Spring-Summer 2022
“waking at the crack of dawn, sunbathing and barefoot walks, flowing white robes in cotton and linen, oceanfront dinners complete with salty air and waves curling to shore; the mind-body connection.”

*Note: Images curated from outside sources. Please see each picture for credits, and click through for direct link to original post. All other images in this blog, unless specifically noted and cited, are my original works.

Fall-Winter 2021-2022
“wrists laden with sparkling stones and vintage Cartier, clinking of crystal and a whiff of Baccarat Rouge 540; ending nights out in sumptuous cashmere coats dusted with slow snowfall, and waking up to quiet mornings dense with rich espresso.”

[originally published December 2021] Over the last few weeks, my mind has traveled back and forth between the blacks and pearls of Lucrezia de’ Medici to my personal holiday season “aesthetic” for this year - you know, classy, bougie, and certainly not ratchet. When you live in a city like New York, the possibilities and occasions inviting you to dress to your nines are abundant, even endless. I mean, can anything really stop you from heading to a Friday night dinner with the ladies at The Polo Bar in a subtle silk and wool belted blazer, to hosting your own holiday party the next evening in a completely bedazzled Retrofête piece (might I suggest the Gabrielle Robe in Ruby)?

The verdict: nothing can. Well, besides the pandemic.

I started updating this season’s “Currently” about two weeks ago, when restaurants were starting to promote their ticketed New Year’s Eve parties - some with black tie dress codes - giving us all a nostalgic taste of what the holidays in New York City were like before 2020: decadent. Whether you preferred to party all weekend in heels surrounded by half the city, or host an intimate gathering with a few of your closest friends over charcuterie and Harry Potter, there was no denying the holiday buzz that would simmer in the air between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Even those who knew all along that they would eventually curl up in a window with a book and hot cocoa on both eves have entertained the idea of a night out. After all, in NYC, comfort is not necessarily exclusive to your home - you might find it in the company of friends, at an apartment or restaurant, wrists laden with sparkling stones and vintage Cartier. It could be in the clinking of crystal and in the whiff of Baccarat Rouge 540 as you get ready to leave all the socializing, ending a night out in a sumptuous cashmere coat that gets dusted with slow snowfall as you get in the cab back to your apartment, anticipating waking up to a quiet morning dense with rich espresso.

Fast forward to today and this city feels like it’s holding its breath, teetering on the edge of possibly another lockdown, with all of our collective plans to travel, socialize, and celebrate more or less hanging in the air. That being said, enjoying a proper holiday season in NYC is not entirely impossible, even if you cancel and/or excuse yourself from all the events. Call a friend or two, pick up some antipasto tuscano and lasagne at I Sodi, a panettone from Mah-Ze-Dahr or a few petit gâteaux at Patisserie Fouet, and head home. Wear the dress, tux, or fancy PJs; pile on the jewelry, walk through that cloud of perfume, and share a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon (or, stir this up with Seedlip’s Grove 42). Indulge, whether it’s for one night or the entire Winter. And if that doesn’t appeal to you, you can always visit here to immerse yourself in all of those deliciously rich holiday feels, even in sweats.

Spring-Summer 2021
“lush greens, electric blue bodies of water, skin drunk on sunlight, coffee poured over ice, & dreaming photos by Slim Aarons to life.”

Fifteen years ago, Tom Ford launched a fragrance that would come to embody the season of summer as most of us imagine it in our wildest, most ideal dreams. Indeed, following its repackaging in 2011, it relentlessly saturated most early beauty blogs and articles, luscious images of its glittering bottle inescapable, the deep, rich turquoise birthed by someone’s fond memories of the sparkling Ligurian Sea brushing the coast of its namesake village on the Italian Riviera. 

That fragrance was Neroli Portofino.

Tom Ford’s then-latest took a similar path to Le Labo’s Santal 33 in amassing its cult following. While Santal 33 became the talk-of-the-town, crowned the absolute scent of New York City, however, fans of Neroli Portofino kept it slightly more guarded – it received Iman’s stamp of approval, and it was by no means elusive, but it didn’t exactly become a staple for everyone, everywhere. Instead, Neroli Portofino continued to swim through the vanities and shelves of fragrance aficionados, and over time, became inseparable from the picture of a perfect Italian summer as dreamt by an American. Or maybe just me. 

It’s no secret that the American obsession with Italian culture, and Italy (…and Spain, and France, and Portugal, but first and foremost, Italy), reaches its height come summer - and that has never been truer than in the year past. Or maybe, that’s just the effect of social media: everyone collectively pining for the same places, feelings, and moments, the topple of dominos started by one perfect, gorgeous shot shared on a small account and passed through until it reaches you.

Cause and effect aside, that’s exactly where my mood is at: lush greens, electric blue bodies of water, skin drunk on sunlight, coffee poured over ice, & dreaming photos by Slim Aarons to life. It’s in the caramels of smooth leather bags and in the whites of crisp linen button downs. It’s simultaneously in lands thousands of miles away and in quiet walks down a West Village Street, in hot summer dinners ringing of cutlery and clinking glass, the laughs of family and friends, and live music. It’s in the sparkling shadow of every fragrance bottle I have rebelliously let sit in the sun for a few moments to catch the perfect photograph, only to share it somewhere for someone else to swim in sync with my current mood. Here’s to its visual accompaniment.

Fall-Winter 2020-2021
“neutrals, soft finishes, sumptuous knitwear, cakes, coffee, and fruit, cushy beds and linens; layers of warmth.”

After months of living through the COVID-19 pandemic, the end of summer and beginning of autumn 2020 ushered the world back a few years to the quietest kind of nostalgia we could all muster up - and it has stuck. A few minutes on the internet and you will find yourself searching for vintage polo zips in a frenzy, trying your hand at a chiffon cake, and nestling into the corner of your room with a weighted blanket and a Nancy Drew book for the memories. Or maybe that was just me.

In any case, we are all seeking comfort these days, and so, you will find this season’s “Currently” section spilling over with neutral colors, soft finishes, sumptuous knitwear, cakes, coffee, and fruit, cushy beds and linens, and most importantly, layers of warmth.