darlings
speak softly.
and with the deepest r e s p e c t.
for it is MLK day in the US of A.
so we play quiet music and capture soft moments and think of what he did and left us.
Tag: beauty
brooklyn by gaslight and autumn leaves and #eastcoastportraits stephen
darlings
a treat.
yesterday we went on a small day-trip to the 19th century.
there were gas lamps a-flicker….
and ceremonial triumphant arches…..
and awe-inspiring dusky rouge stone edifices….
and trumpet-tooting angels on-the-IRT
and a lunch in a Venetian-inspired trattoria
oh!
*looks_shyly_at_the_figure_by_Prospect_park*
why, yes.
that IS Stephen Drucker.
if you are one of our friends from Oz or Tokyo or Berlin or Leamington Spa and looking curiously at the fine figure on the screen in front of you, with a twinkle and a questioning look, let us just say – subtly – this is one of our Most favo(u)rite people – not just for his stories of working at Vogue in the days that still recalled and worshiped fantasy and spectacle and then the achingly Chic and brimming-over with the-Knowledge-of-beauty that he brought to House Beautiful and Other Publications and the fact that he has the Supreme Eye of genius but also because he Knows.
you know.
what it is to be truly a man of elegance.
in fact, Stephen was the one that invited us to the 19th century, to admire the architecture and the View over the autumn leaves and the twinkling Fall day illuminated softly by gas lamps and cashmere-scarf-requiring-breezes. 
we used to work in the same skyscraper, once upon a time.
in fact our first meeting was a While ago and we started to talk about digital (you know – as who we-are-in-Real-Life) and he was kind and amused and wry………but then he sent us away with a test…..
the test?
he turned to us, half-towards the light refracting off the high floor of the glass-walled skyscraper, back shadowed to the Hudson, and murmured….
“Why Don’t You . . . wash yourhair in dead champagne?”
and we responded:
but we’re not a Blond Child
and he raised (a very beautiful) eyebrow and smiled, slowly.
we knew we’d found a kindred spirit.
and now you have too.
haven’t you?
because we’ve been tempting Mr. Drucker with the sumptuous waters of the worlds of the interweb and instagram and other mysterious and international delights of ones-and-zeros and he has tipped a toe.
we can’t tell you where or when.
but we will when we get permission.
the world is about to get a lot more beautiful and Sophisticated over here when the truly talented get their hands directly on the keyboard and start talking to us themselves and opening up their worlds…..
glorious.
#deepSigh
for now, we’re going to leave you with something that Stephen Drucker wrote about his favo(u)rite things – because it feels instructive and glorious and we love a good List.
FLOWER: Poppies
SOFA SHAPE: Billy Baldwin Studio sofa by Ventry Ltd.
STATIONERY: My Gmail account and my iPhone
COMFORT FOOD: Grilled Swiss on white
LAMP: Pumpkin Globe Lantern,vaughandesigns.com
ALARM CLOCK: The sun
EVERYDAY DISHES: 1960s Wedgwood drabware from Tiffany
COLOR: Mouse’s back
COFFEE TABLE BOOK: Los Angelesby Tim Street-Porter (I wish I lived there)
ALL-PURPOSE GLASS: Orskov from General Home Store, East Hampton, NY
SOAP: Molton Brown Naran Ji
ICE CREAM: Rum raisin
TOWEL: Thomas O’Brien for Target
CHAIR: My antique English Regency library chair from Cove Landing, NYC
SCENTED CANDLE: Jo Malone grapefruit
WALLPAPER: Toiles (like these)
SHEETS: Any white cotton (I’m not a thread counter)
CLEANING SUPPLY: Renaissance Wax
TOOTHPASTE: Rembrandt (for the elegant white tube)
SHOWERHEAD: George Taylor Specialties to match my 1926 apartment
VACUUM: Dyson
LIGHTBULB: 25W incandescent
COFFEE OR TEA: Mariage Frères
KITCHEN GADGET: KitchenAid mixer
WORKHORSE FABRIC: Elizabeth Dow “Antwerp” on my new sofas
PEN: Pilot Razor Point extra-fine black
ARTIST: John Singer Sargent
mon dieu holy motors. mon amour cloud atlas.
darlings
mon dieu.
we have no Earthly idea what it was about but Holy Motors was possibly the Most Beautiful piece of cinema we have seen for Quite a while (and, as you know, we watch a Lot of Movies).
when we tried to explain it to someone on the (baby pink princess) phone last night, we said, something garbled and breathless like this:
there was a man – and a very chic femme d’un certain age chauffeur in probably couture, possibly vintage – and the man kept changing shape/appearance/character and there was some stylized violence and realistic declarations of love and clearly intertwined sub-plots and dark alleys and rooftops and then there was Kylie, singing.
KYLIE?
yes.
Kylie who has a very big gay following and has dated some of the most gorgeous men of our generation, that Kylie?
yes. and had breast cancer and triumphed over all and is now rather splendid in her 40s. that Kylie.
didn’t you say it was a French movie?
yes. Kylie speaks beautiful French. completely sans accent.
wow.
(pause)
so – do you recommend it?
only if you want to be truly absorbed by beauty and strangeness and don’t mind having absolutely no idea what’s going on……
oh.
(pause).
a bit like the movie you’re making me see tonight, then?
ah. yes.
quite probably.
beauty.
darlings
waving from downtown.
Isn’t life just gorgeous?
It’s just a Doris Day sort of a loveliness.
More soon.
Aside to camera: how’s your day, love?
Do. Tell.
beauty heals. comedy tickles.
thoughts for the day.
we found ourselves looking for a solution to the now-dreary-onset-of-winter outside the window here in manhattan……and beauty is one that came to mind.
here come a few photographs (come on, you Knew that was coming ;-)
don’t You find a photograph of a Parisian cafe and Gary Cooper and Jean Shrimpton, shot by Bailey (circa 1963 when the world was Very Young) soothing and Rather Uplifting?
We do. #glorious_sigh.
can you see the little heart shape on the lamp base? we suddenly noticed it and smiled last night.
so – if beauty heals….(and a glorious Italian scientist by the name of Marina thinks it does) then let’s embrace more beauty, non?
easy for you to say,
we hear you cry……
with your executive perks and view over the Hudson –
but darlings,
we protest,
we Certainly were Not born to this la vie jet set – we just dreamed it up and it happened.
…...just ask Julia Cameron, “visioning” works…
or regular old school Imagination plus a Lot of Hard Work – and not owning a television and abstaining from dating to achieve Great Productivity, but we’ll go There any other Day, darlings ;-) hmmm. #giggle.
plus lots of people (Ed: exaggeration never helps your case, dear) oops.
ahem.
ok.
Some people get tumours/tumors/problems but not everyone turns them into Tobias and his sisters and makes up a story, a blog, a kindness kit, a book and all-the-other-ideas we have for 2012 (aren’t you Thrilled it’s almost 2012? it looks So Nice as a numeral, non?)
so we make our point thus: beauty heals (so seek more beauty)
relish the imagination. (and do a workshop or two if that will help)
plus comedy tickles: watch Eddie Izzard.
we met Eddie circa 1994 and he was Deeply Strange. and rather wonderful.
his bizarre and glorious strings of pure (sub)conscious make him part of our teamgloria, definitely darlings.
and if you can be tickled by comedy in beauteous surroundings – well – life is certainly delicious ;-)
just a (not so subtle) hint.
it’s getting cold out there.
find your warmth and beauty and tickling where you can, love.
sensational Cecil: exquisite Manners in the Metropolis.
quelle sensation!
a satiny, luscious, champagne bubble of an exhibition.
Cecil Beaton at the Museum of the city of new York.
a delicious way to wind down on a Friday in Fall.
elegance – 1930s – silk – suites at the St Regis (where we took the Sophisticate for tea before he embarked – metaphorically aboard The Queen Mary or some such more glorious mode of la vie jet set than the red eye from JFK – for The Continent) – vintage days at the Graybar Building – irrepressible celebrities and Brooding Stars and…………DV!
distracting ourselves with barbara barry.
sometimes (like, for example, an hour and fifteen minutes before one sees the surgeon again to get the results of the “we found something” remark and book a date for surgery) one might just like to be distracted.
when team gloria has such a notion we seek out barbara barry.
her world soothes us in a symphony of barely-repressed crisp linens, seductively silky satin throw pillows, elegant china patterns and the abundance of an aesthetic from the early 1930s – all southern california sunshine, the peek behind a blind, butterscotch ottomans, deep chocolate sofas and chic occasional tables in burnished mirrored finishes with vintage photographs of androgynous bathing beauties in silver frames.
find her here: now do you see what we mean? delicious. right? we think so. dreamy-sweet and ever so slightly naughty.
