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Reach the Beach: Luxury Resort Style in the Turks & Caicos Islands {Exclusive Feature}

Filed under: Apparel, Dining, Luxury Travel & Hotels, Timepieces / Watches, Luxury Cars & Autos, Books, Men's Style, The Classicist

Click above for a high-res image gallery

The Turks and Caicos islands in the British West Indies is well known for having the world's most beautiful beaches. It also has some of the world's most stylish and luxurious beach resorts, which are remarkable for their amazingly private settings and lush natural landscapes, far removed from the over-development that plagues some other Caribbean hotspots. The perfect setting for our latest style feature, we're sure you'll agree.

Parrot Cay, located on a pristine 1,000-acre private island, including a mile-long powdered beach, is an elegant combination of glorious nature, understated luxury and unparalleled privacy complete with an award-winning holistic spa, healthy gourmet cuisine and beach villas with private pools (above).

The villas are a favorite with celebrities including Donna Karan, Bruce Willis, Keith Richards and Sir Paul McCartney. Some like Willis and Karan were so entranced they decided to build their own beach houses on the island. Want to own one? So do we. Parrot Cay is currently offering a small selection of villas for private ownership, starting at $10 million.

Tags: Aman resorts, Amanyara, architecture, Bagatelle, beach, beach resorts, books, Caribbean, celebrity vacations, Donna Karan, Gansevoort, Girard-Perregaux, Helly-Hansen, islands, JetBlue, Land Rover, luxury resorts, Parrot Cay, private island, R A E N Optics, resorts, Rizzoli, Royal Elastics, shoes, spa, Tods, Turks and Caicos, Vineyard Vines, watches

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The Classicist: The Year's Best Luxe Books

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Books, The Classicist

Followers of The Classicist, the weekly column devoted to timeless style, enduring elegance, and true, built-to-last luxury as opposed to mere extravagance, are familiar with the fact that we take pains to search out every season's most luxurious books and bring you exclusive glimpses. 2010 was a particularly good year for top-drawer tomes; if you've any space left in your library we suggest you stock up on the following titles which we declare to be the best of the best from those that made our grade in 2010. Featuring our favorite subjects ranging from Savile Row to classic Louis Vuitton luggage, high equestrian style to high society, and classic architecture to the perfection that is is Porsche, this is a chance to catch up on the must-have volumes you might have missed.

Topping the list are our two favorites, Louis Vuitton: 100 Legendary Trunks (Abrams) and Bespoke: The Men's Style of Savile Row (Rizzoli), both dealing with icons of luxe style, the first a legendary French luggage firm, the second a street synonymous with the world's best men's tailoring. Can you imagine anything better than a suite of Vuitton trunks full of Savile Row suits? Didn't think so. While you're busy assembling a collection these books are the next best thing. Men's style also comes into play in two other titles on our can't-miss list, the bible of Ivy League style Take Ivy (powerHouse) and We Want Miles: Miles Davis vs. Jazz (Skira Rizzoli). They're more closely related than you might think; the jazz legend had a not-so-hidden passion for preppy finery in his early years, while Take Ivy's title is a reference to jazz.

Gallery: The Best Luxe Books of 2010

Tags: Abrams, architecture, books, coffee table books, equestrian, Flammarion, jazz, Louis Vuitton, luggage, mens style, Miles Davis, Paris, Porsche, Rizzoli, Savile Row, Scotland, Take Ivy, teNeues, The Classicist

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Inside the World of Famed Design House Fornasetti

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Books, Architecture & Design

With an incredible 3,000 photographs and illustrations, Rizzoli's massive new monograph on iconic Italian design house Fornasetti is a work of art in itself. Fornasetti: The Complete Universe details how the firm's founder Piero Fornasetti (1913–1988) achieved fame transforming everyday objects into works of art featuring idiosyncratic designs. His work is carried on today by his son Barnaba Fornasetti, who now runs the Fornasetti atelier and authored the impressive volume. Designed to be an "artist's book" that reflects Fornasetti's iconic overall approach to design, the slipcased $250 monograph is divided into two sections: the first half is dedicated to Piero Fornasetti as an artist and highlights his pictorial and graphic work and their artistic applications; the second half focuses on the 70-plus years of the atelier's production.

This includes furniture, sculptures and etchings, graphics, textiles, glass, screens, trays, ceramics, and more. The second section covers the activity of the atelier up to the present day as well. The book also addresses Barnaba's commitment to keeping the Fornasetti legacy alive by showing how Piero's ideas and models are "transformed, reworked, and contextualized." Today the Fornasetti atelier not only reissues historical pieces, but also "offers reinterpretations of themes and objects drawing inspiration from the vast repertory of the atelier's archive of lithographic plates, designs, notes, documents, and objects." Finally, the beautiful and comprehensive book includes a list of exhibitions and a register of the atelier's complete works.

Gallery: Fornasetti: The Complete Universe

Curved chest of drawers, Palladiana (Palladian Motif)

Piero Fornasetti with the Braccio con moneta (Arm with a Coin) tray

Plate 150 from Tema e Variazioni (Theme and Variations) series

Tags: books, coffee table books, decor, design, Fornasetti, furniture, Italy, photographs, Rizzoli

Jamee Gregory's New York Parties: Private Views

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Books, By Design

Jamee Gregory's newly released book, New York Parties: Private Views (Rizzoli New York, 2010) takes the reader on a spectacular journey to affairs hosted by the entertaining expert's closest friends, which include some of New York's leading arbiters of style from the worlds of fashion, design, food, society and philanthropy. The 208-page book is filled with 300 spectacular color photographs taken by Eric Striffler and ably provides a wealth of information for anyone wanting to host their own glamorous affair.

"I've been very lucky in New York to have such terrific and interesting friends," the elegant and statuesque Gregory told Luxist at the book party thrown in her honor by Jay McLaughlin at his J. McLaughlin boutique on Madison Avenue in New York on December 8. "It seemed to me that they put so much of themselves into the entertaining, that every party was like a theatrical performance and they were the producer."

Tags: books, Campion Platt, Evelyn Lauder, Fernanda Kellogg, Jamee Gregory, Jamie Drake, Kirk Henckels, New York Parties, Rizzoli, Rizzoli New York, Tory Burch

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The Classicist: Los Angeles' Finest Classic Estates

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Books, The Classicist, Architecture & Design

With asking prices running to the tens of millions on the rare occasions when such treasures hit the market, owning one of the classic estates of Los Angeles remains but a dream for many. Meanwhile Douglas Woods offers the next best thing in his new stunning new book Classic Homes of Los Angeles from Rizzoli, an exclusive look into some of the finest period revival residences and gardens to be found in and around the area's legendary neighborhoods. The volume's 240 full-color photographs by Melba Levick depict a panorama of richly detailed architectural styles popular in Southern California during its "Golden Age of Expansion" from 1899 to 1938, from Craftsman, Tudor, Georgian and Victorian to Spanish Colonial and Tuscan Revival. Famous landmarks are included as well as many never-before-seen gems.

The cover of the book (above) shows the Prindle House in Pasadena built by architect George Washington Smith in 1926, a pristine example of Spanish Colonial Revival style. Also included are the 1899 Doheny Mansion with its incredible glass-domed Pompeian Room, now part of Mount Saint Mary's College; the stately Huntington Mansion with its palatial great hall, now the Huntington Library museum; the estate of the great Hollywood producer and director Cecil B. DeMille which was recently listed for sale at $18 million; the elegant 1932 Fudger House in Beverly Hills where Danny Kaye lived and entertained for many years; and Frank Lloyd Wright's famed Millard House, aka La Miniatura, from 1923 in Pasadena which was our Estate of the Day in February 2009.

In his introduction to the book, author and architecture expert D.J. Waldie poses the question, "What makes a classic home of Los Angeles?" The answer, he writes, is one that "sympathetically embraces the fundamentals of life here: light, air, landscape and romance." To achieve these qualities, "architects and their clients in the first half of the twentieth century turned to various pasts that were not their own," he notes, "but without turning away from the future they thought Los Angeles represented." For the most part, Waldie writes, "they declined to engage in the culture wars of Modernism (although many great Modernist homes are part of the city's architectural heritage). Some Angeleños thought houses had other, more consoling work to do. A house that can dream for and with its owners, that can dream of both escape and shelter, makes it a classic of Los Angeles." Check out the gallery for a preview.

Gallery: Classic Homes of Los Angeles

Petitfils-Boos House, Hancock Park, 1921

Tags: architecture, Beverly Hills, books, California, Cecil B. DeMille, celebrity real estate, coffee table books, Doheny Mansion, estates, Frank Lloyd Wright, gardens, historic houses, Huntington Library, Los Angeles, movies, Pasadena, real estate, Rizzoli, Southern California, The Classicist

The Classicist: The Ultimate Guide to Savile Row Style

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Books, Men's Style, The Classicist, Luxury Shopping

When James Sherwood's brilliant book on bespoke tailoring called The London Cut came out in 2007, to accompany a Savile Row exhibition at Palazzo Pitti in Florence, we regretted only that it was in softcover and such a small format. Now Rizzoli has rectified that with a suitably statuesque volume by Sherwood expanding on the subject, lavishly illustrated and encyclopedic in scope. Bespoke: The Men's Style of Savile Row begins with the opening of Henry Poole & Co. in 1806 and follows the illustrious history of London's custom tailoring tradition. Famous adherents of 'The Row' through the years from Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, the Duke of Windsor and Winston Churchill to latter-day dandies like Prince Charles, Mick Jagger and David Beckham are also discussed.

From its rather humble beginnings Sherwood discusses Savile Row's role in tailoring for the sporting set, the military and Royalty, the phenomenal influence the houses have had in the sartorial style of the silver screen - where else would James Bond get his threads? - the Row's evolution as "bespoke" was challenged by the mod rock & roll fashion revolution, and its embrace of fashion-forward newcomers like Tommy Nutter, Richard James and Ozwald Boateng, leading a revival of an art form that looked at one time to be doomed to obsolescence, now flourishing in its 200th year.

The style of each of the street's premier tailors is presented in detail along with the immeasurable impact Savile Row style has had on the work of international designers like Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, and Tom Ford, who contributed a foreword to the book. "English gentlemen's tailoring, and in particular the tailoring of Savile Row, really set the standard for the way the stylish 20th-century man dressed," Ford writes. "This English style, in fact, became the international style for well-dressed men all over the world, and this influence has not waned even in today's more casual world. I suppose that when it comes to men's clothes I am an Anglophile and if I did not design my own men's collection, I would have virtually my entire wardrobe made on Savile Row."

Gallery: Savile Row Bespoke

Tags: bespoke, books, Cary Grant, coffee table books, Duke of Windsor, England, Fred Astaire, Henry Poole Co., James Bond, James Sherwood, London, mens style, Ozwald Boateng, Prince Charles, Ralph Lauren, Rizzoli, Savile Row, Tom Ford, UK, Winston Churchill

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Modernist Masterworks of Los Angeles, 1900 - 1970

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Books

If you coveted the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Ennis House in Los Angeles we wrote about last year, but didn't quite have the $15 million asking price, you should pick up a copy of Architecture of the Sun. The weighty tome, being published later this month by Rizzoli for $95, focuses on Los Angeles' many fine modernist masterworks built from 1900–1970. A modern city shaped by the complexities of its geography – ocean, desert, and mountains – "as connected with the industries which formed its cultural references and livelihood", Los Angeles has produced some of the greatest architectural accomplishments of the twentieth century. In addition to Lloyd Wright the architects featured include Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Rudolph Schindler, whose brilliant designs came to define an era. The eminent author, Thomas S. Hines, is Professor Emeritus of History and Architecture at UCLA, where he teaches cultural, urban, and architectural history.

Tags: architecture, books, California, coffee table books, design, Ennis House, Frank Lloyd Wright, John Lautner, Los Angeles, modernism, modernist, modernist architecture, photography, Richard Neutra, Rizzoli, UCLA

The Greatest in Greek Revival Architecture

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Books

In March Rizzoli will publish an updated version of Roger G. Kennedy's stunning volume Greek Revival America, originally issued 20 years ago and still the landmark lavishly illustrated work on the subject. Kennedy provides an enriching look into the past to explain the reasons for the much-admired architecture movement in America and describes the political landscape of the period before, during, and after the Greek Revival era in a compelling narrative. With hundreds of full-color photographs specially commissioned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation along with illuminating illustrations, the book demonstrates the lasting importance of the Greek style and its impact in America evidenced in iconic buildings including churches, banks, government offices and private estates. Also included is a new preface and an updated appendix of every important surviving Greek Revival structure in the United States today. Kennedy is an Honorary Member of the American Association of Architects, a former Director of the National Park Service, and the Director Emeritus of the National Museum of American History.

Tags: architecture, books, coffee table books, CoffeeTableBooks, Greek Revival, GreekRevival, luxury books, LuxuryBooks, Rizzoli

Tell Us Everything, Event Designer Preston Bailey

by Carrie N. Culpepper (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events, Tell Us Everything

Last week, high-end event planner Preston Bailey gathered hundreds in the sprawling 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan to celebrate the launch of his fourth book, "Preston Bailey Celebrations." The gorgeous book is filled with images of the lavish events he's designed the world over (with rates starting at $250,000), from a stunning Tiffany-glass inspired wedding in New York to a reception with giant floral animals in Bali. So you can expect his own party would be a stunner - not to mention celebrity-tinged.

Bailey created a magical environment with no shortage of glitz (above). Two giant disco balls dramatically projected light throughout the room and dreamlike trees glowed at the entrance. A giant runway ran down the middle of the room, which was projected with a rotating image of pages from his book, giving it the illusion of a printing press. The runway served as a stage for performers such as Martha "Everybody Dance Now" Wash and Gloria Gaynor, then later was filled with attendees dancing. Bailey was true to his theory that a diverse crowd makes for the best parties. He was feted by quite a diverse crowd.

Tags: celebrity event planner, CelebrityEventPlanner, katie lee joel, KatieLeeJoel, luxury event planner, LuxuryEventPlanner, preston bailey, preston bailey celebrations, PrestonBailey, PrestonBaileyCelebrations, rizzoli

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Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art, Books

A lavish new coffee table book from Rizzoli titled Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture is a seductive anthology of the famed French fashion house's collaborations with an international group of elite artists, architects, designers, and photographers, including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, David LaChapelle, Annie Leibovitz, Takashi Murakami (whose updated LV monogram is featured on the cover) Richard Prince and Stephen Sprouse. Beautiful images are interspersed with critical essays that examine and position Louis Vuitton's patronage, under the guidance of Artistic Director Marc Jacobs, during "one of the most fertile periods of contemporary art and design." The book is divided alphabetically so as to serve as a sort of encyclopedia of the many collaborations, commissions and sponsorships Vuitton, a cornerstone of the LVMH luxury goods empire, has engaged in over the years.

Tags: Annie Leibovitz, AnnieLeibovitz, architecture, fashion, Frank Gehry, FrankGehry, Louis Vuitton, LouisVuitton, luggage, LVMH, Marc Jacobs, MarcJacobs, Richard Prince, RichardPrince, Rizzoli, Takashi Murakami, TakashiMurakami, Zaha Hadid, ZahaHadid

Caribbean Houses: History, Style & Architecture

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Estates, Luxury Travel & Hotels, Books

West Indian decorative arts scholar Michael Connors presents a lavishly illustrated and comprehensive history of architecturally significant dwellings and estates in the West Indies in his beautiful new book Caribbean Houses from Rizzoli. The book is divided into five chapters, one for each European heritage that brought their own influences and designs to the region: the Spanish, Dutch, English, French, and Danish. In addition to the gorgeous photographs done exclusively for the book, Connors discourses on the area's rich architecture and interior design history, and gives the reader a "unique view of houses that combine the tradition of European styles with the vernacular island forms and decorative motifs." The featured islands include: The Spanish Antilles – Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic; The Dutch Leewards – Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao; The English Islands – Barbados, Turks & Caicos, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts; The French Lesser Antilles – Martinique; and The U.S. Virgin Islands (formerly Danish) – St. Thomas and St. Croix.

Tags: architecture, Aruba, Barbados, Caribbean, Cuba, dominican republic, DominicanRepublic, interior design, InteriorDesign, islands, Jamaica, Michael Connors, MichaelConnors, Rizzoli, tropics, U.S. Virgin Islands, U.s.VirginIslands, West Indies, WestIndies

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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New England's Great Estates

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Estates, Books

Three centuries worth of New England's magnificent houses and mansions are collected in an equally grand new book from Rizzoli: Great Houses of New England, by Roderic H. Blackburn (text) and Geoffrey Gross (photography). Spanning a wide range of styles, these stately houses are the originals from which many of today's McMansions have been copied. They're more than just artifacts, however; as Blackburn writes, "Through the architecture and decorative arts we see the development of a people and their region."

Among the more splendid examples in the book is the Jeremiah Lee Mansion in Marblehead, Mass., dating from 1767 (pictured here), the impressiveness of which is "conveyed by its subdued monumentality," Blackburn notes. Lee, a shipping merchant, built it to emulate aristocratic estates in England, so you might say not all that much has changed. Also of note are the beautiful brick Georgian Macpheadris-Warner House in Portsmouth, N.H., dating from 1716; Rosecliff, a palatial McKim, Mead & White mansion which was the setting for the movie version of The Great Gasby; and Brookside, a gracious Greek Revival in Orwell, VT. See the gallery for more.

Gallery: Great Houses of New England