ALESSANDRO NIVOLA SHAPE-SHIFTER
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Conceived by globally renowned Robert A.M. Stern Architects, these ultra-luxury waterfront condominiums in West Palm Beach offer stately design and gracious scale, enriched by artful details and elegant interiors. See how South Flagler House is redefining true luxury for South Florida living.
50 SHAPE-SHIFTER
New York actor Alessandro Nivola has the uncanny ability to transform into wildly different characters so easily that it’s almost impossible to recognize him from role to role. This year, Nivola is everywhere, from The Brutalist to The Room Next Door, giving performances that prove he’s one of the most exciting actors of our time.. By TED HILDNER
58 ICY HAUTE
Red-hot clothes and accessories for the winter season. By Natalie
D. Kaczinski
66 THE GLOBAL GOURMAND
Artist-cum-chef Laila Gohar invents wildly creative worlds with food and design. By TY GASKINS
74 ABOUT FACE
Since their inception, timepieces have been a platform for imagination. With inventive new shapes, colors, and unique, surprising stones, the watch world is moving that spirit into the future. By David Graver
ALESSANDRO THE GREAT Actor Alessandro Nivola, photographed exclusively for Avenue by Landon Nordeman.
Kate Rheinstein Brodsky celebrates a decade of great design. BY
JANET MERCEL
TRAVEL NEWS
94 TO THE MANOR BORN
Meet Lounes Mazouz and Ariel Arce—nightlife’s new ruling class—and discover why no one is staying home anymore. BY PETER DAVIS
A guide to New York’s eminent design hub.
Hilde Lynn Helphenstein, the real-life Gossip Girl of
tells all!
The notorious “Hipster Grifter” has a new book—a no-holds-barred memoir of a chaotic, misspent youth.
Talking shop with New York’s key real estate players and hearing their thoughts on how the city has evolved and where we are headed in the future. BY TED HILDNER
Carnegie Hill senior living has been leveled-up. BY
KELLY AMORE
A normally loquacious writer keeps her mouth shut at a retreat in the Balinese jungle. BY ARIEL LEVE
The Standard hotel’s chic sibling opens up in SoHo. BY PETER DAVIS
98 THE (SEX) LIFE AND DEATH OF SALVADOR DALÍ
The Spanish Surrealist— forever a provocateur—was as wild, glamorous, and grotesque as his paintings. BY JANET
MERCEL
100 Q&AVE
Photographer Sophie Elgort hails from a famously creative family: her father is legendary lensman Arthur Elgort and her brother is actor Ansel Elgort. And now, Sophie plays a starring role in a new series Portrait Mode with Sophie Elgort BY PETER DAVIS
FREEZE FRAME
Lounes Mazouz, New York’s new nightlife king.
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Peter Davis
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Natalie D. Kaczinski
Editor’s Letter
Casting the cultural innovators and instigators in every issue of Avenue is like creating a guest list for a dinner party where you get to meet and learn about New York’s most fascinating people. Like the greatest city in the world, the mix is what matters most and, in this issue, we present a roster of characters from every corner of our metropolis.
To start, we profile Laila Gohar, the young, wildly creative culinary and art star, so in demand that brands from Gucci to Sotheby’s have her on speed dial! From candelabras studded with caviar-filled eggs to swans made from artichoke leaves, Gohar’s creations are as entertaining as they are stunning. Speaking of entertainment, we meet actor Alessandro Nivola, who stars in two of the year’s most acclaimed films, the award-winning epic The Brutalist and Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door. Nivola began on Broadway in A Month in the Country (for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk award) with Helen Mirren and F. Murray Abraham. Nivola, who lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the actress Emily Mortimer, is a die-hard New Yorker and tells us about his early days, hanging out with pals like Jude Law until “right before the sun came up.” Keeping the Hollywood-on-the-Hudson energy thriving, Nivola is often found at his local restaurant with fellow Boerum Hill actors like Ethan Hawke, Hope Davis, Peter Dinklage, and The Brutalist director, Brady Corbet.
When it comes to instigators, we chat with Hilde Lynn Helphenstein, the “Gossip Girl” of the art world whose viral Instagram page “Jerry Gogosian” (a play on art critic Jerry Saltz and mega-dealer Larry Gagosian) is a social media sensation. Helphenstein’s followers, fans, and a few foes include gallerists, painters, and collectors. When not scrolling through the Jerry Gogosian account, the creative class is at Manhattan’s newest hot spots: the restaurants Ella Funt and Heroes and the nightlife hangouts Pearl Box and Club 82. Ella Funt and Club 82 owner Lounes Mazouz and Ariel Arce of Heroes and Pearl Box have injected new energy into the city—we have dubbed them the King and Queen of New York Nightlife.
To spice up our cultural feast, we’ve thrown in a wild card with a no-holds-barred interview with Kari Ferrell, who became internet-famous when she was dubbed “The Hipster Grifter” for conning a handful of hapless guys with her charm and seemingly innocent demeanor. Now, Ferrell is telling all in You’ll Never Believe Me, a memoir of a misspent, chaotic youth. Ferrell’s razor-sharp, brutally honest, and oft-hilarious tome is proof that the city welcomes second chances—and a great storyteller. “I cannot imagine being anywhere else but New York,” Ferrell tells Avenue. “It is a place that makes or breaks you. I need that fractious energy. That’s what inspires me. I am the drive, the structure, the insanity of this amazing city.”
Pull up a seat and dig into our blockbuster issue.
Cheers!
PETER DAVIS Editor-in-Chief
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
David Graver
EDITOR-AT-LARGE
Ted Hildner
FASHION EDITOR
Nolan Meader
ART ASSISTANT
Mickey McCranor
COPY CHIEF
Danielle Whalen
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Alex Fener
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Mike Albo
Annabel Keenan
Mickey McCranor
Janet Mercel
Ray Rogers
Constance C.R. White
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Ben Cope
Sophie Elgort
Edd Horder
Bella Howard
Richard Kern
Jai Lennard
Nick Mele
Landon Nordeman
Alexander Thompson © 2025 by Cohen Media Publications LLC
AVENUE
EDITORIAL@AVENUEMAGAZINE.COM
PUBLISHER
Julie Dannenberg
COHEN MEDIA PUBLICATIONS LLC
CHAIRMAN
Charles S. Cohen
Paulette Koch
Dana Koch
ON THE AVENUE
WHILE KRB ONLY TAKES ON ABOUT ONE ARTIST A YEAR, THE ROSTER IS BUILT ON MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS THAT OFTEN CONNECT TO ITS FOUNDER’S HISTORY.
Ten Years of KRB: Kate Rheinstein Brodsky’s Legacy of Art and Style
The corner of 73rd Street and Lexington Avenue is a bright spot on the block, an invitation to step into a world wholly more fun and glamorous. For a decade, at Kate Rheinstein Brodsky’s eponymous storefront-cum-gallery, the mélange of modern and traditional objects has gilded the lily of New York City’s most stunning homes and beyond.
This season, Kate Rheinstein Brodsky (KRB) celebrates its 10-year anniversary with commemorative collections from artists Rheinstein Brodsky has long championed, including Christopher Spitzmiller, Marian McEvoy, and photographer Dale Goffigon. “When I opened the shop, I was dealing in antiques and vintage furniture,” she recalls. “I wanted to start carrying living artists who were working and selling contemporaneously. It surprised me by being one of the most enjoyable sides to the business. I was happy to let it grow.”
Rheinstein Brodsky’s mother was the late, great interior designer Suzanne Rheinstein, meaning she grew up immersed in beautiful objects, with a deep appreciation for the artistry and magic of interiors. It was her mother’s legendary Los Angeles shop, Hollyhock, that ignited Rheinstein Brodsky’s passion for retail. At KRB, the atmosphere is designed to make art, and the art of shopping, accessible and relatable. “The art world can feel intimidating—it’s a juggernaut,” Rheinstein Brodsky acknowledges. “People might fall in love with a piece, but they can’t always imagine it. Is it the right size? Will it work with their furniture?” KRB is the embodiment of a living, breathing home, complete with a faux fireplace to set the scene. It’s immediately comfortable, giving clients a sense of scale and context that makes them feel at ease. “Stack it three high, add a little drama!” Rheinstein Brodsky suggests. “Why
McClaren 750S Spider
GO GREEN Top: Green Rotary Phone by Kate Schelter; bottom: Acanthus Leaf
Architect’s Bin by Scanlon Apparati at KRB.
not make it fun—a chance to engage with the art? I want people to have a visceral reaction, and think, ‘These colors speak to me,’ or ‘It’d be amazing to wake up to this every day.’”
While KRB only takes on about one artist a year, the roster is built on meaningful relationships that often connect to its founder’s history. Through interior designer Harry Heissmann, Rheinstein Brodsky met Mark Gagnon, the creator of irreverent, elaborate papier-mâché creations that regularly grace the windows of Bergdorf Goodman and have served as holiday decorations at the White House. Gagnon is open about his deep respect for Rheinstein Brodsky’s way of doing business, reflecting, “After years of working with many kinds of people in NYC, she surpassed all expectations, and I am thrilled to be part of her world. It’s simply been a joy for me as an artist.”
Nearly every item in the anniversary collection features KRB’s iconic agate green—from Christopher Spitzmiller’s swirling emerald urns to Christian Brechneff’s daylilies rendered in greens and whites, and intricate botanical collages by the artist, and legendary editor, Marian McEvoy. “She’s such a well-known figure in fashion and design,” Rheinstein Brodsky says. “In a world dominated by AI and mass production, people are incredibly drawn to work where the hand of the artist is evident.”
There’s no denying Rheinstein Brodsky’s knack for creating an environment where good people and impeccable taste naturally gravitate her way. “I think it’s just her,” says Margot Mayer, the proprietress of Curio Shop, and a rising talent in European antiques and rare objects. “We’ve talked a lot about the idea that people shouldn’t be afraid to touch things,” Mayer says. “If you’re bringing home a 17th-century piece to live with, it’s not going to be behind glass; you’re going to learn to live with it.” At a recent Curio Shop pop-up at KRB, Rheinstein Brodsky was right there, unloading boxes, connecting guests, and suggesting vendors. “She’s so much fun to be around—beyond work, it’s clear that she loves what she does. She’s the best of the West Coast and the East Coast.”–JANET MERCEL
URBAN OASIS Top: the entrance to KRB on the Upper East Side; bottom: Small Daylilies on KRB Green by Christian Brechneff.
Photography Credit: Donna Dotan Photography Inc.
The King and Queen of New York Nightlife
With Ella Funt and Club 82, Lounes Mazouz has turned East Fourth Street into a hotbed of haute cuisine and after-hours hijinks. Across town, Ariel Arce opened the clubby cocktail bar Jewel Box and Heroes where the menu is as dramatic as the retro-futuristic décor.
BY PETER DAVIS PORTRAITS BY LANDON NORDEMAN
Behind every hot spot is a larger-thanlife personality. Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager were the lifeblood of Studio 54. Glenn Bernbaum presided over Mortimer’s like his own social fiefdom.
Nell Campbell’s eponymous supper club and Elaine Kaufman’s no-frills eatery, Elaine’s, on Second Avenue were extensions of both women’s vivacious personas. Amy Sacco ran Bungalow 8 like her personal salon, holding court nightly with movie stars, street artists, socialites, and the occasional billionaire CEO willing to risk a trip to way, way West Chelsea after midnight. Manhattan nightlife has always been the best on the planet. And now it has a new reigning class.
Enter Lounes Mazouz, the entrepreneur behind Ella Funt, the neo-French bistro in the East Village that has become a magnet for the coolest characters in New York. Mazouz, who was raised between Paris and London (with a three-year stint in Bali) opened Ella Funt in the former Club 82 space on East Fourth Street. A little nightlife history: originally run by the Genovese crime family and the Costello crime syndicate, Club 82’s tagline was “Who’s No Lady.” The subterranean venue staged elaborate Broadway-style performances by both male and female impersonators to a well-heeled, mostly heterosexual crowd. Errol Flynn played the piano there and Judy Garland, Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, and Elizabeth Taylor were all habitués. When mob boss Vito Genovese was on the lam abroad, his wife, Anna, was Club 82’s hostess. Later, the club was briefly a rock venue, with shows by the New York Dolls and Television. Mazouz loves the decadent, stylishly seedy histoire of the storied space. He took the name from a portly drag queen
MAN IN THE MIRROR Lounes Mazouz at Ella Funt, his red-hot restaurant.
and Club 82 star called Ella Funt, a favorite of Salvador Dalí who used to sketch Funt on tablecloths. “Ella Funt was a knockout entertainer,” Mazouz tells me with a wide grin. “I imagined her as someone who enjoyed indulging in food, making the name a perfect fit for the restaurant.”
With enviably cool style—Saville Row-style suits worn with the laid-back vibe of a surfer—Mazouz is the perfect man to rule over a burgeoning nightlife empire. He recently modeled for Berluti and has been photographed for L’Uomo Vogue. And Mazouz literally grew up in the world of hot spots. His father, Mourad Mazouz, is the founder of London’s Momo and Sketch, the legendary restaurant which just earned another Michelin star. Little Lounes would do his homework, eat great food, and even sleep at his dad’s restaurants. “My dad taught me invaluable lessons,” he says. “He’s an incredibly creative restaurateur with a remarkable attention to detail. His genuine passion for creating memorable experiences left a lasting impression on me. What stood out most was his warmth and charisma—he truly cared about every guest who walked through the door.” To say the younger Mazouz, who says hello to everyone who walks into Ella Funt, is like his father is an understatement.
It’s 8 PM on a rainy Tuesday and Ella Funt is packed. At the tiled bar, curving like a slinky serpent through the front room, a clutch of Japanese girls in Comme des Garçons huddle around the viewfinder of a Leica camera. A couple that looks more UES than LES, in matching green Hunter rain boots, sip glasses of red wine. A man in a corduroy jacket cradles a glass of whisky in one palm and The
New Yorker in the other. The walls are puzzleboarded with art, featuring works by Miriam Cahn, Inka Essenhigh, and Stephen Lack. Slanted shelves are stocked with curio (clay masks, a disco ball) and weird objects befitting a global nomad. The lighting is flatteringly dim, and a trance-y dance beat sets a sexy mood. The rooms were done by interior designer Annabel Karim Kassar and it feels like you’re in a friend’s eclectically hip West Village or maybe Marais apartment. Mazouz, decked in a double-breasted suit, no tie, and a charmingly enormous smile, is your host. “I want to bring life to the walls,” Mazouz says. His eyes dart around the room and widen with childlike excitement as he speaks—the enthusiasm is infectious. He’s the type of guy you want to be BFFs with five minutes after meeting. “I was inspired by Paris Bar, one of my favorite spots, in Berlin. I acquired pieces from artist friends, galleries, and the collection has grown organically. I add, rearrange, and even sell pieces to keep the walls dynamic and evolving.” In the main room, a moody mural featuring a bull and a man in a coat and tie with an axe by Marcus Jahmal commands the main wall. Mazouz adds that the idea for Jahmal’s piece came from a floor-to-ceiling mural at the now-closed Palio on West 51st Street by neo-expressionist painter Sandro Chia.
The menu at Ella Funt changes seasonally to
ensure the freshest ingredients. I feasted on cured tuna with Jimmy Nardello peppers; a succulently decadent Berkshire pork collar with corn and spring onion; and a perfectly prepared Wagyu steak with eggplants, potato, and lemon. “We’re working with Jorge Luis Pabón, who previously served as the executive chef at Estela,” Mazouz explains as I shovel food into my mouth. “The menu has evolved into modern French infused with Jorge’s personal background and experiences.” I ask Mazouz what his favorite dishes are. “There are too many to choose from—but I do have a soft spot for the duck breast, dry aged for two weeks at Ella Funt.”
After dessert (a heavenly panna cotta with honey soba cha), Mazouz leads me downstairs for a sneak peek at what will become the grand rebirth of Club 82. (Fun fact: Ella Funt’s gold-tiled bathroom, replete with a gleaming gold toilet, has a window overlooking the stairwell to Club 82). Mazouz walks around what will soon be a stage. A cloud of construction dust poufs into the air with each step. There will be lots of performances, parties, a long glamorous bar. Mazouz wants his Club 82 to bring New York nightlife back to its golden age—the kind of place that modern-day Dalís will draw on tablecloths and Errol Flynn would love to jump on stage and pound out a punk tune on the piano.
THE CHIC SET’S CANTEEN A mural by Marcus Jahmal, a masked guest, and plates meant to share at Ella Funt.
Afew nights later I book a table at Heroes, a restaurant in a former SoHo carriage house on West Broadway that was previously a champagne bar named (what else?) Magnum and a Ukrainian music venue.
All 3,500 square feet of the building have been completely reinvented by Ariel Arce, the force behind wildly popular Tokyo Record Bar and the Roman restaurant Roscioli. Arce, who has long dark hair and looks like she should be in movies, grew up in Hell’s Kitchen. A child actor, she wanted to work in entertainment, producing films, but now produces hot spots. To bring Heroes to life, Arce teamed up with Kenneth Crum, who was beverage director of Lupa and Red Hook Tavern, and Aaron Lirette, who she met in Chicago when he was the chef at Danny Meyer’s Michelin-starred restaurant GreenRiver.
The catchy name is from the three partners’ real-life heroes. Arce mentions Kerri Strug, the Olympian gymnast and part of the 1996 Summer Games’ “Magnificent Seven,” who performed the vault that clinched the gold for the U.S. team, despite injuring her ankle, as one hero. “I was a gymnast as a kid. Staying up super late with my dad and watching her stick that landing, even saying it right now makes me want to cry. It was such a powerful, memorable moment.” She adds, “My parents are my heroes. My father helped build all my restaurants. And my mother was this really ahead-of-her-time artist.”
At the entrance of Heroes, by the hostess stand, is a steel locker with dry-aged fish hanging from metal hooks. A few high-top tables are up front too, but the lush lavender dining room in the back is where you want to be seated. The long, dramatic space flanked with banquettes feels like a stage— you can be seen and see everything and everyone in the room. A mural by Indiana Hoover, inspired by Dalí’s surrealist cookbook, Les Dîners de Gala,
Manhattan nightlife has always been the best on the planet. And now it has a new reigning class.
MIRROR, MIRROR Ariel Arce in the reflecting staircase up to Jewel Box and, left, Heroes’ lavender-hued dining room.
The mood at Pearl Box is high-glam, like a private après-ski club in Cortina or Hugh Hefner’s secret VIP room at the Playboy Mansion.
features many heroes like Julia Child, Prince, and Sonia Sotomayor, to name a few. The retro-futuristic design—Murano chandeliers, dark wood, polished chrome, and a stunning circular wine storage by Studio Pilens—makes you expect Wes Anderson to stroll in and shoot a scene without changing a thing. Arce enlisted Helena Barquet and Fabiana Faria of Coming Soon to envision all three floors. “I trust them implicitly to have all the cool factors,” she tells me. “We had mood boards, but we just built as we went.” On the second floor is a private dining room in seafoam green with a marble island. I slip upstairs to sneak a peek, and the marble top is covered with post-party champagne flutes and empty bottles.
Chef Aaron Lirette’s menu is adventurously ambitious. Forget plain old bread and butter. Lirette instead offers a flaky croissant-like brioche popover with black garlic butter. We order plates from the “Petits” section, like the Iberico pork spareribs with a chili and apricot glaze. And for starters, the peekytoe crab crêpe comes with a coconut green curry. News flash: Heroes already has an Instafamous dish: the morcilla spaghetti with a spicy blood sausage sauce and perfectly slightly chewy pasta. It’s the type of plate you will return to Heroes and order every single time. Main courses are best to share. Envision a Heroes’ banquet, a meal designed to bring people together over great food. We devour chicken cordon bleu stuffed with black truffle, prosciutto cotto, Comté, and served with roasted mushrooms and pommes purée, and the turbot, which Lirette aged in-house for 12 days and sauteed simply with chili butter.
After finishing a chocolate ganache with fresh whipped cream and pistachios, we slink up the red carpeted, mirror-tiled staircase to Pearl Box, Arce’s intimate eight-table cocktail lounge. A 20-something couple lounges languidly on a velvet love seat, a highball and gimlet glass on the side table. By the bar, a woman with fire-red lipstick dips a porcelain white spoon into a glass bowl of black caviar and hoovers it in in one inhale. The mood is high-glam, like a private après-ski club in Cortina
or Hugh Hefner’s secret VIP room at the Playboy Mansion. And while separate from Heroes, Pearl Box is the perfect spot for an after-dinner drink and late-night hang out. “There’s a relationship and a duality between Heroes and Pearl Box. But they have their own identities,” Arce explains. “Pearl Box is a place where we can sling caviar to people, and they can choose to enjoy that however they want. Pearl Box is a nod to the caviar that gets served, but it’s also a little jewel box of a place.”
The room’s deep red hue and mid-century lighting fixtures cast a romantic glow on the wood-paneled walls. The bar, an original by Italian furniture design guru and photographer Willy Rizzo, was sourced then repurposed to fit the space, all a nod to Italian architect and designer Carlo Mollino’s modernist style. The cocktail menu (Crum has dreamed up decadent drinks like a tart “Cherry Americano” and “White Gold Rush”) features black-and-white photographs from Studio 54 by Arce’s mother. A roving caviar cart rolls by. Other bites include foie gras mousse, fried chicken with piri piri hot sauce, and a big bowl of candy. But caviar and champagne are the way to go chez Pearl Box. Arce recently launched her own brand, Big Pearl Caviar, and has published the definitive book, Better with Bubbles: An Effervescent Education in Champagnes & Sparkling Wines Cheers!
TREASURE TROVE
Jewel Box is intimate, tucked away, and clubby.
Jerry Gogosian—the Real-Life Gossip Girl of the Art World Tells All!
Hilde Lynn Helphenstein’s once-anonymous viral Instagram account is a digital cultural sensation that has become an art world obsession. JANET MERCEL logs into the razor sharp “Gogosian” galaxy.
I“’m not famous, but I’m oddly famous,” says Hilde Lynn Helphenstein, aka Jerry Gogosian, the enfant terrible of art world commentary.
“There’s an old hashtag from a few years ago, #jerryinthewild. People figured out who I was and were paparazzi-ing me. They still do it— sometimes they don’t even want to talk to me, they’re just snapping a picture.”
be in on the joke—currently nearly 150,000 of them.
PICTURE PURRFECT
Now seven years old, the Jerry Gogosian Instagram account delivers a sharp critique on the power dynamics driving the art market. From influencers to staffing culture and pricing, it is a gleeful snap back at the hidden—and not-so-hidden—barriers that simmer behind the art world’s most well-known names. Nothing is sacred from her callouts of social posturing and the outright corrupt—not buyers, sellers, the artists themselves, and, least of all, the galleries. What started as niche insider memes evolved into a go-to platform, along with her popular podcast Art Smack, for culture consumers eager to
All of this was easier, of course, when Helphenstein was an anonymous figure—a shadow prowling the art world. Was it connected to Jerry Saltz, the renowned New York magazine art critic? An unknown Gagosian employee with a bone to pick? (Officially, it was neither.) “My friends guessed it was me, because they knew my sense of humor so well, and it all added up,” she recalls. “I acted dumb for a while. I’d say, ‘What’s a Jerry Gogosian?’” In February 2020, at a Frieze Los Angeles party at the Hollywood Roosevelt, I remember seeing a colorful blonde girl casually interviewing luminaries and chatting around the David Hockney pool. She didn’t announce herself, but I just knew it was her (despite almost everyone assuming the person behind Jerry was a man). She was hiding in plain sight, a Gossip Girl for art-savvy grownups.
“I started out as an unpaid intern in a Lower East Side gallery, thinking, ‘I have seven years of a fine
Helphenstein with some feline friends.
The Jerry Gogosian Instagram account delivers a sharp critique on the power dynamics driving the art market… a gleeful snap back at the hidden—and notso-hidden—barriers that simmer behind the art world’s most well-known names.
art education to end up sitting in this Chinatown basement,’” Helphenstein recalls. “My first Basel was 2005, and it was very different then. I remember going to a Peaches concert on the beach, that year or the next. She ripped off all her clothes and ran into the ocean, and the whole audience followed her. That could never happen now. By 2012, it was still fun, but I thought, ‘There’s a vibe shift happening here.’”
Maybe the fair circuit changed, maybe the world changed, or maybe the glitter came off the gold, and Helphenstein started noticing things that had always been there. Somewhere along the way things stopped being so much fun. “People are attracted to art for gross reasons. There are a lot of morally bankrupt collectors who haven’t done much to explore culture, society, their inner psyche,
or the psyche of others. I worked at very fancy galleries with some of the most corrupt, evil clientele the world has ever seen. And the artists have to emotionally prostitute themselves to those clients because it’s part of their job.”
As a former gallery owner (Hilde, in Los Angeles) and a member of NYU Stern’s executive MBA class of 2025, Helphenstein recently set out to fix the flaws from within. She thought the big-money brands might listen if she presented herself as a fixer—a fine artist who understands finance and wants to hit reset on an increasingly dangerous gallery model. People (friends and not) advised her she was too opinionated, too ambitious, too honest, too idealistic, that she should tone it down. The qualities that attracted her audience were the same ones that scared off larger opportunities.
She tried for a while. “I’m not trying to be a
HILDE’S WORLD
Helphenstein strikes an Andrew Wyeth-esque pose.
BORN IN THE U.S.A.
Helphenstein, who lives in New York, was raised in Califoirnia.
warrior for authenticity, but it almost killed me. It was really harmful for me. I started doubting myself and second-guessing everything about myself.” So, she didn’t soften her edges or tone it down—she’s still Jerry. And the big names, to say the least, were not interested. The rejection rocked her from a creative and professional standpoint. When I speak with her, she seems soft, raw and bruised, but in her usual blunt style, like she wants to talk about it. She’s freshly out the other side of a 51-day hiatus from the internet—no phone, no social media. A rumor started that she was dead. Accusations spread of her “deafening silence.” She flew into Miami for this year’s Art Week for about four hours—for a lecture with Jerry Saltz at the Pérez Art Museum—then left. (“It’s like, guys. You can want to step away from social media and not be dead.”)
In a meta twist, this sparked existential turmoil for Jerry Gogosian, who, after all, survives by being very, very online. In the years since she started the account, Helphenstein explains, her followers have, in a way, watched her “grow up.” Whether you’ve spent a couple of years listening to her podcast or had a conversation with Helphenstein herself, it’s still unclear where exactly she stands on the state of the art world. I can’t help but ask, “Do you love it here, or do you hate it here?”
Despite her weariness of the money-washing, art-flipping, and exploitation, it boils down to this: she really, really loves art and artists. It’s a case of hating the game, not the players. A day or so after we talk, a post appears on Jerry Gogosian. Her crisis, she explains, was spurred by the realization that she’d briefly lost herself and her values—likened to the “perception drift” of plastic surgery addicts who don’t realize they’ve gone too far until it’s too late. Her personal work—on the art world and herself—will continue. If her followers are on board, they can witness the healing process (or at least part of it), which, naturally, will unfold in the most fitting place of all: online.
Kari Ferrell Wants You to Believe Her
Dubbed the “Hipster Grifter” in a viral 2009 New York Observer article, Kari Ferrell, then just 22 years old, became instantly internet famous. Fifteen years and a stint in a Utah prison later, Ferrell has re-emerged with You’ll Never Believe Me, an often hilarious, brutally honest memoir of a chaotic, misspent youth. PETER DAVIS speaks to the charming, onetime small-time scam artist about her Mormon upbringing, being adopted as a baby from South Korea, and how she found humor in a prison riot.
Iremember thinking your grift was small potatoes compared to later famous scammers like Anna Delvey and Elizabeth Holmes.
I’ve been wondering how much money the state of Utah spent not just on the extradition, but this whole “woman hunt.”
I’m sure it totaled far more than the amount of money I had taken. Not negating what I did, but the warrants were for $60,000. I had actually taken less than $20,000. Because it was such a big story, they would look foolish if they had not caught me.
COURTESY OF KARI FERRELL
SHADOW PLAY Kari Ferrell tells all in her new memoir.
“It was the first viral scam story. It sunk its claws into people. It was the perfect storm and the perfect time and place for a story like this to take off and massively explode.”
—KARI FERRELL
You became a media obsession.
The amount of effort everyone put into the story is still mind boggling to me. I decided to write a book many years later because after hundreds of hours of therapy, I was like, “Oh, I do have an interesting story.” The most fascinating parts are what the media didn’t report: that I was adopted; that I was raised Mormon. It was all about the present day because that was the sexy, salacious news, but, to me, the cult upbringing is way more interesting. When writing this, I knew the crime aspect was going to be the hook. I hope that doesn’t bamboozle anyone wanting to read a guide of how to go about scamming. That’s not the point of this story. My reason for doing this is to bring light to this corrupt system and encourage second and third chances for everyone regardless of their demographics.
You flirted your way into the bank accounts of a few hapless trust fund guys in Williamsburg who were willing to cash rubber checks for you.
The majority of my victims in Brooklyn were white, middle-, and upper-middle-class men. There was that sort of antihero, feminist Robin Hood character that was applauded by many. And I don’t necessarily agree with that. People were either very pro or against me, there wasn’t a lot of middle ground.
Your story became national news.
It was the first viral scam story. It sunk its claws into people. When that article came out, people in the discourse were like, “What is a grifter?” It wasn’t part of our vernacular at the time. And now that term is attached to anyone and everyone and everything. It was the perfect storm and the perfect time and place for a story like this to take off and massively explode.
Your book is both funny and at times harrowing. You even made me laugh when you were describing a prison riot.
I’ve always had a ridiculous sense of humor. While in jail, people gravitated toward me because I’m very much a believer in gallows humor. If we’re not laughing about it, how are we processing it? How are we examining it?
“There was that sort of antihero, feminist Robin Hood character that was applauded by many. And I don’t necessarily agree with that. People were either very pro or against me, there wasn’t a lot of middle ground.”
—KARI FERRELL
My sense of humor, the ridiculousness of it, the crassness of it, is not necessarily found within Mormon jails. I’ve always used humor as a coping mechanism. I’ve always been a storyteller. Sometimes the stories are factual and good, and then in the past, sometimes the story I was telling was absolutely the opposite of that.
It seems like you found redemption in telling your story, warts and all—from the scam to rebelling against your strict Mormon upbringing to being arrested—you didn’t hold back.
My addiction was never to substances or to the money itself. It was all for attention and ultimately belonging. Anyone can make bad decisions, and anyone can get caught and punished for those bad decisions. I realized I have this perspective that might be able to shake things up a little bit.
I know you are working on a show with Warner Brothers, but what about another book?
Someone asked me that the other day and I physically recoiled. Let’s see how this one goes. It was not a pleasant experience. I’m glad that I did it, and I found catharsis in it, but it wasn’t fun going down memory lane. It was awful rereading the worst mistakes over and over and scrutinizing it. How could I do this to people? I don’t know if another book is in the future; if there were, I can’t imagine that it would be a second memoir.
At the end of the book, you visit South Korea for the first time.
I wasn’t trying to find my biological parents. It was more connecting to the motherland and the culture. It was so amazing to go into these palaces and imagine my ancestors walking the same path. Korea was the first time I was not a minority. It was an incredible, eye-opening experience in that regard.
You’re now a happily married, published author living in New York, far away from Mormonism and Utah. As they say: you’ve come a long way, baby.
I cannot imagine being anywhere else but New York. It is a place that makes or breaks you. I need that fractious energy. That’s what inspires me. I don’t know if this makes me sound like an egoist, but to me, I feel like I represent New York, and it represents me. I am the chaos. I am the drive, the structure, the insanity of this amazing city.
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SHAPE
ACTOR ALESSANDRO NIVOLA HAS THE ABILITY TO TRANSFORM HIMSELF INTO WILDLY DIFFERENT CHARACTERS SO EASILY THAT IT’S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO RECOGNIZE HIM FROM ROLE TO ROLE. THIS YEAR NIVOLA IS EVERYWHERE, REPORTS TED HILDNER, FROM THE BRUTALIST TO THE ROOM NEXT DOOR, GIVING PERFORMANCES THAT PROVE HE’S ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING ACTORS OF OUR TIME.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LANDON NORDEMAN
It’s 11 AM on Bond Street. Alessandro Nivola— the ruggedly handsome actor seemingly everywhere this year, from Brady Corbet’s three-and-ahalf-hour epic The Brutalist to Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door to popcorn blockbuster Kraven the Hunter—is being prepped for Avenue’s photo shoot at Jac’s on Bond, a swank lounge with a pool table and black-and-white photographs of Keith Haring, Fab 5 Freddy, and Deborah Harry on the walls. Out on the cobblestone NoHo street, Nivola poses for a shot when a friend waves him down. It’s Julianne Moore, his costar in The Room Next Door. The New York-based actors embrace and chat tête-à-tête while our photographer reluctantly lowers his camera. It’s a pure Hollywood-on-the-Hudson moment.
Alessandro Antine Nivola’s career launched in Hong Kong action director John Woo’s 1997 blockbuster Face/Off, opposite Nicolas Cage, whom he
arts and academia; his mother, aunt, and younger brother, Adrian, are all artists, while his grandfather was the renowned Italian sculptor Costantino Nivola. His father attended Harvard and was a respected professor of political science and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
After Exeter, Nivola was accepted at Yale. Yet, with one of the most prestigious drama programs in the world, he didn’t major in acting. By the time he got to college, he already had years of experience on stage. “I started very young. I had a cousin who wanted to be an actor who I had seen in some college productions and that inspired me,” he says. “I began taking acting classes when I was really young. I was involved in theater training throughout my childhood, which led to regional theater in various places around the country.” Nivola declared himself an English major at Yale and began acting in some of the dra-
NIVOLA POSES FOR A SHOT WHEN A FRIEND WAVES HIM DOWN. IT’S JULIANNE MOORE, HIS COSTAR IN THE ROOM NEXT DOOR THE NEW YORK-BASED ACTORS EMBRACE AND CHAT TÊTE-À-TÊTE WHILE OUR PHOTOGRAPHER RELUCTANTLY LOWERS HIS CAMERA. IT’S A PURE HOLLYWOOD-ON-THE-HUDSON MOMENT.
considers his first mentor. “It was my first movie. My first time in Hollywood,” Nivola remembers. “Nick helped me embrace the more eccentric aspects of my character. He gave me confidence to perform.” Nivola is easygoing with an infectious, regularguy charm. I quickly forget I’m talking to a Tony Award-nominated actor (for 2014’s The Elephant Man) who’s worked with directors like David O. Russell and Barry Levinson and starred opposite Robert De Niro, Frances McDormand, and Christopher Walken. He is about as un-Hollywood as you can get.
The son of an artist mother and an academic father, Nivola spent his childhood between Boston where he was born; Burlington, Vermont; and Washington, DC, before settling down at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, where he was a student. His family has a rich legacy in the
ma school productions. He collaborated with his friend and fellow Yalie Paul Giamatti. “Paul and I were in a bunch of plays together in school, but it took us 30 years—until this past summer—before we starred opposite each other again in the third Downton Abbey movie!”
Armed with a BA in English, Nivola moved to New York in 1994 and got cast on Broadway alongside Helen Mirren and F. Murray Abraham in Scott Ellis’s revival of A Month in the Country, for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. The early ’90s was an exciting moment to be in New York. Nivola became part of a band of young actors making their Broadway debuts around the same time—guys like Jude Law, Damian Lewis, Rufus Sewell, and Billy Crudup. They became a tight cast of friends. “There was a place called Café in the Theater District, almost like a salon-type situation
“THERE WAS A PLACE CALLED
CAFÉ IN THE
THEATER
DISTRICT,
ALMOST
LIKE A SALON-TYPE SITUATION THAT
HELEN [MIRREN] HAD
STARTED. ALL THE DIFFERENT ACTORS FROM OTHER SHOWS WOULD MEET UP THERE TO START THE EVENING. WE WOULD HAVE DRINKS, AND THEN THE YOUNGER ONES WOULD HEAD DOWN TO THE EAST VILLAGE, WHICH WAS STILL PRETTY ROUGH THEN. THE 2A BAR WAS THE ONE WE USED TO GO TO A LOT DOWN IN ALPHABET CITY BEFORE WE ENDED UP BACK AT ONE OF OUR APARTMENTS,
USUALLY JUDE’S, RIGHT BEFORE THE SUN CAME UP.”
—ALESSANDRO NIVOLA
that Helen [Mirren] had started. All the different actors from other shows would meet up there to start the evening. We would have drinks, and then the younger ones would head down to the East Village, which was still pretty rough then. The 2A bar was the one we used to go to a lot down in Alphabet City before we ended up back at one of our apartments, usually Jude’s, right before the sun came up,” he confesses with a laugh.
Those rowdy late nights on Avenue A didn’t last forever. In 1997, Nivola went west—to Hollywood—in search of success on the silver screen. He nabbed a role in the coming-of-age film Inventing the Abbotts, but it was his searing portrayal of the twisted Pollux Troy in Face/Off that got him noticed. Since then, Nivola has become one of Hollywood’s most versatile actors, shapeshifting so seamlessly from role to role that it’s hard to believe he’s the same guy playing the charming Henry Crawford in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and the deranged,
violent karate teacher Sensei in Riley Stearns’s black comedy The Art of Self-Defense . Nivola mentions that The Art of Self-Defense is one of his favorite films that he’s made. I stream it and see why the movie, a jarring commentary on toxic masculinity, has become a cult classic. In The Many Saints of Newark—David Chase’s prequel to The Sopranos —critics agreed that Nivola’s performance as Tony Soprano’s ruthless uncle Dickie Moltisanti was one of the best things in a film that divided audiences and rabid fans of the HBO series.
Nivola averages two films a year. He has portrayed nearly every type of character imaginable, from vicious villains to heroes. “I find things that are very specific to each character, and I look for those similarities in people I know or people I’ve seen, and I mimic them,” he explains. He analyzes, draws comparisons, and practices their every movement until it becomes second nature, mak-
ing him forget he’s even acting. In The Brutalist, he becomes Attila Miller, a Hungarian immigrant who helps an old friend and fellow Jew find a new life in America after the horrors of World War II. In Kraven the Hunter, he manages to make a comic book villain seem real, and he delivers a compelling portrayal as a tough, cross-examining investigator in The Room Next Door. Nivola really is everywhere this year. “It’s one of those odd coincidences where things you’ve filmed at entirely different times end up being released simultaneously, so I recommend a triple feature!” he suggests with a chuckle.
The filming of The Brutalist was an extraordinary experience for Nivola. His grandmother Ruth Guggenheim, a Jew who fled Germany in the early 1930s, spent her adolescent years in Italy, where she met his grandfather, a young art student with exceptional talent. As the war approached, they fled to New York together, escaping the Holocaust. For his role, Nivola drew from his own heritage,
finding inspiration and understanding through family history, forming a deep personal connection to the story.
The Brutalist is the story of László Tóth, a Hungarian-born Jewish architect (played by fellow New York actor Adrien Brody) who survives the Holocaust and emigrates to the United States in pursuit of the American dream, relying heavily on his childhood friend Attila, played by Nivola, for support and guidance. “I feel like the first 45 minutes of the movie is really my little story with Adrien. It’s almost like a short film that serves as the prologue and establishes the overall themes.” Attila, who is both insecure and desperate to assimilate as an American, has given up most of his heritage (and his accent) and denied his personal history in trying hard to make it in America. For the first part of what is arguably the best film of the year, Nivola gives a haunting, heartbreaking performance of the sacrifices one makes to change who they are at their core.
In Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language film, The Room Next Door , the Oscar-winning Spanish director cast Nivola as a cop from upstate New York. His hard-hitting character represents a questioning, opposing viewpoint to that of Julianne Moore’s Ingrid, who is protecting a friend who has decided to take her own life. In the drama, Tilda Swinton and Moore are old friends who reunite after years apart when Swinton’s character is diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Although Nivola appears only once, he recognizes that his character must be impactful without stealing the scene. And collaborating with a director who doesn’t speak English fluently could have been daunting; however, for Nivola, it was terrific.
“Pedro’s attention to detail in both the script and visuals is remarkable,” he says. “I traveled to Spain to rehearse and then returned later to film the final scene. During filming, Pedro was pretty hands-off and allowed us to act as we practiced, giving us
free rein.” In December, Cinema Society’s Andrew Saffir screened The Room Next Door with Moore in SoHo to a packed house of critics and actors like Edie Falco and John Turturro (who also stars in the film), who thought Nivola and the movie were brilliant. Catching up with him afterward, I get the impression he was pleased as well.
What makes Nivola happiest, however, comes from the current role he’s playing alongside his wife of 22 years, British actress Emily Mortimer. Together, the couple run King Bee Productions and have two kids, Sam, 21, and May, 15, who, like their father, got an early start in show business. Sam made his acting debut in an episode of the 2013 comedy Doll & Em, produced by Mortimer, and appeared alongside May in The Pursuit of Love and once again in Noah Baumbach’s White Noise. Since then, Sam has gone on to appear in Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, the Netflix series The Perfect Couple, and has been cast in the new sea-
Photography: Landon Nordeman
Stylist: Michael Fisher for the Wall Group
Stylist Assistant: Molly MacIntosh
“I FIND THINGS THAT ARE VERY SPECIFIC TO EACH CHARACTER, AND I LOOK FOR THOSE SIMILARITIES IN PEOPLE I KNOW OR PEOPLE I’VE SEEN, AND I MIMIC THEM.”
—ALESSANDRO NIVOLA
son of The White Lotus. As for May, Nivola tells me she’s back in school at Saint Ann’s in Brooklyn enjoying being a regular high schooler. But, given her legacy, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see her captivating audiences like the rest of her family.
So, 30 years after his Broadway debut, we find our leading man and his talented family of thespians back in New York, living what he describes as a fairly “local life” in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. “I wouldn’t say we moved here before it was gentrified, but there definitely weren’t many entertainment types when we arrived,” he says. As with his early days in New York, Nivola appears happy, surrounded by a cast of characters with whom he can collaborate and enjoy life. With neighbors like Ethan Hawke, Bobby Cannavale, Peter Dinklage, Hope Davis, and The Brutalist director Brady Corbet, to name a few, Nivola has a new salon, where, he says, “it’s always fun to head down to our local spot on the corner.” Welcome to Hollywood on the Hudson.
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T.
APPLE OF OUR EYE Laila Gohar at a party in Brooklyn.
The Global Gourmand The Global The Global Gourmand
The Global Gourmand
ARTIST-CUM-CHEF LAILA GOHAR INVENTS WILDLY CREATIVE WORLDS WITH FOOD AND DESIGN. TY GASKINS PULLS UP A SEAT AT GOHAR’S EVER-EVOLVING, MIND-BLOWING TABLE.
LONG BRAIDS OF MOZZARELLA
cut with steel gardening shears, candelabras studded with caviar-filled eggs, a swan made of artichoke leaves, a potato tattooed with a rose, sculptures built with bread and butter—welcome to the gorgeously stylish gastronomic orbit of Laila Gohar.
The 36-year-old Egyptian-born, New York-based Gohar is an artist who reimagines, contorts, and twists the boundaries between food, design, and art. Gohar, who lives on the Upper West Side with her partner, Ignacio Mattos (the chef behind red-hot eateries Estela, Altro Paradiso, and Lodi), and baby son, Paz, translates culinary narratives into visually arresting, often-edible masterpieces. The rap star Drake dubbed her “the Björk of food.” She has
collaborated with brands like Prada, Gucci (she did a capsule collection with Gucci Vault), Hermès, Simone Rocha, Sotheby’s, and Perrier-Jouët, to name a handful. At the launch of Gohar World—a surrealistic tableware line founded in 2022 with her sister, Nadia—white doves were released into the sky above Rockefeller Center for guests like photographer Gray Sorrenti, artist Chloe Wise, and DJs Mark Ronson and Mia Moretti.
That same year, Gohar’s sculptural food fixation led to collaborations with the Danish design company Hay and the fragrance brand Byredo. Gohar also writes a regular column, “How to Host It,” for the Financial Times. Her Instagram account “lailacooks” has almost 300,000 followers. A downtown style icon, she was cast in a campaign for Tiffany & Co. “I always love people who are artists and don’t fit in boxes,” says Kim Hastreiter, the author and cofounder of Paper magazine, who met Gohar years ago and began cohosting dinner parties with her. “My favorite thing she ever did was transport a thousand-pound mortadella from Italy to Paris for a fancy party at Galeries Lafayette. It was so big she made them hire a crane to get in the building. Bologna for the rich!”
For her latest project, Gohar has teamed up with the Luxury Collection for a series of candles and cakes that reflect the essence of destinations like Kyoto, Seville, and Istanbul. “Laila’s innovative take on culinary art and ability to transform everyday objects into statement-making pieces makes her the ideal embodiment of the Global Explorer program,” says Philipp Weghmann of the Luxury
LOAFING AROUND A chair made out of brioche by Gohar.
The rap star Drake dubbed her “the Björk of food.”
CUISINE QUEEN Gohar at the Catbird x Cassi Namoda collection launch.
LET THEM EAT CAKE
Gohar’s red Cake Chair.
At the launch of Gohar World—a surrealistic tableware line—white doves were released into the sky above Rockefeller Center.
Collection. “The latest iteration of our long-term partnership with Laila not only highlights her creative talents but also underscores our commitment to thoughtful epicurean experiences.”
“Food has always been at the center of my practice,” Gohar tells Avenue. “But with this collection, I wanted to explore what it means to preserve a memory or a flavor through a different medium.”
The collection features candles that mimic the shape of layered cakes, each inspired by the local textures, flavors, and cultural histories of Luxury Collection properties. Accompanying these are desserts—actual cakes—crafted in collaboration with the pastry chefs of the hotels, translating Gohar’s designs into edible works of art. Marie Antoinette and Willy Wonka would be in heaven.
A constant globe-trotter, Gohar is well-versed in adapting her vision to the nuances of varied locales.
“Several of the cities I knew very well, but for others, I spoke to the properties themselves,” she explains. “Rather than just focusing on my own experience, I wanted to understand what ingredients, flavors, architecture, and landmarks resonated with them. This provided me with a strong starting point for creating the overall collection.”
The resulting candles are sculptural tributes to their destinations. Istanbul, a city Gohar has a special connection with, is captured through the opulence of its Ottoman-era desserts, with candle molds echoing the architecture of the 500-yearold Zeyrek Çinili Hamam.
“My mom is half Turkish and lives in Istanbul, so the city is very close to my heart,” Gohar says. “Istanbul is a hub of creative energy and stunning architecture, and Sanasaryan Han, a Luxury Collection hotel in Istanbul, is no different. The property is in one of the oldest parts of the city that is culturally rich and inspiring.”
While the candles offer a visual and olfactory representation of each city, the cakes are tactile and
FISHY BUSINESS
Gohar’s dishes are always unexpected and delicious.
“Traveling to different places is amazing, as it can bring you into contact with local traditions and truly be able to collaborate with the manufacturers. Honoring the past, but by creating something new.”
–Laila Gohar
edible embodiments of Gohar’s designs. Collaborating with pastry chefs was pivotal. “Getting the input of the pastry teams was my first step,” Gohar notes. “They know their cities best and could speak to local ingredients and flavors. The cakes needed to be inviting in both taste and design whilst also telling a story.”
One of Gohar’s defining traits as an artist is her ability to honor tradition while creating something entirely fresh. Her work with Gohar World often involves collaborations with artisans to spotlight generational craftsmanship. “With Gohar World, we work with a network of artisanal manufacturers, helping to shine a light on practices that have often been developed over the course of generations,” she explains. “Traveling to different places is amazing, as it can bring you into contact with local traditions and truly be able to collaborate with the manufacturers. Honoring the past, but by creating something new.”
The interplay between Gohar’s personal history and her creative work lends an authenticity to her projects. Born and raised in Cairo, she credits her upbringing for a deep appreciation of craft and ritual. “I grew up in Cairo watching my grandmother design and sew,” Gohar recalls. “It’s
SURREAL SCENES
Top: a table design by Gohar in collaboration with Muller Van Severen; bottom: one of Gohar’s installations for her 2022 show “Romance in the Butcher Shop.”
albeit subtly. It highlights the interconnectedness of art, food, and travel, encouraging guests to savor the
The boundaries between culinary artistry and design continue to blur and Gohar sees a bright future for her unique, interdisciplinary approach. “Food is universal, as is the positive experience of eating or experiencing something together,” she
where my appreciation for craftsmanship started. Food was a ritual too. We always ate as a group, and my dad would experiment with flavors and colors, so the foundations were there from quite an early age.”
This background informs her global projects, where she carefully navigates the balance between personal vision and cultural sensitivity. “By truly exploring, trying new foods, and going to places that feel more authentic to the kind of places that the local population would go to, you can achieve authenticity,” Gohar says.
The cakes and candles are more than mere objects; they are invitations to explore the wild world of Gohar. “There is no deep message,” she confesses with characteristic modesty. “The project was a fun way to showcase the individuality of each property, but to do it in cake form, because who doesn’t like cake?”
And grow it will, as Gohar hints at upcoming projects. “We’re always in discussion for what comes next, but on my personal list, I’d like to head East: Thailand, Cambodia, or Vietnam would be amazing destinations to explore.”
For now, her collaboration with the Luxury Collection stands as a testament to her ability to merge global narratives with functional (and delicious) art. Whether through the flicker of a candle or the taste of a cake, Gohar invites us to see—and savor—the world anew.
PRETTY PASTRIES
Gohar’s desserts for the Luxury Collection.
Rolex Perpetual 1908
FACE about
SINCE THEIR INCEPTION, TIMEPIECES HAVE BEEN A PLATFORM FOR IMAGINATION. WITH INVENTIVE NEW SHAPES, COLORS, AND UNIQUE, SURPRISING STONES, THE WATCH WORLD IS MOVING THAT SPIRIT INTO THE FUTURE
BY DAVID GRAVER
What does the mind conjure in reaction to the word “wristwatch”? Perhaps a round dial, in either white or black, set into a circular case between stainless steel links. Maybe you envision a watch on a leather strap, or something sporty like rubber. For lovers of elite iconography, you may see the various rectangles of JaegerLeCoultre’s famed Reverso, or Cartier’s beloved Tank. Most people, however, likely think of the Apple Watch, as it is a dominant force in the United States these days. And yet, much like a canvas, a wristwatch in the luxury sector continues to be a platform for creative expression.
No collection commanded as much attention as the Cubitus release from Patek Philippe. From the independent Swiss luxury watch manufacturer known for some of the most coveted pieces of all time—the Calatrava and Nautilus, being two of them—the Cubitus introduced an unexpected squareshaped case softened by clipped corners. Born here is a balance of sportiness and elegance, due to the sleek, slender profile. A self-winding mechanical watch, the Cubitus features nuanced finishing and for its release six technical patents were filed. Despite such advancement, it remains distinctly Patek Philippe.
With a reputation built upon reliability and desirability, Rolex made waves with the announcement of their Perpetual 1908 model. Even a quick glance stirs feelings, thanks to the pairing of an ice-blue dial with a mesmerizing guilloché rice-grain motif, set with a platinum case and contrasted by a brown alligator leather strap and a green calfskin lining.
Though Chopard debuted their L’Heure du Diamant collection in 1969, last year’s model utilizes eye-catching updates to underscore its visual intrigue. A cosmic aesthetic emanates from the speckled, aventurine glass dial out to the cushion-shaped white gold case, which itself is enhanced with pear-shaped diamonds. A midnightblue alligator leather strap acts as a contrasting exclamation point.
“The Snorkel is at the cross section of ‘newtro,’ [a term that collides new and retro], where something archival or vintage is paired with new materials—like the hybrid ceramic—and vibrant colors.”
–MICHAEL BENAVENTE, MANAGING DIRECTOR, BULOVA
Girard-Perregaux Casquette 2.0 Titanium & Gold
Hublot x Arsham Droplet
All these attributes, as well as the Chopard 09.01-C movement (which powers the self-winding watch), attest to Chopard’s leadership in watchmaking and fine jewelry.
Few brands are as technically daring and visually arresting as Hublot, who turned their attention toward the pocket watch last year in collaboration with contemporary artist Daniel Arsham. The ergonomic shape of their piece, the Arsham Droplet, nods to the organic form of liquid in nature. It has been crafted with two domed teardrop-shaped crystals, an open worked titanium case, and side bumpers in a custom “Arsham Green” rubber. Only 99 of these pieces were produced.
Another skeletonized wonder, though more minimal architecturally, H. Moser & Cie.’s Streamliner Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton Alpine Limited Edition marries a steel case with a radiant finish to a small domed dial in bright-blue synthetic spinel, and a matching rubber strap. In the middle of the skeleton lies a cylindrical tourbillon automatic movement, a tourbillon being a dazzling, kinetic mechanism that improves time-telling accuracy by counteracting the effects of gravity. Limited to 100 pieces, this is the Swiss luxury maison’s first partnership with Formula One’s BWT Alpine.
Originally produced by GirardPerregaux between 1976 and 1978, the Casquette returned in 2022 as a limited-edition release. Last year saw a new variation of the retro-futuristic design in a titanium case, accented by an 18 karat, 2N yellow gold Girard-Perregaux logo and matching pushers. Of course, the digital timepiece maintains its signature angled screen with red digits. The original Casquette was a hot commodity. With limited releases like this 2024 iteration, the Casquette 2.0 remains equally sought out.
Not all developments were unveiled at higher prices. Detroit-based Shinola released the vibrant Wolverine Detrola in 2024, priced at only $425, and the dynamic Canfield Chrono Model C56 for $950. There was the return of
Bulova Snorkel Blue Tang
H.
H. Moser & Cie Streamliner
Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton Alpine Limited Edition
No collection commanded as much attention as the Cubitus release from Patek Philippe.
Patek Philippe Cubitus
THE CITY Empires of RealEstate
This year, Avenue celebrates its 50th anniversary! That’s half a decade of hopping in and out of cabs going uptown and downtown and to Brooklyn and beyond. We love New York, the greatest city in the world, and have canvased every corner, reviewing countless restaurants, galleries, and events. From celebrity chefs to celebratory occasions, a lot can happen in a New York minute, and we live to document every second.
We’ve explored books, culture, fashion, and scandal, but that’s only part of the story. The rest is written by our ever-changing skyline, the imprint left by those who came before us, and the trends that have shaped the city since the early days of the Dutch settlers. “That’s what makes New York so special—it’s not a master-planned development by one developer and one architect; it’s an amalgamation of generations, each leaving their mark on the city. It’s that organic nature, the patina, that makes it so special,” says Philip White Jr. of Sotheby’s.
With our roots based in the Upper East Side, we’ve watched our readers break down barriers between the Upper East and Upper West, followed their migration to neighborhoods like Tribeca, SoHo, and Chelsea, and adjusted our coverage to meet their demands. Today, there is a revival in our beloved UES neighborhood, so we thought it would be a great time to talk shop with some of New York’s key real estate players and hear their thoughts on how the city has evolved and where we are headed in the future.
We heard from Susan de França and Richard Ferrari from Douglas Elliman; Philip White Jr. from Sotheby’s; Bess Freedman from Brown Harris Stevens; Kelly Kennedy Mack from Corcoran Sunshine; and Pamela Liebman from Corcoran, who may have said it best: “Avenue holds a special place in New York City’s cultural and social fabric and serves as a time capsule—celebrating both the glamour of the city’s high society and its vibrant artistic, entrepreneurial, and philanthropic spirit. I applaud the entire Avenue team for creating a publication that continues to celebrate NYC’s timeless allure.”—Ted Hildner
PAMELA LIEBMAN PRESIDENT AND CEO, THE CORCORAN GROUP
What are your thoughts on the current state of the market?
Manhattan is finally showing signs of a comeback, with demand indicators improving for the first time since 2022. We’ve observed an uptick in both closings and signed contracts, and deals are moving at their fastest pace in over two years.
What are buyers on the Upper East Side looking for?
The Upper East Side has always been synonymous with elegance, but the neighborhood has evolved to offer much
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“THE UPPER EAST SIDE HAS ALWAYS BEEN SYNONYMOUS WITH ELEGANCE, BUT THE NEIGHBORHOOD HAS EVOLVED TO OFFER MUCH MORE THAN ITS CLASSIC CHARM.”
–PAMELA LIEBMAN
more than its classic charm. While it remains a haven for those seeking prewar co-ops and tree-lined streets, we’re seeing a wave of new energy hit this neighborhood! There’s a growing demand for luxury high-rises with state-of-the-art amenities, attracting younger buyers and professionals who appreciate the neighborhood’s sophistication and convenience.
What other neighborhoods or areas should we consider watching?
West Chelsea has undergone an extraordinary transformation over the past decade, with Corcoran Sunshine at the forefront of redefining this iconic neighborhood. The stretch along 10th and 11th Avenues has become one of the city’s most coveted residential destinations. Groundbreaking projects like One High Line and Lantern House are attracting buyers drawn to cutting-edge architecture and proximity to the art galleries and waterfront parks that make this area truly unique.
What are the new “must-haves” on buyers’ lists these days?
The real estate market is always evolving, but certain trends continue to shape how New Yorkers
live. Buyers and renters continue to prioritize flexible layouts that accommodate hybrid work, outdoor spaces that extend living areas, and highend amenities that enhance everyday convenience. The demand for luxury rentals is another lasting trend, offering condo-quality finishes for those who want flexibility without sacrificing style or comfort.
Where do you see demand coming from these days?
The luxury market remains robust, fueled by international demand and limited inventory in prime locations.
The age-old New York question: Condo or co-op?
Co-ops represent some of the most elegant, historically significant buildings in New York City. While the move toward condos reflects a desire for flexibility and fewer restrictions, co-ops tell a different kind of story—one rooted in legacy and community. For the next generation, it’s about reframing co-ops as not just homes but as investments in New York’s architectural and cultural history. These buildings are icons and it’s a matter of educating clients about the unique value of co-ops while helping them navigate the process, which can feel daunting but is entirely worth it.
PAMELA LIEBMAN
PHILIP A. WHITE JR. PRESIDENT AND CEO, SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY
Where do you see demand coming from these days?
The “March of the Millennials”—the largest generation in our country’s history—are entering the luxury real estate market with unprecedented financial capacity from the Great Wealth Transfer. This translates into significant, sustained demand for luxury real estate.
What other areas or neighborhoods should we be watching?
In my lifetime, one of the most remarkable transformations that I’ve seen is DUMBO and the Brooklyn waterfront at large. One of our agents, Karen Heyman, has been a major player in that redevelopment.
What trends are transforming the Upper East Side?
The trend that strikes me the most is the opening of more private clubs such as Casa Tua, which is in the Surrey at 76th and Madison. There is also Maxime’s, opening in the former Westbury Hotel space on Madison Avenue. This trend was somewhat started by the opening of private restaurants and clubs in new developments. In fact, we represent the sales and marketing at 111 West 57th Street and the residents have embraced the private Club 111 so much so that Friday and Saturday evenings are now complimentary cocktails for all residents and their guest. The exclusivity of this private club, along with the additional sports club floor, have been a driving factor in the recent strong sales momentum.
How’s the vibe on the Upper East Side?
The Upper East Side is attracting new restaurants, retail, and private clubs. The investment is significant. Town & Country summed it up best recently: the Upper East Side is “cool again”— although I have always thought it was cool.
Condo or co-op?
I respectfully think this may be a mischaracterization. For many decades, most new development projects have been offered as condominiums. This is a 40-year trend. So, newer inventory in the city tends to be condominiums, and older properties tend to be cooperatives. Both products have their advantages—our role as real estate advisors is to educate prospective buyers on the nuanced differences and help them choose which best suits their lifestyle.
What makes a property stand out best?
Good architecture. Whether it was Rosario Candela in the co-op market or Robert A.M. Stern Architects in the condo market, the best architecture tends to command a premium.
PHILIP A. WHITE JR.
We’re excited to hear your thoughts on Sotheby’s auction house moving into the Breuer building, the Whitney Museum’s former home, on Madison Avenue.
I’m so proud of my friend Charlie Stewart, CEO of Sotheby’s, on acquiring this iconic and important piece of real estate. They recently announced that Herzog & de Meuron will handle the renovation. I can’t wait to see the finished product and for Sotheby’s to return to Madison Avenue.
BESS
FREEDMAN CEO, BROWN HARRIS STEVENS
Bullish on the Upper East Side?
I think there’s been a lot of projects underway there that are exciting, and the Upper East Side continues to grow and evolve. It’s never not been a great place to live. I live on the Upper East Side, I’m long on the Upper East Side, I put my money on the Upper East Side every day, all day.
Which neighborhoods are evolving and drawing interested buyers?
Our neighborhoods change, and trends change. Downtown, for example, has seen incredible growth and commitment from people who left uptown to go downtown. But now I’m starting to see people wanting to be back uptown again because they like the convenience of the hospitals, the parks, and so on. So, it
“THE ‘MARCH OF THE MILLENNIALS’— THE LARGEST GENERATION IN OUR COUNTRY’S HISTORY—ARE ENTERING THE LUXURY REAL ESTATE MARKET WITH UNPRECEDENTED FINANCIAL CAPACITY FROM THE GREAT WEALTH TRANSFER. ”
–PHILIP A. WHITE JR.
shifts. I always think that wherever people feel comfortable and safe, where they can send kids to school and get to transportation, those are good neighborhoods.
Speak about the state of New York right now. Well, I am positive about New York City. I love this city, but I have some constructive criticism and concerns about certain things that are happening with the city council. I am very vocal about that because I think it could potentially hurt us. I hope that we don’t get too progressive in the city council with the far left because if we do, we could be in real trouble.
What are the new “must-haves” on buyers’ lists these days?
People want services, amenities, and the ability to have things like a gym, and all that stuff has gotten better over time.
Where do you see value?
I really think the value is still Upper East Sidedriven.
Do you see a future trend where co-ops go condo?
That’s not happening. The structure of New York City is unique in that way, and when people are investing in buying a co-op, they have a lot of assurances. They have economic security because the board is run in a way that will ensure that another shareholder will not default on their mortgage or maintenance.
That keeps a lot of equity in these buildings. Whereas you look at the mortgage collapse, it was the opposite as New York City was insulated from all of that.
SUSAN DE FRANÇA
PRESIDENT AND CEO, DEVELOPMENT MARKETING, DOUGLAS ELLIMAN
Are you bullish on the Upper East Side?
Right after Covid, if you went on Third Avenue in the 70s, every retail store was empty, depressing. Now, because of the new development, the two new projects on Third Avenue, the 74, which Douglas Elliman is selling, and the one right near it on 75th, you have all of these retail stores. There’s hardly anything vacant anymore. They’ve all been leased, which is a testament to the strength of the city being back. Correct. I’m feeling very bullish!
Tell us about the conversion of the Waldorf Astoria.
The demand has been tremendous. I believe our sales team could write a book based solely on the number of people who have come to the property sharing incredible stories about their parents’ or grandparents’ anniversaries, weddings, parties, or birthdays. As we’ve gotten closer to completion, excitement has grown, and more buyers are coming forward to sign contracts! It’s been a massive undertaking with
375 residences and 375 hotel suites occupying an entire city block. It’s fantastic.
And what about expanding further north?
All over New York City, people are exploring new areas, and the parameters have been stretched, and everyone just wants a piece of the apple, no pun, but they really want to be here. There’s a new development in the Columbia University area, Morningside Heights, and all those areas are attracting new buyers.
Where are you seeing the most transactions?
There’s a lot on the Upper East Side, and I think that’s because there is quite a bit of new development on the Upper East Side that is being sold in presales, where people are just looking at a floor plan and they’re signing up so quickly. That hasn’t happened in a long time!
RICHARD FERRARI PRESIDENT AND CEO, BROKERAGE, NYC, NORTHEAST, AND MID-ATLANTIC, DOUGLAS ELLIMAN
You recently assumed a new role at Douglas Elliman. Is there anything you would like to share with us about your vision?
We’re redefining luxury. Luxury is the product we sell, but it’s also how we sell. A Douglas Elliman agent is stressing that luxury is service. A Douglas
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Elliman broker wants to go the extra yard and we’re doing everything possible to be agent-facing, from our leadership to our management team, to our marketing team, to our technology.
Do you have any memories of Avenue? Were you involved in any advertising or events over the years?
It’s funny; I have lots of memories of fighting to get my listings into Avenue when Douglas Elliman would take a two-page spread, and, of course, for anyone who’s been in the business for more than 25 years, Avenue was part of our sales pitch. If it got an exclusive, it would be in Avenue!
We talked so much about co-op versus condos. Do you see a future trend of co-op boards loosening their rules and regulations when competing with the condo market?
Yes. I mean, many of what used to be the toughest co-ops, and they still are, on the Upper East Side, Central Park West, and Riverside Drive, have loosened up. Many now allow purchasing through an LLC or in a family trust if parents are buying for their children or lending major money to buy for a child. They will continue to loosen up, but I don’t see them allowing unlimited rentals the way a condominium does because that’s a lifestyle choice that someone makes when buying into a co-op specifically for that reason. But regarding how they purchase and how they go about renovations, yes, lots have relaxed and extended their summer work rules allowing more work to be done after the summer, not jackhammering a floor, but so much more.
What do you think about all the new restaurants and slew of private clubs opening everywhere?
All these private clubs and restaurants are bustling, and there seems to be a reinvigoration. It’s beyond. I mean, I had dinner at Casa Tua the other night, and it was one of the first times a friend said, “Let’s go uptown.” I have lunch uptown all the time and dinner there after work, but for the 35 years I’ve lived in Chelsea, I would rarely go uptown unless it was for business. Now, because of all the new restaurants and clubs, friends are constantly wanting to come uptown.
What are some memories you have of when you first started—some of your first impressions?
I started in 1989, and the Upper East Side, as you know, was the place to be. I’ll never forget the first time I walked into 820 Fifth; I never thought an apartment like this could be built, overlooking the park with 11-, 12-, and 13-foot ceilings. They were mansions in buildings that the world didn’t know existed. One Beekman, 1 Sutton, 10 Gracie— they’re all similar and possess a beauty that will never be recaptured in new construction.
LEFT: BESS FREEDMAN; RIGHT: SUSAN DE FRANÇA
“I HAVE LOTS OF MEMORIES OF FIGHTING TO GET MY LISTINGS INTO AVENUE WHEN DOUGLAS ELLIMAN WOULD TAKE A TWO-PAGE SPREAD, AND, OF COURSE, FOR ANYONE WHO’S BEEN IN THE BUSINESS FOR MORE THAN 25 YEARS, AVENUE WAS PART OF OUR SALES PITCH.”
–RICHARD FERRARI
Do you agree that there’s good value in the Upper East Side?
I call the Upper East Side the new Tribeca because Tribeca is simply too expensive for many New Yorkers seeking a 5,000-square-foot apartment. However, on the Upper East Side, those four-bedroom or eight- and nine-room apartments are often quite affordable compared to the rest of the city. It wasn’t 30 years ago, it wasn’t 20 years ago, but it is now.
KELLY KENNEDY MACK PRESIDENT, CORCORAN SUNSHINE MARKETING GROUP
Thoughts on the new development happening on the Upper East Side?
I believe a big part of the revival on the Upper East Side is directly related to how the new development side of the business has evolved over the past decade, and how buyer preferences have shifted accordingly. Buyers are seeking an elevated lifestyle experience, which they are finding in these new development offerings. Individuals who previously focused on co-ops on Park Avenue have altered their preferences and are now open to exploring different neighborhoods, as many areas have transformed due to the introduction of these new buildings.
When do you think this new trend in better development started?
tried-and-true residential location, but for a handful of years, you saw people looking at different areas of the city as new development was being introduced, and neighborhoods were changing. There was a sexiness in a new way of living that wasn’t necessarily available in the Upper East and the Upper West Sides, but now you’ve seen more of those types of properties and people are going back.
I think it probably started way back with a building like the Chatham around 2000, which was developed by Related. It was among the first new developments on the Upper East Side designed by Robert A.M. Stern.
Do you think that the impact of Stern has had a tremendous influence on new development?
Well, I think his architectural sensibility always leaned more toward the traditional realm but offer all the modern conveniences that older properties could not. Larger kitchens, bigger windows, more light, more gracious spaces. When you look at the floor plans of today, you can’t underestimate the value of the large kitchen/ family room, which has become the central space for any family apartment.
How important are amenities to the new buyers?
The biggest draw by far is the amenity and the lifestyles that are offered in these new buildings that have literally dragged people from Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue to the far East Side, where people over a decade ago would never have even considered. And those are now trading for prices that are higher than what typical co-ops trade for in Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue, with the exception of some of the best.
And do you think that there is a renaissance on the Upper East Side?
I think the Upper East Side has always been a
You’ve been involved in major development across the city. Tell us a little about what you have seen over the years?
One of the joys of being in this business is being part of the group that collaborates with the best in the business to help shape and define new neighborhoods across the city. We have been involved in so much, starting on Riverside Boulevard in the early days with buildings like the Rushmore and then continuing the transformations across the far West Side of New York, including everything from the Upper West Side all the way down through Tribeca and Battery Park City, as well as the transformation of Hudson Yards, Chelsea, and the High Line. Those areas are now some of the highest-priced residential offerings in the city, and we’ve attracted people from every neighborhood throughout the city.
With all your involvement on the West Side, what does the future look like for the East Side?
The transformation across the far West Side of New York has been underway for some time and is now well established. We’re going to see that on the far East Side of New York. The Second Avenue subway greatly improves transportation, and all these new buildings, restaurants, and attractions are drawing people from the center of the island to the East Side. With new Midtown properties, like the beautiful, large-scale Sutton Tower, we will soon see this trend extend all the way downtown to the Seaport.
KELLY KENNEDY MACK
RICHARD FERRARI
treasures Explore more
The well restored Cittadella, one of Malta’s ancient fortified cities, stands out as Gozo’s major landmark, visible from all over the island and o ering stunning views of the Mediterranean. Its winding streets reveal archaeological treasures and cultural secrets, bringing history to life.
Ci ade a, Gozo
AN INSPIRED LIFE
AT INSPĪR IN CARNEGIE HILL, SENIOR LIVING HAS BEEN LEVELED-UP. RESIDENTS ENJOY THE BEST IN HEALTH CARE AND EXCLUSIVE PROGRAMMING, NOT TO MENTION FIVE-STAR HOTEL-STYLE SERVICE AND AMENITIES.
It’s an indisputable fact: NYC is home to the most interesting people in the world. However, we’d argue that the most interesting subset of that category is found in one building in Carnegie Hill in a luxury 23-story architectural marvel called Inspīr.
At Inspīr, every resident has an interesting story. As one put it, “They are all successful and cultured, and I share interests with many of them.” At Inspīr are examples of individuals who defy convention and have achieved the extraordinary. The powerhouse lineup of residents reads like a who’s who from the worlds of arts and business to medicine and politics. A Metropolitan Opera conductor, a famous award-winning poet, a pioneering leader in the fight for women’s equality, a Shakespearean scholar, a well-known Broadway actress—these are just some of the people found enjoying one another’s company. And this is often done over Inspīr’s award-winning cuisine
(Inspīr’s chefs bring global cuisine to the table, focusing on locally sourced, nutrient-filled foods.)
Inspīr’s “caring-for-the-whole-self” philosophy is brought to life daily through programs and perspectives from a variety of partners, therapeutic programs, educational workshops, music, film, entertainment, and more. “The spirit of Inspīr Carnegie Hill,” says Shane Herlet, co-CEO of Inspīr, “is that of a community where life’s adventures are embraced at every stage. Our residents thrive here because, in addition to top-notch care, we value lifelong learning, fearless exploration, and the endless possibilities each day brings.” In addition to the plethora of on-site activities, one of the community’s most beloved diverse social, cultural, and educational offerings includes the “On the Town” experiences, where residents take excursions to the theater, opera, and symphony. Recently, we had the pleasure of meeting the
celebrated poet and novelist Erica Jong, whose influential works like Fear of Flying have sold over 35 million copies worldwide. Joined by daughter Molly Jong-Fast, a political analyst and host of the podcast Fast Politics, Jong kicked off a series called “This Is Inspīr,” shining a spotlight on residents who are pioneers in their fields. Looking beautiful in a floral turquoise blouse (and wellcoiffed having just come from the on-property salon for a blowout)—Jong was ready for her fans and coresidents. The packed room included residents, some with their families and friends, and VIPs, all hanging onto Jong’s every word as she read from her most recent book of poetry, The World Began with Yes
There is always someone fascinating to meet at Inspīr. Take the late Millard Altman—the recently deceased conductor and prompter—who began listening to opera on the radio at the age of nine and knew he would one day call Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera home. And if you’re curious about what a prompter is, it’s the critical job in which you mouth the opera stars their lines when they forget—and they forget a lot! In his younger years, that often meant climbing the scaffolding to get to the ideal spot in, shall we say, ways that gave him the reputation of a daredevil.
After his retirement and an unfortunate fall, Altman decided it was time to find a senior living community where he could enjoy music and the arts while receiving the care he required. After receiving a recommendation for Inspīr Carnegie Hill and touring the building, he realized the amenities and
Facing page: the
Upper East Side location perfectly suited his needs. There is also the always beautifully clad Marilyn Snyder, a retired actress you may know by her stage name, Maggie Burke. She is best known for leading roles in Broadway’s Brighton Beach Memoirs, TV’s As the World Turns and Law and Order, as well as her role in the film Six Degrees of Separation. After her husband passed away and she retired, Marilyn began having health issues. She wanted a welcoming, comfortable place that provided easy access to healthcare. She wanted everything taken care of, including medical appointments and transportation, so she could focus on what she enjoys: theater, writing, and making new friends. Marilyn even unexpectedly found herself in a new romantic relationship, something she had difficulty envisioning after the passing of her late husband. But to her surprise, “it just blossomed,” bringing her the comfort of a best friend and companion.
Before discovering Inspīr, Marilyn’s experience with senior living was limited and not particularly positive. “My grandmother needed care, and the only option was a nursing home. That was my image of senior living, so I was reluctant to consider it until I discovered Inspīr,” she said. Like many at Inspīr, Marilyn is a native New Yorker who wanted to stay in the city, close to the theater and culture that means so much to her. “Having lived only 10 blocks away before my move, it felt like the perfect fit, as my umbilical cord doesn’t stretch much farther than that.” Important factors in her decision were the luxury
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lifestyle, stimulating community, and intellectual programs at Inspīr. “I visited other senior living communities, but I am very social and want to live in a luxurious setting, and the other options just didn’t provide what I was looking for. When I found Inspīr, I was bowled over by the community, staff, and architecture. The beautiful saltwater pool and magnificent gym have great instructors. Plus, the staff are so caring—they know everyone’s name and treat everyone with kindness.” And don’t get her started on her view of the East River. “It is magnificent. I sound like a spoiled brat, but I wouldn’t have moved in if I didn’t have such a great view,” she says.
Inspīr has set a new standard for urban senior living for discerning aging adults. Made up of 215 residences, including studios, one-, and two-bedroom units, each has the ability to be customized to create larger apartments for additional space.
Residences are meticulously crafted to ensure luxury, safety, and comfort, featuring ADA-compliant bathrooms with elegant gold marble and white quartz accents, white oak wardrobes, abundant natural light, and spacious living areas.
However, residents may find themselves spending less time in their rooms, thanks to the five-star, hotel-level amenities. From a SkyPark on the 17th floor with lush indoor and outdoor gardens to an indoor heated saltwater pool, a full-service salon, a state-of-the-art entertainment theater, and even a house car available upon request, the list of offerings is extensive.
If you, too, seek a home that nurtures your passions and provides a canvas for your aspirations to flourish, Inspīr Carnegie Hill is the perfect fit.—Kelly Amore
sophisticated interiors of Inspīr are a draw for residents. This page: residents have their choice of multiple dining locations.
FIELDS OF DREAMS
Endless rice paddies blanket the island of Bali.
THE SOUND OF SILENCE
Surrounded by jungle and rice paddies, the usually loquacious ARIEL LEVE unplugs and shuts up at the Bali Silent Retreat and finds that silence is a luxury.
BRING A SARONG AND BOOKS. YOU WON’T NEED SHOES OTHER THAN SNEAKERS AND FLIP-FLOPS. IT’S ASHRAM LIVING.
Recently I learned of a new phobia. It’s called “sedatephobia.” It’s a fear, dread, and aversion to silence. This phobia was unheard of 50 years ago. And if you have this phobia, a good place to live is New York where silence is harder to find than someone who cares that you have this phobia. Silence has become something of a paradox. We seek it out and avoid it as well. Why? Because for most people, it’s scary to be alone with your thoughts. Not for me. When I heard of the Bali Silent Retreat, I couldn’t think of anything better than spending a few days someplace where no one would talk to me. Talking to people takes energy. If someone asks, for instance, “How are you?” it’s rude not to respond. But coming up with an answer, especially lately, is draining.
Add to that the incessant need to check email and/or delete email which, when someone asks what I’m up to, is usually my standard response. There is so much garbage that fills the inbox of our brain—now is the ideal time to take out the psychological garbage, go for a digital detox, and reset.
But to find true silence these days, you have to go far. Unless, that is, you’re already in Bali. Two hours by car from most of the overcrowded and tourist-packed spots like Ubud and Canggu, you can be driven through rice terraces to a small Balinese village, surrounded by jungle and sounds of nature. (That counts as silence.)
Entering the Bali Silent Retreat, I immediately felt more reflective. My first thought: Why did I not come here sooner?
The first thing you might notice about the people there is how attractive everyone looks. Since I couldn’t ask where they were from, I observed. The woman who resembled Elle Macpherson (it wasn’t her) was reading a book in French. The gray-haired man, in flowing yoga pants with aviator sunglasses, was reading in Dutch. There were a few Japanese women, people of all ages, and I had no idea where the two men in the bungalow next to me (who sat on their porch reading together in silence) were from because they never uttered a word. At one point, I saw one of them pass a note—pass a note—to his partner and the response? A nod.
The accommodations are bare bones, comfortable, and private. Some have a view of the rice paddies with a porch and are close to the lodge. Others are set further back and have room for doing yoga. There are different price points and, no matter what, I would suggest packing light. Bring a sarong and books. You won’t need shoes other than sneakers and flip-flops. It’s ashram living.
I COULDN’T THINK OF ANYTHING BETTER THAN SPENDING A FEW DAYS SOMEPLACE WHERE NO ONE WOULD TALK TO ME.
You also will not be bringing any food or drinks in your room (apart from water) because it will attract ants and mice and mice attract snakes. If there’s one way to get me not to have snacks in the room, it’s to mention snakes. I left my almonds and rice cakes in a locker at the lodge.
The point of being at this retreat is to disconnect. However, while I can do without my phone, I can’t do without coffee. Because they know people like me require caffeine, there is the option to order a thermos of coffee the night before and it will be waiting for you by reception in the morning. At 6:30 AM, when the brass gong woke everyone else up for meditation class, I headed to the reception area and sat outside on a wooden bench as the sun rose over the rice paddies. I sipped my Javanese coffee in silence; my form of meditation.
Also, for people who were freaking out without access to Internet and electronic devices, this area (above the office) is a co-workspace. There is decent connectivity and you can ask reception for the password if you must get online. Most people, myself included, opt to give up their phone for a few days and it’s kept in a lockbox where you will be given the key. When I left the retreat and went on a rice field walk, I took it with me, just in case—even though I discovered there’s no signal so I couldn’t speak to anyone anyway. I took some videos instead.
What was remarkable was how much people respected the code of silence. Days are spent reading, walking, meditating, sleeping, serenely staring—and, in my case, anticipating the meals.
The sound of the gong signaling mealtime
SERENE SCENE The Bungalows where guests stay look out over an expanse of rice paddies.
SWEET ESCAPE Cofounders
Patricia and Sang Tu (top right) have created the ultimate silent getaway, surrounded by jungle, in Bali.
AT 6:30 AM, WHEN THE BRASS GONG WOKE EVERYONE ELSE UP FOR MEDITATION CLASS, I HEADED TO THE RECEPTION AREA AND SAT OUTSIDE ON A WOODEN BENCH AS THE SUN ROSE OVER THE RICE PADDIES. I SIPPED MY JAVANESE COFFEE IN SILENCE; MY FORM OF MEDITATION.
filled me with joy. When you arrive, you’re given a tray, dishes, a bowl, cutlery, and a ceramic mug. Your personal set will be kept in the lodge. Food is served three times a day—laid out buffet-style— and the biggest challenge will be not to pig out. Even though mindful eating is encouraged, you can mindfully eat as much as you want. People go to this retreat just for the food.
All of it is organic, vegetarian or vegan, and with plenty of gluten-free options. Dishes with duck eggs are labeled. Sample menus are on the website and for the cost of a shopping trip at Erewhon, you can fly to Bali, stay at this retreat, and devour some of the best healthy food you’ll ever have. This includes the all-day grazing, with fresh-baked cookies with cashews, coconut, and cacao, and unlimited turmeric
or tamarind shots with ginger and palm honey.
It’s recommended to stay a minimum of five days—as it takes 48 hours to adapt to being disconnected. In the beginning, I was hesitant to stay that long, but by day three I was hesitant to leave. What’s so great about speaking? The retreat felt like a safe haven.
This is not the place to meet new people or make friends. It’s entirely about going inward and listening to the voices in your head. Once they stop demanding you check your email and Instagram, you can relax and become clear eyed.
You might even develop a new phobia: phonophobia—fear of phones. Not really—it’s actually the fear of loud noises, otherwise known as the outside world.
BALI UNPLUGGED Guests read and relax (but don’t utter a word!) on a terrace at Bali Silent Retreat.
To the Manner Born
The Standard hotel’s chic sibling opens in SoHo
BY PETER DAVIS
The Meatpacking District’s Standard hotel, home to the glamorously decadent Boom Boom Room and slews of infamously risqué snaps of naked guests caught frolicking in front of windows, has a new, stylish sister in the heart of SoHo. Think of the Manner on Thompson Street as the Standard’s more discreet, fancier jet-set sibling.
From the moment you enter the Brutalist-modern lobby, decked with a large, swirled ceramic piece by Italian artist Giovanni De Francesco, you feel like you’ve walked into a private
BRASS IN POCKET
Brass, steel, concrete, and glass are some of the design elements that make the public spaces at the Manner so original.
club. The hotel has eighty-sixed the standard check-in counter for a small desk with someone who greets you like your favorite doorman. The members’-club vibe continues up the staircase to the Apartment, where registered guests can lounge around the ceramic columns by Ben Medansky and angular steel fireplace and sip (free!) cocktails and in the morning have a coffee and a pastry at the long brass-topped dining room table. “The Apartment is the heart of the hotel,” Amar Lalvani, executive chairman of Standard International, tells Avenue. “It has a timeless design with handcrafted sculptural elements from artists around the world. It also has my personal book collection. It is a space to meet other guests during our aperitivo in the evening before heading to Sloane’s or out on the town, only to return for a nightcap on our rooftop, no doubt.” Through an unmarked door is Sloane’s, the hotel’s tuckedaway speakeasy-like lounge with a gold-leaf inlaid bar and a crowd straight out of the front row at a Proenza Schouler show. Sloane’s was inspired by Casa Mollino, Carlo Mollino’s dramatic, sleek (and secret—the Italian architect and designer didn’t tell anyone about the project) residential masterpiece in Turin, Italy.
The suites are expansive, many with Juliet balconies. With a glossy Hermès-orange wall and a massive emerald-green sofa, the room feels more like your art director friend’s apartment than a hotel room. And get this: there are no TVs, so prepare to unplug from Netflix bingeing (they will deliver a television if you’re seriously jonesing for the latest true crime doc). “I love the hidden
MOVIE STARS WILL BOOK THE DUPLEX PENTHOUSE: 1,800 SQUARE FEET OF SHINY, DEEP-RED LACQUER WITH A WRAPAROUND TERRACE—ALL INSPIRED BY HALSTON’S MONOCHROMATIC OFFICES IN OLYMPIC TOWER.
Dampf speakers in the rooms that provide incredible sound,” Lalvani mentions. “Something I find missing in most hotel rooms.” Time to pump up the volume and dance, dance, dance! Designed by Standard International chief design officer Verena Haller and architect Hannes Peer, the bronze accents, handmade inlaid tiles, modern Italian furniture, cast steel and glass chandeliers (custom pieces by Peer), chocolate-brown marble bathrooms, and floor-to-ceiling mirrors fulfill the fantasy of that SoHo loft you always dreamed of owning. Movie stars will book the duplex penthouse: 1,800 square feet of shiny, deep-red lacquer with a wraparound terrace—all inspired by Halston’s monochromatic offices in Olympic Tower. “I love the drama of the penthouse,” Lalvani adds. “We hope that people love it as much as we do and return again and again and make it their home downtown.”
On the first floor is the Otter, the latest restaurant from James Beard nominee, chef Alex Stupak
of Empellón. The eatery’s main room has a lively Diego Rivera-like figurative mural by Spanish artist Elvira Solana, but the real focus is the social scene: so far beauty guru Dr. Barbara Sturm, Iman, and Laura Brown, and fashion houses like Coach and Off-White, have hosted parties, while Madonna, Allison Williams, Karen Elson, and Claudia Schiffer have all been spotted. Seafood-focused, the parsley root agnolotti is delicious, with buttered crab meat and a surprise of crushed Ritz crackers for a New England twist. And the enormous, round, cloudlike Boston cream pie has already become legendary—just jab another shot of Ozempic and dig in.
APARTAMENTO Both the circular lobby and the second-floor Apartment space have a cool, clubby feel.
The (Sex) Life and Death of Salvador Dalí
The Spanish Surrealist Salvador Dalí— forever a provocateur—was as wild, glamorous, and grotesque as his paintings finds JANET MERCEL
Aperennial provocateur whose life-theater left no obvious line between art and man, Salvador Dalí remains the rare historical figure who will make you laugh out loud while reading a dryas-toast academic text at a lifetime of ridiculousness—a life that blurs legend, scandal, rumor, myth, and the outright preposterous!
The artist wrestled with the need to be seen from the tenderest age. At 10, he ran headlong into a wall at school until blood ran down his head, “because no one was paying attention to me.” His father’s idea of instilling safe sex practices in his preadolescent son was to show him wildly graphic images of syphilis-infected females that scarred him for life. When his beloved mother died of uterine cancer when he was 16, the message was clear: women’s bodies were monstrous, his own was not to be trusted, and sex was dangerous— and shameful.
If his romantic life was destined to be tortured, it didn’t stop him from making a few attempts at intimacy. After an art school entanglement with the poet Federico García Lorca, he later dismissed Lorca’s advances as one-sided—despite a body of work devoted to each other and Dalí’s portraits featuring their merging bodies—while admitting: “Deep down, I felt that he was a great poet and that I owe him a tiny bit of the Divine Dalí’s asshole.” The affair ended when Lorca published a book that Dalí found too conventional, but it was only the beginning of a lifetime spent keeping people guessing and gossiping. (This is a man who proudly proclaimed, “Confusion is the greatest form of communication.”)
Not long after dumping his boyfriend for being unforgivably basic, Dalí was mired in the heady
AT 10, HE RAN HEADLONG INTO A WALL AT SCHOOL UNTIL BLOOD RAN DOWN HIS HEAD, “BECAUSE NO ONE WAS PAYING ATTENTION TO ME.”
days of 1920s Montparnasse. Consumed by fear, shame, sexual frustration, and no healthy outlets for expressing it, he found his forever home with the Surrealists. Dalí’s vivid imagination was a breeding ground for the kind of mind that would find The Exorcist a comfort film. His paintings teemed with tongues, lactating breasts, and spurting blood and liquids from every imaginable (and unimaginable) sex organ. The Surrealists were beginning to understand they got more than they bargained for—a 25-year-old hysteric prone to fits of inappropriate scream-laughter triggered by the dirty pictures running through his mind. Fearing that an obsession with excrement made him too much of a deviant, René Magritte and the poet Paul Éluard visited Dalí in his beloved Cadaqués. Afraid he would publicly embarrass them all if he turned out to be literally coprophagic (shit-eating) as opposed to merely coprophilous (shit-loving), they enlisted Éluard’s wife, Gala, to gauge just how deep and authentic his madness really was (à la Mark Wahlberg in The Departed: “How fucked up are you?”).
Éluard’s wife was a decade older than Dalí and had already served as a muse to many Parisian artists—if someone had produced a genius streak
of work, it was understood he’d probably been sleeping with Gala at the time. She became Mrs. Dalí, his “Godiva,” his “Madonna,” a fetishistic Yoko to his tormented John, and they luxuriated in each other’s perversions. It is said Dalí had sex with his wife once, or a handful of times, or not at all, or that the painter died a virgin. Gala needed sex like she needed air, and never stopped pursuing as many lovers as she deemed necessary. Her husband, meanwhile, was as repelled by literal sex with another human as much as he was drawn to the idea of it. The orgies followed them from New York, to Hollywood, and back to Spain, with Dalí the proud voyeur who preferred simulating his own organ with his walking cane. His paintbrush and his hand were equal extensions of his body— he counted anything that came out of either as creative expression. His favorite partner was a mirror, although he was not without his own companions.
Nearly everything about Amanda Lear, his partner for over 10 years while Gala did her own thing, was a mystery—except that she was a top-earning supermodel. Some say they met in a Paris nightclub while she was dating the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones. Or perhaps it was years earlier, during her time as a pre-op go-go dancer, and
Dalí had paid for her surgery. At various times, one or both claimed she was a trans woman, while at others they derided the notion as pure fiction, a publicity ploy to sensationalize their romance—if that’s what it was. Lear overlapped with the more historically elusive Carlos Lozano, a Colombian model and dancer with whom Dalí was also infatuated long-term. It’s nearly impossible to get a straight answer about anyone’s arrangement, although things evolved enough for Lear to become affianced to Bryan Ferry, and then start dating David Bowie.
In the fever dream of myth and reality that was Dalí’s life, to find someone who remembers the scene firsthand—and can recall it—is to find a unicorn. Peter Dunham, the Los Angeles-based interior designer, was the child who lived next door to this stage of eccentricity in Cadaqués, where his family had to park their boat by Dalí’s house to reach their own. “I never really realized until Carlos Lozano wrote a memoir that I was the only child allowed into Dalí’s inner sanctum,” he recalls. The artist would sit on his throne and gift the fascinated, eight-year-old Dunham with autographs when he visited. In his 20s, when returning for drinks and parties—the more sedate ones, perhaps—the guests gathered in a circle, Dalí and Gala joined last for their dramatic entrance, always with the posed flamboyance and theatricality of Surrealism. The final impression? “I’ll always remember the vision of him and his wife, Gala, getting on their cadmium-yellow boat and cruising into the sunset.”
IT IS SAID DALÍ HAD SEX WITH HIS WIFE ONCE, OR A HANDFUL OF TIMES, OR NOT AT ALL, OR THAT THE PAINTER DIED A VIRGIN.
HELLO DALÍ The surrealist at work on a painting.
SOPHIE ELGORT
Photographer Sophie Elgort hails from a famously creative family: her father is legendary lensman Arthur Elgort and her brother is actor Ansel Elgort. And now, Sophie plays a starring role in a new series Portrait Mode with Sophie Elgort PETER DAVIS speaks with Elgort about her debut show.
How did you land your own TV show?
During the pandemic, I was doing interviews on Instagram with my dad about different photos he’d taken. We called it “Behind the Lens with Arthur Elgort.” Then, Diane Masciale from WNET and I came up with Portrait Mode with Sophie Elgort, where I speak to fellow creatives about their process. It’s an
interview show that brings the viewer behind the scenes on a photo shoot.
How cool. Photo shoots are always very chatty.
When photographing people, I am always chatting with them the whole time, learning their story. People become at ease when you spend a bunch of time with them with a camera in between you versus sitting down for a formal interview. I get to learn about them via what they say, and also get a window into who they are based on what they do and their actions in front
read every news article I could find and interviews that she’s done, and listened to her on podcasts. I watched all her movies. At one point, Rita broke into an acapella version of a jazz song. With my dad you get to see him in action. We go onto the streets because so much of what he does is use New York City as a canvas. He was one of the first people to take the model out of the studio and put them on the street. We got to see him in these places that he’s shot for decades.
You need to have your movie-star brother Ansel on the show.
I would totally do that. I figured to start I shouldn’t fill up all my spots with just family.
What was it like being in front of the camera as opposed to behind?
I was kind of both in this sense because I was behind the still camera, but in front of the video cameras. I grew up in front of my dad’s camera, so I am not self-conscious in front of cameras.
You’re always so stylish. What did you wear to meet Nile Rodgers, who is a fabulous force of fashion too.
You have shot so many major people. Who did you score for the show?
One of the subjects is Nile Rodgers. Nile came with his hitmaker guitar, that he’s written all his major songs on. And we have this award-winning musician just riffing on this guitar, telling stories. We have Rita Moreno and Skylar Brandt, a principal at American Ballet Theatre, and my dad, because that was how this whole idea started.
Rita Moreno is iconic!
Rita has had the longest career and most amazing life. She’s in her 90s. I had a lot of research to do. I read her book, watched her documentary,
For Nile, I wore a pretty epic Akris suit. It was a lot more fashion than I would normally wear to a shoot. And Nile was like, “Wow, that’s a great suit. Do you think I could try it on?” He ended up in my jacket. He was dancing around in it, and I was taking his picture.
If you’re reading this, Akris, send Nile Rodgers that jacket ASAP! You have three adorable small kids. Do they love posing for the camera?
Sometimes I’ll use them as the subjects. They’re young, so I have to have a few people literally chasing them around. One time I did a kid shoot, and they had a child wrangler—they can get kids to do anything.
As an interviewer, do you like being interviewed yourself?
I was at a dinner next to Marina Testino and was telling her about the show. She said, “You should have them turn the camera around on you.” We did that for every episode. It was hysterical. They took the camera and would do my picture and direct me. Rita Moreno was trying to get me to act. I was like, “Rita, I’m not an actor.” It was a pretty funny scenario.
Is there anyone that you’ve photographed you wish you would been filming at the same time?
I photograph a lot of personalities. John Waters, for example, would be amazing. And Brooke Shields. I photographed Clive Davis for Avenue and he would be epic.
I’m going to ring Clive and make that happen!
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