Town & Country December/January 2022

California style took center stage in the fashion section of Town & Country’s August 1964 issue. To model the wardrobe of tailored suits, slinky skirts, and red carpet–worthy gowns, we enlisted prominent women from the Golden State, including actresses Brooke Hayward (who at the time was Mrs. Dennis Hopper) and Tippi Hedren, pictured here posing with her 1964 Chrysler Imperial convertible outside the Hotel Bel-Air. Alfred Hitchcock had spotted Hedren in a soda commercial, and her 1963 debut in The Birds had catapulted her to Hollywood stardom. By the time of this photo shoot she had already been cast in Hitchcock’s next thriller, Marnie, opposite Sean Connery. Since then she has made countless onscreen appearances, even starring in a 2018 Gucci campaign as a mysterious fortune teller. Today, at 91,…

As with so many things right now, it has been almost two years. We landed in Paris starved for old favorites: the profiteroles at Le Voltaire, the chicken at Allard, the burger at Ferdi, an omelet at Le Castiglione, the oysters at Le Duc (where you might run into a New Yorker or five). In between the shows of the spring 2022 season we fed ourselves Paris, in food and art and fun. The newly redone seventh-floor suites at the Plaza Athénée made me feel especially at home. They are modern but warm, and filled with that Parisian light. As one friend said when he came up for a coffee klatsch one morning, “Oh hello, is this your new apartment in Paris?” Et voilà! Staying there also meant I could…

WHAT’S #VERYTANDC? The history: India Mahdavi. Daniel Arsham. Armani/Casa. The Future Perfect. Such are the design tours de force behind 14 unique townhouses at the Culture Pass Club, Qatar’s first members-only arts club in Msheireb Downtown Doha, a gleaming $5.5 billion design district currently under development in the country’s capital. Townhouse 4, seen here, is the creation of Mahdavi, who referenced her own background—the Paris-based designer is of Iranian, Egyptian, and Scottish descent—for an exquisite display of eclecticism. Her Charlotte chairs mingle with rattan and ceramic pieces from her collection; the rugs are from a collaboration with La Manufacture Cogolin. On the walls? Custom de Gournay, naturally, inspired by the works of Reza Abbasi, the 16th-century miniaturist. “It gives the space a tailored feel,” Mahdavi says, “and an identity that resonates with…

“I don’t want to eat gingerbread, that’s for sure,” says Michael S. Smith. The interior designer of President Barack Obama’s White House is holding court on the subject of holiday parties. He usually hosts a major bash on New Year’s Eve at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, with his husband James Costos, the former ambassador to Spain. That, of course, stopped with the pandemic. Now he’s wondering, Is it time to resume, and if so, how? “A lot of stuff has come out about entertaining during the plague,” he continues. “Buffets seem a little kooky, so one of the things we started to do is individual hors d’oeuvre plates. People kind of like it. It’s a glamorous version of a boxed lunch.” Welcome to the second holiday season under the shadow of…

“Big family luncheons are a custom that belongs to the past,” says Paolo Sorrentino, and that’s what made a scene depicting one necessary for his semiautobiographical coming-of-age drama, The Hand of God. The film, in theaters December 3 and streaming on Netflix December 15, follows a Neapolitan teenager named Fabietto through a summer that changes his life forever. It’s a visually stunning, brilliantly offbeat tale about love, loss, and discovery—and with Sorrentino (who directed the Oscar-winning The Great Beauty) at the helm, it’s no surprise that there are also appearances from a magical monk, a dour baroness, and a soccer star with whom Fabietto just might share a cosmic connection. Despite featuring moments of magical realism, The Hand of God is rooted in Sorrentino’s memories of the charm and challenges of his…

Peter Duchin can tell us a thing or two. About music, about style, about survival with a smile. The legendary bandleader’s first memoir, Ghost of a Chance, delivered memorable storytelling and anthropological information on a lost world, its customs, and its language: “[Marie Harriman] may have coined the expression ‘rat-fuck,’ which is what she called parties that were too big. I don’t know what she had against the City of Brotherly Love, but she called a really big terrible party a ‘Philadelphia rat-fuck.’” Hilarity was the dominant note. Face the Music, out this month and cowritten with Patricia Beard, is Duchin’s moving and deeply personal follow-up. It was begun as a meditation on his need to know more about the mother he lost almost at birth (“Would we recognize each other…