Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/184518
Victoria Beckham as a Spice Girl Piper Wyatt The Olsen twins on Full House COLLECTION OF JIM AND SUE WIECHMANN, PHOTO JOHN GLEMBIN Cecily Gooch Valentino The Row Victoria Beckham collection Ann Hobson Regan Landreth Billy Fong Sez ... I've long considered joining a book club. Like croquet, it's an excuse to gather a group and drink. Problematically, I have little time for a lengthy tome and don't need to discuss Fifty Shades of Grey with yet another Highland Park gal pal. Therefore, I opted to convene a coven of fashionistas to discuss the eagerly anticipated September fashion magazine issues. The best setting for this scene, of course, would be me and the crew smocked up while drinking champagne in the waiting area of Fekkai. With the planets in perfect alignment, I confirmed Regan Landreth/Miss L (the current Fort Worth "it" girl), Piper Wyatt/Miss W (so lucky to score a Louisiana girl — nothing makes me giggle more than Southern wit), the incredibly charming Cecily Gooch/Miss G and the divine Ann Hobson/Miss H. Since we all hate homework, I simply asked everyone to pick-up the offerings from Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar. In the interest of time, I did not include my go-to, Vanity Fair. Their Best Dressed List is usually spot on, and there is always a new Coppola sibling or Greek shipping heir making their presence known through cutting-edge ensembles. We won't go into details (unless you want to send me an e-mail on the topic), but my fave girl from the 2012 list was H.H. Sheikha Moza bint Nasser of Qatar. I love me a ginger, so Eddie Redmayne tops the men's list, without a doubt. We assembled at the Hotel Palomar's Central 214 patio bar and sampled delicious treats from chef Graham Dodds. The conversation was loose and free-flowing, thanks to the equally freeflowing cocktails. Keep in mind, this was not meant to be a critique of the fall collections, but rather our commentary on magazines and advertisements. However, we did have some insane thoughts in common. The weirdest was our current two favorite lines: The Row and Victoria Beckham. We all realized that if we had been told 10 years ago that those twins from Full House and a Spice Girl would create the most brilliant, edgy-yet-wearable fashion we would have thought they'd been hitting the crack pipe. The one item everyone seemed to be coveting for the upcoming social season was the gorgeous red leather laser-cut Valentino dress. Sheer perfection. A few snippets to share: Me: Piper, I am dying over your shoes! Miss W: Proenza, of course. Miss H: Regan, you have gams for days, impressive. Miss L: It's an excuse to pull out my Tory Burch camo mini and give some edge to an après Labor Day white tuxedo jacket. All in unison: Cecily, your hair is divine. Who is doing your blow-outs? Miss G: Can't share all of my secrets. Miss W: How genius is Tom Ford to feature his own fabulous face in the new Tom Ford Beauty campaign? Me: He could so be my hall pass. Our favorite cover goes to Harper's Bazaar. The pink hat on Gwen Stefani was sublime and got us excited for the season ahead. Vogue was terribly unwieldy and obviously never found its way to Miss Wintour's editing room: 916 pages, yet only 16 were memorable. In closing, start planning for your own book club for next fall and definitely invite Cecily Gooch. She was in it to win it, showing up for the conversation with Post-It notes galore. Always great to have one over-achiever in the mix who actually read the book. Billy Fong, billy@papercitymag.com Stella McCartney lingerie The Latest Soft Wear Thin, lightweight and technologically advanced are crucial attributes when it comes to the latest iThing. But, generally, those same adjectives don't appear in sentences describing designer lingerie. Stella McCartney leads the paradigm shift with the unveiling of Stella, a range of smooth, lace or mesh underpinnings that exist somewhere between invisible and va-va-voom. Meant for everyday wear, the collection includes a new silhouette called Supernatural, a seam-free, cleavage-enhancing breakthrough without all the padding or underwire. $26 to $65, at the Stella McCartney boutique, Barneys New York, Neiman Marcus. Amy Adams A Driving Force Uber launches its town-car taxis in Dallas. Why? It's a thriving DUI nexus. Matt Alexander, completely sober, test drives. Last June, exhausted from a day of meetings in downtown San Francisco, I began the arduous process of hailing a taxi (a rare commodity in Northern California). My efforts were getting me nowhere fast, so I walked onto a side street and attempted an experiment: I requested an Uber car. Within minutes, a Lincoln Town Car arrived. The driver was dressed in a pleasant suit, his automobile clean, fresh and stocked with chilled bottled water. He greeted me formally, opened my door and whisked me across town. I could scarcely believe I had managed to live without this service up until this point. Uber's co-founders, Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick, launched the company in San Francisco in 2009, seeking to combat the very situation I found myself in this past summer. The duo decried the state of travel within the city and wanted to reinsert some semblance of dignity into the typical taxi experience — and their idea is thriving in spite of some opposition from well-entrenched transport authorities. Having recently begun providing service in New York City, London and Paris, Uber is keen to insert itself into some of the most populous cities in the world. Art Notes Diversity and riches abound in the heart of the season, spanning epochs, artists and styles. First up, head to the Dallas Museum of Art for the glorious works that comprise "Posters of Paris: ToulouseLautrec and His Contemporaries" (October 14 – January 20). One of our favorite discoveries from our Special Section preview you'll find in this issue is Jules Chéret, the roi of the affiche artistique in finde-siècle Paris, whose saucy, frothy belles took over every surface of the City of Light's Belle Époque boulevards. Besides being beautiful, these works set the craze for street art that has led to today's sticker brigade and proponents of mass art communication such as Shepard Jules Chéret's La Comédie, 1891, at Dallas Museum of Art Fairey ... Speaking of Monsieur Fairey, do not miss his final weeks of editioned works at Deep Ellum denizen Brian Gibbs' The Public Trust (though October 20) ... Over at The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, the king of Dallas painting and his disciples are celebrated. Catch illustrious SMU professor Roger Winter in "Lost Highway – A Painter's Journey," an impressive 40-year career retrospective, alongside renowned past students — John Alexander, David Bates, Brian Cobble, Dan Rizzie and Lilian Garcia-Roig — in "Under the Influence" (both shows through October 20). Concurrently, Kirk Hopper Fine Art presents a showcase of Winter's classics (through October 6) ... Another Texas art destination, this one unexpected, is PDNB Gallery. In lieu of photographic prints, the granite abstractions of internationally exhibited Texan Jesús Moroles will hold court — from 11-inch-tall desktop creations to nearly four-feet-in-diameter rings dramatically suspended from the ceiling (through November 24) ... Meanwhile, Over at SMU, the Meadows Museum unfurls an art historical coup: "Diego Velázquez: The Early Court Portraits," including a grand canvas of imposing monarch Philip IV, one of the most important royals of the 17th century, as the Meadows continues its partnership with the extraordinary Prado (through January 13) ... Finally, parting news sighted on the Roger Winter's Texas Odyssey #1, 1994, at The McKinney Glasstire site: sculptor Fred Avenue Contemporary Villanueva takes fair fever into his own hands and is showcased in Art Fair of Texas a cavernous space adjoining Exposition Park (facebook.com/artfairoftexas). We can't wait to go; we love this new model of artist-incubated commercial endeavors. See you art and about. Catherine D. Anspon Anna Dello Russo for H&M H&M Goes BanAnnas Famed fashion editor Anna Dello Russo is bringing her crazy cool sense of style to H&M with a collection of accessories launching Thursday, October 4. A darling of the street-style blogosphere whose outlandish fashion has been endlessly documented — but rarely duplicated — Dello Russo brings her love of ornamentation to the folk with accessible jewelry, sunglasses, handbags and shoes. "I wanted to create precious accessories that are impossible to find," Dello Russo says, which she hopes will allow devotees to "turn an ordinary day into a fantastic fashion day" with the simple addition of a charm or pair of embellished sunnies. The project represents a new challenge for the noted fashion director, who is the only non-designer to ever create a collection for H&M. Are you up for it? $25 to $299, at H&M and hm.com. Caroline Gallay Leaving San Francisco, I mourned my loss, unaware that the plucky startup was already on its way to the Lone Star State. Launched this September, Uber already has more than 40 cars at its disposal in the central Dallas area. Available for little more than a typical taxi, but with far greater convenience and style, Uber is unquestionably set to make quite a splash. Speaking at a recent event in downtown Dallas, Uber general manager Ryan Graves remarked that our fair city has already become the fastest growing launch in the company's history. Given the high volume of DUIs, the sprawling nature of the metroplex and the affluence of its citizens, we're a target rich environment. The Uber app is freely available for download on iOS and Android, and could not be easier to set up. Simply input your credit card information and request a car. Once your information has been submitted, you can then watch your driver approach on your phone's builtin map. You needn't worry about cash, antiquated card machines, or pens scraped across tracing paper — merely get into the car and get out, your card is automatically charged for the journey and tip. Uber also offers flat-rate visits to DFW Airport for $75 and the Rangers and Cowboys stadiums for $100. For simple trips from Highland Park to downtown, the cost is just over $20, depending on traffic. OCTOBER | PAGE 6 | 2012