Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1203909
14 letter editor HUNT SLONEM A s I write this, I'll be leaving in a few days to Lyford Cay for Design Weekend, a biennial conclave of some of the most talented and fun designers and editors in the design world, brilliantly organized by Chesie Breen. One luscious day is spent viewing the dreamy houses in Lyford — where Babe Paley, Sean Connery, and Prince Rainier once romped — designed by Amanda Lindroth, Miles Redd, John Fondas, Tom Scheerer (who also famously designed the Lyford Cay Club's lobby), and a host of other decorators who aren't afraid of burnt bamboo and treillage; there are talks, dinners, luncheons, and book signings. Cocktails are involved. Then it's back to Houston to pull together Texas Design Week (March 23 – 30), sans the island vibe but packed with design luminaries, talks, book signings, and cocktails, culminating in the PaperCity Design Awards Monday, March 30. Time to enter your projects, designers, and architects! But before Texas Design Week occurs, PaperCity turns 25 — it's been a quarter-century of art, decoration, fashion, food, places, and parties. I would like to say it's been effortless, glamorous, and nothing but fun. But it has not. Which is why I need to go to an island. It may not be breezy-fun to produce 600 issues — 24 issues a year in Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth — but it has been life altering. I've met amazing people around the world; been energized by sublimely creative minds and crushed by the ordinary; aided and abetted by friends, loyal readers, and our partners who advertise. In 25 years, we've changed names from The Paper (it could not be copyrighted) to PaperCity, switched from a newspaper-size format to sleekly bound. We've photographed fashion in Venice, the 16th- century Parnham House in Dorset, London, The Point in the Adirondacks, the Ritz Paris, on Swiss Air, in Palm Springs and Palm Beach, Santa Fe, Marfa, L.A. too many times to count. Were we made of money. We've had covers with Tom Ford (twice), Karl Lagerfeld, Kelly Wearstler, Anh Duong, Jerry Hall, Daphne Guinness, Mick Jagger. We photographed the home of Dominique and John de Menil; the L.A. home and studio of Mr. Chow; Tony Duquette's former home and folly in Beverly Hills, now the home of Hutton and Ruth Wilkinson. We documented the last remaining intact interior designed by the late Billy Francis, photographed Mary and Roy Cullen's amazing Czech art collection, Christian Eckart's art-filled warehouse loft, and the homes and studios of the late great artists Jesús Bautista Moroles and Bert Long Jr. We shot Sandra and Ricky di Portanova's River Oaks Boulevard swankienda just before it hit the market. We shot in the Rice Hotel, which had been closed up and abandoned for 20 years, and crept up the dark stairs to the room where Jackie and President Kennedy rested on a fateful November 21, 1963, before their trip to Dallas. We shot in the remains of Judge Roy Hofheinz's Celestial Suites in the penthouse of the Astroworld Hotel, a time capsule remarkably intact nearly 50 years after its opening. But none of this would be possible, were it not for our PC family — our editors, artists, photographers, digital team, creative director, sales team, publishers, and support team — the most creative, joyful, and interesting people I've ever known. I can't believe I'm saying this, but here's to another 25! Holly Moore Editor in Chief holly@papercitymag.com