|
 |
|
| Mad Ave Moments by Richard Turley With the departure of luxury goods maker VBH from the stately building across the street from the Whitney Museum, the identity of an incoming new tenant has been debated. No longer. I am told it will become an Apple store, the fourth in Manhattan and the first to penetrate the heart of the Silk Stocking District. Masterminding the new establishment will be AngelaAhrendts, the ex-CEO of Burberry who got a $67 million bonus for signing with Apple as senior v.p. of retail and online stores. She started May 1st, and the Madison Avenue shop will be her first visible embellishment and glamorization of the brand. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Apple is on a roll, its stock up over 50 percent in the past twelve months. The store is sure to be a stunner — Apple never does anything halfway — but will it be ready by September, the much-rumored arrival date for an iWatch and the iPhone 6? Aesthetic kibitzers — that neighborhood is full of them — will be on tiptoes to see what Apple does to the 1921 landmark bank. If my memory serves, and intermittently it does, it was a Chemical branch in the early '80s. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The 10,000 square foot VBH store had been designed with remarkable restraint and taste by the venerable Peter Marino, America's answer to Tom of Finland.
Getting back to VBH, its exquisite handbags and jewelry are made in Florence from the designs of V. Bruce Hoeksema, the boyish Midwestern American who for the past 30 years has been the soulmate, the traveling companion and everything else for the legendary-in-his-own-time Valentino Garavani. Bruce's clients are the top 1% of the top 1% — the prices are no joke. With the success of VBH, Valentino is as proud as a soccer mom. While Bruce is searching for a new VBH location, he has installed himself temporarily in the Four Seasons Hotel. When a royal princess or a screen star needs a chic crocodile handbag or a parure of emeralds, she doesn't have time to waste. |
|
|
|
| Down at the Carlton House, the 16-story brown brick building which occupies the entire western block front on Madison between 61st and 62nd, the transformation from hotel rooms (Al Sharpton lived there) into condos is almost complete. Three-bedroom units start at $7.6 million and ascend into the stratosphere — $65 million will get you a penthouse. If you act quickly. Everybody has been wondering who will anchor the 35,000-square-foot street-level retail space. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Wonder no more. I am told that Qela, the tippy-toppy luxury brand owned by the royal family of Qatar, will open its third boutique there, to join its flagship in Doha and the Paris shop on the Avenue Montaigne. According to Style.com/Arabia, the Qela merchandise is "modest clothing and accessories in line with Qatari culture.” The "sober" line is said to be "inspired by the lines and curves of the desert." Modest clothing maybe, but not modest price tags. Bring a bucketful of riyals. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Speaking of the Qatar Luxury Group, these are the folks who also own the Valentino fashion house. See how all roads lead to Mecca — or Doha, as it were? Qatar is, per capita, the richest country in the world. And, by investing wisely, it is always getting richer. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Up the road at 714 Madison, Mauboussin, the 180-year-old Parisian jewelry house which opened here in 2008 just as Lehman was imploding, has ever-so-quietly closed its doors. Mauboussin, whose glittering stones and watches were lavishly displayed on four separate not-so-large floors, never found its customer. Those in the know say that its CEO, more rigid and French than Maurice Chevalier, never understood the American way of business and never cared to learn. He ran things in New York the way he had in Paris, and it flopped. Tant pis. Mauboussin is still big in France, and elsewhere. Diamonds are forever. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kenneth Jay Lane, the legendary jeweler known as the “Cellini of Costume,” is not what they call an "early adopter" of technology. He's never owned a cell phone, nor had a home computer. In fact, he's never even had an answering machine in his sumptuous salon on lower Park Avenue.
By the way, when Kenny Lane later this month is in his usual suite at The Ritz in London, his longtime housekeeper/cook Isobel will be touring Venice and Rome, picking up new recipes. "She's staying at the same hotels where I always stay," says Lane. Isobel is one lucky lady. The condo her employer bought for her a while back is now worth seven figures. That's why she's delighted to serve him breakfast in bed. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| BLIND ALLEY: Now, from the sublime to the ridiculous. The jet set has been jabbering all week about that pillar of society who impulsively sent an email blast she later came to regret.
You know the one: that fabulous flibbertigibbet who has made herself wealthy and socially ubiquitous by sending out invitations to movie screenings. Yeah, her. Ya gotta hand it to her — and people do. Well, it seems Miss X has a seamstress who does excellent alterations without altering Miss X's pocketbook. So Miss X decided to send out an email blast to her nearest and dearest — all rich — extolling the talents of the lady. She praised her ability to hem up and take in dresses by all the top designers. Then Miss X went a stitch too far: she said the seamstress could even take fake designer dresses bought online and sew them up to look better than the authentic designer dresses. And she cited one of our most illustrious couturiers. Ay yi yi caramba. Makers of expensive gowns hate knockoffs. When someone forwarded the email to the veteran right hand man of the big-cheese frockmaker, the exec went all Godzilla on Miss X. Her ears are still ringing. Poor Miss X. She was just trying to help a working woman get ahead in this lousy town. But when will people learn that an ill-considered email, once sent, is like a rabid hyena? Eventually it will come back around and bite you in the ass. |
|
|
|
Click here for NYSD contents. |