hong Kong, Paris and Tokyo. He likes a bit of adventure - he's an avid scuba diver - as well as downtime with his wife, Diane and their five children. He's obsessed with design, whether of luggage or of an airplane's interior, and is always searching for unusual ideas.

What impact do trips have on your work?
The more you travel, the more you experience. I like to think about new designs when I am fully relaxed - in a quiet, remote location, away from my day-to-day life. Certain colors and shapes can be inspiring. Recently, my wife and I went to the Amanpulo resort, on a private island in the Philippines. It has just 40 casitas and is surrounded by very clear, blue water and there is a coral reef for diving. I started considering sporty designs and ended up sketching the No. 7 women's watch on a napkin. The turquoise water inspired a turqouise grosgrain silk strap.

Describe some particularly adventurous trips from recent years.
Diving in French Polynesia, in the Fakarava atoll on the south pass was amazing. During one dive, I could not believe how many sharks I saw. First there were five or six, then fifteen and finally, maybe three hundred. It was one of my most memorable dives, but was it daring? Not really. Have you heard of many divers eaten by sharks? The majority of them aren't very dangerous. I have also gone helicopter skiing in British Columbia: white powder, wild skiing and high speeds. I found it quite exciting. We explored the Monashee and Cariboo mountain ranges, skiing almost nonstop every day. I am planning a return visit this year.

Where have you always wanted to go?
The North and South Poles. I would love to see the icebergs. I'd like to visit the Galapagos Islands too. I have heard that the fauna there is incredible.

How do you find good local restaurants when you are traveling?
I always go with friends who will look after me. Hong Kong is one of the best places in the world for food. I eat mainly Chinese, in restaurants on hidden streets where there are no other foreigners. I go to Lucy's in the Stanley neighborhood, a small place that prepares Shanghainese dishes. In Geneva, I like the Auberge Communal d'Onex for excellent Italian food. In winter, it serves whhite truffles. For tasty chicken and fries, there's Carnivor du Centre, in the centre of the city. In Las Vegas, I'm fond of the Red 8 Asian bistro, at Wynn Las Vegas. The shark-fin dumplings were amazing and the dim sum reminded me of Hong Kong. The restaurant Noodles, at Bellagio, also has dim sum on weekends.

Have you had any especially memorable meals?
A most interesting experience was chicken sashimi in Kagoshima, Japan. I put a lot of sauce on it. And once when I was in Tokyo, I had beef tongue - cooked and raw.

What are some of your favorite hotels?
The Gora Kadan, outside Tokyo in Hakone National Park, at the foot of Mount Fuji, is serene and beautiful. It's the former summer residence of the Kan-In-No-Miya imperial family, and it has cypress baths. In France, I love the views, from the hills in Les Baux de Provence. Ousta de Baumaniere there is romantic and has good food. In Italy, Sardinia is appealing: The Hotel Cala di Volpe has excellent service and food, especially the lunch buffet.

What do you look for when booking a hotel?
I always request the least expensive room at the Four Seasons (or any other hotel for that matter) . It's worth asking, and I'm often rewarded. I think a fair price is $350 to $700 a night.

Where do go to undwind and be pampered?
When I'm on vacation, I like getting a facial, a massage, everything but nail polish. The resort town of La Baule, on France's Atlantic coast, is an ideal place for a reviving week of treatments. My wife and I like to stay at the Royal-Thalasso Barriere. At the Four Seasons at Kuda Huraa, in the Maldives, you can get a massage while looking at the ocean.

When you travel with your family, what do you like to do?
During the winter, we spend every wekeend in our chalet in Villars. We all love to ski. I like to cook (especially Indian curries) so we eat mainly at home, except for the occasional outing to enjoy traditional Swiss fondue or raclette. During the summer we go to Forte dei Marmi for a week. It's like the Hamptons for the Italians, who come from Florence or Milan. You can lead a simple life or that of a jet-setter. We stay at a family style hotel. Lunch is taken by the pool (at the Bagno Piero) and consists of traditional dishes, like penne pesto and Milanese. There are plenty of shops, but we prefer just to relax.

Any advice for traveling with children?
You need patience, organisation and big cars. We went on a tour of Switzerland in a minivan last year, visiting the Transport Museum in Lucerne. We stopped for a cheese fondue in Gruyere and walked by the lake in Lugano. The children loved it. Traveling really opens their eyes and creates memories for them.

Which airlines do you prefer?
In terms of first class, Japan Airlines is the best. British Airways, Air France and JAL have beds that are completely flat now and they supply nice pajamas. I am also in love with Cathay Pacific's first class lounge in Hong Kong. The bathrooms are clad in black marble, and the showers are out of this world. You can order from a real menu, and there is even Haagen-Dazs ice-cream.

Dou you have any packing tips?
Plan ahead and pack light. I never check my luggage, usually a small Bottegga Veneta or Hermes bag. I carry my laptop, two phones, my passport, my Ipod, my headphones and an Hermes accordian picture frame with photos of the kids. I pack the same amount for one night as I do for a week. I'll take three shirts and a jacket, and then use the hotel for laundry. I wear suits made by Frank Namani and Gucci shirts. Shoes have to be casual. I like Prada, Tod's, Gucci and John Lobb. And I'm never without my Bedat & Co watch.

What are your favorite travel gadgets?
I use Skype to speak over the internet with my family and friends. My newest device is the Archos AV 700, a mobile digital video recorder. It records television programs and movies, and you can watch them on the go. It stores 400 hours or 250 movies.

What have you recently bought back from a trip?
I jsut bought five robes (by Robeworks) from the Four Seasons and had them shipped home. The inside is made of terry cloth and the outside is brushed cotton. I make a purchase if I happen to see something and am tempted. Five years ago, Diane and I were staying on a Turkish junk with friends for a week. One of them bought leather necklaces with black stone pendants for everyone. Years later, I saw one made of jade with gold and diamonds. I got a plainer version. Now I always wear it, except when I do karate.

Las Vegas's latest colossus will be a slice of Barcelona: that's the vision of a larger-than-life developer with movie star mates.
Julie Earle-Levine reports
February 18, 2006


JORGE Perez's excitement is palpable when he is talking about his Las Vegas project Las Ramblas. It's a colossal Barcelona-inspired $4 billion hotel condo and casino complex he is building with the actor George Clooney.Unlike Clooney, Perez -- who speaks animatedly, hands outstretched to show just how big this project is -- is not a household name in America. Yet.

Perez is the largest residential condominium developer in the country, a Miami version of New York real estate developer Donald Trump without the bad hair and aggressive self-promotional skills.

In Miami, Perez has already built 55,000 units and his $13 billion Related Group has plans to build another 15,000 units in South Florida and Las Vegas in the next four years. Atlanta is another target.

It is a lofty ambition to build a "first" anything in Vegas, a city that is thought to have seen it all and where a new hotel or condo tower seems to be built every other day (even Donald's ex-wife Ivana Trump is building her own 82-storey luxury residential building called Ivana Las Vegas). But Perez believes his Las Ramblas project really will be unique.

In an interview in his headquarters in Miami, Perez, 56, who was born in Argentina to Cuban parents, outlined his vision for Las Ramblas, and shared his passion for building and fast cars.
Las Ramblas, just off The Strip, will spread across 11 hectares and feature 11 towers, including a five-star hotel, condos and bungalows -- that's more than 4000 units in total -- a spa and health club, nightlife, dining, shopping and, of course, a casino.

It will also have an open-air pedestrian promenade modeled after Las Ramblas in Barcelona, even though this is glitzy Vegas and residents may well be dodging drunk tourists armed with super-size, brightly coloured cocktails in plastic cups.

The project is due to be completed early 2008.

Perez has based the project on his favourite city, Barcelona.

"Sitting in a cafe having tapas, seeing the trees, flower shops and bookstores in Barcelona is a wonderful experience we are going to recreate," he says.

To do this, he's bringing together his dream list of architects, designers and entertainers including ubiquitous designer Philippe Starck on the interiors, and architect Keith Hobbs of United Designers Europe.

George Clooney and Rande Gerber (the nightclub owner better known as Cindy Crawford's husband) are involved.

Clooney is also talking to his friend Brad Pitt about "designing" for the project.

Both superstars famously love Vegas, and then of course there was the movie, Ocean's Eleven, where Clooney and Pitt, aka Dapper Danny Ocean and Pitt as a card ace, staged an elaborate heist at Las Vegas's Bellagio casino.

Perez says Clooney and Gerber will be "extensively involved in multiple aspects" of Las Ramblas, which is due to start construction in mid-2006.

More specifically, as investors and residence owners, they will contribute to the design and direction of the project, including the hotel, restaurants and entertainment and "the look and feel of the casino".

Clooney has said the project will be a "first class experience, with a five star hotel, the coolest bars and clubs and an exceptional spa", reflecting his personal taste and interests. "We're clearly putting more than just our names to this project."

Perez says he is negotiating with an up-market brand for the hotel, and is pushing forward with reservations.
Perez is hoping the project will create the kind of frenzy he is used to seeing in Miami.
While the market has recently cooled in that city, Perez recalls buyers were scrambling to buy and "flip" (resell) properties.

Some of Related's 1000 unit condos in Miami sold out within 36 hours of being announced.
On talk of the real estate bubble in Miami, Perez says he is certain there will be a short-term correction, and that development is peaking.
"It is red hot. There is a crane on every corner."

But he is confident strong local and international demand will create another boom. "I think Latin Americans continue to see Miami as their capital, and I can't think of another city in America that is better poised for growth."

He has seen strong interest in Apogee, his latest high-end project with 66 of 67 units sold, mostly to domestic buyers. Their average price is $5.3 million.

Miami's potential is greater than Las Vegas, New York and Atlanta, some of the other favourite cities for developers to be in, he says.
In New York, Related developed the Time Warner Centre, and also developed and owns the W Union Square and the Mandarin Oriental.
Atlanta is another growth spot where Related is looking to make its mark. "We have a piece of land and are trying to zone it into a great urban city, building around 4000 apartments and bringing in great restaurants, architecture and design."

But it's not all about buildings for Perez, who started out as building affordable housing in Florida. He set up Related with New York developer Steve Ross in 1979, and last year, Related had $4.3 billion in revenue.

"What really makes me tick is not just building a building, but changing a city," he says. Can he really change Vegas? "Las Ramblas is all about getting away from the glitz, The Strip and the casinos, and creating a more elegant environment."
He sees visitors strolling a tree-lined promenade, ice cream cone in hand, dropping into Gucci and other luxury retail shops and dining at up-market restaurants and cafes.

Perez does love the high life and owns a 2002 Ferrari 360 Modena Spider and a 2002 Mercedes S500 AMG, but his favorite car is much like him -- a low-key, fast-moving and nimble yellow Mini Cooper convertible.

Perez is swiftly and aggressively changing America's skyline, city by city.

The Weekend Australian
Julie Earle-Levine reports
February 18, 2006

SCOTT Andrews was paying $US2600 ($3450) a month to live in the top floor of a Greenwich Village building when he got notice that rent for his 74sqm apartment would jump to $US3000 a month.He was interested in buying, but escalating prices meant he would need at least $US1 million to secure what he had been renting, and moving into a smaller space was unappealing. He moved out, and on to the Hudson River.

Andrews, 30, who is a commercial property developer, bought a three-bedroom motor yacht, with a living room large enough to fit his two lounges, and now lives at a marina with postcard views of Manhattan. Several of his friends are now doing the same.

His new home is moored at Liberty Landing Marina in New Jersey, across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Andrews figures he has great waterfront views and pays a third of the cost of rent, after slip fees and maintenance.

"I thought, I can buy a tiny, second-floor walk-up in Manhattan with no light, and no views for half a million bucks, or spend half of that on a boat ($US250,000) and get a view of Manhattan." His neighbours include teachers, doctors, office workers and finance types.

'Liberty Landing, is the second-largest marina on the east coast of the US with 600 slips, and is part of Liberty State Park. The park is a bonus, a 8km bike path along the water, past Ellis Island and more green than you might see in the city walking for 10 blocks.

It is also favoured by liveaboards, because it is well protected from the sometimes choppy Hudson. Andrews' marina has showers, a laundry, and its own "pub", a dockside bar and grill.
He catches a $US5 water taxi to his offices at the World Financial Centre, splitting his time staying on the boat and at his girlfriend's house in the East Village.

The only downer so far is that the ferry stops running at 8.45pm, so he has to catch a train, which runs all hours, and a taxi to reach his boat. Still, he wakes up on board a light-filled, gently bobbing boat with views to die for. "I wish I'd done it sooner."

It sure sounds attractive, but there are catches.

Leasing a slip, as well as "liveaboard" fees for marina utilities can cost about $US15,000 a year, including expenses to haul the boat out of the water to paint, and for repairs. Then there is a lack of space on smaller boats, and the winter months can be brutal.

At the West 79th Street Boat Basin in Manhattan, about 50 people live on boats with names like "Freedom" and "Orca". Some have two bedrooms, and two decks, and simply hop on and off the island for work and play, buying groceries from nearby Broadway, or by having the food delivered to the boat.

The marina is a mish-mash of luxury boats, houseboats and yachts, many with children's toys, bicycles and everyday house stuff on the decks. When this reporter visited, the owners looked happy, mostly because the weather that day was perfect. "Usually in January, in any one of the past 25 years, it is seven degrees outside. Once it was below 20 degrees for a week," says one man. Owners heat their floating homes with a diesel furnace or electric heater.

But as soon as the snow melts, the marina is inundated with hundreds of phone calls from people who want to live there. They just want to know how to do it. A resident who has lived there for many years recalls that in the 1970s, it was "like the wild, wild west". "It was kind of a hippie community, people who wanted to live in an alternative way in the city. It was very crowded, with too many boats. Even now it is a different kind of person who lives here, someone who has a free spirit."

Freedom has its price. "Unless you live in the most dilapidated apartment building in Manhattan, you wouldn't be concerned about your living space," another liveaboard says. "But if you come home to a boat and it is taking water, well you might have a three-hour project ahead of you."

Liveaboards at 79th Street maintain their year-round status because they staked claims prior to 1997, when the city curtailed year-round dockage from April through October. Anyone new trying to live there permanently will find a four-year waiting list, unlike Liberty Landing, where there is no wait.

Linda Ridihalgh editor of LiveAboard magazine estimates there are 30,000 liveaboards in North America.
"It's a lifestyle that has wide appeal," she says. She grew up near the Mississippi River, and has spent her life on boats. Most people do it for lifestyle, she says, not to save money.

New houseboats cost anywhere from $US50,000 to above $US1 million.
Others buy smaller sailboats and are "transients" -- those who live on boats with V-shaped hulls that are more mobile than houseboats.

Many people buy a stunning, luxury houseboat and fit it out with designer everything. But they only last a week. Some people never get over motion sickness or they realise, it's not easy.

Layering is the travel trick
February 18 2006

February in New York. Grey skies, snow and wind so fierce it snaps your umbrella like kindling. Last week I saw a squirrel blown out of a tree by a freezing gust. No wonder, when a friend's invitation to a wedding in Sydney arrived in October, I pulled out my suitcase without thinking twice. Never mind the 24-hour flight, warmth was all that mattered. It took a while for the other flip-flop to drop.

Everyone in New York or London wants to go somewhere sunny in February, but what you don't want to deal with is the issue of what to wear. Sure, packing for a resort is a breeze - you just don a bikini and a sarong. But if you are travelling to a country with opposite seasons and have an itinerary that includes a wedding, work and visiting family and friends, what to pack? Especially if the destination, like Sydney, is having such a heatwave that even residents won't venture to the beach?

Although I flee the Manhattan winter each year for Australia, packing the right wardrobe never gets easier. It seems simple but is not. Beyond the idea of light clothing, I am at a loss. Would my silk chiffon pale grey dress work for the wedding? Would it look less "goddess" and more gritty in Sydney than in New York? I was unsure so I weighed up an eye-catching, floral Pucci dress. Then, I recalled a friend who went to a wedding in London wearing a turquoise halter, gold taffeta skirt, turquoise, gold shawl and strappy, gold Jimmy Choos.

"My New York autumn get-up, which would have been perfect at the Pierre, was not in sync with very simple suits and plain hats at awedding at a Regent's Park church," she said. Nor did she fare well walking on cobbled, wet and rainy streets in stiletto heels. Still, some hemisphere-traveller, somewhere, must know what they are doing.

Someone, for example, such as Gail Elliott, the New York-based British designer and former model who splits her time between New York and Sydney, not to mention Costa Rica, Hawaii and Malibu.

"I pack lightly and travel with the staples," Elliott says. "Jeans, boots and then layer." She favours tailored clothes, such as a smart jacket for meetings or events such as New York and London fashion week, and easy silk separates. Her 2006 spring collection will featurea pure silk "gypsy peasant dress" designed with travel in mind: rollit up, pack and, on arrival, steam when showering to freshen up the silk.

Layering is also a pet trick of Vera Wang, the designer best known for bridal wear. "You can create multiple looks depending on your mood and the weather," she says. Wang says leggings can do triple duty: on the plane, sightseeing and under a coat at night. And "a black shift dress or a fabulous skirt can transform any look from day to evening. Pack tissue-thin layers of cashmere and silk separates and accessorise with a gold bracelet."

When travelling to the European fashion shows, Kate Lanphear, a stylist in New York, wears silk-look thermals under pretty dresses. "Accessories weigh you down so I pack only the best of the best - an amazing pair of boots that can look gorgeous with skirts, dresses and jeans," she says. She also likes to buy clothes overseas to take home to New York. In Sydney, she buys select Australian designers including Scanlan & Theodore, Marnie Skillings and Josh Goot.

"If you can't get it into a nice Goyard bag overhead, then forget it," says Simon Doonan, creative director of Barneys New York. He says that even if it is snowing when he departs New York, he will leave his coat at home and wear just a woolly hat and scarf to the airport.

But wouldn't this overhead-only rule be a problem for those, for instance, attending a wedding overseas? "Wear the wedding outfit on the plane and take an extra pair of undies," says Doonan. "It's nice to see people glamorously attired on planes. Jeans topped with a glamorous Zandra Rhodes chiffon top or a Balenciaga jacket could work." It certainly could get you an upgrade. And isn't arriving in high style half the battle?

By Julie Earle-Levine
Dec 24, 2005

New Bentley Continental GT - tick. Foie gras dinner for 50 - tick. New penthouse apartment - tick. A fresh-cut Christmas tree from Michigan, delivered and decorated - tick. Three levels of Christmas decorations at Tribeca apartment - tick. Week in a private, oceanfront villa on Brazil's Cacoa coast - tick.

Wall Streeters are giving themselves a lavish spread this holiday season. Thanks to bullish earnings at investment banks, the highest bonuses in years - from several hundred thousand dollars up to a reported $20m - are rumoured to be in the financial pipeline, and though most bankers, traders and hedge funds don't get the cash until early 2006, many have been pre-spending what is estimated to be a total of $17bn.

What are they buying? We asked the experts (names have been deleted for obvious reasons).Start with travel. According to Nathaniel Waring, president of Cox & Kings USA, the high-endprivate travel company, one equity manager with his own firm indulged in a $100,000 one-week trip to Brazil for Christmas and new year, staying in penthouse suites in Copacabana, then travelling by private jet to the Txai Resort in Bahai and holidaying in a three-bedroom villa on the beach.

Another New York banker spent $70,000 on a 10-day package at the Ritz Carlton, Grand Cayman, including a four-hour private snorkelling tour, a seven-course dinner cruise for two, and ringside seats for an opening gala with Tony Bennett.A lower-level younger man had booked a $600-a-night room at La Samanna, a luxury resort in St Martin, French West Indies, and then heard about his big bonus and re-booked, taking the $2,700-a-night room.

Then there are the facelifts. Neil Sadick, a dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon with a Park Avenue practice in Manhattan, says: "We are seeing a lot of men getting bonuses and getting major stuff done - liposuction and fillers. They are spending $500 to $10,000 per procedure.Many are repeat customers and are agedfrom their early 30s to their 60s." "There are bankers, traders, executives who want to look younger in high-powered jobs and they come to us. Some of it is for their second wives," says Sadick, who is also president of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery Foundation.

Another popular luxury is food. At Petrossian, the Tiffany of caviar purveyors, executives are buying beluga caviar for themselves and as gifts - which may not sound so over-the-top until you realise the US recently extended its ban on beluga. "One man bought a kilo of beluga, and 50g of Imperial Special Reserve Persicus caviar for $11,400. The beluga was $7,600," a store spokeswoman says.They are also snapping up Oestra caviar at $3,500 a kilo. "We have many New York customers who are buying one to three kilos of Oestra for parties," said Frank Schaefer, chief executive of Caviar Creator, a Miami-based company.

Cars come in for some action too. Maurizio Parlato, president and chief executive of Ferrari North America, says, "We saw a big increase in traffic this month and because our cars are pre-ordered with aone- to two-year waitinglist, this makes a significant impact."The car of the moment is the F430 coupé (starting price $170,045) and the recently launched Ferrari Superamerica, a two-seat convertible, is also selling well. "Some clients are paying cash."

There is strong interest in a new Porsche Cayman due to be released in January and a new Bentley Continental GT ($175,000), according to Brian Miller, general manager of Manhattan Motorcars. "Everyone wants this one. The entertainment types, bankers and hedge fund guys. This year we've sold 200 of them and expect to sell 30 in December. There has also been a lot of activity with Lamborghini ($170,000 to $200,00) and we are seeing the $300,000 version sold out for 60 days. We need more!"

But perhaps more than any other gift, Wall Streeters are buying real estate. Keith Copley, of Sotheby's International Realty, has seen bidding wars in recent weeks, mostly among young hedge fund players. Three are competing for a $6m "celebrity style loft" called the Glass Farmhouse with views of the Hudson River. "All these guys are in their 30s," he says.

Meanwhile, Dolly Lenz, vice-chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman, is seeing the trend trickle down to those with "smaller bonuses" of $3m or so. Last week she sold 20 units in one building, 55 Wall Street, a full-service Cipriani Club Residence. "These guys won't get paid until February but they are using all their bonus money to buy and rent out apartments," she says. "It's the usual suspects - Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Chase, the hedge fund guys." Another client, aged 33, got a $20m bonus and bought in Southampton on the ocean for $28m.

And what about the traditional stuff?One Manhattan member of Quintessentially, the global concierge service, is planning to give his girlfriend a Christmas stocking with Crème de la Mer cream, underwear by La Perla, and a platinum, diamond and ruby studded necklace from Cartier's Orchid collection. It makes the rest of what the company has been asked to source - a new Jaguar, Birkin bags (skipping the waiting list of course), vintage wine and jewels - look almost pedestrian by comparison.

By Julie Earle-Levine
Feb, 2005

So there you are, ogling all the fantastic gowns on the runway during fashion week, planning what you'll buy for this season, and modelling your spring frocks just in case – when, shock! horror! you see the a large, dark stain that could be steak au poivre, or perhaps red wine, across the front of your dress.

Observing your resolution to Deal With It Now, you immediately send said garment off to the best dry cleaner you know, which successfully removes the stain, but also sends your dress back with a large tear, right across the front. Ruined.

Your dry cleaner insists it must have come in like that, but you know it didn't. Who is to blame? What recourse do you have?

Consumers often hold dry cleaners responsible for stains, shrinkage, melted buttons and tears, and missing clothes. The number of complaints against dry cleaners in the US alone jumped to 5,584 in 2003 from 4,380, the previous year, according to the Better Business Bureau, an independent group run by the US Chamber of Commerce.

But talk to the cleaners themselves, and you (not surprisingly, but maybe begrudgingly) hear a different story.

John Mahdessian, president of Madame Paulette, a New York dry cleaner who looks after classical gowns for Sotheby's and the Metropolitan Opera, says customers who try to remove a stain can cause irreparable damage. "Red wine is a big culprit, but it is not a problem for dry cleaners," he says. On the other hand, "If you use water, or an at-home stain remover, or rub instead of blot, you might get the stain out but the fabric can't be restored."

Indeed, that old stand-by, club soda, turns out not to be such a great idea at all.

"Club soda can be great – God love it – but it is nothing more than water. It is one of the things your grandmother told you and unfortunately is not great advice," says Nora Nealis, executive director of the National Cleaners Association, an industry group.

Water on silk can also create problems. Mahdessian recalls a water leak that damaged 14 Valentino gowns - or $150,000 worth of silk and sequins. Luckily, the water rings were able to managed to be removed, the beads re-stitched and the dresses restored.

According to Mahdessian, dresses can also be defective, or manufacturers fail to provide the right care instructions; indeed, many one-off designer pieces do not have care labels inside at all, leaving it to the cleaner and garment owner to guess how to clean.

Deborah Kravet, the owner of Fashion Award Cleaners on Manhattan's Upper East Side, says there are also "invisible" stains. Clients are often surprised to see new stains, caused when dry cleaning solution interacts with perspiration or other substances. "People put their clothes away dirty. This happens a lot with men's tuxedo shirts."

If Madame Paulette can't fix a garment using conventional cleaning, the client is informed.
"We tell them, you can't wear this the way it is, but we could try something else," said Mahdessian. If a garment is damaged, the store "always steps up and takes responsibility".
Kravet says she also works on clothing up to a "safe" point. If there is concern the fabric could be damaged, then she will ask for a customer's permission to go further. The customer makes the decision and is responsible if the cleaning doesn't work out.

In Paris, Pouyanne-Teinturier, a dry cleaner since 1903, talks to customers about what each garment will require. If a garment is damaged under 'normal' circumstances, or goes missing, the cleaner takes full responsibility, said according to the manager Caterina Gurez, manager.
Meanwhile, in London, Paula Silver, a manager for Jeeves of Belgravia, which has 12 branches throughout the city, says, "We do a disclaimer on receipts. We will try to clean it but there is no guarantee. We also can't guarantee loss of trims and beads."

Nealis says the best way to determine who is at fault when a garment is damaged is to send it to a garment analysis laboratory and ask for a determination.

This may reveal if there is weakness in the fabric or dye (which would be the manufacturer's fault), or if the consumer has tried to fix it, using seltzer or bleach, or had hair spray, medication or even perspiration on the fabric. The last resort can be taking legal action.

In London, the Textile Services Association, an industry group for dry cleaners, also helps offers consumers and will investigate complaints. And then there's always the all-black alternative.

WAYS TO AVOID DRESS DISASTERS
Questions to ask your dry cleaner:
*What percentage of the time do you ruin a garment and what will you do for me if that should happen?
*Can you give me some references?
*Can you give me a satisfaction guarantee?
*Do you guarantee, in writing, all of your work?
Tips for parties
*Apply hair products (hairspray, mousse, gel etc) before getting dressed and allow time to dry before donning The Dress.
*Do the same with perfume.
*Don't iron out closet wrinkles; a hot iron on fine fabrics can dull, pucker and damage the fibres or colours. Expose to light steam by hanging the garment in the bathroom (away from a wall) and running hot water in the shower to allow the wrinkles to disappear naturally. However, do not leave the garment in the bathroom for more than a few minutes: excess moisture can affect fibres, finish and threads.
*Don't wear jewellery that is likely to snag a fine fabric.
*If possible wear dress shields to protect the garment from perspiration and body oils that could disturb sizings and dyes, and cause permanent damage.
*When spots and stains happen, blot don't rub

A Frenchman in New York
By Julie Earle-Levine
Financial Times; Feb 2005

Moments after I am introduced to interior designer Jacques Grange, we are striding past security into the lobby of a gleaming new residential building on New York's Upper East Side. My interview with him aside, he is on a mission: to inspect furniture.

"I check everything. Every detail," he tells me. "I love to control all I do. Each project I make, I control. I do not delegate. This is why I do not do so many projects, because if you grow too much then you disappear."

So far, Grange has mainly decorated individual homes for wealthy patrons including Princess Caroline of Monaco and billionaire cosmetics heir Ron Lauder, causing him to be dubbed the "reigning designer of the international set" and the "ultimate conjuror of magnificence". But we are here today because the perfectionist has finally allowed himself to take on an entire residential building, One Beacon Court, in which we are now standing.

Grange pulls up suddenly in the lobby and waves his hand towards a miserable grey vase being filled with flowers. "I don't want that," he says. "I hate that. It's ugly." He next stops two men carrying a bespoke rug, takes it from them and places it on the floor, just so. He rearranges some furniture, paces back and forth, looks at the sofa, plumps the cushions.

In just a few hours, the Municipal Art Society gala will be held in this space and it has to be perfect.

So, why did Grange take on this vast project, designing kitchens, bathrooms and public spaces for future residents he doesn't know, in collaboration with architect Cesar Pelli? All his other work - combining 18th and 19th century furniture with designs from the 1930s and 1940s - has been for acquaintances or friends with whom he first felt a connection.

It is easy to understand," he says. "I have come from Paris. I am French. It is like a dream to design something on the tower. I love coming to New York and have many friends here. I was friends with Andy Warhol in the 70s. This building is like a realisation of a dream.
"I think there are only three real cities in the world," he adds. "In our world, they are Paris, London and New York. Asia, I do not understand. I have to travel there, and China is the new world, no? But Paris, London, and New York are all the same people. It is a nice world isn't it?"

While he's in town, Grange is also working on a "huge flat" in Manhattan, though he can't say for whom, and puzzling out the US political situation. Failed presidential candidate John Kerry was a childhood friend thanks to mutual family holidays in Saint-Briac, Brittany, France, and Grange can't quite understand why George W. Bush is so popular. "Kerry is not arrogant like Bush," he tells me. "Bush is too much. But people do not realise. It is a shame, no?"

But back to decorating. Grange enjoys visiting India and says there is a "touch" of that aesthetic in One Beacon Court ("the marble in the foyer, the scalloped ceilings"). The lobby walls feature panels of hand oiled parchment, a luxe treatment not seen since the 1930s and a carpet with a pattern also from the 1930s. "The carpet is so beautiful. It is mixed together to give the floor huge personality."

Moving up to the condominiums, which range in price from $3.1m to $26m, Grange has created kitchens featuring polished Brazilian granite floors, Italian stone counter-tops, stainless steel Kohler sinks, Miele dishwashers, and refrigerators and under-the-counter wine coolers from Sub-Zero. Washer/dryers are also there, but concealed.

In the master bathrooms, Grange again chose Kohler for sinks, tubs and bidets, as well as polished marble counter-tops and tiles. The bedrooms and living rooms are delivered empty, though Grange has spoken to some buyers about finishing the interior design job.

Vornado Realty Trust, which owns and manages One Beacon Court, declines to tell me how many units have been sold but some high-profile names, including pop star Beyoncé Knowles and motor racing tycoon Flavio Briatore, have been linked to the building.

One of the things Grange says he likes most about the condos is not their interior but their bird's-eye views of Central Park. He adds that New Yorkers have completely disproved the theory that they would shy away from tall buildings following September 11. But, of course, not all tall buildings are created equal: "That [Donald] Trump builds tall buildings," Grange tells me "but Trump is blah."

Although One Beacon Court is Grange's biggest project to date, it is not his favourite. After a moment of deliberation, he cites Yves Saint Laurent's home in Marrakesh, Morocco.
"It's incredible," he explains. "We worked for five years. The garden is incredible. The house is incredible. We did leathers. It was all very influenced by Matisse." Oh, and that's not to mention the fact that he incorporated Warhol portraits of Saint Laurent's dogs on the walls.

Naturally, Grange also decorates his own homes. They include an old barn in France's Loire Valley, which he converted into a weekend retreat housing leather armchairs of his design, colourful paper kites, rustic-looking wood and rush chairs, and a blue mohair velvet sofa ("I'm very passionate about modern, and timeless attitude"). He also has a cabin in Portugal, which Grange calls "a cheap and totally wild country, like the Hamptons was 100 years ago".

But when I meet him the designer's full attention is devoted to one big building in Manhattan.
Surveying the finished lobby, surrounded by staff vacuuming and polishing the bronze elevator doors, he smiles.

"It is elegant no?," he says, "It is character."

By Julie Earle-Levine
Financial Times; Apr 2005

Gwyneth Paltrow once famously announced that straightening her hair made her more confident, claiming: "If I have straight hair, I feel like half my outfit battle is over."

But that was before marriage and baby, and to see her now is to see a vision of beatific, almost hippie, Raphael waviness. Indeed, dead straight hair, or as some stylists put it "flat, anorexic hair", has not been seen on the runways or fashion magazines for some time. But is it really time to declare it over? Are our locks loosening up along with our looks?

In New York women are asking for anything but pin-straight hair, according to Spresa Bojkovic, who owns the Damian West salon in Greenwich Village. "They want va-voom, lots of shine and rich-looking waves."

Kelly Reynolds, a New York recruiter for an international real estate company, however, is not one of those women. Reynolds is in her mid-20s and has straightened her hair "forever".
"I have curly hair," she says. "Straight just looks more professional."

Linda Vogel, vice-president and general counsel for Aerosoles, the shoe company, is also staying straight. "The biggest reason for me to go straight is that it is a time saver," she says, noting she prefers to use a Japanese straightening treatment in which the hair stays straight for several months. "I don't have to worry if it is humid about leaving one way and arriving at a meeting with it looking totally different."

Hiro Haraguchi, a New York hair stylist to designer Vera Wang, acknowledges some business women are still asking for pin-straight hair but says it suits very few of them. "For someone with a small, long face or small head, straight hair is a Don't, and I will tell them that." Instead, Haraguchi suggests women get layers around the face and a style that can be easily maintained.
"We are not encouraging straight hair at all," agrees Ian Florey, a senior stylist at Charles Worthington's Mayfair salon in the Dorchester Hotel. He suggests blow drying hair straight then using tongs to achieve "a Sienna Miller" look. (Miller gets her hair done at their Percy Street salon). "We don't want frizz or old fashioned. Soft curl can still look edgy."

Michael Gordon, the British hairdresser and founder and owner of Bumble and Bumble, the New York based hair product company and salon, believes ironed-out straight hair became a "suburban thing" that people had to have. "Let's just say it is very unnatural to have hair so straight it is like curtains," he notes.

Gordon prefers waves and chignons to create "a combination of elegance and texture", and is predicting a return to 1920s style bobs. "Like anything, hair goes through cycles and I think it will soon be about hair with volume and hair that moves."

David John, a stylist at Fred Segal Beauty in Santa Monica, also says that while some women were still asking for straight, blown-out hair, many had embraced curlier, more glamorous hair. "At the Golden Globes everyone was wearing full, soft and natural hair." And, like Gordon, John also believes bobs are the next new thing, along with cleaner, geometric cuts.

In this they are supported by Paul Windle from the Windle Salon in London's Covent Garden, who says straight hair, or "old footballers' wives' hair" is over, and Louise Brooks-style bobs are in.

Curls are also back in style, but messier. "Don't ruin the texture of curly hair by trying to straighten it," says Windle. "Just let it dry naturally while running your fingers through it."
"Stylistically, big hair is officially dead," says Gordon. "Please write an epilogue."

But perhaps a woman should have the last word. According to one Wall Street lawyer she would never go to a client meeting with her hair naturally wavy. "Straight hair, regrettably, will always look sharp, clean and polished and there is nothing we can do to change that."
© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd

By Julie Earle-Levine
Jun 04, 2005

The promise of spring and crisp, new clothes after a miserable winter is reason enough to shop. There is that must-have pouffy skirt to purchase, silky camisoles to snap up and a new swimsuitfor the beach. Most people would agree, retail therapy feels good. Butwhat happens when you cannot stop shopping?

Close to 8 per cent of the US population are considered "hard core" compulsive buyers, according to the psychologists who treat them. For some, this is expressed as dropping $2,000 on Jimmy Choo shoes and not being able to pay the rent; for others it is having the latest DVDs, cameras, computer and sports equipment.

Then there are those who go to see April Benson, a Manhattan psychologist who specialises in the treatment of compulsive buying disorders, because a well-known celebrity has worn a designer item on television.

"I used to get a lot of women coming in after Carrie Bradshaw (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) on Sex and the City would wear something on TV," says Benson, author of I Shop. Therefore I am: Compulsive Buying and the Search for Self. "Jimmy Choos are a big problem for lots of women. They think they can never get enough of what they don't really need."

"Most shopaholics are trying to counteract feelings of low self-esteem through the emotional lift and momentary euphoria that compulsive buying provides," Benson says, and adds that she believes the problem is growing.

Donald Black, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, who has studied compulsive shopping for 12 years, agrees. "There are reports from England, Germany, France, Brazil and Australia to suggest people are consumed with shopping in a way that impairs their emotional, social and financial lives."

He says the few countries that did not have the problem were generally third world countries. "If you think of Africa, or poor parts of Asia, the same conditions don't exist. People spend their time gathering food not at the mall."

But compulsive shoppers don't need to live near a mall to be seduced by retail. "If an individual has an impulse in this direction, then they can get anything they want via the internet, the phone, catalogues and have it delivered express," says Black.

Most of Benson's clients are women and though men have the same lack of control, society refers to them as "collectors" and fewer seek help, she says. Certainly, more is known about compulsive female shoppers, from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to Imelda Marcos, whose passion for shoes was well documented. Michele Duvalier, the wife of the former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, bought designer clothes, jewellery, furs and works of art in the middle of that country's economic crisis. Black gives further examples: "Princess Diana was widely reported to be a compulsive shopper, among othedisorders. Even Randolph Hearst almost bankrupted himself in the 1930s because he was a so-called collector."

But what determines if shopping has gone beyond a routine activity? If you shop excessively year round, or every day, or buy multiples of the same product and hide what you buy, then you may have a real problem. It is not about overindulging at Christmas or for birthdays, Black says.

"Women can hide it for a while. Most spouses aren't curious about attics but many get divorces when they learn they can't get a mortgage because of their partner's problem."
Olivia Mellan, a Washington-based psychotherapist who is credited with creating the field of money psychology, sees many couples and says usually one is the spender.

"Often the man will ask his partner to get help and I have addicts who buy Kate Spade handbags, Hermès scarves and then guys who love Rolex watches."

As Carrie said on Sex and the City: "If I spent $40,000 on shoes and I have no place to live, I will literally be the old woman who lived in her shoes."

IRENE ALBRIGHT HAS 4,000 PAIRS OF MANOLO BLAHNIK SHOES

"I definitely have a problem." But the racks of Manolos take up a relatively small amount of space in her 7,000sq ft loft in Manhattan. It is the rows of Dolce & Gabbana and Louis Vuitton shoes, and aisles of clothes by Gucci, Prada, Chloé and Marc Jacobs that are the biggest space hogs.

Albright, an American-born Iraqi, is a self-described fashion whore. "I always say it is better than being a drug addict," she says, admitting to spending thousands of dollars a week on her "closet", which has expanded to become a rental showroom, stocked with designer handbags, suits, shoes and even bikinis.

However, unlike other addicts, Albright has turned her compulsion into a business, and her showroom boasts one of the most comprehensive fashion inventories in New York, which she rents out to various stylists and editors.

Albright buys the current season's must-haves at sample sales and often stores invite her to visit early in the season. She never shops with friends. "I always have a huge pile," she says. "Dolce & Gabbana let me come in early because I buy a lot and I don't want to be bothered when I am shopping. I have to be completely focused."

Albright officially started her collection in the 1990s, when she was working as a stylist.
She had studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and designed opera sets at Juilliard School but ended up working with fashion photographer Bruce Weber, as well as the late Vogue editor Kezia Keeble.

Of her collection, her favourite pieces include the Tom Ford-designed Yves Saint Laurent gold sequined backless dress that Nicole Kidman wore to the Golden Globes last year; a new Gucci purple sequined gown; and a pink Christian Dior gown with ruffles that Renée Zellweger has worn.

"Where have all the Chloes gone!?" she asks no one in particular. One of her four in-house editors, who help to style photo shoots for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, rushes over to tell her the Chloes are all out, as is a pink Alberta Ferretti dress she can't find.

"Oh no! I can't think about anything else but that dress. I should have bought more," said Albright. "Maybe I will."

Albright throws open dozens of cupboards to reveal racks of designer handbags, hats and even jewellery. "Isn't this sick?"

She is wearing a simple, black Michael Kors dress with bare legs, and slip-on shoes.
"When I bought this loft I thought I could just walk next door into my showroom and wear something fabulous, but I don't really. I don't think about getting dressed up when I am in working mode."

Albright rarely gives up anything and finds her annual South Hampton yard sale a trial.
Up to 5,000 shoes can be displayed on the lawn, with prices starting at $40, though they are new and originally cost $400 and up.

"I hand-pick everything and I am very passionate about it," she says. "My staff will edit (and remove items so they are for sale and out of the showroom) and then in the middle of the night I will go back and put it back on the rack."

Albright also admits to concealing how much she really buys. "I am like a wife who doesn't want her husband to know they shop. I hide it. Sometimes I just put it on the rack and one of my editors will ask, have you been shopping again?"

Irene Albright, stylist, 62 Cooper Square, 2nd floor, New York +1 212-977 7350




© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd

By Julie Earle-Levine
Jun 11, 2005

Jade Jagger, daughter of Mick and Bianca, is at home in Ibiza, Spain, slicing chicken for a teriyaki stir fry from the local market for lunch. The view from the kitchen of her 500-year-old Spanish farmhouse is stunning - mountains and greenery as far as the sapphire-blue sea. Jagger stops for a moment to enjoy it, knife poised over white Corian counters. "Yeah, the design of my house just puts you right in it. This is my kind of sanctuary."

Jagger has invited me to the house, which she designed with architect and business partner Tom Bartlett, because she sees it as a showcase of her artistic sensibility. She is perhaps best known as the hard-partying daughter of a Rolling Stone. But now, aged 33, with two children, she is trying to establish a career in design, creating jewellery for Garrard and, more recently, signing on as an interiors consultant to UK-based property developer Yoo, which has about 500 apartments worldwide and 4,000 under construction.

Starting our tour after lunch, Jagger describes her home as "a mix of traditional Jagger bohemian style with a clean, modern feel". "The kitchen is made for a big family that loves to cook, so we have a big Aga stove (best for slow-cooking roasted meats and vegetables) to keep everyone toasty in the colder months," she says. An orange aluminium table by MDF Italia matches custom-sprayed Gio Ponti chairs. The floor throughout the house is industrial rubber that Jagger says adds a spring to her step. "It never creaks, and bounces glasses and youngsters with ease."

Next is her bedroom, or boudoir as she prefers to call it, a former hayloft with floor-to-ceiling windows framing the mountains and an enormous, freestanding, Japanese teak bathtub by William Garvey. "It is as big as the kitchen and used a lot where we as a family can all get clean and beautiful as we relax and talk." Her four-poster bed is also teak. There is a fireplace and a bespoke round futon for "after-bath" relaxation, or if her daughters, Assisi, 12, and Amba, 9, want to be close by. Portraits of her six dogs adorn the walls. A walk-in closet spills with designer clothes and racks of shoes for an event every night, whichever city she may be in. Jagger splits her time between Ibiza and London and is often in New York.

Downstairs, hip hop music thumps. "This is the 'teenager's' room, where they don't study," Jagger says, sweeping past the not-quite teenage girls, who are just back from school.

Outside, there is a seating area with Indian silk throw cushions and statues of the Hindu elephant-headed god Ganesh - all part of the "bohemian" aesthetic. Ganeshes and fabrics she has bought back from India over the years help to "keep my eyes alive", she says. Walking from the main house, we pass one of the house's two pools (with an enormous mirrored disco ball above it) and what look like naked tepees, just upright poles and no covers. "In the winter we take the skins down, but in summer, guests stay there. Kate (Moss) prefers to stay inside the house." The teepees have fur blanket beds where guests can recline on plush cushions and oriental carpets.

The pool, with rendered pink concrete on the inside, turns the water a delicious green. The landscaping around it was difficult, Jagger tells me. "We wanted to do it without changing the feeling that it was a farmhouse with a lot of land. It seems like sabotage sometimes when you put all the concrete down."

A dirt path cuts through green land that is scorched in summer. This leads to a spacious studio where Jagger draws and paints each day. Doors open on to a terrace and an infinity pool. Cactuses in terracotta are eye-catching against white walls. There is also a studio for her boyfriend, musician Dan Williams, and a guest room, where everything is vermilion, like sindoor, the deep, rich blood-red powder used in Hindu rituals and by women to show they are married.
The walls are lined with books, mostly the novels, design, art and inspirational books Jagger says she likes to read. "I think that, sadly, the beauty of a well-read book shelf is sorely underestimated, both as a feature and as a part of daily life." She puts wood in the fireplace and settles into a chair covered with an ornate Indian wedding shawl.

I mention a photo seen in a London tabloid that day - of a paparazzo leering at Jagger in a skimpy orange dress, and she bristles. "Public perception of me can be totally annoying. Sometimes I want to pull my hair out."

Although she sees herself as a serious, self-taught artist who has been creative her entire life, critics are not yet convinced. When her paintings sell for thousands of pounds, they suggest that it is because of the family name rather than talent. Many fashion editors seem to have ignored, or panned, her jewellery; and her Yoo appointment was greeted with some surprise.

"I spend every breathing day thinking about art, and yet somehow, people see me in a different way," Jagger laments. She says she officially embraced art and design as a career when she left modelling to live amid Renaissance works in Florence. Other influences include friends of her mother, such as artists Ross Bleckner and Francesco Clemente. "From my early childhood I thought that Andy Warhol with his whole factory concept was genius," she adds.

At Yoo, she will work closely with designer Philippe Starck, a company co-founder, and with Bartlett. The aim, says the other co-founder, John Hitchcox, was to bring a feminine side to Yoo's apartments; it currently has five, 40-storey buildings under development.

Jagger will help design four concepts, expressing different lifestyles: Boho, Aristo, Disco and Techno. "There has to be different applications in each place, but I think there should be a recognisable philosophy," she says. "Boho is kind of luxurious, with ethnic finishes. Aristo is leather, traditional colours and that kind of English, quintessential racing green. Disco relates back to what I remember of the Studio 54 generation: Halston, carpeted stairs and plush recessed seating." (Her mother was, of course, a fixture at the New York nightclub along with Warhol, whose paintings Jagger has in the Ibiza house.)

"I really love the idea of spreading out art and creativity into products and things that are affordable and attainable," Jagger says.

There is also the draw of trying to turn the sensibility she's showing me today into a fully fledged interior design business with Yoo.
As for the idea of branding herself, she makes no apologies: "I think we have become a society that enjoys lifestyle identity."
Contact Yoo: www.yooarehere.com;tel: +44 (0)20 7009-0100

HOUSE & HOME: A chip off the old building block
By Julie Earle-Levine
Oct 22, 2005

It is hard to miss Trump Place when driving up Manhattan's West Side Highway, along the Hudson River. The group of buildings looms over the road and the adjacent Hudson River, like its own city, emblazoned with the Trump name in thick, gold block letters. Get closer and you'll find a stream of limousines waiting to pick up wealthy residents; inside the main tower (one of 16 that will eventually be built), there is a dramatic, domed foyer of Italian marble with custom woodwork.

These are exactly the sort of glitzy, gargantuan developments for which Trump is famous.

But I'm at Trump Place today to visit a decidedly low-key apartment - the one owned and occupied by the son, Donald Trump Jr.

Trump Jr is to all intents and purposes his father's real apprentice. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, he joined the Trump Organization four years ago.

Now, at age 27, he is vice-president of development and acquisitions, responsible for four major US projects and helping to find opportunities in Moscow, Shanghai, Macau and Mexico.
He claims to work 12-hour days, six days a week, so asks me to meet him at home before he heads to the office - located on a floor he shares with his father at the 58-storey Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.

When I step off the lift, Trump Jr is waiting outside his open door in a beautifully tailored pinstripe suit - and socks. (He has a shoes-off policy at home because "New York can be, well, dirty.")

The apartment is a well-laid out two-bedroom that he shares with his fiancée, the model and actress Vanessa Haydon, and her dog, Faluffa, a fluffy, white Havanese who bounces around before eventually plopping down on a dog bed filled with toys in the kitchen.

Trump leads me into the living room and settles into a chocolate leather lounge. Trump Place is more than a home for him, he explains. It was also his first construction project, and a tough challenge. Sales started just before the September 11 terrorist attacks, then, as almost everywhere else in Manhattan, suddenly stopped.

"I mean, [the buiding] is 49 storeys tall and right on the water, and it was a sceptical market," Trump says. "But in January, we sold 45 apartments." Eleven months later, the building was sold out.

He has lived here for 18 months and particularly likes being close to the highway, which offers an easy escape route to the country. Where Donald Sr thrives on parties and pageants, his son is happiest hiking and fishing. There's a photo of him with an enormous steelhead trout on display in the apartment to prove it.

The living-room coffee table is stacked with business books and magazines, surrounded by more framed pictures - of his father; his mother, Trump's first wife, Ivana; and Haydon. The décor is somewhat sophisticated, but also a mix of styles. In the lounge, for example, Trump has installed a tree-stump coffee table with a glass top because "it brings nature inside". Haydon is not a fan. "That is definitely going to the country house," she says.

So, given that Trump's name is on the building, why isn't he in one of the penthouse apartments? "It was not an option," he laughs. "I had to buy this apartment. My parents were good at spoiling me with travel and a good education but I had to buy my own place." The purchase price was $900,000, he says, "but I got in before the craze", he refuses to speculate about what it is worth now.

I ask what he thinks about recent claims that Manhattan real estate is overvalued and set for a fall. "As far as a bubble, I don't see anything exploding; I don't see doom and gloom," he says. "After the Enrons, the Dennis Kozlowskis and the advent of the hedge fund business, people now realise real estate is solid."

The week after our September interview he was set to close the sale of a $19m apartment. He'd sold another for $23m earlier in the summer. And "these things happened in August and July and June, which are typically the slowest months of the year," he says.

These values will hold, and rise, he argues, because the baby boomer generation has realised the value of owning a second home and their purchases of condos at the beach and pieds à terre in the city will support the overall market. His advice for twentysomethings such as himself - not surprisingly - is to invest in property as soon as possible.

He and Haydon are talking about that weekend house in the country (where that tree-stump table will go) as well as children and a second dog. They're due to wed next month and are watching their waistlines when I visit. But both tell me they love to cook and, judging by the equipment in their kitchen, which is positioned in the main living room, and their dining table set topped with candelabras, I believe them.

As Trump gets ready to be photographed for this piece, he asks how his hair looks. For the record, it's nothing like his father's much-ridiculed combed-over coif: it's dark brown, long for an executive, and smoothed back from a boyish but determined face.

It must be hard to be the son of someone so famous and infamous, successful and self-promotional - to suffer through the constant comparisons and the, often unflattering, assumptions. But, says Trump, "I have dealt with scepticism about me, and I think people are surprised by my experience."

Having visited construction sites since he was able to walk, Trump followed in his father's footsteps by enrolling at Wharton. But instead of starting work immediately after graduation, he took a year off to party in Aspen. "It was fun," he says. "But then I realised I loved real estate." And he felt ready to join the family business. "I know who my father is," he says, "and I know he doesn't accept failure."

Aside from Trump Place, Trump has overseen the transformation of the art deco Delmonico Hotel, at 59th Street and Park Avenue, into 35 storeys of luxury condominiums, now called Trump Park Avenue. He is also helping to look after the 90-storey Trump hotel and condominium development in Chicago, Trump International Hotel and Tower Fort Lauderdale and Trump Las Vegas.

Those who work with father and son say they handle problems differently. Donald Sr can be "explosive", and is known as a brash, fierce negotiator. (He recently sued his business partners for selling a parcel of land and three Trump Place buildings to developers for $1.76bn, a huge price but one which he claims was 40 per cent below another offer.) Donald Jr prefers a softer touch.

His diplomacy is on display during another tour, of a $31.5m duplex penthouse at Trump Park Avenue. When I comment on the chandeliers in the elevators, the gold doorknobs everywhere, and the frescoes covering the entire ceiling (modelled after the ones at Donald Sr's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach), he responds easily. "He thought they would be a nice touch.," Trump says. "When people buy into a Trump building, buyers expect a slice of Trump."

The son may not share his father's taste, but he can still sell it.