SLIM AARONS

Editorial Director’s Letter

was intrigued when my friend Christopher Pape, PARK’s Publisher, asked me to be the magazine’s Editorial Director. I rushed to Webster’s to find out what my duties would be. Suddenly, I realized I’d always had a dream to assign stories to writers, engage with photographers, create alluring themes and bring my vision of a life well lived to the pages of our coffee table magazine. My goal for PARK is to create a bouillabaisse of modern chic with a dash of posh nostalgia. PARK is about life; people, philanthropy, art, culture, travel and above all Fun! Cover by Gilles Bensimon The biggest challenge of my job is the cover. For me, it should either be a legend or someone I think you should know. For the Art Issue, I thought: who would Slim Aarons like to photograph today? And I came up with gallerist Isabelle Bscher who is also the most eligible girl in the world. I tapped noted Hong Kong-based writer Bennett Marcus to tell her remarkable story. Gilles Bensimon provided the cover shot, and Johnny Pigozzi, Isabelle’s longtime friend, provided the snapshots that reflect her life.I The Mission

Slim Aarons & Patrick McMullan

Iconic society photographer Slim Aarons, who documented the lives of the privileged in their natural habitats, from Palm Beach to Palm Springs, and from Cannes to Capri is represented in a 10 page spread featuring holiday shots in a story by PARK’s Palm Beach editor Christine Schott who also delves into the world of designer Lilly Pulitzer. I asked Patrick McMullan, who one could argue is the modern-day Aarons because of his entrée into the world of the elite, to document the cognoscenti at Art Basel.

Jackie O, Ron Galella & Michael Gross

For the real estate section, I asked Michael Gross, the New York Times best-selling author, to write a piece on whether Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis would still be relevant today. I also drew from his book 740 PARK, about the fabled building that was Jackie O’s childhood home. To illustrate the story, I turned to the legendary paparazzo Ron Galella, as he was the ultimate Jackie hunter.

Charles James & Halston

For my part, I wrote about my friendships with Halston and the couturier Charles James, whose career was celebrated at the Met with a retrospective in 2014 and who’s “La Sirène” gown takes pride of place in the museum’s current exhibition In America: A Lexicon of Fashion. I used an iconic photo of Charles by the incomparable Ciel Beaton.

Party Pages

No magazine would be complete without party coverage, and I’m offering up 24 pages reflecting the city’s philanthropic and cultural goings-on, including this season’s “Big Five,” The Metropolitan Opera, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, the NY Film Festival and the Met’s Costume Institute Gala.

Andy Warhol & Larry McMurtry

During my life, I’ve been exposed to many creative people; in the world of print including my teacher Larry McMurtry, Truman Capote, George Plimpton, Timothy Leary, William Burroughs,Leo Lerman, Diana Vreeland and Andy Warhol who gave me my first job as a Contributing Editor at Interview Magazine. They continue to be my inspiration.

I hope that you’ll have as much fun perusing the magazine as I did creating it.

Mary “Miki” Ballou, now Stevenson, who was working as a model in Burdine’s Tea Room. The first setup, which was used on the cover of Holiday, features Mary alone, holding the hat in a straightforward fashion pose. For the next setup, seen here, Slim flagged down a man walking along the beach and added him to the scene, creating a whole new dynamic. Miami Beach, 1954.

SLIM AARONS, LILLY PULITZER…AND SUZIE ZUZEK?

IMAGES AARONS/GETTY SLIM SINCE THE DAYS OF HENRY FLAGLER AND THE FOUNDING OF the Florida East Coast Railway in the 1890’s, New Yorkers have enjoyed a long connection to Palm Beach. Due to the pandemic, there seem to be more New Yorkers moving to Palm Beach than ever - and paying a handsome price for the privilege. An oceanfront home like Villa Artemis would sell for more than $100 million today. Palm Beach is a special place. Photographer Slim Aarons knew this and photographed many “beautiful people doing beautiful things” there, including CZ Guest, Wendy Vanderbilt and Lilly Pulitzer.

BY CHRISTINE K. SCHOTT

The dashing and ever-affable Slim Aarons with passport in one hand and camera equipment in the other, ca. 1955.

Anew book featuring more than fifty never-before-published images by this iconic photographer — focused exclusively on fashion, called SLIM AARONS: STYLE,has been published by Slim Aarons’ Archivist/ Getty Images CuratorShawn Waldron and Fashion WriterKate Betts, with foreword by DesignerJonathan Adler(Abrams; October 2021; U.S. $85.00; Hardcover).

Slim Aarons(1916–2006) is regarded as one of the most influential magazine photographers of his generation. He crisscrossed the globe for decades photographing celebrities and high society on assignment for Life, Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country, Look, Venture, and Travel & Leisure. He published his first book, A Wonderful Time, in 1974. In addition to Slim Aarons: Style, Abrams has published five other books on his work: Once Upon a Time (2003), A Place in the Sun (2005), Poolside with Slim Aarons(2007),La Dolce Vita(2012), andWomen(2016).

Slim insisted he was not a fashion photographer: “I didn’t do fashion. I did the people in their clothes that became the fashion,” he said, according to the book. Despite this, his photographs of high society and socialites being unambiguously themselves have been, and continue to be, an unwaveringsource of fashion and style inspiration for generations.

Most would not associate the name Suzie Zuzek with the iconic Slim Aarons photo of The Young Matrons of Palm Beach, 1964, however, at closer look, the photo is actually a wonderful example of the artist Zuzek’s work.

When Lilly’s simple shift dresses hit the fashion scene in the early 1960s, their eye-catching, whimsical prints made them instantly recognizable. Yet few people know that most of those prints were designed in Key West bySuzie Zuzek(Agnes Helen Zuzek de Poo, American, 1920–2011). A Pratt Institute graduate (1949), Zuzek was head designer

Jim Kimberly, known as a three-car, threeyacht sportsman and heir to the KimberlyClark Company’s Kleenex fortune, talks with friends on the shores of Lake Worth, 1968. The car is by Excalibur.

SLIM AARONS/GETTY IMAGES

CZ Guest and one of her beloved dogs at Villa Artemis, Palm Beach, 1955

SLIM AARONS/ GETTY IMAGES

IMAGES AARONS/GETTY SLIM

The young matrons of Palm Beach wearing designs by Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer, 1964. included among them (in yellow dress and pink scarf) is New York artist Wendy Lehman Vanderbilt, who appeared in the first advertisements for Pulitzer’s fashion line.

Artist Suzie Zuzek at work at Key West Hand Print Fabrics, circa 1969, courtesy of The Original I.P. LLC

Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Artist Behind an Iconic Fashion Brand, 1962-1985, published by Rizzoli Electa, authored by Susan Brown, associate curator of textiles at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, with a contribution by Caroline Rennolds Milbank, fashion historian, author, curator, and appraiser (Rizzoli Electa; March 2020; U.S. $50.00; Hardcover).

Prince and Princess Alexis Obolensky having coffee and milkshakes at a Palm Beach drugstore counter after an evening out, 1953.

for Key West Hand Print Fabrics, where Pulitzer sourced most of her fabrics —and all of her prints—between 1962 and 1985, the period during which Pulitzer owned and oversaw the company that bears her name.

A book,Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Artist Behind an Iconic Fashion Brand, 1962-1985 featuring the original drawings from the privately owned archive that were the basis for the whimsical and timeless prints featured in Pulitzer’s fashions was published last year. It is a treasure trove of the iconic prints and contextualizes this classic American label. Published byRizzoli Electa,it is authored by Susan Brown, associate curator of textiles at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, with a contribution by Caroline Rennolds Milbank, fashion historian, author, curator, and appraiser (Rizzoli Electa; March 2020; U.S. $50.00; Hardcover).

Now, an exhibition celebrating the designer behind these iconic prints, Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Prints That Made the Fashion Brand, is on view at The Cooper Hewitt Museumin New York. It runs until January 2, 2022. It’sthe first museum exhibition to reveal the nature and scope of Zuzek’s artistic contribution to the quintessential “Lilly Look”. Included in the exhibition are more than 35 original watercolor and gouache design drawings by Zuzek, alongside finished screen-printed textiles and some of the fashions that made them famous. The works on view include ten drawings recently acquired for the museum’s collection through a gift from the Key West Hand Print Fabrics archive, now privately owned. P cooperhewitt.org

Jackie Kennedy at the ‘April in Paris’ Ball, New York, 1958

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