WAG Magazine March 2018

David Beckham Scores a new ‘House’

Inspiring women in design… and some men, too JUDGED A

TOP

MAGAZINE

IN NEW YORK STATE 2014, 2015, 2016

WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD LIFE MARCH 2018 | WAGMAG.COM

CREATIVE WOMEN

A deep pool of local talent

ISLAND DREAMING

Georgia O’Keeffe in Hawaii

JESSICA MEYROWITZ

Knitting something ‘Yummy’

KATHARINE GRAHAM & ‘THE POST’ A legacy on and off screen

AT HOME AROUND THE WORLD

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CONTENTS MARCH 201 8

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16

46

20

50

24

54

28

58

32

60

34

64

At home in cafés

Desert flower…

Her mother’s daughter

Paris’ heart

Soulful knitting

Magic carpet ride Big ideas in miniature

36

Building boom

38

Industry powerhouse

Caravan’s world view

Giving life to your home

Divinity in the details

The other Bruce

Colorful spaces for living

Home makeover

Cornell exhibit takes flight

76

Mission: Health

80

Checkmates

82

At home with ideas

72

84

Humble roots

COVER STORY

DAVID BECKHAM

THIS PAGE Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Hibiscus with Plumeria” (1939), oil on canvas.

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Gift of Sam Rose and Julie Walters.© 2018 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Lasting impression.

One of Gustav Stickley’s earliest and most enduring designs is still proudly made in the USA, in upstate New York.

Manhattan 212.337.0700 | White Plains 914.948.6333 | Paramus 201.845.4649 Farmingdale 631.770.3910 | Brookfield 203.885.0954 | East Hanover, NJ 862.701.3551

FEATURES H I G H LI G HTS

62

WAY Grandeur in Greenwich

68

WAY Designed for easy living

88

WARES Designing a future

90

WARES Wallpaper wows

92

WHAT’S COLLECTIBLE? Mid-century master

94

WEAR A dream spa day

96

WEAR A passion for repurposed fashion

100

WEAR ‘Bloomie’s in Bloom’

102

WEAR Loving the blowout

104

WEAR Royal treatment minutes from home

106

WANDERS Quietly distinct Finland

108

WANDERS At home on the road

112

WANDERS Charmed by Charleston

116

WONDERFUL DINING The comforts of home

118

WINE & DINE The wow of wine festivals

120

WELL More than skin deep

122

WELL Designing a better trainer

124

PET OF THE MONTH Ma Belle

126

WHEN & WHERE Upcoming events

130

WATCH We’re out and about

144

WIT If you could design anything, what would it be?

David Beckham Scores a new ‘House’

Inspiring

women in design… and some men, too JUDGED A

TOP MAGAZINE IN NEW YORK STATE 2014, 2015, 2016

WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD LIFE MARCH 2018 | WAGMAG.COM

CREATIVE WOMEN

A deep pool of local talent

ISLAND DREAMING

Georgia O’Keeffe in Hawaii

JESSICA MEYROWITZ

Knitting something ‘Yummy’

KATHARINE GRAHAM & ‘THE POST’ A legacy on and off screen

AT HOME AROUND THE WORLD

COVER:

David and Victoria Beckham See story on page 72.

Photograph © Getty Images.

106 112 124

COVER STORY

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90

Come home to breathtaking sunsets

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EDITORIAL Georgette Gouveia EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ggouveia@westfairinc.com Mary Shustack SENIOR WRITER/EDITOR

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PHOTOGRAPHY Anthony Carboni, Sebastián Flores, John Rizzo, Bob Rozycki

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jena A. Butterfield, Cynthia Catterson, Alexandra DelBello, Ryan Deffenbaugh, Jane K. Dove, Aleesia Forni, Gina Gouveia, Phil Hall, Bill Heltzel, Debbi K. Kickham, Laura Joseph Mogil, Jane Morgan, Doug Paulding, Jennifer Pitman, Danielle Renda, Giovanni Roselli, Bob Rozycki, Gregg Shapiro, Barbara Barton Sloane, Brian Toohey, Seymour Topping, Jeremy Wayne

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WHAT IS WAG?

Some readers think WAG stands for “Westchester and Greenwich.”

We certainly cover both. But mostly, a WAG is a wit and that’s how we think of ourselves, serving up piquant stories and photos to set your own tongues wagging.

HEADQUARTERS A division of Westfair Communications Inc., 3 Westchester Park Drive, White Plains, NY 10604 Telephone: 914-694-3600 | Facsimile: 914-694-3699 Website: wagmag.com | Email: ggouveia@westfairinc.com All news, comments, opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations in WAG are those of the authors and do not constitute opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations of the publication, its publisher and its editorial staff. No portion of WAG may be reproduced without permission.WAG is distributed at select locations, mailed directly and is available at $24 a year for home or office delivery. To subscribe, call 914-694-3600, ext. 3020. All advertising inquiries should be directed to Anne Jordan at 914694-3600, ext. 3032 or email anne@westfairinc.com. Advertisements are subject to review by the publisher and acceptance for WAG does not constitute an endorsement of the product or service. WAG (Issn: 1931-6364) is published monthly and is owned and published by Westfair Communications Inc. Dee DelBello, CEO, dee@westfairinc.com

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White Plains Hospital on Chatterton Ave, 1893

We never let four Walls limit our vision.

The first White Plains Hospital occupied a 4-room house and treated 31 patients in its first year. Today, our modern 292-bed facility and physician practices provide state-of-the-art care for more than 200,000 patients a year. And with nearly two dozen locations across Westchester, White Plains Hospital continues to expand on its vision to bring advanced, compassionate care to our neighbors.

Celebrating an exceptional 125 years, and an inspiring future.

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WAGGERS

TH E TALENT B EH I N D O U R PAG E S

JENA A. BUTTERFIELD

ROBIN COSTELLO

RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

JANE K. DOVE

ALEESIA FORNI

GINA GOUVEIA

BILL HELTZEL

DEBBI K. KICKHAM

LAURA JOSEPH MOGIL

DOUG PAULDING

DANIELLE RENDA

JOHN RIZZO

GIOVANNI ROSELLI

MARY SHUSTACK

BARBARA BARTON SLOANE

AUDREY TOPPING

SEYMOUR TOPPING

JEREMY WAYNE

COVER STORY, PG.72 PHIL HALL

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White Plains Hospital School of Nursing, 1946

NursiNg has chaNged, but the way we care for patieNts has Not. Healthcare has changed a lot since our nursing program’s first class graduated in 1903, but our nurses still remain at the head of the class. Today, White Plains Hospital is among only 7 percent of hospitals nationwide to hold the prestigious MagnetŽ designation for nursing excellence. This achievement recognizes the skills, professionalism and teamwork needed to deliver superior patient care.

Celebrating an exceptional 125 years, and an inspiring future.

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EDITOR'S LETTER GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

W DEMENTIA CONFERENCE 2018

Fourth Annual Hudson Valley Regional Dementia Conference 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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Presented by Montefiore Health System and a grant from the New York State Department of Health

A full-day conference for people diagnosed in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and their families, caregivers, professionals who provide support and services and Spanish-speaking caregivers

Keynote speaker: Daniel Kuhn, LMSW, Vice President of Education at All Trust Home Care

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For more information: Visit AlzDementiaConference.org Call 800.272.3900 or 914.253.6860

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WAGMAG.COM

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hen we were casting about for a new spin on our annual March design issue, we decided to play off the phrase “designing women,” particularly as 2018 seems to be shaping up as the year of women. But men love design, too, no?

So welcome to our issue on designing women — and, as we like to say, “a few good men.”

But first the women. Mary visits with Vanessa Bikindou of Caravan Curated Home, who brings a Gallic flavor to her approach and New Canaan flagship, while Laura profiles Greenwich interior designer Amy Aidinis Hirsch, who brings a particular attention to details — as well as her listening skills — to her work. Our resident designing woman, Jane Morgan, recalls how design claimed her before she claimed it.

Not all of our designing women are interior designers. We preview the New York Botanical Garden’s latest interdisciplinary blockbuster, on Georgia O’Keeffe in Hawai’i. (Yes, we know.

Who knew?) Danielle meets with artists Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber of Nix + Gerber, who are busy recreating New York City as a dystopia. (Relax, it’s in miniature.) And Danielle chats with Jessica Meyrowitz of It’s A…Yummy, who turned a desire for a throw for her living room into a business that employs mothers like herself.

Interior design, of course, knows no gender, and Jenny recalls one of the great mid-century masters, Piero Fornasetti, whose black-and-white, trompe l’oeil, classically inspired works are all the rage again. We fell in love with him at The Perfect Provenance in Greenwich, where we spied a set of his gilt coasters with an image of two Greco-Roman charioteers. (We were able to score one on eBay, pictured here.)

Another of our “designing men” has made his mark on the pitch and in his pitch-perfect grooming. Cover guy David Beckham has a new line of products for men. But as Phil discovered in doing this story, this family guy — married to one of the world’s bestknown designing women, Victoria Beckham — also has a design for living well and aging gracefully.

Coaster by Piero Fornasetti, originally created for Saks Fifth Avenue.

Beckham offers us a nice segue to March’s subtheme — hair and skincare.

It was a tough job, but Danielle volunteered to take one for the team and subject herself to some pampering at Maison D’Alexandre in Greenwich and Spa Valmont at Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Manhattan. And dermatologist Jeremy Brauer offers us a primer on skin cancer prevention and treatment so that we not only look good but feel well.

One subtheme, however, is never enough for us. Our annual home issue features not one but two houses of the month, courtesy of Sotheby’s International Realty, as well as people — writers and artists — who make themselves at home in cafés. (Yours truly is certainly guilty of that.) Our Wanderers are surely at home anywhere in the world.

This month, they visit places noted for great design. Barbara heads to modern mecca Finland while Debbi does historic Charleston and Jeremy roams the globe in search of the comforts of home in hotels abroad.

Sometimes design is an interior game. We were fortunate to be able to look back at the career of a great newspaperwoman, Katharine “Kay” Graham, who grew up in Mount Kisco before permanently settling in Washington D.C. where her father bought a bankrupt paper called The Washington Post. Graham came of age at a time when women didn’t inherit companies. Sons and sons-in-law did. But tragedy put her at the helm when her family, her company and her country needed her most — the Watergate era — and she stepped up to the challenge.

She was the ultimate designing woman — one who, though underestimated, fashioned a career as a second act, thus proving to herself at last her true worth.

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WAGMAG.COM

MARCH 2018

The author (center) talking with hostess Mary Cullimore (left) at The Kitchen at Barnes & Noble Eastchester. (Inset) Student Devon Grimm polishes her graduate school essay there.

On a winter day at The Kitchen — the restaurant that’s a hotspot at Barnes and Noble’s concept store in Eastchester — Iona College senior Devon Grimm is hard at work on her graduate school application essay, fueled by the de rigueur student breakfast, a yogurt parfait and a large iced coffee.

She could be writing at home or at one of Iona College’s two libraries. Indeed, she’s done both. But there’s something about creating in a café.

“Maybe it’s like a different atmosphere,” says Grimm, who plans to become a speech pathologist.

“It makes you want to do work.”

At home in Yonkers, Grimm might be chatting with a friend — or two. “Here I don’t know anybody.”

There’d be no chatting in the library — shhh! — but neither would there be any eating except in certain designated areas.

Whereas at Barnes & Noble, Kitchen hostess Mary Cullimore says, “the whole environment is conducive to writing, reading and eating as well.”

Numerous students, academics, writers and artists agree. They not only throng the communal tables at The Kitchen, particularly on the weekend, but they haunt various Starbucks locations and restaurants where, to quote the “Cheers” theme song, “everybody knows your name.” (Yours Truly is among those who love nothing better than dining with their sketchpads, journals and laptops.)

Why do we do it? Perhaps for the paradox of being in a place where food marries food for thought, where you are a part of and not just apart from.

Immersed as they are in their solitary creativity, artists of every ilk have long sought the conviviality of café society, often to feed that creativity. Think of Pierre Auguste Renoir painting his friends on the terrace of the Fournaise de Chatou restaurant outside Paris in “Le Déjeuner des Canotiers” (1880-81).

“Meals were chaotic,” a journalist wrote in “La Vie Moderne.” “Glasses were filled and then emptied with dizzying speed, the din of voices intermingled with the clatter of forks and knives in their raucous dance on the plates.” (“Renoir’s Table,” Simon & Schuster, 1994).

Impressionists like Renoir and the Postimpressionists haunted cafés, perhaps none more poignantly than Vincent van Gogh. In “Van Gogh’s Table at the Auberge Ravoux” (Artisan, 2001), Alexandra Leaf and Fred Leeman write that the inn,

in the artists’ village of Auvers-sur-Oise, 22 miles northwest of Paris, was for Van Gogh “the last café in a lifetime spent searching for what cafés offered.

In them he could find the replacement for the family he never had. He could find a place filled with life in the shadow of his own isolation.”

In the 38 places he lived in across four countries in his 37 years on this earth, Van Gogh would paint the repasts, the interiors and the exteriors of cafés but especially the solitary, contemplative individuals who mirrored his isolation.

“Lonely,” or at least “alone,” is the last word you would use to describe the Algonquin Round Table — a group of literary and theatrical wags that met daily at Manhattan’s Algonquin Hotel, first at a rectangular table in the Pergola/Oak Room and then at a round table in the Rose Room, for a meal and a game of verbal one-upmanship from 1919 to 1929. Originally dubbed “The Board,” the “Luigi Board” (after Luigi, the long-suffering waiter assigned to them) and then “The Vicious Circle,” the Round Table got its name from a cartoon by the Brooklyn Eagle’s Edmund Duffy that showed them seated in armor around such a table. Members like writer Dorothy Parker, playwright Charles MacArthur, movie star Harpo Marx and critic Alexander Woollcott didn’t get any work done. But the barbs they traded often found their way into the newspaper columns many of them wrote (and inspired the 1994 film “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.”)

Years later, when time had thinned the Round Table’s revolving membership and relationships and dimmed its luster, Parker would turn her sharp tongue on the group itself: “These were no giants. Think who was writing in those days — Lardner, Fitzgerald, Faulkner and Hemingway. Those were the real giants. The Round Table was…just a bunch of loudmouths….”

Ironically, while the Round Table members were twisting their dinner knives into one another, novelists F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos and poets Ezra Pound and

The Elephant House in Edinburgh, one of the cafés in which J.K. Rowling wrote “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” the first book in the series.

Archibald MacLeish were among those literary artists taking the full measure of one another in the cafés of Paris’ Montparnasse section. There Fitzgerald and Hemingway first met each other (at Le Dingo), with Fitzgerald drinking himself into oblivion, and Hemingway partly set what is perhaps his greatest novel, “The Sun Also Rises” (at Le Select). No doubt he recognized the great challenge of being at home in café society — balancing being part of with being apart from. At some point, you have to work.

Perhaps it takes necessity, the so-called “mother of invention,” to put the spur to the artist. Few in our own time have understood this better than the woman behind the Harry Potter phenomenon, J.K. Rowling. She was an unemployed single mother when she wrote “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” the first book in the Potter series, at several cafés in Edinburgh, including the former Nicolson’s Café, which was owned by her brother-in-law, and The Elephant House.

She wrote at these, she has said, because her daughter Jessica, then a baby, would fall asleep on the stroll there. Ordering an espresso and a glass of water, she’d write longhand, spinning a world within a world.

Even after she became rich and famous, Rowling told The Telegraph in 2007: “Writing and cafés are strongly linked in my brain…I like physically shuffling around with papers, and you don’t have to break off and go in the kitchen to make coffee.”

Who knows? Maybe the next Rowling is sitting at The Kitchen now, hunched over her laptop, saying, “another espresso, please.”

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DESERT FLOWER at home in Hawaii

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

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MARCH 2018

When Todd Forrest — the Arthur Ross vice president for horticulture and living collections at the New York Botanical Garden — was brainstorming for the Garden’s next multidisciplinary blockbuster, he asked a colleague, “What do you think of Georgia O’Keeffe in Hawaii?” “Georgia O’Keeffe painted Hawaii?”came the response.

“Georgia O’Keeffe on Leho‘ula Beach, near Aleamai, Hāna, Maui” (1939), gelatin silver print. Photograph by Harold Stein. Alfred Stieglitz/Georgia O'Keeffe Archive, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. © Estate of Harold Stein.

It’s a natural reaction. When we think of O’Keeffe (1887-1986), we think of starkly beautiful Manhattan skyscrapers at night, the misty mountains majesty of Lake George, New York, hauntingly spare landscapes of her beloved New Mexico and large-scale flowers, whose feminine energy borders on the sensual. Or perhaps we think of the fine-boned portraits her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz, made of her. But the Aloha State?

That’s about to change as the Botanical Garden presents “Georgia O’Keeffe: Visions of Hawai’i” (May 19-Oct. 28), featuring 20 of the painter’s depictions of Hawaii — some of which have not been exhibited together since their 1940 debut at Stieglitz’s An American Place gallery in Manhattan — curated by Theresa Papanikolas, deputy director of art and programs at the Honolulu Museum of Art. Accompanying this exhibit — which will be held in the Garden’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library Art Gallery and include landscapes of Maui’s interior ʻĪao Valley and lava-crusted shores — will be a flower show in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory designed

by Francisca Coelho with set pieces by Tony Award winner Scott Pask. Borders of ti, frangipani, bougainvillea, heliconia, hibiscus, bird of paradise and ginger will lead viewers to a hale — a thatched-roof pavilion in the style of traditional Hawaiian architecture — ringed with beds of canoe plants, useful edibles like bananas, coconuts and sweet potatoes originally brought to the Islands by Polynesian settlers 1,700 years ago.

Aloha Nights, live music, hula performances, a film series, a symposium, artisan demonstrations and the Garden’s Poetry Walk will bring our 50th state to the Bronx for what promises to be a new window onto Hawaii as well as O’Keeffe’s work.

That island work was as much about commerce as it was about art, at least initially. In 1939, O’Keeffe accepted a commission from the Hawaiian Pineapple Co. (now the Dole Food Co.) to produce two paintings for advertising campaigns. (Other artists who accepted the offer included sculptor Isamu Noguchi.) The challenge came at critical moment in O’Keeffe’s life. Already famous and now middle-aged, she found her career stalling as critics saw a little too much aridity in her desert scenes. As singular and spiky as some of her floral creations, O’Keeffe “approached the commission with deep curiosity and arch amusement,” Papanikolas said at a press luncheon at the Grand Hyatt New York re-

plete with leis flown in that day from Hawaii Tourism United States.

“She agreed to it only if she could go wherever she wanted.”

Departing from Grand Central Terminal, O’Keeffe headed west, boarding the SS Lurline for the tropical paradise and generating headlines that described her as “woman painter.” (This would’ve certainly irked O’Keeffe as she wanted to be known only as an artist.)

Once in the Islands, the painter immersed herself in Hawaii, Kauai, Maui and Oahu for nine weeks. The more than 20 paintings that resulted are both different from her other works and comfortingly familiar. Her “Waterfall, No. I, Īao Valley, Maui,” a 1939 oil on canvas with deeply dramatic, vertical folds of verdure, is a complement to the placid horizontal greenery of “Lake George at Early Moonrise” (1930), an oil and gouache on canvas at Purchase College’s Neuberger Museum of Art. Her paintings of lava-laced shorelines — the crusty black shapes contrasting with the cerulean serenity of the sea — are reminiscent of Claude Monet’s paintings of Étretat. And her explosive florals (“Hibiscus with Plumeria,” “Pineapple Bud”) — with their deep creases and pearly centers — well, they’re as iconic as they are erotic, although O’Keeffe despised Freudian interpretations of her work.

O’Keeffe may have left the mainland, but as her Hawaiian work luxuriantly displays, she remained resolutely herself.

The New York Botanical Garden’s annual “Orchid Show” takes place March 3 through April 22, this year featuring installations by floral artist Daniel Ost. Then save the weekend of May 4 through 6 for NYBG’s “Garden Art & Antiques Fair,” which actually begins with a preview party May 3. Once again it will feature plants, antiques and art. New for 2018, experts take the stage for topics ranging from interior to floral design. For more, visit nybg.org.

HOT ART IN A COLD WAR Intersections of Art and Science in the Soviet Era January 27–May 20, 2018

BRUCE MUSEUM www.brucemuseum.org

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Georgia O’Keeffe. Heliconia, Crab’s Claw Ginger, 1939 Oil on canvas, 19 x 16 in. Collection of Sharon Twigg-Smith © 2018 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Boris Mikhailov (Ukrainian, b. 1938) Untitled from the series Sots Art, 1975–1990 Gelatin silver print handcolored with aniline dyes on paper Collection Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University.

Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union, 2000.1131/01773 Photo by Peter Jacobs © 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

MOTHER'S DAUGHTER her

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA 20

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The emotional apex of “The Post” — Steven Spielberg’s richly layered, Oscar-nominated take on the 1971 First Amendment showdown between The Washington Post and the Nixon White House over the Pentagon Papers — comes not in a courtroom or a boardroom but in a bedroom as a mother and daughter confront what they did for love.

Katharine Graham outside The Washington Post’s headquarters, circa 1970s.

Courtesy The Washington Post.

Post publisher Katharine “Kay” Graham (Meryl Streep) — who succeeded her husband, Phil, in the position after he committed suicide in 1963 — tells their daughter, Lally Weymouth (Alison Brie), that she doesn’t want to let down the family or the paper in publishing the controversial Papers, a classified study of America’s disastrous involvement in Vietnam that could have far-reaching consequences. She recalls an earlier crisis in their lives — when Phil died and she, terrified of making a speech, had to reassure the company’s board of directors about the newspaper’s future with the family. In the scene, Graham asks Weymouth to read from the talking points she had enumerated on a piece of paper to help her mother through that difficult time — a keepsake that Graham treasures.

As she did in real life: “It touches me still that this young girl, who was, if anything, more devastated than I, could scribble out this simple but correct sequence of thoughts,” Graham wrote in her Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, “Personal History” (Vintage Books/Random House Inc., 1998). As Graham observed, “Lally…was a pillar of strength and stability to me then and throughout all those terrible months….She was always loving but firm….”

Recently, Graham’s rock of a daughter recalled that challenging time during a question-and-answer session after a screening of “The Post” at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville — not far from where her mother grew up in Mount Kisco on the family’s Georgian estate, Seven Springs, (now owned by President Donald J. Trump).

“The movie was terrific,” Weymouth said, “multilayered in wanting to show the evolution of a housewife into a confident, successful businesswoman….

My father had been a dazzling, brilliant man and she wanted to keep (The Washington Post Co.) in the family….It was her first big business decision.”

Others would follow — taking the company public, going all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States (along with The New York Times) to

publish the Pentagon Papers and, most famously, guiding The Post through its investigation of the Watergate break-in, which ultimately led to President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation.

“By then,” Weymouth said, “my mother had turned into a great speechmaker.”

If “The Post” and “Personal History” are about “a woman coming into her own,” as Burns executive director Edie Demas noted during the Q and A, they’re also about America coming into its own with regard to a more mature attitude toward women’s self-determination — subjects that resonate in this #MeToo moment. Graham (1917-2001) had newspaper ink in her veins. She was 16 when her father, financier and public official Eugene Meyer (chair of the Federal Reserve, president of the World Bank Group), bought The Post at a bankruptcy auction. Her mother, the former Agnes Ernst, was a journalist in an era when few women had careers and later an arts patron and political activist. (Beautiful, self-centered and hypercritical, she provides much of the heart wrenching and amusement in “Personal History” — undermining Graham’s self-confidence at every turn but also spurring the development of the Westchester County Center and bringing to it everything from Metropolitan Opera performances to annual poultry shows — sometimes all at once. She even rigged a cardboard system so the roosters couldn’t raise their heads to crow at the same time as the divas.)

The product of the prestigious Madeira School, Vassar College and the University of Chicago, Graham worked at a San Francisco paper and then at The Post early on. But when it came time to hand over the reins of the paper in 1946, Meyer chose his son-in-law rather than his homemaking daughter, with her approval. Back then, women didn’t work unless they had to and they certainly didn’t run things, although Graham would go on to be the first woman publisher of a major American newspaper and the first woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

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Contrast this with Weymouth and her generation. A graduate of Radcliffe College, she has been a reporter, editor and author. First as diplomatic correspondent for Newsweek, once part of The Washington Post Co., and now as senior associate editor of The Post, she has “interviewed every head of state.” Such are her credentials that she is often the first interviewer to whom world leaders turn. Last June, Weymouth became the first foreign journalist to interview newly elected South Korean President Moon Jae-in regarding the crisis with North Korea. She was the first American journalist to interview Myanmar’s State Counsellor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi — calling her “a tremendously compelling woman.”

Weymouth also conducted the last interview with Pakistani President Benazir Bhutto before she was assassinated in December 2007.

As a diplomatic correspondent, she is well-positioned, then, to comment on the view of Trump’s America abroad: “Leaders in the Middle East like President Trump, because they feel that they were excluded by (President Barack Obama), who they believe focused on Iran to the detriment of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.

“However, I find those from other regions -- for example, Mexico — worry about the administration's

Lally Weymouth at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville. Photograph by Kervin Marseille. Courtesy Jacob Burns Film Center.

trade/America First policy and its implications for Mexico. In Asia, as a result of the U.S. withdrawal from TPP (the Trans-Pacific Partnership), China is making enormous gains at the U.S.’ expense.”

Back in this country, much has changed in politics and journalism. Speaking to WAG briefly after the screening, Weymouth recalled that while The Post might’ve carried the most scathing articles about President Ronald Reagan, the president’s wife, Nancy, and Graham remained friends and lunchtime companions.

“People were friends,” Weymouth told the Burns audience about Washington’s more collegial past.

“It was not like today when everyone is angry at everyone else.”

As with bipartisanship, print journalism has struggled. Although Weymouth’s family no longer owns The Post — her daughter Katharine Weymouth was the last familial publisher when Amazon’s Jeff Bezos purchased it in 2013 — Weymouth remains attached to the smell of newsprint and the roar of the presses.

“I love newspapers,” she says. “I’m tremendously nostalgic for the days of the linotype machines,” depicted in “The Post.” “It was a great era, really fun.”

Her mother would no doubt have concurred.

“To love what you do and feel that it matters,” she once said, “how could anything be more fun?”

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PARIS’ HEART

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

Greenwich resident David Sheppe calls the Église Saint Germain des Prés “the beating heart of the beating heart of Paris.”

Not only is it the oldest église, or church, in Paris — dating back some 1,500 or 1,000 years, depending on your measure. But it also has the distinction of being the only French church to give its name to an area, Sheppe says, rather than vice versa.

“What I think is really key is to see the church not only as a church but as the center of a neighborhood that is the intellectual, cultural hub of Paris,” he says — a place that is home to galleries; bookstores; publishing houses; the École des Beaux-Arts, an historic visual arts academy; and, in the 1940s, the Existentialist Movement, spearheaded by JeanPaul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

Sheppe — who had a career in international banking with J.P. Morgan and the Standard Bank of South Africa — fell in love with the church and the neighborhood when he lived in Paris in the 24

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David Sheppe, a member of the board of directors of the American Friends for the Preservation of Saint Germain des Prés Church, left. Above courtesy David Sheppe; left and following page courtesy Agence Pierre-Antoine Gatier, Paris.

1980s and from 2013 to ’16.

“It’s the most vibrant church I know in Paris,” he says of the jewel-toned Romanesque and Gothic-style structure. “On a Sunday evening, it’s filled with people from all walks of life, but what gets me is the number of young people, young families.”

Now a freelance consultant in finance and risk management, Sheppe is a member of the board of directors of the all-volunteer American Friends for the Preservation of Saint Germain des Prés Church, a “nimble” (that is, small) nonprofit seeking to raise funds for a seven-year, approximately $6 million restoration project under the direction of master architect Pierre-Antoine Gatier that is scheduled to be completed in 2022. While the city of Paris owns the church’s exterior and is providing some seed money, most of the work is in the interior, with 85 percent of the funds coming from private donors.

The first part of Phase 1, The Monks’ Choir, is already completed with the second part, the restoration of the transept (the two “arms” of the cross-shaped interior), underway.

Phase 2 (this year and 2019) will focus on the central section of the nave, the body of the interior, while Phase 3 (2019-20) will include aisles, chapels and artwork. Phase 4 (2020-21) will be the ambulatory, a walkway that flanks the front of the church, and Phase 5, the Chapel of the Virgin Mary (2021-22).

It is an ambitious project for a church that has seen many changes over its lifetime. The original structure was built as a monastery in a field outside the ancient city of Paris in 543 by Childebert I — son of Clovis I, the first king of the French-founding Frankish tribe — and Germain d’Autun, the bishop of Paris, to house the tunic and other relics of the martyred St. Vincent of Saragossa. (When the bishop was canonized in 576, the abbey was dedicated to him.)

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In subsequent centuries, it was destroyed by marauding Normans and Vikings and rebuilt in 1014.

Throughout the High Middle Ages, it remained “a fantastic center of scholarship,” Sheppe says, with monks creating and copying not only religious texts but scientific works, a legacy that lasted through the Baroque period. During the French Revolution, however, monastic orders were disbanded, and the abbey was deconsecrated to be used as a gunpowder refinery. When 15 tons of saltpeter exploded on Aug. 17, 1794, the place lay in ruins. But the subsequent Napoleonic era saw a rebirth of religious freedom and Saint Germain. Decades later, novelist Victor Hugo (“Les Misérables”) would be among those clamoring for the church’s restoration, and, in 1843, it began with artist Hippolyte Flandrin painting murals of religious and historical figures and Christian scenes.

Those murals are among the restoration projects that the public can support today on the Friends of Saint Germain website. There you can Adopt a Saint Germain Star — one of the 3,000 that grace the church’s vaulted ceiling — and dedicate it to a loved one on the website’s interactive map. The adopted star is then illuminated and your chosen greeting displayed. (There are 800 stars left.)

“It’s really meaningful,” Sheppe says, “and it has really struck a resonant chord.”

For more, visit preservesaintgermain.org.

Église Saint Germain des Prés.

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SOULFUL KNITTING

BY DANIELLE RENDA PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN RIZZO

Jessica Meyrowitz wore a scarf around her neck.

But not just any scarf. It was made using oversize yarn that was plush, colorful — and too downy for a typical neck wrap.

When asked about her unique accessory, she proudly said, “It’s a…Yummy,” followed by an ear-toear smile.

Meyrowitz, a Chappaqua mother of two boys, founded It’s a…Yummy, a fine yarn and hand-knitted accessories company, with the goal of creating feel-good products. Her collection — which has been featured on “The Today Show” — includes wearable items like hats, belts, scarves and wraps, as well as home décor (and comfort) pieces like baby blankets, throw blankets and pillows. Every item is handmade by local women — who are trained by Meyrowitz herself — using 100 percent, extra large, Merino wool yarn that’s spun exclusively for her brand.

“I wanted it to not only be visually appealing, but I wanted it to feel yummy,” Meyrowitz says. “I wanted there to be an adorability and uniqueness.”

In addition to these products, Meyrowitz sells knitting needles, yarn and a knitting kit for those looking to learn the practice of mindful knitting. She also hosts workshops throughout the year, along with private, at-home parties for both the novice and expert knitter.

“Knitting in and of itself is mindful and meditative,” she says. “And for the new knitter, it’s very easy to learn how to knit with large needles and large yarn, and it goes by very quickly.”

Because, after all, Meyrowitz’s company was inspired by her own desire to learn, which was bolstered by a go-getter attitude and a beaming smile.

“You’re never too old or too young or in between to reinvent yourself,” she says.

AN UNEXPECTED START Meyrowitz simply wished to explore her creative side — and create a throw blanket for her living room.

So, she took a pottery class at Chappaqua Arts Center, along with a four-week knitting class at Katonah Yoga in Bedford Hills, led by instructor Diane Gershen. As part of the knitting class, Meyrowitz and the other attendees were asked to brainstorm a project they wished to complete. After browsing the web, Meyrowitz stumbled upon extreme knitting, a growing trend in the knitting world.

“Extreme knitting is knitting that is done with large needles and oversized yarn,” she says. “I came across the idea and was hooked.”

After creating throw blankets that friends and family have enjoyed, she decided to pursue it as a business in 2016.

“You never know where something is going to take you. Just follow your instincts,” Meyrowitz says.

“I never would have thought that this is what I’d be doing. I was just looking to create a throw for my family room.”

Jessica Meyrowitz, owner of It’s a…Yummy.

Meyrowitz sells knitting kits, which include extra-large needles and wool, which, she says, make knitting stress free.

Prior to founding her company, Meyrowitz owned an advertising agency in Washington, D.C., and earlier, worked as an actress. She believes that her prior careers prepared her for this endeavor.

“There’s a continuous thread with what I’ve done, but it’s changed shape completely over time,” she says.

Acting led to advertising performing arts groups, which in turn has provided her with the knowledge of branding and marketing. Still, she felt compelled to learn everything about the knitting business. She attended sheep shearing throughout the Hudson Valley to understand the material, visited several area trade shows and taught herself how to use social media to grow the business.

Besides creating a quality product, she wanted the concept of mindfulness to flow throughout her business. So, she has kept the production process local and hired fellow working mothers to help with the company. There are six moms that work on the knitting projects, four that focus on selling and one mom that helps with bookkeeping and financial reconciliations.

“And then there’s me,” Meyrowitz says.

FOOD FOR THE SOUL Since the company was founded, it has grown from three products to an entire collection, with yarn available in 30 colors. And recently, Meyrowitz began hosting knitting parties to help her customers relax, meditate and focus on a task they enjoy.

“There’s the mindfulness aspect, where I bring

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people in and we talk about being aware of your surroundings and touching the yarn, and taking cleansing breaths, and getting ready to do a practice that is mindful,” she says.

There are three types of knitters, she explains. There’s the process knitter, the person who simply loves the act of knitting and understands its health benefits. There’s the project knitter, who loves the tangible pieces she’s created. Then, there’s the knitter who enjoys both the process and the project. Luckily, her workshops contain all three types.

“If you’re a process knitter, you’re going to love the process,” Meyrowitz says. “It’s very mindful and relaxing. If you’re a project knitter, you’re going to walk out of there with something that you’ve created. And if you like both, well, you’ve hit a home run, because in an hour you’ve got the scarf, you’ve done the process and it’s really satisfying.”

Meyrowitz offers a scarf knitting kit, with three more in the works for the near future, which include a larger scarf, baby blanket and throw blanket kits. And, for the coming fall, she plans to add new products and colorations to the existing palette.

“Every single product that I put out, every single color that I put out, is something that I truly love,” she says.

Meyrowitz will lead an Extreme Knitting Workshop March 13 at DayDreamer Studio in Cross River.

For more, visit itsayummy.com.

Jessica Meyrowitz.

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ast is indeed prologue for Faig Ahmed, an internationally recognized artist from Baku, Azerbaijan, who marries the traditional carpets of his homeland or Indian embroidery to digital techniques in his work. It’s part of “Long, Winding Journeys: Contemporary Art and the Islamic Tradition,” at the Katonah Museum of Art through June 17.

The multilayered exhibit deals in part with issues of Islamic identity. But Islam also has a rich legacy of intricate decorative arts and architecture — jewel-colored, calligraphic illuminated manuscripts like “The Shahnameh” (“The Persian Book of Kings”); fluted columns, scalloped arches and filigree squinches as at The Alhambra in Granada, Spain; imposing onion domes and minarets, such as those that grace the Taj Mahal in Agra, India.

Viewers will encounter elements of Islamic design throughout the Katonah Museum show but perhaps nowhere more apparently than in Ahmed’s oeuvre. His “Impossible Viscosity” (2012), a handmade wool carpet, suggests the vicissitudes of time that textiles — and flesh — are heir to. It is at once deliberately threadbare but also a kind of tracery window, reminiscent of those at The Alhambra, through which the imagination peers.

MAGIC CARPET RIDE

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

xxx

Faig Ahmed’s “Impossible Viscosity” (2012), handmade wool carpet. Sapar Contemporary Gallery New York.

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Afruz Amighi’s “Fool’s Headdress” (2017), steel, fiberglass mesh, chain and light, Leila Heller Gallery, New York, also on view at the Katonah Museum of Art.

Ahmed uses the computer to sketch his designs and traditional carpet weaving to create them. He lives and works in Baku, where he was born and where he graduated from the Azerbaijan State Art Academy in 2004. Three years later, Ahmed represented his country in its first appearance at the Venice Biennale. Since then his work has been seen in shows everywhere from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston to the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is also part of public collections ranging from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia.

WAG caught up with him recently via email to discuss the roles that the past, present and future play in his designs: Carpets and elements of interior design/ decorative arts have proved key to your work.

Why have they inspired you and what is your approach to using them in your work?

“I don’t think that I’ve chosen the media, the media chose me. The carpet and its potential for

Shahzia Sikander’s “Portrait of the Artist” (2016), etching on paper, Pace Editions, artist studio, New York, also on view at the Katonah Museum of Art.

transformation have existed for many centuries.

This is not an object of one culture, but an object that unites many cultures, some of which do not exist anymore.

“All art is the art of a new language or a new metaphor. As an artist, I was looking for the ideal metaphor that would reflect the states of a spiritual path. Everything I experimented with did not have the same power as a carpet.

“My work is to change myself and to accurately record this state. Carpet is the ideal metaphoric expression….We cover our nude bodies with textiles from birth to death, just like culture covers our instincts.”

On your website, you say, “The past is the most stable conception of our lives.” How so and how does the past inform your work?

“The past formed not only my work; it formed me. Just as the atoms of my body are in plants, animals, humans and the whole cosmos, the carpet flows through cultures, changing. I can feel this power and it directs the changes. The past is what we believe in, since we are entirely there, whereas the future is what we are terribly afraid of. But when we reason deeper we understand that this is an illusion, because the fruit that is now growing on the tree will become an atom of my body in the future.”

Growing up in Azerbaijan, did you want to be an artist? Would you describe the one moment when you knew that was how you wanted to spend your life?

“Azerbaijan today is really an interesting place for the artist, and I'm glad that I grew up in this country. This is the land of fire-worshipers, where Judaism, Christianity and Islam were accepted as well. This is an ancient place of our ancestors’ traditions but still young enough to be integrated into the global culture.

“Ever since I began to think, I wanted to travel and meet the thinkers from other countries and cultures. And nothing has changed since then. I live my life as I always wanted to live. And art is the best activity for a spiritual traveler, but this choice was done unconsciously. I always painted but until a certain age, I did not think that I would be an artist, as I really wanted to become a scientist. I think the choice of becoming an artist was under the influence of the overwhelming desire for freedom.”

What is coming up for you in terms of new work, exhibits, etc.?

“At the moment I am working on the concept of the origin of a pattern as the first expression of a language, where psychology, methodology and even biology played a decisive role. This research will be presented as a project at George Washington University’s Textile Museum (in Washington D.C.) later this October.”

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BIG IDEAS IN MINIATURE

BY DANIELLE RENDA

ogether, Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber are slowly recreating New York City as a dystopia — on a miniature scale.

Thus far, they’ve created an overgrown New York Botanical Garden; a musty subway car, collecting dust in a desert setting; and a library, which is slowly being taken over — or taken back — by Mother Nature.

Not to mention, an aquarium, museum, classroom, casino, hair salon, barroom, Laundromat and shoe shop.

And that’s just their personal work.

They’re the owners of Nix + Gerber, a Brooklyn-based design studio specializing in miniatures and dioramas for personal and commercial projects, namely product placement and advertising campaigns. Thus far, their projects have ranged from book covers for authors Dave Eggers and Marge Piercy and album covers for The Dig and Fountains of Wayne to illustrated stories for O, The Oprah Magazine and New York magazine and the cover photograph for the July 7/July 14, 2014, issue of Time magazine. They’ve done jobs for Tic Tac, Ben & Jerry’s, Oreo and Greenpeace and created sets for the stop-motion animation “The Sea is Blue.”

It’s a career that requires a ton of time, more patience — and infinite plexiglass.

“On the good days, you just kind of get lost in it,” says Gerber, describing her creative process. “You lose track of time.”

Nix heads the architectural side of the business, whether it’s crafting mini cityscapes, buildings or forests, and Gerber handles design details, sculpting everything from rust collecting

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In a commercial project for Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Nix + Gerber create a scene depicting family fun using miniature figures of varying sizes. To add a dose of humor, a strong man is pictured lifting an average-sized ice cream spoon.

Photographs courtesy Nix + Gerber.

on a weathered food cart to the grooves in a tree trunk. (When WAG arrived in their studio, Gerber had just finished creating a tiny lawnmower that took four days to perfect.)

“Most of the fine art ideas are coming out of my head and then I try to entice Kathleen into being as interested in them as I am,” Nix says. “I think she’s a better artist than I am,” she adds with a smile.

Depending on the project, Nix and Gerber may

spend anywhere from two weeks on commercial jobs — which are generally more urgent — to up to seven months on personal projects.

“We actually like doing commercial work as much as we like doing our own artwork, because we use two different parts of our brains and they’re always feeding off of each other,” Nix says.

But the projects aren’t the only things feeding off of each other. The ladies’ back-and-forth banter is so in sync that when Nix starts a sentence,

In their city series – a personal project – Nix + Gerber recreates New York landmarks with an apocalyptic twist. Pictured here is the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx.

Gerber will finish it, or when Gerber is unsure of something, Nix will provide the answer. After some 20 years of creating art together, it’s no wonder they know each other so well.

The ladies founded Nix + Gerber in 2014, with experience creating different media. Nix, originally from Kansas, studied photography and ceramics in college. When she attended graduate school at Ohio University, she began crafting life-size installations

for photography projects. But post-graduation, she had to make do with what she had available — a kitchen table inside her attic apartment — which ultimately led her to miniatures.

“I just bought a book at the local bookstore on how to make a realistic railroad scene,” Nix says, “and I’ve been self-taught ever since.”

Gerber joined forces with Nix in 1999. Having studied glassblowing and sculpture, she worked at

an art production company in Columbus, where she was responsible for creating textures, like distressed and metallic finishes and gilding.

In search of a change — in career and in pace — the duo eventually moved from Columbus to Brooklyn.

And they’re still here creating, some 18 years later.

Though when asked about how Nix + Gerber got its official start, Gerber immediately looks to Nix and says, “Well, it’s Lori’s fault,” which is followed by laughter — and the incessant beeping of Friday evening traffic in Brooklyn, which prompts more laughter.

Taking over their studio is a scene depicting a desolate landscape of overgrown brush, a forgotten cotton candy machine — and, yes, Gerber’s miniature lawnmower. It’s part of their ongoing city series but with a post-apocalyptic twist?

“I think we also just love those movies from the ’70s when mankind is in peril,” Gerber says.

For a company that pays so much attention to detail, we couldn’t help but ask about its logo, which is composed of a squirrel and a beaver.

“I’m a squirrel,” Nix says.

“And I’m the beaver,” adds Gerber, referring to their spirit animals.

Nix follows with, “Do you have a spirit animal that describes your personality and who you are?”

We had to think about that one…

For more, visit nixgerberstudio.com or call 718941-8318.

FARM TO SKIN

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BUILDING BOOM

BY JENA A. BUTTERFIELD

rts centers are not only fertile ground for innovative vision. They’re places where a community can create social bonds.

We wanted to check in on some of the cultural projects in the works that will help reflect, strengthen and define the character of our area: • On Jan. 18, construction began on the Barbara Walters Campus Center at Sarah Lawrence College, named in honor of the longtime TV anchorwoman, who is an alumna of the Yonkers-based college. Walters donated $15 million to the donor-funded $35 million project designed by KSS Architects.

The 34,800-square-foot gathering space will include a large, flexible multipurpose venue, a lightfilled atrium and facilities for dining, lounging and socializing. The Barbara Walters Gallery for fine art exhibitions will be moved permanently to the new center from its current home at the more than 60,000-square-foot, Monika A. and Charles A. Heimbold Visual Arts Center, to which Walters donated $1 million in the past. The new center will also house The Barbara Walters Archives and Reading Room, containing a trove of Walters’ video interviews, transcripts and personal letters.

The centrally located, environmentally friendly campus center is expected to open in fall 2019 and serve as a cultural hub for students as well as the surrounding community.

“The crossroads of Kimball Avenue and Glen Washington Road will now act as our ‘front door,’” Sarah Lawrence College President Cristle Collins Judd said at the ground-breaking ceremony. Added Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano: “My wish for this center is that Sarah Lawrence uses it to enhance its outreach and that it become not only a campus center

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Artist watercolor rendering of Barbara Walters Center at Sarah Lawrence College.

Images courtesy KSS Architects.

Artist watercolor rendering of the Atrium at the Barbara Walters Center.

but a center for all.” (sarahlawrence.edu) • Meanwhile, reconstruction of the historic Bedford Playhouse in downtown Bedford Village is nearing completion. The 180-seat main theater — flanked by two smaller theaters — is designed to be the area’s go-to venue for the arts and other community-driven events, offering dynamic programming in the bargain.

“Bedford Playhouse is deep in final phase of construction and hoping to open by summer 2018, pending a final fundraising effort,” the playhouse’s Lindsay Cain Hearon said. “We’ve been conducting regular open house tours for the community, complete with drinks and popcorn, which have been hugely successful.”

Besides having aspirations for the theater to become a mecca for filmgoers in northern Westchester and parts of Fairfield County, the playhouse restorers considered the varied needs of the community in reimagining its potential. Its flexible spaces are designed to be used in ways that reflect local life — from yoga to art exhibits and speaker series to birthday parties.

“The majority of tour guests comment that they’ve been driving by for almost two years wondering what’s behind the doors,” Hearon said, “and now they are incredibly excited.”

The theater recently announced an upcoming screening of the HBO documentary film “The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm,” which weaves historical footage and hand-painted animation together in a story about Jewish life before, during and after the Holocaust. The event will be held March 11 at The Little Theater at Fox Lane Middle School in Bedford followed by a Q&A and panel discussion. (bedfordplayhouse.org) • On a hilltop along the Saw Mill River Parkway in New Castle, the former Reader’s Digest headquarters (now Chappaqua Crossing, a mixed-use complex) houses another entertainment destination. The former DeWitt Wallace Auditorium was saved from demolition and recently donated to the village of Chappaqua for use as a performing arts venue. The newly founded Chappaqua Performing Arts Center, ChappPAC for short, has been called one of our area’s best-kept secrets. The 425-seat theater’s inaugural season began in September. (chappaquapac.org) • At a representative town meeting this past October, the Bruce Museum in Greenwich received approval to proceed with plans for an ambitious expansion that will almost double its size and include permanent gallery space, an auditorium, a café, a gift shop, expanded storage and a new, more accessible entrance. (brucemuseum.org)

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INDUSTRY POWERHOUSE

BY MARY SHUSTACK

Stacy Garcia – whom we briefly introduced in our December feature on the Allison Eden Pop Art Collection fabric story – is a design powerhouse.

The Nanuet-based entrepreneur heads up two distinct businesses — LebaTex Inc., a respected player in the commercial/hospitality textile field; and Stacy Garcia Inc., a licensing firm and design house.

Garcia holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in surface pattern design from Syracuse University and studied textile design at Central Saint Martins in London. With numerous industry honors and works published in countless interior titles, Garcia has just been tapped as a High Point Market Authority Style Spotter, another highly visible sign of her industry status. Garcia took time from her whirlwind schedule to answer a few questions for WAG, helping create a more in-depth picture of this leading Hudson Valley designing woman.

WAG first worked with you last year when we featured the Allison Eden Pop Art Collection that paired LebaTex with the glass mosaic artist in an effort that marked your first artist

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Stacy Garcia | New York for In2green: Stitch Stripe in Red. Courtesy Stacy Garcia.

Stacy Garcia. Photograph by Josh Alvarez of The Jam Photography. Courtesy Stacy Garcia.

collaboration. How is that collection going and is it leading to more collaborative work?

“The Allison Eden Pop Art collection has been so fun for everyone involved, and we have received such a fantastic response from everyone who has seen it. The great thing about a collaboration between creative minds is the possibilities are really endless. We each have connections in different markets and different corners of the world, so it has opened a number of unexpected avenues. What started as a fabric collection for the hospitality market has branched into the residential market and even offering a collection of finished pillows.

“This collaboration with Allison has opened a number of potential collaborations with other artists and designers, too. Stay tuned, we’ll let WAG break the story when we sign our next deal.

“Most recently, we launched Art Universe, a drapery line in collaboration with Stacy Garcia | New York, my luxury residential brand.”

How did you come to be a part of the design community? What were your early influences and what were your original goals?

“My professional foundation started with my first job of selecting color palettes and assisting in design and showroom development for Ralph Lauren’s Home Collection. This experience is where I gained confidence in my color choices and, even today, color and pattern are the core of what I do. From there, I was hired as a senior designer for Richloom Contract Fabrics where I directed the textile and pattern design for their hospitality division. One of my favorite parts of that job was presenting new collections to interior designers.

“I was always inspired by the way they utilized the textiles. And that’s when I decided I really wanted to be a bigger influence on this creative community.”

In the years since you entered the world of design, what are some of the key changes you have seen — in both the consumer and the industry?

“The biggest change I’ve seen in both the consumer and design industries has been social media. With social media, great design is now accessible to everyone. Due to this, my team and I continue to raise the bar to differentiate our brand from others. Whether it is at a trade show, for retail or on Instagram, the goal has always been to have our product stand out in a sea of other product.

“Another key change has been the demand of sustainability in product design. Consumers are savvy. They have so much information available at their fingertips and they are willing to do the research into what goes in the products they use.

With this, sustainable products are a must. One of the ways we have met this demand (is) by launching our line of eco-luxury throw blankets in collaboration with In2Green.

Knit with yarns made from recycled water bottles and T-shirts, these blankets are 100 percent eco-friendly.”

You are known as a leading forecaster of both color and design trends. Is that an innate talent or a skill that you cultivate?

“For me it’s a little of both, but it is a skill you can hone with practice. Trend forecasting comes instinctively to me, because it’s been my focus for many years. To forecast trends, you need to look at early influencers such as art, fashion, media and entertainment. For example, when we watch the red carpet at an award show we see color trends start to happen. In the next day or two, we see that color appearing in ready-to-wear fashion and eventually the colors will trickle into home interiors.”

What are some of the things that inspire you? Does everything you experience have an effect on your work?

“Everything inspires me, especially my travel experiences. My brand Stacy Garcia | New York brings an eclectic, well-traveled, high art appeal to my products and my travel adventures fuel this aesthetic. Experiencing cultures and observing design perspectives from all around the world opens my mind up to an abundance of design inspiration. My most recent travel inspirations came from the bold colors and rich flavors of Morocco.”

What has been your most rewarding project or time in your professional life?

“One of the most rewarding things about being a design entrepreneur has been watching the Stacy Garcia brand grow. I began my company 14 years ago with Stacy Garcia Commercial, but it’s become so much more than just one company. After the success of my commercial brand, I launched Stacy Garcia | New York, my luxury residential brand, in 2015. Most recently I introduced direct to consumer products with my retail brand, Stay by Stacy Garcia.

It’s been such a humbling experience to watch my

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brand evolve and ultimately become an all-encompassing lifestyle brand.

“One of the most rewarding projects that I’ve worked on was designing a table for DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS). I found that the design industry has some of the most giving and generous people I have ever met. It is a blessing to be able use my talent to raise funds for such a worthy cause.”

And finally, tell us a bit your blog, Life-Styled.net, which appeals to both designers and design-minded people, while giving a real glimpse into you and your perspective. How did it come about, how has it evolved — and what are your goals for it?

“Life-Styled by Stacy Garcia actually began as our company newsletter, but in recent years, it has taken on a life of its own. As the owner of a lifestyle brand, we get insider access to trade shows, new product launches, hotel openings and other industry happenings. As an outlet to share this inspiring information with the design community, Life-Styled by Stacy Garcia was born.

“Now (that it’s) a blog and quarterly design e-zine, my goal is to build a community of contributors and readers by creating an accessible and informative source for designers and design-minded people to be inspired. LifeStyled by Stacy Garcia covers information on trends, interiors, travel, notable designers and more.”

View the Art Universe collection at StacyGarciaNewYork.com. To check out Garcia’s digital publications, visit Life-Styled.net.

Stacy Garcia | New York’s tile creations for TileBar include the Gabardine Collection, pattern shown here in Ascot. Courtesy Stacy Garcia.

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CARAVAN’S WORLD VIEW STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARY SHUSTACK

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You never know what you’ll come across at Caravan Curated Home in New Canaan.

Stepping in the front door on a recent morning, we find a giant bronze sculpture in the shape of a Chanel shopping bag, a creation by Jonathan Seliger. Steps away, a corner vignette is anchored by another oversize piece, an elaborately carved wooden door just in from Jaipur. Also within this front room, a custom coffee table by Thomas Throop, a local furniture maker coincidentally profiled in WAG in 2013, adds depth, as do a couple of pineapple sculptures, a vivid green couch and a turquoise tray filled with a grouping of martini glasses.

All are finds gathered by Vanessa Bikindou, Caravan’s Parisian-born owner whose vision guides the shop tucked into one of the town’s winding side streets.

Caravan, which reflects the laid-back elegance of Bikindou herself, is a trove ready to delight those with a love of eclectic elements and an artful approach to mix-and-match décor.

On the surface, it is a home furnishings and lifestyle retail store that also provides home décor services. The space, which marked its first anniversary in October, is set up as a collection of fully furnished living areas, the front room yielding to a larger space encompassing bed and bath “rooms,” a kitchen and a wildly eclectic living room complete with an airplane-shaped working bar.

No matter where you look, Caravan is filled with an array of unique objects that gracefully join designs from artisans and vendors whom Bikindou showcases for their emphasis on quality, originality and design.

“Caravan is kind of a concept,” says Bikindou, who draws inspiration from sources around the world.

Vanessa Bikindou at Caravan Curated Home in New Canaan. Inset and following page, eclectic finds fill the interior of Caravan.

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Throughout, her goal is simple.

“You create an environment of elegance,” she says, but also keep in mind comfort and livability.

How you do it, she says with a smile, is “also kind of a puzzle.”

And that’s the fun — putting it all together. It’s something that Bikindou clearly delights in helping her clients do.

With extensive experience in interior design, she founded the Caravan company some 10 years ago in Manhattan, where she continues to live with her movie-producer husband.

They arrived in New York when Bikindou, now 38, was in her 20s.

“That’s it,” she says of her reaction to the city. “I love the place. That’s where I want to be.”

She left behind Paris, where she grew up, went on to study law and became an attorney, a profession that sharpened her organizational skills and appreciation of structure.

The transition to interiors, she says, was a natural one.

“My passion’s always been décor, objects,” she says, adding with a laugh, “At one point, I think the passion took over.”

Now, with a by-appointment showroom in New York, as well as one in New Canaan that complements the Caravan store, Bikindou serves clients in the city, the Hamptons, Connecticut and Westchester.

BROADENING REACH It was a combination of friends and clients that led her to New Canaan, where she thought her unique approach would find an audience.

“We specialize in one-of-a-kind furniture,” she says, building a look that is “a combination of contemporary and antique, sort of a balance.”

The outlook, she says, is “more international. I also try to reflect a client’s passion in a house and a

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of Swedish design is always welcomed, too — sending container after container back home.

So, does a trip to someplace new find Bikindou on the hunt, tracking down antique shops?

“Everywhere. I think it’s a disease. My disease,” she says with a knowing smile.

But that’s what happens when you’re always looking for “something superb.”

To seek out “the beauty,” she says, is so important “in a world like ours now.”

After all, she says, “The idea is to make people happy at the end. The house is very personal. It’s your sanctuary. It is the most important place, after your body, it’s your home.”

home, make it feel like it’s their home.”

At Caravan, it’s all about “rotating décors. We change constantly.”

It allows her to meet the needs of her varied clients.

“Every project is totally different,” she says. “Each person that comes to me is from a different angle.”

It may range from someone simply stopping by for new pillows to a full house project, as she often works with architects and builders.

From her team to her collaborators, Bikindou stresses it’s important her clients know she has a strong network in place, one she has carefully built.

“It’s like a relationship. You kind of create a kind of ‘zone of comfort,’ trust and knowledge of each other.”

Whether it’s the young families moving up from the city or longtime residents, many of whom have multiple homes, Bikindou’s New Canaan clients do share some traits.

“They’re always kind of traveled, international,” she says. And, she happily notes they often share another key feature — openness.

She welcomes the “open eye,” someone willing to “mix the styles together.”

“I think that’s the fun of it, to feel here you are limitless.”

But, she quickly adds, “of course, it should be cohesive.”

And that’s where she comes in.

“I think it helps when you can have sort of a visual, ‘This can go with this.’ The visual here is very important. People can see it is possible to adapt something.”

She loves clients who are “open to mixing, like some 18th-century chair with a Moroccan blanket.”

It’s not random, though. It has to have meaning.

“People want to feel their house is personal to them, so they’re more inclined to find a treasure and build a room around it.”

Bikindou is always on the lookout for such treasures, traveling not only to Paris but also throughout the French countryside as well as Italy — a sprinkling

QUALITY, ALWAYS Bikindou says clients appreciate the value of creating an interior with a strong foundation.

“At the end of the day you notice you keep a piece for much longer. It’s good to see furniture as an investment.”

She likens it to a woman having a pair of really good shoes. It sets the tone of quality and style: “After that, you can play.”

And Bikindou is all about the playful spirit. Her research is dedicated if not formal. It is, rather, a fusing of, “so many things like art, films, literature. I think it should be a sort of celebrating of different cultures.”

And that’s clear no matter where you turn in Caravan.

The kitchen area is a showcase of the retro-hued Big Chill collection, while the bath vignette highlights Badeloft products. Photography from Antoine Verglas, Peter Beard and Bonnie Wang hangs throughout.

“I always work with artists who are friends,” Bikindou says, the relationship allowing her to collaborate on offering limited editions of select works.

“We also do art placement for clients,” she adds.

Again, it comes back to building an environment.

“It’s always a question of layers and giving multidimensions to a house so that it evolves, like a personality.”

Bikindou continues to expand, recently entering the world of home staging with a New Canaan project, and also collaborated with Hamptons vintner and lifestyle maven Joey Wölffer to create a pop-up store in Palm Beach, Florida.

“It’s all decorated ‘very Caravan,’” Bikindou says of the December project that opened her eyes to another creative avenue.

Back in New Canaan, glancing around the space, one comments on the gaggle of glass bubbles overhead, one of two similarly fanciful lighting creations in restful shades of blue found in the store.

The pieces, Bikindou explains, are made-in-theUSA work created by a Vermont glassblower and can be customized for both size and color.

“It’s endless with possibility,” she says with a smile.

Kind of like Caravan itself.

Caravan Curated Home is at 12 Burtis Ave. in New Canaan. For more, visit caravancuratedhome.com.

GIVING LIFE TO YOUR HOME

BY DANIELLE RENDA

Some people are just born with a creative gene.

Diana Byrne is one of them. The founder and owner of DB Designs in Rye — an interior design company — spent years working in the publishing industry in fashion and beauty and, in some respects, she still does. She’s just transitioned from pages to walls.

Diana Byrne. Photograph by Alix Martinez.

A breakfast nook designed by Diana Byrne. Photograph by Jane Beiles Photography. Courtesy DB Designs.

“It’s very different,” Byrne says of her career history, “and, in some ways, it’s similar.”

Byrne, who works in residential interiors, has a client base with eclectic taste. Some projects are confined to one-room renovations, while others are whole-house makeovers. A handful of her clients prefer bold décor, with brass and antique accents, while others opt for modern touches. Whatever the request may be, Byrne loves the challenge.

“I love change,” she says. “I think that’s part of what draws me into doing this. I love changing things around, whether it’s chopping off my hair or going into someone’s house and creating and rearranging their whole room.”

Her personal style is also eclectic, but it’s fair to say she gravitates toward classic white walls, lots of natural lighting and a plethora of plush seating.

It’s a preference that’s carried out in her look. On this day, the petite blonde sports metallic touches (moto jacket, nail polish) that offset her natural makeup and bobbed hairstyle.

Byrne tailors her creative process to suit each project. Some clients want to be more involved than others, she says, and everyone has a different vision for his space.

“When I first go into a space, I’ll let the client tell me about why they want me there,” she says. “What are you looking to do? How do you feel about this room?”

From there, she says, the conversation focuses on the use of the room, along with how much the client is willing to change the existing décor.

“Sometimes there are clear ways to open a space by just taking down walls and getting more windows in,” Byrne says. “To me, that’s kind of the first step if they’re game and if it’s relevant. Then, how do they want to use the space; who’s going to be in there; and what’s going to be happening in there?

Then, finding out how to make it comfortable, how to make it unique and kind of finding that balance.”

In order to create a space that works, she discourages following trends.

“With your home, you just want to choose carefully with things you’ll love for the next five years,” she says.

Once Byrne and her clients determine the function of the room, they consider the furnishings. And she has a distinct process for sourcing quality fabrics.

“I literally will put ketchup, red wine and soy sauce on a fabric before putting it on the sofa,” says Byrne. “I just did that with a client.”

But Byrne wasn’t always testing the durability of fabric. Her business — which she founded in 2011 — wasn’t even something she anticipated doing. Having moved from Washington, D.C. to New York City to attend college, Byrne began working for a record label and then the publishing industry, where she held various positions at Vogue, Allure and Seventeen magazines. It was in publishing that she began attending photo shoots, mingling with photographers, artists and fashion designers.

After having her first child — she is now the mother of three girls, ages 12, 10 and 8 — she took time off but remained in New York, which, she says, was a constant source of inspiration.

“It just opens up your mind, being in the city, as clichéd as that sounds,” she says. “I was starved to be doing something creative.”

One of Byrne’s friends started building a Hamptons beach house and needed help with the design

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process. So, Byrne and her then-partner jumped at the opportunity.

“That’s how it began, and we dove right in.”

Since then, she’s teamed up with close friend Lynne Biase, who serves as partner in and business manager of DB Designs. As of late, the company has been finishing the interiors for a home overlooking the water, a project that entailed adding floor-toceiling windows to capitalize on the views and classic architecture.

But even though Byrne began her design business just a few years ago, she’s always felt compelled to create.

“I think as a kid I was always a visual person,” she says. “I was always just drawn to fashion and art. I always liked playing around with color in whatever medium was fun for me. I didn’t think I knew it as a kid. My dad is a doctor and my mom is a lawyer. I didn’t know anyone who was an interior designer.”

She hopes to instill this passion in her daughters.

“I’m totally trying to hypnotize them so they’ll come work with me one day,” Byrnes says with a laugh. “They’ll go into my office and find product samples and make American Girl doll clothes out of the samples. I like involving them, especially as they get older…But I’ll certainly help them find their own paths.”

For more, visit dbdesigninc.com or call Diana Byrne at 646-246-2617.

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A sleek white kitchen design by Byrne. Photograph by Jane Beiles Photography. Courtesy DB Designs.

country homeS •equeStrian eStateS • acreage

Creekside Farm

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nspired by the warmth of an English Country House, this lovely 4BR, 4.2 Bath home displays architectural integrity & old world craftsmanship. Built in 2004, the house abounds w/understated elegance & custom appointments. Upon entering, the details of this home includes 10’ceilings, oak flooring, custom cabinetry, 5 fplcs, picture windows & French doors. Among the refined spaces is the pine paneled entrance hall, & the classically proportioned LR & DR, each offering sweeping views of the hunt country beyond. Included in this unique property is the opportunity to own a turnkey Equestrian property adjacent to the NS Open Land. The house presides over 12 acres, contiguous to 150 acres of conservation land. Miles of riding & walking trails. Creekside Farm has a 6 stall barn & a 2 stall shed barn. 2 storage and tractor sheds. Chicken coop. The facility incl.3 large fields, 4 paddocks, 2 medical paddocks, & a 100’ x 200’ outdoor ring. MLS#4804109 Price: $4,750,000

June Farm

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asteful restorations including a spectacular kitchen addition. 6 Bedrooms, 4.1 baths. 4 fireplaces. Lower level gym, playroom, wine room & laundry. Patio off the terrace sports a new stone fireplace. Ponds, streams and bridges lace the enchanting 13 park-like acres. Magnificent heated pool set in totally private oasis including a waterfall spa, dramatic landscaping. 2 Bedroom Pool House with a separate Studio. One bedroom Guest House. 2 car garage. Special country home to be cherished for generations. Quick 10 minutes to the train& highway 1 hr. + to nyc. mLS#4733647 Price: $2,950,000

Red Barn

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irca 1860 4 level sophisticated converted barn on 6.5 open rolling acres. Soaring ceilings and expansive views from a wall of windows of the adjacent Titicus Reservoir.

Featured in a NYT article on “Barn Houses”. Great Room combines living room, dining & den areas. Four bedrooms, 5.2 baths divided into private spaces. 3 Woodstoves. Glass doors to deck allow views of fields & Reservoir. Heated gunite pool & hot tub. 2 Bedroom Apartment with woodstove and deck over a 2 Car Garage. Minutes to train and highway yet heavenly private & quiet. one of a kind. mLS#4750536 Price: $2,500,000

Robin Hill

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omantic Arts & Crafts inspired home by renowned architect Teo Siguenza. Totally secluded on long private drive adjacent to Land Trust. Incredible details on 3 levels.

Front to back foyer w/coffered ceilings includes formal living & dining rooms. Masterful kitchen w/ breakfast alcove opens to cherry paneled library/family room w/stone fireplace.

First floor Master suite includes bath w/marble & mosaic details, Walk-In Closet, adjoining mahogany study plus Woodstove. 2nd floor: 3 en-suite family bedrooms & office. Lower Level: theater, recreation room w/sauna/full bath, gym, billiard room & wine room. Perennial gardens surround heated salt water pool, spa & waterfall. Terrace w/outdoor grill & shower enhance entertaining space. 3 Car garage with unfinished loft above. 5 BR septic. mudroom w/built-ins, laundry room. very special. mLS#4752425 Price: $2,350,000

Belvedere Park

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his stunning 1935 carriage house was recently expanded & carefully renovated on 12.1 park like acres. The house is situated in the center of a sublime landscape. The pastoral setting is an idyllic mix of lush lawns, colorful perennials, mature trees & punctuated by two sparkling ponds. The beautiful 4 BR, 4.1 bath home blends original details w/state of the art updates. Additional features include stone fireplaces, wide board floors, hand hewn beams, cathedral ceilings, French doors, coffered ceiling, a gourmet chef ’s kitchen & a fabulous new master suite. Outbuilding include a 2BR,1.5 bath guest cottage attached to a 4 car garage. A 1BR, 1.5 bath pool house w/LR/DR/KIT houses a cabana w/bath within a separate area. A new 24’x24’ pool & 2013 tennis court completes this spectacular compound!

Price: $2,300,000

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DIVINITY IN THE DETAILS:

Amy Aidinis Hirsch

BY LAURA JOSEPH MOGIL

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Inside a painted black-brick building on Greenwich’s North Water Street, the studio of interior designer Amy Aidinis Hirsch is abuzz with activity. The bright-and-airy space is overflowing with colorful fabric samples, textured tile boards, detailed floor plans and inspirational design pages tacked to the walls.

Amy Aidinis Hirsch A modern, rustic retreat at the Yellowstone Club in Montana. Courtesy Amy Aidinis Hirsch.

Hirsch, who was born and raised in Greenwich, has been in the studio for four years and running her own business since 2006. While the majority of her clients are from Greenwich, she has done design work for many homes in Fairfield and Westchester counties, as well as second (and third) residences in Montana, Wyoming, Florida and the Bahamas.

Talking about her early influences, Hirsch says, “My dad is a plumbing and heating contractor and has always worked on very high-caliber homes created by gifted architects. When I was a teenager, I had the ability to walk into these houses and see the magnitude of what was curated from the ground up, and I fell in love with all the gorgeous textural and tactile elements.”

In addition, Hirsch’s mom was a Realtor and was always bringing home brochures reflecting the Old World charm of gracious Greenwich estates on the market.

While she realized she didn’t have a desire to become an architect, Hirsch says, “I really wanted to be versed in dealing with construction, working with craftsmen and being an interior designer so I could put it all together.”

She decided to pursue her dreams, graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1999 and interning for interior design icons such as Naomi Leff in Manhattan.

“I was very fortunate that I got to work with Naomi, who was a leader in the industry before she passed away. It really opened my eyes to the fact that a client needs every last little detail that goes into their home, right down to the tissues, Q-tips and cotton balls,” Hirsch says. “Naomi thought about every aspect of decorating, not just what was beautiful and aesthetic.”

Before opening her own shop, Hirsch also worked with Penny Drue Baird of Manhattan and Cindy Rinfret of Greenwich, giving her the chance to work on large projects both locally and also around the country. “I had an amazing opportunity to travel and to learn how to design houses from afar,” she says.

Now that Hirsch is running her own business, she feels what makes her stand out is her “ability to

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problem solve and to listen. I could be as creative as you could possibly want me to be, but if I’m not paying attention to the things that you’re saying, that’s a problem. My goal is to meet my client’s expectations, stay within a budget, problem solve along the way and deliver the desired final product.”

In addition Hirsch says her four-member staff “loves what they do. My team is the heartbeat of what happens here. They’re incredibly gifted at being organized and executing projects from point A to B. Everyone really goes above and beyond for our clients to get something to where it has to be, when it has to be.”

While Hirsch herself is about to move into a farmhouse in Cos Cob that she’s decorating in a “modern, edgy and bohemian” style, she says it’s very different than how she designs for other people. “My portfolio is very vast, but no two projects are ever the same because no two clients are the same.

“I try very hard to work with each client to figure out who they are and what their objectives and aesthetics are. And, of course, the architecture of the house comes into play. So, I curate a home based on all those elements,” she says.

Hirsch recently designed a Georgian home in

backcountry Greenwich for a couple and their three girls. A present for the wife’s 40th birthday, the traditional interior is awash in pink, blue, chartreuse and salmon furniture with floral details and embroidery. “The house also features an English-influenced mahogany dining table, Colonial-style brass fixtures, antique Oushak and Tabriz rugs and walnut side tables with intricate inlaid marquetry.”

On a completely different side of the spectrum is a farmhouse in Rye that Hirsch decorated for a literary editor, her husband and their three children. The family wanted to keep the Federal-style molding and details of this old sea captain’s house but also wanted to have some fun with the interior spaces. Because the wife liked Herman Melville’s novel “Moby Dick” so much, she asked Hirsch to design a pub-like dining room sporting heavy wool red curtains and even a mural of the famous whale.

In the two-story family room, Hirsch gave the space the client’s desired edgy feel with a bar of manmade concrete and quartz, an upholstered black leather face, burnt russet-colored barstools and chairs. “Asymmetrical lighting by Bec Brittian and a 25-foot-high, two-story fireplace encased in cold-rolled steel panels from Montana complete

the room, which opens to a series of terraced outdoor patios,” Hirsch says.

One of the projects that she’s working on is a one-story British-style Colonial in the Bahamas.

A second home for one of her Greenwich clients, the 3,400-square-foot house has an organic, transitional vibe and has been designed with clean lines and no moldings. The interior features white oak floors, white furniture with teak wood frames and beautiful modern light fixtures, including Shakuff glass balls with wire mesh inside. “We also picked durable indoor/outdoor fabrics because the house has the potential to be rented.”

While Hirsch says she loves every aspect of what she does, she says the most gratifying part is when the project comes to an end and the client sees the full magnitude of what her firm has done in the home.

“Before I install, my stomach twists and turns and I get a little unnerved. However, the moment it’s completed, including those very last pillows and accessories, I feel very fulfilled and happy with the execution of what’s happened. When I get to see the final product and how excited the client is — that's really the most rewarding part.”

For more, visit AmyHirsch.com.

YOUR THREE-MONTH FREE SUBSCRIPTION IS RIGHT AT YOUR FINGERTIPS. Visit westfaironline.com Audience Development Department | (914) 694-3600

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STILL WORKING FOR YOU UNTIL THE INDIAN POINT NUCLEAR PLANT POWERS DOWN IN 2021, WE’LL CONTINUE PRODUCING ABOUT 25 PERCENT OF THE ELECTRICITY FOR NEW YORK CITY AND WESTCHESTER COUNTY, WITH VIRTUALLY NO GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS.

The Indian Point Energy Center has been powering New York’s downstate region for about 40 years. Today, many New Yorkers have questions about the plant’s early and orderly shutdown — What will change? What will stay the same?

For the next few years, much will stay the same. Until 2021, we’ll continue safely generating clean, reliable power round-the-clock for New York City and Westchester County. That power makes Indian Point the single largest source of clean electricity in New York State.

Safety will continue to be the top priority for everyone at the plant. Under Entergy’s ownership, Indian Point has established a strong safety record that we’re committed to maintaining. Until shutdown in 2021, Indian Point will remain fully staffed with our team of approximately 1,000 nuclear professionals. We will continue to invest in the facility, and independent full-time inspectors from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will remain on-site to review operations.

Indian Point will continue to generate signifi cant tax revenues and expenditures in the local economy. We’ll also continue to play an important role in the wellbeing of our community through the contributions we provide to many charitable organizations in the region, as well as the thousands of hours our employees volunteer and donate to these important causes.

At Indian Point, we’re still working for you, and it will continue to be an honor to operate one of New York’s cleanest and most reliable sources of electricity. If you have questions, please visit us at SafeSecureVital.com

Indian Point Energy Center

OTHER BRUCE THE

BY GREGG SHAPIRO

Springsteen wasn’t the only important singer/ songwriter named Bruce to emerge in the 1970s and continue making music to this day.

Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn, whose debut album was released in 1970, recently released his 33rd album. “Bone on Bone” (True North), Cockburn’s first in six years, is a welcome return for an artist who has managed effortlessly to balance the personal, the political and the spiritual throughout his lengthy career.

Additionally, in 2016, Cockburn added author to his list of achievements with the publication of his memoir, “Rumours of Glory.” I spoke with Cockburn in advance of his latest North American concert tour, which will bring him to Daryl’s House in Pawling, next month: Allmusic.com calls you “Canada’s best-kept secret.” How do you feel about that?

“It’s an old thing. Millennium Records, who was the U.S. company that put out (my album) ‘Dancing In The Dragon’s Jaws’ in 1979 used that as an advertising slogan.

These things never go away. I don’t think it applies anymore. At that time, it kind of did. Like any advertising slogan, it suffers from a certain glibness. It kind of had some significance then, but I don’t think it does now. There are areas of the U.S. where I’m not particularly visible or audible, but there are a lot of areas where I am.”

Six years passed between the release of your new album “Bone on Bone” and its predecessor “Small Source of Comfort.” In the “Bone on Bone” CD booklet, you list the years and cities in which each of the 10 songs was written.

“I’ve done that on all my albums. There was a long hiatus between albums, because I wrote a book. All of the energy that would have gone into songwriting, the creative juice all went into the book. There was that threeyear period and then the year or so after the release of ‘Small Source of Comfort,’ where I was touring all the time. There was about four years where I didn’t write anything. At the end of that four years, I was thinking, ‘Maybe I’m a songwriter, maybe I’m not.’ It was a question of waiting to see if the book ‘distraction’ was out of the way, if the song ideas would come and they did, so we have a new album.”

The marvelous Mary Gauthier sings with you on “40 Years in the Wilderness.” How did that come to pass?

“We asked her and she said yes (laughs). That kind of overdub was done at (producer) Colin Linden’s studio in Nashville and Mary lives in Nashville. She happened to be there at the right time. We had a nice afternoon having her.”

Bruce Cockburn. Courtesy Chart Room Media and the artist.

The song “Stab At Matter,” which features the San Francisco Lighthouse Chorus, is a play on words on the title of the medieval Roman Catholic hymn “Stabat Mater.”

“I don’t even know when it started, but at some point I got this bug in my head thinking that the Latin phrase

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didn’t have an existing song that would be appropriate. I thought, ‘This is great. I’ll say ‘yes’ and, if I get it together, then I do and if I don’t, then I guess I’ll prove to myself that I’m not a songwriter.’

“I don’t mean to make it sound so dire, but maybe there were other things I should be looking at.

I wasn’t that familiar with Purdy’s work. He’s one of the great Canadian poets and I was aware of his existence. He died in 2000. He spent his youth, in the ’30s, riding the rails back and forth through Canada and became a more settled figure after that. He was a traveler with a sharp eye and a great gift for putting things into words. I was looking at this stuff and I got this image of this homeless guy who was obsessed with Al Purdy. The phrase, ‘I’ll give you three Al Purdys for a $20 bill’ came into my head. I pictured this guy ranting Purdy poems on the street with his cup out. I thought, ‘What else would he say besides Purdy poems?’ That’s what became the song.”

Bruce Cockburn. Courtesy Chart Room Media and the artist.

‘stabat mater,’ which is ‘stand there, Mother’ … means a whole different thing (in English). There seemed to be an invitation in the English to make something out of it. It has this juicy quality to it. The spiritual side of things has always been a focus for me and I wanted to keep it in that realm. It’s not intended as a heavy philosophical statement, but we kind of (make an) exciting thing out of the notion of stabbing at matter.

“When one friend of mine first heard it, he thought it was kind of apocalyptic, because it talks about walls coming down, the seal being broken, the trumpet sounds. These are images we associate with the biblical apocalypse. I was thinking more in personal terms, one’s own spiritual state. It’s been my experience that whether you think of it in psy-

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chological or spiritual terms or a combination as I guess I do, we’re always invited to break down the structures that we build. If we refuse or ignore that invitation, they will be broken down sooner or later.

If they’re not broken down with your complicity, it’s usually traumatic (laughs). ‘Stabbing At Matter’ was ‘Let’s get this sh-- out of the way, let’s get down to it.’”

Poets aren’t often the subject of songs, but you pay tribute to Canadian poet Al Purdy in the song “3 Al Purdys.”

“That was actually the first of the bunch of songs to be written (for the album). I was waiting around for a good idea. I got an invitation from people in Canada, who were making a documentary film about Al Purdy, to contribute a song to the film. I

It’s been almost 35 years since the release of your songs “If I Had A Rocket Launcher” and “Lovers In A Dangerous Time,” and we are still living in a dangerous time. As an artist and activist, what are your hopes for the future?

“Oh, boy. (laughs) I hope I survive until my natural death at least. And I hope that my daughters and grandchildren survive. It’s really down to that.

Survive in a way that’s recognizable. We can live like cockroaches, or we can have the lives of relative comfort and relative freedom that you and I have grown up with. These are things that should be treasured. It’s not a given to me that our descendants will be able to continue that for long. I hope they do. That’s what we should be thinking about.

It blows my mind… the climate change deniers and the business-first mentality…make wild choices based on poor scientific information. Do the science and get it right and then take it seriously.

We all need money. We all need to eat. You need to have an economy of sorts in the world, but an economy that’s based on, ‘It’s my right to get everything I want and screw you,’ which is what it is currently, is wrong. That’s self-defeating.

“You’re not just saying, ‘Screw you’ to your neighbor, who might not be as lucky as you. You’re saying it to future generations, as well. That makes no sense to me. I look at those things and I worry. But I also think there are grounds for hope. If somebody asks me where I get my hope from, I get it from a faith in God and life. I don’t think the God part’s misplaced, but the life part might be (laughs). But I have it anyway. We just have to pay attention, do what we can and then hope after that.”

Bruce Cockburn performs April 26 at Daryl’s House in Pawling. For more, visit darylshouseclub.com.

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COLORFUL SPACES FOR LIVING

BY DANIELLE RENDA

ami Weinstein believes in color, art and breathable spaces.

It’s something that Cami Weinstein Designs — her eponymous, Greenwich-based interior design firm, which has been in business for some 25 years — has become known for.

She doesn’t view color as merely a “pop of color” — she abhors the term — but as a way to create a layering effect, even when combining neutrals. She doesn’t see art as mere accents but as pieces of thought-provoking collections. And she doesn’t see rooms as static but as spaces destined for families to create lasting moments and memories.

“I’m probably known for livable luxury,” Weinstein says. “I like rooms that you’re comfortable in.

I like rooms that are very layered with artwork and objects and furniture and carpeting. I like when you walk into a room and you have a feeling of wanting to be comfortable and stay in that room.”

Weinstein’s style ranges from traditional to modern, and she particularly enjoys mixing styles.

She encourages her clients to integrate collections into their living spaces, no matter how peculiar or eccentric they may be.

“I had a client once that collected old tortoise combs and so she had all those set up in her powder room,” Weinstein says. “I’ve had another client that, although not artwork, had a whole family tree of photographs dating back to the 1800s and we did a whole photo wall.”

In Weinstein’s Chappaqua home, she showcases the photography of her husband Marc Weinstein, while in her Montauk home — which, she acknowledges, is a bit more playful — she displays coral and seashells scattered throughout the rooms. She attributes her preference for art and color to a background in printmaking and fine art painting, which she studied in college.

“I occasionally go back to painting for myself, but

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Cami Weinstein enjoys incorporating color into her spaces. Photographs by Paul Domzal. Courtesy Cami Weinstein Designs.

it’s more of a personal passion at this point. I go back and forth. Sometimes they’re abstract; sometimes they’re things in nature; sometimes they’re just color exercises.”

When it comes to designing spaces, Weinstein doesn’t begin with artwork but with scale.

I think so many people don’t understand scale in a room and if you have the wrong scale of furniture, rugs or window treatments, then the room will always feel uncomfortable.”

This can be as simple as replacing furniture that is too big or too small, or removing pieces dating from different time periods that do not mix with the room’s existing décor, Weintein notes.

“I think it takes a very skilled person to understand mixing styles and periods,” Weinstein says.

The process itself is also very collaborative.

“I usually have very creative clients, clients that have great art collections. They come to the table with ideas about how to expand them…It’s usually a very collaborative process. Each of my rooms comes out unique to those individual clients, which keeps my job interesting.”

She recalls a client with whom she’s worked for some 20 years. This client, she says, has a very eclectic style, collecting everything from flea market finds to high-end art objects.

“She’ll just say, at a certain point — she can go really far out on a creative limb — ‘Pull me back.’ I would

Weinstein encourages her clients to incorporate art into their spaces.

say we push each other in different directions.”

But most of all, Weinstein likes to incorporate a surprise factor.

“I really like rooms that are interesting. I like to feel my clients’ personalities in the rooms, be it their favorite objects or their favorite colors. I try not to create rooms that are in a time warp.”

She again refers to her Montauk home, which has a living room with blush pink walls, nautical accessories and a supersized dining room, created around functionality — something she recommends to her clients.

“Coming from an Italian background, I think dining rooms are very important,” she says. “I think the funniest thing is that we just rebuilt our house in Montauk, and I made a really big dining room in it. People were like, ‘Why are you creating a dining room in a beach house?’ And it’s because that is really the heart of our home.”

If she has one point of advice regarding home design, it’s remaining open to change.

“I think rooms are living like the people who live in the homes and they should be periodically changed, refreshed and things should be moved around,” Weinstein says. “They should be able to breathe.”

Cami Weinstein Designs is at 200 Pemberwick Road in Greenwich. For more, visit camidesigns. com or call 203-661-4700.

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HOME MAKEOVER

Mike Miller. Photograph by Bob Rozycki.

BY JANE K. DOVE

"I have been working the construction business since I was 11 years old," says Mike Miller, founder and owner of Top Hammer Construction Corp., headquartered in South Salem.

“I grew up doing the work and loving it and founded my own business in 1978. I have been a design and build contractor ever since.”

Miller’s current project nearby involves a large addition over a two-car garage, designed to serve as a game and exercise room.

“The house itself is on a beautiful piece of property,” he says. “The style of the 3,500-square-foot house is contemporary, and it was built in the 1970s. It’s on three beautiful acres, part wooded and part open.”

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Miller started work on the project in late November and was scheduled to have it completed at the end of last month. “It’s a beautiful site with great landscaping,” he says. “The look of it is rustic-contemporary and it blends very well with its surroundings.”

Miller and his crew complete 10 to 20 projects a year, ranging from weekend retreats to large mega-mansions. “We do renovations and also build anew,” he says. “Growing up in the business, I have a real love and feel for it and enjoy making sure all my details are correct. Victorian is my favorite style of architecture because of the amount of detail involved.”

Whatever the style, he never loses his keen interest in the business of doing the best possible work for his clients.

For more, visit tophammer.com.

YOUR HOME DESERVES MORE THAN JUST DECOR...

IT DESERVES A DESIGNER'S TOUCH! MEET TWO OF OUR FEMALE TRAILBLAZERS IN INTERIOR DESIGN AND DECORATIVE ARTS: Amy Aidinis Hirsch is a Greenwich-based interior design firm. Her homes can be found throughout the country, and range from modern Montana ski houses to Boca Raton retreats and elegantly crafted environments in Greenwich. Her interiors have been featured in House Beautiful, At Home, New England Home and CT Cottages & Gardens.

Jennifer Pitman is a Westchester resident, a 20-year auction veteran and a specialist and senior account manager for Rago arts and Auction. She assists clients in Westchester and Connecticut with buying, selling and appraising jewelry, fine and decorative arts. She also writes “What’s Collectible,” a monthly column for WAG magazine that focuses on the art and antiques she encounters in her travels.

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• Tour and comments by Andy Todd • Top designers showcase the latest in home decor • Other home experts spotlight every aspect of home luxury • Expert appraiser will be available to evaluate any treasure you wish to bring

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his month, we’re showcasing a classic mid-country estate on Clapboard Ridge Road in Greenwich with almost four acres of beautifully landscaped private grounds that feature gardens, a pool and a tennis court.

The 17 grandly scaled rooms — which include six bedrooms along with six full and two partial bathrooms — also pay great attention to detail.

Designed and built by Judith Larson and Bill Gardiner, this house embodies the sophistication and character of a bygone era as well as the amenities of today’s lifestyle. The list price is $8,975,000.

For more, call Shelly Tretter Lynch at 203-550-8508 or 203-618-3103.

(See a second property showcased on page 68.)

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CORNELL EXHIBIT TAKES FLIGHT

BY MARY SHUSTACK

T

he effect of a single event can resonate for years.

That premise is artfully illustrated by “Birds of a Feather: Joseph Cornell’s Homage to Juan Gris,” which is underway at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.

In a compact gallery nestled within the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing, “The Man at the Café,” the celebrated 1914 collage by the Spanish artist, presides over a dozen shadow boxes.

These are all designed by Cornell, the self-taught, Nyack-born artist, who would go on to create his famed assemblages in the cellar-turned-studio of his family’s eventual New York City home.

Following the death of his father and the family falling on hard times, the Cornell family would relocate to Queens, where Joseph (1903-1972) would spend the rest of his life, balancing his role as de facto family caretaker with his work as an artist.

It was on Oct. 22, 1953, that Cornell wrote in his diary, “Juan Gris/Janis Yesterday.” The words refer to his previous day, when on one of his frequent trips to the gallery district in midtown Manhattan, Cornell found himself at the Sidney Janis Gallery

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Left, Joseph Cornell (American, 1903–1972). “Homage to Juan Gris,” 1953–54. Box construction, 18 1/2 × 12 1/2 × 4 5/8 in. (47 × 31.8 × 11.7 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art, Purchased: John D. McIlhenny Fund. Art © The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY; and above, Juan Gris (Spanish, 1887–1927), “The Man at the Café,” Paris, 1914. Oil and newsprint collage on canvas, 39 × 28 1/4 in. (99.1 × 71.8 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection. Courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

on East 57th Street. In a show of several dozen works of art, it was the one work by Gris — in which oil paint and pasted newsprint create a scene of a mysterious male figure reading a newspaper that obscures his face — that had an immediate (and far-reaching) effect on Cornell.

The Gris work, a Cubist masterpiece that is now a promised gift to The Met as part of the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection, inspired Cornell to begin a series in homage to Gris, whom Cornell would call a “warm fraternal spirit.”

With a great white-crested cockatoo as his focal point, Cornell would work on the series for more than a decade, creating some 18 of his signature shadow boxes as well as two collages and one sand tray, all filled with layers of meaning. This exhibition unites the inspiration and a dozen of these shadow boxes for the first time.

Cornell, known for his intricate design work in creating these boxed assemblages, would often dedicate works to those he admired, particularly artists, entertainers and writers.

A well-established artist decades into his career when he began the Gris series, Cornell would again pull from his assortment of materials that included old journals, textbooks, postage stamps, fishing tackle and other pieces of what he would call “flotsam and jetsam.” Cornell also kept extensive notes on his subjects, creating virtual libraries of reference materials and would explore Gris (1887-1927) through conversations with his fellow artists and friends, including Marcel Duchamp and Robert Motherwell.

Cornell used his signature self-contained boxes to present concepts or explore subjects or lives that caught his interest.

In this series, Cornell uses the cockatoo to consider the shadow play in Gris’ work, creating elaborate shadows himself.

Cornell, with his chosen subject matter, also tapped into his own passion for foreign language texts, hotel advertisements and maps, though he didn’t travel himself. Throughout his work, he also incorporated his deep appreciation for the arts, especially ballet and opera.

Mary Clare McKinley, an independent art historian based in London and a former assistant curator in the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art at The Met, has curated this exploration of Cornell, which she said is filled with “the work of somebody who enjoyed the life of the mind.”

“Birds of a Feather: Joseph Cornell’s Homage to Juan Gris,” which continues through April 15 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue, is the first in a series of dossier exhibitions under the auspices of the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art at the museum.

For more, visit metmuseum.org.

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In our second featured property, created by noted architect Sam Mitchell and built by Nordic Custom Builders, this 2009 stunner on Round Hill Road showcases the finest materials, finishes, millwork and more, marrying timeless style to state-of-the-art amenities.

The main floor of the 10,087-square-foot house features grand-scale rooms with 10-foot ceilings, a sumptuous master suite and French doors leading to an oversize terrace, heated pool and lit, sunken tennis court. These accent the well-landscaped property’s four acres of mature specimen trees, outdoor lighting and security cameras. Five en suite bedrooms grace the second floor while the third floor contains two bedrooms, baths and a playroom. (In all, the 23 rooms include nine bedrooms, 11 full bathrooms and two half-baths.)

The lower level is a leisure lover’s paradise, with a home theater, a ventilated card room, an adjacent wine cellar, a gym and a private spa.

The garage has space for eight cars.

The $12,250,000 price tag affords you gated privacy, extra conveniences like a generator and an elevator and, last but never least — a spectacular lifestyle in a country setting.

For more, call Susie Quinn at 203-856-2495 or 203-618-3193.

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David Beckham’s

DESIGN FOR LIVING WELL

BY PHIL HALL

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David and Victoria Beckham.

When it comes to growing older, you might want to consider David Beckham’s rules.

With the soccer superstar and spokesmodel, what you see is literally what you get. It’s all real, with nary a pharmaceutical injection or clever bit of scalpel work to tighten up any wobbly edges.

“Someone was like, ‘Botox is looking really good on David Beckham,’” recalls the 42-year-old soccer legend, talking about a social media rumor during a Jan. 16 interview with Britain’s Evening Standard.

“And I was like, ‘But I’ve got so many lines and wrinkles. How can someone think that?’”

While Beckham is not opposed to the concept of the old nip-and-tuck, he is happy with how he looks. “So, definitely, cosmetic surgery might be OK for some people,” he continues. “I’m not saying it’s bad. But for me, personally, never. Never. I have no interest in doing anything like that, ever. Growing old gracefully is my thing. I would never inject my face. Or my backside, obviously.”

But that’s not to say that Beckham doesn’t advocate proper care for men to look their best. In one of his latest ventures, Beckham is partnering with L’Oréal Luxe on a 13-product men’s grooming line called House 99 that consists of hair and skin products ranging from moisturizers for tattooed skin to beard balms. Launching in 19 countries, House 99 will be available in the United States via Ulta starting March 4.

As one of the most famous and photogenic faces in the sporting world, Beckham is no stranger to looking good for the camera and his fans. With House 99, he has emphasized that male grooming should be viewed with the same seriousness as any daily hygiene protocol.

“For me, grooming is not only about how you look, but how you feel,” he explains in a preview of the new line. “It’s about being comfortable, trying new things and shaping your next look. I created House 99 to give people the inspiration as well as the right products to experiment and feel completely at home doing so. House 99 is here to support men, to give them the tools they need to create whatever look they are going for.”

House 99 got its name, according to L’Oreal, by merging two components: “House reflects David’s goal to build an inclusive community of

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David Beckham

Victoria Beckham

grooming aficionados, to share style tips and recommendations in order to conquer every look and inspire new creations.”

As for “99,” the number he has tattooed on his hand, was the year he married Victoria, his eldest son Brooklyn was born and Manchester United, the team on which he was a player, won the treble, or three trophies in one season.

Skincare had been a bond between Beckham and Victoria, the former Spice Girl turned fashion designer, while they were dating.

“I had sunburn one week and she turned up with a big aloe vera leaf,” he says in the Evening Standard interview. “Not the whole pot, but like a whole leaf. That was the start of my male grooming.”

Of course, there are some disadvantages to having a famous face. “I am always conscious of it because I don’t get to walk down the street and not take a selfie at some point or not be recognized,” he continues. “I’m OK with it. I’m not rude to people if

they come up and ask me. I’ve come to terms with how my life is.”

And life has been very good lately for Beckham.

Not only is House 99 launching, but he is also fulfilling a long-standing professional dream of having a soccer team of his own. In January, Beckham announced his partnership in a new Major League Soccer franchise that will be based in Miami. While many details on this new endeavor are still in the planning stage, including the name of the team and when it would officially launch, this is a professional peak for an athlete who captained England’s national team and played for Manchester United, Real Madrid, Paris St.-Germain and the Los Angeles Galaxy.

“Anything I do in my life — business, family — I’m in 120 percent,” Beckham said at a press conference announcing the Miami deal. “And that’s the only way I see to be successful. I’ve played this game for many years. I’ve been lucky to have played in some of the biggest clubs in the world, under some of the biggest managers, with some of the best players.”

Beckham circled back to family by bringing a personal aspect to his Miami announcement. “I promised my son, who is here today, that I wouldn’t get emotional,” he said, trying but not quite succeeding. “But it’s very hard.”

Beckham’s devotion to family has become a defining aspect of his life. Victoria Beckham’s Instagram account offers a remarkably candid view of life in the Beckhams’ West London home with their children Brooklyn, 18, Cruz, 15, Romeo, 12, and Harper, 6. Family life comes through in some playful and wonderfully unlikely social media snapshots: He can be seen sewing doll dresses for daughter Harper, mounting a stepladder to hang Halloween decorations and happily serving up a birthday cake shaped like a cartoon caterpillar.

But that behavior is hardly for the sake of social media publicity. As he told a Goldman Sachs conference audience last November, his work/life balance swings heavily and unapologetically to life.

“Everyone’s busy, everyone has obligations, but my obligations (are) always my children, my family,” he observes. “It’s my one commitment that I try to never fail at, because I think that it’s my number-one priority. They’re the people that are there for me when I fail at things, when I’m successful and they’re the people that stand behind me.”

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MISSION: HEALTH

BY BILL HELTZEL

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Guatemala and New York Medical College are made for each other.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, center, tours the new dental school at New York Medical College in Valhalla.

Courtesy New York Medical College.

Guatemala has a high disease burden, and the college runs programs that could ameliorate the Central American country’s health care challenges.

So it wasn’t too strange to see Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales touring the college on Feb. 9 with government ministers.

Dr. Edward Halperin, New York Medical College chancellor and CEO, identified programs and knowhow that Guatemala could implement. “Every biotech incubator,” he said, citing the college’s signature entrepreneurial initiative, “has to solve a problem.”

Guatemalans suffer from high rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and infectious diseases. Food and waterborne diseases such as bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and typhoid fever are prevalent, according to the CIA World Factbook, as are vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever and malaria. The infant mortality rate is also high.

But misfortune can also be seen as an opportunity. Pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers need to test drugs and devices. Diseases that are ravaging the population, Halperin said, “could be an opportunity to improve health though clinical trials.”

Morales could have discovered the benefits of clinical trials anywhere. Why tour the Valhalla campus?

Only 11,000 Guatemalans were counted in Westchester’s 2010 census. The medical school is affiliated with Touro College, which has deep roots in the Jewish community, yet Guatemala, historically a Catholic country, has fewer than 2,000 Jews among its 16 million people.

But there is a deeper connection. Guatemala played a pivotal role in the creation of Israel as one of the first nations to support the 1947 Partition Plan for Palestine. Morales himself visited Israel in 2016, not long after he was elected, and he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In December, following the lead of President Trump, he formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

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Dr. Benjamin Chouake, an Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, physician, an ardent Zionist and a member of the medical school’s board of trustees, noticed.

So Morales was invited to tour the school, and college officials showed off programs that could be replicated in Guatemala, beginning with the biotech incubator.

The old tradition of inventing stuff in your parent’s garage — the Steve Jobs, Apple Computer origin story — doesn’t cut it in today’s biotech industry.

Startup enterprises, Halperin said, have to overcome the “biotech valley of death,” the three to seven years when they need lots of money to make ideas reality. They need sophisticated lab equipment, animal facilities for testing and access to investors. A college-based incubator enables small companies to share the kinds of specialized equipment and facilities that the Pfizers and Mercks of the world use, at affordable prices.

The Guatemalans were shown health education simulators. Why is it that pilots are expected to train on flight simulators for hundreds of hours before ever flying passengers, Halperin asked, whereas medical students have traditionally practiced on patients?

Students at New York Medical College learn how to take a medical history by examining pa-

tient-actors who depict particular diseases as professors monitor interactions remotely by camera.

They learn skills on robotic mannequins, such as resuscitating an infant, where the machine issues step-by-step instructions and measures the student’s technique. Mannequins, Halperin noted, are portable and thus easily adapted for health care training in rural areas.

The last stop was the dental school, where mannequins are also used for teaching.

It’s worth remembering, Halperin said, how much time and quality of life is lost to dental disease. Tooth decay and loss are strong markers of low income and low quality of life, he said. “Dentistry makes a big difference.”

Morales shared his impressions in a brief interview after the tour.

“It’s a formidable idea to be able to generate opportunities for small entrepreneurs who have good ideas,” he said about the incubator.

He thought simulators could give Guatemala a way to take better care of children and to provide more effective first aid.

“The other thing that was amazing to me,” the president said, “was visiting the state-of-the-art dental clinic.”

The ideas, he said, are worth analyzing.

Dr. Edward Halperin. Photograph by John Rizzo.

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CHECKMATES

STORY BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

ould the American Revolution have turned on a particularly engrossing game of chess? It’s possible, according to one legend.

Sunil Weeramantry recounts the story in a recent interview with WAG. It’s also featured in “Great Moves: Learning Chess Through History” (Mongoose Press, $29.95, 371 pages), which he co-authored with fellow White Plains resident Alan Abrams and Robert McClellan.

Before George Washington led his famed crossing of the Delaware River to attack Trenton, New Jersey, in December of 1776, a spy had sent word of the impending attack to the commander of England’s Hessian mercenaries stationed there. But Col. Johann Rall, legend has it, was so caught up in a game of chess that he never opened the letter, which was found on his body after he died in combat.

While it was never confirmed that the Hessian leader was playing chess, Weeramantry says it’s a plausible tale.

“If this had been said of a British person, I would not have believed it. The chess culture in England at that time wasn’t as developed,” says Weeramantry, a World Chess Federation master and executive director of the National Scholastic Chess Foundation. “But Germany was a whole other story. So it’s quite plausible that a German would have been playing chess. Unfortunately, they never found the chess set in the ruins of the battle.”

The story is one of many featured in “Great Moves,” a polished version of written lessons that Abrams and Weeramantry collaborated on years ago. Abrams taught chess from 1997 to 2012 at two Bronx elementary schools that went on to national championships. To add a reading component to his chess instruction, Abrams started writing brief histories of famous chess players that tied in the eras in which they played. He then sought out Weeramantry, whom he had met through a friend

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at the Yonkers Chess Club in the late 1990s, to analyze the moves made by the players.

Weeramantry competed internationally as a teenager and still competes today. (Following the interview with WAG, he caught a flight to Gibraltar for a tournament.) He won the New York State championship in 1975 and 2001. Four years after his first state championship, he started teaching chess at Hunter College Elementary School in Manhattan, where he established a chess program that is part of the school’s kindergarten through fifth-grade curriculum. He now oversees chess programs at more than 70 schools throughout the metro area and teaches workshops around the country.

Tying history to move-by-move chess instruction was a great concept, Weeramantry says, “because it made everything come alive. It helped capture the imagination. The kids could identify with the personalities and accomplishments of the players.”

It certainly got results. Abrams’ Bronx chess program was covered by The New York Post in 2006 after students from P.S. 291 took home first-place prizes in the K-3 and K-5 divisions at the National Elementary School Chess Championships in Denver, the school’s first, and again in 2010 when students took home another two national championships.

But after Abrams retired from spearheading the program and shifted to teaching chess privately, he says he and Weeramantry lost track of the book and efforts to have it published.

That’s where McLellan comes in. After joining Weeramantry’s scholastic chess foundation in 2014, the two were discussing projects to help spread scholastic chess when the book came up. It was a perfect fit, as Weeramantry describes it, for teachers looking for a literary or historical component to add to chess instruction.

After some polishing and additional research to broaden the historical focus — including a trip by McLellan to the Cleveland Public Library, home to one of the largest chess source book collections in the country — the book was published last year. It covers eras and players stretching back to the origins of chess as a military-inspired board game in eastern India’s Gupta Empire (circa 280-550 B.C.) with the modern game developing during the Middle Ages.

“Just like anything else, music or art or literature, you have different schools,” Weeramantry says. “You have the Romantic period, you have the Realist period, the Hypermodern period. With each, there are different movements and they align very well with movements in the arts.”

One chapter tells the life story of Paul Morphy.

Born in 1837 New Orleans, Morphy was a chess prodigy by age 10 and considered among the best of his era. The book first details the story of his early childhood leading up to a breakdown of a game he played as a 12-year-old against Hungarian chess master Johann Lowenthal.

It also includes historical facts and legends, such as the Revolutionary War story, that show the many ways chess is woven into world history. The book describes how Spain’s Queen Isabella is widely credited with increasing the range of moves the queen chess piece is allowed to make. It also documents the travels of The Turk, or Automaton Chess Player. While the purported chess-playing machine actually had a human operator, it was a sensation in its time. The Turk traveled the world, vexing challengers, who included Napoléon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin.

The book should be of interest to both students and adults, Abrams and Weeramantry say. In the classroom, Abrams says, chess can have lifelong benefits. He keeps in touch with many of his chess students, all of whom went on to college and now have successful careers.

“Chess has meant a lot to them, for all aspects of their life,” Abrams says, “how they learn to think, how they learn to plan ahead. They learn to take their time and look at all the possibilities.”

And you don’t need to be a chess expert to follow along. The only assumption is that readers know the basic rules of how each piece on a chessboard moves. Weeramantry pitched the book as a great coffee table tome as well as school textbook.

“This is a game that transcends all games,” he says. “It’s an ancient game and is still going strong. So what is the appeal?”

Like a grand master, “Great Moves” reveals much of chess’ magic.

For more, visit nscfchess.org.

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AT HOME WITH IDEAS

BY JANE K. DOVE

ost senior citizens want to enjoy their golden years in their homes.

But that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy cultivating lives outside the home as well.

“Our ‘Lunch and Learn’ is truly a special program that the seniors at our synagogue just love,” says Sarah Poland, coordinator of the Community Synagogue of Rye’s Senior Activities in a Jewish Environment initiative (SAJE).

The program was started 13 years ago by Iris and David Sampliner, who were also the original funders.

The couple felt there was nothing for the elderly members of the synagogue to do in their spare time that was interesting and educational, Poland says.

The idea was born and saw fruition with the additional help of Rhoda Fiddler.

“Unfortunately, Mrs. Sampliner passed away before the first programs got underway, but they are now thriving,” Poland adds.

Today “Lunch and Learn” meets twice a week and features lectures by an array of speakers, including WAG publisher/creative director Dee DelBello and editor-in-chief Georgette Gouveia.

“We…usually draw 20 to 25 people to each one,” Poland says. “We are proud of the diversity and we have people from the arts, education, the busi-

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Members of SAJE (Senior Activities in a Jewish Environment) participate in an “Antiques Roadshow”-style event.

Photograph by Sarah Poland. Courtesy Community Synagogue of Rye.

WE HAVE A VERY SAVVY CONGREGATION. THEY ARE UP ON EVERYTHING AND KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT WHEN THEY INTERACT WITH OUR SPEAKERS. — Sarah Poland

ness world, Broadway, writers, community activists. You name a category and we have probably had someone representing it.”

But it’s not just the minds of the listeners that are being sharpened, she adds. The “Lunch and Learn” events have gained a reputation for being sometimes challenging to the speakers.

“We have a very savvy congregation. They are up on everything and know what they are talking about when they interact with our speakers. Some speakers have even confessed to being a bit leery of getting in over their heads when some of our members speak up. We try to maintain a very high quality of speakers and so far have been able to do so. The back and forth is a lot of fun for everyone.”

“Lunch and Learn” is temporarily being held at Atria Rye Brook, a senior living community, because the synagogue is under renovation. “The people at Atria have been very kind and helpful and things have gone smoothly,” Poland says.

She believes “Lunch and Learn” has been a success because of the close-knit nature of the synagogue community as well as the interesting lineup of speakers. “No one is ever bored or boring,” she says.

“They are lively gatherings and that’s why people keep coming back for more.”

For information on upcoming lectures, contact info@comsynrye.org or 914-967-6262.

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HUMBLE ROOTS

BY JANE K. DOVE

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White Plains Hospital, celebrating 125 years of service to the community this year, got its start in a converted house in the city’s Chatterton Hill section, not far from the current state-of-the-art medical facility on East Post Road.

This small house in the Chatterton Hill section of White Plains marks the beginning of White Plains Hospital 125 years ago. Photographs courtesy White Plains Hospital.

Over the years, the hospital has become well known as a center of excellence for patients in Westchester and Fairfield counties and has remained “ahead of the curve” with new treatments and technology.

When White Plains Hospital was first established, the then-village of White Plains had the highest death rate in Westchester County, with pneumonia the principal cause. Many people looked at doctors with suspicion and hospitals were often regarded as a last resort before dying.

Despite this attitude, a group of 22 women and three men were determined to give White Plains a much-needed medical facility and organized themselves into the hospital’s first board of managers. The group was led by H. Ernest Schmid, MD, a dashing and well-known figure in the community. For 30 years, he visited patients from one end of the county to the other, either on horseback or in a buggy.

The first White Plains Hospital was far from impressive in appearance and amenities. Four beds and other furnishings were provided by the women on the board of managers. There was a lack of plumbing, an operating room without an operating table and a shed of a kitchen — all on a site that was described as “bleak.”

Despite the drawbacks, 28 patients were cared for — and cured — during the first year of operation.

Grateful for its existence, members of the community gave what they could in materials so the hospital could continue its work.

Four years later, the hospital’s managers realized that the house on Chatterton Hill was inadequate.

In 1897, the Fisher house on Lexington Avenue was purchased and opened with 12 beds. By the spring of 1903, the managers planned another move, purchasing property on which the present hospital now stands. Described as a “little red brick building,” the new hospital opened on Jan. 1, 1907, at a cost of $84,000.

The turn of the 20th century marked the beginning of many new initiatives for the fledgling hospital. Within the next three years, it opened its

own laboratory and nurses’ residence and selected its first resident physician, Edwin G. Ramsdell, MD, who later became chief of staff. His son, John, later held the same post until 1979.

In 1924, the hospital opened a new wing with furnishings supplied by the White Plains Auxiliary. By then, it had 100 beds. Another addition during the next three years brought the bed capacity to 122.

The Outpatient Department Clinic was opened in 1930 during the height of the Great Depression.

Staff doctors volunteered their services and the Junior League assumed clerical responsibilities.

(In l982, the department would be reorganized as the Family Health Center, with full-time physicians serving the indigent community.)

By 1937, the board of governors decided the original brick building was no longer adequate and launched a capital campaign to raise $1.2 million.

The old building was demolished and a new building constructed and dedicated on Dec. 24, 1939. As the century progressed, the hospital continued to grow, adding more wings and services and keeping pace with breakthroughs in medical technology.

One man who has seen much of that growth and progress is Ossie Dahl, who has been with the hospital for 39 years, most recently as vice president of facilities, and is now part-time administrative director of facilities.

Dahl explains, “What started out as a small single-family house is now a large ‘super block’ complex with our own parking garage and a cancer center that opened in 2015. The cancer center is totally state-of-the-art and provides the very latest in high-tech treatment.”

Dahl is proud of the hospital and what it has accomplished over the past 125 years. “The community grew and changed and we grew with it,” he says. “Personally, I don’t mind saying I think we are the finest hospital in Westchester. The patients we draw from other towns and communities are a testament to that.

“Our emergency room serves 60,000 patients each year, and we helped to pick up the overall

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demand caused by the closings of St. Agnes and United hospitals.”

Dahl adds that he feels privileged to have been able to work at White Plains Hospital and see it from many sides for so long. “The staff here, both medical and nonmedical, is just great,” he says.

“They are always looking out for the community and what they need. I never thought even once of leaving once I joined the team.”

It’s a sentiment shared by others, he adds. “We know the meaning of teamwork and the vast majority of us are very happy in what we do here.”

In his current role, Dahl is in charge of renovations being done to the interior of the hospital complex: “I couldn’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing. The hospital’s future is exciting and I am pleased to still be a part of it.”

Dahl says that White Plains Hospital has always been a true leader, never hesitating to invest in equipment and techniques that would improve outcomes for its patients.

“We are the best at what we do,” he says. “We care about the people and that caring is reflected in the quality of the services we provide. We are an important part of the fabric and life of the community and White Plains and the surrounding area would not be the same without our presence here.”

For more, visit wphospital.org.

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Dr. H. Ernest Schmid.

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WARES

DESIGNING A FUTURE

BY JANE MORGAN

etting that invitation was the highlight of my year. Mrs. Plant had asked me to come over for an afternoon visit, and I was incredulous and baffled as to what I had to offer her in the way of company or conversation. She was my third-grade teacher and, as it turned out, lived in the same town as I, although her house was on the other side of a street that bisected our neighborhoods. At that age, my corner of the earth was small and flat. It seemed to me that if I ventured beyond the area surrounding my house I might fall off it. Nevertheless, I set out for this grown-up adventure with the hope of experiencing something grand.

Later, sipping lemonade in her living room, I took in the pale, apple-green color of the sofa, the heaviness of the drapes, the dark walnut polish on the furniture and the shininess of the picture frames arranged carefully on top of a formal sideboard. I was intrigued. I felt newly aware and curious about my surroundings and so I piped up, “Can I see the upstairs?” Unfortunately, Mrs. Plant thought my request rude and shot me down. I had only wanted to see the layout of the space. I look back on this memory and simultaneously laugh at and applaud my own pluck.

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Farmhouse chic. Photograph by Marian Billet.

BUT LOOKING BACK, I CAN TRULY APPRECIATE WHAT INTERIOR DESIGN HAS AFFORDED ME — CHOICES AND OPPORTUNITIES AS A PROFESSIONAL WOMAN.

ment and redesigning it in my head.

When it was time for college, many of my friends were accepted at The Cooper Union School of Art and Pratt Institute. I badly wanted to attend a fine art school, too, but my parents were skeptical. Ever practical, my mother found what she considered a more suitable channel for my talent and presented me with an ad for the Fashion Institute of Technology that she had cut out of The New York Times’ education section. Design school, she said, would at least ensure that I could get a job afterward. That was OK with her.

She was right: I was employed one week after graduation. This was no small thing coming from a family for whom the “immigrant experience,” although one generation removed, was alive and well.

I went on to become the first woman in the family to live on my own, entirely self-supporting, pursuing a career. I didn’t really think much about that at the time, because I was too busy working hard and en-

joying city life. But looking back, I can truly appreciate what interior design has afforded me — choices and opportunities as a professional woman.

After college, I moved to Brooklyn — back when it was an affordable outpost — and, even though I couldn’t get anyone to visit me there, I spent a lot of time decorating my apartment, which I had the resources to do thanks to my mother’s example of cultivating frugal ways. While my contemporaries were throwing down expensive drinks in Manhattan and chasing each other around clubs, I was kicking back in a beautiful brownstone in an architecturally rich neighborhood. Those were my priorities then and now.

Having since moved to Westchester, I have proven against all popular wisdom that it is entirely possible to maintain a splendidly decorated home while raising a child, despite his attendant messes.

My interior design projects are mostly residential these days and, although I have been doing this for a long time, I still love it. With the advent of Instagram, I can binge-view gorgeously curated interior images all day long until I’m dizzy, which I do often. Now in the digital age, I have the freedom to peek at the upstairs of anyone’s house to my heart’s content.

For more, visit janemorganinteriordesign.com.

Farmhouse dining room. Photograph by Jane Morgan.

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WARES

WALLPAPER WOWS

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

ood advice from William Morris, a leading designer of the Arts and Crafts movement. Paint and/or wallpaper can make a statement by setting a mood or providing an accent as in the trend to do one wall in a contrasting color or with paper.

But wallpaper itself hasn’t always been so well thought of, according to “The Art of Wallpaper — Color, Draw, Create” ($19.95), a recent collaboration between the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and publisher Thames & Hudson. In 1760, French writer Mme. de Genlis denounced the shift from tapestries to newfangled papers as wall coverings, especially the taste for English wallpapers: “In the old days…the house was furnished with tapestries made to last as long as the building; the trees (people) planted were their children’s heritage; they were sacred woodlands. Today forests are felled and children are left with debts, paper on their walls, and new houses that fall to pieces.” (You can only wonder what she would make of America’s disposable culture.)

In the 250-plus years since Mme. de Genlis penned those withering words, wallpaper has gone in and out of fashion. Since it was first mass-produced in the mid19th century, it was designed “to look like something else — tapestry, velvet, chintz, silk drapery, linen, wood, masonry or a mural” — as the book’s historical overview notes. A century later, the floral chintz country look that had been in vogue began to give way to bold-

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Courtesy Thames & Hudson.

“WHATEVER YOU HAVE IN YOUR ROOMS, THINK FIRST OF THE WALLS, FOR THEY ARE THAT WHICH MAKES YOUR HOUSE AND HOME; AND IF YOU DO NOT MAKE SOME SACRIFICES IN THEIR FAVOUR, YOU WILL FIND YOUR CHAMBERS HAVE A KIND OF MAKESHIFT, LODGING-HOUSE LOOK ABOUT THEM….”

— William Morris, “The Lesser Arts of Life” (1882)

er contemporary designs, thanks to Lucienne Day and John Line’s Palladio and Modus designs.

With the return of retro chic in the 1990s, wallpaper has been added to the mix of wall décor.

(We ourselves use it to complementary effect in closets and to give our pink, black and white master bath a retro feminine yet wintry feel.)

Or you can rework traditional designs, as in “the

gritty urban environments…” of Glasgow-based studio Timorous Beasties.

“The Art of Wallpaper” not only tours you through 320 years of wallpaper design as culled from the V&A’s collection. It enables you to make your own based on pointers in the book.

For more, visit thamesandhudsonusa.com and vam.ac.uk.

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WHAT'S COLLECTIBLE

MID-CENTURY MASTER

H

BY JENNIFER PITMAN

ow does one begin to describe the Italian artist and designer Piero Fornasetti (1913-88)? His boundless imagination and energy were applied to an immense array of furniture and decorative arts, leaving a legacy of thousands of individual designs. Fornasetti reached the zenith of his popularity in the 1950s, only to have his idiosyncratic style fall from favor in the late ’60s. His work was rediscovered in the ’80s and today his charming designs are more popular than ever. His works are highly collectible and have inspired a host of imitators.

Artistic and headstrong from an early age, Fornasetti ignored his parents’ pleas to pursue accounting and instead attended the Brera Art Academy in Milan, where he was subsequently and summarily expelled for insubordination. At age 20, Fornasetti held his first exhibition of paintings and participated in his first Milan Triennale, the influential art and design fair. Fornasetti also began a fruitful decades-long collaboration with the architect Gio Ponti. Their works included almanacs, magazine covers, the zodiac-decorated private cabins for the fabled Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria and furniture featuring Ponti’s designs and Fornasetti’s decoration. Among the most renowned pieces are the architettura trumeaux, or bureau desks, that are decorated with Fornasetti’s drawings based on architectural prints.

At the height of Fornasetti’s popularity in the 1950s and early ’60s, his studio turned out all man-

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Trompe l'oeil Ombrelli umbrella stand, circa 1950-70, sold for $3,125 (estimate $800-$1,200). Courtesy Rago Arts and Auction.

ner of furniture, lamps, screens, scarves, plates, umbrella stands and even decorated bicycles. Fornasetti’s favored motifs included the sun, playing cards, books, harlequins, musical instruments, armor, hands, shells and butterflies.

Running through Fornasetti’s works were a number of recurring themes. One was a taste for classical Italian art and architecture, with a particular focus on Pompeii, ancient Rome and works by Palladio and Piranesi. The backs of his chairs were formed as Corinthian columns; architectural motifs were applied to obelisks and Piranesi’s designs; and the domes of Italian churches appear on his ceramic plates.

Also integral to Fornasetti’s work was his interest in illusion. He was forever altering perspectives and playing with contrasts in scale, and this is particularly evident in his furniture and screens. Trompe l’oeil — a type of design intended to create the illusion of a three-dimensional object — is prominent his work. He employed this technique most dramatically in his “Stanza Metafisica” (1955-58), a series of screens that completely transformed the room in which they were placed, and playfully in his holiday villa, where he painted passageways that led nowhere.

Fornasetti was also inspired by the expressive power of the face, particularly the faces of women.

This interest was manifested in combination with another key aspect of Fornasetti’s work — variation on

a theme. The best-known result of this and the work most associated with Fornasetti was "Themes and Variations.” It features more than 350 variations of the same woman's face — said to be inspired by the opera singer Lina Cavalieri. The variations were drawn in India ink to resemble an engraving and were primarily rendered on ceramic plates. The choice of a blackand-white palette in the series was another common theme found throughout Fornasetti’s work.

As Fornasetti’s style was so singular and unwavering over time, interest in his work inevitably began to wane. By 1970, his studio had shrunk from 30 employees in its heyday to only five. In the early ’80s, however, there was a resurgence in interest in Fornasetti’s work, largely credited to two London designers who opened a gallery named Themes and Variations, which began to sell select Fornasetti objects. With this renewed interest in his work, Fornasetti re-engaged and began a collaboration with his son Barnaba that would last until his death in 1988.

Sadly, Fornasetti didn't live to see the exhibition of his works at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1991-92, which cemented his legacy as a master of decorative arts. Interest in his work and the firm itself both still thrive today. In 2015, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris held a retrospective of Fornasetti’s work, curated by Barnaba.

Today, the Milan-based Fornasetti shop reissues

and adapts some of the staggering number of his designs, which are all meticulously catalogued and archived. More locally, Fornasetti’s work is available at Barney’s, at auction and through vintage dealers.

Jad Attal, Rago’s specialist in 20th- and 21st-century design, notes that Fornasetti’s prodigious and diverse output over so many years has resulted in a market that’s not easy to grapple with. As demand for Fornasetti’s work has grown, you encounter a mix of period pieces, later productions and even outright fakes. The Ponti/Fornasetti period pieces are the most valuable — a sideboard and dining suite brought $240,000 and $173,000 at auction, respectively.

The trumeaux and other case furniture are also quite valuable. The period pieces are more desirable but later limited-run productions can still bring prices in the tens of thousands at auction. Also highly sought after are the more whimsical and ubiquitous pieces, like umbrella stands and lamps that feature trompe l’oeil, strong graphics and bright colors.

If you just want to get your Fornasetti feet wet, the mass-produced black-and-white ceramics are more approachable. Ultimately, Attal says, “People buy visually. They buy Fornasetti with their eye.”

For more, see “Patrick Mauriès, Fornasetti: Designer of Dreams” (1991) and “Piero Foransetti, Practical Madness” (2015), or contact Jenny at jenny@ragoarts.com or 917-745-2730.

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Concerts are presented at: Performing Arts Center, Purchase College 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY. Programs, artists, dates and times subject to change. ©2018 Westchester Philharmonic, Inc.

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WEAR

A DREAM SPA DAY

BY DANIELLE RENDA

One of Valmont’s newest products is the Perfecting Powder Cream, a light-to-medium coverage foundation that glides on like a cream with a powder finish. Courtesy Valmont.

t felt like I’d had a facelift — without the pain and downtime.

Indeed, it was a most refreshing experience.

WAG was invited to SPA Valmont in the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, a French-flavored boutique hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, to try some of its new products firsthand. The Swiss-based company, synonymous with luxury skincare, had just announced three products — the Eye Instant Stress Relieving Mask, the Moisturizing Eye-C-Gel and the Perfecting Powder Cream.

And boy, do they work.

But the products’ effects are hardly a surprise.

Valmont is known for its Triple DNA solution, an exclusive blend that includes sperm from wild salmon sourced from British Columbia — yes, sperm — with water from a single Swiss glacier and natural ingredients grown in a garden in the Swiss Alps. The result is a potent emulsion that’s described as a weapon against dryness and aging.

As soon as we arrived, the luxury treatment began with a voluminous, sexy ’do by hairstylist Ric Pipino, whose clients include Lady Gaga, Donna Karan, Jaime Pressly, Petra Němcová and Elizabeth Banks.

With my locks looking luxuriant, I moved into a spa room where I experienced the products.

The Eye-C-Gel — which is slated to debut in April — doesn’t actually contain Vitamin C. Rather its name refers to the C-shape of the eye contour, where the product is applied. The gel combines the Triple DNA with plumping sugars for long-lasting hydration, silanol — to boost collagen production — and menthyl lactate, which offers a cooling sensation. The result is an invigorating refresh that creates plump, vibrant,

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The Perfecting Powder Cream was developed through collaboration between makeup artist Mina Matsumura and Valmont Group CEO Sophie Guillon. Here, Matsumura gives Wagger Danielle Renda a day-to-evening look, using the product to prep the skin. Photograph by Dan Viteri.

youthful skin ($105).

Next was the Eye Instant Stress Relieving Mask — also slated to retail in April — which is a great companion for on-the-go guys and gals. The portable treatment contains a precursor solution, which is packaged separately from the under-eye masks. This is done purposely to avoid the lack of concentration associated with presoaked masks.

Upon pressing the solution, the mask becomes thoroughly saturated. After just 15 minutes — in the morning, before bedtime or even before a dinner date — your eyes feel energized. The precursor contains caffeine, which helps with puffiness; green tea, an antioxidant; arnica, a perennial with anti-inflammatory agents; and mucocele polysaccharides, which encourage cellular renewal and hydration ($145 for a set of five applications).

With my skin feeling refreshed, I was ready for makeup artist Mina Matsumura to work her magic.

Matsumura — who has worked for film studios, fashion shows and magazines like Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire — collaborated with Sophie Guillon, the CEO of Valmont Group, to create the Perfecting Powder Cream. The product is actually a light-to-medium coverage foundation that glides onto the skin like a cream and then morphs into a silky powder.

Available in four shades — fair porcelain, fair nude, medium beige and warm beige — it combines Valmont’s signature Triple DNA with its H2 Complex, which mixes squalene from olives with sorbitol to enhance the skin’s natural glow. And when exposed to the sun’s UV rays, the product’s Silicium D2 Complex triggers the production of collagen to protect the skin, along with added SPF. Even the applicator is specially made. The sponge was designed with Cellbian sponge technology, which offers an antimicrobial that shields the skin from breakouts, a common frustration with traditional, porous cosmetic sponges ($145, retailing this month).

Armed with a hairdo courtesy of Pepino, a makeover courtesy of Matsumura and Valmont’s exclusive products, I felt a confidence that was — most important — underscored by my healthy skin.

Valmont’s products are available at the SPA Valmont at Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Manhattan, the Hotel Bel-Air Spa in Los Angeles, the Delamar Greenwich Harbor and on the company website.

In May, Valmont is slated to announce its grand opening for retail in Saks Fifth Avenue stores.

The SPA Valmont at Hôtel Plaza Athénée is at 37 E. 64 St. in Manhattan. For more, visit valmontcosmetics.com.

S WEAR

tephanie Doucette is a rescuer.

Of fabrics, that is.

The spunky owner of SWING, a women’s and children’s boutique in Cold Spring, is committed to spotlighting collections made from salvaged vintage fabrics, buttons and trimmings, or those with an eco-friendly edge. It’s that dedication to reclamation that defines her brands — Doucette Duval, her women’s line, and Petite Duval, her kids’ line — along with a lot of panache.

“That was definitely a huge focus from the beginning — local and rescue,” Doucette says. “I put all of my efforts into sourcing, because for me, the collection always begins with the fabric.”

SWING, which celebrated four years in February, boasts a cool, laid-back vibe, with wardrobe-building must-haves and gift-giving staples. Located on Main Street, just a short walk from the village’s Metro-North station — not to mention, breathtaking views of the Hudson River — the store has a welcoming soundtrack that includes Beyoncé’s “Run the World (Girls),” a fitting song with a catchy chorus that chants, “Who run the world? Girls.”

A PASSION FOR REPURPOSED FASHION

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIELLE RENDA

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Stephanie Doucette rearranges a mannequin displaying an outfit from Petite Doucette, her children’s collection.

Doucette’s eclectic clothing boasts every color and covers every fashion need, from casual to professional, night out to leisure. A glass table calls attention to Commando, a Vermont-based woman-owned, luxury undergarment brand — because, Doucette says, “It begins and ends with undergarments” — and another to Parker Smith, a Los Angeles-based, eco-friendly, woman-owned denim brand, which recently joined the store. Winter accessories (including hats, gloves and scarves) line the walls alongside unique jewelry, gifts for kids (like backpacks, puzzles, watches and hair embellishments) and books for all ages.

“Everybody needs to be reading,” she says.

The store showcases a wide selection of items, which are all made domestically. The brands are researched, selected and sourced by Doucette, who never sways from her mission.

“Everything in this store is super-curated and very purposeful,” she says. “There’s no fluff. I cut the fat. I don’t want anything unless I totally believe in it and I stand behind it.”

Vintage fabrics always enamored Doucette, who became involved in the fashion business after relocating from Los Angeles — where she was a yoga instructor — to Manhattan’s Little Italy to be with her husband. She managed the Fifth Avenue Intermix store for a number of years, then befriended a new neighbor, who shared her love for all things vintage.

It was the early 2000s and the pair noticed a gap in the market for ultra-feminine vintage clothing, such as slips, elegant gloves and capelets — which eventually evolved into a successful dress and coat collection that was designed and produced in New York, 20 blocks from Doucette’s new apartment in Chelsea. In 2005, she debuted the collection, Doucette Duval, in the Chelsea Hotel.

“We were super-underground. We were very girl-in-the-know, and we loaned our stuff to everybody,” Doucette says.

Though her idea for the collection had changed, her commitment to vintage, the environment and rescued fabrics remains consistent.

“I always, from the beginning, was committed to doing things hyper-locally. It was all about the Garment District,” she says. “Seventy percent of the collection was rescued goods, which means that I was finding goods that could have come from a high-end luxury house.”

She recalls a supplier who sold Doucette her grandmother’s embroidered cottons.

“You can’t find fabric like that anymore,” she says.

Doucette’s imprint in the fashion world would evolve again, following the birth of her three children (Wilson, 10, and twins Max and Charlie, 7) and her business partner’s departure.

“I was still manufacturing on my own, partner-less, three babes,” she says. “I could see myself nursing and then (rushing) up to the studio,” she adds with a laugh.

Doucette and her family moved out of the city to Cold Spring, where she opened SWING with her good friend, Evan Ross, who previously owned Frock, a women’s designer vintage store in Manhattan for some 20 years. After two years, Ross returned to his old stomping grounds — he missed the city, Doucette says, which left her to run the show. And she continues to do so, selling women’s and kids’ clothing and accessories that are all designed, created and produced by a team in her Big Apple studio.

“Everything is created with my eye on the needle in New York City,” Doucette says. “The fabric has already been made. It’s not like I have to make

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a robin’s egg blue, triple crepe dress in silk this season for my March delivery. No,” she says with a smile. “I’ll see what I can find.”

Doucette is committed to lowering the massive carbon footprint left by the fashion industry’s disposable clothing movement, she says. By retailing low-cost items in bulk, clothes are being discarded at record high numbers and winding up in landfills, destroying the environments of other countries. The manufacturing of these clothes, she says, is often done by children. To convey her mission of repurposing, Doucette plans to create an in-store space where women and girls can choose from dresses they can borrow for free.

“If they have to go somewhere and they can’t afford one of my dresses, or maybe they just don’t want to buy something, they can borrow mine,” Doucette says. “Borrow it. Share it. I don’t really like the word, ‘rent.’”

The idea perfectly binds with her overall vision for the store.

“That’s life, man,” she says. “You do have to ‘SWING’ or else. You’ve got to be flexi. The key to life is moderation and flexibility.”

SWING is at 65 Main St. in Cold Spring. For more, visit swingshopping.com or call 845809-5955.

Doucette’s designing process begins with finding the right vintage fabric, which is the focal point of her creations.

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WEAR

‘BLOOMIE’S IN BLOOM’

BY DANIELLE RENDA

TRENDING WITH THEORY Theory’s Stretch-Wool Blazer Dress is a great piece for the winter-spring transition. Designed for a contemporary fit, the double-breasted dress features peak lapels, a crossover V-neck, long sleeves and button cuffs as well as a grid print and a nipped-waist silhouette. Pair it with simple heels for the warmer days or over-the-knee boots and a scarf for added coverage. $575.

KOOL WITH KATE If slide sandals aren’t your thing, Kate Spade New York’s Glendi Mules are sure to catch your attention.

These shoes feature a square-toed, slip-on style with a gold-tone, chain-link detail in the front, along with a gold glitter-covered, fabric upper, a leather lining and a leather sole. Sparkle day or night. $278.

PRETTY WITH PASQUALE Of course, no ensemble is complete without complementary jewelry. This 18-karat Rose Gold Floral Milky Quartz Ring by Pasquale Bruni is delicate enough to harmonize with any outfit but distinctive enough to make its own statement. Not to mention, quartz has many healing properties, like boosting energy and enhancing clarity. $1,450.

NEW TO BLOOMIE’S

loomingdale’s Westchester is gearing up for spring with “Bloomie’s in Bloom,” a fashion show spotlighting the latest trends, set for March 17, St Patrick’s Day, at 1 p.m.

This year, the store will be stocked with playful, ready-towear trends, from pretty pastels to frisky ruffles to bountiful botanicals — along with 50 shades of suiting, an ode to “Fifty Shades Freed,” the third film in the E. L. James trilogy.

Trends in accessories reflect a laid-back, SoCal vibe — perfect as a precursor to summer — with straw and raffia textures and slides and mules, preferably in white.

Here are a few key selections: FLORAL FUN Ramy Brook’s Meghan Silk Dress is part of Bloomingdale’s 100-Percent Exclusive campaign.

The fitted dress — which boasts a V-neck and back and shirred waistband — features a palm print in delicate shades of green. A tiered hem offers added body.

This is the perfect look for a backyard get-together — or a tropical getaway. $425.

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TOTALLY TORY Tory Burch’s Floral Continental Leather Wallet is way to dip your toe (or rather, your fingers) into bold prints. The wallet features a lined, zip closure, with two interior slip pockets, one interior zip pocket and eight interior credit card slots. $238.

SLIDE INTO ZANOTTI Giuseppe Zanotti’s Embellished Suede Slide Sandals are sure to add some shimmer and shine. The dazzling effect comes from Swarovski crystals surrounded by glass beads coupled with leather. $650.

RAD WITH REBECCA Set your sights on Rebecca Minkoff ’s Round Crossbody Bag. This stylish, pastel pink number is versatile with thin straps for a convenient, crossbody wear and handles for classic carry. It’s slated to be available in Bloomingdale’s stores the beginning of this month $195.

TRULY TED A rose petal pink dress by Ted Baker is also new to Bloomie’s this month. The shorter length adds a flirty twist, which is complemented by the ruffled one-shoulder style. Featuring ruching at the waist and striped mesh on the collar and bottom hem, this dress is one that’ll get you noticed — in a most feminine way. $195.

To reserve a space for “Bloomie’s in Bloom,” email rsvpwhiteplains@bloomingdales.com. For more, visit bloomingdales.com.

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WEAR

LOVING THE BLOWOUT

I

BY DANIELLE RENDA

t’s one of the most common hair vexations known to (wo)man.

You have something important to do, someone important to meet or you’re inclined to liven up your look, but the stress of teasing, straightening or blow-drying your tired tresses leaves you opting for the same old ‘do.

Blo Blow Dry Bar in Greenwich has a solution — and it’s all in its neon pink “menu” book.

The salon, which held its grand opening Jan. 19, is part of a growing Canadian franchise that’s showing love to the not-so-traditional blowout. (Cuts and color need not apply.) With nearly 100 locations, including two in Connecticut, clients are comforted with the playful — but oh-so-true — motto: “You’re not cheating on your hairdresser.”

No cut, no color, no commitment. Simply a fresh new look for on-the-go women.

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Bruce and Marianne Hammer, center, with, from left, stylists Beverly Hills, Chastity Rivera, Florence Marie SeneQue and Lauren Beeman.

The 1,200-square-foot space has a high-spirited ambiance with pops of pink sprinkled throughout its sleek stainless steel counters. The eight styling stations boast lush white chairs, as well as a makeup station, where clients can have their hair and makeup done simultaneously.

How’s that for a swift pampering sesh?

The stylists — referred to as expertly-trained “blo-ers” — offer a selection of seven signature ’do’s ($45), including high society (a classic topknot), pillow talk (a sexy bed-head look), red carpet (a runway-ready, high-volume look), go fish (a simple fishtail braid), holly would (bouncy curls), executive sweet (pin-straight), and hunt club (a genteel ponytail, styled high or low). If a client is seeking something more adventurous that, perhaps, isn’t on the menu, they may Styling chairs at Blo Blow Dry Bar in Greenwich. opt for the Up Do a La Carte, and the stylists will replicate the look.

Clients may also select the Blo on the Go bridal service, which brings the Blo services to any event. Or brides approaching the big day can request Blo’s signature bridal bar, which includes a personalized consultation.

The salon is owned by the husband-and-wife team of Bruce and Marianne Hammer, who live in

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New Rochelle. Having worked in the marketing industry for years, the pair — parents of two — became interested in opening their own business a few years ago. When they came upon Blo, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to invest in their future — and their locks — while making clients look (and feel) their most beautiful.

Not to mention, Marianne has always been a fan of blowouts herself. With her beautiful brown hair styled in face-framing waves, she spoke enthusiastically of offering services that served to boost her clients’ confidence.

A self-confessed diva, I was more than thrilled to select the pillow talk style from Blo’s little pink book, something different from my usual straightened look. Lauren Beeman, who has been styling hair for 10 years, provided exceptional service as she tackled the task of taming my lush locks. After a shampoo and conditioning session, she got to work and, in just 45 minutes, I left the salon with a tousled bed-head look that was both sexy and long-lasting.

I couldn’t ask for better than that.

Blo Blow Dry Bar is at 6 Greenwich Ave., Greenwich. The hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Thursdays through Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Walk-ins are accepted. For more, including reservations, visit blomedry.com or call 203-340-9176.

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WEAR

here are no workstations in Maison D’Alexandre.

Instead, owner Alexandre Chouery selected 16-foot-long walnut dining tables — yes, dining tables — for use at his Greenwich-based salon.

His goal was to create a palatial experience for his clients, while providing royal treatment. And the resulting furnishings — which were all handpicked by Chouery, along with the architectural and interior design — are a reflection of just that.

“When I decide to do something, I want to do it 100 percent, or I don’t do it,” Chouery says.

The salon, which is decorated in denim-blue and gold, resembles more of a combination of a spa and luxury lounge than a traditional hair salon.

“I wanted to combine the New World with the Old World,” says Chouery, whose international career spans some 25 years.

To that end, he has selected refreshing scents, Gallic music and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves to showcase products. Even the front desk is more of a study than a reception area.

Chouery opened the salon in July 2017, though his eyes have been long set on the three-floor building, which dates from 1904.

“There’s a story in this building, which made me more attached to it,” he says, “because you can go and create a beautiful new building, but you cannot recreate history.”

Chouery drew on elements from his eclectic back-

The décor of Maison D’Alexandre is that of a spa or an old-fashioned lounge. Pictured here is the front desk, with products displayed in a floor-to-ceiling bookcase.

ROYAL TREATMENT MINUTES FROM HOME

BY DANIELLE RENDA

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ground. He was born in Béruges, France, to a Greek mother and holds American, French and Lebanese citizenship. He trained under Jacques Dessange, a Parisian hairdresser and partner to the Cannes Festival, who has more than 365 salons worldwide.

“I was always inspired by him,” Chouery says. “I’m still, every moment, inspired by him.”

It was under Dessange that Chouery learned a special technique of cutting hair. But he’s always been passionate about styling.

“I always knew that this is what I wanted to do,” he says.

In addition to styling — which is priced at $250 for a haircut with Chouery and $200 with Rabih Fakhoury, creative director of style — the salon offers hair therapies and coloration services, along with makeup application, a brow atelier, and nail therapy.

I am delighted to experience a few of the salon’s many options. I begin with a consultation by colorist Ariel Zona, who identified my treatment as the 20-minute Bespoke Advanced Hair Therapy by Leonor Greyl/Phyto ($65). The products used by Leonor Greyl and Phyto, both family-owned businesses, are oil-based, Zona explains, to better detox the scalp and nourish the hair.

This is followed by a cupping treatment for the scalp. Cupping is an ancient technique gaining credence today in which a cup is momentarily applied

Alexandre Chouery, the owner of Maison D’Alexandre.

to the skin to create suction. Coupled with the Leonor Greyl/Phyto products, which included natural vegetal oils and plant extracts, this treatment proves invigorating and refreshing and certainly helps to alleviate stress and tension ($150 for a one-hour treatment).

After a cut by Chouery, I feel like a new woman, but I didn’t expect anything less. The cuts at Maison D’Alexandre revolve around a client’s needs, lifestyles and habits, like coloring and washing frequency.

“We know who you are; we know what you like; we know what you don’t like,” he says. “The energy in the salon is very welcoming so that you feel at home, and not just like a client.”

The celebrity treatment doesn’t end there. Afterwards, I have my eye makeup applied ($65) by makeup artist Vera Nicolla, to create a more natural look than my usual. Nicolla also provides eyebrow threading ($50) and has my brows looking better than they’ve ever looked.

Let’s just say that if the salon weren’t closing for the evening, I probably would have never left. Chourey says there’s a medical spa and office in the works on the second floor, along with a rooftop deck and relaxation area. So I’ll be returning in the future.

Maison D’Alexandre is at 33 Lewis St. in Greenwich. For more, visit maisondalexandre.com or call 203-661-1111.

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was voted Finland’s national painting, and you’ll remember it long after leaving the Ateneum.

One memorable evening, I had the pleasure of attending a Jean Sebelius concert by the Tapiola Sinfonietta held at Helsinki University Hall, the very room where Sebelius began his career in 1899. Conductor Leif Segerstam — he of the downy beard and hair -was so joyous and irrepressible that you could not but glide along on his flourishing baton as he conducted the glorious Symphony No. 1 in E minor.

WANDERS

QUIETLY DISTINCT FINLAND

D

BY BARBARA BARTON SLOANE

esign should never say, “Look at me.” It should always say, “Look at this.” And so it does in Finland. A few years back, the capital city of Helsinki was chosen to be the World Design Capital and, true to the quote, accepted the mantle, as did Finland, with the quiet dignity that compels you to look at it all, savoring the country’s stark beauty, the artistic, cutting-edge design visible everywhere and, most especially, the people who make you feel most welcome.

HELSINKI HIGHLIGHTS This stylish, relaxed city is a dream destination for walkers as most of the important sights are conveniently situated in the city’s center. There are 80 intriguing museums here, enough to keep you busy for your entire stay. One appealing feature of Helsinki’s location is that there are ferry connections to Estonia, Sweden and St. Petersburg, Russia. Visitors often plan a one- or two-day excursion, using Helsinki as home base.

The Design District is Helsinki’s arts and crafts-oriented neighborhood, a cluster of creative businesses that offers a wide range of designer shops, interior decorating studios, antiques dealers and jewelry boutiques. I visited some of the workshops and saw design being created right before my eyes. At a silver shop, I looked on as the

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Wooden storehouses in Porvoo. Courtesy Finland Travel Bureau.

designer made a lacy, filigree pendant and added the finishing touches to a heavy silver ring set with a fine piece of jade. The innovative be&liv studio offers contemporary home décor and lifestyle items.

I was seduced by an adorable tabletop accessory, a decorative fruit bowl made of individual petal-like pieces. Its organic shape resembled that of a perky pink flower and I quickly decided that this piece of whimsy was going home with me.

When one thinks of cool, elegant design, thoughts invariably go to Marimekko. The company was founded in 1951 by Viljo and Armi Ratia, who, after their oil cloth factory failed, asked some of their artist friends to apply their graphic designs to textiles.

They then begin using this fabric to sell a line of simple dresses. Around 1960, Maija Isola designed the iconic Unikko (poppy) pattern and Jacqueline Kennedy bought eight Marimekko dresses that she wore throughout her husband’s presidential campaign.

Market Square is lively and bustling with vendors selling everything from berries to clothing and jewelry. I had a pleasant morning sitting at a café, drinking coffee brewed strong and steaming, complemented by some fresh Finnish cloudberries, and allowing myself to be caressed by sea breezes right beyond my table.

Because you won’t have time to see all 80 of Helsinki’s museums in a single visit, may I suggest one that you must not miss? It’s the Ateneum, which houses the largest art collection in the country, displaying Finnish art from the 1750s to the 1960s and Western art from the late 19th century to the 1950s. It also contains the first Van Gogh ever placed in a museum and Hugo Simberg’s haunting “The Wounded Angel” (1903) a Symbolist painting depicting two boys carrying the titular angel — eyes bandaged, wings drooping — off to the Blind Girl’s School, a popular charitable institution in Simberg’s day. (The painting’s meaning may also owe something to Simberg’s suffering from meningitis at the time he painted it. The angel carries snowdrops, a symbol of healing and resurrection.) “The Wounded Angel”

PORVOO PLEASURES A convenient hour’s drive east of Helsinki, medieval Porvoo is Finland’s second oldest city, rich in history, with red, wooden storehouses that line the river and testify to the city’s heyday as a major port for merchant ships plying the world’s oceans. High on a hill sits Porvoo’s most recognizable landmark — the Lutheran Cathedral, which has dominated the place since the early 1400s. We strolled through Old Town, built on a dense labyrinth of narrow cobblestone streets and alleyways and lined with colorful cottages, galleries and boutiques.

It is there that we explored the Porvoo Museum with exhibits on the city’s history, including artifacts and art. The museum recently debuted a fine exhibit on Porvoo’s prehistoric times and the Middle Ages.

Holm House, a part of the museum, was built in 1763 and offers an opportunity to see how a wealthy merchant family lived at the end of the 18th century.

Porvoo is known for its sweets so naturally we couldn’t leave without answering the call of our sweet tooth. Locals told us to visit The Little Chocolate Factory on Church Square. True to its name, the shop was so tiny we were barely able to fit through the door. But, not to be deterred, we were rewarded with rich and sumptuous chocolates, a treat I’d squeeze through this door for again in a heartbeat.

TOOLING AROUND TURKU TOWN Turku has played a very vital role in Finnish history, being the oldest city in the country and the first capital of Finland. Founded in 1229, Turku is situated in the southwest region, the oldest inhabited area dating back 8,500 years. Fast-forward to modern times: Turku has been recognized as a European Capital of Culture, together with Tallinn, Estonia.

With its pristine countryside and an amazing archipelago nearby, Turku today provides lush and imposing sights to behold. The area is famous for its manor houses where historical figures lived and reigned, surrounded by lovely parks and gardens.

We climbed up Unikankare Hill to Turku Cathedral, the heart of the Lutheran Church in Finland and the country’s national shrine, completed at the end of the 13th century. How fortunate were we that, as we stood gazing at the intricate carvings in the ceiling, the cathedral’s famed 81-stop organ, built by the Finnish company Veiko Virtanen, began sounding.

Surrounded by so much imposing beauty and the soft tones of this special organ, we could not help but feel it was a truly magical moment.

For more, go to visitfinland.com.

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WANDERS

AT HOME ON THE ROAD

BY JEREMY WAYNE

W

hat’s the minimum you look for in hotels?

For me, a hotel has to be at least as comfortable as my own home, which honestly isn’t saying much because my own home isn’t that comfortable. But it’s mine — well, mine and the bank’s — and that means I know how the lights go on and off, how to turn up the heat or air conditioning, how the drapes open and close and how to operate the shower.

In my own home, despite it needing a lick of paint and the boiler not being in its first flush of youth, I get cotton sheets, reasonably clean towels and high-speed internet. And I can make a cup of tea or coffee any time of the day or night without having to ask someone’s help and without it costing me an arm and a leg. In a hotel, I expect nothing less — and so should you.

But now we have design hotels, where everything looks insanely on trend, or beyond trend, but nothing really adds up. Part of me dislikes design

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hotels intensely — the presumption that the developer or designer knows my taste better than I do.

But then again, another part of me salutes them — or the best of them. The bravura, the vision, the nous, the chutzpah, the sheer cleverness, the way design never sits still and won’t let us, the hotel guest, sit still either.

And the crux of it is this — the best design hotels don’t date. Take Hotel Arts Barcelona. Opened in 1992, just in time for the Barcelona Olympics, the Arts is widely looked upon as one of the first “design” hotels and, on a recent revisit, let me tell you, it looked as new and fresh as the first time I stayed there, more than 20 years ago. Beautiful handmade furniture, “timeless” taupe and cream upholstery, an abundance of blond wood and sympathy of scale mean that for me the Arts will always be number one in the Catalan capital.

Not only does good design not date, as opposed to fashion, but the best of it goes hand in hand with comfort, something that the best designers — and the best hoteliers — totally get, like Tim and Kit Kemp. Their clutch of London hotels, including the Covent Garden Hotel, the Haymarket, The Soho and Ham Yard, a kind of bucolic urban retreat improbably located just off Piccadilly

The Whitby Hotel bar, top; and The Orangery at The Whitby Hotel, right. Photographs by Simon Brown; and, opposite top, exterior of The Curtain, London. Photograph by Adrian Houston.

Circus — celebrate bold and witty design, while always digging deeper to find ways to coddle and pamper their guests.

The unique Kemp aesthetic has also shifted seamlessly to New York. In 2009, they opened the Crosby in Soho, where the brick, stone, glass and industrial minimalist design belies sumptuous interiors and old and modern art, juxtaposed with vibrant fabrics, avant-garde cocktails and classic English afternoon tea, all combining to provide a thoroughly eclectic — but cohesive — experience.

Last year, the Kemps followed up with The Whitby in midtown — clean lines, geometric patterns, a psychedelic riot of purples, greens and mauves with chevrons and ogees running amok. If it has to be a design hotel, please let it be The Whitby.

Of course, design is not a one-way street or ocean. On the other side of the Pond in the neighborhood of Shoreditch — London’s hipster answer to Brooklyn — Michael Achenbaum of New York City’s Gansevoort fame, has opened the 120-room Curtain hotel, a purpose-built, utilitarian-looking red brick building, complete with exposed brick walls and black-framed factory windows.

So far, so bad, but at The Curtain I quickly discovered that the design indeed pays homage to

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A deluxe one-bedroom suite at the Crosby Street Hotel, New York.

Photograph by Simon Brown.

this gritty part of London, while staying focused on comfort and convenience. The guest rooms and bathrooms are an ergonomic dream — everything is where you want or need it to be — and, crucially for Shoreditch, the hotel boasts no fewer than seven bars, plus a trolley that comes a-callin’ by your room at cocktail hour. How cool is that?

There’s a rooftop pool, naturally, where the sun always seems to shine (in London, yet) and the icing on the cake is that Marcus Samuelsson has opened a branch, or perhaps one should say a version, of his Red Rooster restaurant in the basement, so that homesick Harlemites or Southerners can get their chicken fix.

Are you going to Melbourne, Australia, anytime soon? No, me neither, and more’s the pity, since it’s summer there while it’s winter here. But if I were, I’d be staying at the Ovolo Laneways, because for all its overwrought design, mismatched fabric, clinical white walls and curious curios, it’s a supremely comfortable kind of place, located right where I want to be by Parliament Station in downtown.

Nearer than Australasia, you really must try the new Kimpton DeWitt in Amsterdam, where Ava Bradley’s contemporary design incorporates the softest fabrics and the smoothest bed linen, with a pastel palette that instinctively feels right.

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LIDO at The Curtain, London. Photograph by Adrian Houston.

NOT ONLY DOES GOOD DESIGN NOT DATE, AS OPPOSED TO FASHION, BUT THE BEST OF IT GOES HAND IN HAND WITH COMFORT, SOMETHING THAT THE BEST DESIGNERS — AND THE BEST HOTELIERS — TOTALLY GET.”

excited about the opening slated for next year of the Baltimore Revival, from the smart Colorado-based Joie de Vivre hotel group, which with their quilts, local art and wood-paneled headboards seems to understand that design has its place but never at the expense of comfort.

Design can answer for a multitude of sins. I don’t want to sit at a table so low that my legs go into spasm as I try to tuck them under it or suspend myself in a kinky wicker cradle masquerading as a chair, looking like a self-conscious extra in “Emmanuelle ll.” I really would prefer not to recline on a chaise longue so “designed” it destroys my lumbar or perch awkwardly in a hotel lobby on an inflatable sofa that squelches embarrassingly and makes my limbs go into free fall.

And, while we’re on the subject, not that I’m a technophobe or anything, I don’t necessarily want to press buttons to make blinds go up and down, feeling like the baddie in a bad Bond movie, or order my soft-boiled eggs on an iPad or download an app so that I can check in a day in advance on my smart phone, or worse, be checked in by a robot.

Because it really is happening, and it’s happening at a hotel near you soon. So to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, good design and innovation for design and innovation’s sake, but common sense for God’s sake.

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CHARMED BY CHARLESTON

BY DEBBI K. KICKHAM

rock. Yes, I really do. Because the Belmond Charleston Place in Charleston, South Carolina, says so.

This luxury hotel’s “Do Not Disturb” sign is a little bag — which used to hold grits — and is now weighed down with a rock, for three reasons. One is to let you know about the hotel’s warm stone massages in the spa. Two is to keep the privacy bag in place when hung on the doorknob. And three is to congratulate you for making the rock-solid right choice of hotel in Charleston.

You not only rock when you visit the Belmond Charleston Place — you rule. This charming hotel features an exquisite Tara-like staircase in its lobby, its very presence signaling the height of Southern luxury to come in your stay. In other words, Scarlett O’Hara would have felt right at home here (especially since Charleston is where her husband, Rhett Butler, heads after he leaves her at the end of “Gone With the Wind”).

“I'm going to Charleston, back where I belong” Clark Gable’s Rhett tells Vivien Leigh’s weeping Scarlett. “I want to see if somewhere there isn’t something left in life of charm and grace.” Charm and grace: We found that and more.

At the Belmond, we were happily ensconced in a deluxe room featuring all modern luxuries and an extremely comfortable bed. We especially enjoyed staying on the seventh floor, which allows guest access to the Club Lounge. I encourage you to go for it: All day long there are food presentations, including a luscious spread for continental breakfast, snacks for lunch, great appetizers for dinnertime and, finally at 8 p.m., yummy desserts and cordials. Staying on a Club floor is well worth it (our room was about $499 for a double) and the service is incomparable. (Make sure

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to order the delicious peach iced tea.)

When you can drag yourself away from the Belmond — which we found very hard to do — take a delightful “Charleston Strolls” history tour of the area ($25 per person). Actually, the hotel is located in a special section of Meeting Street that is called Museum Mile. It includes six museums, five historic houses, four parks and numerous historic houses of worship and public buildings. Our guide, Nancy, provided vivid descriptions of the area and was a walking encyclopedia of all things Charleston.

A brief history lesson: Charleston was settled in 1680 by English colonists on land granted by King Charles II and thus called Charles Towne. By the early 1800s, Charleston had become a very busy seaport and a desirable place to live and do business, almost as significant as New York. Charleston’s wealth and opulence bred an aristocratic society that had a lively interest in the arts. Even as early as the 1700s, in the first census of the city, nine of the 10 richest men in America lived there. And their homes showed it.

Charleston boasts numerous mansions dressed with lustrous marble floors, fine chandeliers, silk draperies and prized furnishings. The first types of preservation laws were passed here. Not only is Charleston seen as the perfect 18th-century American city but it is also the number one wedding destination in the States (beating out Las Vegas) — even though a judge at the time described Charleston as “too small to be a republic but too large to be an insane asylum.”

In truth, Charleston is one of those rare cities, which has paid a lot of attention to preserving its past. The cobblestone streets immediately transport you back to another time. Look around, and you’ll see copper lanterns, hitching posts and other visual elements helping to create memorable streetscapes.

Look for Carolopolis Award plaques, which have been awarded to owners who preserved or replicated historic properties. Inside and out, you’ll enjoy a visual feast of ornate plasterwork, period antiques, paneled ballrooms, formal gardens and more. It’s no wonder these reflections of colonial wealth helped position the downtown area to be designated a National Historic Landmark.

My tour included a visit to the Nathaniel Russell House, designed by architect Robert Adam. At the

Clockwise from above: Entrance to Charleston Place; outdoor seating at the Pavilion Room; and Charleston Place Hotel and the Riviera Theatre Conference Center.

Photographs by Joe Vaughn. Courtesy Hotel Belmond Charleston.

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time of its occupancy, living conditions were primitive: There was no heat, electricity or plumbing. But the house did have 22-karat-gold moldings, 14-foot ceilings and enough trompe l’oeil painting to keep many artists busy. The home’s prized possession is the large portrait of Mary Rutledge Smith, which was painted by one George Romney (yes, of that Romney family). Private tours here are at once $12 per person and priceless.

After your tour, make sure to stroll down Tradd Street, which has been dubbed “America’s most perfect 18th-century street.” I also stopped at The Shops of Historic Charleston Foundation, which carries an abundance of local goodies, such as Benne sesame wafers (and yes, they are indeed delicious). You’ll also find the area’s noteworthy cheddar biscuits in addition to a plethora of home décor. And pineapple decorations everywhere, the fancy fruit being, after all, the trademark of hospitality.

How else should you spend your time? You can browse the lovely shops in the hotel or schedule a horse-and-buggy ride to see the sights in a truly charming way.

Can't do it all in one afternoon? Don't worry.

As Scarlett herself would say, “Tomorrow is another day.”

For more, visit belmond.com/charlestonplace and ExploreCharleston.com. And for more on Debbi, visit gorgeousglobetrotter.com and marketingauthor.com.

The grand staircase with an impressive chandelier made from hand-blown Murano glass.

Photograph by Joe Vaughn. Courtesy Hotel Belmond Charleston.

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Proprietor, Bobby Epstein of the legendary Muscoot Tavern in Katonah, invites you to experience his newest restaurant—

Kisco River Eatery Come in and savor the fresh raw bar and our impressive variety of steak, pasta, chicken and seafood selections in our warm and cozy atmosphere.

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THE COMFORTS OF HOME

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS

BY ALEESIA FORNI

here’s no denying the historic charm of the Roger Sherman Inn in New Canaan.

Nestled along Oenoke Ridge Road and dating from the 1700s, the building named for a Founding Father has served as an inn for nearly 100 years. During its storied past, the inn has seen extensive renovations, including the addition of two cottages on the property, and changed hands numerous times.

But its newest owners, Joseph and Nes Jaffre — who purchased the property in 2008 — are hoping to inject a new vibrancy into the landmark. Since taking over the inn, the two have installed a Roger Sherman “Unplugged” series that showcases live music by local artists in the tavern’s area. Seasonal events include wine dinners and visits from guest chefs, farmers and artisans.

The menu has also undergone a 21st-century transformation. Last year, the duo hired celebrated chef François Kwaku-Dongo (WAG August 2012 and July 2015), who applies techniques he honed in some of the most demanding kitchens in the country, including chef Wolfgang Puck’s Spago restaurants in West Hollywood and Chicago, where he served as executive chef. He later moved to Greenwich to lead a team that revamped l’escale restaurant bar at the Delamar Greenwich Harbor before opening the bou-

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Top: Herb crêpes feature ham, Gruyère cheese and soft cooked eggs with a petite salad. Below: Brioche French toast is crowned with sweet stewed apples.

Ice cream and crunchy chocolate are served alongside a chocolatefilled crêpe.

Steak tartare pairs with herb aioli, greens and a farm-fresh egg.

A vanilla soufflé is topped with red wine-poached pears.

tique hotel J House and its eleven14 Kitchen.

Today, Kwaku-Dongo is putting his stamp on the inn with a new, seasonally-inspired menu that shows off fresh, locally-procured ingredients, from coastal seafood to homegrown vegetables.

“The menu will always be changing, as with the seasons, and soon I’ll be able to pick vegetables from my garden that we are creating, another extension of our home, and incorporate these ingredients into our menu,” Kwaku-Dongo says.

Despite these changes, the character of the neighborhood favorite remains. The lounge features oversize windows, marble-topped tables and a sleek bar, while miniature mason jars with delicate floral arrangements serve as simple centerpieces. An outdoor porch that wraps around the exterior of the building is a perfect venue for outdoor dining or special events in warmer months. In the main dining room, historic paintings hang along the walls, paying homage to the building’s colonial beginnings.

We visit the inn on a crisp Sunday morning, where our brunch begins with an assortment of starter bites, including a country pâté, prosciutto and thin slices of pepperoni. Crunchy slices of toast are served with an herbed butter, while drinks range from the classic mimosa or bloody Mary to an espresso martini topped with a trio of coffee beans.

Seasonal fruit and berries are served in a perfectly tart mango Champagne sauce, a dish that had us asking for second helpings, while a brunch salad features pickled apples, candied walnuts and blue cheese atop a little gem of lettuce.

You’ll definitely want to order the steak tartare, but be warned: This simple, artfully presented starter with herb aioli, topped with a farm fresh egg, may ruin any other version of the dish you’re likely to encounter in the future.

For main courses, a savory take on herb crêpes pairs French ham, Gruyère cheese and soft cooked eggs with a petite salad. Those hoping for something a bit heartier will not be disappointed by the eatery’s beef burger, with creamy cheddar, crisp smoked bacon and shallot confit.

Other standouts include brioche French toast topped with sweet stewed apples and vanilla mascarpone, or the eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, tomato confit and hollandaise sauce.

If you still have room for dessert, you won’t want to miss the eatery’s classic vanilla soufflé, which is served with red wine-poached pears.

For Kwaku-Dongo, the Roger Sherman Inn’s kitchen gives him the ability to offer the comforts of home to diners, whether they’re regulars who live just down the street or travelers from hundreds of miles away.

“I’ve cooked in some of best kitchens across the country,” the renowned chef says. “The Roger Sherman Inn is now where I can invite you to come into my home and allow me to cook for you.”

For more, visit rogershermaninn.com.

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WINE & DINE

THE LURE OF WINE FESTIVALS

BY DOUG PAULDING

s a wine and spirits writer in the New York metro market, I get some wonderful opportunities, with wine and spirits seminars, wine luncheons and dinners happening year-round. There I meet winery owners, winemakers or import representatives in a personal setting that allows me to taste through a series of wines, hear the rap from the producer and ask questions. I love this experience of quiet time with the source to hear the story of how this particular wine came to be — the season, the growth, the harvest, the crush and the evolution from grape to bottle. And, a few times a year, I get an invite for a media trip, to go to a wine region and see for myself what makes this area unique and to meet the winemaker and taste through the wines and the vintages.

Many restaurants now feature wine-tasting dinners offering a specifically chosen menu to introduce and promote a guest winery and to accent their wines. These dinners tend to be intimate, well-run and attended by people with more than a passing interest in wine. This gives the consumer a contact person at the winery for future questions on food and wine pairings or even for advice planning a trip to the area. It can be a valuable resource in many ways. Outside of these two options, how does the passionate amateur meet and talk to the people responsible for what’s in the bottle?

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Food and wine festivals have been happening for years around the country but are gaining momentum in actual events available, number of attendees and the number of exhibitors from all related industries. Today’s festivals range from Pebble Beach to Aspen to Nantucket and everywhere in between.

Typically, a festival will go on for a weekend or more, sometimes coordinated with some featured event of the region, as in foliage season for Vermont, or timed to bring in the crowds off- season. I attended a couple of wine and food festivals in 2017 and they were informative, fun, entertaining and a great opportunity to talk, face to face, with winemakers, celebrity chefs, well-known wine educators and many purveyors of product.

Nancy Bean of Wise Up Events runs the Nantucket and the Newport food and wine festivals.

“We have a formula that would work anywhere with some customization,” she told me. “We need to

know what brings people to the region. Both Nantucket and Newport share the ocean setting, so we look for local flavor, local chefs and local products.

And we love to support artisan purveyors, from knife companies to balsamic vinegar producers.”

The Nantucket event happens in the third week of May and draws around 3,500 paying devotees.

There are 65 events coordinated over five days, including food and wine dinners in elegant waterfront homes complete with such experts as Eric Asimov of The New York Times, Kevin Zraly and Ray Isles, all of whom are expected to be back this year. The Newport Wine and Food Festival occurs in the third week of September and overlooks the ocean from the mansions along the Cliff Walk.

Newport draws more than 4,000 people and lasts for four days. As in Nantucket, the Newport festival has multiple gala dinners paired with wines introduced by wine educator Robin Kelley O’Connor. At the weekend tasting tent, there are wine, beer and spirits to taste, food to sample and chef demonstrations on a culinary stage and on an outdoor grilling area. Last year, I also got to take a freshly minted Maserati SUV for a test drive around the streets of Newport. At any of these festivals, there is likely to be topic-related book signings by the authors.

If you’ve been to a festival, you need to grab a couple of friends and go again. If you haven’t been, make 2018 your year to explore one. And, when you go, don’t hesitate to talk to the experts. They have a wealth of experience and knowledge they are excited to share with the public. Ask for business cards and reach out to them when you follow up back home and reexperience their creation. It’s an education. It’s a party. It’s a concentrated “Wow.” Write me at doug@dougpaulding.com.

Discover The new IL FORNO Italian Kitchen & Bar Where Good Vibes meet Italian Inspired Cuisine!

Enjoy a Classic & Crafty Cocktail.

Have your perfect experience!

LUNCH AND DINNER Tuesday - Sunday 343 Route 202, Somers, NY 10589 (914) 277-7575 www.ilfornosomers.com

Private Events and Catering

MORE THAN SKIN DEEP

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA PHOTOGRAPH BY SEBASTIÁN FLORES.

Jeremy Brauer, MD, at his Rye office.

All men may be created equal, in the words of the Declaration of Independence. But all skin cancers aren’t, says Jeremy A. Brauer, MD, a dermatologist with practices in Rye and Manhattan.

While basal cell and squamous cell are the more common forms, “melanoma is the one we’re most concerned about,” he says. Nonmelanoma skin cancers appear mostly on the head, neck and extremities; melanoma, on the back in men and on the legs in women. “All three have a component of sun exposure, although there are also genetic factors,” Brauer adds. “Surgery has the highest cure rate. But not everyone may be a good candidate for surgery. And not every skin cancer may meet the appropriate-use criteria for surgery.”

Most basal- and squamous-cell cancers are slow-growing, Brauer says. In these cases, he uses electrodessication and curettage to burn off and scrape the tumors. For melanomas, Brauer uses the Mohs micrographic surgical technique, in which he did a two-year fellowship at the Laser & Skin Surgery Center of New York. Named for Frederic E. Mohs, the physician and surgeon who

pioneered the surgery in the 1930s, Mohs is an efficient if time-consuming procedure in which the tumor is removed and studied under a slide, layer by layer, while the patient waits. After the surgeon obtains “clear margins,” the wound is repaired.

Mohs not only has the highest cure rate; it also saves the greatest amount of healthy tissue and leaves the smallest scars.

For scarring in any skin cancer, Brauer says, there are techniques available using lasers and injections to minimize dark, red and/or raised areas.

When it comes to skin cancer, he says, “A lot of what we see today is the result of past behaviors.”

Yesterday’s sun worship is the serious skin damage of today and tomorrow. And it’s not just an excessive love of Mr. Sun. “Unfortunately, skin cancer is on the rise for younger patients,” Brauer says. This may be due in part to the popularity of tanning beds, “although fortunately, a lot of states have legal age limits.”

While he says that “most skin cancers are curable,” the old saying about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure applies. “The use of an FDA-approved UVA, UVB broad-spectrum sunscreen is a must,” he adds. “The SPF (sun protection factor) number matters, but it’s only half the story. Use one with a minimum number of 15 and a maximum of 30. Beyond that, the benefits are incremental.”

The other half of the story is applying the sunscreen as directed and wearing UPF (ultraviolet protection factor) hats and clothing. (Brauer says he is particularly mindful of this when he and his three young children go swimming and hiking.)

The Mamaroneck resident, whose amiable bedside manner has made him a quotable doc on everything from Buzzfeed to Reader’s Digest, has always loved working with children. Growing up on Long Island, he first thought about being a pediatrician. But at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine — which he attended after graduating “with highest distinction” from Cornell University — he was struck by the versatility of dermatology, a discipline that has cosmetic and reconstructive components.

“Luckily, I never have the same day twice,” he says. “I love what I do.”

For more, visit jeremyabrauermd.com.

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MARCH 2018

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WELL

DESIGNING A BETTER TRAINER

BY GIOVANNI ROSELLI

o industry is perfect. Every industry has its fair share of problems and obstacles. As I wrote in a previous WAG column, “Bend It Like Lincoln,” I believe that heart and soul should go into everything we do. Based on this idea, I care a lot about the fitness industry.

I’m going to challenge my industry with a few trends that I find questionable and how we can do better. As you read, ask yourself how any of these trends may be affecting your area of business.

SOCIAL MEDIA Social media has become a staple in our society across all generations. I find it fascinating how it’s gotten to the point where there are workshops, spreadsheets and rules based on posting on sites such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

To me, this isn’t the problem. The problem I have is the content of the posts. The ones that look like nothing more than a glorified Calvin Klein ad do not contribute real value to the industry.

Fitness professionals who post an exercise as a teaching tool or write about a client who just reached a goal and/or made some great progress? Love it.

They are passing along a beneficial message. However, I often question whether some posts could have been written primarily to fish for compliments, get comments or accumulate as many “likes” as possible.

Insta-famous is now a reality. People who know very little about the body and exercise are becoming

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actual authority figures since they are “social-media savvy.” Unfortunately, there is a large audience listening to them and emulating what they do. This is dangerous.

The number of followers you have is now sometimes being taken into consideration for job opportunities and work. This means that someone who may be supremely qualified and doesn’t post on social media may lose out on a job to someone who simply looks great and has a big social media presence.

ENTRY POINT You take a test, you get a certificate and, boom, you’re in. Yet the fitness industry does not have a clearly defined road for professional development.

Strength and conditioning specialist Eric Cressey explained this very well in one of his past blogs: “For example, my wife is an optometrist, and she had four years of undergraduate education, followed by four years of optometry school (including clinical rotations) and then board exams before she could become (an optometrist). There was a set curriculum and then measures to determine competency in the areas emphasized in that curriculum. And, even after that proficiency was established, Anna did an additional year of residency where she specialized in cornea and contact lenses. You can't just declare yourself an optometrist one day and start a career. But individuals do that all the time in personal training, because the barrier to entry is completely nonexistent.”

Do you know how many trainers are getting hired and working with clients without ever attending a mentorship program or shadowing and learning from an experienced veteran? It happens more often than not.

Wouldn’t it be an optimal learning experience if a new trainer had to spend his/her first year or two in the industry learning from a mentor?

THE ‘MODEL’ OF FITNESS Magazines can be dangerous as well. “I want to look like this photo.” “Why can’t I look like this?”

Do clients know what these models had to do to

Giovanni Roselli. Photograph by Bob Rozycki.

look that good at that particular moment? With Photoshop, body angles and lighting alone, photos many times do not tell the actual story.

Often, people don’t understand what these individuals probably went through to look like that just to peak for that one-day photo shoot. From a nutritional standpoint alone, things like little to no carbohydrates, no water and potentially harmful enhancing supplements are typical for those who are featured.

If we looked at the insides of these models, we might see high levels of inflammation, connective tissue that isn’t healing and hormone levels that are completely out of whack.

But hey, they look great. I thought these models were supposed to be models of fitness?

HOW CAN WE GET BETTER? Between social media’s influence, a lack of education for trainers and the industry’s distorted images of fitness, there is room for improvement that can elevate the industry to even greater heights.

For any fitness trainers and professionals who are out there reading this, maybe we can start with the following: 1) Use our posts wisely to send a meaningful message; 2) Take a new trainer under our wing; and 3) Explain that looking great may first come from feeling great on the inside.

Reach Giovanni on Twitter @GiovanniRoselli and at his website, GiovanniRoselli.com.

The Gift of Caregiver Relief this Winter.

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anaging a loved one’s healthcare can be taxing and all-consuming, which is why it’s so important for caregivers to take the time to rest, relax and rejuvenate. Waveny’s caregiver relief solutions can help seniors and families receive the services they need to make the most of this winter, together.

During the week, take advantage of our vibrant Adult Day Program with free local transportation for daytime peace of mind. Or, plan a getaway knowing overnight respite guests with Alzheimer’s and dementia can stay with us for as short as a week at The Village, our award-winning Assisted Living community. Our trusted care can even come to you – whether personalized assistance or just a helping hand – through Waveny’s home-based services. You can choose any combination of our services and programs to meet your unique needs and preferences.

Conveniently located in New Canaan, Waveny’s continuum of care flows fluidly within a single nonprofit organization, without any expensive buy-in fees or long-term commitments.

So if downsizing into a caring and compassionate independent or assisted living community is something you’re considering, winter is the perfect time to take advantage of a 3-month trial at either The Inn or The Village.

Discover more by dropping by, calling 203.594.5302 or visiting waveny.org.

PET OF THE MONTH

MA BELLE

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PHOTOGRAPH BY SEBASTIĂ N FLORES

elle is as her name implies — a 5-year-old sweetheart with a ton of love to give a new parent or family.

She came to the SPCA when her owner passed away, and she's understandably sad to have lost this person and her former life. The SPCA would like to make her stay at the shelter a short one so she can get back to the kind of lifestyle she's accustomed to.

Belle would do well in an easygoing, calm environment in which someone is around more often than not. Someone who works from home, a retiree or a home with a few people would be perfect for her. Belle gets along with most other dogs and would be a good fit for kids ages 10 and up.

She'll make a fantastic partner for couch cuddles and will be a loyal, steady companion.

For more information, email trainer@ spca914.org.

And to meet Belle, visit the SPCA of Westchester at 590 N. State Road in Briarcliff Manor.

Founded in 1883, the SPCA is a no-kill shelter and is not affiliated with the ASPCA. The SPCA is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays. To learn more, call 914- 941-2896 or visit spca914.org.

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I FEEL SO POWERLESS. WE HAVE TO WATCH HER EVERY MINUTE. FAMILY AND FRIENDS STOPPED COMING AROUND. HE KEEPS SAYING: “THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH ME.” IT’S DESTROYING OUR FAMILY. I FEEL SO GUILTY WE HAVE TO MOVE HER INTO A HOME. IT’S SO HARD TO CARE FOR SOMEONE WHO’S MEAN TO YOU. HE HIDES THINGS ALL THE TIME. I’M GRIEVING THE LOSS OF SOMEONE WHO’S STILL ALIVE. WE DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START.

LIVING WITH FTD IS HARD. LIVING WITHOUT HELP IS HARDER. THERE’S COMFORT IN FINDING OTHERS WHO UNDERSTAND. WE FINALLY FOUND A DOCTOR WHO GETS IT. I GOT SO MUCH ADVICE FROM OTHER CAREGIVERS. UNDERSTANDING MORE HELPS ME DEAL WITH HER SYMPTOMS. SEEING THAT OTHERS MADE IT THROUGH, I KNEW I COULD TOO. WE HONOR HIM BY ADVOCATING FOR A CURE. NOW I’M BETTER AT ASKING FOR HELP. NO MATTER HOW BAD IT GETS, WE KNOW WE’RE NOT ALONE. It can feel so isolating and confusing from the start: Just getting a diagnosis of FTD takes 3.6 years on average. But no family facing FTD should ever have to face it alone, and with your help, we’re working to make sure that no one does.

The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD) is dedicated to a world without FTD, and to providing help and support for those living with this disease today. Choose to bring hope to our families: www.theAFTD.org/learnmore

WHEN & WHERE

Through March 4 M&M Performing Arts Company presents Paul Rudnick’s comedy “I Hate Hamlet.” A discontented TV actor is offered the opportunity to play Hamlet onstage, but he is not at all interested in the role. His dilemma deepens with a visit by the ghost of John Barrymore, one of the most famous of Hamlets.

Times vary, Lyndhurst, 635 S. Broadway, Tarrytown; 914-631-4481, lyndhurst.org

The Calidore String Quartet performs March 2 in Westport.

Through March 10 “Séance,” an exhibit by artist Carla Rae Johnson, imagines meetings between creative individuals who never actually met — Emily Dickinson and Marcel Duchamp, Bessie Smith and Ludwig van Beethoven, Anne Frank and Albert Schweitzer, and more. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 4 to 6 p.m. Thursdays, Westchester Community College, Academic Arts Building, Third floor, 75 Grasslands Road, Valhalla; 914-606-6835, sunywcc.edu/gallery

Through May 12 Music Conservatory of Westchester offers families a chance to experience its bilingual (English and Spanish) early childhood music education program, “First Notes/Primeras Notas,” for free. Classes will be held at libraries in White Plains, New Rochelle, Greenburgh and Ossining. Times and locations vary, 914-761-3900, musicconservatory.org

March 2 Kids in Crisis presents its annual spring fling, “Heroes Among Us: A Red Carpet Celebration.” The evening will honor individuals, organizations and businesses that have been instrumental in helping more than 140,000 children in Connecticut for the past 40 years. Featuring silent and live auctions, food and entertainment. All proceeds go toward the organization’s shelter, counseling and community-based programs. 6:30 p.m., 330 Railroad Ave., Greenwich; 203-622-6556, kidsincrisis.org

The Picture House celebrates awards season with its second annual “Marquee Night,” billed as “an Oscar pregame celebration of film.” The fundraiser will unite film lovers in the area as they don their red carpet-ready attire for a winter party featuring dinner, dancing and more. 7 p.m., Glen Island Harbour Club, 299 Weyman Ave., New Rochelle; 914-738-3161, thepicturehouse.org/winterparty

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The Calidore String Quartet presents a program of Mozart’s Divertimento in F major, K. 138; Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 9 in E-flat major, Op. 117; Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in D major, Op. 44, No. 1; and Caroline Shaw’s First Essay, “Nimrod” (2016). 7:30 p.m., Westport Arts Center, 51 Riverside Ave.; 203-222-7070, westportartscenter.org

March 3 Celebrating Women’s History Month, the Norwalk Historical Society presents “Norwalk’s Remarkable Hill Sisters and the Struggle for Equality” by local educator and researcher Alice Warren. 2 p.m., Norwalk Historical Society Museum, 141 East Ave.; 203-846-0525, norwalkhistoricalsociety.org

The American Chamber Orchestra, under music director Christopher Hisey and guest conductor John Dreslin, will be joined by a dozen singers to present songs from Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Iolanthe,” “The Mikado,” “The Pirates of Penzance” and “The Yeoman of the Guard.” 7:30 p.m., First Presbyterian Church, 2475 Easton Turnpike, Fairfield; 203-845-7928, americanchamberorchestra.com

March 5 Color Camera Club of Westchester presents a lecture, “From Lawyer to Photographer,” with Lauren Welles. 8 p.m., 27 Legion Drive, Valhalla; 914-7697758, colorcameraclub.org

March 7 “Unrest,” the Sundance Film Festival documentary by Jennifer Brea about chronic fatigue syndrome, will be screened and then followed by a talk featuring the filmmaker and panelists. A Connecticut Film Festival FilmFest52 event. 7 p.m., Bethel Cinema, 269 Greenwood Ave.; 203-778-3100, bethelcinema.com

The Avon Theatre Film Center presents a Documentary Night screening of “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story,” a 2017 film about the glamorous 1930s film star who helped develop a radio guidance system for the Allies during World War II that foreshadowed Bluetooth technology.

Post-screening Q&A with journalist Fleming Meeks.

7:30 p.m., 272 Bedford St., Stamford; 203-9673660, avontheatre.org

March 4

March 9

“Saints & Sinners,” a concert featuring the “music inspired by the virtuous and the profane," featuring William Albright’s "The Seven Deadly Sins," plus songs by Samuel Barber, Ned Rorem, Virgil Thomson and others.

3 p.m., Copland House at Merestead, 455 Byram Lake Road, Mount Kisco; 914-788-4659, coplandhouse.org

The Simsbury Chamber of Commerce presents its 10th annual Business Leaders Breakfast. The featured speakers in the “Building From the Ground Up”-themed event will be Hartford Yard Goats president Tim Restall and University of Connecticut head football coach Randy Edsall. 7:30 a.m., Dunkin Donuts Park, 1214 Main St. Hartford; 860-651-7307, simsburycoc.org

Breast Cancer Alliance/Kids for A Cause presents a Carnival Day. Face painting, balloon animals, arts and crafts and entertainment for all ages plus a show of children’s fashions by Hoagland’s of Greenwich. 2 p.m., Round Hill Club, 33 Round Hill Club Road, Greenwich; weblink.donorperfect.com/kidsforacause2018

March 10 Catch “the north Florida sage and soulbent swamp rocker” when The Capitol Theatre presents JJ Grey and his band Mofro. 8 p.m., 149 Westchester Ave., Port Chester; 877-987-6487, thecapitoltheatre.com

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March 2-3 L.A. Dance Project

“A defining artistic vision for our time.” -LA Times 10

Sarah Chang, violin Vitali, Vivaldi, Piazzola

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Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Lisa Batiashvili, violin

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RUBBERBANDance Group Hip hop meets ballet

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April 8

Westchester Philharmonic: Eternal Spring Edgar Meyer, double bass

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Jeremy Denk One of America’s foremost pianists

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Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Classical Evolution

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Big Band Dance Party Purchase Jazz Orchestra & Jon Faddis

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May 5

Jessica Lang Dance World premiere of a new work set to the music of Tony Bennett

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Westchester Philharmonic Keys, Kegs & ‘Que Anna Polonsky & Orion Weiss, piano

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June

Pictured: Jessica Lang Dance © Sharen Bradford

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Thank You

914.251.6200 www.artscenter.org

LUCILLE WERLINICH,

Chair of Purchase College Foundation

March 16 Hoff-Barthelson Music School’s new “Great Composers” lecture series concludes with “Ludwig van Beethoven: Madman? Genius? Both?” The lecture, presented

by Copland House artistic director and pianist Michael Boriskin, will explore the titanic works of the temperamental composer who bridged the Classical and Romantic periods. 11 a.m., Behrens Bergman Auditorium, 25 School Lane, Scarsdale; 914-723-1169, hbms.org

The Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund presents its ninth annual Spring Gala honoring Brian O’Connor and Ellen Miller. Dinner and drinks, live auction and raffle. 7 p.m., Mount Kisco Country Club, 10 Taylor Road; 310-7386023, hgsf.org

The opening reception of The Greenwich Art Society’s 101st annual Members Exhibition, 6:30 p.m., Exhibition continues through April 13, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, to 7 p.m. Thursdays and from noon to 4 p.m. weekends.

The Bendheim Gallery, Greenwich Arts Society, 299 Greenwich Ave.; 203-629-1533, greenwichartsociety.org

March 16 through April 8 Bridgeport’s Downtown Cabaret Theatre presents Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1970 rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Performance times vary Fridays through Sundays. 263 Golden Hill St., Bridgeport; 203-576-1636, dtcab.com

March 17 and 18 The Stamford Symphony, conducted by Paul Watkins, performs Haydn’s Symphony No. 102 in B-flat major; Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, “The Rhenish;” and the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with soloist Benjamin Beilman. 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, Palace Theatre, 61 Atlantic St., Stamford; 203-325-4466, stamfordsymphony.org

March 18 Experience “Acrobats of China” featuring The New Shanghai Circus, 4 p.m., The Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 E. Ridge Road; 203-438-5795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org

March 19 The Chamber Players of the Greenwich Symphony, all first chairs of the orchestra, present “Blown Away,” a concert of works for horn and strings by Cherubini, Mozart, Buyanovsky and Reicha. 7:30 p.m., Greenwich Arts Council, 299 Greenwich Ave.; 203-637-4725, greenwichsymphony.org/chamber-players-greenwich-symphony

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Soloist Ben Beilman appears with the Stamford Symphony March 17 and 18.

Photograph by Giorgia Bertazzi.

March 20

March 23

Lisa Lucas, director of the National Book Foundation, will speak at Fairfield University on “The Need for Literature in Politically Challenging Times.” The youngest person and first black woman to hold this title, Lucas seeks to bring inclusivity and excitement to the foundation and its reading list. 7 p.m., Fairfield University, Dolan School of Business, 1073 N. Benson Road; 203254-4070, fairfield.edu

“Forbidden Broadway” — A spoof of more than 30 Broadway shows, including newer musicals such as “Hamilton” and “The Book of Mormon.” 8 p.m., White Plains Performing Arts Center, 11 City Place, Third floor; 914-328-1600, wppac.com

March 21 “Shop & Sip Third Wednesdays,” a happy-hour, popup shopping experience. Guests can enjoy drinks as they explore the work of local artists and designers.

6 p.m., ArtsWestchester, 31 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains; 914-428-4220, artsw.org

March 25 The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum presents “Take Action! A Day of Art and Activism” in celebration of art’s power to inspire social change. 1 to 4 p.m., 258 Main St., Ridgefield; 203-438-4519, aldrichart.org

Presented by ArtsWestchester (artswestchester.org) and the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County (fcbuzz.org).

HotHotHaiti At Hudson Loft Irvington, NY

Lift Your Hands Up for Haiti

Join us as we celebrate the best of Haitian culture at an evening featuring original Haitian art, tantalizing cocktails, electrifying music, and delectable food catered by On the Marc!

Friday, April 27, 2018 at 7 pm

We are a medical humanitarian organization making a sustainable and positive impact on the health of the people of northern Haiti.

How We Do It: Treat Malnourished Children Promote Healthy Pregnancies Build Community Water Wells

Prevent Strokes Save Vision Beat Cervical Cancer

Visit Our Website at: www.handsupforhaiti.org RSVP by April10th at: https://hufhhothothaiti.eventbrite.com Questions? Email: events@handsupforhaiti.org

Benefiting the Life Saving Efforts of...

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WATCH

‘THE NEARNESS OF YOU’ The Pelham Art Center Gallery in Pelham recently celebrated the opening of its new portrait exhibition, “Near To You.” The show features the work of six artists who have expressed in sculpture and paintings what it means to capture the impression or image of a person. Some of the artists and their subjects were on hand at the opening to share in the fun of discovering from the viewers if they truly succeeded. The exhibit is on view through March 24.

Photographs by Barry L. Mason.

1. Christine Aaron and Avery Syrig 2. Katy Garry, Angelo (Zacc) Zaccagnino, Kathy D’Agostino and Susan Adiletta 3. John Mitchell 4. Tim Doud 5. Heather Morgan 6. Jenny Dubnau 7. Jamíl Coverdale, Rebecca Mills and Paula McKeever 8. Telisha Bryan 9. Lynn Honeysett and Anki King 10. Kenise Barnes, Chris Kaczmarek, Patricia Miranda and Rima Grad

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CONSERVATION, WINE & FLORAL DESIGN PRESENTED BY WESTMORELAND SANCTUARY

A new event series featuring evening discussions on nature and conservation over wine, appetizers and a floral design session using seasonal, locally sourced plant materials.

Bring home a beautiful arrangement…created by YOU!

Thursday, April 12 ‘Wine and Vine’ 7pm

Wednesday, May 16 ‘May Bouquet’ 7pm

Saturday, September 29 ‘Fall Wreath’ 7pm

Speaker: Steve Ricker

Westmoreland Head of Conservation Workshop Coordinator: Nadia Ghannam Event Floral Designer

To register, visit www.westmorelandsanctuary.org

Thank you to our sponsors:

$20.00 per person (all materials provided)

Mission: To secure and preserve land for the enjoyment and enrichment of all ages through environmental education and Conservation programs.

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HRM AFTER DARK Recently, the Hudson River Museum hosted its inaugural “#HRMAfterDark� event. More than 200 guests came to celebrate art, science and music at the museum. Geared to the 21-to-39-year-old set, the event featured cosmic travel with shows in the planetarium, gallery hours, maverick gallery tours and music provided by DJ Ness Digital.

Photographs by Donna Davis, Austin Furnas and Masha Turchinsky

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1. Nick Gray, Michael Calvi and Cency Middleton 2. Christopher St. Lawrence and Amanda Ioco 3. Katherine Han, Ecka Blaire Faulds, Alanna Morton, Aimee DeCesare and Francis Cruz 4. Alex Momin, Melissa Starke, Alison Marra Higgins and Masha Turchinsky 5. Shad Mohammed, Allison and Peter Hegener, Ray Wilcox and Marcus John

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KENYA, TANZANIA, ETHIOPIA & RWANDA TOURS Exceptional Camps & Lodges | Authentic Experiences | Private tours for groups and families with children

OUR TRIP WAS ONE OF THE MOST INTENSE, ASTONISHING AND INCREDIBLE TRAVEL EXPERIENCES I'VE EVER HAD. THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE WAS MAGICAL. I CAN'T WAIT TO JOIN JOHN ON ANOTHER TRIP. — Annie Chester, Los Angeles

“OUR ADVENTURE IN EAST AFRICA WAS A ONCE IN A LIFETIME EXPERIENCE, FROM THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF WILDLIFE IN AMBOSELI AND REMOTE VILLAGES IN SAMBURU, TO BREAKFAST OVERLOOKING NGORONGORO AND SCENERY ALONG THE PLAINS OF THE SERENGETI. THIS WAS A TRIP NOT EASILY FORGOTTEN.” — Evan Anthony, Cambridge MA

All packages include photography lessons | John Rizzo is a former Newsweek photographer, has worked on 6 continents & winner of two Arts Alive Grants, 2013 &2016

John Rizzo Photography | 455 Tarrytown Road Suite 1302 White Plains NY 10607 | (646) 221-6186 worldwide mobile | www.johnrizzophoto.com

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VIP TREATMENT Guests at the VIP Country Club received the “VIP Treatment” recently when club general manager Thomas Esposito hosted a cocktail party at the recently redesigned locale on the shore of the Long Island Sound in New Rochelle. Now under new ownership, the club has 12,000 square feet of event space and a fresh new look for elegant celebrations. After getting a full tour of the expansive venue, guests savored a selection of VIP’s gourmet menu items and signature cocktails at the sophisticated new “members-only” lounge called 600. Those in attendance also learned about the membership benefits that VIP Country Club offers. Photographs by Robin Costello 1.

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Tom Esposito and Marcia Pflug Ina and Matt Sullivan Esther McCarthy and Clare Bucci-Sharrock Sibylla Chipaziwa and Geoffrey Naggie Shaune Wallace Bostic, Tamieka L. Jones, Sanchez Reddicks and Simone Vega 6. William Knight, Irene Young Wallace and Frank Wallace

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A HUDSON HAPPENING In advance of its 14th annual EagleFest celebration this year, Teatown, the 1,000-acre private nature preserve in Ossining, recently hosted a lecture, “Hudson River Stories with Jon Bowermaster,” featuring the Hudson Valley writer, filmmaker and activist. During the event, Bowermaster showed clips from his soon-to-be released film series, “Hope on the Hudson,” which focuses on the progress that the Hudson River is making thanks to environmentalists’ rehabilitation efforts.

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1. Jane Cooke, Phyllis Bock, Jon Bowermaster and Kevin Carter 2. Filmmaker Jon Bowermaster

DREAMS OF SUMMER Summer and warm weather might still be a few months away, but that didn’t stop Summer Trails Day Camp in Somers from inspiring kids to play all year round. Recently, Summer Trails hosted its annual “Summer Trails on Ice” event at the Brewster Ice Arena. Attendees enjoyed an afternoon of crafts, STEM activities, snacks and ice skating with fellow campers, family members and camp counselors. Summer Trails also collected new and gently used stuffed animals for Goodwill at the event. Over the years, the Summer Trails on Ice event has collected thousands of stuffed animals to donate to organizations throughout Westchester County.

3. Julian Petrov 4. Jody, Abby and Melanie Leverich 5. Chris Walsh, Kevin Mantell, Melanie Winuk, Jaws the Turtle, Shannon Curtis and Blake Franklin

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ABOVE THE BAR Charles J. Newman and the Hon. Alan D. Scheinkman were honored recently by the Westchester County Bar Foundation at its annual benefit at the Coveleigh Club in Rye. The benefit and silent auction, now in its seventh year, helped raise funds that pay the salary of a new lawyer’s pro bono services at a local nonprofit agency serving the underprivileged.

Anthony Enea, president of Westchester County Bar Foundation, said the event was a notable success in generating the monies needed for the two-year fellowship, whose recipient is Luis Leon. Photograph by the Westchester County Bar Association.

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1. Charles J. Newman, Alan D. Scheinkman and Anthony Enea

BLO AND GO Blo Blow Dry Bar in Greenwich recently celebrated its official grand opening. (See related story on Page 102.) The 1,200-square-foot salon, which features lush white chairs, sleek stainless steel and pops of pink, offers blow outs and other services for women and girls of all ages.

2. Marcia O’Kane, Marianne and Bruce Hammer and Sandy Litvack

THE EAGLES HAVE LANDED Village of Croton-on-Hudson and state dignitaries were on hand to announce plans for the 14th annual EagleFest, which takes place at Croton Point Park.

The grand celebration, for wildlife lovers and bird enthusiasts, is a highly anticipated event to celebrate the return of the bald eagle to the Hudson River. The EagleFest celebration allows visitors to see live birds of prey and provides opportunities to view the national symbol in its natural setting.

3. Dana Levenberg, George Latimer, Sandy Galef, Red-Tailed Hawk Blaze, Terrence Murphy, Kevin Carter and Howard Permut

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HGAR INAUGURATION The Hudson Gateway Association of REALTORSÂŽ (HGAR) recently welcomed a new president, Barry Kramer, and Renee Zurlo was re-elected president of the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service (HGMLS). More than 250 people from the lower Hudson Valley were in attendance at the Scarsdale Golf Club in Hartsdale as both Kramer and Zurlow were officially installed in their new positions, along with the executive officers and directors of HGAR and HGMLS, HGAR is a nonprofit trade association consisting of almost 11,000 real estate professionals doing business in Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and Orange counties as well as the Bronx and Manhattan. Photographs by John Vecchiola.

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1. Ann Garti and Renee Zurlo 2. P. Gilbert Mercurio, Barry Kramer and John Crittenden

FIGHTING HUNGER Food Bank For Westchester recently received a firsttime grant of $10,000 from the Wells Fargo Foundation. These funds will support the Food Bank’s Food Assistance Distribution programs and will provide more than 23,800 meals to Westchester children and families in need. Additionally, Wells Fargo recently donated 1,296 pounds of food collected through the Wells Fargo nationwide Holiday Food Bank drive.

3. Yonathan Whitehouse, Jean Julien, John Mulvey, Peg Nolan, Annette Herber, Leslie Gordon, Catherine Strother, Charlene Carlino, Deborah Smith and Melinda White

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Peggy Berry

Anthony Bowles

Larry Cooper

Stewart Cooper entrepreneur, Hartford resident

American Eagle manager, Nyack resident

“Motorized stretchers. I think they’d make health care professionals’ and patients’ lives much easier.”

“Unlimited phone battery.

That would take some unnecessary worrying out of my life.”

“A cloning machine.

Sometimes it feels like one of me just isn’t enough to get everything done.”

“Polaroids for your cell phone. You could have an immediate, physical copy of your pictures to put on the fridge or give to a friend.”

“Cereal that never gets soggy.

It’s the only thing that could make breakfast better.”

Amanda Garcia

Vinny Holmes

Paola Rosario student, White Plains resident

Irene Teo

stone artist, Ardsley resident

Jennette Tisbe

“In the movie ‘Clueless,’ Cher has a screen by her wardrobe that allows her to see what all of her outfits are going to look like on her before she tries them on. I’d love to design something like that.”

“Time machine. I could make a thousand great investments, fix my mistakes, meet Jesus Christ or Gandhi. There’s a million possibilities that could open for you with a time machine.”

“Teleporter. I hate my commute. We spend so much time trying to get from place to place. I think we’d all be more productive if we could instantly get from place to place.”

“In Singapore, my father created a clothes hanger with wide, circular shoulders that allowed clothes to dry much faster. That invention never left our home, so if I could design anything, I’d bring that concept to the United States.”

“I’d design a skyscraper. It’s a relatively permanent, physical representation of my work that will have a presence long after I’m gone. I think that would be a nice way for people to remember me.”

energy specialist, White Plains resident

Francesca’s employee, Stamford resident

cashier, Yonkers resident

Kia representative, Greenwich resident

security manager, Bronx resident

*Asked throughout central and northern Westchester County at various businesses.

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Carly Filor

tea brewer, New Haven resident

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