Miami Beach

SWIMSUIT SEASON!

 

The beginning of summer is our favorite time of the year.  We dine al fresco.  We down copious amounts of Andre Balazs Rosé wine.  And we travel travel travel!  But our favorite part of the summer is shopping for swimsuits.  We only wear designer, so clearly, our choices aren't as varied as they are for the rest of you.  Moschino fits us best.  Burberry offers us the most colorful prints.  And Gucci is, well, Gucci.  You just can't go wrong.

The one thing that drives us crazy through the process is that the famed French swimwear company, ERES, does not make men's suits.  For over 40 years, ERES has been iconic in the swimwear industry thanks to their creative innovation, their simply chic style and their incomparable fit.  Why don't they make men's suits, we don't know.  The Stans of the world need proper wear for their bain de soleil, n'est-ce pas?

Putting all of our bitterness aside, we're uber-excited for next weekend because ERES is gracing us with their presence on Sunset Beach on Shelter Island for a preview of their 2009 Collection.  Models will be parading all through the property while donning the latest in Parisian swimwear!  We LOVE that.

The presentation will take place on Saturday June 13, 2009 from 3pm - 6pm.  Make sure to RSVP or you'll be brutally shunned from the festivities.  Okay, maybe you won't, but you should RSVP regardless.  See you there!

LOVE DRUNK SUMMER!

Summer has always been our favorite time of year.  From our early childhood spent frolicking on the rocky beaches of the Côte d'Azur to our adolescent years when we learned the pleasures of island hopping in the Caribbean, summer was a fantastical time of leisure, sun, sand and club sandwiches, bien sur! 

But it wasn't until the summer of 1991 that we really learned what the season was all about.  For it was at that time that the sweet nectar known as Rosé wine touched our sumptuous lips.  The dry pink liquid sparkled in our glass and when we brought it close to our lips, its fragrance ovewhelmed us and sent us into a dizzying state of orgasmic bliss.  We were forever hooked.  

So now that the sun is slowly warming up the beaches and darkening our supple bodies, we have been yearning for a glass of crisp rosé, and we found it when Sunset Beach on Shelter Island opened its doors last weekend for the season.  

Ladies and Stan D'entlemen, we'd like to introduce to you the latest vintage of André Balazs' Sunset Beach Rosé.  Produced alongside Wolffer Estates on Long Island's North Shore, this special reserve is filled with elegant hints of peach, pear and gooseberry and overwhelms the palette with vibrant notes of fresh apple and melon.  To say that after only one week, our blood is has been completely diluted in this rosé would be a lie, and we would never lie to you, our Stan D'arlings!

Sunset Beach Rosé is available at select André Balazs hotels and restaurants this summer including: Chateau Marmont, Los Angeles; The Mercer, New York; The Raleigh, Miami Beach; The Standard Miami Beach, The Standard New York and of course Sunset Beach, Shelter Island.

HOLD ON TO YOUR HORSES!

When we were just young Stan D'Adolescents our parents bought us a pony.  We had never really dreamed of owning a pony like most other little kids, but we were excited to have him.  We named him Jean Pierre de Beaumarchand des Chevaux, and we loved him so.  We would take long walks along the river's edge.  We would frolick and roll around with him in the autumn leaves.  We braided his tail every morning and fed him apples which we picked from the orchard behind our petit chateau.

But then one day, it all changed.  Our father was having no more of this frilly equine love affair, and he demanded we put the horse to good use.  So we enrolled in polo lessons.  If we're going to play any sport, it's going to be the sport of KINGS!  To this day, we can still compete with the best of them.

That is we are over the moon with the news that Veuve Clicquot Champagne is sponsoring the second annual Manhattan Polo Classic next weekend in New York City!  The match will take place on Governor's Island and will feature our good friend Prince Harry who is making his first US appearance to date.  The match will be open to the public from noon with free grand picnic areas for the masses, but if you want to watch polo in style, you'll have to buy a ticket.

VIP tickets cost $500 for a picnic for two where a champagne lunch will be served fieldside.  All proceeds from ticket sales will benefit Sentebale,a charity started by Prince Harry to benefit the lives of Lesotho's orphans.

For more information on the event and ticket sales, please visit VC Season or by calling or emailing the Sentebale Benefit Office on 212-763-8596 or sentebale@cmevents.net.

MEATPACKING DESIGN WEEK 2009!

We don't do, wear or say anything if it's not designed. We only wear clothes that are designer, preferably European. Our homes are usually the works of famed architects. Even the chairs we sit in have been carefully thought out to the smallest detail. We just don't see the point in anything that isn't created with the utmost attention to style, form and function. It's just the way we do, our gorgeous Stan D'esigners.

So, where does one go for the latest in design? It's the Meatpacking District, bien sur! This 20 square block area on the west side of Lower Manhattan is home to the most innovative artists, designers and architects who have created an incomparable destination for architecture, fashion and design. This weekend, the district will play host to Meatpacking District Design 09 where the industry's brightest stars will be on display to discuss everything you wanted to know about design.

Of course, and we know you don't have to ask, the epicenter of it all will be The Standard New York, and you know we will be right in the heart of it all. If you can't be with us in the Big Apple this weekend, don't fret, because we'll be coming at you live via our Stan D'Arde Twitter page as well as the above technologically advanced Twitter feed which will give you up to the minute happenings from us and all our of our friends.

For a complete list of the weekend's events, click here.

Don't hate us because we're designer.

675 BAR

 

Back before the Meatpacking District in New York City became home to The Standard New York, it was a dark and seedy place where raw meat was processed and packed up for delivery to local butchers by day and tranvestite street walkers roamed the dimly lit streets by night.  It was a Stan D'ream!  No one dared cross 9th Avenue and 14th Street....except for the brave and clinically insane.  Yes, Stan D'arlings, we were one of those people.  We still can't figure out whether we were just brave or clinically insane, but we digress...

One of the places we used to frequent was a subterranean lair which was bathed in red light, filled with smoke and overwhelmed you with the smell of cheap grain alcohol.  It was the epitome of trashy CHICNESS if you could find ithe hidden entrance.  Email us if you dare, and we will regale you with stories which are not suitable for print on these pages.

Anyway, those days are long gone.  The district now plays host to the jet set crowd (and a few undesirables) with restaurants, designer boutiques and more.  Last week, we dared to face our demons and went back to that hidden entrance which wasn't so hidden anymore, and we found that the dark bar of our past had been transformed into an uber-pretty little place called 675 Bar. 

The place is filled with cozy little nooks into which you and your special friend my cozy up.  It has a foosball table.  We love us some foosball, and it even comes equipped with a giant horse statue which stands guard over the pool table.  Our favorite part of the bar is all the 1960s vintage pieces of furniture and lighting fixtures found in second hand shops all over the city.  They do wonders for the color coded vintage book wall!

675 Bar is located at 675 Hudson Street.  212-699-2410.

MUSING MODELS!

Inspiration comes in various shapes and sizes, but for the fashion industry that inspiration is usually about six feet tall, 120 pounds and comes with pelvic bones that jut out so sharply that they could tear the haute couture right off the body!  Ladies and Stan D'entlmen, we are talking about The Supermodel.

Ever since Pat Cleveland stormed the runways of Yves Saint Laurent in the 1970s, the supermodel has become a trailblazer for an industry whose ultimate goal is to bring beauty to the masses.  She has been a face for fashion houses across the world.  She has inspired designers to create gowns only goddesses are fit to don.  She has sent phototgraphers reeling into worlds of fantasy only their lenses can bring to life.

Stan D'Lovelies.  We don't have to tell you that we are all supermodels and life is but a runway!

This is why we are beyond ourselves this month when The Metroplitan Museum of Art opens its latest exhibition The Model As Muse: Embodying Fashion. The showing features haute couture, ready-to-wear, photographs and videos of the models who built the foundation of an industry.  Spanning 50 years, from 1947 to 1997, the most influential model of each respective epoch is depicted in all her glorious beauty.

We wonder in which era the museum chose to feature US!  We were big in Japan in the 1980s.

The Model as Muse exhibition runs from May 6 - August 9, 2009.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art is located at 1000 Fifth Avenue @ 82nd Street, New York City.  212-535-7710.

TWEET! TWEET! TWEET!

We are not ones to follow trends or to conform to the beliefs and norms of others, but we have totally fallen in love with Twitter.  We know.  We know.  You totally think that we're Stan D'Predicable, but we are SO not.  We J'Adore being able to tell you what we're doing on the go, and that's why we're doing it.  We're doing it all for you our Stan D'Lovelies!

When we're out with friends in Manhattan, and we just got into the most secret little bar which you would never find without our help, we're gonna send you a tweet.  When walk by Barney's in Beverly Hills, and we see that perfect little Chanel clutch you've been searching for, we'll send you a tweet.  On the beach in Miami, when we need you to swing by and bring us some Bain de Soleil Orange Gelee sunscreen, you know where you'll find us.  Tweeting away on our twitterberry, twitting our twats into a frenzy!

So, there's only one thing for you to do right now.  Go to the Stan D'Arde page on Twitter and FOLLOW US! We're gonna kick Ashton Kutcher's twittering little behind, and by the time we're done, they're going to have to rename the site Stan D'Witter!

NINE FINE LIVES

 

We are no strangers to the art world.  When Michaelangelo said "I saw the angel in the marble, and I carved to set her free", we like to think that he speaking of us.  (But of course we would.  We're Stan D'Egomaniacs!)  Art is the blood that courses through our veins.  Without art (and the occasional handmade Bottega Veneta men's briefcase), we are absolutely nothing.  

Over the years, Los Angeles has seen its art scene flourish and burgeon in ways unlike anywhere else in the country, and we like to think that it's because of the expanse and privacy which the city affords its artisans.  With small pockets of rolling hills, wide expanses and quiet seclusion, the city of angels affords the artist the freedom to create, to research, and to explore the obsessions which very often mirror the city in which dreams are made.

Currently, UCLA's Hammer Museum is featuring the works of nine local artists in their fifth biannual exhibition entitled Nine Lives: Visionary Artists from LA which focuses on four generations and 125 works by Lisa Anne Auerbach, Julie Becker, Llyn Foulkes, Charles Irvin, Hirsch Perlman, Victoria Reynolds, Kaarl Upson, Jeffrey Vallance and Charlie White.

The Hammer Museum is located at 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA.  310-443-7000.

VIVA CASA VEGA!

When we were teenagers, we were completly obsessed with Clueless the movie.  It was the story of a young girl named Cher who was trying to navigate the treacherous waters of living in Beverly Hills while trying to maintain a proper teenage skincare regimen.  She was living our life.  The mansion in the hills.  The popularity at her school.  The uber-fashions that all of her friends didn't understand but yet completely envied.  We died!

We came to Beverly Hills shortly thereafter, and we made it our life mission to track down Cher and let her know that we totally related.  What else was a Stan D'Teenager to do really?  So one day while frantically combing the streets of Beverly Hills for our blonde nemesis, we received a phone cal on our cell phone telling us that Cher was at a place in the San Fernando Valley called Casa Vega.  We were confused by this casa thing but we didn't ask any questions.  Must.  Find.  Cher.

When we arrived, we were told that she had already left.  Maybe we shouldn't have stopped by the Chateau Marmont for that half- caf double latte with foam and a sprinkling of cinnamon powder, but when in Los Angeles, one does as the Angelenos do, but we digress.

After our tears dried on our Hermes ascot, we lifted our head and opened our eyes to find ourselves in a mid-century Mexican wonderland.  Red vinyl booths lined the walls, wrought iron dividers with brass trimmings separated the tables and colorful Christmas lights in dizzying numbers were strung from the low lying ceilings.  All around us, senoritas in traditional Mexican garb were running around bringing freshly fresh tortilla chips and cold salsa to diners who were sipping on frosty margaritas out of salt rimmed glasses.  What was this place?

We learned that Casa Vega has been a landmark institution to the locals for over 50 years.  Enchiladas covered in molten cheese, spicy refried bean nachos and chicken flautas are all a way of life.  Ever since that fateful night, Casa Vega has become a way of our lives as well.  

Casa Vega is located at 13301 Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks, CA.  818-788-4868.

U*TIQUE!

Ever since we learned how to crawl, we've been trying to make our way to some of the world's chicest shopping desintations.  Our first words were uttered on the rue Faubourg Saint Honore in Paris.  "Yves Saint Laurent" we said with arms outstretched, and our mother squealed in delight.  It wasn't long thereafter that we learned the ins and outs of Madison Avenue in New York City, and by the time we were five years old, the shopkeepers on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles were referring to us as Monsieur D'Arde and serving us juice boxes on silver platters.  Destiny has a funny way of working its magic.

Shopping was our religion and the House of Chanel was our basilica.  There is nothing like being waited on hand and foot while curating your next season's wardrobe...but all that is about to change.

Not too long ago, we received word of a revolutionary new way of shopping.  We heard rumors that a luxury retail machine was headed our way.  It was a machine inspired by the future people said.  Shopkeepers will exist no more.  We couldn't believe it.  Who would bring us our champagne while we chose between the chinchilla and mink trimmings on our leather bomber jackets?  We were scared and excited all at the same time.

Ladies and Stan D'Lovelies, we would like to introduce you to U*Tique, the future in luxury retailing.  This sleekly designed automated store offers the finest in beauty, fragrance and fashion with nothing but a touch of your finger and a swipe of your credit card.  A monitor on the "storefront" provides you with invaluable information on the product you're about to purchase and when you're ready to buy, a tiny robot who lives inside swiftly dispenses your purchase to you immediately.  

Each "store" will be customized to the surroundings in which it resides.  Forgot your Fendi lock when going to the gym?  U*Tique.  Need a jasmine candle when checking into the Standard New York?  U*Tique.  Did you lose your bottle of Chanel No. 5 on your way to your date?  U*Tique!

The first "store" opens next week, April 23rd, at the Studio at Fred Segal in Santa Monica, CA. 

U*Tique is the new Boutique.  Retailers beware.

OH, RICKY, YOU''RE SO FINE!

 

Stan is a Leo.  When you're born in the most powerful of fire signs, you're inevitably narcissitic, incredibly loyal, abnormally funny and obnoxiously narcissistic.  Did we already mention that one?  We can't seem to get passed it because we LOVE ourselves in a way that is illegal in most states. 

Also, because we're Kings of the Kingdom, we have a gorgeous head of hair that is silky, shiny and perfectly set at any hour of the day.  Of course the only thing that could make our hair even better than it is already is if it were as long and golden as The Amanda pictured above, but it's not, so we're moving on.

It's not that easy to keep our hair looking as supremely sumptuous as it does on the daily, and that's why we need some help.  The only place to go for that kind of help is Ricky's in New York City.  It's a beauty aficionado's mecca of sorts.  One which finds everyone including men, women, children and some long-haired Brussels Griffons flocking to its 21 locations all over the city.  The stores offer everything from hairsprays, gels, blow dryers, makeup, wigs, hair extensions, tanning oils, hair accessories and an infinite spectrum of dyes.  We once lost our mother in the concrete jungle known as Manhattan, and we went to the Ricky's in SoHo and found her in aisle 8!  We're not lying when we tell you they have EVERYTHING there.

Do not despair oh South Beach Sun Worshipers.  There's also a Ricky's in Miami Beach on Lincoln Road.  Stock up on suntan lotion now.

Don't hate us because we're beautiful.

TOP SHOP!

 

New Yok City has been all a twitter this week.  Yes, partly because we came back into town...thank you to those of you who were kind of enough to call and to send flowers.  But the real reason the city had a semi-meltdown was because we brought back with us from London the UK's most favorite supermodel, Kate Moss. 

When she told us over lunch that she was considering heading over to New York City for the launch of TopShop next month but she wasn't yet sure, we grab her by the wrist, threw her in a cab, took her to Heathrow and dropped her in a seat in coach.  What?  We couldn't have her in Business class with us.  There's only enough champagne for one of us, if you know what we mean.

Anyway, for those of you who don't know, Topshop is the UK's greatest fashion gift to the United States since Sweden gave us H&M.  They've got the trendiest fashions for women including shoes and bags!  And what's better?  They've also got TopMan for all you boys who are too embarrassed to admit to loving to shop!  Don't be scared.

TopShop and TopMan are located at 478 Broadway, New York City.

VOICE OVER!

We travel the world more than anyone we know.  We've been to places on this green earth that even God probably doesn't know about.  Wherever we go, we always three very close friends with us...Madonna, Edith Piaf and George Michael.  Yes, we know.  Edith Piaf is dead, but we never said that she herself was with us on our trips.  We live La Vie En Rose through her music.  And while Madonna is too busy adopting African babies and George Michael is overwhelmed trying to find new ways in which to lewdly conduct himself, we still send them postcards because we're constantly thinking of our friends.

The last time we climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to watch the sunrise over the African lowlands, we were blasting George's Freedom 90 on our new iPod shuffle.  And that's the truth!  You want to know what else is the truth?  When we pushed play on the iPod, that damn thing said outloud to us "George Michael...Freedom '90"!  We thought we were hallucinating from the lack of oxygen at 19,340 feet up.  Did this little thing just speak to us?!?!

We had to make sure we weren't losing it, so we went to the next song, and the thing said to us "Madonna....Express Yourself".  Turns out this little gadget has a new feature called VoiceOver which enables it to tell you what song is playing and who is singing it.  It can also tell you the names of your playlists opening up a whole new way to navigate your music.  And when you're beginning to hallucinate on the top of heighest point in Africa, you'll need all the help you can get.  

Now, we never leave home without it, and for only $79, you probably shouldn't either.

PILLOW TALK!

 

There are nights when we go to bed, and we lay there all alone wondering why we are laying there all alone.  Is it that people are too intimidated by us?  Is it our perfect hair?  Maybe it's our flawless skin?  Or it could be the gorgeous five o'clock shadow that helps to accentuate the perfect slope of our nose which many people have said reminds them of the marble statues of the Roman gods as created by the masters during the Renaissance?  We don't know anymore, and we're a little bit tired of our cold 800 thread count Egyptian cotton Sferra sheets.

But this month, our favorite group of art curators, Art Production Fund, in conjunction with their Works On Whatever, are bringing us Pillow Talk Cases by Jonathan Horowitz. These cases are pairs of pillowcases silk-screened with the names of iconic pop couples and are currently on view in his survey exhibition at PS1/ MoMA through September 14.

So if you're feeling a little taboo, you can sleep with Lindsay & Sam or Jack & Ennis.  Or if you want a little presidential action, you can snuggle up with Barack & Michelle.  Personally, we have a robot fetish, so we're gonna sizzle our circuits with R2-D2 and C3-PO....but don't tell our Macbook Air.  It might get jealous.

CIAO, BELLA!

Once upon a time, when we were just wee little Stan D'Babies, we remember visiting a small town in the Italian countryside where the air was sweet, the rolling hills were covered in tall blades of glass and lunch was served al fresco under a sprawling trellis covered in a lush grapevine.  It was just us and our parents indulging in spaghetti carbonara, fresh mozzarella, vine ripe tomatoes and overwhelming chalices of vintage Valpolicella from the local vineyards.  Okay.  Okay.  We were drinking milk out a bottle, but don't think that luscious red wine went unnoticed by our still developing taste buds!

We never forgot that magical afternoon, and just last week, we were able to relive it for a night when we visited Scuderia, the latest addition to the Marchetto family's collection of trattoria's which include the famous Da Silvano and Da Silvano Bistecca. 

The menu is a light and simple nod to the comfort food of the old country.  Our personal favorites are the Polpette, meatballs served in a rich tomato sauce, the Arancini, balls of fluffy risotto fried to a golden crisp and the Pizza al'Occhio di Bue which has a fresh egg baked right into the center and is served covered in a thin bed of spinach.

Should you have room left after you've devoured your weight in meatballs, the Nutella pizza for dessert is why the word sinful was created!

Scuderia is located at 10 Downing Street.  For reservations, call 212-206-9111.

STAN! OVER HERE! STAN! STAN!

 

We love our photo to be taken just as much as the next person, but whenever we're in New York City, we seem to get harassed by the paparazzi more than in any other city.  We're not sure what it is about the American media that makes them so aggressive.  Maybe it's our slicked back tresses or maybe it's our fresh off the runway men's fashions?  But whenever we leave our pied a terre on the East 65th Street, we get hit by a barrage of flashes and screams of "Stan!  Stan!  Over Here!  Stan!  Just one photo!  PLEEEEEASE!  STAAAAAAAAAAN!"

Needless to say, even with the guerilla style tactics of some lensmen, photography is one of the greatest and purest art forms ever created, and one of the greatest meccas in all of the world for the indulgence and reverence of this celluloid magic is the International Center of Photography in New York.

Currently, the center has four concurrent exhibitions, but the most exciting of them all is Munkacsi's Lost Archive. Hngarian born Martin Munkasci was a pioneer of the medium with his works inspiring the likes of Henri Cartier-Besson and Richard Avedon.  After his death in 1963, Munkasci's entire library of glass photo templates went missing, but just recently, it was found in the attic of a house in Connecticut!  We love that story.

The exhibition runs through May 4, 2009.

SIX FEET UNDER HOLLYWOOD!

One of the only celebrity sightings we've ever had was when we were using the men's restroom in the Marais district of Paris.  We were just coming out of a small boulangerie when we accidentally bumped into a young gentleman.  When we looked up to apologize, we realized that that the gentleman was none other than famed actor of television and film, Mr. Dan Akroyd!  We know.  We couldn't believe it either.

Well, when you get to Los Angeles, you're going to be fending off celebrities left and right.  They come at you in swarms out there.  Believe us!  But if they don't, and you want to see a celebrity, we've got one sure fire way to do so. Visit them at their final resting place.  We just J'ADORE celebrity cemetaries.

At Westwood Memorial Park, you can visit Truman Capote, Rodney Dangerfield, Burt Lancaster and Peggy Lee.  If you want to see John Candy, Bing Crosby, Rita Hayworth and Bela Lugosi, you'll have to go to Holy Cross Cemetary in Culver City.

It is argued that the coolest, strangest and most high-tech cemetry in the world is the Hollywood Forever Cemetary where film royalty such as Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Johnny Ramone and Rudolph Valentino find their home.  The funeral chapel is equipped for live worldwide webcasts.  Touch screen consoles throughout the grounds allow family and friends of the deceased to watch video clips of their loved ones.

When we finally move on to the Standard hotel in the sky, we're gonna be buried in Lausanne, Switzerland.....right next to Coco Chanel.

STUDIO TOUR DE FORCE!

Los Angeles is Hollywood and Hollywood is Los Angeles.  They're one in the same, and when we say Hollywood, we mean the movie industry in general, not the town in specific, because any Stan re-D'Arde knows that Hollywood is part of Los Angeles and not the other way around.  Wait.  Is anyone else totally confused or is it just us?  Moving on and to the point...

Since the city of Los Angeles completely embodies the movie industry, you can't go anywhere in town without finding something to tickle your movie going fancy, but there is nowhere more exciting to go than directly to the film factories themselves, or in this case, the movie studios.

All studios offer the general public tours of their lots.  You can visit Paramount Studios where Nip/Tuck and Dr. Phil are filmed for only $35 dollars a person.  For a relatively cheaper ($8.50 a person) and shorter (70 minutes) experience, you can take the NBC Studio Tour to see where The Tonight Show with Jay Leno or Days of Our Lives are filmed.

But the MOTHER of all tours still remains the Universal Studios Hollywood Tour which features actual sets from Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, Wysteria Lane from Desperate Housewives and most famously the mechanical shark from JAWS.  Tickets prices vary depending on how many days you stay, but no matter how long it is, it will be unlike anything you've seen before.

FASHION INSTITUE OF DESIGN AND MAJORNESS!

 

When we go to the movies, there are times when we can't keep up with the action only because we're so enthralled by the spectacular costume design being paraded on screen.  From the tiny details in the stitching on a top coat to the brightly colored feathers adorning the headdresses from Apocalypto, every little piece fascinates us.

So if any of you are anything like us, you have to visit FIDM's 17th annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibit where approximately 125 costumes from more than 20 films released in 2008 are on display.  The free exhibit includes a slew of current best costume design Oscar nominees like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Australia, Milk and The Duchess.

The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising is located at 919 South Grand Avenue (800-624-1200), and the exhibit runs from now until March 29th.

AMPAS!

The home to Oscar is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science headquarters in Beverly Hills.  It is this building that is the epicenter to all of Hollywood and it's inner workings.  The Margaret Herrick Library, the world's most recognized research facility for cinema, is located here.  Also in the building is the Academy Film Archive which houses over 60,000 individual titles for research purposes alone.

The Academy headquarters are the only place to go for everything relatiing to film, and during the last five days leading up to the Awards, the Academy offers various events there which range from free to $5.00.  The evets include symposiums with the current crop of makeup and hairstylist Osar nominees, plus nominees in the feature animation and foreign language film categories.  Film clips will also be screenings.

For more information on these events visit Oscar Week Events.

OSCAR WILD!

 

February is one of our most favorite months because somehow we always end up in beautiful Los Angeles where it's always warm, the sun always shines and we're always looking gorgeous poolside at Standard Hollywood....but we digress.  We also love Los Angeles in February because it's Oscar season, and the city is buzzing with all things Academy Awards.

Stylists are running around trying to procure the most perfect dress for their clients, Sunset Plaza is packed with publicists, agents, studio executives and mangagers all trying to sway the vote in their direction and the crazed fans are already lining up outside The Kodak Theater trying to stake their spot for the big night, which this years falls on the 22nd of February.

This month, we're dedicating ourselves to the City of Angels and everything Oscar!  We refuse to put on that Oscar de la Renta ballgown and just stay confined to our living rooms drinking Dom Perignon and screaming at our television sets.  So stick with us while we traverse the city and dissect its inner academy.

FLIGHT 001!

 

 

One of our favorite one-stop travel shops is located in New York City, and it's called Flight 001.  (That's pronounced Flight One).  This little non-descript store is the brainchild of John Sencion and Brad John, and it's name after Pan Am's first flight ever.  We love ingenuity!

Anyway, while on a business flight between Paris and New York, John & Brad, realized that they had spent way too much time prepping for their constant travels and envisioned a store that made travel shopping as streamlined as streamlined as traveling itself.  Clearly, this thought had occurred to them prior to 2001 when air travel went into a downward sprial, but we digress...

This travel mecca has everything you need to make your next trip the most comfortable it can be.  For boredom, you can look into their Games & Camera department.  If you're worried about you're well being while flying, check out their Amenity Kits.  They also carry Luggage Tags, Toiletry Bags, Aerotherapy products, Carry On Luggage, Books & Guides and Laptop Cases!

Safe travels and Bon Voyage!

CLEAR!

If you've have flown at all in the past 8 years, you know how incredibly annoying it can be.  Take off your shoes!  Take your laptop out of its case!  Please place all liquids in a plastic baggie!  Please remove your jacket!  Please make sure you have your boarding pass in your hand!  The TSA might be one of the most maddening organizations on the face of the earth.

We've always sworn that one day we're going to strip down to our Giiorgio Armani bikini briefs while in line at security just to prove a point!  We haven't yet, but WE WILL!  So, if you see someone in their underwear at airport security, it's your beloved Stan.  Make sure to say hello!

As of late though, we haven't had to deal with the TSA at all, and that's all in thanks to the most genius little invention to hit the travel industry since, well, the airplane!  It's called CLEAR.

This little card is an airport's equivalent to an all access pass at a George Michael concert!  After receiving your card, you just show up to any selected airport, swipe your card, scan your fingerprint or iris in the kiosk and then a Clear concierge will show up, escort you through security without a hitch, avoiding all the lines and getting you right to your gate in no time at all!

An annual membership will cost you $199, but with all the heartache and headaches you save, it's totally worth it.  Clear is the only way to fly!

PATCHES FOR THE WEARY!

 

We don't know about you, but there are times after we've been traveling for more than 18 hours at a time, (those Los Angeles-Sydney flights are not for the faint of heart), we come off the Airbus 380 looking a little....pekid, maybe?  We hate to admit it, but it's true!  The lack of sleep!  The recycled air!  The restlessness!  The wear and tear begins to show.

So whenever we travel, we always have Klorane Eye Patches on hand to clean us up right before landing.  They're made with cornflower extract to sooth and soften, chamomille to relax and arnica to smooth and to relax. 

We slap these babies on about 30 minutes before we touch down, and we're good to go.  Sometimes, a Stan's gotta do what a Stan's gotta do.

ROLLING WITH THE HOMIES!

We have Elite status on every major airline.  That means we board the plane first, we drink champagne in First Class first and we get our luggage at baggage claim first.  Well, actually, our driver gets our luggage for us at baggage claim first, but you know what we mean.  It's really a great way to fly when one is not flying privately.  We've been cutting down on using private jets as part our global eco-initiative.  We love the earth too you know!

What we have found to make our travels even easier than they already are is to not check in your bags altogether.  Now this is difficult when you're traveling for extended periods of time, but when if it's just a short jaunt you're looking to do, you can not do it without the best kept secret in travel, Muji's  black nylon roller.

This easy suitcase fits EVERYTHING you need for that perfect weekend trip to Los Angeles.  It has sturdy 360-degree ball-bearing wheels, a tough nylon shell and it fits perfectly in the overhead compartment.  The best part you may ask?  It's only $124 and available via all Muji stores worldwide.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

Oh, our little Stan D'Lovelies!  It has been such a whirlwind of a New Year already, filled with travels to the far reaching corners of the globe, culinary delicacies which one only reads about in books and endless nighs of hedonicstic debauchery.  We are sure you understand because we would not expect any less of you either.  Happy 2009!

How do we even begin to recount our enviable excursions to you?  We are not sure we can, so we will just highlight a few of the stops we made on our global expedition.  There were freshly grilled camarones al ajillo in Madirid on Christmas Eve followed by Crassostrea Angulata (that's fancy for Portuguese Oysters) in Lisbon.  Then we clinked champagne flutes at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Pariis at the stroke of midnight.  J'Adore!  

With the New York Standard open for business, we had to jet over to the Big Apple for a martini at the bar and then it was off to sunny Miami because our skin was in desparate need of a bain de soleil.  From Miami, we hopped on over to Tulum, Mexico for our annual Temazcal, or Mayan steam bath for those of you have never partaken in this ancient cleansing ritual.  It does WONDERS for the body and the soul....not to be too cliche.  Then it was Los Angeles, Waikiki, Fiji, Indonesia and Sydney.  Mon Dieu!  Needless to say, we are EXHAUSTED.

All this recounting of glorious travel tales is not without a point, trust us!  Being that we are very well-seasoned globe trekers at this stage in the game, this month we're going to be bringing you all the things you need for your own luxurious travel plans.  Luxury travel made easy thanks to Stan!  We already know you have all made new year's resolutions to come stay at one of the Standard Hotels. Don't lie to us, Stan D'Arlings!  That would be cruel. Bon Voyage!

THE MOMENT YOU''VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!

 

We can only think of one way to bid adieu to 2008 and to ring in 2009.  It is the moment you have all been waiting for.  It is the time to call your travel agent and tell them that you want to visit the city of lights.  Wait.  We think the city of lighs is Paris.  The city that does not sleep?  Or is that Las Vegas?  Whatever.  Just tell your travel agent that you want to go to the Big Apple. 

New York City!!!

Why do you want to go to New York, you ask?  Because!  After years of much anticipation, the Standard New York is finally taking reservations!!!  You heard us right!  The Standard Hotel in New York City is NOW taking reservations!  We thought this day would never come.  To add to the excitement, from now until February, the preview rate for rooms is only $195.

You will know where we will be if you want to stop by and say hello.  The beer garden sipping on a Heifferveisen? Maybe.  The penthouse bar sipping on a dirty martini with three olives, shaken not stirred?  Definitely!

Just tell them Stan sent for you, and they'll lead you right to us...

For reservations, call 212-645-4646 or toll free on 877-550-4646.

FREE DESIGNER!

 

 

Two of our most favorite words in the English language are FREE and DESIGNER, so you can only imagine our extreme jubilation when we found out that our most favorite DESIGNER was doling out his artwork for FREE on the internet!  Do you see how that works?  Free.  Designer.  FREE DESIGNER!!!  J'Adore!

Lang, in conjunction with our most favorite purveyor of spirits, Absolut Vodka, has brought his latest art project to the masses via the web in an exhibition entitled Alles Gleich Schwer.  We have no idea what that means, but we can only imagine it to mean FABULOUS!

Through the end of the month, you can log on to Absolut.com/HelmutLang and download your very own limited edition high resolution print of Lang's genius, which in turn you can take to any color lab and have printed out to 24x36 inches!  We've already printed ours, have you?  

FREE DESIGNER!  (We can't seem to say that enough.)

GRAFFITEE!

 

We love art, and one could feasibly argue that graffiti IS art.  Actually, we know it is art.  It is a renegade art.  One which breaks the confines of civic regulation and frees the creator of the ties that bind him to societal norms and values.  We have no idea what we're talking about because the only graffiti we create is the illegible scribble of our name on a credit card slip at the Gucci Men's Store, but we digress...

The Standard Hotels, on the otherhand, are quite the purveyors of fine graffiti and that is why they have commissioned three of the most prominent graffiti artists and designers from New York City, Los Angeles and Miami to create tee-shirts emblazoned with their respective city names.  New York was found by Eric Haze.  Los Angeles was reimagined by Natas Kaupas, and Miami found it's savior in Jose Parla.  

The graffiTEES are only $55 a pop, and are available via Shop The Standard. 

HERMES SMART CAR!

 

You should know by now that no matter where we go in the world, we always have a driver.  We cannot be bothered with paying attention to "pedestrians" crossing the road and with those ridiculously annoying blind spots.  We detest blind spots!  Actually, we don't think we actually know what a blind spot is, but we DO know that it has something to do with driving, so we are just going to go with it and hope we make sense.

So we do not drive, but not too long ago, we were given the most perfect reason to go out and get ourselves a driver's license.  The Hermes SmartCar ForTwo. Can you just die?  Our favorite luxury leather monger is celebrating the vehicle's 10 year anniversary by outfitting the cars in custom leather detailing available in 10 colors including gold, indigo and the luxury house’s signature orange. Each is fitted with Hermès leather-covered steering wheels and gear levers, with colors including fuchsia and lime, along with the brand’s original canvas toile H. 

The cars, starting at 38,000 euros, or $48,564 at current exchange rates, are at the top of our Christmas list.  When you buy us one, make sure to pick yourselves up a driving cap as well, because you know we're going to make you our driver!  J'Adore!

WOW! TOWELS!

 

 

We have already told you how much we love attending Art Basel in Miami Beach, but what we have not told you is our favorite part of Art Basel....the oversized towels that are commissioned from the art world's hottest artists.  These towels measure 60"x70", and this year, they are designed by Julian Schnabel, Ed Ruscha, Raymond Pettibon and Karen Kilimnik.

Originally conceived two years ago by Yvonne Force Villareal and the Art Production Fund, these towels have become one of the main reasons for the art crowd to trek half way around the world!  Between you and us, we would travel around the world TWICE to get our hands on one of these towels, and we know that would be ridiculous to do but we ARE making a point here, so just go with it, okay?

Luckily for you, you will not have to travel half way around the world for a towel.  If you happen to be in the Miami in the next month or so, they will be available at the Standard Miami boutique and the Raleigh Hotel boutique.  If you live in cyberspace like we do, you can buy the towels online at the Standard Shop and Target.com.

The towels are only $50, so there is absolutely no reason you cannot get one for yourself or your best friend.  Just do not get the Julian Schnabel towel because that one is ours!

ART BASEL 2008!

 

It’s that time of year again, Folks!  Yes, you know what we’re talking about!  ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH!   Yeah, we know, we didn’t get quite the response we were looking for either, but we’re still excited.

If you don’t already know, we’re about to tell you.  Art Basel MB is the most important art show in the United States.  It’s the sister show to Switzerland’s Art Basel, which for the past 39 years, has been the most prestigious show in the world with all the most influential artists, dealers and collectors in attendance.

This year the show boasts over 220 leading art galleries from all over the world exhibiting artworks by over 2,000 artists.  It’s art world mayhem!

We’re reminding you of the show early this year because it’s almost close to impossible to get a hotel room if you wait too long, and we don’t really have to tell you where you have to stay….ahem, The Standard Miami maybe?  

Again, tell them Stan sent you…

POUR! FILL! BOOST!

 

On our most recent trip to Rio de Janeiro, we were introduced to most the miraculous little gem of a pick us up!  We had been flying for almost two and  a half weeks straight.  New York to London.  London to Paris.  Paris to Milan.  Milan to Miami.  And then finally, Miami to Rio.  By the time we got there, we were almost on our death bed until the concierge at our hotel had a packet of eBoost sent up to our room.

This stuff was pure magic in powder form.  We poured it into a glass, filled the glass with water, watched it fizzle and then we gulped it down faster than you can say…well, uh, we don’t really know what you can say at the moment.  Sounds like we need an eBoost!

eBoost is a daily vitamin supplement that helps increase your energy, your immunity, your recovery (after one too many martinis, we presume) and your focus.  It contains green tea extract, Vitamin B-12, Vitamin C, Zinc, Selenium, Copper and Grape Seed Extract!

And now it’s also available in Pink Lemonade with a portion of the sales going to support breast cancer awareness.

Get eBoosted here.

THE GETTY CENTER!

 

When we were in our late teens, we lived in Los Angeles for a very short while.  We had been trying our hand at acting, but all we achieved instead was incredible credit card debt.  We had no idea it would be so hard to shop Rodeo Drive on an actor’s salary.  So we quickly jumped ship and headed back to the gorgeous City of Lights….PARIS!

But during our short time in the City of Angels, we fell in love with a little Villa on the cliffs of Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  This was, at the time,  The Getty Museum, which housed incredible works of Greek, Roman and Etrurian art.  Now, it’s called The Getty Villa because not very long ago on a hilltop looking over all of Los Angeles, The Getty Center opened its doors.

The new center is an incredible structure designed by famed architect Frank Gehry, and it houses one of the most incomparable collections of European paintings, drawings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, decorative arts, and European and American photographs.

When you get to the museum, tell them that Stan sent you.  We’re not sure that will get you anywhere but you should do it anyway.  Email us and let us know what they say.

For more information on the museums, click here.

MADAME BUTTERFLY!

 

 

When we first heard our grandfather tell the tale of when he first saw Puccini’s Madame Butterfly at La Scala in Milan on February 17, 1904, we were mesmerized.  He told the story of a young Japanese geisha marrying this naval officer with such vivid attention to detail that we almost heard its legendary operatic notes engulf us and transport us to Nagasaki Harbor, the scene of tale.

It wasn’t until later in life when we had learned more about this quintessential opera that we understood what a failure that night in February actually was.  Our dear grandfather didn’t want to disappoint us.

Although Madame Butterfly is the most performed opera in America, we still have not had a chance to see it.  This will not be the case for long though.  This month, The Metropolitan Opera brings back Madame Butterfly for five nights only, and we can hardly contain ourselves.

Click here for tickets and schedule.

OBAMANATION!

We don’t want to be partisan in any way because that would be Stan D’Alienating to all of our Republican friends, but… WE WON!  WE WON!  WE WON!!!!  What?  Who?  Did we say that out loud?  YES WE DID!

All Stan D’emocracy aside, we are very excited to be entering into this new phase of American politics; a new chapter where the future is yet to be told; a new dawn in the country’s long and glorious history.  We can’t promise that everything is going to work out the way everyone expects it to, but at least there’s a little bit of hope to work with.  

Hope always seems to get us through the day.

VOTE VOTE VOTE!

This month has been Stan D’elirious for us!  This election has gotten us all stirred up with emotion, adulation, speculation, reverberation and a whole lot of other –tions that we can’t write about here due to our personal code of journalistic integrity!

We have been all over the United States of America rallying people to vote!  No, not for CHANEL vs FENDI, but rather, for OBAMA vs MCCAIN!  We have visited backcountry log cabins in the Appalachian Montains to skyscraping penthouses on the Chicago’s Gold Coast.  We have crossed the fruited plains, we have made our way through amber waves of grain and we have scaled the purple mountains majesty!  From sea to shining sea, we have rallied people by the thousands and sent them to register themselves to vote.

Now, it’s your turn!  Election day is November 4, 2008, and if you haven’t registered to vote you and can do so by visiting Rock The Vote.  Do it now!

CHANEL MOBILE ART!

 

 

We don’t always have the time to run to a museum to enrich our souls with the aestheticism we desire on the daily, so when the kids over at CHANEL called us a year or so back to inform us that they were building a mobile museum that would travel the world, we weren’t sure whether to sit and wait for it to find us or whether we had to jet off in its search.  

We’ve been all over Asia as of late, and we always seem to have just missed this masterpiece.  But this time, the stars have aligned and we’re coming face to face with in greatest city in the world, New York!  It’s already been in Hong Kong and Tokyo, and once it leaves New York, it will find its way to London, Moscow and then Paris.

For this mobile art pavilion, famed architect Zaha Hadid built a futuristic building that will showcase the works of 20 international contemporary artists, all of whom have been given the elements that make up the identity of Chanel’s quilted bag as their inspiration.  

SHOP SHOP SHOP!

 

We LOVE to spend money!  We love to spend it on clothes, on food, on shoes, on cars, on art, on books, on furniture, on lavender scented bubble bath!  That last one was a secret.  Don’t tell anyone, okay???

When the powers that be sent us an email letting us know that they were putting up an online store where merchandise from all the hotels would be on sale, we had a total Stan D’Panic Attack!  We were all over it, and immediately put in our orders for one of everything.  Don’t be jealous.  That’s just how we do it over here.  Shop til we drop, pop and whatever else rhymes with op.

The Shop has everything from our favorite Mercer Hotel purple cashmere throw to The Raleigh Beachball to various Standard Hotel collectible works of art.  (We’re using collectible in the loosest form of the word.)

Christmas is around the corner, and we already told you that the purple cashmere throw is our most favorite.  Please don’t make us drop any more hints…

FINALLY!

 

 We honestly thought this day would never come…

Ladies & Gentlemen, we would like to introduce to you First Blush, the world’s first juices made from varietal grapes grown in the vineyards of California!  You know how much we love our wine.  Come to think of it, wine is almost like our very own grape juice, but we know we can’t have it with breakfast, but now we can.

Don’t get too excited.  These juices are just that.  Juice.  They have no alcohol content, but they’re loaded with antioxidants which we already know are key in suppressing aging, preventing cancer, reducing fatigue and aiding the health of our heart.  And if fancy grape juice isn’t your cup of tea, then try the First Blush Tea in cabernet and chardonnay white.

There is one down side though.  These juices are only available in a limited number of states for the moment but keep checking in to the store locator and see if yours pops up.

BURN, BABY, BURN!

 

When Tom Ford first released his 12 unisex fragrances, The Private Blend Collection earlier this year, our inner loins didn’t stop quivering for months!  Noir de noir, Tobacco Vanille, Velvet Garndenia, Tuscan Leather…every scent made us shudder with unadulterated excitement!  What is it about him that just OOZES sex?  We’re not sure, but whatever it is, we’re sure he learned it from us!  

We’d tell you a little story about the night Tom and us hung until the wee hours of the evening, but we have a friend who claims he’s heard that more times than he’s seen Huey Lewis & The News in concert, but we digress…

In any case, next month, Tom is adding a limited edition line of candles in all of the same ridiculously erotic Private Blend scents with which he nearly killed us before.  The candles will be sold exclusively at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. 

LA VIE EN ROSE, BLUE & GREEN!

 

We’re not even going to bother telling you a story to set up this posting because we’ve just died and gone to the color library in the sky!!!  Just a moment ago, we were randomly searching for a website with a built in function that would be able to take the exact color of our periwinkle Hermes cashmere socks and calculate the corresponding Pantone paint color with which we want to paint the bathroom in our new jungle hut in Costa Rica, and we came across Colorware!

Apparently, you can have your iPod, your MacBook, your Sidekick, your PSP, your mobile phone or your gaming consoles in a your choice of rainbow colors!!!  You can either send in whatever you want to coat or you can buy a product new from them when you pick out your colors!

We love color.  Color in the morning.  Color in the evening.  Color with a martini!  (You knew that was coming, didn’t you?)  But buyers beware!  Once you coat your electronics, the manufacturer considers your warranty void!  Don’t tell us we didn’t warn you!

YOU BET YOUR ASSOULINE!

 

Books are the blood that course through our veins.  If one wanted to get de fromage (that’s a gauche translation of the word cheesy for you non-Francophiles), one could say that we “live by the book”.  We ADORE books!  Mostly for decorative purposes, but still, that’s a purpose worth the adoration!  

One day we’re going to write a book.  We say one day because every time we sit in front our vintage Remington typewriter, we suddenly get writer’s block, and then we run to the cellar for refuge in a bottle of 1968 Chateau Lafite Rothschild.  Sigh.

Until that day, we have found a new haven in the fair city of New York, tucked away on the mezzanine level of the newly renovated Plaza Hotel.  This nouveau home away from home is none of then the first American outpost for famed Parisian fashion publisher, Assouline!  

Known around the globe for its stylish books on all things fashion, the French giant has made its footprint stateside with one of the most Stan D’loveliest boutiques we have seen yet.  Stop by to pick up the CHANEL Leather Slipcase Set or maybe you’d prefer a Vintage Dandy Crate?   Either way, there’s always a treasure to find.

Assouline
The Plaza Hotel
768 Fifth Avenue
212-593-7236 

THE BOWL!

 

Bowls have always played a very important role in our lives.  As a child we had a silver bowl by Tiffany & Co. out of which we ate our freshly picked garden berries with crème fraiche.  In our teens, we used bowls to mix the plaster from which we sculpted miniature reproductions of Michaelangelo’s statue of David.  We found very special use for bowls in early adulthood.  Those reasons we won’t go into right now for fear the DEA come after us!

But our favorite bowl still remains The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.  This bowl was built in 1922 and was nestled into the natural hillsides of Bolton Canyon just above Sunset Boulevard.  The Los Angeles Philharmonic, under the direction of famed conductor, Alfred Hertz, inaugurated the first season of music under the stars.

Ever since then, the Hollywood Bowl has played host to some of the greatest musicians of all time including Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Luciano Pavarotti, The Beatles and, most recently, UB40.  (Between you and us, we were at the UB40 concert, and we had the most Stan D’elicious time thanks to all of the bowls being passed all around us, but we digress yet again….)

This month’s program brings with it a Tchaikovsky Fireworks Spectacular featuring one of most favorite works, the 1812 Overture!  Could you just die?!  We almost did!

If Tchaikovsky isn’t your cup of tea, look into the Calendar of Events for something that might tickle your fancy.

SCHNEBLY VINEYARDS!

 

 

We know you’re already thinking that we should step away from the bottle of Dom Perignon right about now because whom besides a drunk fool dressed head to toe in Gucci F/W 2008 would post a photo of a tiki hut alongside a posting about a vineyard!?  Don’t get too ahead of yourselves our little Stan D’Alcoholics.  There’s always a method to our madness.

We want to introduce you to Schnebly Vineyards purveyors of the finest tropical fruit wines in southern Florida!  Yes.  We said tropical fruit wines.

The vineyard, located about an hour outside of sunny Miami Beach and perfect for a day trip, is a tropical treasure trove filled with coral bridges, cascading waterfalls, tiki hut tasting rooms and enough birds of paradise to satiate even the most discerning of snobs…and by that, we’re talking about ourselves, bien sur.

They specialize in wines made from naturally occurring tropical fruits of south Florida including guava, passion fruit, lychee, mango and carambola.  The wine making process is exactly the same as traditional wines.  The fermenting process is the same, the aging process is the same and the alcohol content is the same (and you know that was the first question we asked!)

TURN ON YOUR HEART LIGHT!

 

When we were living the high life in New York City in the 1980s, we met the sweetest little girl.  She was the daughter of a dear friend of ours, and her name was Elettra Wiedemann.  

She and us would build sand castles on the beach.  We would sit her on our knee and feed her mint chocolate chip ice cream which she would in turn spit out all over our Yves Saint Laurent grey twill pants.  We even changed her diaper and powdered her little bottom, but she would never want to hear all that now, so we tell her boyfriend instead!

Well, that little girl is all grown up now, and she has taken on saving the world one green project at a time.  Her most current endeavor is just our cup of tea.  She is working on equipping a hospital in Kigutu, Burundi with solar energy in order to help the 156 doctors in that country deliver proper health care to a staggering 8 million people!  It’s an incredible mission to say the least.

Being the socially couture minded individual that Elettra is, she is making you an offer you cannot refuse.  She has enlisted six of the hottest designers in the industry today, Rogan, Chris Benz, Rag & Bone, House of Diehl, Philip Lim and Giambattista Valli, to design energy and Africa inspired t-shirts in a limited edition of only 100 pieces in order to help raise the funds.  The tees are $60, and a simple tee in a non-limited edition (pictured above) is available for $30. They are all going on sale beginning August 25th via Just One Frickin Day.

You can also help by simply making a donation to the fund through their Just One Frickin Day Donation Module which calculates “just one frickin day” (get it?) of your annual salary....post tax bien sur!

Helping others just got a little more fabulous…

UNION SQUARE FARMER''S MARKET!

 

We’ve always had a secret fantasy about being a farmhand.  Waking up at the crack of dawn in a stack of hay wearing nothing but a pair of beat up denim overalls, trekking through muddy fields while our lips turn blue from the crisp morning air and milking the cows with our cold bare hands sounds like a dream!  Actually, come to think of it more closely, it sounds like a nightmare! Can you imagine us getting our favorite mink lined Hermes work boots all muddy?!  Neither can we!

That’s why our most favorite way to go green is New York City’s famed Union Square Farmer’s Market.  The market has been providing New Yorkers with fresh, local produce and farm products since 1976.  Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, from 8:00am – 6:00pm, farmers from all over New York State set up shop in Union Square, as well as other locations, with fruits, vegetables, flowers, breads, cheeses, juices and organic products galore!

It goes without saying that some of the city’s top chef’s take advantage of these farmer’s goods, and this is where it gets good!  The market offers Chef’s Tours and Tastings where a local chef takes you on a tour of the market while he purchases produce for that day’s menu and then you go to the chef’s restaurant for a lunch where he creates a feast using the produce you just bought with him!

We usually host the chefs at our house for a private dinner which our staff whips up using the green market goods.  We’d invite you, but we have a feeling you’d just end up rifling through our closets for next season’s fashion favorites!

TRASH!

 

 

Trash has been on our minds a lot as of late.  We don’t know why.  Actually, we DO know why.  It’s because we hate it.  It’s as simple as that.  We don’t like the way it looks.  We don’t like the way it smells.  We hate that we feel guilty creating so much of it on the daily, but we can’t save ALL of our Tom Ford shopping bags, now can we?

We’re bringing this up because there’s been a groundswell in New York City recently, and it’s all been revolving around one artist and his efforts to bring to light the serious repercussions of the excessive waste we as consumers create. Don’t get all scared on us.  We don’t want to hop up on a soapbox, but life can’t be all caviar and champagne all the time!  Well, OUR lives can, but we still have to care about the environment!

The artist in question is Adrian Kondratowicz, and his latest art project is called TRASH: anycoloryoulike.  What he’s done is create brightly colored, polka dotted trash bags which are available for purchase through the site and which are meant to be used as one normally uses trash bags.  Then, on trash day, when you take out your trash, the streets are lined with color and mayhem reminding your neighbors and all passers by that we need to make a change immediately.

You want to know the best part?  The bags are all biodegradable, and they smell like bubble gum!  We LOVE that!

The next curated installation will take place on July 30 in NYC’s meatpacking district from 5pm – 12am.

JUICY!

 

One lazy afternoon not too long ago, we were basking in the sun poolside on the rooftop of the Downtown LA Standard while eavesdropping on the conversation next to us.  One lady, who, if you ask us, should NOT have been wearing a thong bikini, was telling the other lady a story of a man named David Otto, who one summer supposedly ate absolutely nothing by watermelon for 77 days straight!  Personally, we could never imagine doing that unless the watermelon had been previously vodka infused, but we digress…

Being the aficionados of fresh fruit juices that we are, we set off to find this man.  It wasn’t hard to do because we also had heard these ladies mention that Mr. Otto owned a juice shop in Beverly Hills, which was aptly named Beverly Hills Juice.  What could be better?  Fresh juice and a shopping spree down Rodeo Drive!  An ideal afternoon if you ask us.

When we stepped into the small shop, the aroma of fresh apples and bananas overwhelmed us sending us into a juicy state of euphoria.  Mr. Otto wakes at 2am daily and buys only the best organic produce, which he then spends six hours cold pressing in the back of his shop.  

There’s apple juice, apple mint coconut juice, apple papaya juice, carrot coconut juice, watermelon juice, kombucha tea and our personal favorite, the Big Ten, which is a special juice made from carrots, beets, celery, parsley, spinach and sunflower greens!  It’s the only way to keep your body green and your mind clean.

OLVERA STREET!

FILTHY RICH!

 

Last summer while we were vacationing on the Cote D’Azur in our favorite little town of Villefranche-sur-Mer, nestled up in the hills overlooking Cap Ferrat just outside of Nice, we met the sweetest young man at the local sidewalk café.  He had asked us for light.  We offered him a glass of our Bandol Rose.  We sat and shared stories for hours upon end!

He asked us about our lives.  We told him about the homes we keep around the world with which he was all too familiar.  We told him about where our friends dock their yachts when we cruise the world with them, only to hear that he’s been to most of those cities too. (We suspected he’d only read of those cities in school books, but we didn’t want to step on the young man’s style….)  He even knew about how much one is supposed to tip the house staff when visiting a friend’s chateau for the weekend!  We were quite impressed.  He almost knew more about our lives than we did!  We enjoyed that afternoon very much, but he bid us adieu without even giving us his name!  We were saddened to see him go.

So why are we telling you this story?  Well, this past week, that chance encounter we had over a year ago with that gentleman, whose name we now know to be Christopher Tennant, has transpired into a book called The Official Filthy Rich Handbook!  We would have never known it was the same man had we not noticed his picture in the back!  

In a nutshell, (a solid platinum nutshell, that is), the book is all about how the other 0.0001% (or all the Stans of the world) live, and it’s cleverly titillating…if only you’re still wishing you had our lives!

GOING GREEN!

 

When we were just petit Stan D’Enfants growing up in the foothills of the Loire Valley, we would watch Miss Piggy slap Kermit the Frog, and we would double over in laughter and fall out of our vintage Barcelona daybed, which, coincidentaly, Mies van der Roehe personally gave our father ages ago!  Back then, that was what “going green” meant. Just Kermit and us.  Green green green!

Nowadays, going green means something totally different.  It’s about preserving the planet and ensuring its wellbeing for millennia to come.  We could have sworn that we were totally doing that already!?  We fly via private jet!  We cruise the Mediterranean on luxury yachts!  We only purchase designer luxury products!  We had thought that maintaining this kind of lifestyle was completely green because we weren’t contributing to the wasteful habits of the masses, but it turns out we were wrong.

This month, we’re focusing on making a difference.  We’re starting with saving energy, ensuring that our staff in our houses across the globe are green at home, and most importantly, we’re telling our drivers in New York, London and Paris to make our cars green.  A metallic Kelley Green would be our preference, but we’re not going to get picky!  J’adore!

SHALLOW IN TIMES SQUARE!

 

 

The 1970s were a crazy time for us.  We were at the heyday of our youth.  We were partying in the dark, seedy clubs in London.  We hung out in the Haight Ashbury district in San Francisco.  Our skin-tight bellbottoms were infamous in New York’s Times Square.  Sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll wasn’t just a saying, it was a way of life…okay, no it wasn’t, but we can remember the 70s however we like!

Whenever we’re in New York, we like to aimlessly walk around Times Square recalling those days while trying to remember how we possibly were able to get anywhere in pants so tight, but we digress…  The other day we were doing just that, and we came across the most beautiful broadcast on MTV’s jumbo videoscreen.  After asking around, we found out that it was a video art installation entitled Shallow, created by Malcolm McLaren, founder of The Sex Pistols, and sponsored by Creative Time, the leader in public art initiatives.

Shallow is a series of 21 “musical paintings” created from films of the 1960s, all of which contain various moments right before or after sex scenes.  How chic is that?!  The film will be showing every hour on the hour through mid-August in Times Square between 44th Street & 45th Street.

LOUIS VUITTON SOUNDWALK!

 

 

If you’re anything like us, you’ve already booked your first class ticket to Beijing for the Olympics, and you already have a room in the east wing of the Forbidden City reserved and paid for!  What?  You don’t?  Well get on it already!

Our point, oh gorgeous Stan D’Lovelies, is that our head is about to explode with excitement because one of our most favorite names in fashion has just come out with their very own Louis Vuitton Soundwalk! We know!  We can’t believe it either!

Soundwalk, if you don’t already know, but you should know because it’s just too chic, is a collection of audio walking tours for various cities around the world, which you purchase and download in MP3 format to your MP3 player.  You are given a starting point and then a specific person, sometimes a celebrity, sometimes not, guides you on a three-hour tour of a specific neighborhood in that city or country!  Could you just die???

The Vuitton Soundwalk is very unique and comes to you threefold with Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai guided by Chinese actresses Gong Li, Shu Qi and Joan Chen, respectively. A slew more are expected to roll out for China over the next few months, so keep checking back in.

And just because we Stan D’Love you so much, we’re gonna fill you in another little secret.  There’s a Da Vinci Code Soundwalk of the Louvre Museum in Paris too!  We just can’t take it.  This is just too much for us to handle.  Where’s that bottle of Dom???

THE OTHMER LIBRARY!

GLOBE TROTTER!

 

Not too long ago while we were having tea with the Queen, she and I were discussing our latest travels…where we’d been, what we’d seen, who we had bought at auction in the local markets.  We were totally kidding of course!  The days of colonialism are too long gone, but her twisted sense of humor remains of course.  God Save The Queen!

We then got to speaking about how difficult it is to pack when going on such long excursions so far away from home, and she told us her little Royal secret.  Apparently, the royal family has had their own personal luggage designer, Globe Trotter, for close to 100 years!  Even we can’t get any chicer than THAT!

It turns out that Globe Trotter is bringing its chicness to the masses via the ultra exclusive Centenary Collection!  The collection comes in a variety of colors, but our favorite is the jet-black natural leather with the burgundy trim!  You best try to get yours before the Queen snatches them all up!  Don’t you just hate royalty sometimes?