Julie Earle-Levine

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.

By Julie Earle-Levine
Jul 30, 2005

When the time comes for women to strip down to bikinis, their swimwear choice has a lot to do with geography. So, for instance, if you go to Rio de Janeiro, women will be likely to show off their rears in barely-there, high-cut bikinis.

In Bondi, sleek one-piece bathers rule - they are ideal for tanning both ocean and poolside and for doing laps. In St Barths, women prefer tiny Italian knitted bikinis for lazing on a yacht, and in the Hamptons it's all about bold, sporty designs for volleyball on the beach.

But in spite of this, summer swimwear does have a common design thread. The Brazilian bikini, or as it is often known, "the dental floss" of swimwear, reigns supreme. The style was first made popular in the Nineties when Brazilian bombshell supermodels like Gisele catapulted the country's fashion into headlines, but it has since traversed all cultures, and it can be spotted on beaches from Sydney to St Tropez.

Even though there are more restrictive beach-attire rules in the US - skimpier styles and topless bathing on the wrong beach can lead to arrest - the Brazilian bikini has become popular with many American women, according to leading stylists and retail buyers.

Even British women, perhaps once more readily associated with pear-shaped figures and Fifties one-pieces, have fallen prey to the flimsy style that requires not only a lithe body and plenty of bravado but also a devotion to that other Brazilian export, the bikini wax.

According to Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, women's choice of swimwear can tell you more than grid references; it can often reflect that country's culture.

In Brazil, for instance, a "physically positive society", women play sport, rollerblade and take the city bus wearing bikinis and high-heeled sandals. "Brazilian women are beautiful, but some have butts that are three-feet wide. They wear skimpy bikinis because men in Brazil are very interested in rears," she says.

So are American and British women also fulfilling the same interest in buttocks? Steele thinks not. That, she believes, is more of a fashion trend than a fetish. "America is still a very puritanical country. It's not quite ready for the complete waist-down exposure that Brazil has."
So what many American women are actually opting for is the "export" version of the Brazilian bikini, which has a fuller back and is definitely not thong-style. They do, however, still expose plenty of one's derrière, so be prepared.

Colleen Sherin, fashion market director for Saks Fifth Avenue, says their top selling Brazilian swimwear brands are Salinas, and Rosa Cha by Sao Paulo-based Amir Slama. Both offer designs that range from barely-there bottoms to boy-cut, hipster styles, and one-pieces. As women know well, one style does not fit all.

Sherin believes that tiny swimwear really can have a slimming effect, even though there is obviously less fabric on offer to cover one's behind. "You can look good in these, even if you are not stick thin, " she insists. "The best string bikinis, triangle-style are Pucci. Some of these are better-suited for lounging." But can you swim in them? "Sure, but maybe not go water-skiing."

Americans also favour sporty swimwear that can take them easily from the Hamptons, the playground for the rich in summer, to sporting events.

So this summer, take a cue from the Hamptons lifeguards who will wear sporty, preppy swimwear by Nautica, or from the staff at Hotel Gansevoort's rooftop pool in New York's Meatpacking District who will also wear that label. And it is worth noting that designer Diane Von Furstenberg's first swimwear collection that launches this summer offers women both Brazilian and the wider American cut bottoms.

On the other side of the pond, British swimwear culture is conservative, but changing, according to Heidi Gosman, co-owner of Heidi Klein in London and St Tropez. For example, unlike the Italians and Spanish who take two bikinis for each day on holiday, British women tend to take only one or two and wash them each evening. It's that "making do" mentality.

Klein says British ladies also favour "sexy" two pieces, with smaller bottoms, but not "nothing there" bottoms - so some Brazilian styles can still work. "British women like good support on the bust. We like hidden boning and halter neck styles which really enhance your boobs without looking too underwired and supported."

But small changes in swimwear preferences are beginning to show through. Women are buying different swimwear for holidays and at home: a sexy bikini for St Tropez and a fuller, more practical one-piece for a diving holiday. Black, brown, and white are popular and so are "mix and match" bikinis, and the shop has even sold a lot of red-sequined bikinis by Capucine.

In terms of pattern, it seems swimwear is following the important Indian and African fashion trends for summer, with strong ethnic prints and embellishments such as sequins and beads featuring strongly.

As for Europe, Nicole Romano, an Italian designer based in New York, recently returned from the Amalfi Coast where she found plenty of inspiration for her spring/summer 2005 collection.

"The rears there were smaller but not the teeny Brazilian cut," she says. And women accessorized their bikinis with short-shorts and big, chunky arm bracelets. And heels.

Further afield, Elizabeth Charles, who stocks Australian and New Zealand designer swimwear in New York, says that Australian swimsuits also tend to have more coverage in the rear - although Brazilian bikinis have been popular in Sydney for some time, mainly on models at the city's Tamarama beach, known as "Glamourama," next to Bondi. That is because Australians need to be able to body surf in the rough ocean, dive into a pool, swim laps, and eat at a barbecue without fear of exposure. So designs offer "more coverage, but are not boring".

New Zealander designer Karen Walker's chocolate-coloured bikini is a good example with a low-slung belt; Australian designer Jaclin Chouchana has eye-catching cut-outs to highlight the décolleté and hipbone; Lisa Ho from Sydney sprinkled a turquoise bikini with rhinestones. And Zimmerman, a trendy Aussie label, has some sporty bikinis that boast sexy mesh inserts.

© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd

By Julie Earle-Levine
Nov 05, 2005

Roland Mouret is not the only designer enjoying sudden success thanks to his way with a curve. This season a number of jeans designed specifically to enhance the shape of one's bottom will debut.

French designer David Mechaly of Blue Cult, for example, created the first "butt"-style jean in the 1970s with his line, MacKeen, worn by the original Charlie's Angels, and now he and his wife and partner at Blue Cult, Caroline Athias, have adapted the original jean to create the Butt Lifter.

"Women trying on jeans look in a long mirror, take a look at the front and then spend a lot of time looking at their butts," says Athias. "They want it to be flattering. They don't want it disappearing, flat or drooping."

The Butt Lifter has "very pure lines to emphasise the butt" and a strategically placed back pocket, says Athias. They have an 8-inch rise and a 34-inch seam, (to make you look longer and leaner) and are made of ring-spun denim that stretches rather than sags.

"Blue Cult was one of the first to coin a term for it - jeans to enhance the derrière - and other jean designers have caught on," says Colleen Sherin, fashion market director at Saks, the New York department store.

Witness the Perfection Jean by FRx, a style that has fabric sewn into the jeans that promises to "lift and round the derrière and to shape the hip line".

"These jeans can benefit just about every woman, even women whose butts might be drooping a little bit or women who are flat in the backside. It plumps it up," says Guy Kinberg, a vice-president at FRx. The jeans have been selling at Bloomingdale's since June. Women are offered "before" and "after" photographs of their bottoms in their own jeans and in Perfection jeans to compare - and truly, there is a difference. When I put them on, the shape of my bottom changed. It was flatter and higher. My husband asked: "What happened to your ass?"

Meanwhile, Rag & Bone launched a women's line in September focusing on fit to "define the butt". The creative director of 7 For All Mankind, Tim Kaeding, spends several hours a day working with a model to ensure a flattering fit on the buttocks, hips and legs, according to a representative.

Finally, Scott Morrison, designer and president of Earnest Sewn jeans, said he created a seat shape that is "flattering to the woman's butt". The shape and placement of the back pocket, and not placing decorative designs on it, is apparently part of the secret.

Even Gap is thinking about rears, and introduced three styles this autumn - Curvy, Straight and Original. "These new jeans incorporate subtle but sophisticated shape adjustments to flatter a wide variety of body types," says Julie Vaughan, Gap's senior director of denim design.
In any case, it all adds up to one conclusion: "Women may care more about how their butts look than men do," according to Sherin.

© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd

T+L Reports: The Down Low Down Under
September, 2005
Julie Earle-Levine

When in-the-know Australians are looking for a quiet beach getaway where the water is perfectly temperate year-round and the vibe is so relaxed that the only dress code is a sarong and flip-flops, they head to Noosa. In this small seaside town an hour and a half north of Brisbane, coastal paths wind through rain forests; surfers ride impressive waves off crowd-free shores; and naturalists scope out kookaburras, koalas, and wallabies.

WHERE TO STAY Thirty years ago, surfers camped at the end of Hastings Street. Now, instead of tents, there's a slew of boutique hotels, among them Noosa Blue Resort (16 Noosa Dr.; 61-7/5447-5699; www.noosablue.com.au; doubles from $206), where the penthouse has a private rooftop barbecue. • For a little more privacy, try one of the beachfront house or apartment rentals from Accom Noosa (61-7/5447-3444; www.accomnoosa.com.au; from $112 per night for a two-bedroom apartment).

WHERE TO EAT The morning starts with a "flat white" (coffee with milk) and berry pancakes at Café Le Monde (52 Hastings St.; 61-7/5449-2366; breakfast for two $22). • Can't bear to leave the beach? "Hey Bill" Watson drives his beach buggy "café" to you, delivering espresso and flavored shaved ice. • Lime Fish (2 Hastings St.; 61-7/5447-4650; dinner for two $30) is the place to go for grilled barramundi and hand-cut fries. • Inspired by the French Riviera, Berardo's on the Beach (49 Hastings St.; 61-7/5447-5666; dinner for two $55) prepares coconut-prawn bisque.

WHAT TO DO Noosa Beach Hire, at Main Beach, rents all the necessities (boogie boards, towels). While surfboards will cost you about $37 a day, tips on where to get the best milk shake are free. • Snap up swimsuits with strategic cutouts at Josephine's (Hastings St.; 61-7/5447-2188). • Eucalyptus, cypress pines, and secluded rocky beaches make up Noosa National Park (Park Rd.; 61-7/5447-3243), home to one of the most stunning forests in Australia. • Fraser Island is known for its rainbow-colored sands and natural lakes. Sign up for a day trip with Fraser Island Excursions (61-7/5449-0393; www.frasierislandexcursions.com.au; $126 per person), which includes lunch and an SUV tour of the island.

T+L Reports
FROM NOV 2003
Julie Earle-Levine

Now pooches can travel in the lap of luxury—doggie-style, of course—at fine hotels around the world.

Hôtel de Crillon, Paris 33-1/44-71-15-00; www.crillon.com Perks: A personal welcome from the concierge; a dog tag with the hotel's logo and address to show off during walks with a private escort.Treats: Different menus each day (poultry with French beans, beef over rice) to meet each pup's tastes and dietary needs. Doggie bed: Brushed-cotton cushion in a wicker basket.

Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park 800/241-3333; www.ritzcarlton.com Perks: Use of a Burberry raincoat and PuchiBags (as seen in Legally Blonde); 22-karat-gold-plated bone-shaped ID to wear; an aromatherapy coat spritzer (with Pooch d'Été Eau de Parfum). Treats: At an additional cost, chefs can prepare snacks made to resemble a pretzel, a slice of pizza, or a black-and-white cookie. Doggie bed: Quilted- velvet travel mat.

Starwood Hotels 800/325-3535; www.starwood.com Perks: City-specificchew-toy souvenirs; miniature cotton bathrobes at Westin properties; private sitters; in-room massages.Treats: Twelve-ounce sirloin, cooked rare and served on fine bone china, by request; nightly turndown snacks. Doggie bed: Soft velvet oversized pet pillows (Westins feature a tiny Heavenly Bed duvet).

Peninsula Hotels 800/223-6800; www.peninsula.com Perks: Dog-themed movies; private walking services. Treats: Schnauzer salad (apples, grapes, and carrots); Tail-chasing truffles; Pekingese peanut butter cups. Doggie bed: Green cotton canvas puff with a soft filling of scented cedar chips.

By Julie Earle-Levine
Food and Drink, Apr, 2004

The closing of the Lutèce restaurant in mid-town Manhattan in February, after 41 years, leaves only a handful of great, classic French restaurants in New York. Three of the best and most luxurious - Le Perigord, La Grenouille and La Caravelle - are worried there may also be a time when they, too, will sauté their last foie gras.

For Georges Briguet, who celebrated Le Perigord's 40th anniversary on April 1, Lutèce's departure and the closing of the renowned French eatery La Côte Basque last month signify a march towards the end of fine dining.

Those restaurants reigned supreme among old-money and upper class clientele, and along with other fine French restaurants had been credited with teaching Americans how to appreciate fine food and wine.

Why is it that once cherished restaurants fade into oblivion, while other decidedly old-school places like Le Perigord - the oldest French restaurant in New York continuously owned and operated by a single family - persevere?

Le Perigord, which is close to the United Nations' offices and is a favourite haunt of ambassadors, has survived for almost the same time as the ill-fated Lutèce, and the 45-year-old La Côte Basque. Briguet, one of the very last of a dying breed of proprietor-hosts, has greeted guests every night for the past 40 years, seducing diners from Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (they canoodled in the corner) to Alan Greenspan and Andrea Mitchell (their first date). He said Taylor and Burton dined at his restaurant a month after it opened, and he has been busy ever since.

Briguet believes the trend is not about the economy. Nor is it an anti-French backlash after Iraq. Briguet lays the blame on the casualisation of fine dining in New York. "The whole city is turning into a bistro," he explained over a dinner of sautéed foie gras, followed by stuffed zucchini blossom with truffle emulsion, venison in a red wine sauce with berries and purée of parsnip, and a chocolate soufflé.

"It is French Asian and Cuban. French, French whatever! This fusion, tutti frutti! In France, restaurants like Le Perigord have been there for 200 years. The chef in the kitchen serves French food like they should."

Jean-Jacques Rachou, the owner of La Côte Basque, suggested when closing his restaurant that his old-money clientele either had died off, or had moved out of the city. In their place were younger patrons with thinner wallets, who did not appreciate having to wear a jacket and tie to dinner.

Briguet, whose restaurant is in one of the richest neighbourhoods in the city, throws his hands in the air. "Young Americans are raised on hamburgers, and have no idea of real French food." Though he then recalls that Britney Spears is one youthful American who has. So has Henry Kissinger - who always takes table 35 - and a list of other high-profile patrons, many of whom live close by at the gilded River House residence at 435 East 52nd Street.

But will they continue to come? There is also the issue of intense competition in New York, where new high-end restaurants with celebrity chefs and $150 a person tasting menus open each week.

"We are the last of the Mohicans. Why? Because people like value. Even the very wealthy." Le Perigord has a $42 lunch, and $60 prix fixe dinner.

Briguet, who is Swiss, is hopeful the worst period for French restaurants in New York has passed. Last year after the US-led invasion of Iraq, business slumped and he fired employees for the first time. "Customers were ringing me to ask how I prepare weasel," said Briguet, referring to the now-infamous New York Post headline that grouped France and other war-opponents into an "Axis of Weasel".

He hopes that children raised by parents who appreciate real French food, and who want to be elegant and chic when they dine, will be patrons.

Charles Masson, the owner of La Grenouille, heralded as one of New York's finest restaurants for haute French cuisine, is taking action to ensure his restaurant stays alive.

"We are dangerously on the verge of becoming a one night restaurant, for special occasions only." Masson, whose father, Charles Masson Snr started the restaurant in a two-storey townhouse on East 52nd St in 1962, believes classic French restaurants will survive only if they adapt and change.

Later this month, La Grenouille will close for renovations, and re-open on April 6, with French windows to show off the restaurant's famous blooms.

There will also be a menu for those who don't really have time "to do" lunch, offering artichaut farci, little neck corsini, a salade aux endives for $14.50 - less than the restaurants' $45 lunch and $85 prix fixe dinner menu. Masson believes La Grenouille's insistence on using only organic, fresh foods sets the restaurant apart. The menu changes seasonally, even daily, as do the flowers and indeed the whole restaurant.

"I tell the whole staff that what we did 20 years ago, or today, is irrelevant to whether we will be here. It is almost like we are opening the restaurant every day for the first time, starting at 6.30am, scrubbing the tiles in the kitchen, starting soup with fresh stocks, pastries for afternoon and evening, the cleaning of the dining room and polishing of the silver."

La Grenouille also has a private room, which was the studio of the French artist Bernard Lamotte and Antoine de St Exupéry, author of the children's book The Little Prince.

Unlike Briguet, Masson argues that Americans have a far greater awareness now of fine dining. "When my father first opened the restaurant, he had a great challenge convincing them to have a turbot not with a cup of coffee on the side." Masson, who arranges the flowers each day as his father did, will not be introducing fusion. "Fusion leads to confusion. That is why I would stay away from it."

Rita Jammet, co-owner of the 43-year-old La Caravelle, in mid-town, also dislikes fusion. She says the restaurant has been less busy recently. "There are ups and downs. We should be busier." La Caravelle had a charmed beginning. Marlene Dietrich, Noel Coward and Tony Curtis showed up. Jackie Kennedy and Truman Capote dined there too. In more recent times, Martha Stewart was afrequent diner.

Over a glass of La Caravelle champagne and port-cured foie gras lobe with pink lentils and quince, Jammet said many of her patrons were young, but like Masson declines to say who visits. "What distinguishes us from the others is the fact that we have been able to offer both contemporary and classic without becoming confusing to our identity."

The restaurant business is a tough one to stay alive in. Some say the fate of Lutèce and La Côte Basque suggests the end of a great tradition of fine dining in New York. The answer to whether the survivors will endure may rest in their willingness to cater to modern palates.
© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd

How I Made It: Keith McNally founder of The Third Man Management
Julie Earle-Levine

WHEN Keith McNally arrived in New York nearly 30 years ago as an illegal immigrant from Britain, he was an unlikely candidate to become one of America’s most successful restaurateurs.
Indeed, until he was 17 he had never even been inside a restaurant.

He was brought up in Bethnal Green, east London, in a poor family that had “absolutely nothing”. It was an environment where stomachs — not palates — mattered.

He got his first job, as a bellboy in the London Hilton hotel, at the age of 16. While he was there he was noticed by film executives who were staying at the hotel to audition children, and McNally ended up getting a part in a film called The Life and Times of Charles Dickens, starring Michael Redgrave.

The role led to other acting jobs, and in 1968, at the age of 17, McNally got a part in the Alan Bennett play Forty Years On in the West End.

It was a turning point in more ways than one. While appearing in the play he was taken out for his first meal at a restaurant, Bianchi’s in Soho.

He said: “It was the first time I had ever eaten — or seen — a melon. I could barely understand a word of the menu. Artichokes, avocados, leeks, endives, squash — even the simplest ingredients were lost on me.”

Even having to decide which utensils to choose “from what seemed like a battalion” was a mortifying experience.

At the age of 19 he decided to see something of the world, and spent several months on a kibbutz in Israel before spending a year travelling through Kathmandu and India.

He finally arrived in New York in 1975 without a green card or papers and started work as a busboy at a tea shop called Serendipity. He moved on to become a waiter at another restaurant, then got a job removing oyster shells at One Fifth, where he rose to become restaurant manager.

By 1980 he decided he had enough experience of restaurants to open one of his own. With help from his girlfriend and brother he scraped together enough money to open his first restaurant, Odeon in New York’s Soho.

He said it was his most interesting project to date because he had so little money and had to think creatively.

From that modest start he has slowly built a successful restaurant empire, each time choosing remote, run-down buildings in totally unfashionable areas and rebuilding them to create beautiful restaurants.

He now runs a string of brasserie-type restaurants including the well-known Balthazar and Pastis, as well as Lucky Strike, Pravda and his newest restaurant, Schiller’s Liquor Bar.
McNally admits it is still a “torture” when he is building a new restaurant, and he worries that the project will be “the one that doesn’t work out”.

At Balthazar, in downtown Manhattan, however, patrons need to book at least three weeks in advance for dinner. People who drop in casually to see if there might be a free table can end up waiting at least two hours at the bar — and the likelihood is that they will leave hungry.
Balthazar and Pastis even have private numbers to call to help you get a reservation.

McNally has apologised for this, but said he always left tables open each night because he cares about the person at the back of the line, who perhaps has little money and cannot really afford to dine out.

Between them, the restaurants bring in between $36m (£30m) and $38m a year.
This does not include the bakery at Balthazar, which supplies many upmarket restaurants in New York with bread and pastries.

Balthazar opened in 1997 and has been extremely busy ever since. It starts buzzing from 7.30 in the morning.
“We do 200 to 300 breakfasts, 300 lunches, 400 to 500 dinners, and then about 100 suppers. It goes on all night.”

McNally’s father, who is 83, is on the staff and lives with his son and his family. He works at Balthazar, putting together the knives and forks and napkins in the bakery’s take-out section.
Now 53, McNally is reluctant to talk about the success he has achieved, saying: “There is nothing more boring than a working-class person talking about how he made it; how he lifted himself out of this steaming vat of pig shit and he is sitting there beaming about the fact.”
Waving his arm towards paintings in his Greenwich Village home, he said: “I don’t have a penny in the bank. It is all here on these walls.”

His advice to anyone thinking of starting a business is to be prepared to make mistakes, but never to be driven only by money.
“When you get money or supposed success, it reinforces the gut feeling that there has to be some other method for evaluating oneself other than a material one.”

His other piece of advice is never to believe what people tell you about your own success.

McNally said his staff played a crucial role in the restaurants’ achievements. Indeed, training and hiring staff takes up much of his time as he opens new restaurants and ventures. He claims to know within minutes of speaking to someone if they have the potential to work for him.
“I hire people who feel the same way I do, who get satisfaction from seeing people enjoy themselves in a restaurant. I won’t hire someone if I detect a hint of pretentiousness.”

For all his success, McNally’s love of acting has clearly never left him — he named his company The Third Man Management, after his favourite film.

Sir John's wealth of experience
By Julie Earle-Levine
Mar 28, 2004

Sir John Templeton, a heavyweight of the fund management industry, has some advice for disillusioned equity investors in a possible fourth consecutive year of falling equity markets. Think long term, he says - about stocks and about life.

Sir John, a spritely 90, set up shop on Wall Street 65 years ago, when there were only a handful of mutual funds. There are now 10,000 listed funds in the US.

Sir John says the escalating war in Iraq and corporate scandals that have sent shares lower are short-term events investors need to move past. "In my 90 years, I have seen so many wars, not just American wars. The problem of war is not gone. It may never be. But there were fewer people killed in war in the past 50 years than in any other 50 years in the history of humanity."

In an interview at the Yale Club of New York, a tanned Sir John - he made Bermuda his home 40 years ago - predicted that investor confidence in equities would return soon. By the end of this century, he said, the amount of money invested in all types of securities could be 100 times as large as it is now. "It sounds terrific, but that is what happened last century."

Sir John, who graduated from Yale in 1934, points out that half of all families in the US now own shares. "Even when I was growing up in a little farming town in Tennessee I didn't meet anyone who even owned a share."

Sir John started Canada-based Templeton Growth Fund, a worldwide mutual fund, in 1954, and went on to build a business with assets under management of more than $20bn. He sold Templeton to the Franklin group in 1992.
Today, he focuses on building what he calls "the world's spiritual wealth". He acknowledges that scandals such as Enron and WorldCom are discouraging for investors. "There is a flaw in human nature that makes you want to read this bad news," he says. "But there are less shocking things now than 50 or 100 years ago - because of transparency."
Sir John says this transparency, especially in mutual funds, is helping keep the industry scandal-free.
But there are some who might not agree with him. The Securities and Exchange Commission, Wall Street's watchdog, has raised concerns that the $6,300bn fund industry is not transparent enough about its fees, compensation and "soft dollar commissions".
Sir John believes mutual funds are actually very good at revealing every detail of what they buy and sell. "As long as profit is greater than expenses, investors don't complain," he says. "Expenses have always been there."
Sir John says transparency lets competitors - rather than regulators - draw attention to problems. He believes the current system is working well.
While Sir John has officially left the business, he does manage the John
Templeton Foundation's $250m endowment, which supports the study of a connection between science and religion, and his own personal wealth, which he estimates is $700m. The foundation donates $40m a year.
Sir John suggests that anyone with $10m or more should do most of their investing through mutual funds. He does not much like hedge funds. "The difference in a good result and bad result in mutual funds is only 2 per cent," he says, "whereas hedge funds charge fees that are much higher than that."
In the long run, he says, hedge funds - which have been scandal-prone - will have poorer results than mainstream mutual funds.
Mutual funds have had their public spats, however. Last week, Harvard University and Franklin Templeton, the group created from Franklin's acquisition of the Templeton funds, settled a very public and bitter dispute over changes the college wanted to make at two of its closed-end funds.

Sir John believes Harvard was correct to question the funds' performance. But he insists that Mark Mobius, an emerging markets guru who he hired many years ago, should not have been singled out over the Templeton China fund he manages. Harvard had accused Mr Mobius of not acting in shareholders' interests because he allowed the fund to trade at a discount to net asset value.

Mr Mobius is "a brilliant manager" and "travels on airplanes five times as much as I ever did", Sir John says.

He says the best fund managers need to go to countries in which they are investing, and spend time researching. Sir John's philanthropic duties mean he has little spare time. But in the time he does have, he studiously ignores television, even the round-the-clock war coverage.
"I don't want to spend my time on negative things. I try to fill my mind with what is going to be best for humanity in the long run, and with unlimited love.

"Saddam Hussein? Yes, I love him too," says Sir John, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1987 for his philanthropic efforts. "Everyone has some lovable things about them. People who appear most evil usually don't intend to do evil."

Sir John says he is the most enthusiastic and joyful he has been in years and remains excited about his foundation. After a lifetime on Wall Street, he recommends not spending time on temporary events suchas war. These are factors that, as he puts it, "will disappear in a few years".

© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd

How I Made It: Rachel Ashwell, founder of Shabby Chic
Julie Earle-Levine

AS a child, Rachel Ashwell didn’t really appreciate being dragged through flea markets on cold Sunday mornings.

Her father was an antiquarian book dealer and her mother bought, restored and sold antique dolls. While rising in the dark, dressing sleepily and hurrying to the markets was sometimes fun, often it was not.

All those mornings spent watching her parents find and buy “treasures” would, however, eventually provide the business know-how she needed to start her own home furnishings company, Shabby Chic.

Ashwell started selling vintage clothing from stalls in flea markets as soon as she left school.
She said: “Following my father around the markets taught me how to make quick decisions. My mother taught me how to restore without ruining the integrity of the piece, and without taking it so far that it was this slick unrecognisable, new thing.”

She learnt how to notice quality and detail in the blink of an eye, such as the fine leather bindings and plates of illustrators like Beatrix Potter. She also developed an instinct for knowing what to restore and what not to restore.

Ashwell soon discovered there was a lot of interest in what she was doing, and ended up writing several books on treasure hunting and how to buy and repair flea-market finds.
After a few years, however, she decided to go to America, where she found work as a stylist for film and television companies.

Ashwell said that when she arrived she had little money, but remembers “just driving around Sunset Boulevard in the sunshine, seeing big houses and cars, and thinking this is the land of opportunity”.

While she was out there she met a commercial director, got married and had children. Suddenly her priorities changed. She said: “When my kids were young I decided I didn’t want to go into the long hours of the film industry and thought I should have a little shop, a store where I could sell lovely, pretty furniture.”

At that stage, she had no real business plan. But she had started making furniture slipcovers for friends and before long her technique of “making more from less” became her style trademark and spread to lighting, frames, bedding and baby furnishings.

She opened her first Shabby Chic home furnishings store in 1989 in Santa Monica, California with $30,000 (£15,800) worth of stock, which quickly sold out.

With no formal business training, she had to learn quickly as she went along. She said: “Ignorance is bliss. I knew about fabrics, and vintage, but nothing about business, and my lessons have been my experiences. Now when I open a store I know I need expenses and working capital, but the first store I worked out on a piece of paper. If a table sold, it didn’t occur to me that I needed another one.

“When my first store opened I had no big agenda. I didn’t need to make trillions. In a funny kind of way the innocence of how I did it, rather than being big and slick, was what spoke to people.”
Her Shabby Chic home accessories, which were based on fabrics, furniture and bedding found at flea and antique markets, soon attracted a strong following, not least among celebrities. Ashwell’s accessories can be found in the homes of stars such as Jennifer Lopez, Madonna and Oprah Winfrey.

She now has five more stores, in Chicago, San Francisco, Malibu, Newport Beach and New York, and annual sales are more than $10m.

In addition, she is creating a line of more affordable items for Target, the American department store, and she supplies her accessories to hundreds of stores around the world. Ashwell also has her eyes on new categories, such as gifts and sleepwear. Six months ago she launched Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic stores and products, which will be the couture end of the business.

Despite the company’s growth, Ashwell still does all the designing and buying for Shabby Chic, which has grown to 125 employees.
She said: “I want to make sure I keep on the front line and that there is a real human being behind the brand.”

Ashwell is herself “shabby chic” and wears cashmere sweaters and second-hand Levi jeans bought at markets, not department stores.

Now in her forties with two children, she believes the secret of her success has been to expand the business at her own pace. “One of my beliefs is that I enjoy growing at the rate of what I feel financially and artistically I can understand,” she said. “I am not a business person. I get the president of the company to handle that.”

She hopes that her 17-year-old daughter might eventually become involved in the business, just as she followed her parents’ careers.

“I can’t believe it has been 14 years. I still love it, and feel like I started it yesterday,” she said.

T Travel, The Ticket

By Julie Earle-Levine
March 20, 2005

Dennis Mangone parks his Porsche and strolls into the Mandarin Oriental hotel in New York. Once on the 35th floor, he trades his Dolce & Gabbana suit for a bathrobe, turns off his cell phone and slides into a pair of slippers. He's almost ready for his meeting.

Women have long enjoyed the relaxing and beautifying benefits of facials and body scrubs. Now that men are discovering spas, they are using them as a soothing, softly lighted place to do business. ''Golf just doesn't work anymore,'' says Mangone, who, as a senior vice president of the Corcoran Group, has sold real estate to the likes of Beyoncé Knowles and Ricky Martin. So, once a week, he invites big spenders to feel the tingle of warm mineral water on an underwater ''air bed'' and inhale the scent of lavender in the Mandarin Oriental's steam bath.

Swaddled in Egyptian cotton, they have a holistic massage and meet in the relaxation area to sip apple-spice tea and make a deal. ''The clients I sell to work really hard,'' he says, ''and they want to replenish themselves.''

Mangone is not an anomaly. In Bangkok, Mercedes-Benz and BMW are giving their executives corporate cards for the Shangri-La Hotel's Chi Spa. In Wisconsin, the Sundara Inn and Spa trumpets its ''Just for Guys'' events.

And in Florida, while waiting for his client, Stephen Miller, a senior vice president for a private banking group, started talking to the man next to him at the Ritz-Carlton spa, and ''I ended up doing a $7 million loan for him.''

What services do men prefer? Facials and pedicures, says Susan Harmsworth, who owns the global spa firm Espa International. Mangone likes the personalized Mandarin Time Ritual package, which for $410 can include a foot bath, body wrap and massage using advanced Ayurvedic techniques. ''I don't want to sound like a girl,'' he says, ''but the holistic pedicure with oil leaves your feet feeling great. And it helps me sell $8 million apartments.''

Julie Earle-Levine on the functional Australian boot that Carrie Bradshaw made fashionable
Feb 20, 2004

So here's the question: will the trends that started with Sex and the City end when the show breathes it last?

Here's a case study: Uggs, the chunky calf-high sheepskin boots originally bought by surfers in Australia in the 1970s, sported by Sarah Jessica Parker in countless paparazzi shots, and bought thereafter by astonishing numbers of fashionistas on both coasts of America.

Retailers across the US sold out of the shapeless shearling boots late last year, and manufacturers have long lists of back orders. (For sales information, see www.uggaustralia.com)

Ugg wearing is now at an all-time high, with Uggs being sold for more than three times their average $150 price tag on eBay. "I've been offered all kinds of favours, drugs, money, you name it," says William Rood, who works at Harry's Shoes on Broadway. "The fact of the matter is, there are people who are desperate and for some reason, they have to have them."

The Manhattan store sold several thousand Uggs this winter, and is waiting for deliveries of orders it placed in September. "We are still owed some by Ugg, but they were out of sheepskin in December," Rood says.

It was not always thus. Brian Smith, an Australian surfer, brought Uggs to the US in 1978; his reception in New York was "not a friend- ly one" (let's be honest: they're not exactly the most stylish of footwear). California, however, loved them, and before you could say "footwear craze", celebrities had made their discovery.

Pamela Anderson, of Baywatch fame, wore Uggs. (Once she realised they were actually made of sheep - fancy that - she decided to launch her own "cruelty-free" version.) Oprah Winfrey liked them so much that she gave a pair to everyone in her talk show audience last year. Sarah Jessica Parker wears them even off-set, and also favours a stylish version by Coach, called "Andi" (Coach made 500 pairs that immediately sold out at $350 a throw, and then went up to $600 each online). Gwyneth Paltrow, Britney Spears, Kate Moss, Cameron Diaz and Kate Hudson have all been seen wearing Uggs.

But can it continue? Rood for one thinks there will actually be an increase in demand next year. Lucyann Barry, founder of B. Swank, an online fashion consignment business, agrees: she sees Uggs as the winter equivalent of Birkenstock sandals. "Uggs are more than a fad, and are a great example of function over form," she says.

Indeed, there's more Ugg to come. Deckers Outdoor Corporation, the high-end distributor, has signed a five-year agreement to design and market Ugg-branded items in the US, including Ugg handbags. This may well help Deckers' share price, which some analysts predict could be hurt if and when the Ugg trend dies - if and when people realise, as Barry says, that "unless you have legs like a gazelle, really, really fabulous long legs, they are bloody ugly and look bad on 99.9 per cent of people".

It is partly for this reason that Sandra, a financial analyst living in New York, stopped wearing Uggs last year: "I wore them to the deli and my boyfriend asked: 'Oh, are you going to wear them outside?'"

Similarly, Mara Hoffman, a New York designer whose clients include Jennifer Lopez, said she was shocked by the Ugg invasion. "Generally New York has a sense of individuality in terms of street fashion, compared to LA, which is mostly celebrity-driven," says Hoffman. West Murray, a New York stylist who bought her Uggs three years ago, observes: "People who started wearing them now don't want to."

Still, judging by Ugg sightings in SoHo earlier this month on a day when it was -5°C, the Ugg trend may be around for some time. There were 33 women slopping through ankle-deep puddles in Ugg boots (not counting Ugg lookalikes) within a four-block radius. None of them seemed to notice that their Uggs were not waterproof. Surely a case of fad over function and form.

SATC Chart: the fashion trends that began on TV
The trends the show made cool
Manolos and Jimmies.
Nameplate necklaces
Horseshoe/Bunny pendants
Corsages: The bigger, the better.
Vintage stuff
The Fendi baguette: The hunt for fake Fendis was even a Sex and the City subplot.
Naked legs, no matter how cold it is outside
Cropped trousers with heels
Flat caps
Prom dresses, complete with pearls and up-dos.
Hair straighteners
Cosmopolitans

By Julie Earle-Levine
FT, May 21, 2004

So there I am, being slathered with mayi mapi, a yellow mud from far north Queensland, and inhaling a smoky o'yarang (or old man's beard). Tribal chanting and the hum of a didgeridoo wash over me. A cockatoo shrieks. Children laugh. No, I'm not in the Australian outback, I'm at the enormous MGM Grand in Las Vegas - a 5,000-room hotel - experiencing a spa treatment called the dreaming ritual, based on Australian Aboriginal wisdom. I'm also on the trail of a trend.

As the spa market becomes increasingly competitive - according to the International Spa Association, a US-based industry group, there were nearly 156m spa visits in the US in 2001, generating $11bn in revenues, up from $5bn two years earlier - spas are having to offer more and more outlandish treatments to set themselves apart.

From Las Vegas to Hong Kong, from Australian mud and oils to ancient Chinese herbs, Brazilian bee propolis and chocolate, now you have to be able to get away from the place you came to, to get away.

"People come to Vegas for a real escape, so we wanted a real spa escape - something that was totally foreign to them and the Australian treatment is just that," says Rachel Knapp, MGM's spa director. "The dreaming ritual has had the most significant responses of all treatments in terms of an escapist, or indulgent experience."

By way of example, Knapp recalls one man who seemed unsure about the ritual, but emerged with the comment: "This is the best two hours I have ever spent with anyone. But don't tell that to my wife."

During the dreaming ritual treatment, which has been one of the spa's most popular (and expensive) treatments since being introduced in April last year, the native mud is mixed with macadamia nut oil, yang yang flower and mandarin and sandalwood oils.

Other treatments include a red mud, or pepperberry, that is said to be good for stress and anxiety, macadamia, almond and camellia oil, and an essential oil, blue cyprus, said to improve circulation.

Meanwhile, miles away in Hong Kong, the spa at the Hotel Intercontinental is the city's first to use the ancient Chinese philosophy of feng shui. To combat jet lag (all those western bankers), the spa recommends the Golden Legend, a Chinese herbal wrap that May Tam, assistant spa director, says is requested most often.

"Many people who come here have travelled far, and this helps to revitalise them," she says. Besides, "the treatment is also not so sticky. You don't have to shower after it and it smells fresh".

It ought to. It begins with huang qi tea (meaning yellow or golden energy) which is pleasantly sweet and intended to stimulate detoxification. This is followed by a herb treatment - gan-coa (liquorice, to rejuvenate and detoxify heavy metals from the skin), shan-zhu-yu (cornus flowers and berries), wu-we-zi (schizandra), to invigorate yang powers and restore yin, as well as ginger, ginko biloba and zizyphus fruit. It ends with a blanket-wrap and herbal spritz.

Back in the States, at Canyon Ranch in Massachusetts, the latest news comes courtesy of the Brazilian rainforest: wrapture treatment. This features propolis, a dark, sticky resinous substance bees collect from leaves, twigs and tree bark. The treatment in effect uses this bee glue to help boost the immunity of the skin and to protect and soften it. The Brazilian rainforest wrapture treatment was introduced at the spa late last year, and is among Canyon Ranch's top treatments, second only to the mango scrub.

Further south, there's the Hershey Spa in Pennsylvania, a Willy Wonka-like, mad fantasy world guaranteed to send chocolate fans into a frenzy. The spa is near Hershey's famous chocolate factory and giant theme park, and not surprisingly, a rich chocolate smell envelops you at the front door (you are also offered a choice of chocolate bars at check in; this is not about weight loss).

Signature treatments here are chocolate whipped cocoa baths, chocolate fondue wraps and cocoa massages - and are so popular the spa has announced plans to double its size. Many guests at the spa apparently like nothing more than being dressed up like a strawberry parfait or a peppermint pattie. For the latter, imagine being scrubbed with peppermint salt, painted with warm chocolate and wrapped in a blanket, just like the peppermint treat.

"The whipped cocoa bath is definitely our most popular soaking service, if not the most popular service overall," says Jennifer Wayland, the spa's director.

"The allure of soaking in a chocolate bath is what seems to be most enticing to our spa guests." Indeed, eight out of every 10 Hershey spa soaks are whipped cocoa baths, while more than half of all exfoliation treatments are cocoa bean polishes.

Hershey also sells its chocolate spa products such as a cocoa latte body wash, so spa goers can continue the treat at home. Truthfully, however, it just wouldn't be the same.

DETAILS
Info: www.cathaypacific.comwww.amtrak.comwww.mgmgrand.comwww.hongkong-ic.intercontinental.comwww.canyonranch.comwww.hersheypa.com
Copyright © Financial Times group

Think fresh flowers as a fashion accessory, says Julie Earle-Levine
FT, May 21, 2004

By now, anyone who's ever picked up a fashion magazine knows the idea this spring/summer is to recreate, via print and cloth, as closely as possible, the look of this week's Chelsea Flower Show. Be a rose! Grow lilacs from your shoulders! Splash out on spirilium!.

Well, apparently many are saying: fie to all that. Why settle for a vibrant copy when you can have the real thing? (ok, they don't last very long, but ignore such practicalities for the moment). The floral explosion has extended to fresh flowers as a fashion accessory, à la handbags and shoes.

Nicole Kidman has been wearing flowers (in particular, gardenias), a lot lately because they remind her of summer in Australia, but lots of ordinary folk have picked up on the same fragrant idea.

Example: Rebecca Widness, a travel publicist who spends time in Hawaii and recently returned to New York with a tan and a tuber rose tucked behind her ear to meet friends for drinks. "It just makes you feel like you are on holiday," she says.

Similarly, Carole Klein, a true southerner (she has lived in Memphis for more than 50 years), has for years worn a creamy magnolia blossom in her hair.

Kimberly Perrone, owner of Bloom Flowers, a florist in Manhattan, believes flowers are becoming a fashion accessory as never before. "At the moment, the flower for New York is the orchid," she says. "The more exotic the better. A cymbidium, or wild orchids, are feminine, but also very sexy."

Perrone also recommends mixing traditional roses with purple orchids, hydrangeas or peonies for variety. Flowers should never compete with clothes, but add to the total look, she says.
Raquel Corvino, a New York florist whose clients include Julianne Moore, believes flowers are helping to revive "Old Hollywood glamour".

Large orchids "that are simple in texture, either white, or bright in colour, for contrast against the hair are popular", she notes. "One bold bloom is best, an orchid or gardenia."

In Paris, according to Karin Merchez at Christian Tortu, it's all about white and pink orchids to wear in the hair for special occasions. Recently, there has also been demand for blue orchids. Meanwhile, at Wild at Heart florists in London, women are ordering orchids and roses.
"We've had orders for white and pink orchids and did some pink for Naomi Campbell," said Venetia Nathan, a store manager. Roses are "very London" she said, but she hopes that sweet peas, "which are terribly pretty" might also be worn this spring.

In Hong Kong, Stella Ngai of Bloom and Blossom florists said single roses or orchids were popular for special occasions and to go to the horse races.

Flourish, a Sydney florist, reports women are ordering one large coral, or dusty pink dahlia to wear in their hair. For those more spontaneous Australian women, especially those who live by the sea (that is, more than half the country), frangipanis - which can be plucked off a tree, smell sweet and stay intact in the heat - are the flower of choice.

DETAILS
Info: Chelsea flower show:
www.rhs.org.uk/chelsea
www.bloomflowers.com
www.flourish.com.au
www.wildatheart.comwww.christian-tortu.comRaquel Corvino, New York: (212) 255-0114Blooms and Blossoms, Hong Kong: (852) 2721 4851
Copyright © Financial Times group

Julie Earle-Levine on short-term luxury in the Hamptons
FT, Jun 18, 2004

New Yorkers may tolerate narrow buildings and cramped apartments for nine months of the year. But during the summer, they head to more spacious quarters in the beach communities of the Hamptons. Some negotiate alternate weekend summer shares with friends and colleagues or pay outrageous amounts for a full season in a smallish houses.

But there is another option: a short-term stay in an actual mansion.

Most Hamptons houses rent at premium prices, with a summer costing $100,000, (£60,000) on average. One property worth $20m rented at $125,000 for just one a week last year. But more reasonably priced short-term rentals can be found.

Hamptons Retreats now manages 25 vacation residences on behalf of their owners. The properties, which are valued at $1m to $25m and range from a cottage on the beach to a 14-acre estate with a stable of horses, are available for $6,000 per week and up. "That way people who don't want to commit to the whole season can come for a week, or even a weekend, then go to Europe," says Brad Zackson, the company's chief executive officer.

He is targetting guests from Europe and other US cities, as well as New York, and expects their incomes to range from $100,000 to $500,000.

The arrangement benefits property owners too, enabling them to got more money out of their homes, especially as the Hamptons becomes a year-round destination. Hamptons Retreats continues to manage the home through the off-season, making small repairs and opening up houses that usually sit vacant for 38 weeks of the year.

"A $1m house would probably rent for $50,000 for the entire season," Zackson says. We think the return to the same homeowner working with us, might be $130,000 to $140,000 annually."
Michael Jaufman, co-manager and co-owner of Accommodation Plus, an agency that owns the homes it rents, says Hamptons renters are much better off than buyers in today's market.
The average cost of a home is $5m, and a property that would have been relatively inexpensive at $200,000 10 years ago is now worth $600,000 to $800,000, he says. "Rentals have not reached that quadrupling."

People who bought homes at "huge prices" in recent years and expected them to rent for large amounts have been disappointed. "They are finding out they can't do the old rule of thumb that the rental would be 10 per cent of the sales price," says Jaufman.

But, even as rentals for the season, which lasts from from Memorial Day in late May to Labor Day in early September, continue to slow, short-term rentals are picking up. "We have excellent clientele, including getting calls from the travel desk at the White House," Jaufman says. Guests have proven they are more than willing to spend $2,000 a week in the early season - April or May - and $10,000 to $11,000 for a week in the high season for a fabulous property, he adds.

Both Hamptons Retreats and Accommodations Plus benefit from an obvious shortage of luxury hotels in the area. They woo guests by offering full-service treatment, including a concierge to organise yachts, invitations to private parties, dinner reservations at the hottest restaurants and spa services at the home.

Hamptons Retreats also offers daily maid service, a yogi and a private chef on call, as well as kids' programmes such as "Princess for a Day", which lets little girls get made up and host tea parties.

Homeowners have access to all these amenities when they're in town, but they do pay Hamptons Retreats about 30 to 40 per cent of their rental income for its property management services. Zackson expects to have more than 40 homes for summer 2005, and to expand the concept to other luxury vacation areas in the US and abroad. He won't say where, but they will be "very exclusive spots with a high real estate equity rate".

Accommodations Plus has ten houses and plans to buy more. "In the early years we were still getting calls from people who wanted us to rent their homes for them, but we are not realtors and don't want to be," Jaufman says. "Our homes are never owner occupied so when you come as a guest there is nothing personal for you to move."

Both men think that more Hamptons visitors will realise the benefits of a short-term mansion rentals."We are talking super luxury," says Zachman, but "in small doses."

DETAILSInfo: Hampton Retreats, 425 County Rd 39A, Suite 202, Southampton, NY 11968, USA. Tel: + 1 631-259 8000; www.hamptonretreats.comAccommodations Plus, 172 Newtown Lane, East Hampton, NY 11937, USA.Tel: + 1 631-324 1858; www.hamptonsvacations.com
Copyright © Financial Times group

By Julie Earle-Levine
Weekend FT, Jul 02, 2004

In New York City, where money and luxury know no bounds, high-profile restaurateurs and bar owners have finally realised that less wealthy, value-conscious patrons can be lucrative too.

Several upscale venues have recently launched downmarket - but still stylish - offshoots, while others are simply adding less expensive options to their traditional menus.

The reason, according to some owners, is "a backlash against luxury". Sasha Petraske, owner of Milk & Honey on the Lower East Side in Manhattan, and its sister bar by the same name in London, explains: "Even people who can afford it don't want to pay $10 for a cocktail any more. It's not cool."

Cocktails at many high-end Manhattan bars cost $12 to $14 each - a price some well-off customers are suddenly shirking. Last month Petraske opened another downtown bar called the East Side Company Bar, where cocktails cost $7 and $8. Petraske's establishments to date have been rather exclusive.

At New York's Milk & Honey, patrons must call ahead to reserve a space in the dark bar with leather booths. They need to know the phone number, and how to find it. There is no name on the door.

But the location of Petraske's new bar - 49 Essex Street - will not be secret. The owner also plans to offer "the least expensive oysters" in the city - about $9 for half-a-dozen, $16 a dozen.
The lower prices do not mean less quality, he says. For cocktails, staff squeeze apples, pineapple and ginger roots by hand to make fresh juice, and the ice production is labour-intensive - hand-chipped the old fashioned way.

Other bar owners have not gone so far as to open new, less expensive venues. But they are experimenting with lower-priced offerings. At the World Bar in Trump World Tower, where condominiums cost up to $13.5m, owner Mark Grossich introduced a $5 drink called the "Bear" late last year, supplementing a $50 concoction named the "Bull", which has long been on offer. The Bull is a delicious blend of Veuve Clicquot, Pineau des Charentes, freshly squeezed grape and lemon juice, topped with a dollop of liquefied 23-carat gold; the Bear is a more mundane blend of mango and melon liqueurs, light rum and orange juice. But on a recent night, there wasn't a Bull in sight.

Grossich, who owns several other posh cocktail spots including the Campbell Apartment in Grand Central Station, calls the Bear "economic punch" and