Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/372577
"My life is a succession of fortuitous coincidences," says shoe designer Christian Louboutin. In fact, he's built his brand on such unions — and now, with the recent launch of Christian Louboutin Beauté, Monsieur Louboutin has engineered the label's latest expansion. It's a story that starts with color: In 1992, while designing a shoe called the Pensée, he plucked a bottle of red polish from an assistant to paint the soles of the prototype. Now, 20-plus years later, he scales new heights with his second foray into beauty (let's face it, the shoes were his first}. The collection's signature color, Rouge Louboutin, captures the high shine of traditional 20-coat lacquer in just two coats. An eight-inch objet d'art, the bottle pays homage to Louboutin's fascination with architecture, referencing features from 17th- and 18th-century European buildings. A black ombré glass base supports a pointed cap with the skyscraper proportions that we've come to expect from our favorite shoe architect. While Louboutin will forever be painting the town his signature rouge, this collection branches out with other color groups as well — The Pops, The Noirs and The Nudes — with each set uniquely glass-bottled and topped with silver, gunmetal and gold. Together, it builds the shiny skyline of Loubiville, a fully realized but not entirely revealed theme created by the designer offering glimpses of new concepts and ideas from the rapidly expanding brand. With Loubiville, Louboutin continues to construct his empire of beauty, and we imagine that, like any great city, expansion is always on the horizon. Trust us, this is definitely a town you want to live in. $50 each, at Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sephora. Alex Sweterlitsch Louboutin's Lacquers in this ISSUE SEPTEMBER 2014 | STYLE | FASHION | SOCIAL 4, 6, 8 POP. CULTURE. GOSSIP. A s we left it last month, my farmhouse had traveled 14 miles from a property near Round Top to my farm, miraculously arriving. Notice I did not say "in one piece." The early 1900s house was sawed in two, the rooms exposed like a dollhouse. How this miraculous move happened is an absolute feat of manpower. Larry Schroeder, who co-owns Yoakum House Moving in Brenham, is one busy man. I first called Larry in January on the recommendation of others in the area, and he told me upfront, "Don't be in a hurry." The sheer number of houses and barns moving from one plot of land to another is staggering. Here's another feat of nature: Once the house arrived and was settled on its concrete blocks, I tiptoed in to look around. And in a glass-front cabinet in the kitchen was a stack of bowls that I had overlooked before the move. They were still in the cabinet, upright, unharmed. That's how smooth Larry is. The biggest obstacle in the whole undertaking was coordinating four separate phone companies on the same day to raise the wires for the house to travel under. I purchased the house from Susan and David Lummis, who are also from Houston and have a beautiful farm between Fayetteville and Round Top. They in turn had purchased the property, including the house, from Muffie Moroney. Muffie is also from Houston, and she is the one who moved the house from Freyburg, where it had quietly stood for 100 years or so, not once having to pick up and move. To be continued. Speaking of homes — and traveling … We are so very pleased to announce that Rebecca Sherman is PaperCity's new home editor, which brings us full circle, as Rebecca was our very first Dallas Editor when we launched there in 1998. She has since held the positions of executive editor of D Home, and editor in chief of Modern Luxury Texas Interiors. We are thrilled to have her home with us. Holly Moore Editor in Chief holly@papercitymag.com 12 Party: Houston Symphony Ball — Centennial Edition 14 Party: Glassell School of Art's Wrecking Ball 10 Party: Houston Museum of Natural Science unveils "Bulgari: 130 Years of Masterpieces" 22 Art: A chat with photographer Mario Testino A fter a long and hot (albeit not as hot as it could have been) summer, everyone is back in town and geared up for fall. The changing of the season means new clothes — and events happening almost every night. It's once again about luxury these days. Stores are opening, relocating and renovating, paving the way for more shopping and more parties. PaperCity, along with Vogue magazine, is thrilled to partner with Simon Malls for a fall fashion event beginning September 11 at Houston Galleria — two days of nonstop fashion, not to be missed. And how excited is everyone about the new names and newly renovated boutiques in the Galleria? John Varvatos and Trina Turk are new to Houston; Chanel is undergoing an extensive remodel, which we know will be amazing; Zara is expanding (online shopping just isn't cutting it!); and many, many more. If it's not about fashion, then it's definitely about home and art. Houston has two major art fairs and an antiques and design fair this month (Houston Fine Art Fair, Texas Contemporary Art Fair and Houston Antiques + Art + Design Show) and national design stores moving in (Ann Sacks has opened in West Ave and Holly Hunt opens next month in Decorative Center Houston, to name two). I personally am most excited about fall because it means I move into my new position as PaperCity's publisher. It's truly an honor, and I have big shoes to fill! With an amazing editorial and advertising staff, we can't go wrong. Monica Bickers Publisher monica@papercitymag.com 20 Party: Best Buddies benefit with Tom Brady chez John and Becca Cason Thrash Monica Bickers MAX BURKHALTER 30 26 36 Party: River Oaks Tootsies Tennis Tournament Luncheon and Fashion Show 38 44 40 Fashion: Spanish lessons with Delpozo's Josep Font Fashion: Designer Aurélie Bidermann's gems of wisdom Party: Fêting Bette Midler at Brilliant Lecture Series Party: Houston Symphony's Centennial Wine Dinner and Auction 46 56 Fashion: Gearing up for fall Design: Table talk with jewelry designer Katy Briscoe Style: Multifaceted oeuvre of artist Laurie Anderson Design: Artist Claire Cusack's 1917 bungalow 77 Design: Jason Logan's Perforated House Art: Houston Fine Art Fair, Year Four Social Calendar: Your guide to fall's top charitable events Pick of the New: Fresh spots to graze Style: rewardStyle's Amber Venz Box and Baxter Box PC House + Art HUNT SLONEM Party: Opening Fiesta of Biscuit Home's new store 68 54 Design: Touring Giorgio Borlenghi's Belfiore Contemporary Canvas: Anthony Discenza BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE TEXAS CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR One of the headliners in Catharine Clark Gallery's booth, Oakland- based Anthony Discenza, has promulgated an art practice that has resulted in solo and group shows from Berlin to London, while his hypnotic videos have screened at museums and film festivals from Geneva to L.A., including the prestigious Getty Center. In Texas, Discenza's art and moving images have been highlighted at the Dallas Video Festival and that temple of cool, Ballroom Marfa. This summer, as part of a San Francisco public art project "Way Out West," his billboard in the Mission district — Sell Your Hopes — went viral, while addressing displacement and gentrification in one of the city's storied neighborhoods. We caught up with the California College of the Arts professor via email for a preview of what he's planned for Clark's booth — and why he's mad for text on a page or as outdoor statement: "The works being shown at Texas Contemporary — [are] two pieces from the Teasers series and four of the Pulps series … For the past four or five years, a lot of my work has been text-based, although it has taken many different forms, from street signage to wall text to audio works that use professional voiceover actors. While the tone of these different projects varies greatly, there is a continual interest in the use of descriptive language — comparative forms like similes, or types of descriptive 'shorthand' such as the Hollywood 'elevator pitch' that the Teaser series investigates [are] informed by the language of advertising, mass culture, and clichéd speech, albeit slightly distorted and de-contextualized." On his Pulps, where language becomes objects, recreated upon faded paper, calling up cinematic noir classics like The Maltese Falcon or the front pages of a Dashell Hammett detective thriller: "These text fragments are completely made up, though each is an attempt to channel the style of different literary sub-genres such as horror, sci-fi, mystery and romance." About the roots of the artist's text-suffused offerings and why he's obsessed: "[It] owes a direct debt to movements like conceptualism and fluxus, but the practice really leads all the way back to the interest of many of the Dada and Surrealist artists in language and appropriation … Paradoxically, because we live in such an image-saturated culture, text seems to me to be a key means to recuperate visuality, precisely because of its ability to both evoke and withhold the visual at the same time." Anthony Discenza's Teaser #8, 2013, at Catharine Clark Gallery COURTESY THE ARTIST AND CATHARINE CLARK GALLERY, SAN FRANCISCO Anthony Discenza BEAN GILSDORF September 4 – 7, 2014 H O U S T O N txcontemporary.com Seems we made hash of Vivian Wise's Velvet Slipper Divine caption on an opening-night fête photograph … The correct caption should have read #pcseen at Velvet Slipper Divine. 70 49 Decoration: What's new in the design whirl 74 Design: Houston Antiques + Art + Design Show Party: Houston Design Center's Spring Market 82 62