The Unexpected Elegance of Orange

If there was one colour that kept peeking its cheeky head above the Manhattan monochromes in New York last week, it was orange. Orange is everywhere over there. Everywhere. Blame it on the northern hemisphere summer. Blame it on the Pantone hype. Or just blame the fabulous whimsicality of the colour, but I saw more orange in Manhattan than at Marrakech market.

Furthermore, it seems to be ripening? There's seemingly more orange around now than there was a month ago? Look at the Christian Dior frock from the latest Resort Collections (above), which is a bold blood-orange colour that would stop any French man in tracks.

Here are some of my favourite orange moments in Manhattan. (NB I promise this is the last NY post. Funnily enough, my week alone there cured me of wanting to live in the city. I don't think I make enough money to look as gorgeous as all the New York girls do, all the time?)

The silk drapes of the 'Atrium' restaurant at the new NoMad hotel in New York, which was designed by Jacques Garcia. Who would have thought tomato red, tangerine and green would go so elegantly together?

A beautiful window of a store near Bergdorf Goodman. Look at how they've elevated a simple orange handbag to a grand shrine? So gorgeous.

Florence Broadhurst's wallpaper in Kate Spade's SoHo store. Broadhurst was an Australian designer, so it was a thrill to see how the company has embraced her prints as part of its 2012 'pattern' collections.

A detail of the exquisite chair in my room at the Gramercy Park Hotel. (It was so elegant, I was almost afraid to sit on it.)

I took my new tangerine Sambag handbag to the US (which is so orange you have to co-ordinate all your outfits with it in advance) and I received so much praise that I swore I could see the handbag swelling with every compliment. (Every now and then I'd have to poke it, to remind it who was boss!)

 Look at how full it is. I can't tell you how much I stuffed in there! I think there's a SLR camera, a lens, passport and wallet, a make-up kit, itinerary and notes, a small bottle of water, and quite possibly my partner too... (See his head sticking out the side?)

A fabulous frock on Fifth Avenue. (Trying saying that five times.) Oh, to have a derriere like this...

The summery windows of Prada on Fifth Avenue. Loved the cute cloche hat. 

The deck chairs of the Sunset Beach Hotel, on Shelter Island. (Near the Hamptons.)

Georges Rech.

Madeline Weinrib's rugs.

More of Madeline Weinrib's rugs.

Mood's amazing fabric store in the Fashion District.

I found some vintage Beatons at a second-hand store in New York. I'd been searching for ages for the orange one. Beaton's early books were so full of colour and whimsy. No wonder modern editors such as Grace Coddington are now being infuenced by them. (See further below.)

This one is almost impossible to find. If you stumble across it, buy it! It's worth a fortune.

I spent one night at The Empire hotel on the Upper West Side, one of New York's most fashionable hotels. (Lots of models stay here during Fashion Week.) It was a smartly tailored combination of orange and chocolate. The lobby was a riot of tangerine and leopard skin. I'm not partial to chocolate but I couldn't stop staring. It was so dramatic. No wonder the models love it.

This is Miss Grace Coddington's memoir, which is due out in November. Do think she was inspired by Cecil Beaton's Sixties book? I wish Grace would also do a book on her Vogue fashion shoots. Perhaps that might be the sequel?

And some more orange inspiration, from the archives...

I'm not sure who this designer is, but I'm in love with the gloves as much as the bag. 

{Via Elle and This is Glamorous}

Love this. {Via Habitually Chic}

And this. (What a smile!)

Kate Spade's Cockatoo Cross-Back Retro Maillot. Now on sale (online). Orange cockatoos on a swimsuit. How cute. This is the sort of number you'd take down to the Caribbean.

And this is what you'd drink with it! This was my orange margarita on the Florida Keys. Yes, that really is the size. I think I was drunk for a week.

Is This Week The End of Print Media?

I don't talk about my family much because, well, they're mortified that I'm not only a journalist but also a writer and a memoirist. (However, they're relieved I have a different name; this allows them to pretend, when asked, that they're not related.)  

But I want to mention my brother this week (although I'll refrain from naming names), because he's caught in the Fairfax crossfire over the battle to save print media in Australia, and I'd like to defend him, before he and his media colleagues are set upon and lynched with tightly rolled-up newspapers directed at places newspapers should never be directed at. (And trust me, the press – and much of the public – are baying for blood like vampiric Twilight characters who haven't had a suck for a century.)

I'd also like to talk about the business that he's in, which is perhaps not the best one to be in at the moment.

It's the business of print media.

My brother, you see, is part of the senior management team at Fairfax Media. This legendary Australian media company owns The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Canberra Times, the Financial Review and a stable of other great news outlets. I don't tell many people this, just as he doesn't tell many people I'm a journalist. Probably best. Never wise to associate with "the great unwashed", as a colleague once dubbed us in the editorial department.

My brother has been with The Age for more than a decade, but this would no doubt be his most challenging week. If I thought I was having a dismal week, mine is nothing compared to the doom and gloom taking place down in the Docklands. Even Darren Percival doing a rendition of Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive couldn't brighten that lot up.

If you haven't yet heard yesterday's big news, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia's two biggest broadsheet newspapers, are going through the biggest crisis in the company's, and indeed Australia's print history. Basically, in 13 words or less, Fairfax has had to dramatically restructure, or cut the losses and close up shop*. (Oh sorry, that's 14 words. Where's that sub-editor gone?)

(* This is not Fairfax's opinion, but mine and indeed many others. Even Rachael Leahcar could see the company has been long overdue for an editorial nip and tuck.)

Yesterday, Fairfax announced it was taking radical steps to stop the company's profits from leaking like melted chocolate out of a self-saucing pudding. (See Epicure recipe, above, for illustration.)

The company announced it was going to slash 1900 jobs, close printing plants and downsize the papers' formats in order to prepare for heaving the whole lot online. It was one of the biggest restructures in Australia's media history. 

The one thing that surprised me about all this was: Why has it taken so long?

Newspapers and magazines have seen the writing on the wall back page for years. The Internet didn't just poke its head up yesterday. The New York Times, The LA Times, and the London Times have all struggled with falling readership and revenue for almost a decade. Even US Vogue is stumbling on its Louboutins.

Obviously Fairfax was trying to do the right thing, not only by its staff but by the Australian public, raised on a diet of Leunig and news.* (*The Age is repeatedly bagged as being written by "latte-sucking leftists from Fitzroy", but that's untrue. Leunig might be a Fitz boy but a lot of the columnists live happily in right-wing lives over in middle-class Malvern. They barely go north of the river without their passports.)

Now I know this blog is usually about entertaining things – 'lite' journalism for you time-short Internet flickers – but just this once, if you'll indulge me, I want to revert to my journalist's role and focus on something deeper: The Future of Print Media.

Or should I say, The End?

It's gonna be painful, but we need to do it.

THE END OF PRINT AS WE KNOW IT

Once upon a time, there were newspapers and magazines. Good ones. Vogue. Vanity Fair. The New York Times. The London Times. Then people started to say: What about the trees? Isn't this a waste of paper? So someone came up with an e-reader. And the trees breathed a sigh of relief. (Someone else – I think it was Rupert Murdoch? – said: "What about all those cheques?" But that's a bedtime story for another time.)

After a period of visual adjustment (those backlit screens were brighter than Piccadilly) the world turned to their e-readers. And the exclaims could be heard from here to Fleet Street. E-readers were light, bright, multi-functional, and (if desperate) you could use them for self-defence on the train late at night, unlike a tattered copy of the back section of the Fin Review.

There was just one problem. Sentimentality. People might have been reading iPads but they still had emotional ties to paper. They liked the tactile nature of it. It felt traditional. Reassuring. Trustworthy. They liked the past time of reading the weekend editions over a coffee after a walk around The Tan, or the Bondi-to-Bronte track. They liked that you could screw up the cafe's copy and stain it with coffee so the next person couldn't read the share prices. They even liked it that you could slip the sports / style section into your bag when nobody was looking.

Nobody knew what to do. So magazine and newspaper proprietors kept printing.

But as more and more people betrayed print by decamping to e-formats faster than a disillusioned Confederate, advertisers started taking note. Money fell away. And concerned magazine and newspaper proprietors started cutting back on their Chateau Lafittes.

The ironic thing was, the content hadn't changed. It had just morphed into a different form. It was like arguing which tastes better: Coffee in a mug, or coffee in a paper cup? What's the point of the debate?

If we're going to progress into the future, we have to embrace technology, or we're all just flailing around in the past. I know some of you will vehemently disagree here, and that's fine. I resisted for the longest time, too. I know how you feel.

Here's the good news. We have had centuries of great journalism. And that will continue. Just in a different medium. Those naysayers ringing the doom bell and announcing that "this is the end" might get on a commuter train one day and count all the workers with an iPad or an e-reader, browsing the sites. It's not the end of media. It's just the end of print. Even parts of the vintage issues of Vogue (above) are still available online.

Now The Death of Print will not happen by 5pm this evening. Newspapers will not go quietly into the night. There will be shouting. Anger. Tears. Print workers are not like ladies from the CWA. And quite a few of us sentimentalists will feel the loss, too (There's nothing like pulling up the lino of a place and discovering an old newspaper from the 1950s underneath.)

But let's embrace the possibilities. Let's celebrate the flexibility of e-readers, iPads, and the whole magical Internet, with its easy links, its search engines, and its "press here" technology. Newspapers may be beautiful, but they're like a lover we can't quite leave. Perhaps it's time to finally cut the ties?

Chanel and the Little Black Jacket

Wherever I went in New York last week, I saw publicity for this exhibition...

Chanel and the Little Black Jacket

Sadly, I missed it as I was getting ready to fly out of JFK just as it was getting ready to open, but the website and associated media have more than compensated for my bad timing. 

I adore black jackets – I think I have a 10 of them in the wardrobe (which I rarely use now I'm freelancing) – and so I loved seeing the images from this exhibition, which celebrates one of fashion's most classic pieces. Something I've always wanted (and search for whenever I'm in Paris) is a vintage black YSL tuxedo jacket. But I think they're as rare as sightings of Karl Lagerfeld...

Doesn't Daphne Guinness look fabulous in her black jacket? 

I love her French cuffs, and the lace headpiece.

This is Anna Wintour. She seems rather shy about showing us her black jacket? But look at the precision of that bob! It's as straight as that ribboned hem.

Uma Thurman looks beautiful, as always, in her black jacket and Elizabethan collar. 

The doorman of the Gramercy Park Hotel told me she lived directly opposite the hotel, and he often spotted her. I tried to catch a glimpse of her in Gramercy Park but I think she's heavily pregnant to Elle Macpherson's ex, Arpad Busson, so she's probably sitting with her feet up somewhere. I'm sure she's just as beautiful as she is here, even with no make-up and a dressing gown on while she waits for baby no. 3 to arrive.

Georgia May Jagger looks very French in this photo. Not sure whether it's the Monica Belluci-style lack of apparel, the tussled bed hair, or the cheeky bra? She's almost chanelling this beauty, right here...

The inimitable Jane Birkin.

Look at that irrepressible smile. She still has it, doesn't she?

Both the exhibition, which is currently touring the world (See thelittleblackjacket.chanel.com for details) and the accompanying book are a collaboration between Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld, both of whom took the photographs. If the exhibition comes to your city, do go and see it: it's meant to be well worthwhile. And if you can't, just look at the website for some wonderful fashion inspiration!

PS Here's an authentic black Chanel I found on eBay for $800. It perhaps needs some soft shoulder pads for form and I'd maybe lose the belt and replace it with a thin black one, but it's definitely a good buy for that price. Perhaps I should discard my dream of a YSL tuxedo and settle for a classic Chanel number instead?

PS I must apologise for being rather low-key at the moment. I know I haven't replied to your lovely comments and I'm so contrite. There's rather a lot happening here and I'm struggling with juggling everything. Think: Jetlag combined with a terrible flu I picked up in Sydney, combined with packing up a big house to move (settlement is in 2 weeks: no rest for sick souls around here!), combined with troubles and worries within our family, and finally reconciling the fact that my mother-in-law might have to come and live with us, which curtails any plans to move OS.

But there is always a bright side to life. And I'm thankful for the many lovely things in our life. 

I just hope you can bear with me while I catch up on correspondence, comments, and well, life itself!

NY's BookExpo (And Books To Buy In 2012)

Last week, I took a break from photographing New York for a new book and instead went and looked at other people's books. Lots and lots of them. I went along to the great, gargantuan, carnivalesque event known as BookExpo America (BEA), the publishing industry's big trade show.

There were 1200 exhibitors in the cavernous space, most of them publishers, and more famous authors than you could shake an e-reader at.

I walked past a gentlemen and thought: That looks like Tom Wolfe. It was. (Image via The Selby)

Ian McEwan and Michael Connelly were signing books, as was Robert Goolrick, one of my favourite new authors. I asked if they had credit card facilities to buy a copy. "Oh, the books here are free!" said the publicist. "Just stand in line." I did. I also nabbed a new James Patterson book, Zoo, that isn't out until September. (That was free, too.) I read it on the flight home. It was pacier than the 747. Barbara Kingsolver gave a talk about something. So too did Stephen Colbert, Zadie Smith, Daniel Handler (Lemony Snickert) and dozens of others. I missed them. I was stuck somewhere in the throng, being offered showbags of new books and wondering if I should buy another suitcase to cart them all home in? No wonder people love it.

There was lots of talk about First Lady Michelle Obama's new garden book American Grown. Michelle wasn't there. But I did see her hubby hot-footing it down Madison Avenue in a cavalcade. Perhaps he was off to buy a copy?

Three publishers featured my books among their displays. When I went to thank them, two didn't believe I was who I said I was. At that moment, shaking my head at the surreal scene of seeing my books on show at this extraordinary place, I didn't even believe who I was! I chatted to the editorial head of a huge French publishing house. "Oh, I've seen your Design in Black and White book!" she said kindly. Then we spoke about possible future projects. I was so humbled. I felt as though I'd landed a private audience with the Pope.

The biggest buzz of the show? The Fifty Shades of Grey series, which is published by a tiny Melbourne publisher and has sold more than 10 million copies. Taking a rest from the page-turning madness, I sat next to a Texas woman who reviews books for a living. She said erotic books will be big in the next few years. I think I might have to start writing erotica soon...

Here are some of the most beautiful new books shown at the show. All are being released later this year.

DIANE KEATON : HOUSE

Diane Keaton's memoir, Then Again, was a runaway bestseller. She's now on a roll, with two more books due out soon. House is the first. A beautifully designed project, it's Keaton's portrayal of the way we live now "in rusticated, reimagined, or repurposed spaces across the country". Keaton is an architecture and design lover, as many of you who have seen her homes will know (even the interiors in her films are slavishly copied), and this book taps into her passion for engaging spaces. Certain to be as stylish as its author. Published in Sept. (Rizzoli) (Image of DK via Elle Decor)

ROMAN AND WILLIAMS : THINGS WE MADE

I love Roman and Williams. Their loft library (above) is perhaps my favourite space in the world. So I will be waiting like a child at Christmas for their first monograph Things We Made. The talents behind the Ace Hotel, The Standard Hotel, the Royalton's lobby, and the homes of Kate Hudson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Stiller, the duo is arguably the hottest design firm in NY right now. Even Facebook asked them to design the company's food hall. I can't wait to see The Things They've Made. Published in Oct. (Rizzoli)

LA PERLA : LINGERIE AND SEDUCTION

La Perla is more than just a lingerie brand. It has all the drama of a Federico Fellini film! This new book, Lingerie and Seduction, focuses on La Perla's celebrated and drop-dead (or drop-into-bed) designs. Striking, sumptuous, sophisticated and oh-so-sexy. And the book isn't bad too... Published in Oct. (Rizzoli)

PARIS BY HOLLYWOOD

The cover of this caught my eye but it's the concept that I love. So original too.  It's a nostalgic volume examining Hollywood's fascination with the City of Light (and cinema). There are seminal films such as An American In Paris, Sabrina and even Woody Allen's studies, plus interviews with Martin Scorsese, Julie Delpy and Leslie Caron. Definitely one to put on the Christmas wish list! Published in Sept. (Flammarion)

KELLY WEARSTLER : CHROMATIC RHAPSODY

I think Kelly Wearstler should take a little break for work for a while. Her insane levels of productivity are making the rest of us look bad! Her latest book, Chromatic Rhapsody, shows off her distinctive 'mod baroque' projects, revealing the decadence and the attention to detail that has made her so famous (apart from her Playboy shoot!) It also follows the designer as she goes about her (very stylish) day. If you've ever wondered what it's like to be Ms Wearstler, buy this book. A fun, behind-the-scenes look at an intriguing design icon. Published in Oct. (Rizzoli)