New York International Gift Fair: Day One

CELINE BLUE...

Saturday was our first day out in the city, so we decided to catch up on what’s fashionable and stylish these days in the Big Apple by first walking the streets and then shopping the toniest boutiques and stores we could find. You can tell a lot by what’s hot and what’s not, about the color and fashion as they’re trending across the globe, because it’s already on the streets here. 

It’s not only about the colors they’re wearing, but how they’re wearing it, and then noticing how they live with it by seeing what’s available in home fashions, furniture, textiles, linens, and lighting. Just walking on the broad, not so crowded sidewalks (half the population has gone to the Hamptons for the weekend) makes me feel like a participant, even if only an observer. I think this is one of the reasons people love to come to New York City.  Store display windows give insight to the things that we will see over the next several days at the New York International Gift Show, which began Saturday.

We quickly saw an affinity, a distinct trend, toward the color Blue. Not just any blue, but a blue with a provenance, if you will. 

Photo, left:
We saw this particular color hue on dozens of fashion conscious woman and men (sans those eating ice cream and wearing “I Love New York” tee shirts). 
Here the design house of the late Alexander McQueen, he who had such a fondness for the skull in all things fashion, would not be disappointed in this high 'tone' pump in the 'new blue'. 
This suede number features a gold plated Skull with a prominent Mohawk top.  










We saw this particular color hue on dozens of fashion conscious woman and men (sans those eating ice cream and wearing “I Love New York” tee shirts). It was on handbags, gloves, and on shoes for both men and woman at Barney’s New York, Bergdorf Goodman, Gucci, 

Ferragamo, Cole Haan, Hermes, and SAKS 5^th Avenue, and even in the windows of luxe 
jewelers  Cartier and Harry Winston. It was the obvious new “it” color.

      As my wife tried on a Nancy Gonzales handbag in 'that' blue (above, left), I was intrigued by the salesman assisting her at Bergdorf Goodman, a young man dressed in “that blue” from head to toe. Obviously savvy and hip to the new color, I inquired as to its origin. 

“Oh, that’s been the color since Celine showed it in their Spring Collection”, he said, looking a bit surprised at my question.

“Oh, uh, yes,” I replied. “Of course”! I thought that everyone must know this…and now so do I! 

“Celine showed it in Paris first and then in their Spring collection here” he went on to say.

I nodded appreciatively, and knew that I couldn’t wait to say that to all of you, my readers! But of course, you probably already knew about the Spring 2012 Celine Collection, so please accept my apology for not bringing this color to your attention sooner! 

Photo above: Even a decorative gold leaf mirror is decorated in "the blue" colored Murano glass flowers.

Photo above: Even chic melon hued shagreen covered boxes and trays from de'Nace & de'Orient - Paris, at Bergdorf Goodman, are complemented by a "Celine blue" shagreen clad bracelet cuff.

Actually, I must declare that I’d already know about this color, but I knew it as something else prior to Celine! I knew it as Yves Klein Blue, named after the French artist, which debuted in his 1957 show Proposte Monochrome, Epoca Blu (proposition Monochrome: Blue Epoch). So, Celine wasn’t the first, but the latest, and it is the “latest color”… for today, anyway!

And here’s another little tidbit of insider info: Celine is owned by French luxury brand company LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Moet  Hennessy). 

Photos:
A Dining room display at Bergdorf Goodman, left, and a Living room setting featuring a French Recameier, shown right. No 'new blue' in these traditional settings, but perhaps a hint of colors to come...berry tones?

Photo above: LA designer Kelly Wearstler who recently launched her ready to wear collection at Bergdorf Goodman, got her start in home furnishing and interior design. Above, is the room devoted to Wearstler's contemporary wares, which feature the 'new blue' on a leather covered "head" sculpture and other items.

Photo above: I must mention the Waylande Gregory ceramics and porcelains we found at Bergdorf Goodman that were recently featured on the Cabana Home facebook page. Pictured above with gold plated metal candlesticks imported from Paris.

Pictured above: The infamous Celine 'blue', which the French design house calls Royal Blue.

Photos, above-
Left: Chairs at the recently remodeled shoe salon (for both men and woman), at Barney's New York. Great design with an obvious restraint of hand on both the chairs and the slender tables, with paper-thin marble tops.
Right: After walking umpteen blocks, we decided to take a break and use one of the readily available Pedi-Cabs. However, I must warn you that they are very expensive, the price for a six block ride: $50.00. Rider beware!

Photo above: We even found a combo donut/ice cream shop that featured "make your own donuts", and immediately spied this "new blue" speciman!

Photo above: Even menswear gets into the Celine blue act.

Photos above-
Left: Fortuny porcelain plates; Right: A contemporary Regency style table sports the new blue.

These gals get into the spirit in their Celine blue accessories (the surf board and the camp chairs), at the weekly summer beach party at this Eastside restaurant, LAVO

I purchased a new Sony camera and was taking different kinds of pictures to try out different settings, and shot the two photos, above, as I walked up 5th Avenue.

Photos below: Also doing their own thing was Louis Vuitton on 5th Avenue, the iconic French fashion house, who seems to be into polka dots, or perhaps just dots. Shown below left, is the dot covered store, and below right, the stores display windows featured dot covered walls and floors, mannequin and octopus like sculptures reaching up from the floor.  

With all of this fashion hoo-ha, it seemed only fitting that we would close the day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), seeing the show, ‘Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations”,  put on by the museums Costume Institute (which closed today!). This exhibition was billed as one that, “explores the similarities between the two Italian fashion designers from two different eras”, and that it did. What I though was particularly interesting was that Schiaparelli used this color, call it Celine Blue or Klein Blue, in the 1940’s. So what’s new? Anything? No, I don’t think so.

New York's famed Metropolitan Museum of Art featured the show, SCHIAPARELLI AND PRADA: IMPOSSIBLE CONVERSATIONS 
NOTE: The show closed yesterday :(

The show was divided into seven groups, not chronologically, but by attitude and style: Classical Body, Exotic Body, Hard Chic, Naif Chic, Surreal Body, Ugly Chic, and Waist Up, 

Classical Body, above

Exotic Body, above right.













Hard Chic, above.

Naif Chic, above.

Surreal Body, above.

Ugly Chic, above.

Waist Up, above.

Prada, like Schiaparelle was influenced by the exotic Far East in the dress, above.

Photo above: It seems that in this vintage piece, the designer must have been influenced by Yves Klein Blue, long before 'Celine Blue' made its appearance last Spring. 

Photo above: 

Both designers employed mirrors in their designs at one time or another. Mirrored dress by Prada.

After the show we took the elevator to the museums roof top garden, named the Roof Top Café and Martini Bar, which overlooks Central Park, for a spectacular sunset view of the Manhattan skyline. The roof top is also an outdoor sculpture garden, which we’ve had the opportunity to visit before, and I highly recommend it to you on your next trip to NYC.    

This summers commission for the roof garden is, “Tomas Saraceno on the roof: “Cloud City” (pictured, below), which is on view through November 4^th, 2012.

Saraceno’s sculpture is a 28-foot-high aggregate of 16 interconnected 12- and 14-sided polyhedrons the size of small rooms that are made of polished steel and clear plexiglass. 

In a review by New York Times Art Critic Roberta Smith, she calls the piece, “Participatory art” that “resembles an enlarged model of molecules or a cluster of shiny if quite heavy soap bubbles.” She said, “Walking through it is an elaborate, often dizzying, interpenetrating reflection of its structure, the sky, the Met, the city, Central Park. Up becomes down; the towers and facades of Central Park West seem to change places with Fifth Avenue’s. You see yourself, or your fellow visitors, everywhere”. 

Photo above: Many early New York skyscrapers featured "house" tops, structures finished off with what looks like a mansion plopped on top of the building. This one, was atop one of the buildings adjacent to the MET on New York's tony 'Eastside'.   

Photo above: An August summer night in New York is rarely this cool and beautiful. The temperature hovered around 85 all day long and dipped down to about 78 in the evening.

Photo above: We stayed until twilight, and watched as the city came alive awash in lights, with a backdrop of a summer sunset


Photo below: Oh yeah, couldn't help but notice the headlines on the New York Post regarding the sentencing of the Russian girl band, Pussy Riot, for their protest against the Russian President. The girls were  brought to trial on trumped up charges of civil disobedience. 

Photos below-

We decided to end the day with a libation at the famed Oak Bar at the recently refurbished, historic Plaza Hotel. And no visit to the Plaza is complete without paying homage to the painting  that hangs in the corridor of the fictional character, Eloise, brought to life by the author Kay Thompson (no relation to me), in her delightful childrens book by the same name.

Left: Fictional resident of the Plaza Hotel, Eloise, and her pets, Skipperdee (the turtle), and Weenie (her dog).

Right: The historic Plaza Hotel

Join me tomorrow for, Day Two: The New York International Gift Show.

End

The New York International Gift Fair begins tomorrow!

  Our Trek to the East Coast for the New York International Gift Fair

We began our trek to the East coast from Santa Barbara at 7:45 this morning, arriving at Long Islands JFK Airport around 7:20 PM this evening. Our bags were tagged “Priority” which meant they were among the first to come up at baggage claim. By the time we’d walked the approx. ½ mile trek from the arrival gate to baggage claim, our bags were actually circling on the carousel.

Our bags even beat those up of singer Nic Jonas, who sat in the seat front of me on the plane. We grabbed our bags and entered the usual melee in and around the Taxi Stand, which included gypsy taxi and limo drivers pandering for passengers on the “QT”, to the text-er walking right into the traffic not paying attention to the "Do Not Walk" sign flashing in front of her, tourists from Milwaukee (well maybe), and the myriad family members causing traffic jams as they cruised slowly by, or parked illegally waiting on their progeny. Oh New York! I love this place.

We settled into our yellow taxi and of we went. Traffic was heavy, but the air conditioner worked well and that was good enough for me.

As we crossed the bridge between Long Island and Manhattan we could see the New World Trade center lighted in all of its glory.It was so great to see this building rising from the ashes of 9/11. 

We had a near miss accident with another cabbie on Park Avenue, on my side of the car no less, but our driver was quick and averted disaster.

We soon rounded the corner and came out on the edge of Central Park at the Plaza Hotel (unfortunately now a Trump related property), where the horse and carriages stand nonchalantly,  bravely, all lined up knowing at any minute they could be called in to duty to “share the road” with New York’s finest (the cabbies).

As we approached the Essex House, our home for the next week, the hotels name emblazoned on its iconic red neon sign on the roof, we knew we were soon due for a wild “u-turn” in the middle of six lanes of traffic, as the hotel is on the opposite side of the street. No cops, then no problem and we made it to the other side safely.

We were a bit disheveled from a day of travel in contrast to the luxe lobby of the hotel. No matter, the desk clerks were charming and efficient. The hotel is very good looking, front to back. From the lobby to the corridor, to the elevator, to the corridors on our floor, and our room. However, we’re on a group rate arranged through the NYIGF, and we have a view of the alley instead of on the front of the building which faces Central Park. No problem, we‘ll just keep the sheer shades down.

We walked out to get dinner, then to the local grocer for room supplies like water, mixed nuts (not that I didn’t pass several of them on the street). we went to the Starbucks of Pharmacy's, Duane Read Pharmacy, where they had these neat hand baskets that converts to a rolling basket with a long handle that you can pull behind you when your basket gets too heavy!  As we walked down the street, I couldn't help but notice the proliferation of “street cameras” that has grown more extensive even since last summer, each with a NYPD sign attached, to dissuade crime, I hope!

I also saw a couple of very similar, and very strange stores that were bursting at the seams with the gaudiest crystal chandeliers, lots of bronze statues of kids cavorting about, Murano chotskis (sp) including a life size green glass monkey, overdone French style furniture with gold gilding, marble planters and obelisk trimmed in gold and bronze, malachite trimmed furniture, and a clock in the form a carriage being pulled by horses rendered in elaborate ceramics. For those of you who’ve followed my blog reports before during a trade show, you know that not only do I share the interesting and unique, but also feature a category known as “Worst of Show”. These stores qualify for that category, actually I think they define it and the show hasn’t even started yet!

This week, August 18 thru the 22nd, they estimate 35,000 buyers from around the world will make their way to New York City for the NYIGF. The event promoters web site states that there are more than 2,800 exhibitors featuring 400 product categories, representing over 100,000 lines. Whew! We've got a long week ahead of ourselves! 

The fair is set in three locations, the cavernous Jacob Javitz Center, and Pier’s 92 and 94, for a variety of gift, home décor, tabletop, housewares and handmade goods. We’ll see everything from the largest companies to the smallest mom-and-pops, brands we grew up with and designers just getting their starts.

So, please join me at the the New York market via my posts on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/#!/CabanaHome) as well as on my blog, “DESIGN GUY” (www.adesignguy.blogspot.com)