Chic Reads: My First New York

Photo courtesy of: New York Magazine and Amazon.com

I miss the launched of this book by two days when I was in New York last week. I saw it advertised in a new issue of New York Magazine and ran to Barnes & Noble to buy it but was told it wasn't in yet.

It is a collection of essays about people's early experiences in the Big Apple and contributors include Graydon Carter, Naomi Campbell, Harold Evans, Rufuf Wainwright, Diane von Furstenberg, Liz Smith, Lauren Hutton and many other personalities - famous and infamous.

Judging from the excerpt from Nora Ephron's piece published in New York Magazine, it seems like it will be an excellent read.

However, this is the kind of book that will not be distributed widely in Asia. So, I kindly ask my local bookstore in Hong Kong to order it for me. Now, I just have to wait for two weeks until I can finally devour the essays. I am most especially looking forward to Andre Aciman's piece as I loved his book Call Me By Your Name.

Chic Finds: L'Objet

A lot of people really liked my gold lizard magnifying glass and letter opener from L'Objet which I found at Saks. I also bought the bejewelled crocodile napkin rings in silver and black from Bergdorf's (photo above.) I first saw these napkin rings in the New York Times where they asked Colin Cowie to dress a table Oscar's style and he picked the crocodile napkin rings but in gold and emerald.

I am now in love with L'Objet and I look forward to owning more of their pieces.

A product shot of our napkin rings

These wine stoppers are divine.

A pagoda shaped napkin ring. It also comes as a salt and pepper shaker.

Let There Be Light

I've been debating whether we should get these candle wall sconces from Altfield and hang them on both sides of the lip picture in our dining room.

Would they take the attention away from the picture and the black glass chandelier which was our very first purchase together? I've visited Altfield so many times now, looking at the sconces and trying to imagine how they would like at home. I have yet to decide. Maybe you can help...

Chic Comeback

Mrs John L Strong stationery is back in business. I discovered this because I took the chance of going to their shop on Madison Avenue and was pleasantly surprised to find them open. Last September, news came that they closed. The people at Mrs Strong told me that the company has a new financial backer and that they have resumed operations.

While at the shop, I picked up note cards with a shell motif and envelopes lined in orange. I also bought menu cards with a Chinese pagoda design.

The gold lizard magnifying glass and letter opener are from L'Objet which I found at Saks. And the orange shagreen pencils are from Dransfield & Ross.

On The Shelves 2

I spent the afternoon accessorizing and trying to make my books fit on the shelves.

What do you think of the result?

On The Shelves

Upon my return to Hong Kong after almost two weeks in New York, I was greeted by the sight of this:

Now I just need to recover from my 24-hour flight (a gruesome 6-hour layover in Seoul) so that I can start arranging the books and accessorizing.

Open House

We went to the Architectural Digest Home Show at Pier 94 on the West Side Highway yesterday hoping to see a lot of fabulous things. Sadly, we left uninspired. We should have known better as Architectural Digest has really been rather dull for the past couple of years. Like the magazine, the show need huge doses of glamour and style. Except for the 1stdibs pavilion and The New Traditionalist booth, everything else looked humdrum and derivative. For the first time, I went to a show without feeling an urge to buy anything.

Other than the exhibitors showing off all sorts of furniture and accessories, there was a section dedicated to an exhibition called Dining by Design which features table settings done by different designers. There were a couple of really good ones, but the others really looked amateur and unfinished. See the photos below and judge for yourself: