Italian accessories company Breil Milano has opened a new flagship store at 148 Spring Street in Soho, New York City. The stores is one in a series of flagship stores which Breil Milano is opening luxury cities. It evolves from the new monobrand boutiques recently opened in Berlin (February 2008), Florence and Barcelona (April 2008) .
The New York store is located in a historical building but the boutique has a modern contemporary style which combines warm color tones with bronze and green tints. The entire left-hand wall is covered by original tiles by Dutch artist Edwin Vlassenroot who also sculpted lampshades in copper.A more private space has been created at the lower level where jewelry and watches are available to the public. The next stores are planned for Rome and Milan.
Air taxi service Linear Air has announced the launch of its Eclipse E500 flight service in the greater New York City area. The company's aircraft are based at the White Plains/Westchester County Airport in New York, but will be servicing major and regional airports throughout the tri-state region as well as the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. Linear Air serves 10 times more airports than the traditional commercial airlines serve. The Eclipse 500 is a very light jet which only holds a few passengers so to take your whole entourage to Cape Cod for the weekend you'll need to opt for their eight-passenger Cessna Grand Caravan turboprop. . In order to price out an book flights you need to become a member of Linear Air's service.
Oh, this isn't going to help the relations between Boston and New York. Over the weekend thieves in Attleboro, Massachusetts stole up to $2 million in gold, gems and other valuables including some of the New York Giants Super Bowl rings from a jewelry manufacturer. The thieves disabled the alarm system at E.A. Dion, then cut a hole in the roof and managed to lift a 1,000-pound safe out. The rings, which were manufactured by the company and designed by Tiffany and Co. are white gold set with 1.5 carats of diamonds and valued at $25,000 . Luckily the players and coaches received their rings last month.
Summer can be a great time to visit Manhattan because it's a lot less crowded. The Carlton on Madison Avenue has teamed up with Country, Chef Geoffrey Zakarian's Michelin-rated restaurant to provide guests with a picnic basket to take to one of the city's many parks. The old-fashioned picnic basket includes treats such as rosemary flat bread, tarragon and thyme potato salad, green Muscat grapes, smokehouse almonds, tomato haricot vert salad, cold fried chicken, tuna ciabatta with eggplant caviar and roasted peppers, white truffle lollipops and dark chocolate bark with pistachios, a bottle of wine and two bottled waters. The package includes a night at the hotel ( $499 per night for a Deluxe Room are based on double occupancy) and a welcome amenity of sunscreen and an assortment of magazines and a Continental breakfast for two at The Café at Country. The package is available on weekends though the end of August.
Actor Willem Dafoe has a neat little home in Accord, New York that he's trying to sell off. This home has one immediately distinctive feature, its exterior is clad in neoprene. Known as the Rubber House, it was built for the late choreographer Eugene Loring. It's a relatively small (1,949 square feet) two-bedroom, tucked into a 6.8 acre plot of land. Inside the home has a sunny and spare look that is currently somewhat marred by rather cutesy country furniture. I agree with the Real Estalker Mama who advocated a " a more pared down palette." Still, any home with a tower has my vote. It is listed at $850,000.
Posted Jun 7th 2008 12:05PM by Rigel Gregg Filed under: Wine
City Winery is scheduled to open this fall in an unlikely place: right in the middle of Soho, New York. It will not only be the first winery in New York City but it's the first in any major urban area. City Winery will be a combination members-only winery and public nightclub -- only members will have access to where and how the wine is made. Three membership options will be offered starting at $5,000 and going as high as $15,000 annually, with membership owners getting the title of "barrel owner" with their own 50 gallon American oak barrel, 4 classes each year with wine makers, and a special venue to swap their vintages with other members.
I thought the book "Gotham" was the biggest book on New York city but Gloria Books has it beat with "New York," a giant-sized, 756 page limited-edition book that comes in a Lucite "skyscraper" stand. "Gotham" may still have it beat in page numbers (over 1400 pages) but the New York Books is much heavier, weighing in at 25 pounds. The book is hand-bound in Italian silk and has 33 chapters on all aspects of the city, including history, architecture, design, art & fashion, to music, film, dance and sport. The book includes essays by some of the great writers such as Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, John Updike and many more as well as photography from some of the most famous lenspeople to chronicle the city such as Annie Leibovitz, Alfred Stieglitz, Diane Arbus, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Patrick Demarchelier and David Bailey. The Lenape Edition, named after the first Native American tribe to inhabit New York State, is an edition of 850 units and includes a print by Sam Goldstein from the Corbus Archive. It sells for $2,500.
The Gap is always a great place to find comfortable and breezy summer clothes, and this year is not only no different but it might actually be better. Gap has collaborated with a series of artists to come up with a line of limited edition t-shirts in celebration of the New York Whitney Museum of American Art's Biennial. The list of participating artists includes names like Glen Ligon, Barbara Kruger, Marilyn Minter, Kenny Scharff, and Kerry Marshall. You can buy them online or in a Gap store near you, $28.
Imari porcelain is one of the most striking styles of Japanese porcelain. The style originated circa 1616 in the city of Arita and the porcelain ware was distributed to Japanese locations through the northern Kyushu port of Imari. The traditional color palette for Imari porcelain is very vivid with an underglaze of cobalt blue, and overglaze of iron red and details in gold paint. Sometimes green and yellow polychrome enamel colors were also used as accents. The rich ornamental look of Imari porcelain is reminiscent of the brocading of Japanese textiles. Next month, Flying Cranes Antiques (located in galleries 55, 56 and 58 in The Manhattan Art and Antiques Center, 1050 Second Avenue at 55th St - NY, NY 10022), will feature a display of Japanese Imari porcelains. Exhibited for sale will be rare forms executed in the rich palette characteristic of the ware. The Flying Cranes Antiques Imari porcelain collection includes various forms: bottle shapes, vases, covered jars, foliate plates dating circa 1850-1880. The cost range for the exhibition is in the $800 to $15,000 with many pieces in the $1,000-2,500 range. Shown here is one of the exhibition pieces - a Japanese Imari porcelain shell-form plate (19th Century - Circa 1850-1880 which has a price of $2,200.
Earlier this month we mentioned Navigenics -- a DNA testing service where you send in a swab of your spit to be analyzed for a variety of genetically testable diseases. Now there seems to be a growing controversy concerning these over-the-mailbox testing kits. Both New York state and California have issued warning letters to such companies including Navigenics and 23andMe stating these tests should not be administered without oversight from a practicing physician. Although no formal charges have been made yet, interested customers from New York have been put on a waiting list at Navigenics until this mess can be sorted out. At least that particular company offers genetic counseling services for individuals who find out they may be predisposed to get Alzheimers and other diseases... a small step in the right direction.
Most expensive homes have extra built-in features that are meant to make the environment more comfortable, but not the $2 million Bioscleave House on Long Island. Husband and wife architectural design team Arakawa and Madeline Gins have made sure the "Lifespan Extending Villa" they created is specifically as uncomfortable and unsettling as possible. At the core of their campaign to defeat mortality is the idea that "comfort is the precursor to death." They believe that they have created an environment that keeps people constantly tentative, which in turns helps them stay young and cheat death.
So what makes it so uncomfortable? The floors are severely uneven and bumpy (you have to sign a waiver before you can enter and there are poles to grab onto in various places in case you lose your balance), all the light switches and electric sockets are placed at weird angles, and it's painted in an array of crazy colors (some walls include as many as 40 different shades).
Interestingly enough the couple doesn't seem interested in living in it themselves, as it's currently sitting empty waiting for occupants. That thing cost $2 million and now they aren't even going to live in it. What, they don't want to defy death after all?
Can't say I blame them. I hope to be nice and comfy in my old age, death precursor or not.
Groove with Me is a charity organization located in New York City that offers free dance classes and programs to underprivileged young girls. The goal is to give them a safe place where they can express themselves and develop the self-esteem, confidence, and leadership skills necessary to be successful later in life. The program is run by volunteer dance teachers and program directors who encourage the girls to develop cooperation skills, creativity, pride, and discipline, building the skills they'll need to face adversity. Many of the girls see improvements in grades, mood, conflict management, and school attendance as a result of being in the program. Originally founded in 1996, currently Groove with Me Inc serves 220 students spread over two locations -- one on the Lower East Side and one in Spanish Harlem.
For months the possibility of living with Richard Gere has been one of the quiet selling points for Palazzo Chupi, director Julian Schnabel's monument to his own Schnabeliciousness in New York's West Village. Now that dream is over, Gere's full-floor, four-bedroom apartment is listed with Sotheby's. Gere's apartment has some benefits over the over two apartments which are listed at $27 million and $32 million, mainly that it's a little less over-the-top and doesn't have that odd avocado-colored kitchen. Curbed states that Gere bought the apartment in September for $12 million and has listed at $17,995,000. Is New York ready for "Venice in Manhattan?" We'll have to wait and see how long these places stay on the market.
It's true! Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, previously home to famous names like Normal Mailer, Edie Sedgewick, and the guy who shot John Lennon (Mark David Chapman), is getting a remodel and soon will be a luxury hotel. Built in 1931 it's pretty perfect for the remake, with its location in Manhattan along the East River, its Italian Renaissance style, and even its "H" layout with hotel-sized rooms on long corridors.
Bellevue hasn't treated psych patients since 1984 when it was transformed into a homeless shelter, and now the plans for yet another renovation are well underway. No word yet on when they hope to have the hotel finished, but hopefully there's a developer locked in by the end of the year so renovations can get started by the middle of 2009.
Knowing all the history (and insanity) that happened in those walls, will you stay there?
Given today's perilous real estate market , it makes me a bit nervous to see a newly constructed house over 20,000 square feet hit the market. This one in Stony Point, New York is a real humdinger. It is luxury on a grand scale with monumental double-height rooms. It has full-house automated lighting ,security cameras and an audio/video Creston system. The main home includes a cherry wood library, office, billiard room, gym, wine cellar, 21-seat theater and a four-stop elevator. There is also a 3800 square foot carriage house which is attached to the main house via covered breezeway and underground tunnel and a 2800 square-foot pool house giving the entire property ten bedrooms total. The 2.5 acre property also has a lighted 50x100 sport court and a heated custom pool with a spa. It is listed at $9.5 million.
