Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1291043
18 letter editor Billy Fong and Dana Garner. Illustration Leanne Fitzpatrick. T ick Tock Tick Tock. No, I'm not referencing (and wildly misspelling) the popular app that I just don't get (ring me if you do). I'm imagining the hands of a Cartier Tank, which for the past few months have seemed to move in slow motion and at other times, with hyper speed. I had thought of keeping my sleep mask on and simply pressing snooze for the remainder of 2020. But, no, I love October. It's the official start to autumn and brings with it a clean slate. In years past, I would eagerly await TWO x TWO week with its myriad glamorous and fantastical events (created by our own Wizard of Oz, Todd Fiscus) that was always on the schedule of the fashion and art-world jet set. The pic accompanying my letter is from the 2017 First Look event, which I attended with my often date, Dana Garner. Year after year, we would get a room at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek (BTW — check out the glorious redo that has been done by Thomas Pheasant on pages 50-51) and spend hours gossiping, trying on outfit after outfit while sipping Veuve and envisioning the glamorous evening ahead. Alas, TWO x TWO has been canceled, like so many other events in 2020. Recently, however, my inbox began filling up with invitations for dinners celebrating Kips Bay Decorator Show House Dallas. Après viewing the glorious rooms created by luminaries of design, I'll be dining with glittering girls and guys swapping trade secrets with the likes of Cathy Kincaid and Mark D. Sikes on where to score a lacquered sideboard or Giacometti-inspired lamp. My brilliant and insightful colleague Rebecca Sherman always transports me to a contemplative space (you as well, I'm sure), and this month she's exposed me to some women whom I long to know even more about. For October, it's not our traditional house spread — well, it is a house, but more a theoretical one that exists as an installation. Take a peek inside Salle Werner Vaughn's compound of lovingly restored Victorian cottages in a once forgotten Houston neighborhood that are used like stage sets to display her paintings, sculptures, and antique furnishings and textiles. Also in this issue, Rebecca shares the deeply moving work of artist Letitia Huckaby who, with her new exhibition at Liliana Bloch Gallery, draws profound parallels from the Civil Rights era of the 1960s to current-day struggles. We all feel the weight of the world and urgency of the moment. Collectively, we must do our part to ensure that we make it through 2020 and build the foundation for a better 2021. To do so, we must remain sane and upbeat, so join me in seeking escape. I'm ready for some silliness. I've been looking for inspiration in the Insta feeds of folks like Amy Sedaris, with her crazed yet cuddly animals and deranged crafting projects. I dream of wearing designer- made lederhosen — I'm sure I could find some Margiela on the Real Real — in the fairy-tale-like homes I covet in cities whose names sound like IKEA furniture on @cheapnordichouses. Join me in embracing October. I'm eagerly awaiting events such as the kickoff party for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society St. Valentine's Day Luncheon and Fashion Show on Thursday, October 8, and shopping with my Family Place Partners Card beginning Friday, October 30. It falls on us to put on our most frivolous frocks (or, in my case, a silly shrunken Thom Browne suit) and bring our brightest shining selves this fall. Scroll through and channel @marcjacobs with his elegantly eccentric outfits. Dallas is fortunate to have a posse of women who, when summoned, show up. They are notorious — and most assuredly not in a pejorative way — for bringing style (sometimes indulgently extravagant) in spades and needn't have surnames: Fancy Nancy, Tina, Georgina, Diamond, Jennikat, Lucy, Moll … Take to heart Cecil Beaton's sage words: "Perhaps the world's second-worst crime is boredom; the first is being a bore." I'll be waiting for you at the bar. Billy Fong Culture + Style Editor billy@papercitymag.com