fashion designers

By Julie Earle-LevineDec 24, 2005New 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...

By Julie Earle-LevineFeb, 2005So 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...

A Frenchman in New YorkBy Julie Earle-LevineFinancial Times; Feb 2005Moments 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...

By Julie Earle-LevineFinancial Times; Apr 2005Gwyneth 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,...

By Julie Earle-LevineJun 04, 2005The 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"...

By Julie Earle-LevineJun 11, 2005Jade 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...

HOUSE & HOME: A chip off the old building blockBy Julie Earle-LevineOct 22, 2005It 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...