Each week, Alexa is rounding up the buzziest fashion drops, hotel openings, restaurant debuts and celeb-studded cultural happenings in NYC. It’s our curated guide to the easiest things to see, shop, taste and experience around the town.
What’s making our luxury list this week? A buzzy French interior designer opens a gallery in TriBeCa, Wildflower blooms in Chelsea, and certainly one of NYC’s favorite chefs collabs with West Elm.
Laura Gonzalez is a Paris-based interior designer who, for now, could also be best known for designing most of the Cartier flagship boutiques. But she’s also on a little bit of a tear with hotel design (most recently the Hotel Hana in Paris), and has firmly established herself as a designer to observe. This just got rather a lot easier with the opening of her first space stateside, on Franklin Street in TriBeCa. The ground-through storefront is completely gorgeous, full of pieces from her own furniture and lighting collections in addition to select pieces from others. The piece de resistance is undeniably the custom fireplace by ceramic artist Laurent Dufour, set within the far reaches of the space, under a typical-for-this-type-of-building skylight.
The positioning of the 1969 Stonewall Riot (the Stonewall Inn) was designated a national monument by President Obama in 2016. The storefront round the corner was secured by Pride Live several years ago and, during Pride Weekend, debuted as the primary LGBTQIA+ visitor center inside the National Park System. And what a debut it was — the opening event featured President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Elton John, Cynthia Erivo, Katy Perry, Adam Lambert and others. The Center is supposed to be an academic resource for of LGBTQIA+ history and culture, the two,100 square foot space offers tours, programs, a lecture series and a dedicated theater space. It’s free to the general public.
Marcus Samuelsson has his hands in lots of proverbial pots, including restaurants, cookbooks and podcasts. But as of this week the award-winning, Ethiopian-born Swedish-American chef, can add furniture and accessories design to that list. His collection for West Elm just launched, with 32 pieces starting from furniture to lighting, tableware to textiles, and even art. Each bit, whether in form, color or texture, nods to the various facets of Samuelsson’s wealthy background. They even shot the ad campaign on Smögen, the island in Sweden’s Gothenberg archipelago where he grew up.
WestElm.org
Last 12 months, the dressmaker Cynthia Rowley met Coralie Charriol at a celebration within the Hamptons. It was a fateful moment. Charriol, who’s CEO and Creative Director of the brand, was a fan of Rowley’s designs and thought “it might be fun to place a few of her iconic surfboard prints on the dial of Charriol’s Surf Navigator watch.” So that they did. That watch, the 36mm Swiss-made Surf Navigator, is now available for pre-order in a selection of two prints (Shark Deterrent and a summer floral), is water-resistant to 300 feet, and retail at $2,450 with 10% of proceeds being donated to SeaLegacy.
Available as of July fifteenth at Charriol.org and CynthiaRowley.com.
Ever since Half King closed several years ago, their one-time space on twenty third Street (within the shadow of the High Line) has seemed cursed. However, Half King is a tough act to follow. For the unfamiliar: Half King was co-founded by war journalist Sebastian Junger and, for 18 years, was the go-to spot for creative types, especially writers and photographers. Wildflower is the most recent to offer it a go of their old space. It’s a really decorated but approachable interior (by Handwerk Art and Design) that continues to be true to the name — meaning florals galore, on wallpaper and fabric fabrics, plus well-chosen lights and overall color palette. We will attest they make a stunning cocktail (when you’re into gin & tonics, they’ve six on offer) but haven’t yet sampled the menu, which could be very what’s-not-to-like (eye-catching sandwiches, salads, mains) with a couple of surprises including French Dip Poppers.
WildflowerNYC.com
Each week, Alexa is rounding up the buzziest fashion drops, hotel openings, restaurant debuts and celeb-studded cultural happenings in NYC. It’s our curated guide to the easiest things to see, shop, taste and experience around the town.
What’s making our luxury list this week? A buzzy French interior designer opens a gallery in TriBeCa, Wildflower blooms in Chelsea, and certainly one of NYC’s favorite chefs collabs with West Elm.
Laura Gonzalez is a Paris-based interior designer who, for now, could also be best known for designing most of the Cartier flagship boutiques. But she’s also on a little bit of a tear with hotel design (most recently the Hotel Hana in Paris), and has firmly established herself as a designer to observe. This just got rather a lot easier with the opening of her first space stateside, on Franklin Street in TriBeCa. The ground-through storefront is completely gorgeous, full of pieces from her own furniture and lighting collections in addition to select pieces from others. The piece de resistance is undeniably the custom fireplace by ceramic artist Laurent Dufour, set within the far reaches of the space, under a typical-for-this-type-of-building skylight.
The positioning of the 1969 Stonewall Riot (the Stonewall Inn) was designated a national monument by President Obama in 2016. The storefront round the corner was secured by Pride Live several years ago and, during Pride Weekend, debuted as the primary LGBTQIA+ visitor center inside the National Park System. And what a debut it was — the opening event featured President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Elton John, Cynthia Erivo, Katy Perry, Adam Lambert and others. The Center is supposed to be an academic resource for of LGBTQIA+ history and culture, the two,100 square foot space offers tours, programs, a lecture series and a dedicated theater space. It’s free to the general public.
Marcus Samuelsson has his hands in lots of proverbial pots, including restaurants, cookbooks and podcasts. But as of this week the award-winning, Ethiopian-born Swedish-American chef, can add furniture and accessories design to that list. His collection for West Elm just launched, with 32 pieces starting from furniture to lighting, tableware to textiles, and even art. Each bit, whether in form, color or texture, nods to the various facets of Samuelsson’s wealthy background. They even shot the ad campaign on Smögen, the island in Sweden’s Gothenberg archipelago where he grew up.
WestElm.org
Last 12 months, the dressmaker Cynthia Rowley met Coralie Charriol at a celebration within the Hamptons. It was a fateful moment. Charriol, who’s CEO and Creative Director of the brand, was a fan of Rowley’s designs and thought “it might be fun to place a few of her iconic surfboard prints on the dial of Charriol’s Surf Navigator watch.” So that they did. That watch, the 36mm Swiss-made Surf Navigator, is now available for pre-order in a selection of two prints (Shark Deterrent and a summer floral), is water-resistant to 300 feet, and retail at $2,450 with 10% of proceeds being donated to SeaLegacy.
Available as of July fifteenth at Charriol.org and CynthiaRowley.com.
Ever since Half King closed several years ago, their one-time space on twenty third Street (within the shadow of the High Line) has seemed cursed. However, Half King is a tough act to follow. For the unfamiliar: Half King was co-founded by war journalist Sebastian Junger and, for 18 years, was the go-to spot for creative types, especially writers and photographers. Wildflower is the most recent to offer it a go of their old space. It’s a really decorated but approachable interior (by Handwerk Art and Design) that continues to be true to the name — meaning florals galore, on wallpaper and fabric fabrics, plus well-chosen lights and overall color palette. We will attest they make a stunning cocktail (when you’re into gin & tonics, they’ve six on offer) but haven’t yet sampled the menu, which could be very what’s-not-to-like (eye-catching sandwiches, salads, mains) with a couple of surprises including French Dip Poppers.
WildflowerNYC.com
