Sunday By The Sea - Adler & Doonan

Not your granny's beach house, though there are many things in it that are maybe groovy granny inspired.

The waterfront view from "a groovy Palm Springs–style pool pavilion" at this Shelter Island beach house

Owned and decorated by Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan, you can read about it in Architectural Digest in an article written by Simon Doonan (on newstands June 12).

"One fabulously louche open living area" - love the Beni rug and everything Adler

The Adler-Doonan beach house bedroom

Simon says, "We took a cue from the Rolling Stones and decided to paint it black. Our choice got the whole island talking".

Read about 10 Summer essentials the Adler/Doonan family must have HERE

Jonny and Liberace on a surf board

The deck

Get the IKEA swinging chair for your  groovy beach house

"Having spent time in Japan, however, Jonathan and I had repeatedly observed single-story charcoal-color structures melding seamlessly with their surrounding gardens",  says Doonan in the article - Liberace concurs

Liberace and Jonathan paddling on Gardiners Bay off Shelter Island

I love what the Adler/Doonans have done at the beach. 

Doonan explains, "with panoramic views of Gardiners Bay and Orient Point. The plot spoke to us. You must build a one-story compound, part modernist fantasy, part rustic beach retreat".

Please add my NEW address to your blog list:

http://thevisualvamp.blogspot.com
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Simon Does Isabel

My friend Sabina send this me. She and I are complete Simon Doonan groupies.
Here's the link if you'd like to take a look http://www.barneys.com/

This And That: Zulu Queen Desiree Rogers, Peace, Oprah Folding, French Cafes

My desk top is cluttered with images that I collect as they interest me. I'm a visual person, so I guess I'm kind of a glorified caption writer of sorts. I like to find pictures, and then find a story around them. I've been lost in the black hole that is Google Images for more hours than I want to own up to.
Pre Katrina New Orleans is really coming along. The service that delivered the New York Times is finally back, so after a small lapse of three and half years, I am getting my paper delivered again. There is nothing more satisfying than reading The Times in hand, and tearing out articles that pique my interest.
Friends and the hubs also send me things, and this morning the darling man sent me a very nice story from our local rag, The Times Picayune.
President -Elect Barack Obama has named a New Orleans woman his Social Secretary! Desiree Rogers, a former New Orleans Zulu queen and daughter of the late city councilman Roy Glapion Jr., was named incoming White House Social Secretary on Monday.

Desiree Rogers
photo from The Black Socialite
which fails to mention that Desiree is from New Orleans
from an old family with an esteemed Creole name of Glapion
dating back to the origins of New Orleans.
Marie Laveau the famous Voodoo queen
is part of the Glapion family too.

The White House Social Secretary is responsible for the planning, coordination and execution of official social events at the White House, the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States.

Queen Zulu Desiree

The Social Secretary is head of the White House Social Office, located in the East Wing of the White House Complex. The Social Secretary plans events ranging from those as simple as a tea for the First Lady and a single official guest, to dinners for more than 200 guests.

Letitia Baldridge Social Secretary to the Kennedys

The Social Secretary works with the White House Chief Usher to coordinate domestic staff and with the Chief of Protocol of the United States, an official within the United States Department of State, to plan state visits and accompanying state dinners. The Social Secretary works with the White House Graphics and Calligraphy Office in the production of invitations to social events. The Social Secretary works on both the non-political functions of the presidency and the political, coordinating events for the President, the First Lady, and senior political staff. The White House Social Secretary serves at the president's pleasure and is appointed by each administration. (from Wikipedia)
The president's pleasure! How perfect that Ms. Rogers was the queen of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club!
When we first arrived in New Orleans there were so many things to learn.
I saw signs on buildings around town using the words" social aid and pleasure club" and asked my trusty guides Sabina and Aaron and Eddie what it all meant HERE.
The first time I saw Zulu parade on Mardi Gras, I was astonished by their appearance. What is up with black face and coconuts?
I learned that anyone of any race can put on black face and toss coconuts and ride in Zulu (for the price of the ride and buying all the trinkets and beads to throw).
There are alternate parallel universes here in New Orleans, that on a bad day smack of vestiges of vintage Jim Crow, but on a good day are the choice of how the people choose to party.
We are so proud of Desiree Rogers, and for her family! Maybe it won't be just another Tuesday in the White House, when Mardi Gras rolls around!

Another thing that's on the desk top, are some pictures having to do with the 50th anniversary of the peace sign.

The symbol was created by the designer Gerald Holtom. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Holtom was a conscientious objector in World War II. On 21 February 1958 he designed the Nuclear Disarmament logo for the first Aldermaston March, organised by the Direct Action Committee against Nuclear War, Easter 1958.
The logo was not copyrighted, and was available for use by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, also founded in 1958; it later became known in the wider world as a general-purpose peace symbol. The design was a combination of the letters "N" (two arms outstretched pointing down at 45 degrees) and "D" (one arm upraised above the head) of the flag semaphore alphabet, standing for nuclear disarmament.
I was about the age of the baby being carried in this photo, when the peace sign was invented. As a young high school and art school student, it became a part of my visual vernacular.
This book (from whence I got these photos) would be a wonderful Christmas gift HERE

Barney's in New York had Simon Doonan do up their Christmas windows again this year, and he has chosen the peace sign annivesary as his muse.

Barney's also has a treasure trove of merchandise like this pillow, and a Fornasetti plate commissioned especially for the occasion.

The next thing on the desk top, is the news that the magazine "O At Home" is folding. The New York Times reports: In a statement on Friday, the company said, “We have decided to consolidate the editorial content of quarterly spinoff O at Home back into the flagship magazine.” Much of the magazine’s staff will move to another Hearst publication, Country Living, including the editor in chief, Sarah Gray Miller, who will take the same post at Country Living.
And speaking of folding, apparently the French cafe as an institution in France is in deep trouble.
Universally know and beloved as an icon of France so popular that it is imitated all over the world, they are closing down in droves as the habits and customs and economy of France changes. You can read about it HERE
Pretty soon we will only have replicas, and photos in books to remind us of this once great and seemingly enduring way of life.
These images are by Carla Coulson of Carla Loves Photography
Carla is a very talented and gifted photographer, and she has a new book out now that shows her beautiful and special back story of Paris. It's only out on amazon UK and Canada, and hopefully soon amazon USA will offer it too.
Below is a random photo from my clipping file of a French cafe. It's a classic for sure, a neighborhood kind of place where you could have a coffee or an aperitif, and a cigarette.
Cafes in Paris (and Buenos Aires) are always such a go-to solution for inexpensive and tasty food at any time of the day or night. Havens for readers and journal scribblers, as well as meeting places and extended living rooms for cramped city dwellers, they have been a boon and mainstay for over 100 years. It's sad to think of them going by the wayside in France of all places.
Okay, the desk top has been cleared off for now! Enjoy your day...
...and to paraphrase the great Don Cornelius with something I say to end our tango classes: Peace, Love, and Tango!!!!

Congratulations Mr. and Mr. Adler-Doonan!

From The New York Times:

Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler

Published: September 19, 2008

Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler were married Thursday evening at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco. Howard Steiermann, a minister of the Universal Ministries, officiated at a ceremony that included Jewish traditions.

Mr. Doonan (left), 55, is the creative director of Barneys New York. He is also a columnist for The New York Observer and the author of four books, including “Eccentric Glamour: Creating an Insanely More Fabulous You” (Simon & Schuster, 2008). Next month, the BBC will broadcast a comedy series based on his memoir. He graduated from Manchester University.

Mr. Doonan is the son of the late Betty Doonan, who lived in Bangor, Northern Ireland, and the late Terry Doonan, who lived in Hove, England. His parents both worked for the BBC; his mother was a clerk in the news department and his father monitored foreign broadcasts.

Mr. Adler, 42, is a potter, an interior decorator and an owner of home furnishing and design stores bearing his name. He is also the head judge on “Top Design,” a reality series on the Bravo network. He graduated from Brown.

Mr. Adler is a son of Cynthia Adler of New York and the late Harry R. Adler. His mother was a lawyer at his father’s law practice in Bridgeton, N.J.

Mr. Doonan and Mr. Adler met in November 1994 on a blind date arranged by a mutual friend.

“The bloke who set us up just had some intuition that we would hit it off,” Mr. Doonan said. And they did, for the most part. “He’s very good-looking, charming and funny,” he said. But ...

“He badgered me with lots of direct questions,” Mr. Doonan said. “In England people wouldn’t ask a lot of direct questions.”

So he chose not to answer many of them.

“He was kind of monosyllabic and a little remote on the first date,” Mr. Adler said. “But there was a little spark.”

Enough for a second date, watching the Mike Leigh film “Abigail’s Party” (“as a litmus test of his humor,” Mr. Doonan said). That sealed the deal.

“We have a ridiculous amount in common,” Mr. Doonan said. “We both hate smug people. We both rant at the same things.” And, he added, “We both drink a lot of tea.”

Handbags = Vaginas by Simon Doonan

Now that got your attention didn't it. If you haven't gone to the link Simon Doonan HERE you are really missing a good daily giggle. "Simon Doonan is a modern Noel Coward with a dash of Auntie Mame and Liberace thrown in for good measure."
I have re-printed an article from October 2007. Hope you enjoy it...
And if you get caught up in needing a handbag du jour, you can now rent them and change them out as often as you like. There are a myriad of services offering expensive designer handbags. Has anyone actually done this? I use the bag of the moment for the whole season, and then it looks like crap. I only save the good ones, and give the rest to charity.

Rent a bag HERE

Ladies! Open Up Your Purses, by Simon Doonan

"Tired of toeing the line? Dying to take a walk on the wild side? Looking to bust a new taboo? No need to look far: There could be one lurking on the top shelf of your closet. I’m talking about that beat-up Prada doctor’s bag, circa fall 2000. Dust it off, dangle it from the crook of your arm and brace yourself for the reaction. Why? Because, girls, believe it or not, the most transgressive, shocking thing a New Yorkeress could do right now is to appear in public with an old bag. Yes, a beaten-up, out-of-date purse!

Using the C-word, on-the-job boozing, hairy bits, public sex, hideous halitosis, unmanicured extremities—none of these no-nos will come close to causing the frisson of horror which will be occasioned by the sight of a déjà vu, ungroovy purse.

Handbag refreshment has reached some kind of sick, frenzied crescendo. Bags are the new shoes. Based on purse sales at Barneys, not to mention the West African street vendor who flogs knockoffs around the corner, the average Manhattan lass is now buying a new purse every 15 minutes.

Whether it’s a zillion-dollar Hermès crocodile Birkin or some squishy vinyl number from Kmart, this demented compulsion to buy handbag after handbag suggests the presence of a new and horrid pandemic: The ladies are clearly suffering from Hysterical Accessory Gathering Syndrome, H.A.G.S. for short.

If Freudian theory is correct and handbags are indeed vaginal symbols, this H.A.G.S.-induced mania for their constant renewal finds an easy parallel in the contemporary trend for vaginal shaving, waxing, tweaking and—last but not least—vaginal-rejuvenation surgery. The bottom line, it would appear, is that nobody, in the year of our Lord 2005, wants to be the owner of an old bag.

Once you accept the hypothesis—as I unquestioningly have—that vaginas and handbags are totally synonymous, the world becomes a very interesting place. Look at that chippie over there with her buckled and padlocked Chloé Paddington bag: Is she transmitting a message of chastity or bondage? Look at the teeth on that LeSportsac zipper! Vagina dentata, anyone? And that crazed overachiever who just stole your cab: What is motivating her to stuff her entire forearm into the gaping maw of her monogrammed Goyard tote?

And what of the celebs? Are they suffering from H.A.G.S., too? When Somali supermodel Iman arrived at the launch party for her new book, The Beauty of Color (Penguin/Putnam, $29.95) at Downtown Cipriani last Wednesday night, she was fascinatingly and enigmatically sans handbag. What could it mean? When I challenged her about this matter, she was typically defiant and regal, saying: “I think it’s so much more glamorous to be purseless. I already have the perfect accessories—my husband David Bowie and his bodyguard!” Who was carrying Iman’s nude lip-gloss ($11, www.iman-beauty.com)? Why, the bodyguard, of course.

Fortunately or us retailers, most women are not in a position to inoculate themselves against the H.A.G.S. epidemic with a lip-gloss-toting bodyguard. Au contraire, many gals are carrying several purses at once, suggesting a terrifying hydra of multiple pudenda.

One such person is Louise de Teliga, another recently published former fashion model. On tour to promote her chuckle-filled new novel Fashion Slaves (published by the aptly named house Strapless, $12.95), Louise arrives at book signings carrying a pink Prada tote. Inside this capacious fleshy receptacle lurks a teensy brown grosgrain Anya Hindmarch number with a bow and two adorably furry brown mink pompoms.

I chatted with her by phone after her recent West Coast blowout appearance and asked her if she thought that the balls might indicate a latent castration impulse. “Quite possibly,” laughed the former Australian Vogue cover girl. “At the very least, I’m stashing a small brown vagina, with balls, inside a big pink vagina …. ” Yikes!

I asked Louise what she did with all her old bags. She declined to respond and hung up. Her reticence to answer the question made me wonder: Where have all the Fendis gone? Long time passing …. At this point in time, there should be massive slag heaps of discarded Kate Spades, Lanvins, Coaches and Balenciagas accumulating outside every apartment building. I have a horrible suspicion that sneaky H.A.G.S. sufferers—fearing the humiliating discovery of their wrinkly old bags—are secreting them in their attics á la Dorian Gray.

Girls! Let’s take those old purses and put them to good use! Meet me this Sunday at South Street Seaport. We’ll throw them all into the water and create a fab new landfill. We can call it H.A.G. Island."

Always In Style - Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler

Power couple, cutie pies, and always in style...Simon and Johnny

Jonathan Adler saved my life. I was in a deep depression after a once in a lifetime natural disaster. I found his book: My Prescription For Anti Depressive Living HERE
It led me to eBay.
I thought I was arranging with attitude, but instead, I made at this huge mess, truly the work of a mad woman, but I had fun, and stopped wanting to kill myself and everybody else.

I just wanted to kill this room.

Simon Doonan makes me laugh everyday HERE
If you'd like to read a little more about these two, go HERE