#Best Brownstone Restoration In Brooklyn

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We Specialize in Cornice Restoration Contractor, Waterproofing, and Brick Pointing in Brooklyn NY. Get Free Estimates now Source: Best Brownstone Restoration In Brooklyn, NYC

Welcome to Captain Renovation & Contracting Inc., where we specialize in enhancing the beauty and integrity of your home through expert cornice repair and restoration services. With a strong commitment to quality and craftsmanship, we are proud to serve clients across Brooklyn, Manhattan, and New York City. Our extensive experience and dedication to customer satisfaction make us the ultimate choice for all your cornice needs.

Understanding Cornices

Cornices are decorative architectural features that add character and elegance to your property. They can be found both indoors and outdoors, often gracing the edges of ceilings and rooftops. However, over time, cornices can suffer from wear and tear due to exposure to the elements or structural issues. This is where our expertise comes in. We offer a comprehensive range of services tailored to address every aspect of cornice maintenance, repair, and restoration.

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Discovering the Best Architects in Brooklyn

When you're looking to build or renovate in Brooklyn, finding the right architect is crucial. Whether you're working on a home, office, or commercial space, an experienced architect can turn your vision into reality. But how do you Architect Brooklyn choose the right one for your project? Let's dive into what makes Brooklyn architects stand out, and why the borough has become a hotspot for architectural innovation.

Why Choose a Brooklyn Architect?

Brooklyn has become an architectural hub, with professionals who push creative boundaries while respecting the area’s rich history. Here’s why working with an architect from Brooklyn is an excellent choice:

Local Expertise: Architects in Brooklyn are familiar with the area’s unique zoning laws, building codes, and construction practices. They know the nuances of different neighborhoods, from the historic brownstones in Brooklyn Heights to the modern, high-rise developments in Downtown Brooklyn.

Design Innovation: Brooklyn architects are known for blending old-world charm with cutting-edge design. Whether you want a sleek, modern look or something more traditional, Brooklyn architects can deliver the perfect balance.

Sustainability: Many architects in Brooklyn are focused on green building practices. They use eco-friendly materials, energy-efficient designs, and sustainable construction techniques to minimize environmental impact.

What to Look for When Choosing an Architect

Choosing the right architect for your project can be overwhelming. Here are some essential factors to keep in mind:

1. Portfolio and Experience

A solid portfolio is often the best way to gauge an architect’s expertise. Look for an architect who has worked on projects similar to yours, whether it's residential, commercial, or mixed-use. An architect with experience in Brooklyn will understand the complexities of the area and bring that knowledge to your project.

Residential Projects: If you're renovating or building a home, choose an architect who has experience working with Brooklyn’s diverse housing styles, from historic brownstones to modern condos.

Commercial Work: For business spaces, an architect with a track record of designing office buildings, restaurants, or retail spaces in Brooklyn will understand how to create functional, aesthetically pleasing spaces.

2. Client Reviews and Reputation

An architect's reputation speaks volumes about their reliability and skill. Look for reviews from previous clients. Positive testimonials can give you insight into the architect’s professionalism, creativity, and ability to meet deadlines and budgets.

Word of Mouth: Ask for recommendations from friends, family, or colleagues who’ve worked with architects in Brooklyn. Personal referrals can often lead you to reliable and trustworthy professionals.

3. Approach to Collaboration

Architecture is a highly collaborative process. Choose an architect who listens to your ideas and concerns. They should be able to offer suggestions, but also respect your vision. The best architects guide you through the decision-making process without imposing their style.

Communication: Clear and open communication is key to a successful project. Your architect should be easy to reach, responsive to your needs, and proactive in offering updates on the project.

4. Licensing and Certifications

Ensure the architect is licensed in New York State and holds the necessary certifications. These credentials guarantee that the architect adheres to industry standards and is qualified to handle your project.

Popular Architectural Styles in Brooklyn

Brooklyn’s architecture is diverse, reflecting its rich cultural heritage and modern development. Whether you’re restoring a brownstone or designing a new space, understanding the local architectural styles can help you make informed choices.

Brownstones and Townhouses: The iconic brownstones of Brooklyn are a hallmark of the borough's residential architecture. Many architects specialize in restoring these historic homes while adding modern touches. These renovations can include updated kitchens, open floor plans, and energy-efficient systems.

Industrial Loft Conversions: Brooklyn has transformed many old warehouses and factories into chic loft apartments and office spaces. Architects skilled in adaptive reuse can turn industrial structures into creative, functional spaces that maintain their original character.

Modern High-Rise Buildings: In contrast to its historic buildings, Brooklyn is home to sleek, contemporary high-rises. Architects working on these projects focus on maximizing space, light, and views, while incorporating the latest in construction technology.

Cost and Budget Considerations

Cost is always a major factor when working with an architect. Fees can vary based on the size and complexity of your project. Some architects charge a flat fee, while others work on an hourly rate or a percentage of the overall construction cost.

Flat Fee: This is common for smaller projects where the scope is clearly defined.

Percentage of Construction Cost: This approach is often used for larger projects, where the architect's fee is a percentage of the total cost of construction, typically ranging from 5% to 15%.

Before signing a contract, make sure you have a clear understanding of the fees and payment schedule. An experienced architect will be transparent about costs and help you plan a budget that keeps the project on track.

Brooklyn Architecture: The Future of Design

Brooklyn’s architectural landscape is constantly evolving. As the borough continues to grow and develop, architects are pushing the envelope with new ideas and innovative designs. From sustainable buildings to cutting-edge technology, the future of architecture in Brooklyn is exciting and full of potential.

Smart Homes and Buildings: With the rise of smart home technology, many Brooklyn architects are incorporating features like automated lighting, climate control, and security systems into their designs.

Green Building Practices: Sustainability remains a top priority. Architects are using sustainable materials, energy-efficient systems, and green roofs to reduce the carbon footprint of new buildings.

Conclusion

Brooklyn has a vibrant architectural scene that attracts talented professionals from all over. Whether you're designing a home, office, or commercial space, the borough offers a wealth of expertise and innovative designs. By choosing a local architect with the right experience, style, and approach to collaboration, you can ensure your project is a success.

When selecting an architect, look for someone who not only has the technical skills to get the job done but also understands the culture and aesthetics of Brooklyn. With the right architect by your side, your project will be transformed from an idea into a reality that’s as functional as it is beautiful.

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Discover the Top Brownstone Roofing Specialists in the Bronx: Quality Restoration and Repairs

If you own a charming brownstone in the Bronx, maintaining its historical integrity while ensuring it stands up to modern weather conditions can be a daunting task. A crucial aspect of this maintenance is the roof. This is where Brownstone Roofing Specialists Bronx come in, offering expert services tailored to the unique needs of these iconic structures.

The Charm and Challenge of Brownstones

Brownstones, with their distinctive architectural features and historical significance, are a quintessential part of New York City's architectural landscape. In the Bronx, these buildings add to the area's rich cultural tapestry. However, owning a brownstone comes with the responsibility of preserving its original character, especially when it comes to the roof. The roofs of brownstones are often made from materials like slate, clay tiles, or even metal, each requiring specific care and expertise, ny roofing Brooklyn, NY.

Why Choose Brownstone Roofing Specialists?

Expertise in Historical Preservation: Brownstone Roofing Specialists in the Bronx understand the importance of maintaining the historical integrity of your property. They are skilled in working with traditional roofing materials and methods, ensuring that any repairs or replacements blend seamlessly with the original design.

Customized Solutions: Every brownstone is unique, and so are its roofing needs. Whether it’s a minor repair or a complete roof replacement, these specialists provide customized solutions that address the specific challenges of your brownstone roof.

Quality Materials: Using the highest quality materials is crucial for the longevity of your roof. Brownstone Roofing Specialists source premium materials that are not only durable but also aesthetically compatible with the historical architecture of your brownstone.

Comprehensive Services: From routine inspections and maintenance to emergency repairs and full-scale restorations, Brownstone Roofing Specialists in the Bronx offer a wide range of services. Their comprehensive approach ensures that your roof remains in optimal condition year-round.

The Importance of Regular Maintenance

Regular maintenance is key to preserving the integrity of your brownstone roof. The harsh weather conditions in the Bronx, including heavy rain, snow, and extreme temperatures, can take a toll on your roof over time. By scheduling regular inspections with Brownstone Roofing Specialists, you can identify and address potential issues before they become major problems.

Sustainable Roofing Solutions

In addition to traditional roofing techniques, many Brownstone Roofing Specialists in the Bronx are now incorporating sustainable practices into their services. This includes the use of eco-friendly materials and energy-efficient roofing systems. Not only do these practices help preserve the environment, but they can also reduce your energy costs and increase the overall value of your property.

Testimonials from Satisfied Clients

Many homeowners in the Bronx have entrusted their brownstones to these specialists, and their testimonials speak volumes about the quality of service provided. Clients often highlight the professionalism, attention to detail, and dedication to preserving the historical authenticity of their properties.

Conclusion

Owning a brownstone in the Bronx is both a privilege and a responsibility. Ensuring that your roof is well-maintained and in harmony with the historical character of your home is crucial. Brownstone Roofing Specialists in the Bronx offer the expertise, quality, and customized solutions needed to keep your brownstone in top condition. Whether you need routine maintenance, emergency repairs, or a complete roof overhaul, these specialists are your go-to professionals for all your brownstone roofing needs.

Invest in the longevity and beauty of your brownstone by choosing the best in the business—Brownstone Roofing Specialists in the Bronx.

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Revitalize Your Brooklyn Property with Professional Brick Pointing Services

Brooklyn is known for its charming historic buildings, many of which feature beautiful brick exteriors. However, over time, brick structures can start to show signs of wear and tear, leading to unsightly damage and potential structural issues. That's where brick pointing comes in—a specialized masonry technique that helps restore the beauty and integrity of brickwork.

If you own a property in Brooklyn, professional brick pointing services are essential to maintaining its curb appeal and long-term stability. Here’s why you should consider brick pointing for your home or commercial building.

What is Brick Pointing?

Brick pointing is the process of removing and replacing deteriorated or damaged mortar between bricks. Over time, mortar joints can erode due to exposure to the elements, causing cracks and gaps that compromise the structure. This not only affects the appearance of your building but can also lead to more severe issues like water damage and brick displacement.

With professional brick pointing Brooklyn services, skilled masons carefully repair these joints to restore the brickwork’s original look while ensuring its durability. The fresh mortar is precisely applied to blend seamlessly with the existing structure, keeping your property looking as good as new.

Benefits of Brick Pointing for Your Brooklyn Property

1. Enhanced Curb Appeal

The appearance of your property plays a significant role in its value and how it’s perceived by others. Cracked or missing mortar detracts from the overall look of your building. By investing in brick pointing services, you’ll give your property a fresh and well-maintained appearance that increases its aesthetic value.

2. Improved Structural Integrity

Over time, damaged mortar can weaken the structure of your building, leading to serious issues like water penetration, mold growth, and brick movement. Brick tuck pointing Brooklyn ensures that your brick walls remain strong and resistant to weather damage, protecting your investment.

3. Cost-Effective Maintenance

Rather than waiting for extensive damage that requires costly repairs, brick pointing is a cost-effective way to maintain your property. Regular maintenance helps prevent larger problems down the line, saving you money in the long run.

4. Historical Preservation

Brooklyn is home to many historic properties that require specialized care. Brick pointing not only restores the structure but also preserves the original charm and character of these buildings, maintaining their historical significance.

Why Choose Professional Brick Pointing Services?

While it may be tempting to take on masonry repairs yourself, brick pointing requires skill, experience, and the right materials to ensure a flawless result. Professional masons understand the nuances of working with different types of bricks and mortars, ensuring the repair work matches the original style and construction of your building.

When choosing a brick pointing Brooklyn expert, you want a team that pays attention to detail, offers high-quality workmanship, and understands the unique needs of the area's architecture. This will ensure that your property remains beautiful and secure for years to come.

If you're noticing signs of wear on your brick property, now is the time to act. By investing in professional brick tuck pointing Brooklyn, you can protect your building from further damage and restore its visual appeal. Whether you own a historic brownstone or a modern brick building, brick pointing is essential to keeping your property in top condition.

For expert masonry services in Brooklyn, visit Brick Pointing Brooklyn. Their team of skilled masons can handle all your brick pointing needs, ensuring your property looks its best while standing the test of time.

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Bungalows in New York City: A Hidden Architectural Gem

When people think of New York City, they often envision towering skyscrapers, bustling streets, and iconic landmarks like the Empire State Building or Central Park. However, nestled within the fabric of the city's vast architectural diversity is a lesser-known but charming housing style: the bungalow. While not as widespread as brownstones or high-rise apartments, bungalows  NYC represent an intriguing slice of the city's history and architectural heritage.

What is a Bungalow?

Bungalows are a style of small, single-family homes typically characterized by one or one-and-a-half stories, low-pitched roofs, and wide front porches. They became especially popular in the early 20th century as part of the Arts and Crafts movement, which emphasized simple, handcrafted design and a close connection to nature.

Although the bungalow style is most commonly associated with suburban developments in places like California or the Midwest, a few neighborhoods in NYC boast clusters of these quaint homes. Their presence offers a unique contrast to the more vertical and densely packed cityscape that surrounds them.

Where to Find Bungalows in NYC

The Bungalow Colonies of Far Rockaway (Queens): One of the most notable concentrations of bungalows in NYC can be found in the Far Rockaway area of Queens, especially near the ocean. Originally built as summer vacation homes for middle-class New Yorkers in the early 20th century, these bungalows provided a seaside escape from the city's heat. Though many have since been replaced or modified, clusters of these charming homes still exist, retaining their original coastal charm.

Richmond Hill (Queens): Another area where you can spot a number of bungalows is Richmond Hill. Developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the neighborhood has a mixture of architectural styles, including a small but significant collection of bungalows. These homes, while more permanent than their Far Rockaway counterparts, still reflect the simple, functional design that defines the style.

Bungalow Row in Staten Island: Staten Island, known for its more suburban feel compared to the rest of the city, also has its fair share of bungalow-style homes. Bungalow Row, located in the South Beach neighborhood, is a unique enclave of these homes, many of which have been preserved or restored over the years. Their proximity to the waterfront adds to their charm, reminiscent of their original intent as vacation homes.

Other Notable Areas: While these three neighborhoods boast the highest concentrations of bungalows, scattered examples of this architectural style can be found in other parts of Queens, Brooklyn, and even the Bronx. These homes often exist as part of older, historic districts that have managed to retain their architectural diversity.

The Evolution and Future of Bungalows in NYC

In the early 20th century, bungalows were seen as an affordable and practical solution for middle-class families. They provided a sense of homeownership and space, with a small footprint and limited upkeep. However, as New York City grew and evolved, many of these homes were either replaced with larger apartment buildings or significantly altered to accommodate modern living needs.

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in preserving and restoring these architectural gems. Their historical significance, combined with the allure of single-family living in a city dominated by high-rises, has made them an attractive option for homebuyers and preservationists alike.

However, the challenge remains: many of these bungalows are located in areas prone to flooding or coastal erosion, particularly those near the beaches in Queens and Staten Island. This has led to discussions about how to best protect and preserve these homes in the face of climate change and rising sea levels.

Conclusion

Though they may not be the first image that comes to mind when you think of New York City architecture, bungalows have carved out a unique and enduring place in the city's landscape. From the beachside retreats of Far Rockaway to the charming enclaves of Staten Island, these homes offer a glimpse into a different era of New York living. For those willing to seek them out, they provide a quiet, nostalgic retreat amid the hustle and bustle of the city.

As NYC continues to grow and change, the future of its bungalows will depend on the balance between development and preservation. But for now, they remain a testament to the city's architectural diversity and history.

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Brick by Brick: The Revival of Brooklyn's Brownstones - Exterior Renovation Trends

Brooklyn's brownstones, with their historic charm and timeless appeal, have been a cornerstone of the borough's architectural heritage. These beautiful homes, known for their distinctive brownstone facades, are seeing a revival, thanks to the increasing demand for exterior renovation services in Brooklyn. In this blog, we will explore the exterior renovation trends that are breathing new life into these classic structures.

Preserving the Past

Brooklyn's brownstones are a testament to the past, showcasing intricate details and craftsmanship that have stood the test of time. Exterior renovation services in Brooklyn understand the importance of preserving these historical gems while giving them a modern touch. Renovators carefully restore the original brickwork, ornate details, and distinctive stoops, paying homage to the heritage of these homes.

Restoring the Brownstone Facades

The brownstone facades are the crowning jewels of Brooklyn's brownstones. Exterior renovation services in Brooklynhave perfected the art of restoring these iconic features. Renovators clean, repair, and reseal the brownstone to bring back its original luster. This not only enhances the aesthetics but also adds to the structural integrity of the building.

Modern Amenities and Energy Efficiency

While preserving the historic charm of brownstones is paramount, modern homeowners also seek energy efficiency and contemporary amenities. Exterior renovation services in Brooklyn strike a balance by upgrading windows, doors, and roofing to be energy-efficient while maintaining the authentic appearance of these homes. This not only enhances comfort but also reduces utility costs.

Gardens and Outdoor Spaces

Outdoor spaces have become increasingly important, especially in urban environments like Brooklyn. Exterior renovation services in Brooklyn are transforming neglected backyards and courtyards into lush, functional gardens. These tranquil spaces offer residents a retreat from the city hustle and a spot for relaxation and entertainment.

Interior-Exterior Harmony

Creating a seamless transition between the interior and exterior is a growing trend in brownstone renovation. Large windows, French doors, and open layouts connect the indoors with the outdoor spaces, flooding the interior with natural light and views of the greenery. This harmony allows homeowners to enjoy the best of both worlds.

Smart Technology Integration

Modern technology is making its way into Brooklyn's brownstones. Exterior renovation services now incorporate smart home features into their projects. From security systems to climate control, these innovations make brownstone living convenient and secure.

Sustainability and Eco-Friendly Practices

Brooklyn residents are increasingly conscious of sustainability. Exterior renovation services in Brooklyn are embracing eco-friendly materials and construction practices. From recycled building materials to energy-efficient appliances, these renovations align with the eco-conscious values of homeowners.

The Role of Professional Contractors

Achieving these renovation trends in Brooklyn's brownstones requires the expertise of professional contractors like Rusi Construction. These specialists have the knowledge and experience to navigate the complexities of historic preservation, energy efficiency, and modern design, all while maintaining the character and authenticity of brownstones.

Brooklyn's brownstones are not just houses; they are living pieces of history. The demand for exterior renovation services in Brooklyn reflects the enduring appeal of these classic homes. The trend is not only about preserving the past but also about adapting to the demands of modern living. Through skillful craftsmanship, sustainable practices, and innovative design, brownstones are receiving the attention they deserve. It's a true revival, brick by brick, that pays homage to the past while embracing the future.

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Paule Marshall

Paule Marshall (April 9, 1929 – August 12, 2019) was an American writer, best known for her 1959 debut novel Brown Girl, Brownstones. In 1992, at the age of 63, Marshall was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship grant.

Life and career

Marshall was born Valenza Pauline Burke in Brooklyn, New York, to Adriana Viola Clement Burke and Sam Burke on April 9, 1929. Marshall's father had migrated from the Caribbean island of Barbados to New York in 1919 and, during her childhood, deserted the family to join a quasi-religious cult, leaving his wife to raise their children by herself. Marshall wrote about how her career was inspired by observing her mother's relationship to language: "It served as therapy, the cheapest kind available to my mother and her friends. It restored them to a sense of themselves and reaffirmed their self-worth. Through language they were able to overcome the humiliations of the work day. Confronted by a world they could not encompass, they took refuge in language." Smitten with the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, Marshall changed her given name from Pauline to Paule (with a silent e) when she was 12 or 13 years old.

She attended Girls' High School in Bedstuy and subsequently enrolled in Hunter College, City University of New York, with plans of becoming a social worker. She took ill during college and took a year off, during which time she decided to major in English Literature, eventually earning her Bachelor of Arts degree at Brooklyn College in 1953 and her master's degree at Hunter College in 1955. After graduating from college, Marshall wrote for Our World, the acclaimed nationally distributed magazine edited for African-American readers, which she credited with teaching her discipline in writing and eventually aiding her in writing her first novel, Brown Girl, Brownstones. In 1950 she married psychologist Kenneth Marshall; they divorced in 1963. In the 1970s she married Nourry Menard, a Haitian businessman.

Early in her career, she wrote poetry, but later returned to prose, her debut novel being published in 1959. Brown Girl, Brownstones tells the story of Selina Boyce, a girl growing up in a small black immigrant community. Selina is caught between her mother, who wants to conform to the ideals of her new home and make the American dream come true, and her father, who longs to go back to Barbados. The dominant themes in the novel – travel, migration, psychic fracture and striving for wholeness – are important structuring elements in her later works as well.

She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1961 and in the same year published Soul Clap Hands and Sing, a collection of four novellas that won her the National Institute of Arts Award. In 1965, she was chosen by Langston Hughes to accompany him on a State Department-sponsored world tour, on which they both read their work, which was a boon to her career. She subsequently published the novels The Chosen Place, the Timeless People (1969), which the New York Times Book Review called "one of the four or five most impressive novels ever written by a black American", and Praisesong for the Widow (1983), the latter winning the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award in 1984.

Marshall taught at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of California, Berkeley, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and Yale University, before holding the Helen Gould Sheppard Chair of Literature and Culture at New York University. In 1993 she received an honorary L.H.D. from Bates College. She lived in Richmond, Virginia.

She was a MacArthur Fellow and a winner of the Dos Passos Prize for Literature. She was designated as a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library in 1994.

Marshall was inducted into the Celebrity Path at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in 2001.

Her memoir, Triangular Road, was published in 2009.

In 2010, Paule Marshall won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. She died in Richmond, Virginia on August 12, 2019, having had dementia in her later years.

Works

Brown Girl, Brownstones (Random House, 1959; The Feminist Press, 1981)

Soul Clap Hands and Sing (four short novels; Atheneum, 1961)

The Chosen Place, the Timeless People (Harcourt, 1969)

Reena and Other Stories (The Feminist Press at CUNY, 1983)

Praisesong for the Widow (Putnam, 1983)

Merle: A Novella, and Other Stories (Virago Press, 1985)

Daughters (Atheneum, 1991)

The Fisher King: A Novel (2001)

Triangular Road: A Memoir (Basic Civitas Books, 2009)

Quote

"I realise that it is fashionable now to dismiss the traditional novel as something of an anachronism, but to me it is still a vital form. Not only does it allow for the kind of full-blown, richly detailed writing that I love… but it permits me to operate on many levels and to explore both the inner state of my characters as well as the worlds beyond them."

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How Alessandro Michele made Gucci relevant again

"A way to live." That phrase, that concept, keeps coming up with Michele, and it's a key to his transformation of Gucci from a label that had drifted far from the conversation to one at the centre of it. He isn't just selling robes, slippers, handbags, things, though he certainly wants customers to buy those, which they've done in numbers that have returned Gucci to peak cultural relevance and extraordinary financial success. He's selling a sensibility: eccentric, eclectic, inclusive. And he's doing it with every mode of communication at his disposal.

The Gucci bomber jacket inspired by Harlem designer Dapper Dan. Credit:Getty Images There are, for example, the collaborators he chooses and the celebrities he pulls into his orbit. His reaction to the graffiti artist Trevor Andrew, aka Gucci Ghost, who in late 2013 and 2014 scrawled the label's signatures all over Brooklyn and Manhattan, wasn't a copyright infringement suit or a cease-and-desist order. It was a formal invitation accepted to make clothes together (for Gucci's autumn 2016 collection). Michele's response to an outcry last year that he had copied from the legendary 1980s Harlem designer Dapper Dan a famous bomber jacket panelled in dark brown mink fur, with voluminous monogram-printed balloon sleeves was to say yes, he did, proudly and in tribute. Then, to prove his respect, Michele teamed with Dap for a joint line of apparel and set him up to work on it in an impeccably restored corner brownstone in Harlem whose lowest level, just beyond an ornate gate, is an atelier with a wall of blood-red drapes facing the street. "I didn't believe it, you know, until Cinderella saw the carriage the carriage with all the horses," Dap tells me when I drop by. "I thought, 'Wow, I guess I'm going to the ball.' When Michele introduced Gucci Bloom, the first new fragrance under his watch, he assembled unconventional ambassadors: Dakota Johnson, best known for being trussed and teased in the Fifty Shades of Grey movies; the young Canadian photographer and video director Petra Collins; and Hari Nef, a transgender actress and model. The Michele message, which never falters, is that the world of luxury is infinitely elastic, that Gucci is a palazzo with room for everybody and that the way to live is together, in harmony, in all of its overstuffed rooms. What to wear? Michele has on a pair of white leather sandals studded with dozens of crystals, sweat socks, frayed jeans and a bulky plaid shirt in baffling tension with the silk scarf above it. He's a fop. He's a lumberjack. He's a hipster. He's also a Christmas tree, ornamented to a fare-thee-well. He loves jewels, typically wears multiple bracelets and necklaces and has bulbous rings one shaped like a fox, another like a wolf on all his fingers except for his thumbs. He's his own Manhattan, his own mosaic. He's messy and mesmerising. Just like his ready-to-wear designs, which jumble elements, patterns, time periods and allusions that were seldom if ever jumbled before: pussy bows on men's shirts, babushkas atop power suits, sneakers under gowns, stripes with plaids, the old-fashioned meeting the space age. He's unrestrained with colour, promiscuous with layers and gaga for floral patterns, animal imagery and corporate logos. Where Tom Ford's Gucci spanning a decade, beginning in 1994 was minimalist, emphasising glamour, Michele's is hectic, emphasising irreverence. I sometimes wonder if he was put on this earth to liberate fashion writers from the adjective "sleek" and acquaint them with "magpie". "Beauty doesn't have limits," he tells me. "It doesn't have rules." When he took over at Gucci, he says, "fashion was talking about something that didn't exist anymore, this kind of posh world of beautiful legs and beautiful hair. I was just talking about humanity. I was trying to find a new energy in the street, not in the jet set." You still need a certain budget for Gucci. But you don't need a certain bearing or taste. "It was a revolutionary act to come in and do what he did with this company," Leto tells me, calling Michele "the Steve Jobs of fashion". Elton John, who was the muse for Michele's Spring 2018 women's and men's collection and his collaborator for a capsule collection in September last year, likens his exuberance to Gianni Versace's. After Versace's death, John thought he'd never gravitate to a famous designer's apparel again. "I didn't think there would be anyone out there worth it," he says. But when he began his farewell tour in September, he did so with a wardrobe by Michele, who creates "clothes with humour", John tells me, adding: "He's making clothes for basketball stars, for US National Football League stars, for people who feel they're not being judged for what size they are. That's important. Most designers make clothes for anorexic stickpins. He's making clothes that everybody can enjoy." John socialises with Michele, knows him well and says Michele's personality also distinguishes him from others in his industry. "Fashion is known for people being divas and being grand," John says, "and I can think of a lot of fashion designers I wouldn't want to spend five minutes with, probably 90 per cent of them. And he's just very down-to-earth."

Michele with Elton John and Johns partner David Furnish at a Gucci launch in London. Hes just very down-to-earth, John says of the designer.Credit:Getty Images Jared Leto, Elton John: this wasn't Michele's crowd before 2015, because for most of his career first at the Italian knitwear brand Les Copains, then at Fendi, then at Gucci, where he designed bags for Tom Ford before rising to become an associate designer to Ford's successor, Frida Giannini he was only modestly known outside the companies he worked for. That changed in a blink, in one of the most unexpected and consequential fashion stories of the last quarter-century. Ford's Gucci was a sensation, its air of hedonism and hypersexuality in perfect sync with the prosperity and libido that defined Bill Clinton's US presidency, but during the Giannini years, from 2005 through 2014, the label lost its mooring and its lustre. It didn't turn heads. It didn't prompt talk. Above all, it didn't communicate anything specific about its time. Michele's Gucci, in contrast, is engaged in a consistently spirited and occasionally profound conversation with the zeitgeist, drawing from it, adding to it and revolutionising fashion in the process. Young consumers plant their flags and sculpt their images on social media, so Gucci, under Michele, does too. They expand and even explode the old parameters around gender, sexual identity, race and nationality, and Michele takes that journey with them, even leads them on it, giving them a uniform for it, a visual vocabulary with which to express it. The emotional genius of what he has done is to affirm their searching. The commercial genius is to create totems for it and, in the process, democratise what we historically called "luxury goods", a phrase too haute and hoary for the party he's throwing. Franois-Henri Pinault, the chairman and CEO of Kering, the luxury conglomerate that owns Gucci, says before Michele took the reins, the problem at Gucci wasn't really sales, which remained respectable. "The perception of Gucci as a fashion authority, as one of the trendsetters, was declining," he says. He fired both Giannini and the company's CEO, who was also her romantic partner and the father of her child, and started over, bringing in the Italian businessman Marco Bizzarri as a new CEO and charging him with finding Giannini's replacement in all likelihood, a fashion nova from another label. When Bizzarri met Michele, then 42, for coffee one day in late December 2014, he was just trying to learn more about the company. Michele, he tells me, "certainly wasn't on the list of candidates". But they talked and talked about the more joyful culture that the company needed, about history and art and life, about how fashion is so much more than merchandise. The conversation spanned three hours, and when Bizzarri contacted him almost immediately afterwards to ask for more time to talk, Michele realised that he had joined the roster. Bizzarri then laid down a challenge that became fashion legend. Gucci was about to present its new autumn 2015 menswear collection, and Giannini had essentially finished it. What if they scratched it and swapped in a collection by Michele? He had a week: five days for the clothes (36 looks in all) and two days for the staging of the runway show, every last detail of which, from the models to the seating arrangement, Michele subsequently changed. "It was a way for me to see if Alessandro was willing to take risks," Bizzarri recalls, "because considering the kind of turnaround that I had in mind, I needed a person who was willing, like me, to take big risks and maybe make big mistakes. If he was going to tell me no, then I didn't want to be with someone who was risk-averse." Michele was emboldened partly by his knowledge of the size and skill of the design team at Gucci. But mostly, he just didn't think about the insanity of what he was trying to pull off. "Somebody gave me the chance to do something beautiful, and when you are working on something beautiful, you don't feel the pressure," he says. "I work to create something that is in my brain, and I don't feel like I have to impress people outside." The result, unveiled in mid-January 2015, was where the pussy bows came in, along with other necklines and fillips usually associated with womenswear. He used both female and male models, so interchangeable in their looks that they became a grand, genderless blur. They wore berets, spectacles, scarves. Androgyny cosied up to cheeky intellectualism, and in a slightly off-kilter palette: an announcement of his willingness to play with colour more daringly than his forebears at Gucci had. These weren't his boldest hues, which would come later, but they were surprising, under-appreciated ones: the gunmetal end of the blue spectrum, the rustier shades of brown, each sometimes throwing a pure, vivid red into more brilliant relief. At the show's end, instead of taking a solo bow, Michele brought his whole team on-stage with him, which was another declaration that a new day had dawned. Only then did the nerves kick in. "I'm not shy in my private life, but I'm really shy when I have to go out in front of a lot of people," he says. "I'm more than shy. I'm terrified." But the applause, he remembers, "was like the biggest hug I've ever felt in my lifetime." Some fashion insiders muttered privately that Gucci had gone mad. But both Pinault and Bizzarri were impressed by Michele's instinct to transplant his own quirks and obsessions into the brand. It gave his designs authenticity and palpable emotion. "He's one of those guys who, despite the size of the brand, despite the power of the brand, says, 'This is my personal creative universe, and I will work with that and the icons and symbols of the brand to create something new,' " Pinault explains. "And he was right." The success that Gucci has had with that approach was a factor in Pinault's decision earlier this year to appoint the unknown 32-year-old British designer Daniel Lee as the new creative director of Bottega Veneta, which Kering also owns. "I asked him about his own personal aesthetic," Pinault says, referring to Lee, "and then tried to find if there was any compatibility between the designer and the brand." The gender fluidity of Michele's work was what drew the lion's share of attention at first. "I was very surprised," he says, because it wasn't a considered provocation or political statement. "I thought that it was such a normal thing." It was happening in the world; it needed to happen in fashion: "This is not a time when fashion can stay inside a box." Popular culture certainly wasn't staying inside that box; just a year earlier, the pioneering television dramedy Transparent had debuted to enormous interest and huge acclaim, and less than six months later, Caitlyn Jenner would appear on the cover of Vanity Fair. The LGBT consonant cluster was being elongated, litigated and traded in for more flexible banners like queer and genderqueer, and "binary" was suddenly a dirty word. Fashion hadn't fully reckoned with that. Michele did intuitively, intelligently and expansively.

Alessandro Michele with his team on the runway after his first Gucci show. Credit:Getty Images That was hardly all that distinguished him. Both the clothes and the voluminous notes that he distributes at the shows betray an erudition and a roving, restless mind that have a lot do with his deep roots in Rome. He grew up in the heart of the city, to parents who revered the arts and had the resources to enjoy them and expose him and his sister to them. His mother was an assistant to an Italian movie executive, and thus steeped in the world of cinema, while his father, a technician for the airline Alitalia, was a sculptor in his spare time. "I walked through these antique ruins from the very first day of my life," he tells me when I visit him there in June. We sit on a green velvet sofa under a dazzling coffered ceiling in his office in a palazzo that was built in the early 16th century according to plans by Raphael. It's now Gucci's design headquarters. Rome is overflowing with the archetypes and iconography of various epochs, layering them, cluttering them, bringing them into collision. When you step out of Gucci's Renaissance digs and glance to the right, you can see a bridge over the Tiber lined with baroque sculptures designed by Bernini and, on the far side, the cylindrical hulk of Castel Sant'Angelo, built in the second century by the Roman emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for his family. All of this visibly informs Michele's perspective and style. "I spent time with my dad not in the park, not playing sports, but just going to museums," he tells me. "So I spent time in front of these beautiful statues and all these faces and bodies." "Rome is in Alessandro's veins," says Elisabetta Proietti, who taught him when he was a student at the Accademia Costume & Moda, a three-year school with a single program in both fashion and costume design just a few short cobbled blocks from the Gucci headquarters. Proietti is continually struck by the impact that the school's dual focus had on his work. To produce costumes, she says, you must be fluent in the gradations of the past, and Michele's collections for Gucci are indeed like glorious excavations the fashion equivalent of archaeological digs (here the Elizabethan, there the Victorian, a nod to tsarist Russia, a wink at Ziggy Stardust) narrated in a century-hopping, decade-scrambling vocabulary of flowing caftans and boxy jumpsuits, floral and animal prints and brocades. His fascination with yesteryear is even more intense than his and other designers' more common flirtations with the present pop culture. And it's coupled with his insatiable appetite for reading, roving, learning. "He's interested in everything," Proietti says. "He's extremely, extremely curious." Hari Nef recalls that when she first met Michele, at his request, over dinner in West Hollywood at the Chateau Marmont, she had recently graduated from Columbia University, "this program where I had been required to read Virginia Woolf and the Greek tragedies and Homer and Aeschylus. These were all fresh in my head, bouncing around." Michele was game. They bounced around in his head, too. "Frankly," Nef tells me, "these were nerdy topics I was rarely able to engage with people in the fashion industry about." The "fashion industry" isn't something Michele cares to dwell on or in. Among the reasons he favours Rome, he says, is he's unlikely to bump into the designers, journalists, publicists and celebrities who define that demi-monde. His thoughts aren't contaminated by what is deemed trendy. "I want the separation," he says. "I need the separation. I'm not really inspired from fashion. I started from other points of view." His longtime romantic partner, Giovanni Attili, is a professor of urban planning whose scholarship has focused on such subjects as the Haida Nation, an Indigenous tribe in British Columbia. Michele and Attili don't steal away to Tuscany or the Amalfi Coast for breathers. Instead, their holiday home teeters literally atop a gorgeous, ludicrous butte of sorts called Civita di Bagnoregio in central Italy. The village has a year-round population of about a dozen, largely because the earth under it is crumbling and the structures require constant maintenance. "I love the house because it's like it's falling down every year," Michele says. "You don't know how long it will be there. And you don't care. It's a reflection of our life, you know?" On the inside of his left bicep, he has a tattoo of Attili's nickname, Vanni, while his own, Lallo, is tattooed in the same writing and place on his right arm. They're a matching set. The couple met 13 years ago, over the internet, in a funny way. Michele had just gotten a new laptop, and a friend was showing him how the Facebook precursor Myspace functioned, insisting that he sign up.

Models carried replicas of their heads at Guccis autumn 2018 fashion show in Milan.Credit:Getty Images "I was aghast at these kinds of things," he says, but he played along, connecting with one of his friend's 700 acquaintances Attili because of his profile picture. "It was just the view of a beautiful landscape in Canada," Michele recalls. As the two exchanged messages, Michele remarked that he had no idea what Attili looked like. Attili, amused, pointed out that his face was right there, in that landscape. "I didn't realise," Michele says, "that if you clicked on the picture and made it larger, there was a little guy inside. I didn't know I had the possibility to get inside that picture. I was really bad." Which is strange, because one of the hallmarks of Gucci under Michele is how clever it is about social media and what a commanding presence it has there. Michele has more than 400,000 followers on Instagram, where he posts a hypnotic array of pictures that underscore how readily his designs, with their embroidered symbols and explicit pop culture references, translate into viral images. That's integral to the traction that Gucci has found with young consumers. "If you're constantly documenting yourself, you want to be wearing things that are a little over-the-top or statement-oriented," says Phillip Picardi, who was until recently the head of Teen Vogue. Michele makes that possible. "He's managed to do maximalism in a very chic way, and that's perfect for your Instagram grid or your Instagram story." The adolescent protagonist of the critically acclaimed independent movie Eighth Grade, released in July in the United States, ends each of her YouTube videos by saying, "Gucci." It's her equivalent of "cool". In Rome, I watch Michele work with about a dozen colleagues on his spring 2019 menswear collection. Boxes upon boxes of jewellery crowd the tables where they sit. A kaleidoscope of fabric swatches dangles from the walls, and there's an easel of potential T-shirt designs that reveal a current fixation on Dolly Parton, her 1973 song Jolene and the movie The Bride of Frankenstein. I have no idea how they all hang together but then I don't think that I'm supposed to. Four male models charting varying degrees of androgyny wander in and out, quickly changing clothes. Some of their shorts have billows and pleats that evoke skirts. A shiny long-sleeved shirt and an even shinier jacket look as if they're made from hot-pink and turquoise plastic. The wispiest of the models, his long hair gathered in a bun, appears in a pale mauve shirt with traditionally feminine construction, burgundy slacks with wide hips and, over them, a white jockstrap. As Michele fusses with sleeve lengths and frets over colour combinations, Bjrk's Utopia album plays in the background. (Naturally, he designed her outfit for the video of the album's first single, The Gate.) The word I hear him use most often suggests the playful attitude that he brings to bear on everything he designs. It's not bello, or "beautiful". It's carino "cute". At one point, I ask him which of his collections he was most pleased with which one expressed exactly what he wanted it to. He cites the collection with the dragon, his autumn 2018 womens- and menswear show. It was titled Cyborg, and the dragon wasn't the half of it. Several models carried replicas of their own heads. Others had masks obscuring their faces. The clothes kept pace with that eccentricity: royal blue turbans, a multitiered black pagoda hat and colourful patterned head scarves. Rhinestones galore. The plainest suit and the palest jacket had Major League Baseball insignia, just because; a ruby sweater with sleeves that looked like enormous, fuzzy dust mops had "Paramount Pictures", with the iconic mountaintop image, across its chest. He says that he was contemplating the nature of identity today: how everything from the poses you strike on social media to the accessibility of cosmetic surgery allows you to hide, expose or wholly transform yourself. "It's like a laboratory, you know?" he says. "Your life can be like a laboratory. In the past, the idea of being human was what the earth and nature gave to you." That's not so anymore. He calls this era "post-human", explaining that "you can really manipulate everything. It's pretty scary, but it's also pretty interesting. You can lead different lives. You can decide to be different things." And fashion must reflect that, too. By Michele's reckoning, it can no longer be a leash, tethering you to someone else's ideal. It has to be a licence, setting you free and giving you the tools to figure out your own. "Fashion now is like an old lady that is dying on a bed," he said in Harper's Bazaar last year. "I think we can let this old lady die." I ask him if that makes what he is doing post-fashion. He ponders that for a few seconds, letting it sink in. "Probably it's true," he says, "because in a way, it's like, I don't care about fashion. I'm trying to say that fashion is a platform. The way you look is the way you live." No stranger can decree that. It comes together incrementally and sometimes haphazardly, in a fitful and imperfect process of discovery, the way every story and every city does. Why pretend otherwise? Why not just celebrate it? Most Viewed in Lifestyle Loading https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/how-alessandro-michele-made-gucci-relevant-again-20181126-p50id1.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

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[roseharlaws]

Dearheart

Much like Helene, this friend was enchanted by books in a way that animated his every word; what resonated between Helene’s voice on the page before me and my friend’s in my memory, was the respect, need, and love for books that characterized their mutual passion.

books provide: a way of reaching out across time and space to friends and strangers, and to the absent presences that play such a large part in all our lives. I

The books arrived safely, the Stevenson is so fine it embarrasses my orange-crate bookshelves, I’m almost afraid to handle such soft vellum and heavy cream-colored pages. Being used to the dead-white paper and stiff cardboardy covers of American books, I never knew a book could be such a joy to the touch.

The day Hazlitt came he opened to “I hate to read new books,” and I hollered “Comrade!” to whoever owned it before me.

I require a book of love poems with spring coming on. No Keats or Shelley , send me poets who can make love without slobbering—Wyatt or Jonson or somebody, use your own judgment. Just a nice book preferably small enough to stick in a slacks pocket and take to Central Park.

Please write and tell me about London, I live for the day when I step off the boat-train and feel its dirty sidewalks under my feet. I want to walk up Berkeley Square and down Wimpole Street and stand in St. Paul’s where John Donne preached and sit on the step Elizabeth sat on when she refused to enter the Tower, and like that. A newspaper man I know, who was stationed in London during the war, says tourists go to England with preconceived notions, so they always find exactly what they go looking for. I told him I’d go looking for the England of English literature, and he said: “Then it’s there.”

The Newman arrived almost a week ago and I’m just beginning to recover. I keep it on the table with me all day, every now and then I stop typing and reach over and touch it. Not because it’s a first edition; I just never saw a book so beautiful. I feel vaguely guilty about owning it. All that gleaming leather and gold stamping and beautiful type belongs in the pine-panelled library of an English country home; it wants to be read by the fire in a gentleman’s leather easy chair—not on a secondhand studio couch in a one-room hovel in a broken-down brownstone front.

Thank you for the beautiful book. I’ve never owned a book before with pages edged all round in gold. Would you believe it arrived on my birthday? I wish you hadn’t been so over-courteous about putting the inscription on a card instead of on the flyleaf. It’s the bookseller coming out in you all, you were afraid you’d decrease its value. You would have increased it for the present owner. (And possibly for the future owner. I love inscriptions on flyleaves and notes in margins, I like the comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned, and reading passages some one long gone has called my attention to.)

Thank you again for the beautiful book, I shall try very hard not to get gin and ashes all over it, it’s really much too fine for the likes of me.

Write me about London—the tube, the Inns of Court, Mayfair, the corner where the Globe Theatre stood, anything, I’m not fussy. Write me about Knightsbridge, it sounds green and gracious in Eric Coates’ London.

P. S. Your mother is setting out bravely this morning to look at an apartment for you on 8th Avenue in the 50’s because you told her to look in the theatre district. Maxine you know perfectly well your mother is not equipped to look at ANYTHING on 8th Avenue.

You may add Walton’s Lives to the list of books you aren’t sending me. It’s against my principles to buy a book I haven’t read, it’s like buying a dress you haven’t tried on, but you can’t even get Walton’s Lives in a library over here.

You can look at it. They have it down at the 42nd street branch. But not to take home! the lady said to me, shocked. eat it here, just sit right down in room 315 and read the whole book without a cup of coffee, a cigarette or air.

Doesn’t matter, Q quoted enough of it so I know I’ll like it. anything he liked i’ll like except if it’s fiction. i never can get interested in things that didn’t happen to people who never lived.

Boy, I’d like to have run barefoot through THEIR library before they sold it.

Fascinating book to read, did you know John Donne eloped with the boss’s highborn daughter and landed in the Tower for it and starved and starved and THEN got religion. my word.

You want to be the murderer or the corpse?

You’ll be fascinated to learn (from me that hates novels) that I finally got round to Jane Austen and went out of my mind over Pride & Prejudice which I can’t bring myself to take back to the library till you find me a copy of my own.

I houseclean my books every spring and throw out those I’m never going to read again like I throw out clothes I’m never going to wear again. It shocks everybody. My friends are peculiar about books. They read all the best sellers, they get through them as fast as possible, I think they skip a lot. And they NEVER read anything a second time so they don’t remember a word of it a year later. But they are profoundly shocked to see me drop a book in the wastebasket or give it away. The way they look at it, you buy a book, you read it, you put it on the shelf, you never open it again for the rest of your life but YOU DON’T THROW IT OUT! NOT IF IT HAS A HARD COVER ON IT! Why not? I personally can’t think of anything less sacrosanct than a bad book or even a mediocre book.

The Book-Lovers’ Anthology stepped out of its wrappings, all gold-embossed leather and gold-tipped pages, easily the most beautiful book I own including the Newman first edition. It looks too new and pristine ever to have been read by anyone else, but it has been: it keeps falling open at the most delightful places as the ghost of its former owner points me to things I’ve never read before. Like Tristram Shandy’s description of his father’s remarkable library which “contained every book and treatise which had ever been wrote upon the subject of great noses.” (Frank! Go find me Tristram Shandy! )

THOU VARLET? Don’t remember which restoration playwright called everybody a Varlet, I always wanted to use it in a sentence.

I shall be obliged if you will send Nora and the girls to church every Sunday for the next month to pray for the continued health and strength of the messrs. gilliam, reese, snider, campanella, robinson, hodges, furillo, podres, newcombe and labine, collectively known as The Brooklyn Dodgers. If they lose this World Series I shall Do Myself In and then where will you be?

Have you got De Tocqueville’s Journey to America? Somebody borrowed mine and never gave it back. Why is it that people who wouldn’t dream of stealing anything else think it’s perfectly all right to steal books?

I write you from under the bed where that catullus drove me. i mean it PASSETH understanding.

Up till now, the only Richard Burton I ever heard of is a handsome young actor I’ve seen in a couple of British movies and I wish I’d kept it that way. This one got knighted for turning Catullus—caTULLus—into Victorian hearts-and-flowers.

And poor little Mr. smithers must have been afraid his mother was going to read it, he like to KILL himself cleaning it all up.

I go through life watching the english language being raped before my face. like miniver cheevy, I was born too late. and like miniver cheevy I cough and call it fate and go on drinking.

I am starting with a script about New York under seven years of British Occupation and i MARVEL at how i rise above it to address you in friendly and forgiving fashion, your behavior over here from 1776 to 1783 was simply FILTHY.

When, as a little boy, William Blake saw the prophet Ezekiel under a tree amid a summer field, he was soundly trounced by his mother.

I will read the three standard passages from Sermon XV aloud,” you have to read Donne aloud, it’s like a Bach fugue.

i am going to bed. i will have hideous nightmares involving huge monsters in academic robes carrying long bloody butcher knives labelled Excerpt, Selection, Passage and Abridged.

Thought of you last night, my editor from Harper’s was here for dinner, we were going over this story-of-my-life and we came to the story of how I dramatized Landor’s “Aesop and Rhodope” for the “Hallmark Hall of Fame.” Did I ever tell you that one? Sarah Churchill starred as Landor’s dewy-eyed Rhodope. The show was aired on a Sunday afternoon. Two hours before it went on the air, I opened the New York Times Sunday book review section and there on page 3 was a review of a book called A House Is Not a Home by Polly Adler, all about whorehouses, and under the title was the photo of a sculptured head of a Greek girl with a caption reading: “Rhodope, the most famous prostitute in Greece.” Landor had neglected to mention this. Any scholar would have known Landor’s Rhodope was the Rhodopis who took Sappho’s brother for every dime he had but I’m not a scholar, I memorized Greek endings one stoic winter but they didn’t stay with me.

Wasn’t anything else that intrigued me much, it’s just stories, I don’t like stories. Now if Geoffrey had kept a diary and told me what it was like to be a little clerk in the palace of richard III—THAT I’d learn Olde English for. I just threw out a book somebody gave me, it was some slob’s version of what it was like to live in the time of Oliver Cromwell—only the slob didn’t live in the time of Oliver Cromwell so how the hell does he know what it was like? Anybody wants to know what it was like to live in the time of Oliver Cromwell can flop on the sofa with Milton on his pro side and Walton on his con, and they’ll not only tell him what it was like, they’ll take him there.

“The reader will not credit that such things could be,” Walton says somewhere or other, “but I was there and I saw it.”

that’s for me, I’m a great lover of I-was-there books.

We had a very pleasant summer with more than the usual number of tourists, including hordes of young people making the pilgrimage to Carnaby Street. We watch it all from a safe distance, though I must say I rather like the Beatles. If the fans just wouldn’t scream so.

I introduced a young friend of mine to Pride & Prejudice one rainy Sunday and she has gone out of her mind for Jane Austen.

I hope you and Brian have a ball in London. He said to me on the phone: “Would you go with us if you had the fare?” and I nearly wept.

But I don’t know, maybe it’s just as well I never got there. I dreamed about it for so many years. I used to go to English movies just to look at the streets. I remember years ago a guy I knew told me that people going to England find exactly what they go looking for. I said I’d go looking for the England of English literature, and he nodded and said: “It’s there.”

Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. Looking around the rug one thing’s for sure: it’s here.

We all lead busy lives—perhaps it’s better so.

If you happen to pass by 84, Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me. I owe it so much.

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Gourmet Gossip: August 2017

In this great dining city of ours, barely a day passes without news of an exciting restaurant opening, a devastating closing, a shocking chef shuffle, or a groundbreaking, must-try dish.  That’s why we’re keeping you apprised of the industry’s most noteworthy bits and bites, from the unexpected return of a duo of esteemed eateries to a gluten-free pasta project from the original “Top Chef.”

Hello JoJo and Coco Pazzo: Fall is generally prime time for brand new restaurant debuts, but this season, we’re awaiting the return of two verifiable NYC vets.  After a decade, the old school Italian Coco Pazzo (whose past employees include Cesare Casella and Anthony Bourdain) will bring bistecca alla fiorentina, seafood stew and soufflé back to SoHo.  And while Jean-Georges is certainly busy tucking new concepts under his belt, he’s still managed to breathe life into his first solo venture, JoJo; the

two-story, 25-year old bistro will once again inhabit its UES brownstone, after a 12-month, restorative shutter.

Using His Noodle: In addition to certain restaurants returning to the NYC scene after an extended sabbatical, so too are a few beleaguered chefs. After taking a break in the wake of Perilla and Kin Shop’s closures, Harold Dieterle appears ready to get back on the horse.  In partnership with E.E. Hospitality, the original “Top Chef” has taken the reigns of an all-gluten free Italian place called Tali & Tali Dolce, which will somehow eliminate wheat from a lineup of panini, pastries and pastas; look for meyer lemon spaghetti and yellow squash ravioli.

Number’s Up: A potential investor with cash to burn and a love of brew could do the East Village a major favor, by helping keep 12-year-old craft beer destination, Jimmy’s. No.43, solvent.  According to gregarious owner, Jimmy Carbone (host of the long-running Beer Sessions podcast on Heritage Radio, and producer of events like Pig Island and the NYC Hot Sauce Expo), the speakeasy’s summer shutter could be for good, if he can’t find a partner to help pay back rent, and help absorb a newer, higher rate.

Sweets for the Sweet: Need a compelling reason to say yes to dessert?  How about Citymeals on Wheels’ annual fundraiser, “Sweet September?”  For the duration of the month, a slew of spots throughout the city will donate proceeds from their tastiest treats to help feed the homebound elderly — so stock up on cups of cookie dough from DŌ, salty caramel custard donuts courtesy of Colonie, and candied walnut-smothered brownie sundaes from Charlie Palmer Steak.

Leonti and the Law: While the city has definitely been excited by the promising presence of Vetri alum, Adam Leonti, the Big Apple hasn’t proved especially welcoming to the talented young chef.  After an auspicious start at the pop-up Brooklyn Bread Lab, he moved to his fulltime position at the Williamsburg Hotel’s (yet to open) Harvey, and abandoned ship for Sessanta not too long afterwards for undisclosed reasons.  Yet it seems that the hotel has filed an aggressive, non-compete lawsuit — costing Leonti his post at (not just Sessanta), but other restaurants as well.  We hope the story ends well for Leonti; although it doesn’t paint an especially

pretty picture of the Williamsburg Hotel.

Bye Bye Bao: In an odd move from the purveyor of one of the year’s most feverishly Instagram foods, Drunken Dumpling is removing its XL Xiao Long Bao from the menu.  Essentially filled with a bowl’s worth of soup, the owner fretted that she couldn’t maintain the quality of her thin-skinned yet super-sized dumplings — an admirable (yet entirely unusual) reason, nowadays, for pulling the plug on a guaranteed social media magnet.

The post Gourmet Gossip: August 2017 appeared first on Restaurant Girl: Best Food Blog & Restaurant Guide.

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The Best of the Best Home Remodels and Gardens—Take a Look!

So you’re eager to remodel your home and landscape your yard. In fact, you’re chomping at the bit to rip out those 1970s-era, harvest gold–colored bathroom tiles, or maybe tame the wild, thorny jungle that is your backyard.

Those looking for inspiration can check out the winners of Remodelista.com and Gardenista.com‘s annual Considered Design Awards. (Remodelista.com and Gardenista.com are owned by realtor.com®’s parent company, Move, Inc.) Nearly 850 entries were submitted from design enthusiasts and professionals in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

“One of the first things we look for is simplicity of design,” says Meredith Swinehart, senior editor of Remodelista.com and Gardenista.com. “We love when somebody does something handmade, and we like the high-low approach. It means we like a mix of a couple of special pieces with a mix of affordable, accessible pieces.”

Four judges chose the finalists across kitchen, bath, living/dining, and outdoor space categories, and then readers cast more than 300,000 votes for their favorites. The judges were interior designer Sheila Bridges; Sam Hamilton, owner of home design shop March; former New York Times design editor Deborah Needleman; and writer and interior designer Rita Konig.

Best kitchen, bath, and living/dining space remodels

A farmhouse in New York’s Hudson Valley gets a bathroom remodel.

Hudson Valley Farmhouse Bathroom Remodel

The winning amateur bath space remodel was an 1800s farmhouse in upstate New York.

“They did a really nice job mixing artwork in the bathroom,” Swinehart says. “They used oil paintings to really make it their own. They also chose a really beautiful midgray paint color, which keeps the space light and bright but still gives it that Hudson Valley local character.”

The professional bath space winner was a San Francisco powder room. The bold black, white, and burgundy bathroom features a wood floor, marble walls, and a glass shower door.

The top amateur living/dining space remodel was designed by a husband-and-wife team. The couple used salvaged materials to create a 20-foot-tall tent ceiling with open stud and plywood walls on their 7-acre organic farm in Kealakeukua Bay, HI. The room features furniture the couple bought on Craigslist or from yard and estate sales.

“It has so much personality with wares collected from their travels,” Swinehart says.

A couple in Hawaii remodeled their living/dining room using salvaged materials.

Ana Castillo

The winning professionally done living/dining space entry was a home renovation in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. Lorraine Bonaventura Architect created an open parlor level in the brownstone, built in the 1890s, that merges the living, dining, and kitchen spaces in one room.

The remodel restored the room’s original pine wood flooring, built-in bookshelves were installed along the wall, and antique stone mantels were placed atop the fireplaces. The room is also bathed in light thanks to the new sliding doors and transom windows, which open onto a terrace.

Best garden, landscapes, outdoor living spaces, and more

A Nebraska renter created a low-cost, outdoor space.

Andrew Tatreau

A Nebraska home took top honors in the amateur garden category. The renter wanted to create a space where he could entertain guests, so he and his father built a cabana and outfitted it with chairs and cushions. He added a hammock and installed a scrap marble bar to serve food and drinks on.

“There’s so much resourcefulness” in this project, Swinehart says. “The only new things were the wood to build the structure and the sofa cushions.”

One of Swineheart’s favorites was the best edible garden in Kalona, IA.

“These people taught themselves the art of growing their own food,” she says. “They wanted to be more sustainable in their lifestyle.”

Other U.S. winners included the best landscape, best outdoor living space, best hardspace, and best curb appeal.

The owner used reclaimed windows to keep costs down on the project.

Under A Tin Roof

The post The Best of the Best Home Remodels and Gardens—Take a Look! appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

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