Sag Harbor, New York: A slice of Americana

I traveled to last weekend to Sag Harbor for the annual Hamptons Holiday House, and got a little taste of the charming 300 year old seaside town.  The drive was over 2.5 hours from queens one way because of the traffic, but once we arrived we were refreshed by the cool sea breeze.

With Vyna St. Phard, Editor-in-Chief of High End Weekly at MONC XIII.

Style.Uz Art Week: The Last Samurai: Mysterious Japan

DSQUARED2 Show at Style.Uz Art Week 2013

DSQUARED2 showed at the Hotel International Tashkenton the second day of Style.Uz Art Week 2013.  The collection reflected the retro glam of the ‘50s. The setting was a tiki bar on the sandy beaches of a tropical island.  Women sashayed down the sand sprinkled runway with voluminous wavy hair sporting fun butterfly sunglasses and conical hats, while dapper men with black rim glasses wore smart suits with bow ties.   The animal print trend continues with high cut bathing suits in leopard and zebra print.  DSQUARED2, famous for putting on elaborate and highly stylized shows, brought their usual showmanship to Tashkent. 

Ms. Gulnara Karimova (founder of Style.Uz Art Week) and Designers Dean and Dan Caten.

Italian fashion house Dsquared2 was founded by identical twin brothers Dean and Dan Caten born in Canada.   The brothers design men's and women's apparel, foot ware and fragrances.  Their designs have been worn by the like of Madonna, Ricky Martin and Justin Timberlake. 

Snow Day at Kenroku-en Garden

Snow Day

The weather gods were kind to me on my recent trip to Kanazawa, Japan this past December. The week before I arrived, Kanazawa was suffering from wet, icy weather.  But while I was there, it was clear and sunny.  But on my last day on my visit to Kenroku-en Garden, one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan, it snowed, providing a breath-taking and wondrous landscape!

Visit to Sugihara Washi Paper in Fukui

While I was visiting Kanazawa, Japan for work last month,  I had a wonderful opportunity through The Art of Travel to travel to Fukui City in Ishikawa prefecture to visit the Sugihara Washi Factory.  I met the president of Sugihara Washiya, Mr. Sukihara who gave my colleague and I a special tour of the factory where they hand make Echizen washi paper from all natural materials.  The washi paper making technique has a 1500 year history.  Yet the process has not changed much and it was interesting to see how the paper is made.  The quality of the paper that is produced in the factory is extremely fine yet durable.  Sugihara washi-trees and washi-flowers designed by Joerg Gessner is currently being displayed at the Guerlain Champs-Elysées, Paris Shop until February 10th, 2013.  

Mr. Yushinao Sugihara, president of Sugihara Washiya showing us the hemp that is used to make paper.

We were also very fortunate to be introduced to one of Japan's living national treasures, Mr. Ichibei Iwanoa, who is the 9th generation paper maker in his family, who is devoted to his work in washi making.

Mr. Ichibei Iwanoa, one of Japan's Living National Treasure showing how he removes the "junk" from the hemp

The almost final product!

The "secret" ingredient that holds the paper together like glue!

  Mr. Sugihara also took us to visit the local shrine of the goddess of washi.

Ringing in some good luck at the shrine.