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Storm
clouds moving in from the northeast over Beth DeWoody's
swimming
pool. 4:30 PM. Photo: JH.
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The
Boys Club of New York held a luncheon fashion show at Mar-a-lago last
Friday in the grand ballroom that Mr. Trump built after acquiring
the legendary Palm Beach property built more than eighty years
ago by Post Toasties heiress Marjorie Meriweather Post Close Hutton
Davies May.
The house that predated Walt Disney only in terms of the calendar,
was designed by Joseph Urban, the great New York theatrical designer
who also designed several theatres. It is so over-the-top that
I am always reminded of my childhood imagination of what a really
fabulous castle in the tropics would be like. To think that it
is a large and thriving club (and inn of sorts) only serves to
increase its wonder considering that its original chatelaine who
commissioned it lived here and entertained in the kind of grandeur
that has ignited revolutions in other eras.
The Trump Ballroom complements and updates Mrs. Post’s lifestyle
with its gold and cream and gilt and crystal and gold. It is very
appropriate for all kinds of grand Palm Beach occasions that bring
out the very rich who inhabit this sliver of sand and palms and
flora and fauna. |
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| Jackie
Williams, who’s the current president of the
Women’s Board of the Boys Club told me they cleared $200,000
for this lunch. There were about twenty tables of ten of ladies
and one big table of gents (husbands, many of whom were picking
up the tab). Because we had so much on our agenda in the short
time we were there, we decided to skip the lunch and just catch
at piece of the runway action and get some photos of the guests. |
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JH
shooting the Chanel runway
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new Chanel line is a combination of the great timeless classic
ideas that made the couture house famous for three quarters of
a century now mingled
with a fashion notion (what looked like denim cut-offs) of teenage American
girls in the 1950s. Looking around the room at the scores of women who can
afford and
would be inclined to buy Chanel, I wondered who would buy the “cut-offs” or
the look they entailed. A smart woman, a chic woman could definitely make very
effective use of certain pieces of this line although many numbers looked so
consciously déclassé I couldn’t help wondering if the designer
was making a joke. On somebody. |
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Gillian
Miniter, Muffy Miller, and Carol Bell
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Barbara Cirvka
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Emilia
Fanjul and Hilary Ross
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Joyce
Sterling and Melinda
Hassen
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Dana
Stubgen
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Sharon
Hoge
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Betty
Tilghman and Jackie Williams
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Pat
Wood
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Robert
Janjigian
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Candy
Hamm
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Cece
Black and Karen
Clark
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Thorunn
Wathne
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Pauline
Pitt
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Audrey
Gruss and Jessie Araskog
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Shafi
Roepers
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Karen
Glover
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Serena
Boardman
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Allie
Hanley and Nonie Sullivan
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Grace
Meigher and Barbara Bancroft
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Stephanie
Ercklentz and Merrill Hanley
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Mary
Hilliard and Lourdes Fanjul
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Jill
Roosevelt and Caroline Dean
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Jean
Tailer
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Sheila
and Alexandra Kotur
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Joan
Schnitzer Levy and Mai Harrison
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Wilbur
Ross and Brad Zervas
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Donald
Miller and Robert "Stretch" Gardiner
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Marvin
Davidson and Walter Noel
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Rand
Araskog and Michael Ainslie
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Lee
Hanley and Dick Pearman
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Libby
Fitzgerald and Jill Roosevelt
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Carolyn
Broadhead and Cornelia Ercklentz
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Tracy
Mansur and Mary Ourisman
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Mary
Davidson and Maggy Scherer
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Frayda
Lindemann and Monica Noel
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Emilia
Fanjul, Serena Boardman, and Robert Janjigian watching the fashion
show |
| Leaving
the grand ballroom, we took a brief tour of this
fantastical behemoth which began abuilding in 1922 and was completed
at the
cost of $8 million (or more than twenty-five times that in today’s
dollars). 17 acres, 100 rooms and a 75-foot tower, along with lakeside
cottages, a nine-hole golf course, citrus groves, greenhouses,
pool and an underground tunnel (under the roadway) to the beach,
Mrs. Post had every little thing a lucky houseguest could wish
for, including major entertainments and frequently square dancing
after dinner. The now famous Palm Beach Red Cross Ball was originally
held at Mar-a-lago. |
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The
main Salon at Mar-a-lago
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After
Mrs. Post died the house became a white (pink actually) elephant
and the
heirs (including her daughter by E. F. Hutton, actress Dina
Merrill) even offered it to the US Government to use as a Florida Presidential
residence. Richard
Nixonwho was president at the time, toured the place but the offer was
never accepted. Fifty-eight years after it was built, Donald Trump purchased
the whole she-bang in a master-stroke of real estate prescience for $7 million
($5 million for the house and $2 million for the furnishings) and transformed
it into a private club.
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After
our camera tour of Mar-a-lago we went over to Le Tourneau on Worth Avenue to replace my broken watchband.
Any shop you find on Worth Avenue is obviously high end. Le Tourneau
which is known to carry the greatest watches in the world is a
perfect example. So while waiting for the band to be replaced,
we looked around.
JH engaged himself in the game of “what if” and tried
on a couple of watches that he’d already found really appealing
enough to entertain a purchase. We had a very interesting sales
person who was quite happy to give us a tour of the cases.
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Trying
on the Franck Muller Tourbillon |
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I asked him
if there were customers who shopped there frequently. Oh yes, there
are watch collectors; something which makes sense
but something I’d never thought of. In fact, he told us of
one customer who has more than 3000 watches in his collection.
Naturally I wondered WHO but he wouldn’t say. And what kind
of watches, in what price range? Oh, only the very best, $3000
and up. Gawd.
Then I asked him what the most expensive watch in the store was.
He showed us a Franck Muller Tourbillon. $165,895. (Plus tax, kid.)
A watch like that often can take eight years to make and is obviously
one-of-a-kind.
Had they sold this in the store before? Oh yes, several times.
Had the man who collects seen it? Oh, he owns several, our fascinating
salesman told us.
JH photographed it front and back and I tried it on. It
didn’t
grab me although just the thought of the price certainly did. I’ve
owned several very nice watches in my life – all gifts over
the years, and greatly appreciated. Two from Tiffany, a Patek Philippe,
and a Breitling. Two of them I lost – literally fell off
my wrist when the band broke and I didn’t realize it. Which
is why I was anxious to replace the broken band of one of my watches
now. I don’t quite understand the proud possession of a great
number, let alone thousands, although I understand the pleasure
in wearing a beautiful timepiece. However, collectors are a different
breed of cat. The same man who owns more than 3000 watches also,
we were told, collects automobiles. He must be very rich. Palm
Beach is a perfect place for him.
Leaving Le Tourneau, we took a photographer’s stroll down
Worth Avenue. JH got some shots of two of our sponsors – Graff
and McLaughlin, as well as some shots of the Mizner-designed vias,
the charming little alleyways/side streets that extend off the
avenue where there all kinds of little shops, cafés, restaurants
and art galleries. |
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The
works of Addison Mizner
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Via
Demario
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The
Palm Beach mascot at the Russeck Gallery
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It
was very quiet for a Friday afternoon very possibly
because there were heavy grey skies overhead promising rain.
Back at
Villa DeWoody within the hour, the downpour began.
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Storm
clouds over Lake Worth and Villa DeWoody
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At quarter to seven in the evening we were back on Worth Avenue,
this time dressed for the casual Palm Beach evening (blazer, open
shirt) for Natalie Kalachnikoff and Lars Bolander’s cocktail
party that they give every year to mark the opening of the Palm
Beach International Antiques Show.
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Regine
Traulsen and Lars Bolander
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The Kalachnikoff-Bolanders
live in one of the great old Addison Mizner designed apartments
located above the Worth Avenue shops.
These apartments were constructed in the 1920s when Mizner was
designing not only commercial buildings but also the now famous
ultra-private (you’re not even supposed to mention its name
in print) Everglades Club as well as many of the great beachfront
mansions built during that era. To the contemporary eye they are
a combination of the funky, the Mediterranean, the elegant and
tropic grandeur worn by time. Excellent.
The Bolander party is a magnet for Palm Beach society, visiting
dignitaries as well as the antiquaires who come to town from all
over the world. Their apartment which is a series of rooms enfilade
on the inside as well as through an part indoor/part outdoor passage
full of flowering plants and palms as well as furnishings that
are Bolander signatures. |
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Known
for his light, classic Gustavian design sensibility, Bolander
has a shop in Palm Beach and another one in New York (in the
Meatpacking District on Gansevoort Street). He packs his shops
full of traditional Swedish antiques, as well as English and
French pieces from the 18th century through the 20th. A word
to the wise-shopper from The New York Times: Wherever
Bolander goes, "Bronfmans and Vanderbilts follow.
The cocktail party is a big draw because of the hosts’ bonhomie.
Elegant but relaxed, hail-fellow-well-met, it is a treat for neighbors, old friends
and the resorts visitors to meet there. |
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Back
on Worth Avenue at night.
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Alexandra,
Sheila, and Peter Kotur
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Geoffrey
Thomas, Sharon Sondes, and Geoffrey Bradfield
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Kristi
Witker and Dick Koons
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Grace
Meigher, Pauline Pitt, and Chris Meigher
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Margo
de Peyster and friend
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Sharon
Hoge
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R.
Couri Hay and Allison Weiss
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Paula
Weideger and friends
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Nanette
Kasler Valenti, Barbara Tapp, and Brooke Mason
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Jon
Barman and Kelly Graham
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Pat
Patterson, Alyne Massey, and Jackie Weld
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Silas
Chou, Hilary Ross, Celia Chou, and Wilbur Ross
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Guests
milling about
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George
Ryan and Gemma Closson
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DPC,
Tony Ingrao, and Randy Kemper
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Interiors of Chez Bolander |
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Karl
Wellner
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DPC
shows off his pearly whites
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Sam
Michaels and Frances Hayward
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Regine
Traulsen and Bill Diamond
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Michel
Witmer and Dr. Dino Rivera
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Tom
Quick and Barbara Bancroft
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Fran
Scaife and Tom McCarter
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Cynthia
Boardman
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Liza
Pulitzer
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Nadia
and Benjamin Steinitz
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Nanette
Kasler Valenti and
Suzanne Kasler
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Michel
Witmer, Allison Weiss, and Frances Hayward
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Helmut
Kohler, Jurgen Heisblingman, Christina von Merveldt,
and Geza von Habsburg
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Mr.
and Mrs. Dick Cowell
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Pat
Patterson and Karl Wellner
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Richard
Ziegelasch and René Marty
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Steven
Stolman and Earl Crittenden
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Renee
Wood and Jimmy Clark
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Katherine
Bryan and Herb Fitzgibbon
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After
a couple of hours of chat and picture-taking, we were off to
a reservation
at Café Boulud, the great Daniel Boulud’s fairly new
(three or four years) restaurant in the Brazilian Court Hotel just
a few blocks away.
Ordering champagne (why not; we’re in Palm Beach!), maitre
d’ Joseph Schorr brought us a Braumet Grand Cru Brut – a
label unfamiliar to this poorly informed part time epicure but remarkably
deliciously mild and easily quaffed.
As can be expected, the dinner was brilliant. I started with a beet
salad followed by the organic chicken. All sounds so simple, and
simple it was, but rapturously flavorful. JH started with the Smoked
Salmon and latkes and followed with the duck. Another touch, that
is not found in New York, is the small trio that plays in the bar
after ten o’clock. As we were leaving there was a lot of activity
as well as some of the girls getting up to dance to the Caribbean
rhythms. |
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Looking
out at Café Boulud from the courtyard
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Singing
and dancing
to the Caribbean
rhythms
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The
dining room at Café Boulud
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As
we were leaving the restaurant, we ran into newlyweds
Georgette Farkas and Peter Trapp to end the night
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