COUP BOSTON JANUARY 2013

JANUARY 2013

BRAVE BEAUTY IN 2013

HOW TO HIT RESET AFTER ALL THOSE HOLIDAY INDULGENCES BODY VS. MIND THE MOST INNOVATIVE: >>> LASER TREATMENTS >>> NUTRITIONISTS >>> WORKOUTS

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RETREAT! RETREAT! THE SPA ESCAPES YOU NEED RIGHT NOW

CONTENTS & DEPARTMENTS

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

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CURATED // WINTER BLUES

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COUP DE GRÂCE // CLOSET GENIUS The woman behind some of the most successful businesses around Boston (and the globe) is as intrepid in her dressing as in her financial ventures.

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SOCIETY // THE FRONT ROW Who wore what, when, and why. And more importantly, how they made the party better for it.

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WANDERLUST // REMOTE ACCESS Woodland spa getaways that put the ‘treat’ in retreat.

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VANITY // DIARY OF THE ULTIMATE DETOX Over the holidays, your eating habits went off the rails with more velocity than The Polar Express. And with new fitness, nutrition, and weight-loss solutions all around town, the time to get back on track is now.

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COUP D'ÉTAT // ITʼS A WUNDERKIND LIFE He’s been dancing since he was 4, but rising ballet soloist John Lam saves some of his biggest star turns for life beyond the curtains.

ON THE COVER photograph by CORY STIERLEY, CS PHOTOGRAPHIC art direction by JOSEPH GORDON CLEVELAND hair & makeup by KACIE CORBELLE, ENNIS featuring NICALINA F. for MAGGIE INC.

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the first annual

lifestyle visionaries awards 25 Bostonians revolutionized the local industries of fashion, food, beauty, travel, and home design over the last year.

These are the RISK TAKERS who, in ways big or small, HAVE CHANGED HOW WE LIVE our everyday lives—AND HAVE PUSHED THE CITY'S LIFESTYLE FORWARD AS A RESULT. Winners will be announced in the FEBRUARY 2013 ISSUE THINK YOU KNOW THE PERFECT CANDIDATE? We've got a nomination form for you right HERE. Fill it out and email it to us by FRIDAY, JANUARY 11.

ALEXANDRA HALL Editor-in-Chief JOSEPH GORDON CLEVELAND Creative Director AUSTYN ELLESE MAYFIELD Managing Editor MICHAEL BLANDING Editor-at-Large MICHAEL TROTMAN Copy Editor CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Katherine Bowers Amanda Hark Robin Hauck Jolyon Helterman Bernard Leed Erin Byers Murray Lisa Pierpont CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Joel Benjamin Daniel Bleckley Conor Doherty Tristan Govignon Sabin Gratz Christopher Huang Eric Levin Russ Mezikofsky Bob Packert Cory Stierley Dan Watkins Jessica Weiser ART & DESIGN INTERNS Olivia Cartland Caitlin Coyne Alexa Robertiello EDITORIAL INTERNS Basia Gordon Valeria Navarro Kelsey Prisby CHERYL KAUFMAN Senior Client Manager TO ADVERTISE, CONTACT salut@coupboston.com

COUPBOSTON.COM 20 Park Plaza, Suite 1105 Boston, MA 02116

PORSCHE OF WESTWOOD 420 PROVIDENCE HIGHWAY, ROUTE 1

PRIMEPORSCHE.COM

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR / COUP BOSTON / JANUARY 2013

CHANGING THE GAME OF ALL THE WORDS that pierced almost everything this last year, one dominates: sustainability. If it isn’t about sustaining the national pork supply or our hurricanepillaged coastlines, then it’s our economy at large. The only thing left now is for Katy Perry to croon about the principle, make it stupid but splendid, and it’ll become an endless loop Super-Glued into our collective ids.

So if we can’t escape the concept, let’s stop applying it only to the world around us, but to ourselves as well. As in self-sustainability. And what better timing? Who doesn’t love a good New Year’s resolution right about now? You know, a hope-fueled swipe at self-betterment? Alas, two weeks into our renewed gym memberships, gluten-free diets, and reading groups, most of us have given up and decided it’s just a hell of a lot easier to look like trolls and be illiterate than keep chasing our better selves.

That’s usually me, every year. Which is why the following pages take a new look at what people have to do to really change—or, well, to just not. In them I hit the reset button [page 33] for four weeks and see if, with some of the best local experts at my back, I can legitimately change bad habits and head steadily down the road to wellness, happiness, and beauty. On the other end of the human capability spectrum, there are those walking among us who regularly, effortlessly hit the existential reset button every morning—local phenomena like Wendy Lane [page 12] and John Lam [page 50], two takeno-prisoners Bostonians who wring every drop of life out of their days, and pretty much put the rest of us to shame.

I want to hate them both. Trouble is, they’re just not hateable. They’re everyday icons. In fact, they’re just the kind of people who inspired us to create one of the most salient celebrations of risk takers our city’s ever seen.

Our next issue (February) will be the very first Lifestyle Visionaries Award issue—25 of the people in town who, for Bostonians in 2012, changed the game in the realms of food, fashion, beauty, home design, and

>>> The editor-in-chief, ALEXANDRA HALL, whose

New Year's resolution is to give up New Year's resolutions.

travel. Those innovations are what this magazine is all about, which means we’re considering ideas big or small, people famed or obscure, businesses new or old. In other words, every possible candidate. So grab this form [click here], nominate away, and send it to us. Everyone’s thoughts are invited; based on your contributions and our research, we’ll mull, debate, and announce the 25 winners in our February issue.

And by that time, you’ll no doubt have formed your own thoughts about the sustainability of selfbetterment. Until then, I’ll sign off with this: Real change is one bitch of a long road. So what’s the best New Year’s resolution you’ll have all year? Give up New Year’s resolutions altogether, and dive in for the long haul.

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ALEXANDRA HALL Editor-in-Chief alex@coupboston.com

94 Central Street Wellesley, MA 02482 (781) 237-7010 grettaluxe.com

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Yigal Azrouël Resort 2013 printed moto jacket with leather sleeves.

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JANUARY 2013 / COUP BOSTON / CURATED

curated

What the finicky editorial COUP crew is donning, devouring, hoarding, imbibing, inhaling, and generally lusting after right now.

by JOSEPH GORDON CLEVELAND, ALEXANDRA HALL and AUSTYN ELLESE MAYFIELD

1. ISLAND BUNGALOW AT MYKONOS BLU “Come mid-January, Mykonos’s 50° average temps will feel positively balmy to us Bostonians. Add a world-class spa and sweeping vistas, and you’ve got a destination ready to redefine ‘winter blues.’”

From $585 per night at mykonosblu.com —Joseph Gordon Cleveland,

Creative Director

6. JIMMY CHOO LANCE SILVER SANDALS “An arresting silhouette in mirrored silver, perfect for any occasion that involves leaving the house.

And plenty that don’t.” $775 at jimmychoo.com —JGC

7. STEWED COOKBOOK “David Becker, chef/owner of Needham’s 2. MURANO GLASS CHANDELIER Sweet Basil, has been lovingly accused “Sculptural and with a tangle of indigo coils, of ‘making all his regulars fat’ with his it’s a statement maker. (Even if that stateaddictive menu. Now, armed with a ment is, ‘Don’t even think about touching.’”) brand new cookbook (with photos by $1,278 at ledwb.com girlfriend Nina Gallant,) he's aiming —JGC for the rest of us, too.” $29.99 at amazon.com 3. SHAY & BLUE SUFFOLK —Alexandra Hall, Editor-in-Chief LAVENDER PARFUM “Blending top notes of melon-kissed 8. TOM FORD lavender with base notes of musk and pine, NEROLI PORTOFINO a new fragrance house founded by veteran “Another deliciously unisex fragrance nose Dom De Vetta (formerly of Jo Malone from the masterful combiner of and Chanel) has created a modern scent sex and chic.” with a darker edge to the floral you $205 for 50 ml at nordstrom.com thought you knew.”

—JGC $89 at shayandblue.com —Austyn Ellese Mayfield, Managing Editor 9. TOD'S FOLD OVER 4. GENTLE HEX LEATHER IPAD CASE NOUILLES CYAN SCARF “Just when I thought I couldn’t love “At the intersection of foodstuffs, printing my iPad more, my obsession with it processes, and fine art, Boston-based artist just got a boost from this textured Hannah Rose Hamilton created this bit of Italian leather case.” accessory heaven, digitally rendered on $495 at tods.com 100 percent silk crepe de chine.”

—AEM $150 at gentlehex.com —AEM 10. ABLE PLANET HEADPHONES “Forget earbuds; I want to feel the tunes 5. BOCA DO LOBO down to my toes. Able Planet’s Sound FLOURISH SIDE TABLE Clarity NC500SC model increases perceived “This may be just the thing to convince volume (not actual volume), and is noise me that coasters aren’t completely stupid. canceling, to boot. Buy them for a flight, Rich mahogany finished in high-gloss then wear them constantly after.” black lacquer at the base, and a $249.99 at shop.ableplanet.com decadent silver leaf on top.”

—AH $4,320 at bocadolobo.com —AEM

11. ATLAS MARCATO PASTA MACHINE “If I’m going to make good on my 2013 resolution to only eat pasta I make myself, I’ll need something like this—a tool that makes preparing simple carbs less complex.” $80 at surlatable.com —AEM FEDRO CHAIR “Someone forgot to tell German furnishings company Dedon that rocking chairs are supposed to be for li’l old ladies. So they went ahead and enlisted Lorenza Bozzoli to design this way-cool woven version. Rock on.” $955 at showroomboston.com —AH SALONCAPRI IN BACK BAY “Nick Penna Jr. has piled up the awards and admirers at his previous locations, and this month he’s opening doors on a swanky new spot. Get ready to see a lot more good hair on the first block of Newbury Street.” saloncapri.com —AH EQUISSAGE AT EQUINOX “Massages don’t banish backaches long-term, good posture does.

Masseur Manuel Almeida tackles both, with a mix of customized strokes to soothe immediate pain, and an in-depth physical assessment to stop it long-term. The miraculous part? It’s so relaxing, you’ll want to come back even after your posture’s become perfect.” $140 at equinox.com —AH

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84 LEONARD STREET BELMONT, MA 02478 (617) 484-4777 LEONANDCO.COM

EVEN THOUGH IʼVE ALWAYS FELT IT WAS FUN TO KEEP UP WITH THE BOYS, I DONʼT WANT TO BE ONE OF THEM.

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FEARLESS FEMME Adventuress Wendy Lane, in an Azzedine Alaïa dress from her own collection.

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JANUARY 2013 / COUP BOSTON / COUP DE GRÂCE

CLOSET GENIUS The woman behind some of the most successful businesses around Boston (and the globe) is as intrepid in her dressing as in her financial ventures.

by ALEXANDRA HALL // portrait by CORY STIERLEY

“IMAGINE GOING 130 MILES PER HOUR in a 500-horsepower Cadillac CTS-V down a straightaway, and then around hairpin turns,” laughs Wendy Lane. “Every neuron in your brain is telling you to slow down, and that you just might die.” She could easily be describing one of the seemingly countless business investments she’s orchestrated over the past three decades.

But this fast track in question was real; just a little something Lane decided to try while at the Monticello Motor Club in New York. “There’s just nothing like that kind of rush,” she recalls. “It gets you out of yourself, to see things in a whole new light. It’s an antidote to doing the same things day after day.”

Of that, she’s hardly in any danger. At a stage of life when many women become cagey about their birthdays and decades of experience, Lane maintains more stamina and daring than a postgrad, and makes no bones about her years of hard work. After racking up degrees from Wellesley and Harvard Business School, she became a founding member of Staples and an investment banker in Manhattan. Then it was back to Boston in the late ’90s to raise her children while working in private equity and sitting on a handful of boards. That led to work with the three multinationals she advises now—a Helsinki paper company, the world’s third-largest insurance broker, based in Dublin, and a North Carolina diagnostic clinical lab. (“It’s like drinking from a scientific fire hose,” she says about the last of these.)

Even more invigorating is the travel those gigs require. “One month I’m home the whole time, the next it’s Uruguay and Munich,” says the self-confessed travel junkie. “Or China and Helsinki, and I’m home only on weekends.” (And even then, she packs her schedule with tennis, long workouts, heli-skiing, and, until a recent knee injury, ice hockey.) Along the way, there are always side trips for pleasure: Dubai and Tibet. Istanbul for a weekend. Norway for a fishing trip.

So what to pack for those jaunts? Unsurprisingly, Lane makes as few apologies for her clothing choices as she does for her other pursuits—whether that means a Versace rococo-patterned jacket, a Dior flamenco frock (she swears by the Copley boutique), or a flaming-pink Stella McCartney dress (“The Saks Fifth Avenue here has a selection that’s every bit as good as the New York location”) that she has zero qualms about wearing into the boardroom. “It’s usually a sea of black and navy pinstripes in there,” she says. “But even though I’ve always felt it was fun to keep up with the boys, I don’t want to be one of them. The juxtaposition of looking feminine and saying something intelligent really works in your favor.

It gets you noticed.”

The chutzpah implicit in that, or in jumping on a plane to Dubai just, well, because, or in driving a racecar top speed around the next corner—it isn’t the kind to be slowed down. And ditto, its host. “My absolute favorite quote is from Goethe,” she says. “‘Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.’” hair & makeup by KACIE CORBELLE, ENNIS

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Experience the expertise of Dr. Joseph Leibovici firsthand.

Enjoy a complimentary cosmetic consultation and $50 off any cosmetic service through the month of January.

DR. JOSEPH LEIBOVICI, Board Certified-Diplomate, American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons

American Board Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Dental Society of Anesthesiology. Graduate Studies for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery were completed at Tufts University, New England Medical Center and Boston University School of Dental Medicine, Boston Medical Center.

Dr. Leibovici is currently involved with the Residency Programs at Boston Medical Center and Tufts Medical Center, School of Dental Medicine. He is an attending Surgeon/Clinical Instructor at Boston Medical Center, Boston University School of Medicine, Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University School of Dental Medicine at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Dr. Leibovici is a member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery and American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. His particular field of interests are maxillofacial trauma, BOTOX速 Cosmetics, Dermal Fillers, Juvederm速 and Chemical Peel.

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SOCIETY / COUP BOSTON / JANUARY 2013

THE FRONT ROW Just how many serious fashion lovers can you fit into one room?

Boston found out last month, when Burberry opened its Back Bay doors for a night of holiday shopping and schmoozing, fueled by bubbly and music appreciation. The night, a joint venture of Vogue and local luminary Ashley Bernon, benefited The Berkshire Hills Music Academy, and members sang throughout the store.

Between the voices— and registers— ringing, a good time was in the bag.

by LISA PIERPONT

the venue

BURBERRY WINTER EVENT BENEFITING THE BERKSHIRE HILLS MUSIC ACADEMY DECEMBER 11, 2012

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BRANDON LLOYD (top left) He exploded through the doors of the Burberry boutique with the same raw machismo with which he ravages the field as a wide receiver for the New England Patriots. What would you expect from Lloyd, a guy whose live-and-die quote is, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” (Courtesy of Mahatma Gandhi.) Well, we certainly weren’t laughing at Lloyd, who was dressed to win in a Tom Ford polo, Nau jacket, waxed denim jeans, Cole Haan kicks from Concepts in Harvard Square, and a badass Alexander McQueen skull scarf. The Blue Springs, Missouri, native, who majored in broadcast journalism at the University of Illinois, reckons his style is akin to a “mountain vacation.” (“I love to layer and dress like I’m on vacation,” he says.) He quickly adds that “sometimes it’s inappropriate.” What does he mean by that? His lips are sealed.

COURTNEY FORRESTER (bottom left) She may own sweet, but Forrester dominates sassy. Just witness her Céline stilettos, that body-con Phillip Lim sheath.

Sure, she founded a widely successful four-store chain, Sweet cupcakes, but the woman behind the frosting is one huge helping of style. Courtney describes that helping as sometimes modern, sometimes elegant. This wasn’t easy to pull off in her childhood home of Minnesota. “It was fabulous,” she says, “but cold. I own a lot of coats.” When it wasn’t snowing, she was marching in the flag corps as a clarinet player in her high school marching band. “We traveled all over the country and Canada performing and winning competitions… taking instruction, attention to detail, discipline… all those attributes have stayed with me.” Little wonder the entrepreneur and mom of two always looks so impeccably hotshot-cool.

MEGAN PERLMAN (top right) Her short necklace hails from Dublin, the longer one from Barcelona. Clearly in Perlman, we have an international shopper on our hands. Maybe that’s why she speaks so many languages? “I developed a passion for languages through my study of Spanish literature,” says the George Washington University grad, who moved to Madrid after college. “I arrived in Spain with no job, no work visa, no place to sleep that night—and two years later was completely immersed and living as a local.” These days, she’s back in the States, working as an administrator at the Teddy Bear Club, a bilingual French/ English school run by her husband’s family. Her worldly life plays out in her wardrobe. “I like to mix a lot of layers and pair high-end classic, versatile fashion that won’t go out of style with more seasonal accessories and embellishments from the Zaras, Targets, and Mangos of the world.” And of course, there’s the occasional online steal: “My clutch is a vintage Yves Saint Laurent that I bought off eBay last year.”

top left BRANDON LLOYD top center DAVID SEBASTIEN WEDEMEYER top right MEGAN PERLMAN bottom right PAUL BERNON WITH WIFE AND EVENT HOST ASHLEY BERNON bottom left COURTNEY FORRESTER

photographs by JARED KUZIA

the venue

THE WINTER BALL BENEFITING THE DISCOVERY ENSEMBLE AT THE PARK PLAZA HOTEL DECEMBER 21, 2012 photographs by MARIE WU top left SUZANNE ELIASTAM, JEFFREY STAMEN top right ERIC LEVIN, SARAH LAPADULA, CHRISTINA TIEMANN center right JOANNE BELL, WILLIAM GROTE bottom ARICIA SYMES-ELMER, SEAN WILLIAM DONOVAN, AMY MENKEN NOBILE, JILL PALESE center left MIGUEL DE BRAGANCA, LOUISE IRELAND

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new england COSMETIC & IMPLANT DENTISTRY STEVEN D. SPITZ, D.M.D. Steven D. Spitz, DMD smileboston.com

newly-opened warehouse bazaar - showroom - rug gallery - cafĂŠ complimentary parking

mohr-mcpherson.com

REMOTE ACCESS If a spa day happens in the middle of the forest and there’s no one around to harass you during it, should you still feel guilty for taking time out for yourself?

Just the opposite; you should book more mountain spa weekends, and far more often. Especially when they’re located in some of the most gasp-inducing, beautifully serene spaces in New England. Here are the ones to get yourself to right now.

by THE COUP BOSTON STAFF

JANUARY 2013 / COUP BOSTON / WANDERLUST

COLD COMFORT Snowy play and pampering merge at Stowe Mountain Lodge.

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CANYON RANCH Lenox, MA, 800-742-9000 canyonranch.com/lenox

ENVIRONMENT: Infinite lawns sunk into The Berkshires, as if perfectly dropped down from the sky.

SPA SETTING: Versailles-meets-’80s racquetball club, with a healthy dose of New Age/self-help culture tossed in.

MUST-BOOK TREATMENT: The Asian Therapies treatment (50–100 minutes, $135–$280) has a therapist tending to your chi (a.k.a. life force), using traditional and modern Eastern massage and body work techniques.

OVERHEARD IN THE STEAM ROOM: “I’ve lost three pounds since last week, and done so many downward dogs, I can’t count anymore.”

RANDOM PERK: Menu items throughout the resort are listed with calorie counts. Quite handy for O.C.D. dieters; distracting for mathphobes; fear-inducing for reality avoiders.

CRANWELL RESORT

JANUARY 2013 / COUP BOSTON / WANDERLUST

Lenox, MA, 800-272-6935 cranwell.com

ENVIRONMENT: Rolling hills and some of the freshest air imaginable, centering on a Tudor castle and Queen Anne–style cottages, with postcard-worthy views in every direction.

SPA SETTING: Minimalist lines and earth tones mimic the woodlands and soaring mountains that serve as a backdrop to the massage and pool rooms, salon, loftlike fitness center, and glass-enclosed walkways across the huge expanse of the yard.

MUST-BOOK TREATMENT: The Grand Mosaic (1 hour 50 minutes, $275), a head-to-toe exfoliation chased by a custom-made body mask, which seeps in as you’re wrapped up, burritolike, in a fleece and set into a dry flotation system. You feel utter weightlessness while the mask absorbs. Then it’s all capped off with a full-body massage.

OVERHEARD IN THE STEAM ROOM: “I just did all my holiday shopping in the spa boutique. So basically everyone I know is getting a squishy bathrobe.”

RANDOM PERK: The spa menu’s Firecracker Salad, proof that a health/flavor ratio is, in fact, attainable. And highly addictive.

INN BY THE SEA

Cape Elizabeth, ME, 207-799-3134 innbythesea.com

ENVIRONMENT: Craggy, mist-cloaked Maine shores, surrounded by five acres certified as wildlife habitat.

SPA SETTING: Like the throne room of some underworld queen: cavernous, filled with artful shadows, and ethereal.

MUST-BOOK TREATMENT: The Trident Massage (60 minutes, $275).

As if one masseur/se wasn’t enough, this brings in tandem work from two therapists.

OVERHEARD IN THE STEAM ROOM: The inn has no steam room, but here’s one we caught in the welcome room, from a guest who’d just eaten lunch at the property’s restaurant: “How am I supposed to relax now? I just ate enough lobster to kill a small whale.”

JANUARY 2013 / COUP BOSTON / WANDERLUST

MOUNT WASHINGTON RESORT Bretton Woods, NH, 877-278-2920 brettonwoods.com

ENVIRONMENT: Meet your neighbors: a ring of giant White Mountains, the most imposing of which is the 6,288-foot-tall Mount Washington.

SPA SETTING: Grand meets cozy, thanks to the resort’s $60 million renovation. And the 25,000-square-foot spa received an epic share of that love.

MUST-BOOK TREATMENT: The herbal body wrap (75 minutes, $175) kicks off when you choose your favorite herbs from the resort’s herb garden (they get made into an exfoliant), crescendos with a mud wrap and shower, and finales with an oil rub.

OVERHEARD IN THE STEAM ROOM: “Then he tries to tell me every other girl he’s ever been with has liked it. All I could think to say was, ‘Great. So get out, and go call them.’”

RANDOM PERK: The outdoor hot tub behind the spa is shrouded in thick walls of steam. When they dissipate every moment or so, bathers look directly up to the peaks of Mount Washington.

ENVIRONMENT: In the shadow of the gloriously snow-frosted (and skier-friendly) Mount Mansfield. Kinda like Whoville, minus the Grinch.

SPA SETTING: Local elements—reclaimed wood, native Vermont granites, and extra-wide windows—bring the outdoors inside to seriously pretty treatment rooms, saunas, and hot tubs.

MUST-BOOK TREATMENT: The Vermont Maple Syrup and Brown Sugar Scrub (50 minutes, $150), a massage under a Vichy shower. What may sound like a sticky situation actually couldn’t be more soothing.

OVERHEARD IN THE STEAM ROOM: “Honestly, I think I convinced my family to love skiing long ago so they’d all go off for the day, and I can do this.”

RANDOM PERK: Inspired by Native American sweat lodges, all spa services begin in a “healing lodge” designed for detoxification, relaxation, and boosting the immune system.

STOWE MOUNTAIN LODGE Stowe, VT, 802-253-3560 stowemountainlodge.com

118 NEWBURY STREET, 2FL BOSTON, MA 02116 617.262.8118 WWW.SALONEVAMICHELLE.COM

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JANUARY 2013 / COUP BOSTON / VANITY

DIARY OF THE ULTIMATE DETOX

Over the holidays, your eating habits went off the rails with more velocity than The Polar Express.

You drank enough martinis to embalm a small reindeer. You’ve actually forgotten where your gym even is. Something’s gotta change, pronto. And with new fitness and nutrition methods, not to mention new detox and weight-loss technologies all around town, the time to start anew is now. With apologies to Bridget Jones’s Diary, ALEXANDRA HALL dives into the fray of innovative fat-melting lasers, body-aligning personal trainers, and pro-indulgence nutritionists for four weeks, seeking to separate self-improvement from self-delusion.

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DAY 1, 4:30 P.M.:

Denim doesn’t lie. And suddenly my favorite pair has started fitting more like “False Hope” than True Religion. The rumors had swirled during the holiday parties about fat-melting lasers—a new, noninvasive form of lipo.

At first I sneered. They sounded like another scam. Now they just sound necessary. Note to self for tomorrow.

DAY 2, NOON:

I pick up the phone and ask about a fatdetonating laser procedure called Zerona at Vein & Aesthetic Center of Boston in Dedham. Am told that undergoing it requires giving up caffeine, alcohol, and salt (all of which hold water, and the toxins/fat it flushes from the body), eating a low-fat diet (lest a high-fat one simply replace any fat that’s just been flushed), and daily exercise (think more “exorcise”; it helps circulation, which, again, helps flush). Oh, plus drinking half my body weight in water every day (enter joke about lots of flushing in the ladies’ room here). I have to do all of that not only during the two weeks of actual treatment, but for the week before and after it too. That may sound like the ultimate in detox regimes, but it also means an entire month of no coffee, wine, fries, foie gras, or cupcakes, all seemingly replaced only by poached chicken, a river of water, and grueling squats and sprints. I consider hanging up the phone. Then glance at my jeans again. And book the appointment.

DAY 3, 7:45 A.M.:

Prep for treatment begins today. Scarf an apple and half cup of low-fat yogurt before dropping kids off at school. Drive home wondering how anyone gets by without caffeine before 8 a.m. Who are these people?

And what kind of New Age B.S. have they been reading to survive this long?

DAY 3, 8:45 A.M.:

At gym. Two months ago, before I stopped working out regularly, I could knock out four sets with 100 pounds, no problem.

Now can barely get through three sets of 15 squats with 50 pounds. Struggle to make it to 100 slings. (Used to do 150–175.) Give the gym mirror a direct glare of hatred for the indignity the woman in it has decided to put me through.

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yes, the absence of salt, caffeine, and alcohol.

Once again, I begrudgingly decide that fat 24 hours into the diet, already fantasizing hanging around in my body is still grosser about pork belly. Then remember my goal: than the process of ousting it. to not be a pork belly. This whole low-fat regime won’t work without reinforcements.

Decide to call in Julie Starr-Wood, who prides herself on being a different kind of DAY 6, 7:45 A.M.: nutritionist—one for foodies who cook and Am full force on Starr-Wood’s advice. But force-feeding myself breakfast proves tricky. eat out constantly. Bingo.

Manage to choke down oatmeal. No time for a full workout, so I speed-walk 30 minutes from Back Bay to an appointment on the DAY 4, 3 P.M.: Downtown Waterfront. It’s a crap workout, If Tinker Bell and Joan Baez had a love no question. But, hey, life intervenes. child, it would be Starr-Wood. The bubbly, pint-sized vessel of bohemian chic shows up at my doorstep and sits down. “Part of a normal diet is to be able to eat things that DAY 7, 7:45 A.M.: aren’t necessarily nourishing but make you Zerona treatment #1. A very friendly nurse in happy,” she assures. That said, the low-fat patent leather wedges that an elf might wear diet she doles out for women doesn’t usually to a rave records my measurements while I go above 1,800 calories per day (to lose stand there in my underwear, feeling damn weight) or below 1,200 (too restrictive). She awkward. On her instructions, I hop on a table advises 1,600 to 2,200 for men. The variable and lie down beneath a laser contraption depends on how much exercise you’re that looks like a cross between an oversized actually doing. Her ground rules/tricks: 1) metal tarantula and a screen projector. “This Always eat breakfast (I almost never, ever really won’t hurt?” I ask. (And I’ll do what, do); 2) replace butter and oils with aromatic exactly, if she says yes? Bolt out the door spices and herbs for flavor; 3) eat lots of undressed?) She smiles. “Not even a little,” soups; 4) if something looks amazing, eat it, she answers, handing me sunglasses to wear and then move on. You do. Not. Dwell. Nor as a precaution and flipping out the room’s do you go off a mental cliff of dieting self- light. I lie there on my back in the dark as hatred; just balance it by eating something several red circular laser beams swirl around cleaner in another part of your day. (Does my hips, thighs, and waist. I feel nothing. this mean I can eat pork belly, so long as I It’s quasi-meditative, in fact. After doing the eat it for breakfast, then have tossed greens same on my stomach for 20 minutes, I’m out the door, unscathed. for lunch?)

DAY 4, 11:15 A.M.:

DAY 5, NOON:

Armed with literature from Vein & Aesthetic Center heads Drs. Foley and Hondo, I get down to memorizing the full lowdown on how Zerona actually works. It is thus: The noninvasive (read: no cutting, no downtime) laser targets fat cells, melts the fat inside, and perforates the cell walls so the fat can seep out into the space between the cells.

Gross, right? The excess fat is then flushed out as the body detoxifies—aided by things like exercise, massive amounts of water, and

DAY 7, 3 P.M.:

Giving myself dirty looks in the mirror at the gym won’t do. So time for more reinforcements. Enter Astrid Bengston, owner of Bodytalk Factory in the North End. She’s a Sweden-born neuromuscular trainer who’s built like a mini supermodel. Which is annoying when you have to work out next to her. Her raison d’être isn’t just muscle building and weight loss, but creating a stronger connection between the brain and dysfunctional muscles, so pain from the

JANUARY 2013 / COUP BOSTON / VANITY

RAY OF HOPE Zerona uses lasers to melt fat over a series of procedures. Patients usually lose between three and four inches in the targeted area.

35

24 HOURS INTO THE DIET, ALREADY FANTASIZING ABOUT PORK BELLY. THEN REMEMBER MY GOAL: TO NOT BE A PORK BELLY.

”

compensating muscles gets relieved. And if part of hitting the reset button is as internal as it is external, then she’s my girl. “Strength is as much about function as it is just looks,” she says at our first meeting. “When a body has proper muscular function and aligned joints, it’s balanced.” Her first step is to run me through a postural assessment (lots of bending, stretching, and—damn it—more squats), all of which she captures on video, no less. I leave for home wanting wine more than ever before.

DAY 9, NOON:

Drop off kids at school, less starving than usual, thanks to the egg white-broccoli omelet prescribed by Starr-Wood. Realize I miss sugar, caffeine, and wine like an amputee misses doing cartwheels. In fact, that’s not far off. Thanks to yesterday’s workout, I feel nothing in my limbs. Then head off to Zerona treatment #2. Exact same as #1, but not so worried about getting hurt by the laser, and not so self-conscious about being in my underwear.

DAY 11, 4 P.M.:

Another Starr-Wood meeting, where I learn to I.D. my “positive” trigger foods that make me feel virtuous. If you go off track, it seems the best thing is to get back on track by psyche-jiujitsu-ing yourself by eating stuff that makes you feel like a saint. I suspect tea may be my positive trigger food and tell her so. “OK, replace dessert with tea,” she instructs. “You don’t actually need dessert, unless you’ll feel deprived if you don’t have it.” Apparently I don’t need dessert, but do need caffeine, because a half-hour later I’m unable to deny myself a grande of boldwhatever at Starbucks.

DAY 12, NOON:

sized plate of fruit, sans choking. Still stare longingly at the coffeepot, though.

to get used to using that food to live your life, even when you’re not on a low-fat diet. You can detox and lose weight, but the hardest part is learning to make good decisions and find out what works for you afterward.”

DAY 15, 2:30 P.M.: Am back with Bengston, and she tells me I During the transition, I’m instructed to aim have an interior pelvic tilt. Which means I for 1,600 calories a day, 50 percent of which stick my butt out too much when I stand, walk, should come from plants. talk, or otherwise do anything whatsoever.

This is not the news I needed right now. I thought it was just that I had a big butt, and DAY 19, NOON: was pretty OK with that, especially since I’d Zerona treatment #6. Dr. Hondo comes in just ditched 8 pounds and all. But apparently, to check on me. I ask her how on earth the any curvature of the spine that isn’t neutral Vein & Aesthetic Center is able to separate will likely create spinal issues and back pain and quantify the effects Zerona has had later. So she teaches me to drop my tailbone vs. what effects I’ve had through my own as we train, meaning we’re “always trying to hard work. “It’s pretty much impossible to enforce a more neutral stance, so the core measure exactly how much loss comes from can be stabilized.” each,” she tells me. “But even when not all of it comes from the treatments, a lot of it does, and in the end it gives people the incentive they need to make those other DAY 16, 3 P.M.: At the gym. Doing my sets of squats (am now changes that get them healthy.” Fair enough. up to hoisting four sets of 50 pounds, thanks I’ve always believed there is no such thing as very much)—dropping not only the booty a quick fix—not one that lasts, anyway. But necessary to make that happen, but also my maybe there is such a thing as a quick psyche tailbone underneath it. Still going to the jolt—if we know we have a little extra help water cooler. A lot. Oh, and the scale tells me from some weird tarantula-like laser system, we’ll be willing to work that much harder at I’ve lost 11 pounds. everything else to give it its chance. But now, how to live life without the tarantula laser?

ʻIT TAKES ABOUT TWO MONTHS FOR HUMAN BEINGS TO BUILD A HABIT,ʼ SAYS STARR-WOOD. PSYCHIATRISTS SAY SHE’S RIGHT— ABOUT ALL HABITS, GOOD OR BAD.

DAY 17, NOON:

Zerona treatment #5. While lying there calmly in the dark in my underwear and sunglasses, I think about how happy I am to not be doing squats or worrying about my tailbone. Also: officially no longer care about being in my underwear in front of people.

Possibly forever, at the rate this tarantulalaser thingy is working.

DAY 18, 4 P.M.:

Then, reality: “You want success at anything, you have to work,” Starr-Wood says at our next sit-down. “But with dieting, that doesn’t mean you have to only eat disgusting poached chicken.” Cool. Because I’m getting pretty tired of feeling like I’m eating at a tacky wedding at least once a day. So does it mean pork belly yet? “Nope,” she says.

DAY 13, 7:45 A.M.: For the first time, manage to feed myself a “You’re about to enter transition phase. breakfast of yogurt and Mount Everest– That’s the hardest of all—to keep exercising, Zerona treatment #3. Exact same deal as last, except the scale informs me I’ve lost 8 pounds. The front desk assistant has no idea why I’ve just high-fived her on the way out of the otherwise serene medical facility.

DAY 20, 7:45 A.M.:

Still eating breakfast (whole wheat English muffin with unsalted peanut butter and decaf tea). Still hearing words of Starr-Wood in my head: “It takes about two months for human beings to build a habit.” Psychiatrists say she’s right—about all habits, good or bad. And strangely enough, I’m getting used to feeling a hell of a lot better for all these healthy habits.

DAY 23, 9:30 A.M.:

Zerona treatments have been over for four days. Drinking wine again, and coffee. But still also drinking a tsunami of water, and sleeping well. And still going to the gym. Still tucking my tailbone. Hey, for real change, laser or no, you’ve just got to work your butt off, right? Or at any rate, part of it.

DAY 28, 9:30 A.M.:

According to the Vein & Aesthetic Center’s last measurements, I’ve lost 10 inches in total from my waist, hips, and butt. That’s 14 pounds of fat, says my gym scale. So how much of that was actually from the laser treatments vs. the hard physical work and nutritional willpower they required? Tell you one thing: my now-loose True Religions don’t really seem to give a damn. And as we know, those suckers don’t lie.

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A LOOK AHEAD In place of drastic facelifts, Miller is developing new techniques, technologies, and products that have less downtime and yield a more natural-looking effect.

JANUARY 2013 / COUP BOSTON / SPONSORED FEATURE

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT //

CHANGING THE FACE OF BEAUTY After decades as one of Boston’s most respected masters of traditional plastic surgery, Dr. Leonard Miller is now embracing a markedly different, more comprehensive approach to how we look. The result? He’s reshaping not just faces, but the philosophy of face shaping itself.

PORTRAIT BY JOEL BENJAMIN

DR. LEONARD MILLER IS HAVING one of his very frequent moments of candor. “I refer patients elsewhere all the time,” he reveals, with barely a split second of hesitation. “I believe strongly in a ‘less-is-more’ approach. And if what someone wants is a drastic and risky overhaul to how they look, and without good reason, I won’t do it.”

Sitting at his sprawling wooden desk in the Brookline Village office (his other is on Newbury Street) of The Boston Center for Facial Rejuvenation, his medical operation, the Harvard-affiliated surgeon is a pensive combination of psychologist and scientist. “It’s a matter of getting to the heart of why someone wants a change,” he explains. “So many people are unhappy just because they don’t look like Angelina Jolie. But I’m more interested in helping people look like themselves with natural-looking improvements. And those can be accomplished with changes that are far more subtle.”

A plastic surgeon is just about the last person you’d expect to find talking people out of facelifts. But Miller is nothing if not forthright; his opinions are informed and myriad. After 25 years in the business, he’s one of the area’s most successful performers of facelifts, blepharoplasty,

liposuction, and abdominoplasty. So when he casually mentions in conversation that he’s forged a new approach to making people look their best—one that renders many invasive plastic surgery procedures unnecessary—it’s worth giving a listen.

IT ISN'T THAT HE'S GIVEN UP on the time-honored, good old-fashioned facelift, which he performs on almost a daily basis. It’s just that he says it’s so often unnecessary. “Many people think they need one, but actually need something else,” he says.

That “something else” might be any one of his strategic combinations of new techniques, technologies, and products—many of which he himself has developed. For starter’s, let’s take what he does with the five fillers so prevalent in most any medical aesthetics office (Juvéderm, Restylane, Perlane, Sculptra, and Radiesse) and of course, the ubiquitous Botox. Miller’s departure isn’t that he uses them, but how— each in specific parts of the face, and in combination with fat injections. “There’s a real science to the use of fillers for enhancing features and age reversal,” he says. “And when you have repeated fat injections, you also eventually start to see a permanent effect where the tissues thicken and become fuller, with increased collagen.”

On that last front, he also employs other innovations like medical needling—by piercing the skin with tiny needles set into a roller, he forces the skin to naturally induce collagen

READY FOR A CLOSE-UP? Microscopic images of skin. Dr. Miller's research aims to turn damaged cells (left) into healthy ones (right).

formation. To create definition on the face and body, he uses either liposuction or Cool Sculpting, a noninvasive procedure that freezes fat for an hour and yields an average 25 percent reduction. And to tighten skin, he’s developed Thermasculpt, a minimally invasive procedure. Using a radial frequency needle probe that is temperature controlled, he’s able to heat the underside of the skin enough to contract it. “Done in conjunction with a mini-lipo procedure,” he says, “it’s very effective, and there’s only about a day of downtime.” Miller is also conducting trials using that very probe to take over the job of Botox, using it to deactivate nerves in the forehead.

None of this is to say Miller has simply done away with performing facelifts and other surgical procedures.

“Sometimes they’re the only way to achieve significant improvement,” he says. “But they always carry greater risks, and then you have a lot of downtime to deal with.” Moreover, facelifts can also have a highly dramatic effect on what we actually look like—exactly what Miller says he seeks to avoid. “I often warn patients that they may not be happy if something is too dramatic. Even when a surgical facelift is done very well and looks good, it can still be a drastic, sudden

change that’s very noticeable. That can be very alarming to us and the people around us. That’s why I prefer to perform less extensive and invasive facelift procedures. And to use things like fat, needling, and fillers that, as pieces of the puzzle work together to make the face look rejuvenated but still natural.”

And yet, even those pieces of the puzzle require still more pieces, he insists. “The approach has to be comprehensive,” he says. “Skin is just as important as the face’s structure.” That’s precisely why his practice includes a skin-care center, the idea being that patients will look their best when everything is done under one roof, and it’s done by experts tackling different areas of beauty, together. “It all has to work in an integrated way,” says Miller. “With things like the TCA Peel, or

the use of laser therapy, and medical-grade topical therapies, we can seriously improve the quality of skin. And it makes such a difference in how we look. People get so caught up in simply erasing wrinkles, but there are so many other important factors, as well.”

FOR SOMEONE LIKE DR. MILLER, creating solutions to those other factors is a never-ending development process— on many fronts. He acts as an advisor to a company that's working to perfect a topical form of Botox (i.e., no injections needed) and bring it to market. Meanwhile, he’s also working in stem cells, searching for a system to deliver them to the skin, so they can be used to increase collagen. “Doctors have no proof that it’s working now,” he says. “It's going to take a long time to work this out.”

More imminent is the work he’s doing to develop new types of fillers. “Injectables right now are expensive and they don't last long enough,” he explains. “I'm trying to develop wrinkle fillers that last longer and cost less.” With current fillers, the body recognizes them as foreign and tends to break them down. One of Dr. Miller’s formulas is made of nanoparticles, which are far smaller, and thus the body is unable to recognize them, so they last longer. He’s recently finished animal trials and is starting human trials.

All these products and techniques—whether successfully developed or still in the testing phase—together amount to a practice nearly as complex as the human biology and psyche it takes as its subject. “Patients get very excited when they know I’m working on new things,” says Miller. “They appreciate it to have a doctor who’s always trying to do things better.” That’s a mind-set that could be as easily applied to his procedures as to how his patients look. “As long as you're careful,” he adds, “there's always room to improve what we have.”

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ON THE MOVE Boston Ballet soloist John Lam shifts his style as fluidly as his choreography.

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JANUARY 2013 / COUP BOSTON / COUP D'ÉTAT

IT'S A WUNDERKIND LIFE He’s been dancing since he was 4, but rising ballet soloist John Lam saves some of his biggest star turns for life beyond the curtains.

by KATHERINE BOWERS // portrait by JOEL BENJAMIN IS THERE ANY ROLE—on stage or in fashion— that Boston Ballet soloist John Lam won’t embrace?

Known for his expressive athleticism in dance, he doesn’t think twice about whirling into a party in a full-length fur cape or bouncing into rehearsals in fitted Diesel sweat pants. It’s harem pants one day, a sleek suit another. When he’s on the 10-acre country home he shares with husband John Ruggieri in Vermont, he’ll go country-prep in a cardigan. But he’s just as comfortable in an androgynous shimmery shirt for a night out in the South End. The youngest child of Vietnamese immigrants, Lam grew up in the low-income Canal District of Marin, California. His parents enrolled him at a nonprofit child-care center, which offered free dance lessons. At age 4, the hyper boy who’d charge through stores toppling clothing racks landed a full scholarship to the Marin Ballet to study dance. The discipline challenged him—he learned to hold his body still, to move it purposefully, and to wait for cues. Then at 15, he scored another scholarship, this time to study ballet full time at Canada’s National Ballet School in Toronto. By 18, having impressed Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen on several occasions, he landed a spot in Boston Ballet’s youth company.

These days, Lam is thriving in roles like Oberon in George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Snow King in Nissinen’s The Nutcracker. He laughs often and talks about hopes of starting a family with Ruggieri once the couple has finished building a townhouse in the South End’s Worcester Square. In

IʼLL FIND SOME WEIRD, GREAT SHOES IN A THRIFT STORE FOR $20.

PEOPLE WILL ASK, ‘BARNEY’S?’ AND IʼLL SAY, ‘NO, FLORIDA!’

”

their new home, Ruggieri’s art (portraits from Chuck Close and Julian Opie) will cozy up to Lam’s pairings of modern furniture and Victorian accents.

As he does in home design, Lam lets his own compass—rather than conventional rules—guide his wardrobe. If a garment appeals to him, he doesn’t care who made it. Likely, he doesn’t even remember.

“I don’t believe you have to go to the most expensive stores to get great product,” he says. “I’ll find some weird, great shoes in a thrift store for $20. People will ask, ‘Barney’s?’ and I’ll say, ‘No, Florida!’” (Although, for the record, Barney’s does carry Goyard, a favorite of Lam’s. Ruggieri surprised him on his 28th birthday with a navy-blue tote monogrammed in Lam’s married initials.)

He loves to shop Alan Bilzerian for special pieces, and mix them with finds from All Saints and H&M. His closet holds heaps of shoes (loafers, monk straps, sneakers, boots, oxfords). There’s also plenty of dark skinny denim as well as jeans in saffron yellow and maroon. For going out, there’s a favorite Hugo Boss floral shirt, alive with citron and magenta flowers. A beloved pair of kicks in an outré color palette (maroon, green, patent black and gold) came from a women’s rack; he doesn’t get hung up on male/female “sections” when he shops. He swears women’s cashmere sweaters are superior to male versions. “They’re thinner and finer. Better for layering,” he explains.

“If it’s not too girly, I’ll buy it.”

When he’s not rehearsing or performing in tights daily, he prefers layers and looser-fitting items: a shawl draped over his shoulders or slouchy pants, T-shirts, and button-downs layered with a vest.

(When you have a body as sculpted as Lam’s, you can pile on a lot without looking like a pumpkin.) “I love movement in clothes,” he says, then pauses a moment to laugh. “I guess I just love movement in general.” hair & makeup by DANI WAGENER

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