Chic Shop - ION Orchard Singapore - Louis Vuitton

While ION Orchard looks like it is still in various stages of construction, there's no stopping Louis Vuitton from opening its boutique at the chic new mall on Thursday July 2. From the looks of the artist's rendering below and what one can make out from Orchard Road, it looks like the new Louis Vuitton store will give Singapore retail a much-needed facelift. Louis Vuitton is one of the six two storey stores at ION Orchard which includes Prada, Giorgio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel, and Christian Dior.

Things may just start to look chic in Singapore once ION Orchard fully opens. Despite the countless number of shopping malls in and around Orchard Road, there is no true luxury mall in Singapore comparable to IFC Mall in Hong Kong.

 

We can't wait for the rest of ION Orchard to open.

Chic Flick - Vogue The September Issue starring Anna Wintour trailer

After catching the Valentino The Last Emperor movie when we were in New York a few weeks ago, we kind of sad that we won't be able to see the Vogue movie The September Issue which will be shown in the US on August 28. 

For all the negative publicity and questions raised about her relevance, Anna Wintour for us remains the single most important name in fashion. She turned Vogue around and made it glamorous again after the reign of Grace Mirabella.

Our only beef is the actresses on the covers - especially July cover girl Sienna Miller (and cover of the September issue featured in the movie) who is dull, uninteresting and looks commonplace. Plus, she is really not doing anything significant or noteworthy.

Anyway, enjoy the trailer below. Haven't quite figured out how to attach a video just yet so hopefully this work. If not the link is below.

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/06/video_the_september_issue_coul.html

Chic Finds - Vanilla Home and Inside Living by Ziegler in Singapore

Chic home furnishings at reasonable prices are hard to find in Singapore. The really good pieces are always priced so steeply that it takes a toll on your wallet should you wish to furnish your place with beautiful, well-made furniture and home accessories. In Singapore, there is nothing that bridges the gap between the beautiful and expensive kind and the cheap and tacky variety. 

That's why we were thrilled when we discovered Inside Living by Ziegler on Cluny Court when we were on a hunt for a Greek urn. Who knew urns would be so difficult to find in Singapore. 

Inside Living is stocked with Upper East Side-worthy table top accessories and other home accessories like multi-tiered tea trays in classy patterns, hurricane lamps reminiscent of Ralph Lauren without the scary price tags, waffle pattern hand towels, urns, silver picture frames etc. It's all classic chic. Again, forgive the photos I took them from my iPhone last weekend.

Another home furnishings and accessories store we love in Singapore is Vanilla Home. The prices are not cheap, but all the pieces are really super chic. We love the oversized coffee table with chrome legs and the woven leather trays with bamboo handles that look like a cross between Bottega Veneta and Gucci. They also have Pinetti scrapbooks which we collect, exquisite table lamps, shagreen tables and boxes etc.

Chic Inspirations - Women of Summer Part 2. Aerin Lauder - Elle Decor July 2009

On the heels of our Women of Summer post with American icons CZ Guest, Babe Paley and Marina Rust comes the July 2009 issue of Elle Decor with American society's current style icon Aerin Lauder. We have always been a fan of Aerin Lauder's taste and we've joked that we could probably give her a tour of her own homes as we've devoured photographs of them in the book Bright Young Things and in magazines like Vogue Living, Harper's Bazaar and House & Garden. Aerin's festive House & Garden December 2007 cover was the final issue of the magazine.

The July Elle Decor cover story features both Aerin's  East Hampton and Manhattan homes, 12-pages of stunning photographs and a sidebar where Aerin talks about her taste, where she likes to shop and decorating tips. One of her quotes resonates with us:

"I love floating around Paris. I'm always looking for chandeliers there. I have an obsession with them. But I've always said that even if you have no furnishings at all, if you have a chandelier, you can create a special atmosphere."

We love chandeliers with the same passion as well.

We also love Aerin's collection of artworks especially those Elsworth Kelly, Alexander Calder, Yves Klein and Lucio Fontana.

But what we love the most is the pool house!

Forgive the quality, the images were taken from an iPhone.

Chic Inspirations - Women of Summer

Now that summer's here, we'd like to revisit images that evoke that All-American summer spirit: fresh, sunny and carefree. No other photographer captured this than Slim Aarons, photographer of high society. The photo above of CZ Guest and her son is probably one of the best examples of a true American summer. The overall feel of it: the blue of the pool and ocean water, the light and CZ Guest's all-white ensemble all add up to a fantastic image. 

The photo of Babe Paley below is also a source of inspiration. It helps that Aarons focused his lens on America's style icons whose homes were as chic as their wardrobes.

The photo of Marina Rust with her daughter below, though not photographed by Aarons, captures the same relax mood. It could very well be advertisement for Ralph Lauren or J. Crew. Rust, like Guest and Paley, is also a society woman who style is admired and emulated by many.

Chic Discovery - Adrien Linford

While we were darting in and out of shops along Madison Avenue one Friday morning, we came across Adrien Linford, a home accessories store which was teeming with shoppers. The reason, we were told, was that the store was closing its business and everything was on sale. Inside we found very nice table top accessories such as clear oil lamps — which we found out are the store's signature — plate chargers, silver napkin rings, shagreen boxes and coral accessories made of resin. We ended up buying a silver salt and pepper shaker set that looked like bamboo for less than $30 and  a coral accessory mounted on a Lucite platform (less than $120.) The latter was the last piece in the store and we clutched it close to us as other shoppers were eyeing. Thankfully it made its way back home to us intact and without any damage. It now sits proudly on top of coffee table books in our home(see photo above.) 

It's such a shame that businesses like Adrien Linford and Mrs John L Strong which sell the most beautiful things are forced to close because of the economy.

 

Chic Discovery - www.paperlesspost.com

                                           

We were in New York when news broke that Mrs John L. Strong stationery closed its business. We had plan to visiting the store months ago to get ourselves a box or two of the famed stationery but just as we were mapping out the location of store on Madison Avenue we came across a news item on www.nymag.com that the business closed that day. 

This came as a very sad news to us as we are all about personalized stationery and thank you cards. We like to send thank you notes to people who send us gifts or guests who come over dinner. We are old fashioned that way.  A couple of days after hearing the news, we decided to try our luck and went up to Madison just to see if they have a closing out sale. But as feared, they've closed with this note on the door: "Closed for inventory. UPS guy ring the door bell." We trudged back to our hotel rather disappointed.

On the heels of Mrs. John L. Strong's closing is a customized online stationery company called www.paperlesspost.com. Like Mrs. John L. Strong, paperlesspost.com also has beautiful stationery and they can custom-make cards according to your style and taste. The only difference is that the stationery is electronic so you won't get an actual card. The designs are quite elegant and are nothing like the ones you get from Hallmark's website. As an added feature, paperlesspost.com can also help electronically send out letters and invites (they have designed an e-stamp) and track RSVPs.

While we still prefer actual cards, paperlesspost.com is quite a novel idea which we may embrace if only for sending birthday cards and Christmas cards to friends and family overseas. This way we'd be reducing our carbon footprint and become a little green.

Chic Eats - BG Restaurant

While in New York, Chic Hunters really enjoyed the ambience and the food at the Kelly Wearstler-designed BG restaurant on the seventh floor of luxury emporium Bergdorf Goodman. BG has all the hallmarks of a Wearstler project: think Hollywood Regency. There are robin's egg blue chairs, high back cocoon-like seats in a subtle shade of yellow, glamorous spindly lighting fixtures, and the walls are covered in hand-painted wall paper. The food at BG is divine especially the beef au poivre, the tuna tartar, the crab salad etc. Expect to bump into live versions of Bergdorf Blondes with their Birkins and Verdura jewels lunching at BG.

After lunch, just outside the restaurant is the mini Kelly Wearster boutique filled with glamorous home accessories. Chic Hunters loves the gold and silver starburst tabletop accessories and the turquoise eggs. However, the pieces do not come cheap.

Chic Escapes - New York City

Chic Hunters is in a New York State of Mind. Big Apple, welcome Chic Hunters. Watch out for chic updates.

Chic Inspirations - Alexey Brodovitch and Fabien Baron

The earlier post which mentioned something about a vintage Bazaar cover had us thinking of the glory days of Harper's Bazaar. If you look at the history of the magazine, it was very successful only during the reign of Carmel Snow (1933-57) and Liz Tilberis (1992-1999).

It helped that both editors in chief had strong, creative and brilliant art directors on their side. Snow had the trailblazing Alexey Brodovitch whose layouts energized the fashion magazines at that time. And Tilberis had the minimalist Fabien Baron.

Alexey Brodovitch

Fabien Baron

Both Brodovitch and Baron believed that type and photographs are equal in their power. A single letter magnified to the size of a page is just as provocative and inspiring as a photo of a model wearing the latest fashions. Both also believed in the power of dead space - be it black or white. This is something that is missing in a lot of magazines now. The common practice now in magazines is that every space on a page is littered with text and images; there is no breathing space.

Alexey Brodovitch

Fabien Baron

If you look at the images and layouts, including the covers, produced by Brodovitch and Baron, there is a lasting elegance to them, a quality that is missing in American Bazaar right now. American Bazaar it seems is confused in its direction: month after month, the covers, the fashion editorials and the stories are weak. Their only saving grace are the photoshoots they do with the designers. They pale in comparison to the UK and Australian editions.

Chic Photo of the Week

Chic Hunters loves this desktop especially the orange pencils, and the vintage Bazaar cover and mood board in the background.

Chic Reads - Model As Muse and Avedon Fashion 1944-2000

Models are everywhere right now especially with the Model As Muse exhibition at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum and the Richard Avedon exhibition at the International Center of Photography. The two exhibitions couldn't be anymore better timed as both supplement each other. The books from the exhibition are equally divine.

Avedon photograph many of the fashion legends like Dovima and Dorian Leigh (pictured below).

Chic Hunters is in eager anticipation of the delivery of these books from Amazon.com.

Chic Fashion - Cool Summer by Michael Bastian

Ah,  if only men can dress like these guys this summer! Michael Bastian has really succeeded in modernizing the preppy look by cutting the clothes closer to the body. 

If you look at the clothes, they are really basics that should already be in a men's wardrobe. But what makes Bastian's desirable is that the silhouette is young and modern. The great styling helps as well.

Chic Escapes - JK Place Capri

Chic Hunters loves Capri because it is simply breathtaking. The views to and from Capri are the most picturesque. The Fraglioni rocks are the isle's most iconic landmarks. The small piazza in Capri is filled with designer shops from Dolce & Gabbana, Hermes, Bottega Veneta etc. Walk around the piazza and imagine all the people of who have walked there before: Jackie Kennedy, Valentino, Sophia Loren. 

The people who visit Capri are also of the fashionable and chic set - the ones with the yachts, those who have villas in Anacapri, or those who choose to stay in the many luxurious hotels in Capri. (Not the ones who come for the day in tour groups.) Imagine women in flowy Pucci caftans and Hermes Panama hats and the famous Carpi sandals. Think of men in seersucker pants and linen shirts.

One of the most beautiful hotels in Capri is the JK Place Hotel, which overlooks the blue waters of the island. Unlike most hotels in Capri which are traditional and baroque, JK Place is contemporary and has the feel of a super chic home store - Kelly We

arstler meets Jonathan Adler meets Thad Hayes.

JK Place is made to feel like a home - there is a living room filled with designer books, a dining room in a handsome shade of blue and a veranda that looks into the blue yonder. The pool area is stunningly spare set in a minimalist garden.

The rooms are nautical in theme. Chic Hunters stayed at a room with a blue and white motif. We especially loved the canopied bed and the black white photos of sailboats.

We look forward to another summer of enjoying aperitifs at JK Place's terrace.

Chic Transformation - Roger Vivier

Bruno Frisoni's sketches of shoe designs for the house of Roger Vivier come to life. It's amazing how the finished products are made exactly as per Frisoni's renderings. 

Imagine wearing this gladiator sandal in the Isle of Capri 

or this stiletto Kyte shoe at a summer party in the Hamptons. Oh so chic!