THE GLAM SQUAD

La Vie en Rose

All hail Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc, queen of the French Riviera

Hotel Du Cap Eden Roc: A Timeless Legend on the

French Riviera by Alexandra Campbell and Graydon Carter (Flammarion, $85)

“On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about halfway between Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud, rose-colored hotel,” wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald of the Hotel du Cap in his 1934 novel, Tender is the Night. From the moment the Belle Epoque mansion—originally built by the then editor of Le Figaro newspaper, Hippolyte de Villemessant, as a retreat for wornout writers—opened its doors in 1889 as a hotel under the ownership of Antoine Sella, it has been a symbol of French glamour and a magnet for the artists, fi lm stars, politicians, and society figures of the day. Ernest Hemingway visited, as did Rudolph Valentino, Isadora Duncan, Ella Fitzgerald, James Baldwin, the Kennedys, Robert Evans, Taylor and Burton, John and Yoko, Serge and Jane, Mick, Kate, and Cate. Picasso swam in the iconic pool dug into the cliffside, and drew nudes in the hotel guest book; Orson Welles hung out at the waterfront cabana of Hollywood studio executive Darryl Zanuck with film star Jean Howard; the Duke and Duchess of Windsor languished poolside while on honeymoon; François-Henri Pinault and Salma Hayek partied here with Sean “Diddy” Combs and the English socialite Daphne Guinness. Everybody who is anybody has stayed at the du Cap, from the Jazz Age to our digital times. This lavishly illustrated book tells the story of its fi rst 150 years, with never-before-seen photographs of guests and an introduction by Graydon Carter. It’s a fitting tribute to the most seductive hotel of the French Riviera, and arguably, of the world. —heather hodson

COME ON IN, THE WATER’S LOVELY Clockwise, from right: Slim Aarons captures the hotel's iconic pool in the summer of 1976; Cecil Beaton and his sister, Nancy, who stayed in 1929; guests at the 2016 amfAR (The Foundation for Aids Research) gala enjoy the hotel’s garden; Marlene Dietrich in 1933, with the hotel’s beach houses in the background. Opposite: Marie-Hélène Arnaud, the “face of Chanel” in the ’50s, with a friend aboard a Riva in 1957.

PARTY ON Bill Cunningham and his camera; right: guests photographed by Cunningham at the Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governors Island, an event the photographer rarely missed.

Snappy Dressers

A tribute to the legendary Bill Cunningham and his ever-present camera

Bill Cunningham Was There: Spring Flings + Summer

Soirées by John Kurdewan and Steven Stolman; photographs by Bill Cunningham (Rizzoli, $40)

“Child,” Bill Cunningham said in his sprightly Boston accent, “you have to treat everyone equally.” Whether photographing fashion shows in Paris from the front row, or guests at the Met Gala, or an anonymous but undeniably chic New Yorker out and about whose personal style happened to catch his eye, the late photographer Bill Cunningham documented the beautiful people and scenes he discovered everywhere he looked.

Bill Cunningham Was There collects images from the columns Evening Hours and On the Streets he produced each week for the Sunday New York Times’s Style section. Evening Hours was a chronicle of notables of the New York social scene, while On the Street montaged emerging trends spied along his favorite stretch of Fifth Avenue, outside a fashion show, or in any nook of the city to which he famously rode his bicycle between events. For four decades, until well into his eighties, the puckish Cunningham and his camera seemed to be omnipresent.

Within this book are many of his fastidiously crafted columns, including an ensemble of 19 women wearing oversize white shirts while attending the Paris spring/summer collections 2012, or an outrageous rush of orange gowns and ties worn by guests at the annual Spring Garden Party for Fellows at the Frick Collection, featuring Frederic Leighton’s 1895 painting Flaming June, in 2015. Also here are photographs from his seasonal trips to enclaves of the East Coast social circuit such as Newport, Saratoga, Millbrook, and Long Island.

Personal tributes by John Kurdewan, Cunningham’s devoted technical and production artist at the New York Times, and Steven Stolman, a writer and designer, recall their working relationship and friendships in the decades they shared. That Bill Cunningham touched so many hearts and spirits is what makes this a lovely, noisy, boisterous memento of the ongoing party that is New York.—catherine talese

Bird’s Eye Hue

A photographer’s point of view extends from the ground into the air

Gray Malin: The Essential Collection (Abrams, $40)

The fi ne art and travel photographer Gray Malin is best known for his aerial photographs, great swooping dolly shots of the candy-striped beach loungers of Saint Tropez or the green and blue handkerchief of Central Park on a hazy summer day. Gray Malin: The Essential Collection (Abrams, $40) celebrates the first decade of $40) celebrates the first decade of his work, taking readers across the world to areas both remote and urban, and providing a big dose of escapism along the way. —heather hodson

THE VIEW UP HERE Above: multicolored sun shades on an East Hampton beach, photographed by Gray Malin, and (top) his shot of Central Park looking south.

Bold Comfort Farm

The ceramicist Christopher Spitzmiller on animal husbandry and other matters

A Year at Clove Brook Farm

by Christopher Spitzmiller (Rizzoli, $45)

“I fi rmly believe each of us has a garden within us, and it’s our own job to tend to it, nurture it, and let it fl ourish,” writes the New York artisan Christopher Spitzmiller in his enchanting book about his homestead in Millbrook. Beginning in spring, it fi ts within the tradition of the Farmer’s Almanac, the chapters following the seasons and including planting schedules, seasonal recipes, advice on animal husbandry, personal anecdotes, and the encouragement of a wise, guiding authorial hand in how to sustain an abundant farm.

As a celebrated ceramicist, Christopher Spitzmiller’s lamps, tableware, mirrors, and accessories draw upon the American interior design tradition, including that of friends and mentors Albert Hadley, Mario Buatta, and Bunny Williams, whose work and infl uence he proudly honors. As a gentleman farmer, his art and craft are deeply connected to nature. Gourd-like shapes, designs in faux bois, and green spruce and blue hydrangea glazes are all found in his pottery, as well as his own signature marble pattern.

The book is both practical—there is a detailed guide to purveyors and other resources in the

PEONIES FROM HEAVEN A selection of peonies grown at Clove Brook Farm; below: Serendipity, a fabric by Sister Parish, covers a banquet table decorated with dahlias.

back—and inspirational, urging the reader to experiment in the garden and home, with suggestions on seed saving, drying fl owers, and seasonal gifts, as well as hosting and business practices. The accompanying photography by Gemma and Andrew Ingalls is fresh, vibrant, and richly instructive.—catherine talese

The City That Finally Sleeps

by photographer Mark Seliger (Brilliant Press, $60)

As the city went into lockdown, we experienced it as we’d never seen it before: at work, but empty. Mark Seliger, the celebrated portrait photographer, captured the iconic views and the formerly bustling but now silent streets in the silvery tones of now silent streets in the silvery tones of a silent movie. The spirit of New York a silent movie. The spirit of New York comes through in the theater marquees (“Be Well”; “We'll be back soon”) and in his portraits of the first responders. The City That Finally Sleeps is a tribute to a time that changed the city and those of a time that changed the city and those of us living here.—catherine talese

All proceeds from the sale of this book will support New York Cares in their Covid-19 relief e orts

SILENT NIGHT Washington Square Park photographed by Mark Seliger during the pandemic.

HIGH CONCEPT Above: architect and designer David Rockwell’s The Circulation Ribbon at Nexus, the Waterline Club; right: his Vidanta Los Cabos in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

The Glossy Posse

Glam coff ee table books on architecture and photography

Drama: David Rockwell

by Bruce Mau and Sam Lubell (Phaidon, $59.95)

David Rockwell’s 2021 Oscars set design—his third—did what he does best, conjuring the glamour and theater of the early Academy Awards for a pandemic-era ceremony. The New York architect and designer’s childhood was defi ned by theater, with a mother who was a vaudeville dancer and choreographer, and who would cast her son in local repertory productions. Rockwell’s diverse works, spanning hotels and restaurants, museums and Tony-award winning set designs, all reference his concept of performance, and in this book, chapters are devoted to the six fundamental theatrical concepts:

Audience, Ensemble, Worlds, Story, Journey, and Impermanence. With contributions from the museum director and curator Thelma

Golden, the architect Daniel Libeskind, and

Oscar-winning production designer Adam

Stockhausen, among others, this is a vivid exploration of Rockwell’s dazzling projects and philosophy.—heather hodson