high society

Q&A with High Society's Tinsley Mortimer

Filed under: Handbags, Celebrity Shopping, Celebrity Design

Luxist recently snatched up an opportunity to sit down with socialite and star of the reality show "High Society" Tinsley Mortimer while she was visiting the DC area for The Front Row fashion event in Bethesda, Md. Mortimer dished about her handbag line with Japanese-based designer Samantha Thavasa, her brand-new tats, her love for fashion, and of course, a little bit about luxury.

Your handbag line has gained a lot of acclaim in Japan. Do you get to travel there often?
It's been an amazing five years. I've visited several times, but the most recent was about a year ago. [The company] actually likes to shoot me in New York. Sex and the City has really taken off over there, and they love all the different backdrops. Plus, I live just a block from the factory where all of the products are made.

Why did you get involved with Samantah Thavasa?
It's been an amazing five years. I've always wanted to design - my mother was an interior designer. Plus, I've always been a girly-girl. When I was growing up, I never wanted to play with baby dolls - I always loved Barbie. I was offered the opportunity to do this line and jumped on it. I've had the chance to do my own clothing line, Riccime, but it's only available in Japan.

The bags are great - tell us a bit about the most recent line.
I was really inspired by the 80s, so a lot of the pieces have great studs and detailing.

We loved the bag Mortimer was sporting during our talk - an oversized platinum clutch from her own collection. The "Deborah" retails for just $225.

Tags: high society, qa, samantha thavasa, TinsleyMortimer

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The Classicist: The Best of Luxe Books

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Estates, Yachts & Sailing, Books, The Classicist, Wealth

For your reading and viewing pleasure we present the second in a series looking back at highlights from the first year of The Classicist, the weekly column devoted to timeless style, enduring elegance, and true, built-to-last luxury as opposed to mere extravagance. For our second installment we sum up the best in luxe books, featuring our favorite subjects ranging from high equestrian style to classic architecture, historic estates, high society, jetsetters, megayachts and more. No truly luxurious library is complete without these volumes.

Gallery: Best of the Best: Books 2009

1. Equestrian Style: Home Design, Couture, and Collections from the Eclectic to the Elegant by Vicky Moon (Clarkson Potter)

Moon divides her volume into different facts of the equestrian experience: In the Field, On the Farm, At the Track, In the Ring, On the Move, and Down the Road, focusing on all facets of horsiness and everything that goes along with it. The emphasis is on authenticity, not affectation; she notes all that's really required is a "basic love of horses" but opines that actually riding them gives one a much stronger connection. True equestrian style, she writes, is "more than a feisty, wet Jack Russell terrier, a pair of Wellington boots and a tweed jacket. It goes beyond hanging a hunting print in the dining room wall to actually leaping over a stone wall on your favorite hunter. An unspoken equestrian philosophy surpasses wearing an Hermes scarf; it celebrates riding over jumps in an Hermes saddle."

Gallery: Equestrian Style

Racing tropy from Bonhams Sporting Sale.

2. The Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills by Jeffrey Hyland (Rizzoli)

A meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated history of 50 magnificent estates in three world-famous enclaves of the ultra-wealthy - Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, and Holmby Hills - this is a definitive history of the area's most famous estates, "the architecturally spectacular homes and lavish grounds that have been home to countless celebrities and the world's richest families for almost a century." Aside from the purely visual pleasure of the photographs both old and new, Hyland explains the history and architectural importance of each estate, and tells the fascinating stories of the many famed owners, from their "passionate involvement in the design of these costly properties, to their intrigues, triumphs, calamities, and romances."

Gallery: Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills

3. Great Estates: The Lifestyles & Homes of American Magnates by William G. Scheller (Universe)

This oversized, lavishly illustrated volume celebrates the history of 40 of America's true barons of business, from the 1700s through this year's Forbes list, and opens the door into their private palaces along the way. Great Estates follows the "restless careers of our most brilliant and driven merchants, industrialists, and financiers as they mastered a new economic world of textiles, railroads, oil, and steel." Men of great fortune erected massive monuments to their success, inclduing Henry Clay Frick's Manhattan mansion, now a magnificent museum; William Randolph Hearst's San Simeon in California, aka Hearst Castle; and one of our personal favorites, railroad magnate Jay Gould's gothic castle on the Hudson River, Lyndhurst and more.

Gallery: Magnates' Great Estates

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (former Carnegie Mansion)

4. Luxury Toys: Mega Yachts from teNeues

In the rarefied world of mega yachts, the ultimate achievement is to have one designed by a certain Norwegian genius named Espen Oeino. The world's top star in naval architecture, Oeino's megabucks creations "combine the precision of fine machinery with indulgent finishes and the high-end amenities of a palace." When German luxury publisher teNeues opted to focus a volume in its amazing Luxury Toys series to the world's greatest yachts, it was quickly decided to dedicated the entire book to Oeino. The book showcases 20 of his stellar creations, including Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's 413-ft. Octopus, the 8th largest yacht in the world and the second largest superyacht that is not owned by a head of state.

Gallery: Luxury Toys: Mega Yachts

Continued after the jump.

Tags: architecture, Assouline, Beverly Hills, BeverlyHills, equestrian, high society, HighSociety, library, mansions, megayachts, Rizzoli, San Simeon, SanSimeon, Stanford White, StanfordWhite, teNeues, yacht

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Sex and Dying in High Society

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Books, Wealth

Laurence Leamer, author of The Kennedy Women, examines the seamier side of Palm Beach's high society in his new book Madness Under the Royal Palms: Love and Death Behind the Gates of Palm Beach. Described as an "inside look at this playground of the rich, and its under-class of social-climbing wannabes," the book traces the history of Palm Beach and its most famous estates before examining some of the posh town's more infamous scandals.

Publisher's Weekly says the book's "highly visual vignettes - dominated by divorce, infidelity, excessive drinking and violence - produce a depressing picture of sad, angry, insecure and frequently nasty people hiding behind empty smiles, luxury cars and socially invisible servants," noting that while some may find it "a penetrating portrayal of a privileged segment of the American population, others might regard it as a book-length gossip column."

Tags: Florida, high society, HighSociety, Palm Beach, PalmBeach, socialites