Category: Books and Other Reading

Quick Reads: Elisa Lempicka’s Apartment in NYC

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I’ll always have a fondness for Lolita Lempicka perfumes. I was wearing the original Lolita Lempicka fragrance, the one in the purple apple-shaped bottle, during one of the happiest times of my life, and I’ve tried and enjoyed all the others.

I also have a fantasy of living in a roomy apartment in an old building in Greenwich Village, which will never come true, because I am not a billionaire. But you know who does live in one of those apartments? Elisa Lempicka, Lolita Lempicka’s daughter and the creative director for the LL perfume brand. I’m trying not to succumb to the deadly sin of envy (for her whole life).

In any case, you can see photos of the apartment at Time Out New York. Here’s a shot of family photos mingled with Lolita Lempicka perfumes, candles from Cire Trudon and Ladurée, and La Maison du Chocolate candy boxes, plus who-knows-what-else. Again, envy.

Quick Reads: Barbara Nessim Interview on Huffington Post

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Just this past fall, my friend Angie introduced me to the artist Barbara Nessim. Angie and Barbara became friends through their years of working together, and Angie thought that I would enjoy meeting Barbara and having the chance to speak with her in person about her art, which was recently shown in a retrospective exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She was right!

Huffington Post has just interviewed Barbara about her career as an illustrator, the “feminine” qualities of her art, and her friendship with Gloria Steinem, among other topics. You can read the interview (and see a few examples of her work) here.

Image: Barbara Nessim, Portrait of a Young Maid Ready To Go (1968), via Huffington Post.

Covet: Charlotte Olympia “Fairy Tales” Shoes

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I love fashion. And I love books. (Not in some hipster-Instagram, “I love books! they’re so old-school!” way, but as someone who has been reading actual books for close on four decades, and owns hundreds of them, and spends much of her time in libraries, and most definitely does not own an e-reader. Okay, rant over.)

I would never actually wear these shoes, but they’re certainly fun to look at, aren’t they? with their heels embossed and ridged to look like the spines of very old leather-bound books? They belong to Charlotte Olympia’s “Fairy Tales” collection. So much better than a glass slipper.

Image: photo via Tom and Lorenzo.

Quick Reads: A Look into Poppy King’s Apartment

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As you may already know, I’m a longtime admirer of Poppy King and her work in cosmetics, from the original Poppy line to Lipstick Queen to her collaborations with other brands. I also admire her personal style and her knowledge of vintage fashion and beauty products.

Beyond the Row has just posted a beautifully photographed essay on Poppy’s style beliefs, her living space, and her collections of precious vintage items. You can read it here.

My Back Pages: Perfume in “Hail, Hail Camp Timberwood”

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From the ages of ten to thirteen, I was fanatical about Ellen Conford’s fiction. Throughout junior high school, I read and re-read every book that she had written for young adults, reveling in her writing style as much as her stories about the everyday ups and downs of teen life.

Some of my favorites in the Conford oeuvre were Seven Days to a Brand New Me and We Interrupt This Semester for an Important Bulletin—I even presented an oral book report on the latter title to my sixth-grade language arts class. One Conford novel that has been on my mind over the past few weeks, as I’ve watched the local children and pre-teens return from summer camp, is Hail, Hail Camp Timberwood (1978).

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