Wednesday, June 28

That Jazzy Age...
At The Cooper Hewitt
This past Wednesday dawned as a glorious summer day just in time for my latest Wednesday foray. Joining me was Elke Kuhn, textile expert and wearer of costumes assembled with panache and creativity.

Our destination was The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan home to spotless brownstones, gleaming apartment buildings, lavish window boxes, and posh matrons in expensive duds.

The six train took me to 96th Street and Lexington Avenue and upon my debarkation I had a nice walk to 5th Avenue and 91st Street. All the better to see the sights of the Upper East Side, so different from my messy Lower East Side neighborhood.

 Well-groomed canines 

await their dog walker's call to action.

 Preppy ladies

 Curated Window Boxes

 The Begonia is the border flower of choice.

 Doormen of the Upper East Side.

 Apartment buildings with gleaming brass

accoutrements and clean sidewalks.

My destination:

The Jazz Age:
American Style in the 1920s.

 Elke wore an outfit in tones

of gold, silver and ivory.

 She posed in front of a magnificent

art nouveau screen.

Her flower-shaped hat attracted

scads of compliments all

afternoon long.

 I went for color with my Sonia Delaunay

silk tunic, necklace of my own design

and hat from La Cerise sur Le Chapeau

in Paris.

I am standing in front of Robert Delaunay's

painting of the Eiffel Tower.

 We arrived in time for a docent-led tour.

"Blues" by Archibald Motley typifies the music
and the movement of the 1920s.

An evening dress and underslip in blue
silk chiffon with applied blue ombre silk fringe
by Coco Chanel. 
The 1920s is my favorite fashion period.

A cloche hat of my own design echos the
1920s moment in fashion design.

Step lively and click your heels with this poster by AM Cassandre. 

The exhibit covers design, decorative art, jewelry,

fashion and architecture.

An art deco brooch.

Droopy loopy garlands.

A textile design on cotton and linen by

Raoul Dufy. His woodcuts were suited to

textile patterning.

Skyscrapers were a novelty of the time.

Designers put them on desks.

Models for Marmon automobiles.

A daybed  from the 30s.

Elke and I loved this purse with its
illustration reminiscent of The Little Prince.

 My kind of object. A hanging by
an Italian Futurist.

 I never met a hatbox I didn't like.

Do dive with me now
The blue-green sea beckons
I wear a striped suit

 Exit through the gift shop.

Elke tried on a statement necklace.

À Bientôt!

Wednesday with Carol, June 14, 2017

Sister Act:
Flaneuring in the
West Village
June 14 was Wednesday with Carol, Susan and Jeanne. We sisters got together to flaneur in the West Village. That is, we were going to roam the West Village, turning up whatever street looked the most intriguing. The West Village is inherently charming, so there are plenty of twists and turns to lead you to a new discovery.

Our plan was to meet for lunch at a little boite called While We Were Young, Kitchen & Cocktails on West 10th Street. I took the F train to West Fourth and walked on 10th Street to the restaurant. As I walked, I noticed pretty things begging to be photographed, as in "Please, please, madame, take my picture."

The window at Té Company and

Tea Room

A tiny birdhouse....

 Three Lives Books...

Richard and I owned a house in Greenport, Long Island

for awhile. The owners of Three Lives had one too, a block

from our house. One day they said that we should cut down the

huge, old Maple tree in our backyard, because it

blocked their view -- of us.  They spied on us with binoculars.

 Fedora dates to 1952.

Dapper gents used to frequent the place.

Now it's a "fauxstalgia" joint.

 As authentic old village as they come.

Sevilla opened in 1941!

It has not been gentrified. They

probably serve the same tired paella

as in the olden days.

An elegant display on a brownstone's steps.

 I was the first to arrive at While We Were Young

and was offered a seat at the bar while I was old,

while I was waiting for Jeanne and Susan, and

while they were still on the West Side Highway
driving from Westchester.

The barkeep poured me a tall glass of ice water while

I took in the petal-strewn surroundings. 

While We Were Young is pretty and pink.
Flowers figure prominently in the decor.
 The owner, Bradford Dunigan,
grew up in a house which his mother
filled with flowers.

 The sisters arrive.
Here is Jeanne.

And Susan

And Carol and Susan

A beautiful cocktail ordered by
the lady at the next table.

My lunch was delicious.
Burrata, avocado, wildflower honey,
basil and pink grapefruit.
Jeanne pointed out that the grapefruit
had been cut into "supremes".
Although the white pith and membrane are edible, they
are bitter, so you can cut them out using a 
technique which can be found on Sam Sifton's blog
in the New York Times.

Bradford asked the chef to personally
deliver this yummy, complimentary cake to us.
What a delightful surprise.

 After lunch, we flaneured once more.
On Hudson Street, we found The Meadow,
a shop specializing in salt, chocolate, drink and
flowers. They had a huge selection of bitters.

 Poesies at The Meadow.

Jeanne purchased bitters for her
husband's cocktails.
Susan got a chocolate treat.

 Walking west and north, we came upon Lucy Sparrow's
all-felt bodega, 8 'Til Late, which has popped up 
at the Standard Hotel. This ice cream freezer is covered
in felt and all the treats within are made of felt.

 In fact, every single thing in the bodega is
made of felt.

 Lucy Sparrow is an English artist working
at the intersection of textiles and art.

We did not buy any of the products because
we felt they were too expensive.

 Finding ourselves in Chelsea, we spotted
the Unix Gallery, where there is an exhibit called
"Sugartarium". It's an art asylum for sugar addicts.

 The art consists of large assemblages of
sugary candies and cookies, all
smashed. Yum, I love chocolate-covered cherries.

Since this is a Sugartarium, there
are hospital beds where you can detox from
your sugar overdosing.

 If you have an emergency, you can speak to

the Sugarologist via this phone

for triage. I tried it and was told to lie

down on a bed for awhile and stay away from sugar.

 Final stop: Trestle on Tenth

We cooled down with a Passion-Fruit Fizz.

À Bientôt!

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