jonathan adler

From the LA Times:
--Producer Gary Mehlman has listed his French country style house in the Beverly Hills Post Office area, shown above, at $2,249,000.

--Katey Sagal and her husband, writer-producer Kurt Sutter, have sold their Hollywood Hills compound for $3.77 million.

--James Fielding, the president of Disney Stores Worldwide, has sold his home in Pasadena for $2.325 million.
--The Sunset Strip-area home of the late screenwriter Thomas Mankiewicz has sold for $2.2 million.

From the NY Observer:
--CocaCola's chief spinmeister Charles Holleran and wife, Kathryn Holleran, a managing director at AIG, bought a $1.125 million co-op at 1010 Third Avenue on 61st Street from Jonathan Popper, of Morgan Stanley, and his wife, Karla Popper, a venture capitalist.
--Another Plaza unit has gone for 40 percent off. Unit 1513 just sold for $5.4 million, after it was initially listed for $8.85 million by Stribling in 2009. It was relisted by Corcoran for $5.8 million and the eventual buyer is an LLC.
-- Andrew Pipa, of Morgan Stanley, and wife, Terrie Pipa, an abstract artist, have sold their $6 million penthouse at 22 Mercer Street. The buyer is Sacha Levy, who launched the travelzine Iagora in the late `90s at the age of 25.
--Stylist Vanessa Chow has bought a $3.9 million townhouse in Chelsea.
-- Calyon Securities VP Philip Utsch has bought a $4.3 million condo in the Beekman at 400 East 51st Street.
--Blondie keyboardist James "Jimmy" Destri has sold his Victorian mansion in Bay Ridge, New York for $1.3 million.
--Ari Ben Menashe the author of Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network, which chronicled his supposed involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal, has bought at 515 Park Avenue. He picked up a three-bedroom unit for $7 million.
--Mario Sbarro, of the Long Island-based pizza empire, has just bought a $4.2 million two-bedroom co-op at 930 Fifth Avenue.
--A six-bedroom co-op at 875 Park Avenue was listed for $17 million last January and has sold for $14.05 million to Tami Schneider, the wife of recently deceased Highbridge Capital managing director Richard Schneider.

From the Real Estalker:
Steven Seagal has picked up a four-bedroom home in Scottsdale, Arizona for $3.5 million.

From the Wall Street Journal:
--Val Kilmer has dropped the price of his Pecos River Ranch to $18.5 million. It was listed at $33 million in 2009 but returned to the market at $23 million earlier this year. The listing is here.

--Designer Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan, creative director of Barneys New York, have reduced the price on their Shelter Island, N.Y., home to $1.15 million. It was listed at $1.8 million earlier this year. The listing is here.
--Harry Hagey, the former CEO of investment-management company Dodge & Cox Funds, has purchased two adjacent ranches in Sun Valley, Idaho. The properties were listed for $27.5 million.

Interior designer Jonathan Adler is taking his happy chic to HSN. Happy Chic by Jonathan Adler will have its on-air debut on October 12, 2010. Adler is launching his new collection of home decor and accessories during HSN's Home Design Event. Home Accents Today reports that the event is an annual showcase of fall collections from the network's design stars. "There is no place chicer than HSN!" said Adler in the article. The line will have items for tabletop, seating, lighting, ktichen and bath and will start officially running on the channel in October. Happy Chic is more than just a name, it's a whole philosophy for Adler, whose website lists his 10 commandments of Happy Chic which include maxims like "Thou shalt embrace maximalism" and "Thou shalt not be afraid of orange."

Liza Minnelli also recently debuted a line of clothing on the home shopping network.

Any wagers as to whether "Gossip Girl" hunk Penn Badgley can discuss denim intelligently? Read on.

As if the uniquely energetic interior design godhead Jonathan Adler didn't have enough to do decorating houses, appearing on cable TV, and designing home furnishings, on Wednesday, May 12, he launched a quirky-fun line of clothes for 7 For All Mankind, better known as 7 jeans, in New York.

Yes, the author of the hilarious interior guide and coffee-table book "My Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living"; the pop-inspired interior guru who designed The Parker, a hip hotel in Palm Springs and designer Nanette Lepore's townhouse in Manhattan; and the man who, meanwhile, hawks his own furniture, campy-unique pottery, retro lighting, and fun, bright rugs at 12 eponymous stores from Boston to Miami to Santa Monica, has now designed an abbreviated line of upbeat clothing for 7.

At the 7 For All Mankind store in SoHo, Adler debuted polo shirts with funky logos, striped and pink gingham dress shirts, and countless variations on the skinny jean. "I love 7," said Adler. I wanted to make the line accessible. A lot of the inspiration and icons came from my interior collection: the little pipe, the rope heart (both emblems on polo shirts).

Adler's jeans philosophy: "They need to make you look taller and thinner," he says. "The fit people at 7 helped." Adler, who also designed cords for 7, tells Luxist, "I rock a white cord from 7 every day." Numerous celebs stopped by to pay homage to Adler and to his husband, Simon Doonan, the hilarious author of "Confessions of a Window Dresser" and "Wacky Chicks," as well as the creative director of Barneys New York. Naturally, all discussed their jeans preferences. "I have one pair of 7s I wear every single day," offered Abigail Breslin, of "Little Miss Sunshine" fame.

From the LA Times Hot Properties:
A Los Feliz home once owned by Clifford E. Clinton, the founder of the L.A. landmark Clifton's Cafeteria, is on the market for $1.799 million.The listing is here.
--What do Betty Grable, Stephen Stills, Jacqueline Smith and John De Lorean have in common? At one point they each lived in a Bel-Air house built in 1937. The beautifully maintained home has hit the market for $10.995 million. The listing is here.
--Singer Rachel Sweet has sold Los Pavoreales, a 1926 home designed by Wallace Neff in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles, for $4.895 million. This home hit the market for $9.95 million just last year.
Comedy writer Shelley Zellman recently sold her Sherman Oaks home for $779,000.

From the NY Post:
--Natalie Portman is staying at a Union Square rental building with her dog, Whiz.
--Patti Stanger of Bravo's "Millionaire Matchmaker" is said to have been calling Hamptons brokers looking for a summer beach mansion to live and shoot in.
--Investor Chris Knight has listed his Shelter Island bayfront beach cottage for $3.5 million. The listing is here.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
Jerry Herbst, chairman and president of Las Vegas-based Terrible Herbst, has listed his Newport Beach, California home for $31.75 million. He bought the six-bedroom home for $35 million in 2008 from Nicolas Cage. The listing is here.
--Designer Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan, the creative director of Barneys New York have listed their Shelter Island beach home for $1.795 million. They bought the home for just $185,000 in 1998 but did major renovations. The listing is here.
--Mining executive Richard Adkerson and two partners have bought a roughly 18,000-acre ranch in Montana for less than $30 million. The property was originally offered for $55 million and about 97% of the deeded property has been placed under conservation easements.

From Housing Watch:
--Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade has finally sold his Pinecrest, Florida house. He bought the home in 2005 for $3.98 million and it was first listed for $8.9 million in 2007. It sold last month for a mere $2.5 million.
--Larry King transferred all his prime real estate including his Beverly Hills mansion to his soon-to-be ex-wife Shawn Southwick two years ago but now wants his real estate back.
--After seven months on the market, the 14-bedroom home next to President Barack Obama's residence in Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood sold for $1.4 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--David Krumholtz of the TV show Numb3rs has listed his three-bedroom home for $1.499 million. He paid $1.715 million for the home in 2006. The listing is here.
--Former president and current Chairman of the Board of the Whitney Museum of American Art Robert Hurst and his wife Soledad have listed their Fifth Avenue duplex in New York City for $29 million. The listing is here.
--Jackson Browne has picked up a single story Spanish Colonial Revival residence in the Beverly Grove area of Los Angeles for $2.66 million.
--Interior decorator Kelly Wearstler and property developer Brad Korzen and the three other families have listed the Malibu home they all own for $21.9 million. The six-bedroom home appeared in the November 2009 issue of Metropolitan Home. The listing is here.
--Robert and Barbara Taylor Bradford have listed their four-bedroom New York City residence for $18.995 million.
--Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann have listed their five-bedroom home in the Pacific Palisades area for $6.495 million. They bought the home in 2003 for $4.474 million. The listing is here.

From Move Trends:
--Actor Jeremy Sisto has listed his 3-bedroomHollywood Hills house for $1.3 million. The listing is here.


Emeril Lagasse seems to have finally sold his New York city loft. It was listed for sale for $5.995 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day in August 2009. It was last listed at $4.85 million and the listing shows it is "contract signed."

At the recent Moth Ball this week the fabulous men-about-town Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan were on hand to present the annual $5000 MothShop scholarship. The recipient, New York City high school student Terrence Buckner, told a wise beyond his years story on his struggles with coming out in his rough Brooklyn neighborhood. Doonan shared his own story of pretending to be straight in front of an immigration officer in the 70s, for the purposes of obtaining a work visa.

The master designer and Barneys Creative Director have been longtime supporters of the Moth, a nonprofit dedicated to the art of storytelling. We caught up with the couple at the event to find out why they love the organization so much. Read on in our exclusive interview to find out their advice for having an unforgettable holiday, just how recession-proof is Barneys, and just what they'll never be caught dead leaving home without.

Ariston Anderson: Why are you such big supporters of the Moth?

Jonathan Adler: I love, love the organization. It is so creative and fun and interesting. I go to fancy-schmancy events and sort of like they all are just boring. And the Moth is quite the opposite. It's fascinating and fun. I love them. It's the only thing on my calendar that I'm not dreading. It's the one sort of shining star on my Blackberry.

Simon Doonan: I love the Moth because I guess I'm just a Chatty Cathy and I love the idea of telling stories. It's just so well organized. It's always entertaining. Like when you go out in New York to a lot of events there's no content. But when you come to a Moth event you actually come away with a lot of thought provoking ideas and stories. And of course a lot of humor as well as serious stuff. So yeah, it puts some content into the New York scene, so I love that.

AA: How important is storytelling in design work?

JA: That's actually a great question. I am really focused on narrative in my work. Definitely in decorating I always try to start a creative narrative. The narrative usually involves trying to make my clients seem a little more eccentric, and a little more glamorous than they might actually be.

AA: Simon, have you had to alter any of window displays at Barneys because of the recession?

SD: At Barneys, I always made stuff out of found objects and I always recycle things. The windows at Barneys are always very crafty, and they were always about paper-mâché and finding things in the street. At Barneys, paradoxically, we have a very recession-proof point-of-view because it was never about sort of opulence or bling. It was always kind of subtle and sort of crafty.

AA: Last year, you were advocating the cape here. Are capes still in?

SD: Capes? Everything is in. That's the thing, nothing ever goes out of style anymore. All trends concurrently exist. In this room somebody is probably rocking every trend known to mankind.

AA: What tips do you have for having a fabulous holiday party this season?

SD: For an amazing holiday party, I think there's no such thing as being overdressed. You know, if you feel like wearing a full-length ballgown, just wear it. People worry too much about being event-appropriate. It's much better to be overdressed. As Andy Warhol said, it's much better to be the right thing in the wrong place. You always have fun if you do the right thing in the wrong place.

JA: I think that everyone should have Lee Press On Nails for every guest. It could turn a business meeting into a party.

AA: Have you ever worn them yourself?

JA: I have. (Laughs) But only in the context of a party. It's not an everyday thing.

SD: I think if you want to have a fabulous holiday this season, buy a feather boa. Nothing makes you feel bubbly and vivacious like a feather boa. It's very glam rock.

AA: What are some luxuries you can't live without?

SD: Well Johnny and I have a condo, down in Palm Beach. So we love to go down there and run on the beach and frolic during cold winter weekends. So that's a real self-indulgent luxury. Other than that, no drugs. You know, I'm on a natural high. I don't have an expensive drug habit. And I'm so small I would love to buy clothes all the time, but I can't find things that fit me because I'm a midget.

JA: You know what I can't live without is my pill keychain. My enamel pill keychain. It's in the shape of a pill, and it also functions as a little pillbox. So it holds three pills, just an emergency supply, so that's my most essential item.

AA: What's in your pillbox?

JA: Xanax, xanax, and xanax.

The titans of luxury in New York, Paris, London, Tokyo, and Dubai have spoken, and their mood is, generally, upbeat. The Reuters Global Luxury Summit, which started yesterday and ends tomorrow, is a three-day blitz of interviews with chief executives and chairmen of Hermes, Burberry, Tiffany and Co., Rolls-Royce, Montblanc, Chopard, Estee Lauder, and Saks, to name a few.

Here are some highlights:

• Designer Jonathan Adler, says his mandate for the Christmas season is "irresistable giftables. "I hope that when you walk into my store you will feel like you're in a crack-den of adorableness." As for how his business is faring in the recession: "I think that my design aesthetic is probably the right design aesthetic for right now," he told Reuters. "I've always called my design philosophy happy chic, and it is about creating design that is chic, luxurious, and I hope beautiful, but adding an element of levity and irreverence that I think makes people feel good. And probably in these grim economic times, the element of happiness is resonating with consumers."
• The new Rolls-Royce Ghost model, to be available in September, may help double the carmaker's annual sales. The projection is based on the 1,500 deposits already received for the Ghost.
• Hermes is breeding crocodiles on its own farms, mainly in Australia, to keep up with demand for its exotic-skin $50,000 handbags, because, as Hermes chief executive, Patrick Thomas, put it, "The world is not full of crocodiles, except the stock exchange!" [Meanwhile, Louisiana alligator farms are struggling.]
• Classical styles for handbags are winning out over "it" bags, according to Burberry chief executive Angela Ahrendts. "They (shoppers) want them to last. They want to be able to psychologically know they can carry them for the next couple of years and no one will know how old it is."
• Montblanc is planning to open four boutiques in Saudi Arabia this year. Pens account for about half of total sales since the company has diversified into watches and fine jewelry.
• Chopard has seen sales drop 15-20 percent this year, but is hoping a recovery will level off the sales drop to just 10 percent. "We already feel a little bit of a comeback," Chopard's chairman, Karl Scheufele, said.
• Juicy Couture is increasing the number of products sold for $200 and less to adjust to the recession, Juicy Couture's president, Edgar Huber said.
• Sales of traditional Japanese doll sets, costing from $2,000 to $50,000, have held in the recession.
  

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Popular designer and potter has always had a risque side. Two years ago, we covered his condom caddy decorated with squiggly spermatozoa. Now check out his Hashish candle. The candle is scented with black currant, green apple, wormwood, patchouli and moss. It combines in a porcelain container emblazoned with marijuana leaves. The listing at Unicahome promises that "when the candle burns out the porcelain vessel makes the perfect stash box." Perfect, maybe. Discreet? Not so much. It sells for $68.

Jonathan Adler has apparently got quite a thing for the sculptures of C. Jeré, and so he's collaborated with the C. Jeré studio to reissue some of the most popular designs of old. Previously I posted on the Raindrops sculpture, and now one of my other favorites: Sunburst. Like the Raindrop, this sculpture is also made of antiqued brass. It's a bright addition to any space and captures the essence of the sun in a unique and very vibrant way. This sculpture needs a large space, though, or I'm sure it will easily overpower the room. $1,100

At first glance, if I didn't know the name of this sculpture, I don't think "raindrops" would come to mind. But knowing that was the inspiration suddenly I totally see it, and it seems very alive with depth and color. Plus it almost appears to be in motion. The result of a partnership between Jonathan Adler and C. Jeré studio, this newly reissued Raindrops Sculpture is made of antiqued brass, is signed and dated (of course), and measures about 66"x34"x10". $1500

What better for a summer table than a pair of chubby little birds that won't make a mess? Although they are cute and a little chubby, these bird salt and pepper shakers from Jonathan Adler are also modern and classy. Simplified down to their purest form and then accented with bold geometrical patterns, they have a surprising air of life and I almost expect them to bob their little heads in agreement. Created of high fired stoneware and available in either chartreuse or white, the taller one stands 3" high. $48.

Depending on the particular piece, I usually find myself drawn to a strange mix of both surprisingly simple designs and completely over-the-top and unique ones. This Giant Belly Vase, by Jonathan Adler, would of course be the former. I just love how they describe it on the site: as a "ceramic skin stretched over an invisible armature like a Japanese paper lantern," and I think it's simple, classic, and beautiful. Made of high-fired stoneware it's available in either a matte white glaze or "ultra chic" platinum, and it stands 21" high. $425.

In celebration of the Chinese New Year, why not give a gift that commemorates the year of the pig and helps a friend achieve a goal? I think there is nothing more appropriate to give this year than a old fashioned piggy bank. Mind you, it's not just any piggy bank. No, it's a porcelain pig coated in fabulous gold from design guru Jonathan Adler. It's the perfect piece of bling that can help you save money for fantastic vacations or a new pair of shoes.

Product Dose featured this naughty little bedroom accent yesterday. Adler, who is famous for his unique pottery, offers this  little caddy in brown and white stoneware with platinum accents or plain white. Note the ever-so-subtle sword motif around the sides of the container and the little details in the shield on the top. At $55 it would make a great gift for today's modern Casanova.