Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/148971
Houston Grand Opera's Aida Über-custom home developer, PaperCity contributor • I'll be front row at HGO's opening night of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, where the enslaved Egyptian princess will be clothed by Zandra Rhodes, and the opera sung in Italian by soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska and tenor Riccardo Massi. The story of romance and heartbreak is almost as compelling as the sets, also designed by Rhodes. Expect pink, punk and purple hair. Hermès Palazzo Papadopoli, Venice • I'm coveting the quiet luxury of Hermès — soft gray and brown coats, crisp white shirts, well-tailored separates, even a mid-calf or pencil skirt. It's all beautiful and old-fashioned. • I'm counting the days to the birth of my 17th project, The House of Many Gardens, designed by Scott Strasser. Every room has a view. The five-bedroom University Boulevard home has a big catering kitchen, multiple gardens and a fireplace visible from just about everywhere. The House of Many Gardens Dueling Art Fairs Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham in Great Expectations That's the idea behind Olfactive Studio, a holy union between contemporary imagery and olfactory alchemy. The launch includes five unisex scents — Autoportrait, Chambre Noire (Dark Room), Still Life, Lumière Blance (White Light) and Flashback — that represent a first-time collaboration between one world-class photographer and one master perfumer. From $145, at olfactivestudious. com. Amy Adams Nick Knight's Kate 'Aladdin Sane,' 2003, at Christie's London Allen Jones' Kate Moss (bronze glitter), 2013, at Christie's London Period Piece Charles Dickens' Great Expectations is reimagined this fall by director Mike Newell, and we'll go, if for nothing else, to see Miss Havisham's dusty environs and the much-worn wedding dress. The fatalistic tale of Pip is brought to life by a cast of Brits that also includes Jeremy Irvine as Pip and Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham. While its themes of morality and destiny are compelling, what we love most is the lavish art direction. Opening October 11. Seth Vaughan Viceroy Hotel NY WHERE WE'RE LAYING OUR EYE, MEET NOSE TEN H er first name invoked in the fashion firmament conveys it all: Kate, aka Kate Moss. This global ambassadress of insouciant glamour has been a muse to designers and increasingly artists since she burst upon the scene as a fresh face in the early 1990s. Now there's Kate the auction, as Christie's London taps European collector Gert Elfering to curate Kate images and creations that span two decades, destined for the block next month. Large-format photos in small editions were commissioned for this special sale, which encompasses celebrated photographers Irving Penn, Mario Testino, Juergen Teller and Annie Leibovitz alongside artists Sam Taylor-Wood and Chuck Close, the latter represented by a velvety jacquard tapestry portrait twice life-size. We're also taken with the vibe-y lightning-bolt image of Moss by Nick Knight and, above all, a Barbie-esque photo of Kate in a bronze cat suit, snapped by Allen Jones. "Kate Moss: The Collection," at Christie's London, September 25; public exhibition September 21 through 24; e-catalog available in September; christies.com. Catherine D. Anspon J.D. Salinger Sicilian scent. Inspired while motorbiking through Formentera in the Balearic Islands, perfumer Francis Kurkdjian dreamed up Aqua Vitae. One whiff and you, too, will be transported by waves of Calabrian lemon, Sicilian mandarin, Brazilian tonka bean and guaiac wood. From $245, at Neiman Marcus. Amy Adams ON CLOUD KATE THE GREAT High season officially kicks off with the Houston Fine Art Fair (Thursday – Sunday, September 19 – 22) followed by the Texas Contemporary Art Fair (Thursday – Sunday, October 10 – 13) — both attracting top collectors, socials and curators like Monet to Giverny. We'll wear our tan and airy summer attitude to HFAF opening night Thursday, September 19, benefitting Houston Arts Alliance. And we'll be front row at the Bert Long Jr. film screening Saturday, September 21. houstonfineartfair.com; txcontemporary.com. Catherine D. Anspon WHAT TO INHALE Olfactive Studio We'll be gazing at BBC FILMS • A stay in Aman Resorts' new 22-room Palazzo Papadopoli overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice with private gardens and a pampering spa is my idea of a wintery heaven. amanresorts.com. COURTESY HOUSTON GRAND OPERA; PHOTOGRAPH ANDREW CLOUD CAROL ISAAK BARDEN HEADS WHAT TO WATCH It's safe to assume Holden Caulfield would use neither "phony" nor "crumby" to describe the upcoming Salinger documentary. It's hard to imagine the nine-years-in-the-making film about reclusive author J.D. Salinger — which features interviews with 150 subjects including A. Scott Berg, Gore Vidal, E.L. Doctorow and Philip Seymour Hoffman — as anything but Oscar bait. Shane Salerno of such action fare as Savages and Armageddon wrote, produced, financed and directed the feature, which promises confidential revelations come September 6. Amy Adams We're jonesing for peanut butter and lime, peach and corn, and toasted oats ice cream flavors from pastry chef Chris Leung's (Kata Robata) new frozen dessert shop, Cloud 10 Creamery, opening mid-month. You'll recognize the creams from Underbelly, The Hay Merchant, Roost, Phamily Bites, Sweets, Good Life and Neo, where he's sold the goods wholesale for the past year. 5216 Morningside Dr. in the Hanover Rice Village center 281.310.1662; cloud10creamery. com. Kate Stukenberg We're hot to hole up in two new hotel projects in New York City, both by design duo Roman & Williams (New York's Ace Hotel, restaurants The Dutch, John Dory Oyster Bar, Lafayette, plus the still-bumping Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel). The justopened Highline Hotel in Chelsea is a 60-room English Gothic wonder, built in 1895 as student housing for the General Theological Seminary. It's an amalgam of original stained-glass windows, moldings and pine floors that overlooks — you guessed it — Highline Park. In midtown, the new Viceroy New York opens in October on 57th Street, across from Central Park. The Viceroy sizzles with modern and glamorous elements, similar to its sister properties. Kate Stukenberg Highline Hotel in Chelsea, NY WHAT TO LISTEN TO C Elvis Costello and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson of The Roots lash of the titans! Our not-so-secret crush Elvis Costello has teamed up with hip-hop baddies The Roots to bring us Wise Up Ghost (Blue Note Records), an album that the former describes as "the shortest distance between here and there." We've already committed these lyrics to memory: "The solitary star announcing vacancy burnt out as we arrived; they'd throw us back across the border if they knew that we survived." Available September 17, at amazon.com. Amy Adams