SALE FRENZY

Check out my amazing new Acne Rita Shearling Jacket modelled by Frances and I, in front of Frances's lovely Christmas tree. It wasn't even supposed to be in the sale at all but shhhh... I managed to get 25% off, not bad...The original design sold out probably around August (i.e. before it even got remotely cold here in England), and I reckon I'm on about the third re-cut by now, as it was so popular this year. Check out the queue for the Louis Vuitton sale outside Harrod's today - insane. CW

NYCE GIRLS

Made it back to London just in time for Christmas! This is the last New York post, promise. CW

A SLICE OF THE BIG APPLE

 

Just a small slice of the NYC fun. Shots include, Central Park, Madison Avenue, Chelsea Flea Market and the Rockefeller Centre. Claudia, Nick and I went up the Rock and also ice skated below. Truly festive! COME HOME CLAUDIA!

FC

LIFE IN THE IMAGINARIUM

Seeing as I am still stranded in New York I thought I should do a post about the place I have been staying, as it is one of the most beautful and interesting places I have ever been. It is very unusual to see such a large apartment space in the centre of downtown Manhattan and I feel very lucky to be staying here with the gang. The entire top floor of a building, it is full of beautiful antique furniture and collected objects, always with nooks and crannies yet to discover. Each room has a completely different feel. One of the best things is having a piano in my bedroom. Frances came over for a couple of visits too.
I will put better photos up when (if) I get back home.

 It is called the Imaginarium.

Frances managed to get a flight back to London Heathrow yesterday (one of the 12 flights to have made it I believe - lucky her!) but it looks like I might even be here for Christmas! It is strange to be here so close to Christmas, as many of my New York friends have left the city to return to their respective families for the holidays. It kind of feels like I'm Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone.

"Keep the change ya filthy animal"

I am also down to my last pair of contact lenses so will have to look like a 1970s detective in my Clubmasters from now on. See you across the pond hopefully...

CW



IN A CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS

 
 For many people a trip to NYC is a shopping extravaganza. A chance to have the best Christmas shopping experience in the world. Although some purchasing has been done on my part, at numerous dinners and the flea market, most of my time here has been spent at the city's art galleries. When living in London you are spoilt for choice in terms of access to great art. However, entering these iconic galleries makes you stop and consider, this is where the rest of it has been hiding. Our first stop on the art express was the Gargosian Gallery on Madison for the John Currin's exhibition. His work hovers on the grotesque and the enchanting, depicting female subjects nude or semi clothed in sometimes sexually provocative poses. His work may seem pornographic or even dated in its style but the conscious perversion of perspective in many of the paintings creates a new meaning within Currin's creations:

The people I paint don’t exist. The only thing that is real is the painting. It’s not like a photograph where there’s another reality that existed at a certain moment in time in the past. The image is only happening right now and this is the only version of it. To me, that’s fascinating. It’s an eternal moment. John Currin

In addition to this iconic space we also visited the Met and the Moma which did not cease to disappoint. However, the Frick collection off the park was a hidden gem which stupidly I had to be forced to enter. It had the best collection of old British and Dutch art including a pair of Holbein portraits which faced each other, with angry glares across the mantle. The two men being St Thomas Moore and Thomas Cromwell, figures torn apart by the history of the reformation under Henry VIII.

FC

EMPIRE STATE OF MIND

My flight back to London from New York has been cancelled! So I thought it would be a good chance to catch up on some of the photos from my trip so far. Stay tuned because there are many more to come! (from Frances too). CW