Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1536610
Letter from the Editor 16 P erhaps this will become an annual summer ritual: my pic of a pool. You might recall that my July/August 2024 letter included Slim Aarons' iconic Poolside Gossip. Call it the seasonally perfect la piscine photo — or a When in Rome moment. In this case, it's When on Martha's Vineyard. I lived on the Connecticut shoreline before I moved to Dallas in 2005 and fondly remember eating lobster rolls and steamers as the summer tourists rolled through town in their nouveau G-Wagons, always a jolting juxtaposition to the vintage cars that locals tooled around in ('80s-era Mercedes station wagons driven by ladies in demure cashmere twinsets whose old-school wealth came from their families founding insurance companies centuries ago). Even though I've lived in Texas longer than I lived there, a part of me will always feel like a New Englander. This recent visit to Massachusetts, where I'm penning this letter poolside, was a last-minute trip to the land of bountiful hydrangeas, shingle-style homes, and preppy fashion. My dear friend Jennifer Karol was putting the finishing touches on her Martha's Vineyard home with her wildly creative interior designers, Sara and Corbin See of Sees Design, and she invited me for the weekend. Of course, my answer was "Oui!" — not only for the chance to escape the Dallas heat and see what these design geniuses had come up with, but because I want to adopt a more spontaneous existence. A year of exhausting, nonstop planning has made me realize that I should perhaps just let life happen. Instead of going "zig," go "zag." Change lanes occasionally: If you've always been a Birkin gal, perhaps be a Kelly chick for a while. Be impulsive. On that note, Catherine D. Anspon's coverage of the new exhibition "Masahiro LaMarsh: Anticlastic" is bound to encourage impromptu visits to the Dallas Contemporary to gaze at the fantastical and intricately crafted custom-made grillz. After studying our dandy spread about … well, the dandy (inspired by the wildly popular SARA SEE exhibition at The Met's Costume Institute, "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style"), you might just add a few oversized brooches as you head out the door for cocktails at the Clifton Club. Summer is the time to take risks and venture to far-flung locales where you can dance with abandon (perhaps while sporting a grill and wearing a coat with tails). BTW — I usually don't finish my letter in one sitting. It's more like spaghetti thrown against the wall over a week or so, to see what sticks. In fact, I am no longer on Martha's Vineyard and am now on a flight back from Kentucky, after having attended a divine wedding in the rolling hills of horsey country — the union of Talley Hodges and Will Pike. Talley's mother, Jane Scott Hodges of Leontine Linens fame, is one of my dearest friends, and seeing what she concocted for these nuptials was so captivating that my eye —to paraphrase Diana Vreeland — had to travel to take in all the charming touches. (Let's put it this way: The meticulously planned tablescapes were beyond.) When I saw beloved interior designer Alex Papachristidis with his partner, Scott Nelson, and their Norwich terrier Cooper, in tow, I remarked that Jane Scott's deft skills shouldn't be solely for entertaining; she should have a side hustle with the military. She would have put Patton to shame. We'd never lose a battle with General Jane Scott at the helm. Just imagine all the delightful, monogrammed linens — I'm thinking GEN, ACE, and WIN — she'd concoct for tea with the colonels to plan strategic maneuvers. I'm not sure where I'll be this summer, so I'll leave you this month with a line from Doris Day's "Que Sera, Sera": "Whatever will be will be. The future's not ours to see." See you in September — unless we bump into each other on the shores of some little-known banana republic or one of the Hamptons. XO Billy Fong Dallas Editor in Chief