255 19

Linda Fargo: The Eyes of Bergdorf Goodman

The Chow Dynasty: Fortune, Fame, and Food

On 57th Street’s Billion Dollar Listings

Michael Chow Michael GrossLinda Fargo

29

Shot by An Le as Holly Golightly 2.0

Olivia Palermo

THURSDAY 4/14/201657 MAGAZINETBDSIZE: FP SECTION: - 4XXXS16_57MagaZINgFP

5TH AVENUE AT 58TH STREET BG.COM 800 967 3788 @BERGDORFS

PRADA

THURSDAY 4/14/201657 MAGAZINETBDSIZE: FP SECTION: - 4XXXS16_57MagaZINgFP

5TH AVENUE AT 58TH STREET BG.COM 800 967 3788 @BERGDORFS

PRADA

57 Letter from the editor

57th Street is a true New York icon: the super-rich crossroads of culture and couture, business and pleasure. Already a famed

shopping and dining destination, the boulevard has re-invented itself to

become the most stylish, uber-luxurious, internationally recognized place to live on the island of Manhattan. Dubbed

“Billionaire’s Belt,” 57th Street is the perfect place to do it all, raise a family, invest in

priceless jewelry, sit at the best restaurants, and throw a fabulous New York wedding (check out fashion It Girl Dani Stahl’s

private wedding album on page 35).

57 Newspaper celebrates the quintessential New York institutions and bold personalities

that make the street so desirable from The Chow Dynasty to legendary Bill Cunningham to style siren Linda Fargo a.k.a. “the eyes of Bergdorf

Goodman.” Manhattan moves and morphs by the millisecond, and 57th Street is a prime

example of a new golden era—read Michael Gross’

riveting history of the city‛s grandest street on page 19. We will see you soon—on

57th Street, of course.

Peter Davis

ILLUSTRATIONS BY DONALD ROBERTSON

57 Contributors

Photographer AN LE has shot for Vogue Italia, L’Officiel, Flaunt, and commercial clients like Balmain, Bottega Venetta, and Saks Fifth Avenue. Sarah Jessica Parker, John Legend, and Naomi Campbell are just a few of the famous faces Le has photographed. An Le shot Olivia Palermo as Holly Golightly for 57.

London native ANGELICA HICKS’ cheeky-chic illustrations have appeared everywhere from Porter magazine to the dating app Bumble to The New York Times who recently profiled the young artist as one to watch.

A graduate of Yale University, JEFFREY SLONIM is the former Society Editor of Interview magazine and a Manhattan-based writer who currently writes a column for Condé Nast Traveler online. He was an usher at Andy Warhol’s funeral and is mentioned in The Andy Warhol Diaries on the fourth-to-last-page.

Dubbed the “Andy Warhol of Instagram,” artist and creative director DONALD ROBERTSON’s work has appeared all over the globe from Vanity Fair to the cult Paris store Colette to collaborations with Bergdorf Goodman, J. Crew, and beyond. Robertson lives in Los Angeles with his wife and five kids. His first children’s book Mitford and the Fashion Zoo is currently in stores.

MICHAEL GROSS is the author of The New York Times bestsellers Model, 740 Park, and House of Outrageous Fortune. His latest book, Focus: The Sexy, Secret, Sometimes Sordid World of Fashion Photographers, will be published by Simon & Schuster’s Atria Books on July 5th. 

Writer ZACH WEISS pens “Shindigger,” the nightlife column for The New York Observer. When not on the town interviewing the famous and fabulous, Weiss can be found having lunch at Sant Ambroeus in Soho.

A former columnist and editor at the New York Daily News, CARSON GRIFFITH’s articles have appeared in over 40 publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Elle, GQ, and The Hollywood Reporter, among others. Griffith made a cameo appearance as herself on the final season of the CW show “Gossip Girl.”

Cover OLIVIA PALERMO; PHOTOS by AN LE;

ASSISTANT JAMES SAKALIAN III AND DAVE SWEENEY; SET AND

PROPS by STEWART GERARD. ASSISTANT DYLAN ANGEL; STYLING

by PRISCILLA POLLEY; MAKEUP by CEDRIC JOLIVET; HAIR by

MATTHEW MONZON; Shot at FAST ASHLEYS

Publisher JULIE DANNENBERG

Art Direction WILLIAMS NEW YORK

Special thanks to MICA SPICKA; JOHN WHITE; SU HONG;

PATRICK MCMULLAN; BILLY FARRELL

57 Contents

A girl cAn’t reAd thAt

sort of thing without her

lipstick.

Holly Golightly,breakfast at tiffany’s

5Th e C h o w D y n a s t y

By Jeff rey Slonim

1 9B i l l i o n

D o l l a r L i s t i n g s

By Michael Gross

2 3B i l l C u n n i n g h a m ’ s B i r d s o f Pa r a d i s e

B y Z a c h a r y We i s s

2 5L i n d a Fa r g o : Th e E y e s O f B e r g d o r f G o o d m a n

By Peter Davis

2 9H o l ly

G o l i g h t ly 2 . 0

By An Le

3 1K i d s R u l e

5 7 t h S t r e e t

By Peter Feld

3 3S e e a n d B e S e e n

O n 5 7 t h

By Carson Griff ith

3 5N e w Yo r k ’ s

We d d i n g o f t h e Ye a r

Dani Stahl

3 7J o h n

Ba r r e t t

By Peter Davis

from the 57 VauLt

The Chow Dynasty

Fame, fortune, and food

By Jeffrey sLonim

All original and unpublished photos courtesy of Paige Powell. Paintings from Voice for My father.

5

Andy Warhol, Untitled, 1984.

Top: Andy Warhol and Kenny Scharf; Bottom: Andy Warhol photographing Toukie Smith, the then-girlfriend of Robert Deniro. 1986.

6

Top: Paige Powell and Andy Warhol; Bottom: Tina Chow.

7

ith icy wind sweeping a cavernous East 57th Street, a t ime-machine vestibule remains secreted away

near Second Avenue. Diners pause to catch their breath behind the glass door with a behemoth crystal handle before pushing open a set of double doors.

For some, this sparkling antechamber entry inspires Proustian scent memories of the restau-rant’s spicy Beijing cuisine. For others, over three decades, it has evoked the deco-inspired tiers of tables, packed with boldface names. When a soft-spoken Hubert de Givenchy labeled Michael Chow’s inspired design “the jewel box,” the moniker stuck.

The enigmatic central figure, Michael Chow, the founder of the eponymous empire, is a stu-dent of architecture, a painter, and one of the world’s foremost collectors of contemporary art and furniture by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann—who incidentally also wore round-frame glasses.

Michael Chow’s father was Zhou Xinfang, a master of the Chinese opera; his mother, Lilian, was a Scottish tea heiress. Presciently, the cou-ple, who would become prominent early vic-tims of the Cultural Revolution, sent Chow off to boarding school in England from the age of 12. “The restaurant wasn’t about my father,” says Chow. “But the way everything is rehearsed, directed, it’s very much like theater. And that is in the spirit of my father’s performances.”

When he came of age in the late ’60s, Chow had a starry dry run when he opened Mr. Chow in London in 1969 with his soon-to-be second wife, supermodel-turned Vogue fashion editor Grace Coddington. “Everybody you can think of came to Mr. Chow in London,” he remem-bers. “Marlene Dietrich, Fellini, Lana Turner.”

But the New York story unfolds a decade later, in 1979, when Chow and his third wife, Tina, a young Japanese model, beloved by Karl Lager-feld, moved to New York, where she entranced the Studio 54 set.

Altitudinous social Jamee Gregory then lived next to the restaurant, as did Chow, wife Tina, and their two young children, Maximillian and China. “We used to go to his restaurant in London, where there was every earl, duke, and socialite. So, of course, when we came back in 1979, it was our neighborhood can-teen,” says Gregory. “Tina Chow was so gor-geous, and it was the hot scene—there were rock stars, movie stars, Mick Jagger—every-body in town went to Mr. Chow.”

“Andy Warhol came from the beginning,” recalls Chow. “It was the years of Julian Schna-bel’s renaissance, and the very early Jean-Michel Basquiat. When Clemente arrived, it became the art world café, like a chicer version of Max’s Kansas City.”

Warhol, jewelry designer Tina Chow’s great champion, cited Mr. Chow 21 times in the 839 pages of The Warhol Diaries. Sadly, Tina would become an early female victim of AIDS. She succumbed to the disease in 1992.

“Wednesday, May 30, 1984, Tina Chow was having lunch at Mr. Chow’s at 1 o’clock. So we went over. And the best thing was Jerry Hall. She looked sort of voluptuous, and she had pic-tures of the baby, who looks just like Mick. And Jerry said to me, ‘I’m so glad I’m sitting next to you because, you know, to open my own beauty salon/dress place, it would only cost a million dollars … and Mick won’t give me the money.’ ”

Artist Kenny Scharf also recounted the art-centric ’80s at Mr. Chow. “We would have these giant tabs there,” Scharf recounts of himself and graffiti artist Keith Haring. “Keith had this one party, and each person was given a bottle of Cristal. Everybody got so drunk. And I remember at one point, we started throw-ing all the flowers, and the whole restaurant was just a blizzard of flowers.”

“I started going there in 1981,” says photographer Paige Powell, a Warhol intimate who dated Bas-quiat. “The aesthetic was Asian deco, and we sat at the big round table on the balcony beyond the bar. When I was with Andy, Tina would sit with us. One time, I remember going with Andy, Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran, and David Bowie. This was right before he met Iman.”

“We used to go there several times a week,” Sam Bolton, who worked for Warhol at the time, mentions. “Andy and Tina were such good friends. They’d talk about the

8

Andy wArhol cAme from the

Beginning [...]

it BecAme the Art world cAfé, like A

chicer version of mAx’s

kAnsAs city.

Michael Chow

Beverly Johnson, Keith Haring, a friend, and Andy Warhol.

David Bowie with friend.

doctors they’d gone to and the healers, shiatsu, and acupuncture.”

Author Tama Janowitz also dined with War-hol at Mr. Chow. “I will always remember the crunchy seaweed. You got a whole plate. And they had tiramisu for dessert before any other restaurant in NYC, even Italian places, were serving it.”

Janowitz returned to Mr. Chow for a dinner that Bowie gave after Warhol’s death. “It was me, Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran, and [designer] Stephen Sprouse. I always remem-ber having to get out of the cab and walking a few blocks, and it was always dark and windy. You were in the void, but then you would open the door or the door was opened for you, and it was all luxe—lights, glass, mirrors, plush Chinese screens.”

“I remember when they were shooting Bas-quiat. David Bowie was playing Andy War-hol,” Michael’s daughter, China Chow recalls. “My brother, Maximillian, was interning on that movie. They all used to have dinner there, and Julian [Schnabel, the director] put that in the movie after Jean-Michel’s opening. And they had my father’s [guest] book of the art they had all done for him in that scene. That book might be the most exciting thing that came out of that space. It has pieces by War-hol, Cy Twombly, Basquiat.”

“Everybody drew in that book,” Michael Chow adds. “Bacon, Noguchi, Andy Warhol. The

sketch by Twombly is on our logo plate at all the restaurants.”

But the man who witnessed the full span of history at Mr. Chow served there. “We would hold that table for Warhol,” says Brian Murati, who was employed at Mr. Chow 57th Street as an Albanian teen-ager from Queens in 1979 and continued to preside over the table chart for some 35 years. “I served Mick Jagger, Bowie with Iman. Everybody loved Mr. Chow, from Puff Daddy to Ja Rule to Mariah Carey.”

Soaring sports figures were also a draw, according to Murati. “There was Stephon Marbury, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing from the Knicks.”

Aesthetes and socials came for the cuisine and the pink alabaster lighting in the style of Ruhl-mann. “The food there was always so good,” Martha Stewart gushes. “I still go there all the time and have Peking duck.”

Society staple Jennifer Creel points out that the glamour factor has never diminished. “It’s a restau-rant we’ve all grown up with. Valentino did a party there with Gwyneth Paltrow. The Met Gala after-party was there one year.”

Cinema Society founder Andrew Saffir recalls fet-ing Sharon Stone and Demi Moore there on dif-ferent nights. Little-known fact: In Fatal Attraction, Dan and Alex meet at Mr. Chow.

Designer Tommy Hilfiger continues the saga through the rise of rap, explaining that Rus-sell Simmons held court with everyone from Jay Z to Sean Combs, Swizz Beatz, Fat Joe, and Mary J. Blige. “It turned into a very hip, hip-hop crowd, a big mix—music people, Tommy Mottola, Mariah Carey, Stevie Won-der,” he says.

Stylist and author June Ambrose, best known for dressing Jay Z, lives nearby. “That was the music industry Le Cirque in the ’90s,” she sug-gests. “All the music kids who had cash would go. We used to go with Puffy all the time and Andre Harrell. There were athletes, actors, and fashion people would throw dinners there. It was basically a Who’s Who. And you went there when you knew that you had money to spend, because one stick of satay chicken was like $10, and we would go through 30 of them. And it has a sexy look, like old Hollywood, very gangster. The space was bright, not dark, and you could see everyone.”

Murati, who claims to have begun letting rappers in because he liked the way they dressed, insists that it is the history that brings celebs back. “It conjures up memories.”

Former Vogue editor Helen Lee Schifter dream-ily remembers dancing with Michael and Eva, Chow’s beautiful fourth wife, a Korean model turned fashion designer and an art patroness, in a tight circle at the 30th-anniversary soiree in 2009.

She iterates the mantra: “Everybody was there.”

i rememBer when they

were shooting basquiat.

dAvid Bowie wAs plAying Andy

wArhol. [...] And they hAd my fAther’s [guest] Book of the Art

they hAd All done for him.

China Chow

9

10

Mr. Chow New York, ca. 1983. From top to bottom (left to right): Michael Heizer, Arman, LeRoy Neiman, Dennis Oppenheim, Julian Schnabel, William Wegman, David Hockney, Alex Katz, Keith Haring, Tony Shafrazi, Red Grooms, Andy Warhol, John Chamberlain, Kenny Scharf, Ronnie Cutrone, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francesco

Clemente, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sandro Chia, Chris Goode, Darius Azari, Shawn Hausman, and Eric Goode.

Gerard Basquiat with his son, Jean-Michel Basquiat.

11

12

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1985.

13

Tina Chow

14

Julian Schnabel, Untitled, 1985.

Keith Haring, Mr. chow as Green Prawns in a Bowl of noodles, 1986.

15

16

David Hockney, Untitled, 1967.

The Chow Family Today

I C H A E L C H O W, founder of the legend-ary Mr. Chow empire—which includes the original outpost in Knightsbridge, London;

57th Street in Manhattan; Tribeca; Beverly Hills; Malibu; Miami; and Las Vegas—now paints as the artist known as Zhou, YingHua. His art was first exhibited in a show titled Voice for My Father, at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, in honor of what would have been his father’s 120th birthday. The exhibit also traveled to the Power Station of Art in Shanghai and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. “I was trained and painted religiously for 10 years,” notes Chow. “But as a painter, I slept for almost 50 years. I missed the Pop movement. I might have been depleted by all the other movements if I hadn’t bypassed them. But I recently woke up, and now there is the spirit of Chinese cal-ligraphy, all of that energy which the Beijing opera also had, in my work. Now I’m old, but there is very much that avant-garde Euro-pean [sensibility].”

E VA C H O W , the former model and fashion designer known as Eva Chun, collaborates with her husband in all aspects of design, col-

lecting art and furniture, and the expansion of the Mr. Chow restaurant business—nota-bly to Caesars in Las Vegas. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where she founded and co-chairs in the enormously successful annual gala, now in its sixth year, with Leon-ardo DiCaprio. In April 2016, the New York Academy of Art’s Tribeca Ball honored Eva and Michael Chow.

C H I N A C H O W, the daughter of Tina and Michael Chow, an actress and former model, is working on a book endeavor. She is shoot-ing all images for the work, and noted art dealer and curator Jeffrey Deitch will pen the foreword. She has also recently produced a film by artist Alex Israel. In 2015, she served as director and creative director for Duran Duran’s album cover and for all mer-chandising involving their Paper Gods tour. During a visit to Mr. Chow in Miami, she ran into Boy George & Culture Club after their reunion concert. “They ended up hav-ing a dinner party at Mr. Chow in Miami,” says Chow. “And I went to ask him ahead of time if he wanted me to order for his dietary restrictions, as I knew he was raw vegan. And he said, ‘This is Mr. Chow—I’ll be fine. My favorite is the spare ribs!’ We

were playing David Bowie, and ‘China Girl’ came on, and he sang the song out loud, and I videotaped it. My heart melted!” China appeared as Lucy Chen in the TV series Burn Notice. She was also a host and judge on Work of Art: The Next Great Artist.

Screenwriter M A X I M I L L I A N C H O W , China’s brother, is increasingly involved in the operations of the Mr. Chow empire. He and Michael Chow penned the script Voice for My Father about his grandfather, Zhou Xinfang, who was a star of the Peking opera and is consid-ered a national treasure in China, where his image has appeared on a stamp. Their script will be included in the catalog at the Voice for My Father show at the Andy Warhol Museum in April.

A S I A C H O W , the daughter of Michael and Eva Chow, is a musician and an undergraduate at Columbia Univer-sity, majoring in English literature and music. Asia has also modeled for Lan-vin, Givenchy, and David Webb and is currently the face of Shiseido. In her personal wardrobe, she favors Saint Laurent and Givenchy and is a close friend and muse to both designers.

17

the Latest

Asia Chow Eva Chow China Chow Maximillian ChowJOHN SALANGSANG/BFA.COM BILLY FARRELL/BFA.COM NEIL RASMUS/BFA.COM OWEN KOLASINSKI/BFA.COM

Chow Family. Helmut Newton

18

TWO MILES LONG, FOUR LANES WIDE, AND 29 DEGREES NORTH OF A PERFECT EAST-WEST ORIENTATION, NEW YORK’S 57TH STREET IS A SPECTACULAR BOULEVARD, MORE THAN EQUAL TO REGENT STREET IN LONDON, THE CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES IN PARIS, KURFÜRSTENDAMM IN BERLIN, AND PASEO DE LA REFORMA IN MEXICO CITY. IT HAS RUN STRAIGHT AS AN ARROW, NOT ONLY ACROSS

MANHATTAN BUT THROUGH ITS HISTORY EVER SINCE IT WAS FIRST LAID OUT IN THE COMMISSIONER’S PLAN OF 1811 THAT ESTABLISHED THE ISLAND’S DEFINING STREET GRID.

inside 57th street

By miChaeL Gross

Billion Dollar Listings

19

n the late 1860s, when Chem-ical Bank heiress Mary Mason Jones began building a row of marble-clad houses on a block she’d inherited at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, Central Park was still under construction and

although nearby streets had been laid out, they remained more promise than reality. A few years later, as Theodore Roosevelt Sr. began building a mansion at No. 6, 57th Street was still the “outer fringe of New York City,” wrote Edmund Morris, biographer of Roosevelt’s son, the future president. That all changed by 1878, when Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a child of the famous Commodore, bought several homes across the street and erected a mansion with his vast rail and shipping inheritance. He and other Vanderbilt heirs who built homes nearby dragged the social center of the city north with the sheer force of financial power. The Mrs. Astor, who’d long disdained them, found herself following in their wake.

Five years later, when the Osborne Apart-ments rose on the northwest corner of Sev-enth Avenue, 57th became the city’s grandest residential corridor. Thomas Osborne’s apart-ment house was, briefly, the tallest building in the city. Neighbors like Carnegie Hall and the Art Students League followed, and at the end of the 19th century the crossroads of 57th and Seventh was ground zero for New York’s society of culture and wealth. The rise of other grand apartment houses nearby cer-tified the status of the district above Times (then Longacre) Square and just below the city’s new park, already seen as a landscape architecture landmark. In 1908, a group of artists financed two “studio” buildings—live-work homes for artists—at 130 and 140 West 57th. Their double-height ceilings attracted the likes of the American Impressionist Childe Hassam, whose paintings of Amer-ican flags flying over 57th became iconic. The Alwyn Court, elaborately decorated in terra cotta, opened a half block north of the Osborne in 1909 as the city’s most expensive building. Its sprawling 14- to 34-room flats rented for a then-staggering $10,000 a year.

But there was also action afoot at the east end of 57th Street—and it would soon become the city’s most fashionable purlieu. In the 1870s, what was then called Avenue A was renamed by developers erecting brownstones just to the north on what they called Sutton Place. They also created a new block-long street, Riverview Terrace, perched on a high bank overlooking the East River. Though its homes were designed for people of mod-est means, Riverview Terrace homeowners would eventually include Jack Warner, Aris-totle Onassis, and Richard Avedon.

The wealthy inched south, too, into an area better known for the tenements, piers, garages, warehouses, and breweries where the impoverished Dead End Kids of Depres-sion-era movies gambled. Just after World War I, a group of wealthy builders and inves-

tors, including the Phipps family, whose patriarch was Andrew Carnegie’s partner in the steel business, began buying prop-erty there and created homes for themselves and their friends on a bluff above the river. J.P. Morgan’s daughter Anne and another Vanderbilt moved in. In a twist of fate, the builder of that new Vanderbilt house almost simultaneously demolished the one at Fifth and 57th and erected Bergdorf Goodman in its place. Across the street, the Roosevelt house had already given way to Warren & Wetmore’s 1921 Heckscher Building (now the gold-topped Crown Building). The city’s northernmost office building, it began the transformation of central 57th into a neigh-borhood of lavish office towers and luxury retailers. Modern landmarks like 9 West 57th and the IBM Building are its progeny.

In the meantime, the action to the east grew frantic. When the Phipps group started a large apartment house on the East River on the south side of 57th in 1925, Sutton Place South was born. At the same time, the site of the American Revolutionary–era spy Nathan Hale’s hanging by the British—for more than a century the seat of New Amsterdam’s Beekman family—was transformed into an equally secluded and desirable enclave, Beekman Place. It and Sutton Place are separated by two streets ending in cul-de-sacs, but one is home to River House, a grand cooperative apartment building that has also housed the wealthy and well-born since it

20

if you wAnt to know how short

memories cAn Be, Ask A new yorker ABout ritz thrift

shop or rizzoli Bookstore.

Cornelius Vanderbilt residence, Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, 1894. View of the 57th Street side, after addition. George B. Post, architect.

Uma Thurman

opened in 1931. At that time, River House, 1 Beekman Place (developed by a son-in-law of John D. Rockefeller Jr.), and the Phipps’ 1 Sutton Place South all boasted private yacht landings. Though River House and Beekman Place have had their ups and downs, superstar investor Wilbur Ross recently joined the former’s tenant roster, confirming its enduring status and affirming Sutton-Beekman’s place as the easternmost point on the Billionaire’s Belt.

Far West 57th, meanwhile, lost its status as a social redoubt. Before World War I, the blocks west of the Osborne evolved into what was called Automobile Row, full of car showrooms and offices for firms like General Motors and B.F. Goodrich (which was headquartered next door to the Art Students League). The Roaring Twen-ties did bring new homes to 57th Street, but they were mostly to the east. Architect Emery Roth’s Ritz Tower opened on Park Avenue in 1926 as the latest tallest residen-tial tower in the world. It was also one of the very first skyscrapers.

As the Great Depression deepened and then gave way to World War II, new con-struction in New York ground to a halt for three decades. But 57th Street survived

those dark times. Even as co-ops like 130 West 57th failed and were being seized by lenders, 322 East 57th, a new studio build-ing with double-height rooms, opened in 1930, and a year later, the Parc Vendome, a 600-apartment giant with a swimming pool, opened west of Eighth Avenue. But it had smaller apartments, reflect-ing the constrained times. Similarly, by 1938, Alwyn Court had fallen so far out of favor, it was taken over by a bank and cut up into smaller units. Apartments at the Osborne were downsized, too, and it was in jeopardy until 1961, when it was finally saved from demolition and con-verted into a cooperative.

As America emerged from the Depression, 57th Street on both sides of Fifth Avenue became and would remain one of the world’s great shopping destinations. Tiffany & Co.’s late-Deco-style flagship by Cross & Cross opened cater-cornered to Bergdorf Goodman in 1939, joining such eminent brands as Hammacher Schlemmer (which opened its headquarters on East 57th in 1926) and Bonwit Teller, which moved to a Warren & Wetmore building on East 56th Street in 1929. Destination restaurants like the plush Russian Tea Room (1927) and, at the other end of the economic spectrum, Horn & Hardart’s modern-style Automat (1938) arrived, too.

In the decades that followed, antiquaries and art galleries flocked into older build-ings on 57th as musicians had decades ear-lier, catering mostly to a carriage trade that lived nearby. One past president of Berg-dorf Goodman had a habit of pointing out his office window, telling visitors that his view encompassed the greatest concentra-tion of wealth and good taste in the world.

It wasn’t until the Sixties, when many apartment houses on Park Avenue were replaced by office towers, that new homes again rose on East 57th, and even then, they were mostly rentals with street-level retail; the feel of the street west of Second Avenue remains commercial. But bucking the mid-market trend was the Galleria at 117 East 57th, one of the earliest condo-miniums in New York to attract wealthy foreigners, as well as a General Motors heir, Stewart Mott, who built its quad-riplex penthouse. Along with two other Seventies-vintage towers named Olym-pic and Trump (the latter replaced Bon-wit Teller on Fifth Avenue), Galleria was a multimillionaire hint of the billionaire haunt that 57th Street would become 40 years later.

A decade ago, both ends of 57th were in a Rip Van Winkle–like sleep. But blood still flowed from the boulevard’s beating heart, the commercial zone centered on Fifth Avenue, where potent luxury brands from around the world clustered. Louis Vuitton even erected a tower of its own in 1999, just off Madison Avenue. So devel-

Cornelius Vanderbilt II residence, northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and East 57th Street, New York City, May 5, 1891.

21

Richard Avedon

opers hoped the street ’s flanks were due for a revival, needing only a nudge back into real estate relevance.

At the turn of the millennium, Trump Inter-national Hotel and Tower opened on nearby Columbus Circle. The Time Warner Center, a spectacularly successful multi-use devel-opment that also houses condominiums and a hotel in its twin towers, along with retail stores, restaurants, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center cultural complex in its base, followed. There, in July 2003, David Martínez, a Mex-ican financier, began putting together what would become New York’s latest richest resi-dence, a $54.8 million duplex occupying most of two floors. Though it had yet to acquire the name, that’s when Manhattan got its Billion-aire’s Belt. Less well known is the fact that the surge of wealth into the center of the city was a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same.

That said, things do seem to change quickly now. If you want to know how short mem-ories can be, ask a New Yorker about Ritz Thrift Shop or Rizzoli Bookstore. The first, which dealt in lightly used fur coats, opened in 1937 next door to Steinway Hall. Today, a so-called super tall tower is rising beside and over the former piano showroom, con-cert hall, and office tower, anchored on the site of the Ritz, which closed in 2005. And Rizzoli vanished in 2014 (eventually moving

to the Flatiron District) to make way for yet another tower. Persistent 57th Street con-stantly renews itself.

Just around the corner from Alwyn Court, the One57 condo-hotel tower holds the record for the city’s most expensive resi-dence, for now: A penthouse there closed last year for $100.5 million. But rumor has it that a hedge fund runner has already committed to spend $200 million-plus for an assemblage of apartments at a new 15 Central Park West–like tower just down the beltway on Central Park South. Briefly, One57 was also the city’s tallest residential building, but it quickly lost that distinction to 432 Park, which though on 56th Street, looms over 57th. The record will shortly return to 57th when yet another new tower rising on the site of a former Automobile Row landmark, just west of the Art Stu-dents League, opens for business.

So 57th Street’s reign as our premier bou-levard of wealth has undulated through a century-and-a-third, much like the curved façade of the latest addition to this street of dreams, 252 East 57th Street, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Apart-ments there, or anywhere on 57th, are for the ritzy, not the thrifty. But fortunately for the rest of us, the sidewalks are still free, so the street’s great cavalcade is a show that’s open for all to see.

Michael Gross is the author of more than a dozen books, including The New York Times bestsellers 740 Park: The Story of the World’s Richest Apartment Building and House of Outrageous Fortune: Fifteen Central Park West, The World’s Most Powerful Address. His next book, Focus: The Secret, Sexy, Sometimes Sordid World of Fashion Photographers, will be published in July by Simon & Schuster.

Carnegie Hall, West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, New York City, undated.

22

thAt’s when mAnhAttAn

got its BillionAire’s

Belt.

By ZaChary Weiss

illustrAtions by anGeLiCa hiCks

e is, to say the least, highly particular when it comes to whom he chooses for his page of style snaps “On the Street with Bill Cun-ningham,” published

weekly in The New York Times. He prefers to photograph his regulars outside the world of fashion, whom he refers to as “birds of para-dise.” They include the resplendently costumed Ike Ude, a Nigerian-American artist, author, publisher, and photographer, and Tziporah Sal-amon whose over-the-top sartorial sense was explored in the documentary Advanced Style. He is reluctant to include over-exposed, peacocking fashion editors outside of the biannual runway shows, and makes his discerning eye abun-dantly clear to them. “I don’t really remember the first time he photographed me,” Harper’s Bazaar Executive Editor Laura Brown says. “I probably blacked out from excitement. What I

remember more is when Bill looks at you, raises his camera for a second, and then thinks, ‘Nah.’ That, you never forget.”

“We all get dressed for Bill,” Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour famously declares from the front row in director Richard Press’ documentary Bill Cunningham New York. Yet dandy-about-town Patrick Mcdonald has landed in Cunningham’s Times column many more times than Wintour, who is arguably the most powerful person in the fashion world. “I never bothered with celebrities,” Mr. Cunning-ham wrote in The New York Times. “Unless they were wearing something interesting.”

Mr. Cunningham is firmly set in his ways. He frequents the same haunts to get his photo-graphs, most notably the busy corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. He never uses a cell phone or the Internet. “He’s the only rea-son I have a fax machine,” claims Andrew

Saffir, founder of The Cinema Society. “I’ve contemplated standing outside Carnegie Hall with an invite, and riding tandem with him to one of our premieres!”

Yes, Carnegie Hall was Mr. Cunningham’s former home. “When Bill got evicted from Carnegie Hall studios and moved to his new apartment, the only thing he took with him were all his file cabinets,” Mr. Press, the direc-tor, recalls. “They were wheeled up Seventh Avenue like a flotilla by all the handymen at Carnegie Hall. ”

The notoriously shy 87-year-old remains as spry as ever, zipping around Manhattan on his bike to photograph his subjects on the street, at black tie balls and wherever he thinks he can find those rare New York birds whose eccentric splendor catches his eye. “I never go out with a preconceived idea,” Mr. Cunning-ham says. “I let the streets speak to me.”

23

Who Are Bill Cunningham’s

Birds of Paradise?

New York’s favorite photographer has cast his own circus of style stars.

24

Ike Ude

James Aguiar

Julie Macklowe

Lauren Ezersky

Tziporah Salamon

Patrick Mcdonald

— Ike Ude

— Lauren Ezersky— Julie Macklowe

— James Aguiar

— Tziporah Salamon

i like his wArm smile And indefAtigABle enthusiAsm

for sArtoriAl wit.

he’s so low-key—thAt’s whAt everyone loves ABout him.

it’s such An honor to Be shot By him BecAuse it vAlidAtes your thinking you And your

wArdroBe Are looking spiffy thAt dAy!

i hAve kept Almost All the sunday styLes clippings thAt

Bill hAs tAken throughout the yeArs BecAuse he is the Best judge thAt you hAve dressed

well And nAiled it…. he is the reAl new yorker stAmp of ApprovAl! no one cAn Buy him

off. thAt’s why we All love him.

whAt i Admire ABout him the most is he does not ‘see’ people; he sees And feels the street And does not need to hAng out outside A fAshion show

to get it. style for him is in the fArmers’ mArket uptown, downtown

At A rAndom Art show, As well As the glittering sociAl gAlAs he covers.

of All the people out there, he’s the judge As fAr As i’m concerned. he’s the one thAt counts…. no one

hAs his knowledge.

— Patrick Mcdonald

i Believe Bill is the smArtest mAn in fAshion; he knows

the history, collection By collection, yeAr After yeAr. he

hAs seen everything through his cAmerA lens from the streets to

the runwAy. we cAn All leArn from Bill. i do.

• Bill Cunningham’s Birds of Paradise •

57 styLe iCon

BERGDORF GOODMAN’S FASHION DIRECTOR LINDA FARGO IS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL, INFLUENTIAL, AND DOWN-TO-EARTH (SHE’S FROM THE MIDWEST!) FASHION FIGURES IN NEW YORK—AND MILAN, PARIS,

LONDON, AND BEYOND. HER SHARP, STYLISH EYE FOR HOT TALENT AND WHAT’S NEXT HAS HELPED LAUNCH CAREERS FROM RODARTE TO JASON WU. THIS YEAR, LINDA CELEBRATES TWO DECADES AT

BERGDORF GOODMAN AND LOOKS BACK ON 20 FABULOUS YEARS OF FASHION AND FUN.

By Peter daVisillustrAtion By donaLd robertson

Linda Fargo: The Eyes of Bergdorf Goodman

Pizza Box Painting, Donald Robertson

25

AS A KID IN MILWAUKEE, HOW DID YOU DISCOVER FASHION?

My origins in fashion were probably more about the transformative aspect of costume. I was big, big, big into my costume box. Every relative seemed to donate something to it: a discarded tulle crinoline, an old pair of 1940s nude satin evening sandals with tiny diamonds on every strap, a lavender taffeta ball gown, a marching cadet’s uniform, my father’s crisp white cotton dress shirts and ties. Everything was about going into charac-ter or being somewhere else imagined, trans-ported by the simple act of slipping into one of these collected articles, even if the dog had chewed on it a few times. That’s what really began my fascination with what fashion and adornment could mean.

TELL ME ABOUT THE FIRST PIECE OF CLOTHING YOU BOUGHT WITH YOUR OWN MONEY.

I remember feeling pretty great about an Alley Cat crimson-colored knit vest with lots of buttons and the cutest hand-drawn illustration of a curled-up cat on the sewn label. Alley Cat was an early fashion brand by Betsey Johnson, and I used to pour over her ads with her drawings all over the page in Seventeen magazine. Seventeen was my Vogue and my window into fashion and beauty at 13 years old.

WHAT IS ONE PIECE OF DESIGNER ANYTHING THAT YOU STILL OWN?

The first piece of serious fashion I bought when I moved from the Midwest to New York was an Alaia power suit in maroon brown. I had to have it and I still do—extra-wide ’80s padded shoulders and all. It sym-bolizes for me the beginning of my apprecia-tion for fashion design, the craft, the art, the ultimate dream of it. I was mesmerized by the curvaceous seam-work and sculpting and had never seen anything like it. It’s interesting how so often your first love leaves an ever-lasting mark. I still regard Alaia as one of the greatest masters of fashion design of all time.

LET’S TALK ABOUT BERGDORF’S LEGENDARY WINDOWS.

Choosing a favorite window is like choosing your favorite child. Each one has a unique quality, which you hold dear. Favoritism is difficult for me. I’m still sentimentally attached to some of my early explorations with stretching the image and perception of the store—like the “impossible” tableaux—my first tornado windows with hair in frozen full swirl, chairs and pitchforks literally pierc-ing the glass, and tongue-in-cheek newspa-pers blowing about with headlines reading, “Fair Weather Predicted.” I’m also rather par-tial to the decadent food windows, like the post-feast holiday window with half-eaten turkey carcasses, fish bones, broken bread, and spilled champagne. Even the classical portraits on the walls were poised with fork

in hand and dirty napkins dabbing their lips. And then there was the tawdry side-show with the mannequin in Marc Jacobs with her body glove of tattoos and mascara running down her forlorn cheeks and the other couture-clad figure elegantly laid across a bed of nails. As you can see, I have too many favorites to pick one. Our current window director, David Hoey, is really the maestro now. I think he’s world-class and kind of a genius.

LINDA, YOU ARE THE EYES OF BERGDORF GOODMAN. WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR ON RUNWAYS?

Different things from different shows. If it’s a debut show, such as Demna Gvasalia’s for Balenciaga, like this recent spring, I’m look-ing for what feels like an authentically new voice for the house with designs that create an internal frisson. These moments are rare and what we call in fashion-speak “a fashion moment.” If it’s a show for a designer that we’ve worked with historically, I look for how they’re evolving their message and DNA. At the same time, I try to cast a wider eye and watch and sense for a general shift in spirit and zeitgeist, as well as very specific emerg-ing trends, such as the prevalence recently of velvets, brocades, or vintage geek chic, as an example.

GIVE US THREE “WOW!” FASHION MOMENTS YOU’LL NEVER EVER FORGET.

Karl Lagerfeld’s “supermarché” show at the Grand Palais in fall ’14 was one of them. It was so much fun to see all the

there reAlly is no such thing As

A ‘typicAl’ dAy for me. i thrive

on vAriety. i like A life—And my meAls And interior

design tAste, for thAt mAtter—to resemBle A smorgAsBord.

26

Linda Fargo at the Ace AwardsLinda Fargo at Bergdorf GoodmanLEANDRO J./BFA.COMNEIL RASMUS/BFA.COM

clients in their Chanel and the editors running around after the show shopping for “Coco-Puff ” cereal and packages of “Chanel Power” detergent. Looking in the far rearview mirror, my first big fashion show extravaganza was a Thierry Mugler show at the New York Armory. He sent out battalions of Glamazon models in those curvaceous sculpted skirt suits back lit by hundreds of laser beams, casting ultra-long shadows out to the exit. The theater and the glamour were a big part of what drew me into this field in the first place. I was for-tunate to see numerous McQueen shows, including his first show for Givenchy. His shows had everything and beyond that you could hope for from a designer—incred-ible and fantastical new ideas as well as breath-stopping performance art. John Galliano, Rick Owens, and Thom Browne shows were right up there too as all-time fashion moments. I can’t answer this ques-tion without also mentioning Christian LaCroix’s couture shows. My God, was that a lesson in color and beauty. These rare instances are the gems we wait for.

YOU’RE A MAJOR STYLE ICON. DO YOU PLAN OUTFITS BEFORE AN EVENT, OR DOES LINDA FARGO EVER JUST WING IT?

I used to worry a bit more about what I wore. I’ve come to relax a lot more about it now.

For work I get dressed in five minutes or less, usually reaching for one of my current favorites. I get a bit stuck on a seasonal rep-ertoire, like my standby culottes crop pants this year and my leather long-fringed skirts last year. However, I do believe in making an effort in how you look. It’s important. It’s a form of self-respect. I think if you’re going to be in this business, you should walk the talk. It’s interesting how the world responds universally to style.

YOU’VE HELPED LAUNCH DESIGNERS’ CAREERS. JASON WU IS ONE.

I remember clearly Jason Wu’s first run-way collection because I was so excited to see someone so young who was actually interested in creating pretty, feminine, and elegant clothes versus edgy, deconstructed subversions of fashion, which was much more de rigueur for designers his age. We needed to find new bench strength for designers who would one day dress Valen-tino’s or Oscar’s customers. And then look what happened next. Michelle Obama wore Jason for the inauguration! I also remem-ber most collections that Joseph Altuzarra did in his developmental years. I was struck by his versatility. It was clear that he could master tailoring, which is one of the hard-est skills, as was clear in his red velvet cor-set suits, and then he could do romantic conceptual, which I saw in his tatter-edge suede shammy cloth collection. I couldn’t say that I discovered Joseph, or Jason either—not in the way that Dawn Mello, the former president and fashion director of Bergdorf ’s, discovered Michael Kors doing the windows for Lothar’s—but my antennae went up early on. All you can take credit for from that point is to become their partners in growing their business and give them an order and floor space, and stand by them through growing pains. Rodarte and Cushnie and Ochs were early adoptees, too.

WHAT’S A DAY LIKE IN THE UBER-GLAM LIFE OF LINDA?

I’m perfectly happy to report that there really is no such thing as a typical day for me. I thrive on variety. I like a life—and my meals and interior design taste, for that matter—to resemble a smorgasbord. I spend a great deal of time on store design work. A lot of people don’t realize that after I passed the window director baton to David Hoey, I took up all the interior design direction for Bergdorf ’s. I love it. I get to buy all my favorite antiques for my other home, the store. I’m privileged to be the designer right now for the biggest and most important renovation the store has undertaken since the late 1990s, which is the renovation of our entire main floor. There are a lot of eyes on this one, and the design has to stand the test of time ulti-mately, feel “very Bergdorf ’s,” and yet move us forward and not become a historical set piece. The store, being 114 years old, in a way doesn’t belong to us—we’re almost just

i do Believe in mAking An effort in how you look. it’s importAnt.

it’s A form of self-respect.

27

Linda Fargo at Bergdorf Goodman Holiday Window Unveiling

BENJAMIN LOZOVSKY/BFA.COM

loving custodians. It really belongs to our clients. Therefore, everything we touch has to be done thoughtfully and with a very personalized taste level. Of course it goes without saying, I spend a lot of time looking at fashion with the buyers, work-ing with PR and Events, dreaming and scheming, and working with my visual team, too. I’m lucky that I have such a hybrid type of job, as I get to interface with and touch the brand in so many ways. It ’s quite unique, really. The job is many things, but it ’s never boring. And if anyone cares to know, I drink a lot of double-strength black tea with agave to get me through and soothe me through-out the day—that ’s probably my only constant.

FASHION IS IN FLUX RIGHT NOW.

One of the most exciting things going on right now is that the industry is finally taking a hard look at itself and the cadence and rhythm of the way we conduct the calendar of shows and mar-kets and bring product to retail. It ’s time for this kind of introspection and potential overhaul given that the dig-ital genie is out of the bottle, and has impacted everything about consumer patterns, desire, fulfillment, etc. Aside from that potentially seismic shift, it ’s terribly exciting to see long-standing houses like Gucci, Valentino, Saint Lau-

rent, and now Balenciaga completely revitalizing and turning out some of the most desirable fashion of our times.

YOU’VE BEEN AT BG SINCE 1996. TWO DECADES.

This may sound silly, but one of the highlights of my career at Bergdorf ’s was being made into a holiday ornament. My chairman laughed and warned me that I would feel pretty bad to see myself in the markdown bin. I was kind of horrified by that idea, and swore I would buy every last one of the sad year-end leftovers before I would get marked down. Fortunately for my self-esteem, I had 100 percent sell-through! That saved me a lot of money. It ’s hard to believe but, yes, I’ve been at Bergdorf ’s for almost two decades. It ’s been and remains the best of times. I will never forget arriving here in the summer of 1996 and installing my first windows. I was on the street at sunset while traf-fic streamed down Fifth Avenue and the building’s old lanterns just started com-ing on, illuminating this special building sitting at the heart of New York on 57th and Fifth. The city had just begun to glit-ter in that special early-summer evening light. I was seeing my new adventures in design come to life before me in these big stage windows, and I knew then that I had arrived at the best store, the best street, and the best place in the world.

i knew then thAt i hAd Arrived At

the Best store, the

Best street, And the

Best plAce in the

world.

28

Linda Fargo at a Dior ready-to-wear show at the Musée du LouvreDAVID X PRU T TING/BFA.COM

Holly Golightly 2.0OLIVIA PALERMO SHOT BY AN LE AS HOLLY GOLIGHTLY 2.0

the only thing thAt

does Any good is to jump in A cAB And go to tiffAny’s.

cAlms me down right

AwAy.

Holly Golightly,breakfast at tiffany’s

57 famiLy

f all the cultural treasures of the world’s greatest city are a New York City child’s birthright, one who is lucky enough to grow up on 57th Street is perfectly situated to indulge. Nestled between a world of luxury shopping and dining is the

oasis of Central Park, and the neighborhood offers the perfect fusion of community, gran-deur, entertainment, and education.

“Imagine being able to show your children through the museums that house the best art, to take them to readings by celebrated authors at the New York Public Library, to have access to theater that kids in summer stock across the nation can only dream of,” enthuses author Jennifer Wright. But it isn’t just proximity to the Met or the American Museum of Natural History that makes the life of a 57th Street child so enriched: The whole city is a canvas.

Daily excursions to Central Park are a delight. Enter across from the fountain in front of The Plaza Hotel, past the Wollman Rink. Near 63rd Street is the famed Heckscher Playground, designed by architect Richard Dattner, who in the mid-1960s helped New York City

become “the country’s epicenter of innovative playgrounds,” according to critic Kimberlie Birks. Dattner believed that “the main thing wrong with playgrounds is that a kid can’t change them. A child must feel he has an effect on his environment.” His five Central Park playgrounds are based on his “theory of loose parts,” with movable components such as slotted boards that can be assembled and reassembled. Past the Chess & Checkers House, the carillon bells of the George Delacorte Musical Clock ring on the half hour on the way to every city kid’s favorite destination, the Central Park Zoo.

For young admirers of boats and bridges, or an afternoon stroll with baby in the car-riage, the charming river-view parks off Sutton Place offer the perfect respite. Even a stroll down Park Avenue can feel like an adventure, with a spindly, 33-foot silver alien staring up past the steel towers to the sky as afternoon traffic rolls by to its left and right. The sculpture, Tom Friedman’s Looking Up, is

By Peter feLdillustrAtion By anGeLiCa hiCks

Kids Rule 57th Street!

31

part of the Fund for Park Avenue’s rotating display on the Park Avenue mall. Then off to MoMA, a treasure trove for kids, with its wonderful sculpture garden and epic installa-tions. Although its world-class collection can be appreciated without guidance, ArtMuse offers interactive tours and classes tailored for every age.

Nearby are many cultural activities to suit any age and any interest. FIAF offers year-round language, music, and art programs, as do the Vanderbilt YMCA on East 47th Street, the SONY Wonder Technology Lab at East 56th Street and Madison, and the Marionette Theater at the picturesque Swed-ish Cottage in Central Park. Musical options include the Turtle Bay Music School, the Suzuki program at West 54th Street’s School for Strings, and the Lucy Moses School at the Kaufman Music Center. There are crafts pro-grams at the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden at East 61st and York.

But as the Park Avenue sculptures show, city kids find art everywhere. Writer Mia Cho-ate calls New York “a mother’s dream: a place where you can show children Van Goghs and Picassos hanging frame to frame on museum walls, but also a city where your kids will show

you art in places you never suspected.” Young eyes stare in seemingly endless fascination at the store windows at Bloomingdale’s, or at Fifth Avenue shops like Bergdorf ’s with its amazing kids’ department.

Behold the majesty of the tree at Rockefel-ler Center during the holiday season, as well as ice skating and hot chocolate, or tea with your favorite doll at the American Girl and hours spent at the Lego Store—all a short walk from 57th Street. Stop for treats at Dylan’s Candy Bar and dinner at Serendipity 3 on East 60th, with its Tiffany lamps and parlor chairs (and Jackie Onassis’ favorite, caviar and scrambled eggs followed by the famous frozen hot chocolate).

Over the course of the year, these 57th Street kids will see their social calendar fill with unforgettable, over-the-top events, includ-ing Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld’s Baby Buggy Bedtime Bash, at the beginning of June, and the Central Park Conservancy Playground Partners Family Party at Heckscher the week before. In October, highlights include the Pumpkin Fest at the Central Park Bandshell and the Halloween Spooktacular at Top of the Rock, and then for a birthday surprise, the high-energy princess-themed Moey’s Music Party at Eloise at the Plaza.

As Jennifer Wright rhapsodizes, “This is a town where ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ plays every time you see the 59th Street Bridge. Kids from Manhattan will see life in the raw and take it entirely in stride. I can’t think of a bet-ter reason to want to raise them here. I want them to know that they’re from someplace that matters, that the city has their back.”

57th street kids see their

sociAl cAlendAr fill with

unforgettABle, over-the-top

events.

32

The Russian Tea Room

The Russian Tea Room is like a movie star, appearing in  Manhattan,  Tootsie, and  Big, to name a few. Bill and Hillary Clinton, Anderson Cooper, Paul

McCartney, Chris Noth, and Sarah Jessica Parker still sit in the vibrant green and red room that has been serving up chicken kiev and beef stroganoff since 1927 (and both are still the restaurant’s signature dishes—don’t forget to order a Moscow Mule on your next visit). Pop culture history has been made in the storied walls of the Russian Tea Room: Madonna was the coat check girl briefly, and diners frequently request the booth where When Harry Met Sally was conceived by the movie’s creators.  Kids can play Hollywood star too. The Russian Tea Room has a popular Chil-dren’s Afternoon Tea ($35), where tykes dine on their own peanut butter and jelly blinis while their parents nibble their own version—made with paddlefish caviar, of course.

nobu FiFTy seven

Larger and more hectic than its Tribeca counterpart, Nobu Fifty Seven is all about power player deal-making. At lunch, bespoke-suited hedge funders

pop from table to table shaking hands and clos-ing contracts. Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

are regulars as are George and Amal Clooney and

Whoopi Goldberg. Nobu-ites argue over the best tables to sit in. These include directly to the right of the stairs,

which offers several inti-

57 day and niGht

By Carson Griffith

See and Be Seen on 57th

beTony

If details are king, then Bet-ony reigns on 57th Street. Nothing is lost in the experi-ence with lush velvet booths and chandeliers to spare.

Drink chic and order the Coco Chanel cock-tail (see recipe on this page), which is on the menu when bergamot is in season, and has a Chanel No. 5 reduction applied to the mint. When Betony held a special luncheon in honor of its 57th Street location, a baby grand piano and a concert pianist were brought in to the middle of the restaurant, an homage to its neighbor, Carnegie Hall.

The Russian Tea Room 150 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019 Phone (212) 581-7100

Le Colonial 41 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019 Phone (212) 465-2400

Betony 41 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019 Phone (212) 465-2400

The Russian Tea Room

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

Le CoLoniaL

Le Colonial, a colonial-themed restaurant and lounge, has waiters in tan shirts buttoned to their chins serving tradi-tional Vietnamese dishes with

33

a twist in a room with tin ceilings, swirl-ing fans, and leafy palm fronds to evoke the faraway tropics. You’ll spot regulars like Mike Bloomberg and fashion star Nina Garcia as well as Bruce Springsteen and Brian Williams nibbling on fresh spring rolls or crispy rice crepes—where else?—at tables in the middle of the main floor for all to see.

Coco Chanel

Yield: 1 Cocktail

5 ml Bergamot oleo saccharum 15 ml Fresh lemon juice 20 ml Cocchi Americano As needed Sparkling rosé champagne 4 sprigs Mint 1 spritz Perfume, similar to Chanel No. 5

1. Combine oleo saccharum, lemon juice, and Cocchi Americano with crushed ice in a chilled rocks glass and stir. Top with additional crushed ice.

2. Fill to the brim with sparkling rosé.

3. Add an abundance of crushed ice to create a dome on top.

4. Make bouquet of 4 perfect mint tips, then apply a small amount of perfume.

5. Garnish the glass by sliding the stem of the bundle along the inside of the glass.

6. Insert a short straw next to the garnish.

Brasserie 8 1/2 9 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019 (212) 829-0812

bG ResTauRanT

Bergdorf Goodman’s sev-enth-f loor restaurant , BG, has the fee l ing of dining in a pr is t ine F if th Avenue dol lhouse. Dec-

orated in cool b lues and greens with black accents and added hand-painted de Gournay chinoiser ie wal l-paper, the low-slung 18th-centur y s ty le “whisper ” chairs are the biggest draw for those seeking that per fect Instagram shot . Nicky and Par is Hil ton dec lared BG their favor i te restaurant . I t ’s a t rue fashion c lub house. Blake Lively fêted Lorraine Schwar tz ’s jewelr y col lect ion over af ternoon tea ; and countless dinners have been held for s t y le superstars l ike des igner Mar y Katrantzou. The restaurant even held a party for its very own Bergdorf Goodman cook-book last year, attended by Zac Posen and Diane von Furstenberg. How deli-ciously chic.

bRasseRie 8 1/2

If there was ever a place to make a grand entrance, con-sider it to be Brasserie 8 1/2. The pumpkin-carpeted-diva staircase was popular from the

get-go, but it was made legendary in a Season 4 episode of Sex & the City, officially putting

mate booths (albeit closest to the kitchen), a ring of free-floating tables that sit just at the prow of the staircase for the preening set, and—for those seeking the utmost privacy—sets of tables in the rearmost area illuminated by a screen of palm fronds. Something big is always happening here: L.A. Reid celebrated his 50th birthday party at Nobu with guests like Mariah Carey; Howard Stern had his bachelor party in a private room; and billionaire Stewart Rahr was reportedly banned from every Nobu in 2013 after an incident involving an employee at the 57th Street location. According to “Page Six,” his offer of a $2 million donation to the owner’s charity of choice wasn’t even enough to sway them to lift the ban.

Nobu Fifty Seven 40 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019 Phone (212) 757-3000

Quality Italian 57 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019 (212) 390-1111

BG Restaurant Floor 7, 754 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10019 Phone (212) 872-8977

QuaLiTy iTaLian

Dark lighting, heavy bou-quets of fresh flowers, and handsome mahogany bars encourage guests to sit back and stay awhile at Quality

Italian. So does the lengthy menu, which offers seven different types of steaks and the now practically famous chicken Parmigiana that looks more like an arti-san pizza and is made to serve several diners. (Besides the chicken parm, the most popular dish on the menu is the dry-aged porterhouse agnolotti, a spe-cialty of the eatery.) With two bars and two walls of windows along both 57th Street and Sixth Avenue, Quality Ital-ian is built for lounging—and drinking, no matter what time of day. Cocktails with a nod to the restaurant ’s location—such as the bourbon-based “Midtown” and the lighter “57 Spritz”—are popular choices, whether you’ve plopped your-self on one of the couches in the upstairs bar or a banquette in the dining room.

34

B.G. Restaurant

the eatery and its two subterranean honey-lit bars on the map. A revolving door of bold-faced names flit through the restaurant, due to the eatery playing host to a litany of private premieres (Gore Vidal’s The Best Man and The Reckoning, for instance) and even more private, hush-hush events. But when celebs come to Brasserie 8 1/2 to dine on their own time, those who want to be seen opt for the lounge area, while the banquettes closet to the main room’s walls are reserved for those seeking greater privacy. 

Zac Posen

Amal and George Clooney

NEW YORK IT GIRL AND STREET STYLE SENSATION, DANI STAHL, WHO GREW UP ON THE UPPER EAST SIDE, GOT HITCHED AT THE PARK HYATT HOTEL ON EAST 57TH STREET. THE STYLE DIRECTOR OF NYLON SAID HER VOWS IN VALENTINO AND FILLED THE ROOM WITH

HER FABULOUS FRIENDS LIKE CHARLOTTE RONSON, STACEY BENDET, AND LEIGH LEZARCK, AND NICKY HILTON TO NAME ONLY A FEW.

57 soCiety

The bride, Dani Stahl, in Valentino

35

New York’s Wedding of

the Year

“I grew up in New York, and having the quintessential New York City, Saturday night wedding was totally my vibe. 57th Street with all its glamorous stores and restaurants was perfect. Plus I always joke my mother doesn’t go below 57th Street. We were the first big wedding for the hotel in The Onyx Room. I loved being the first. I felt like there wasn’t a venue or existing chic hotel all of my people hadn’t been to ten times over with charities, fashion events, various social gatherings, you name it. I wanted something different, some-thing special, something new. The Park Hyatt was beyond the perfect choice—so elegant, so modern, just impeccable. I was never the girl who always had this great vision of her wedding, but now that I had my totally glam, Saturday night, black tie in the city—I could never imagine it any other way. It was by far the best night of my life.”

hAving the quintessentiAl new york city, sAturdAy night

wedding wAs totAlly my viBe.

The Cake

Brett Heyman, the designer of Edie Parker with Eleanor Ylvisaker, Rebekah McCabe, and the designer Shoshanna Lonstein

Nicky Hilton Rothschild

Alice + Oliva designer Stacey Bendet, Dani

The DJ and model Leigh Lezarck, in Versace

Dani with her mother Joan Israel

Creative Director Shiona Turini, who was a stylist for Beyonce’s “Formation” video

36

Dani Stahl

By Peter daVis

JOHN BARRETT’S SALON, IN THE PENTHOUSE OF BERGDORF GOODMAN, IS AS GLAMOROUS AS IT GETS. SUPERMODELS, SOCIALITES, AND BEYONCÉ SIP CAPPUCCINOS AND GOSSIP WHILE THEIR LOCKS ARE LOVINGLY

TENDED TO. HILLARY CLINTON RECENTLY POPPED BY—AFTER THE ELEVATORS WERE SHUT DOWN JUST FOR HER. AFTER TWENTY YEARS IN THE BUSINESS OF MAKING PEOPLE BEAUTIFUL, BARRETT TALKS ABOUT THE

FAMOUS FACES, LIFE AT THE TOP OF BERGDORF’S, AND HIS NEW BOOK ON THE HISTORY OF HAIR.

YOU ARE CELEBRATING TWO DECADES AT BERGDORF GOODMAN. CONGRATULATIONS.

“Twenty years is a long time, and I can only put it down to amazing colleagues and the best and nicest tal-ent around—Parvin Klein, the creator of the ‘Bergdorf Blonde,’ to name but one. It was my aim in creating the John Barrett Salon to provide the most cutting-edge, qual-ity service in the most invit-ing, friendly atmosphere—and that, I think, has been the secret to longevity and success.”

WHAT’S CHANGED IN 20 YEARS?

“Fashion is constantly evolv-ing, but the changes in hair have to be subtle. I believe a beautiful Barrett girl isn’t a slave to trends, but a vessel of elegance, edge, and beauty.”

BEING IN BERGDORF’S IS THE BEST SPOT IN MANHATTAN—OR THE WORLD.

“I consider Bergdorf Goodman my home, and the influence and guidance I received from Dawn Mello, my angel and mentor, continues through today with the great leadership team who travel the world for the best inspira-tion, which of course works its way up to us at the penthouse.”

YOU’VE STYLED MAJOR PEOPLE, FROM HILLARY CLINTON TO BEYONCÉ.

“Part of the privilege for ‘a boy from a small village in Ireland ’ is rubbing shoulders in a very intimate way with royalty (Princess Diana), actors

(Helena Bonham Car-ter is a fr iend), as well as so many other legends, like Beyoncé. And Hillary Clinton, who is someone I can talk to comfortably as well as create great hair for her, of course. I think the secret is treating everyone the same and providing a private, secure place where people, no matter who they are, can relax.”

YOUR BOOK SOUNDS SUPER GLAM.

“Assouline came to me with an idea of charting the his-tory of hair, which is very flattering. The result will appear in May in the form of The Big Book of Hair . I ’m very proud of the result.”

57TH STREET HAS BEEN DUBBED “BILLIONAIRE’S ROW ” BECAUSE OF ALL THE NEW LUXE RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS. YOU’RE RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT ALL.

“57th Street, anchored by Bergdorf, has always been iconic, but now it ’s becom-ing more legendary with all the changes. The Bergdorf Goodman jewelry store signifies the change in atmosphere, and of course all these things affect my business in a very positive way.”

THE GOODMAN FAMILY USED TO LIVE IN WHAT IS NOW YOUR SALON—TALK ABOU T A CHIC PEDIGREE.

“My penthouse salon has a very storied history, entertaining everybody from the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to the highest of society grande dames. I ’m very happy to have been in such an important and historic place to start my career as a business owner.”

John Barrett

37

57 beauty

A BeAutiful BArrett girl isn’t A slAve to trends,

But A vessel of elegAnce, edge,

And BeAuty.

John Barrett

NEWSPAPER

Special Edition