UK Vogue, GQ, Tatler, House & Garden Living, September 2007

Julie Earle Levine reports

Picture this. Five hundred of the wealthiest names in New York dancing en-masse in the lobby of a bank on Wall Street. Beyonce is singing on stage surrounded by lithe models, billionaires with bald spots reflecting whirling spotlights, mixed with A-list celebrities. Waiters dart through the crowd with magnums of Krug and Dom Perignon. The Cipriani Wall Street Concert series raises millions of dollars for charity. But there is more beneath the gilded surface of this soiree.

It is never formally announced, but underneath the din, the powerful engine of real estate is purring. Somewhere between the scampi alla thermidor and roasted double lamb chop, concert guests (which have included Naomi Campbell, Jennifer Lopez and Margherita Missoni, among others) may be offered a chance to see the $1-million-plus condos upstairs in this converted building, and hopefully, buy one. By the end of the evening, several Cipriani Club Residences at 55 Wall Street apartments have been scooped up.

The high-end-real-estate frenzy in New York is also being played out in London, albeit in a more reserved, less glamorous manner. When considering two of the most dynamic cities in the world, the luxury property market is bound to be a cocktail of money, glamour, power, and sex. New York’s social elite and previously discreet Brits have never been so consumed with property. At dinner parties in downtown SoHo lofts, Upper East Side mansions and Kensington apartments, the conversation is peppered with juicy details on bidding wars. Who is buying where and at what price – it went for how much?!

‘The Brits talk about little else at dinner parties other than house prices. It would never happen at a French dinner party, but it happens here now all the time’ says Rupert de Forges, partner at Knight Frank LLP, which has about 200-million pounds worth of apartments and 300 million pounds in houses listed in the Knightsbridge office alone.

So what changed? Both New York and London are awash in cash, from equity markets as well as wealthy foreign investors. Hedge-fund money has fuelled the very top of both cities’ property markets.

In New York, Prudential Douglas Elliman sold $11.7 billion of real estate last year, while the other top brokerage, Corcoran, currently has $8.4 billion in listings. And in prime central London, agents have 5.5 billion pounds of residential property listed (as of 18 May) according to the trade website www.lonres.com.

In Manhattan, deals are quietly closed at the Four Seasons Grill Room, or over an espresso at downtown Cipriani’s restaurant, where brokers such as Paolo Zampolli, who owns ID Model Management and now is also a realtor, dine with potential clients. On a recent weekday, Arkie Busson, the French financier and former partner of Elle Macpherson, sauntered across to say hello to Zampolli, who later speculated he was in town to buy a house. He suspected it was through Sotheby’s, not his agency. He was not happy.

Through their various brokers, the city’s power menagerie compete aggressively for properties. ‘If someone wants a certain penthouse, condo or townhouse they simply get it any way they can – and they pay’, said Raphael de Niro, who has his own group with Prudential Douglas Elliman and is the son of the actor, Robert. Many jump in early before construction starts. Prices for luxury condos in some buildings have jumped 20 per cent since they were sold off-plan.

Just how much have prices for a gorgeous townhouse shot up in Manhattan? Nanette Lepore, a fashion designer, bought her five-and-a-half storey, 20ft-wide-and-60ft-deep brownstone in the primeWest Village district for $6.5 million in 2004 and had it completely redecorated. Then the market shot up even higher. Her property is now valued at $12 million.

On average, New York is around $3,000 to $4,000 per square foot, while London is the most expensive property market in the world at $4,000 to 6,000 per square foot. Jonathan Hewlett, director of Savills London, says he has never been busier. ‘Everyone wants to be here. The security is good, trust in financial markets is good and there is a limited supply of prime stock.’ Prices in London’s prime time market have jumped 30 per cent in the last calander year, and more than tripled since 1997.

The top end for London is 10 million pounds. Who is lining up? De Forges says the Russians represent a good quarter of that market. At the 20-million-plus pounds mark tends to be those from the Middle East, Russian, or former Soveit states, Australia and the occasional Englishman. The best properties in Mayfair, Belgravia, Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Kensington/South Kensington and Notting Hill have seen a 40 to 50 per cent growth in the past year, he said. Wealthy locals are competing with and exotic international mix for the best properties- French, Brazilian, Spanish, Cubans and Americans. But the biggest buyers in the first half of this year? ‘They are from Kazakhstan and Iceland. It is extraordinary.’

Hewlett puts the former Soviet states at the top end of the market. ‘It is the same as in the 1980s, when lots of Hong Kong, Chinese and South-East Asian investors were buying properties in London, and for their families. When you come with 5-10-million pounds and you find nothing, well sometimes budgets can double.’ Savills sold 1.7-billion pounds worth of property last year alone.

Meanwhile, the spate of new buildings in New York (more so than in London where building is more restricted) is creating hot new areas and stealing the show from upmarket neighbourhoods such as the Upper East Side. ‘The financial district is where all the money is going’, says Michael Shvo, and founder of SHVO, a marketer of condo projects all around the USA, citing the Armani building and the new W Hotel residences. Gucci, Tiffany, Hermes are on their way. ‘Wall Street will be the next Madison Avenue, as will Manhattan’s Far West waterfront.

The property boom in both cities is all about ‘lifestyle’, especially in New York where skyscrapers come with big names- Donald Trump’s new SoHo building, Jade Jagger’s apartments in Chelsea (for YOO with Philippe Starck), hotelier Ian Schrager’s first-ever residential properties, Gramercy Park and 40 Bond Street.

Ivanka Trump, Donald’s daughter, is selling Trump SoHo Hotel Condominium, a new 45-storey hotel on Spring Street that will be four times as tall as anything else in SoHO. It will have an Olympic size swimming pool and world-class spa. ‘You can’t have a luxury building now without these amenities. What used to be okay in the 1980s, such as a 9ft ceiling height, is now 10ft ceiling height minimum plus the sort of amenities you would normally find in a hotel’ says Ivanka, a former model whose uniform of construction boots with Yves St Laurent suits sums up the newfound glamour of this business.

At the Cipriani dinner, one woman likened an apartment she had just seen upstairs to a beautiful jewel box. ‘It is perfect. Everything is completely built in. The refrigerators are completely hidden. There’s African wood. I’m in love with the sinks, they are so stylish.’ But anyone shopping for jewel boxes may be disappointed. The 100-unit building is nearly sold out.

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WHERE’S WALTER?

CHICAGO

By Julie Earle-Levine

IT MAY BE A RAINY WEEKDAY IN OAK PARK, a serene, perfectly coiffed suburb almost 18 kilometres west of downtown Chicago, but visitors are undaunted by the steamy showers and grey skies. Toting umbrellas and wearing backpacks, their iPod audio tours are at the ready as they crisscross excitedly from one leafy residential street to the next, snapping photos and marking maps. They have been drawn here, from all over the world, by the houses designed by their hero, Frank Lloyd Wright, the self-described genius of American architecture.

Oak Park has had more than its share of pioneers. Ernest Hemingway was born and spent his early days here, and another writer, Edgar Rice Burroughs, called Oak Park home. But it was Wright who left the most visible legacy – the 25 buildings he designed. More than 100,000 Frank Lloyd Wright architecture devotees flock annually to Oak Park to visit one of the most recognised collections of the late 19^th- and 20^th- century American residential architecture. The buildings include his home, studio and Robie House, in nearby Hyde Park, considered by the American Institute of Architects to be one of the 12 most significant buildings of the 20^th century.

But I had come to Oak Park with the intention of tracing the work of another architectural master-mind, a man whose American work has perhaps not received the recognition it deserves. Walter Burley Griffin, the architect and landscape designer best known for designing Australia’s capital, Canberra, grew up in Oak Park. Later, he would work for Frank Lloyd Wright at the Home and Studio, the centre of Wright’s creative hub.

As an Australian living in New York, I wondered what it would be like to explore Griffin’s work in Chicago, starting at Wright’s headquarters. I was intrigued to learn that it was suspected that some of the buildings in Oak Park credited to Wright were actually designed by Griffin.

Of course, no visitor to Chicago should miss the tour of Wright’s Home and Studio, but Griffin fans may be disappointed. Inside the studio, I asked my guide about Griffin. He shrugged his shoulders. “Griffin who?” “Walter Burley Griffin.” I replied. “He worked for Wright.” The guide looked at me blankly. I explained that Griffin designed Canberra, and has also been credited with developing the L-shaped floor plan, the carport and the first use of reinforced concrete. The guide nodded his head slowly, “Oh yes, a woman.” An architecture student from Belgrade interrupted and brought any Griffin-related conversation to an abrupt end. It was as if the other architects from the Prairie School, the late-19^th and early 20^th-century architectural style that Griffin and others engaged in, never existed.

Henry Kuehn, a Griffin enthusiast and volunteer with the Chicago Architecture Foundation, is not surprised. “For many Frank Lloyd Wright followers, there was no one else,” he says. “They are so enamoured with him, they talk as though he is still alive –as if they think he will walk through the door –while Griffin went unrecognized.”

What our guide does not tell our group was that the studio, a stunning room with a two-storey octagonal drafting room and natural light that pours from the roof skylight onto half a dozen desks, was the scene of bitter arguments between Wright and Griffin.

Decorated with Japanese prints and miniature casts of classical sculptures, the studio was an “informal, pleasant place to work” according to H. Allen Brooks, author of The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Midwest Contemporaries. But according to others, tempers had simmered. Wright was a controlling, jealous boss. Griffin was serious about his work, but quiet and sweet-natured with a preference for floppy black bow ties.

I wonder how the disagreements had played out in this serene setting. There had reportedly been many, the most spectacular when Wright left Griffin in charge of the studio when he traveled to Japan. On his return, Wright accused Griffin of overstepping his responsibilities and inserting his own ideas and plans. Wright, who was notoriously careless with money, had borrowed money from Griffin for his trip. On his return, he tried to repay Griffin with Japanese prints. The man who would go on to design Canberra was outraged. He later discovered the prints had far less value than Wright had suggested. After Griffin left Wright’s studio to set up his own practice in 1906, the two men never spoke again.

Kuehn believes Griffin may have even overshadowed Wright’s success had he stayed in America instead of moving to Australia in 1914 after winning the competition to design the country’s capital. Wright was said to be furious to see his former employee featured on the front page of The New York Times for winning the Canberra competition.

Even though Canberra’s designer never built any houses in Oak Park - Wright had the market cornered – Kuehn, who has agreed to accompany me on my Walter Burley Griffin quest, believes Griffin’s trademarks can be found in Wright houses in Oak Park and other areas. He’s not alone in his opinion. Paul Kruty, president of the Walter Burley Griffin Society and Professor of Architectural History at the University of Illinois, supports that view. “There are specific houses that have Griffin’s trademarks, houses that Wright was credited with – but Wright would never admit that,” he says. “Wright often changed the dates on his drawings or just denied it.”

A short stroll from Wright’s Home and Studio on a self-guided walking tour is Wright’s Beachy House (238 Forest Avenue). Some people believe it has Griffin’s trademarks – big piers at the corner, blocks and a gable roof. “Beachy is known as the Wright house but if Griffin didn’t have a hand in it, it certainly has Griffin’s trademarks. I suspect Griffin was heavily involved,” says Kuehn. “Wright was a pretty big self-promoter. He would say he crafted fire and water if you listened.” Tim Loftus, an architectural historian and Griffin fan who has documented Griffin’s work on his website www.prairiestyles.com, agrees: “Beachy House has Griffin written all over it.”

Kruty also believes Wright was heavily influenced by Griffin. The Mrs Thomas H. Gale House in Oak Park (6 Elizabeth Court) is another famous Wright house which features horizontal planes that hover, and a flat roof.

Its abstract nature and geometrical shapes stand out in a street of Queen Anne-style houses and apparently, at the time, some of the neighbours hated it.

It is considered to be one of Wright’s most unusual styles here, although there is some debate about whether it was built in 1904 or 1909. “When everyone thought the Gale house was 1904, they would compare it to Griffin’s Mary Bovee house,” says Kruty. Plans for the Bovee house, in the suburb of Evanston, were completed by November 1907and it was constructed the following year. Wright fans will say Griffin’s house was clearly derived from Wright’s work, but it wasn’t, Kruty says. “I don’t actually have proof, of course, that Wright knew the building before he designed the Gale house, but it is very, very likely that he did, for a variety of reasons.”

Strolling in Oak Park, where Griffin grew up (he was born in the Chicago suburb of Maywood in 1876, the son of an insurance salesman), it is easy to imagine him being passionate about gardening and landscape design. The lawns are spectacular rolling green carpets, with perfectly pruned hedges and trees that seem to have been planted for each house. As a young man, Griffin was considering landscape design but decided to study architecture and in 1899 received a degree from the architecture program at the University of Illinois. He then worked as a draftsman for two years at Steinway Hall in Chicago, where a number of young architects shared office space. Among them were Wright and many others who would become important Prairie School designers. These architects, let by Wright, were heavily influenced by Louis Sullivan, an influential architect often referred to as “father of modernism”. Their style was marked by horizontal lines, flat roofs with broad, overhanging eaves, solid construction and craftsmanship.

Instead of opening his own practice, Griffin joined Wright’s studio- where the Prairie School style would flourish – as an associate from 1901 to 1906.

Kruty believes neither man knew what he was in for. “Griffin wanted to be a partner but Wright was not the kind of person who could ever have a partner. He had no respect for individual talents except to use them.” By 1914 Griffin had left Chicago for good, embarking on the ultimately controversial task of creating a national capital for Australia and later designing the Sydney harbourside suburb of Castlecrag.

To view one of Griffin’s first significant architectural commissions, we drive 20 minutes’ west of Oak Park to the William H. Emery House in Elmhurst. On the journey, Kuehn praises Griffin’s wife, Marion Mahony, who was the second woman to graduate in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (She also worked for Wright.) A highly regarded draftsman, illustrator and furnishings designer, she is believed by many to have been crucial to Griffin’s successful Canberra bid. The Griffins went on to design more than 350 building, landscape and urban design projects, as well as interiors and furniture.

Elmhurst streets are wide and the houses large, but none commands attention like the Emery House (281 South Arlington Avenue), with its vast landscaping. The visitor is greeted by what Kuehn says is “a pure Griffin house” in deep red brick that rests squarely on the ground, with roof lines that soar. And while there are no public tours, twice a year the house is opened to members of the Walter Burley Griffin Society courtesy of the home’s owner, Tom Zusag. He bought the house in 1998 and worked on it for two years before livingi n it with his family.

“This is the quintessential Walter Burley Griffin house. The biggest and the best he built,” says Kuehn, in awe, as if seeing it for the first time (he has seen it a handful of times, both inside and out). Griffin designed it when he was 25 years old. The wood-framed windows, four massive brick piers and gabled roof are distinctly Griffin. Zusag meets us outside, sweating slightly as if he has been cleaning, but once inside it becomes obvious that he may just have been climbing the many staircases in this enormous property.

Griffin received the commission for Emery House in 1901-02. At the time, Wright had been overseeing the nearby F.B. Henderson House, explains Zusag. Wright’s bid for Emery had been rejected because he was considered “too uncompromising” and the commission went to Griffin, whose parents’ house was nearby. Griffin would design the house as a wedding gift from William H. Emery’s father. He would also design, in 1909, the William B. Sloane House just down the road at 248 South Arlington Avenue. The size and scale of Emery House is impressive. “I think he was showing off,” says Kuehn. “This sticks up right out of the prairie and it would have been seen right across the farmland.” The plan was considered to be “ingenious.”

Our next stop is 296 North Elm Avenue in Elmhurst, but when we reach the address Kuehn screeches the car to a halt. “It’s gone!” A Griffin property that stood there months earlier had been demolished. “And look what is there. A monster!” he says, referring to a modern brick Sopranos-style home. He makes a note to find out what happened. The landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois is militant, but this one had apparently slipped through. “Don’t worry, we’ll see others.”

To see Griffin’s other houses, we travel to an area on the south side of Chicago that is home to a mix of blue-collar Irish, Italians and Poles. Here we find the largest concentration of small-scale Griffin houses in existence, as well as a street dedicated to him.

Most Prairie School houses are large structures with custom millwork, elaborate stained-glass windows and expansive floor plans, but his houses in south Chicago reduce the design elements of the Prairie School to their essentials.

The houses that line 104^th Place (renamed Griffin Place) are neatly marked with plaques and notes for each property, making it easy to wald from one to the next. These Griffin houses were designed as low-cost housing, with innovative L-shaped or open-plan living areas.

Pauline Saliga and her family of four have lived in a Griffin house (1741 Griffin Place) since 1990. “We thought it would be intriguing to live in an architect-designed house that was created specifically with affordability in mind.” Says Saliga, who is executive director of the Society of Architectural Historians in Chicago. Historians have said that the Griffin houses on Griffin Place are modelled after Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fireproof House for $5000”, which, was published in the Ladies’ Home Journal in 1907, and Saliga believes this may be true.

Mati Maldre, who lives in the Jenkinson House (1727 Griffin Place), has owned the house since 1980. “It’s great to own a small piece of America’s architectural heritage.” Maldre is also co-author and photographer for the book Walter Burley Griffin in America that became the inspiration for a television documentary on Griffin. She has photographed all of Griffin’s work in the US and Australia.

Griffin created more than 130 designs in his Chicago office for buildings, urban plans and landscapes. Half of these were built in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin but it was his Australian designs that brought him worldwide notoriety. Griffin’s letterhead came to carry the legend, “Architect and Landscape Architect – Sydney, Melbourne, Chicago.”

In 1935 Griffin moved to India, where he and Mahony operated a practice and received numerous commissions. He died there of peritonitis in 1937.

One wonders what he might have gone on to design had he lived as long as Wright, who died in 1959.

Seventy years on it is a thrill to find that on one street in a Chicago suburb, the work of Griffin - whose architecture and life is revered on the other side of the world – still quietly lives on.

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By JULIE EARLE-LEVINE

"Look at that! It's so beautiful! Here we come!"

And there we go.

Tigre is a former international surfing champ, and he's helping me brush up on my skills, here in the easy-going village of Sayulita, Mexico. He will later prove invaluable as a source on where to find the best tacos.

There are many agreeable little coastal towns on Mexico's Pacific Coast. Few can say they are next door to a Four Seasons resort, or, for that matter, a villa where Beyoncé is staying.

Sayulita can. It is located just a few minutes' drive north of Punta Mita, the famous (and famously exclusive) luxury community near Puerto Vallarta that was designed to lure the high-end traveler to the region.

It seems to be working: At the Four Seasons, you can currently book a one-bedroom suite with a garden view for $1,025 a night. Over the holidays, you'll pay close to $2,000.

At the Villa Amor, located on the beach in Sayulita, an oceanfront one-bedroom currently starts at $88 per night, rising to a prohibitive $123 over Christmas.

Sure, your suite at the Four Seasons would feature a private plunge pool, but at Villa Amor, Sayulita Bay is yours to plunge into, anytime you like.

As you'd expect in a small town, the vibe here is relaxed. Dogs, cats and chickens roam free and everyone, even the locals, seem to be on holiday.

Experienced surfers and novices alike flock here to soak up the local culture.

Greg Shove, founder and CEO of luxury vacation real estate guide the Helium Report, found his way to Sayulita four years ago. He generally considers himself a luxury traveler. But at least once a year, he makes time to go to Sayulita with family and friends.

"We love the atmosphere, the warm water, great surfing and fresh food," said Shove, whose family learned to surf there. Sayulita is renowned for surfing, but there is enough in town to keep you happy beyond catching waves.

Quick, so you can walk again, go to Nicole Brandt, a Texan transplant, who does deep-tissue massages in a private palapa studio on the beach for $50 to $75/hour.

HOUSE AND HOME: 'The vibe is sophisticated but relaxed'

By Julie Earle-Levine
Jul 28, 2007

Vikram Chatwal is an Indian hotelier, actor and socialite who lives on the island of Manhattan in New York City and has a holiday home on Long Island. He is president of the boutique division of Hampshire Hotels and Resorts. He and his wife, the model Priya Sachdev, have a baby daughter.

Where did you grow up?

I was born in Addis Ababa [Ethiopia] but I moved to Manhattan when I was three and have lived here ever since. I love New York because it is so accessible. It has something for everyone because it is constantly changing. I also spent much time travelling to India, visiting family, and throughout Europe as well.

What was your childhood home like?

Growing up, we resided at 30 Lincoln Square Plaza on Central Park West. There was an interesting juxtaposition between the modern design of the building and the traditional Indian furnishings in my family's three-bedroom apartment. Our home was filled with warm colours and antiques we collected during our travels everywhere from London to Bangkok to Japan. All of the artwork and antiques I grew up with are still in our family homes. I loved the New York apartment, especially its location. My brother Vivek and I spent all of our time in Central Park playing basketball and swimming.

Tell me about your apartment.

It's very white and bright with sweeping views of Central Park. The sun pours in through floor-to-ceiling windows. I like to see the park's green tree-tops. It's very relaxing.

What is your favourite room?

The main living area. I have a bar crafted from stainless steel and with white fur. There are photos of friends including Naomi [Campbell]. I have a white, custom-designed, L-shaped, leather lounger, with black and white pillows, and a white, calfskin rug. All of this is reflected in a floor-to-ceiling mirrored wall. The black-and-white composition in general is attractive because it is very polarising. It can make a room feel both elegant and warm, yet also staunch. The lack of colour leaves open the imagination to focus more on the room and furniture.

The black-and-white theme seems to be echoed at one of your boutique hotels, in Manhattan, called Night.

Yes, all my hotels have a story, a connection to the heartbeat, culture and pure energy of the city they're in. Night is my homage to the drama, power, vitality and innate sensuality of New York. The space was designed to elicit the feeling of the city after dark. There are wrought-iron gates, black curtains on the outside of the building and black-and-white tiled carpet throughout. Also, black-and -white photographs, shot for the hotel, are on the walls in our public spaces.

What kind of mood have you created in your own home?

The vibe is sophisticated but relaxed. With Priya it became more intimate and personal. She bought me a 17th-century gable from a Buddhist temple in Thailand and we have this hanging on a mirrored wall, opposite a Picasso linocut entitled "Spanish Woman". When we are not travelling Priya and I like to cook at home: good Indian food. We dine under an antique silver candelabra. The apartment is now a mix of both of our styles.

You have an impressive art collection.

I love art and became an avid collector during my tenure as an analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York. Art is very important to my being. In the foyer we have an oil painting of the Hindu elephant-headed god Ganesh; a Francesco Clemente oil on canvas; a Peter Beard diary/collage called "Hot Rod"; and a linear Brice Marden. A "decision tree" drawing by artist Beth Campbell is by the dining table. I love her work. To me, it is the various probabilities that we contemplate, sometimes unconsciously, before making decisions and evaluating their outcomes. In the den I have a Sante D'Orazio photograph of Pamela Anderson [topless] next to our formal portraits. I love the fact that it is very Pam Anderson, daring and fun yet still a really natural photograph. My favourite portrait here though is of the Maharaja Dalip Singh, a poet. There are beautiful swords in this portrait and I have them in a sword collection.

You say the apartment now reflects your travels. What items?

A lot of what I have is relevant to a time and a place that I want to remember, such as artifacts from Thailand, one of my favourite places. I also like to collect art that reminds me of moments in time: "The Dream" from Dalí, one of Thierry Despont's masks and Picasso's "Spanish Woman", just to name a few.

Tell me about your 'den' and how that helps your creativity.

It's about comfort. I have two brown leather recliners, next to a bed with Indian throws and a soft, peach headboard. The drapes are pale gold silk. There is also a flat-screen television with a Sony PlayStation and an Xbox for when I want to really relax. I like to collect thoughts and ideas for my next hotel or film in this room. I'm mostly thinking about my hotels but sometimes I just like to look at the beautiful greenery and its various shades. It's so refreshing.

Your bedroom?

It's a quiet room with a four-poster bed and Indian silks and beads. The colour scheme is sombre tones and rich woods. There are two portraits of Sikh prophets hanging above the bed. I really like Indian silks and throws with tassels. They are part of my environment here and in India.

How many homes do you own?

Two - one home in Long Island and the Manhattan apartment. My weekend home is a Charles Gwathmey-designed farmhouse. It's on the north shore of Long Island in Nassau County, close to the water. It is decidedly more traditional inside than my home in Manhattan. It is a wonderful place to escape to. It is so relaxing and very convenient, being close to the city. I enjoy the architecture of the house just as much as the calm interiors. I also have a collection [of art] here and one of my favourite additions is a Ross Bleckner painting of flowers. I like these pieces because they stimulate emotion and provoke thought. I also know my [art] investment is safe and will grow in value.

Do you also invest in real estate?

I invest in real estate as it relates to hotels but not straight real estate investments per se.

You live in a Trump building in Manhattan. Is it glitzy - all gold and chandeliers?

I live in 1 Central Park West, probably the most reserved of the Trump buildings in that regard. The location works well for me and I can see my hotels from there along with the rest of the city I love.

HOUSE AND HOME: 'I've always had a huge amount of junk'

By Julie Earle-Levine, Financial Times
Jul 14, 2007

Betsey Johnson has always made her own rules since she started as a fashion designer in the 1960s. Andy Warhol was a close friend and Edie Sedgwick her house model. At 64, she still wears fluorescent baby-doll dresses and tutus. Johnson is passionate about her living quarters and recently launched her first home collection, designed for women who like her funky, eye-popping clothes.

You lived at the Chelsea Hotel in New York in the late 1960s. Tell me about that.

I moved in with a toothbrush for one night, after a break-up with a boyfriend, but I ended up living there for two years in a big loft. This is where I met John Cale [co-founder of the Velvet Underground, for whom she designed velvet suits and whom she married]. The place was very artsy, incredibly visual, with some of Andy Warhol's 1960's pop art thrown in. I made most of the costumes for Warhol's [film] Ciao Manhattan there and would sit in the lobby and try them out to see if anyone blinked - but no one ever did. I'd spend evenings at Max's Kansas City and then work all day. It was the second home where you hung out with "your kind". It was either Max's or Chelsea, a home for very "special" people.

How many homes do you own?

I have a Greenwich Village penthouse, a Hamptons home and two houses in Mexico, one of which I've turned into a villa. Each home has a completely different decor. Manhattan is Hollywood modernist glamour - Marilyn Monroe, pink walls with lace and zebra-print draperies, velvet sofas and gold tassel chairs, very 1950s style; East Hampton is "tea party floral"; and in Mexico, Betsyville, "a bright floral siesta house" and Villa Betsy, "Italian villa-esque".

What are your design influences?

I've always collected antiques and vintage furniture and decorated my homes with chandeliers, great country-kitchen cupboards, English wallpapers - a big mix. I love antiques, yard sales and everything crosses every time zone of history, in terms of furniture, clothing and shoes. I've always had a huge amount of junk around but it is collectable junk.

How did you choose the homes?

They were out of necessity. My favourite is the Fifth Avenue and 12th Street penthouse apartment, a big open space, 2,500 sq ft on the 17th floor. I have gorgeous views of the old spires of the church across the street and private roofs. I bought this 15 years ago but I was terrified then of buying, of any investment. I was in the stock market once and I hit the jackpot - that is how I was able to start my business - but I have never understood the mortgage concept. I generally take money and spend it.

You were married to John Cale?

Yes, we had a house in Jamaica but after we separated I realised I needed a place to house all my stuff. We had a funky farmhouse that was in upstate New York, so I met a lot of antique dealers. I always needed chandeliers. I can get five chandeliers for the price of one and early country cupboards, things I've had for years. I've never gone to Crate and Barrel, I love what I have. After the divorce, I found a cottage in East Hampton, in the woods. Here I have chandeliers, knick-knacks, old cupboards wallpapered with English tea party florals, cabbage roses. It is very cosy. Now it is our cosy grandchild hang-out. My daughter Lulu has my first and only grandchild, Layla, and we love going there.

Why did you buy in Mexico?

I didn't have a year-round, blue-sky, no-clouds, warm-weather private Idaho escape. Five years ago when I was celebrating being breast-cancer free, I thought, "This is the year to get an island home." Over the years of working, I'd been to Hong Kong, India, Morocco but I wanted just a place for sun and surf, warm water and hot sand. I love it down there, even in the rainy season. It's so tropical and lush and green. The spirit of the people is warm and friendly, innocent and culturally rich. When I was younger, hitchhiking and poor, bussing it around, I loved Mexico.

The area you bought in Mexico is very fashionable now.

Yes. Just like I predicted in the 1960s that SoHo in downtown Manhattan would explode, my paradise has taken off but it's still lovely. I was very lucky to find it. A friend told me to visit there and to go have lunch on this little beach where the fishermen come in with their catch. I found a tiny hotel and stayed in it. On the second day at breakfast, I asked them if they wanted to sell. It is walled in, a classical Mexican home, with three hand-built palapas [palm-thatched huts]. I started dreaming of buying the little strip of land next door. I took me two years to find the owners and a lot of beer drinking but finally they gave in. The interior decor was the most fun thing to do. I've always found decorating houses was just the perfect balance to difficult or frustrating creative work.

Is your first home collection like your fashion?

Well, where you start is bed and bath - that's everything that goes in and under the bed. And then it goes into the bathroom, sheets and towels. Home is wonderful for a clothing business. If a girl likes your clothes, she might like your kind of environment. Even if I could cook, which I can't, she'd probably enjoy my meal. Interior decorating is close to clothing design, with patterns and colours but I wouldn't turn that into a business.

What did you do with Betseyville?

Betseyville was too adorable and just too big for me. I would sleep in the pink room. Then another room for fun. It is four separate palapa houses, pools, two lounge hang-outs. It was too cute not to be shared. Meanwhile, down the road, 40 minutes south, I have this other property. The views are all blue sky and water. The house is like an Italian villa, grey cement with archways. I wanted to build a glamorous monastery. All the rooms have chandeliers and their own body lotion and bath gel. I don't rent it for more than 10 weeks maximum a year and that is just fine. I've never approached it as a business. Besides, I love to take jaunts and go myself every few months. I like to do San Miguel as a side trip. It is always an exciting new experience. I don't believe in having houses unless you live in them and keep them alive so I try to go every few months. I still hate flying but I'll fly to have three days on the beach.

Are you still shopping for homes?

Mexico's coastline still has some very nice deals, but no. I'm now realising - no more homes. The ones I have are pretty much filled because I am so addicted to antiquing. When I set up in Mexico, I had two 24ft moving trunks. Now, I need to restrict myself to collecting small objects like embroidered table napkins and silver spoons.

The Remix

By JULIE EARLE-LEVINE
March 11, 2007

Time for a new watch? Dent — the British clockmaker famous for creating the Big Ben tower in London as well as timepieces for luminaries like King Edward VI and Charles Darwin — has a new line of watches for the common man. Frank Spurrell, the founder of Watch Magazine, and Twysden Moore, a London nightclub entrepreneur and watch fetishist, acquired the label after assuring the original owner that they were not going to make tacky plastic alarm clocks. Expect instead a classic square-face ticker inspired by Big Ben and a round homage to an 1848 ship chronometer used by the Royal Navy in the world wars. Go to http://www.dentwatches.com/.