event – Ann Street Studio

A Summer Soirée with Zac Posen & Ecco Domani

August 1, 2016August 3, 2016Posted in LifestyleTagged Ecco Domani, eccodomani, event, food & wine, food and wine, foodandwine, kelly framel, kellyframel, laudrée, lifestyle, party, soho, soiree, summer soirée, summersoirée, wine, zac posen3 Comments

I love New York in the summer. The parties are always at their most magical, and the people so beautiful. You would never know walking down a bustling street in Soho that behind a secret walled garden a glamorous summer soirée hosted by fashion designer Zac Posen is underway.

Under sparkling lights and fitted cocktail dresses, it was a perfect way to celebrate the newest collaboration between designer and wine maker. For two years now Zac Posen has been creating limited-edition bottle designs for Ecco Domani‘s Italian Pinot Grigio. Last year’s bottle was silvery burst of flowers and this year’s inspiration, taken from Mr. Posen’s 2016 collection, is reminiscent of joyful dancing bubbles in tones playing off of the wine’s crisp floral notes.

If Zac Posen is the go-to designer for the glamorous, classic Hollywood, lady-like women of the world then it is of no exception that his Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio design would be anything less. Perfect for a summer party table, the bottle is dressed for the occasion and all the joy that comes with….

Happy Summer!

Ecco’s Sparkling Rosa Cocktail

1 bottle Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio
12 oz Fresh Lemonade
12 oz Fresh Grapefruit juice
24 oz Club soda or sparkling water
lemon-lime soda
Mint for garnish

Combine all ingredients in a large punch bowl. Serve in wine glasses or low ball glasses with ice and garnished with fresh mint leaves and lemon slices.

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A Chateau in France

July 11, 2016July 13, 2016Posted in TravelTagged chanel, chateau, dinner, event, france, grasse, home, house, lifestyle, masion, party, provence, travel8 Comments

I can’t say much about this place… it was a private residence and a bit of a mystery. We were invited to a dinner at a chateau in France to celebrate CHANEL’s new interpretation of their classic No. 5 perfume. A short drive from the rose fields of Grasse, we turned up a long winding old road, climbing up the side of a hill until we emerged on a plateau of walled gardens and ivy covered archways. It was magnificent. I was never able to find out who lived here or what the history was of this estate but perhaps I enjoy it more for what remains a mystery. It is in the not knowing that my imagination can run free… and you can guess, that’s a wonderful place to be.

Ralph Lauren silk dress and heels, Maiyet blazer, Hourglass lips.

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Cartier Etourdissant dazzles in Miami

December 14, 2015December 22, 2015Posted in Fashion ReportageTagged Cartier, cartier etourdissant, cartieretourdissant, diamonds, etourdissant, event, faena saxony, fashion reportage, fashionreportage, gala, high jewelry, jewellry, jewelry, miami9 Comments

It was a perfect night. The air, so warm and sticky the way summers on the east coast play back like flickering memories of an old movie scene. Cartier had come to Miami to unveil the newest precious pieces of their high jewelry collection “Cartier Etourdissant” along with priceless vintage creations of years past and dazzling standards of this modern era.

Being invited to galas such as these are always personal princess moments. An armed guard, not unlike a fairy godmother, shows up and adorns you in diamonds for the evening leaving you swanning around the room as if you were floating in a glass of champagne. I don’t know what it is about diamonds at night, which sparkle off our warm bodies so alive with breath and wonderment, but I just always feel as if they look like someone caught the twinkling stars and wrapped them around us in a cloak of fairy dust.

This collection is especially sentimental to me. Not only for the history of Cartier, who most notably made the setting for the Hope Diamond and adorned the heads of Royalty for some of their biggest moments in history, but because it was inspired by the French Riviera, one of my favorite places on earth. There is nothing like the light and artistic inspirations of France and in the designs of these pieces they transform light like a quiet afternoon dancing in the sun along the Côte d’Azur. I could stare into the pieces forever remember the best moments in life and dreaming of all the ones I desire for the future.

It was glamorous. Hosted at the new Faena Saxony Hotel in Miami along the turquoise sea it felt like a modern reenactment of a Jay Gatsby party which must have been the inspiration for director Baz Luhrmann when he designed the interior of the hotel. Faena Miami has been waiting for this moment to be brought to life, to be filled with the sounds of champagne bottles popping, distant laughter, models poised in priceless jewels, jazz music and the salty taste of caviar. Maybe it was the setting that made me feel so nostalgic or the glittering private crowd there mirroring the moonlight off the ocean but I looked around the room wondered how could anything bad ever happen in a world that can create this much beauty out of human vision and love.

In a red Dior dress I watched the room ebb and flow and thought of that line from The Great Gatsby: “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.” and smiled, for I can always go back to this memory on a cold winter day and recall that life can really sparkle if we open our eyes.

Below, I invite you to experience some of my favorite moments and unforgettable pieces from the gala by Cartier~

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Feria de Abril de Sevilla

June 3, 2015February 8, 2016Posted in TravelTagged casetas, culture, europe, event, feria, Feria de abril, Feria de abril de Sevilla, horses, party, sevilla, seville, seville april fair, spain, travel8 Comments

Sometimes when you travel you happen upon magical moments which is precisely where I found myself on a recent trip to Seville. Once we arrived I noticed many of the women walking around town in gorgeous traditional Spanish dress. One thing led to another and here we were, standing in the middle of Seville’s “Feria de Abril“, Seville’s April Fair.

Lasting for six days these rows of “casetas” are built on the fairgrounds in which a parade of decorated carriages and riders trot back in forth in front of. Casetas, which are elaborately decorated tents, are each individually owned by families, groups of friends, prominent businesses, or political parties where inside Spaniards enjoy live music, traditional dance, rebjuito, and tapas.

It was a magical transition stepping into a world I’d never known or experienced, so rich in tradition and culture. I was an invisible witness as I wondered through with my camera, smiling the entire way.

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“This is not a Dinner”

May 26, 2015October 6, 2016Posted in LifestyleTagged champagne, decoding, decodingdomperignon, dinner, Dom Pérignon, DomPérignon, event, ferran adria, ferranadria, food, lifestyle, richard geoffroy3 Comments

I recently found myself with this incredible opportunity to go to Spain and spend two days “decoding Dom Pérignon“. With the Chef de Cave Richard Geoffroy and culinary mastermind Ferran Adrià, we were to have the gustatory experience of a lifetime joining them as brought back elBulli’s most famous “snacks” that took the global gastronomy world by storm. What Dom Pérignon was hoping to achieve through this solo tasting and minimallistic experience was a study into the four facets of their newly released 2005 vintage which are: Minerality, Intensity, Seamlessness and Harmony. Ferran built the entire menu around these four themes, making the wine the centre or “sun” and the snacks like orbiting planets orbiting around it.

We were seated at a mirrored table in a dark room, no utensils. Waiters dressed in black delivered the first wave of snacks based around Minerality. The experience would be broken up into four chapters based on the characteristics of the champagne. With each snack would come instructions, “eat this all in one bite.”, “eat this in two bites and drink this in-between.” It was insane. Things were surprisingly sweet when it looked salty, weightless when it looked dense. Everything you think you know about food you had to throw out the window.

I had parmesan ice cream, deconstructed olives, crunchy raviolis made form a seaweed shell with a lemon filling. This was not at all what I would think of when I think of ravioli but that’s precisely what Ferran loves to ask: What makes ravioli, ravioli? Because it’s made of pasta or because it’s a pocket filled?

After the first chapter was completed the room (or, what I thought was a room) changed suddenly as the walls began to move and open up towards the sky high ceiling, revealing the other tables of guests. The lighting changed from a sharp contrast to a warm soft glow following a change in music changing the entire mood for the participates. Then, just as with Farran’s approach to food, my whole experience changed.

The experience went well beyond the the thrill of being one of the first people to try a new Dom Pérignon Vintage. It taught me to think about creativity in a different way than just what is. How can you take something we all know and try to understand it more? How can you think one way and then teach yourself to think it again totally differently. The slogan for the elBulli Foundation is “Feed Creativity”… he did that and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Minerality

-Mimetic peanuts

-Hibiscus and peanut palet

-Walnut catanias

-Yoghurt pistachulines

-Beetroot and yoghurt meringue / profiterole

-Mango croquant leaf and marigold

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School of American Ballet

March 10, 2015March 12, 2015Posted in LifestyleTagged ball, david h koch theater, event, gala, jamie beck, kevin burg, Lincoln Center, LincolnCenter, party, SAB, school of american ballet, schoolofamericanballet11 Comments

Last night was the School of American Ballet‘s Winter Ball in the David H. Koch theater of Lincoln Center. It was a very special night for Kevin and I as for the past couple of months we have been working closely with the team at SAB making a series of ballet cinemagraphs as well as a short film on the lives of SAB students to be shown here on this evening to the distinguished guests that donated / raised over a million dollars last night to aid in the scholarships that allow less fortunate students full of talent to attend this world class school.

It’s not often we get to experience our work “out in the world” or be present when someone sees it for the first time. It was a thrill! Walking into the gallery under dancing cinemagraphs delighting the guests in perfect poise and flawless execution was so charming and I felt, as I sat there, very respectful the discipline and study of dance. It was a great honor to be in the professional position to donate our time and talent to support something we greatly believe in, the arts, and to which we relate as far as the student experience is concerned- coming to New York with a dream and a whole lot of passion.

So honored to wear this gorgeous Ralph Lauren silk gown, diamond earrings by the event’s main sponsor Van Cleef & Arpels and a clutch by the the Winter Ball’s event co-chair Amanda Brotman from her evening bag line Amanda Pearl

(remember the last time I wore a Ralph Lauren gown in Paris…)

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FAENA Miami

February 6, 2015February 10, 2015Posted in LifestyleTagged alan faena, alanfaena, art district, asado, event, Faena, faena art district, food, lifestyle, miami, party4 Comments

Before Miami, the name Alan Faena didn’t mean much to me… that is until I stepped into his world. The suave Argentine man who always dresses in white has a Gatsby-eque mystery about him. Where did he come from? What are his plans? What is he thinking? Over the course of Art Basel he hosted the most beautiful asados, a South American tradition of barbecue, with the famed Patagonia-raised, French trained Chef Francis Mallmann. Chef Mallmann uses every aspect of the fires: from the flames to the thick smoke and smoldering ashes, a style of cooking he grew up with in Patagonia hanging around the gaucho cowboys with their simple way of life. He has now taken it all over the world including, on this day, the spectacular seaside of Miami.

So here we are at this beautiful asado on Miami Beach where Alan Faena has choreographed a collection of artist collaborations, celebrity friends, and world media for one big purpose- to talk about his vision for FAENA Miami, a new cultural district covering six city blocks complete with a hotel, shopping bazaar, multiple restaurants, arts center and the most exclusive condos in Miami with asking prices starting at $50 million. Just to paint a small picture of what is to come, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and his wife Catherine Martin have been enlisted to remake the 1940’s Saxony Hotel which I can only imagine will be… spectacular, spectacular.

If this new Miami cultural district is anything like what Mr. Faena already built in Buenos Aires, this might set a new bar stateside of hospitality and experience.

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Players Club

January 10, 2014January 13, 2014Posted in LifestyleTagged event, jazz, Leica, new year's eve, nye, NYEE, party, players club, playersclub, retro, vintage6 Comments

A night so full of life, dancing, love and music I could swear the gorgeous old wooden floors of Gramercy Park’s Players Club were going to crumble under the vibrations from jazz tidal-waves coming through the halls and echoing off the historic molding. The stomping of feet was so completely committed it was as if they would die if they stopped moving. Being a photographer gives you the certain advantage of being a true observer of life. I’ve been to so many wonderful parties around the world, but this night I saw something different. I saw people in love, I witnessed couples so lost in their own world, so wrapped up in each other’s embrace, it is as if nothing else existed – not the room, not the day before, not my camera and not tomorrow. So here is to 2014, here is to love, and to a group of people in New York keeping the old standards swinging into a new age…

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An Evening with Ralph Lauren

October 11, 2013October 15, 2013Posted in Fashion ReportageTagged ampthitheatre d'honneur, ball, event, fashion reportage, gala, l'ecole des beaux-arts, lauren bush, lauren bush lauren, paris, party, part¥, princess of monaco, Ralph Lauren, ralphlauren14 Comments

It was only a year ago Kevin and I headed out in a tux and Valentino gown to LeBal in Paris. One of those nights, the ones you’re aware you’ll never forget. It was his birthday – we rode Veleb’s at 2am after the ball to drink champagne and split a French burger. It was one of the best nights of our life, riding home past an empty courtyard of the Louvre and in the shadow of night – silhouettes of iconic buildings guiding our way.

So here we are again. Another beautiful crisp fall evening in Paris, another view of a sparkling Eiffel Tower reflecting off our champagne glasses and catching the crystal droplets of this evening’s earrings. This time was different though…this time, we were celebrating the arts. Celebrating the luxury we have as Americans at the height of our success to use our fortune for good. Models, artists, celebrities, and royalty came out on this autumn night to support Ralph Lauren, congratulate him on the beautiful world which he has created for us all in a spectacular showcase of his fall collection on the runway, and say thank you for his latest commitment to restore the L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, one of the most influential art schools in France, Amphitheatre d’honneur in the heart of the Saint-Germain-des-Pres. The renovation will help bring the institution’s teaching capabilities into the 21st century while also preserving the classical Beaux-Arts style for future generations. We raised our glasses and toasted: to the new future that comes from saving the past.

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CFDA Awards

June 4, 2013June 5, 2013Posted in Fashion ReportageTagged alice tully hall, cfda, cfda 2013, cfda awards, cfda2013, cfdaawards, event, fashion reportage19 Comments

For the past fifty years, the Council of Fashion Designers in America has held an awards show that has come to be called the “Fashion Oscars”. “This annual event is the one night we come together to celebrate our own,” said CFDA CEO Steven Kolb. And celebrate we do…

It’s a night of glamour, talent, and beauty but most of all it is a night of recognition – giving our applause and our thanks for the gorgeous creations made by fashion designers from established to up and coming.

There were many great moments in the night – listening to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joke around about her love of pantsuits, and then warmly describe Oscar de la Renta, winner of the night’s prestigious Founder’s Award, as a man whose “name evokes elegance and timeless beauty“. Catching my style icon, Carolina Herrera, being perfectly chic and lusting after her sensible evening shoes. Watching Vera Wang receive the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award from her former mentor, Ralph Lauren, and seeing the beautiful friendship that exists between them… but don’t just take it from me, you can see all these moments and more on Style.com!

This industry is not an easy one, but it is certainly stunning. It’s wonderful to know that the hard working creatives behind these gowns I love to photograph so much and pieces we all admire are given accolades for their achievements in a glittering way only the fashion industry can do.

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Cannes Diary with Chopard

May 21, 2013February 8, 2016Posted in TravelTagged cannes, cannes film festival, celebrity, chopard, chopard diary, choparddiary, diary, europe, event, travel20 Comments

Our journey to Cannes started a few months back; it actually began in Geneva in a workshop of craftsmen, spending countless hours making this year’s precious Palme d’Or Chopard so proudly bears the honor of crafting each year for the Cannes Film Festival.

I had a lot of expectations for Cannes – how could you not with such a famous and star studded event? I can remember as if it was yesterday sitting at the breakfast bar of my parents’ house in Texas, getting ready for school and watching the Today Show cover the red carpet of Cannes. My eyes were fixated on the screen… and now I am here. Beyond the glamour and the evening gowns, the faces of such notable actors and luxury brand names, the Cote d’Azur, our French Riviera, was also the view that inspired artists such as Matisse, Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald. I couldn’t wait to see it, to taste it, and to just watch it all with my own eyes and not those of a child in front of a TV set.

The day started at the Chopard Lounge on top of the Hotel Martinez: a sweeping terrace with views of the Promenade de la Croisette. Yachts smiled in the harbor as the crowds of photographers swam around waiting for pictures of celebrity arrivals in the bustling streets. It was a very strange sensation from up on the terrace and laying in bed at night to all of a sudden hear screams from a crowd – ah yes, another celebrity has emerged.

The rain came and went and with each pop of sun another beautifully dressed guest would walk through the doors, glittering in diamonds and sapphires, French perfumes dancing through the air, entangling itself with the smell of fresh cut roses. The distant sound of champagne being poured and glasses clinking, the faint smell of cigarettes over whispers and laugher, and that view… I’ll never get over that beautiful view.

As the day came to a close we attended the official dinner of the opening ceremony of the festival at the Agora. The Great Gatsby had just finished premiering and as we sat for dinner, in poured the cast and an excited air filled the room…but it was not until Steven Spielberg walked in that the space erupted in applause. He was magnanimous.

The first day at Cannes…despite being jet lagged and just coming off a week long shoot in LA, I lay in bed and thought about how the little girl watching the TV became the woman walking in the room tonight.

MAIYET hand block printed in Jaipur, India maxi dress to blow around in the Mediterranean wind.

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Ladies who Lunch

May 13, 2013May 14, 2013Posted in LifestyleTagged awards luncheon, central park conservancy, event, hat, hatluncheon, luncheon, society, UES24 Comments

I have never seen a fashion parade quite like this on 5th Avenue in all my years in Manhattan. Opulence, elegance, humor, chicness… anything goes when you are lunching with the world’s elite of society in Central Park’s stunning Conservancy at 105th & 5th for the 31st annual Frederick Law Olmsted Awards Luncheon.

Through the grand gates we arrived, heralded by trumpeters in the garden and champagne sparkling in flutes. Under a tent exploding in spring blossoms, we dined on mint pea soup and Maine lobster salad crafted by Abigail Kirsch. The event hosted by the Women’s Committee of Central Park Conservancy does more than just look fabulous at every age; they raise millions of dollars to ensure this park, for New Yorkers and for all those who vist from around the world, will remain beautiful and preserved for future generations to enjoy. Through robust applause, Anne S. Harrison (my new idol) announced they raised over 3 million dollars this season and furthermore accepted the largest gift to date of 100 million dollars to the Conservancy by Jenny & John Paulson.

So next time you lay on the lawn and gaze up at the trees or walk over the historic bridges in Central Park taking in this sweet escape from our concrete jungle, know that these lovely women are helping keep that possible for all of us, for all the years to come.

Special thanks to Tiffany & Co. for having me as their guest~

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Moda Operandi’s Midnight Supper @ St. Regis New York

May 6, 2013May 7, 2013Posted in LifestyleTagged dinner, dinner partys, event, midnight supper, moda operandi, modaoperandi, punk fashion, punkfashion, st regis, stregisnewyork, supper5 Comments

Today is Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Met Gala (you can stream live this evening here!) with a theme around Punk Fashion. In preparation and celebration of a new punk collection launching, Moda Operandi hosted a midnight supper in The Vault at the prestigious St. Regis New York where the collection will be on display through May 16th.

There is an air of mystery and excitement around midnight suppers, the doors that the instant before looked like an ordinary wall all of a sudden glide open, allowing you to slip into a glowing private room where only those who know, know. The midnight supper, once a legendary tradition created by Caroline Astor in the height and glamour of the Guilded Age, is preserved through the St. Regis and set slightly earlier in the evening so that we may feel the magic of such intimate place settings and celebration.

To me, punk fashion still comes with the same taste and thought as every other fashion moment but ever so slightly askew. The design of the midnight supper room by Bronson Van Wyck has that same sentiment: a beautiful arrangement of tulips is turned into a wall of dangling buds that seemingly dance upside down to their own beat, murals of skulls look back at you laughingly until you realize they are made of a saturation of pills, eye shadow that, in its effortlessly cool way, lands more underneath the eyes than on top, and dinner guests, the elite of fashion, letting their hair down and showing their Punk Fashion side in plaids, leather, and studs ending the evening throwing flowers at each other across the table and making mohawk-esque hats out of the center piece arrangements.

Punk celebrates the unusual beauty, the obscure, the abstract….the balance of beauty that takes you right to the edge.

Going to dinner with Lauren Santo Domingo & Taylor Tomasi Hill would make anyone fret a bit about what to wear, so I found that punk is in the details. Swarovski encrusted studs on the backs of my Valentino heels to go with a red Valentino dress of lace…. all leather lace.

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