The Perfect New York Hotel? (At Least For Literary Lovers)

New York has always had an allure for writers. Gritty, compelling and full of metropolitan myths and gossip, it’s long been a subject matter that’s begged to be written about. "Rome may be a poem pressed into service as a city," as Anatole Broyard once put it, but New York is an energised, explosive editorial, bashed out with emphatic passion and Carrie Bradshaw-style zeal. It’s a bumptious collection of phrases and clichés, all patched together with a couple of dozen exclamation marks and then put out there on the newsstands and bookstores for its fans to soak up.

Even the city's hotels seemed to be designed for writers. The famous Chelsea Hotel was, of course, a Mecca for novelists and journalists, with everyone from Arthur Miller to Tennessee Williams, Dylan Thomas, Jasper Johns, Thomas Wolfe, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan calling the place home at one time or another. The Algonquin was another noted hangout for writers, notably Dorothy Parker and her Round Table pals. Other hotels have incorporated libraries into their interior design, to appeal to the book lover in all of us. The Library, The Night Hotel, Q Hotel, The Mercer and Andaz (among others) all feature book-lined spaces in either their lobbies or their suites, so you can browse the shelves for some Manhattan inspiration.

Searching for a hotel to stay at for a visit in May, I checked availability at all my old favourites. The Library was as full as A A Gill author talk. The Mercer was booked out with celebs. And the Andaz was just too darn expensive.

That's when I stumbled across NoMad. And I tell you, it was like finding a first edition of Cecil Beaton's Portrait of New York. Complete with dust jacket attached.

NoMad is a book-lover's mirage. A magnificent Beaux Arts building in the newly fashionable NoMad neighbourhood (North of Madison Square Park), it has only been opened for a few days. (So the availability is pretty good!). Now it doesn't look like your standard Manhattan hangout, but that's a good thing, in my opinion. It's more Parisian in feel, but with a modern, New York influence.

The rooms were designed by Jacques Garcia – who wanted to recreate the feel of a beloved Parisian apartment of his younger years. Each features clawfoot baths, antique plank floors, views of the Empire State and Flatiron Buildings, and a distinctly glamorous look. Oh – and there are also vintage desks, should you wish to write about it all.

But it's the public areas where NoMad really shines. Inside this historic old gal is a gracious, thoroughly gorgeous new interior, complete with a grand high-ceilinged lobby, a double-storey Library bar with a mezzanine catwalk and a staircase imported from the south of France, and a salon-style dining room called 'The Parlour'.

The idea was to create a place that felt like "a great house" in the "grand European tradition". They've certainly achieved it.

I, for one, will be tickled pink to stay here.

1170 Broadway  New York, NY 10001. P (212) 796-1500. www.nomad.com

{Images via NoMad and Hotel Chatter}

Sheila Scotter: A Life in Black and White (An Obituary)

Sheila Scotter was the original Anna Wintour. The first editor-in-chief of Vogue Australia, she was one of the most formidable, influential, frightening and famously fastidious and stylish women in fashion. She was also one of the most observant. I know tough-spined gay designers who would shake with nerves and change three times before they presented themselves at her impeccable front door. And even then they'd bring a change of clothes in case they spilled something on themselves on the way.

"Miss Scotter always knew if you had stained yourselves with nerves!" one of them told me with a laugh one day.

{Photo: Eric Blaich}

Known for her love of black and white – she wore no other colour – Sheila Scotter ruled Australian fashion for much of the 1960s and beyond. She took Vogue Australia and turned it into a must-have read, full of glamour, manners and the kind of poise many of us miss when we read fashion mags today. In the process, she put Australia's style on the international map. Go to any newsstand in London and you'll see it's still there.

I knew her briefly in the early 2000s and she terrified me. I was a columnist and she invited me to join a  club she had thoughtfully founded for women called The Busy Sheilas. Too intimidated to refuse, I turned up to a luncheon at Crown. Alas, we were on deadline that day and so I was three minutes late. The dressing down I received made everyone at the table quake. And then when I didn't have cash to pay my $20 share (I was in a rush on the way there), well... there was no going back to the Busy Sheilas then! Miss Scotter hated credit cards as much as she did tardiness. I was officially dismissed.

A few weeks after that incident, two distinguished gay guys I know went to pay a visit. They wore Dior. With white pocket handkerchiefs. "They need to be straighter," she said, and graciously refolded them. Then she began educating them on the importance of a good trouser cut. When she bent down to explain, one of them almost wet his pants in fear.

Surprisingly – or perhaps not – she had many gay friends. She respected their style. And she adored their gossipy stories. Some of them didn't make the cut, of course, to use a fashion pun. But several stayed by her side right until the end, tolerant of her relentless critiques and sartorial comments. I smiled when I heard that they used to visit in groups – "safety in numbers", as one quipped.

The Sartorialist's Scott Schuman shot her in 2009 for a Saba ad campaign (above). Like many, he became very taken with her. "She oozed intimidating old school charm," he said, and his photos clearly showed the respect. Look at the white gloves. And the cane! I suspect that's a Chanel camellia too. But look how she's dressed it up with a black-and-white ribbon. Oh Sheila. You still had it. Even at 88.

She knew it, too. She once said: "There is something about style, and I've definitely got it!" The quote still makes me laugh out loud.

One of her favourite outfits was a black Balenciaga raincoat. Have you ever seen such a glamorous mac? {Image by Richard Cisar-Wright}

Here's a model wearing the chic slicker. Nope. I like Sheila in it better.

The only style faux pas I ever saw her make was during one interview where she was filmed speaking with her chin resting on her hand (above). Those trained to speak in the media know you don't put your hands anywhere near your face when answering questions. I suspect Miss Scotter would have realised this in hindsight. Her face looks strangely tight. And the pose isn't her usual ladylike style. (Although her manicure looks magnificent!)

Like Anna Wintour, Sheila believed women should "tread lightly" on their feet. There was no clump-clumping along the halls of Vogue when Miss Scotter was in charge. I always remember tip-toeing whenever I was near her. I was terrified of wearing heels. Especially if floorboards were going to be in the way.

A remarkable woman, she planned her outfits to the very end. She even decided on her burial outfit: a white silk dressing gown – "to keep me warm", she said. I suspect the mourners will be wearing monochrome in fitting tribute.

Sheila Scotter passed away on Good Friday, aged 91. After all these years, she will finally join her mentors – including Diana Vreeland, with whom she worked – up there in the big Editorial Office in the sky.

Here's to an incredible woman. May she rest in peace.

Book Covers: The Harland Miller Way

Reading through the New York Times' Style magazine this morning (the Spring Design Issue is now online at tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com), I stopped in my reading tracks at the London home of designer Harriet Anstruther and her photographer husband Henry Bourne. It was a curious and intriguing mix of interior decoration – minimalism meets Cecil Beaton with a lick of hot pink – but what was really interesting was seeing a Harland Miller print over the fireplace.

If you haven't heard of Harland Miller until now (and I admit I'm still coming up to speed: where have I been?), he's a British artist who has achieved a level of fame – or perhaps notoriety – for painting enormous Penguin book covers. Courtney Cox bought one for her Malibu beach house. So, too, did the Soho House hotel group and Elton John, among many others. But instead of the usual (and perhaps ubiquitous) Pride and Prejudice-style cover, Miller reinterprets them and puts his own rebellious spin on them. A Harland Miller title is nothing like a Jane Austen one.

His work is described as "switching between being sardonic, hilarious and nostalgic". He claims the covers reflect the contradictions associated with love – the idea that it is a torment as well as a pleasure. I, like many, just like the humour in them.

And if you don't like the ones floating around the auction houses, you can also commission him to do your own cover. I'd have 'Don't Become An Author' on mine.

Here are some examples. (And if you're offended by profanity, please look away now. I apologise for what's to come. But I didn't paint them. Although for the prices he gets for them, I wish I did!)

The Hemingway one, an oil on canvas measuring 213.3 x 154.9 cm,  sold at a Christie's auction in New York in 2009 for US$22,000. That was a bargain. Miller's Penguins can go for as much as US$50,000.

The prints go for slightly less, but the paintings have that grubby, rough, old-book-cover look about them that I like.

Do you ever think, like me, that you should have continued with those painting classes at RMIT...?

Garden Party: Fairs & Horticultural Fantasies

Connecticut. For the past two days I have been researching this tiny-but-perfectly-designed US state. A garden-loving friend told me we should visit the Trade Secrets Garden Fair held there in May (considered the Chelsea Flower Show of the USA), and so I've been trying to work out how. A 14-hour international flight, a 5-hour domestic one, a 4-hour 'rest' stop in NY, a 5am start and finally a 2-hour drive... I'm thinking we could quite possibly make it?

The reason for this crazy excursion? Trade Secrets and the state of Connecticut, particularly the Litchfield Hills, are considered a gardening 'Mecca' for horticultural lovers. My friend told me Ms Martha Stewart (pictured below at the fair) loves it so much she and her assistants go there at 8am on a Saturday with two empty SUVs to fill up. We hadn't planned on seeing Connecticut on our forthcoming US trip (we hadn't even planned to be in the US at this time), but now it seems to be first priority on the list! {Image of garden path above via Design New England. Image of gardening girls below via www.stephaniestanton photography.com. Image at very top via christinedarnelldesignstudio. wordpress.com}

The fair was co-founded by the inimitable interior designer Bunny Williams (above, with Ms Martha), who bought a farmhouse in the area and then wrote a bestselling book (also above) about its renovation and decoration. She now opens her extraordinary home to visitors on the same weekend. Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter has a weekender in the neighbourhood too. So does Annie Leibovitz, Michael J Fox, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Christine Baranski, writer Annie Kelly and photographer hubby Tim Street-Porter, and a thousand other low-key celebs. Bill Blass also owned a house in the region and retired there to design out his days.

What do they all do up there? Dig, apparently. "''Gardening is our sport,'' one local explained, dishing the dirt on the social activity. ''People garden here like other people play tennis.''

Indeed, Connecticut's VIP residents love gardening so much, many of them mob the stands at Trade Secrets for the antique cloches, artful topiaries, vintage wares and rare specimens. The people watching is meant to be more amazing than the plants. (And the fashion more amazing than the people!) Regulars include Oscar de la Renta and Carolyne Roehm.

I promise to take some photos, if I can sneak the Leica between the hydrangea leaves. But in the meantime, I was so inspired by this fair I thought I'd post a small selection of some of my favourite images of garden loveliness. Have you noticed how more and more designers are introducing botanical prints and horticultural images into their collections? I predict we'll be seeing a lot of flowers and leaves on frocks and sofas later this year. It's not surprising. Gardens are so wonderful, it's difficult not to resist.

A prediction of things to come? A page from British Homes & Gardens magazine's Feb 2012 issue.

Vintage botanical prints from the fantastic website Vintage Printables (www.vintageprintable.com), which lets you download vintage prints (including these lovely leaf ones) for free.

An old but much-treasured postcard from the Chelsea Flower Show one year.

French poet and art critic Dominigue Fourcade's Provence garden. One of the loveliest outdoor entertaining areas I've seen this year. Trust a poet to create an inspiring garden.

A house on Shelter Island that I had the good fortune to photograph last year. Designed by that talented duo Schappacher White, this was the guest cottage. It was as sweet as a pea.

My favourite gardening poster, a vintage Brussels print from the fabulous Izzi & Popo store in Melbourne, in our downstairs 'Gumboot Hall'. 

I can't understand a thing in it, but it always makes me smile.

A collection of treasured gardening books in our Gumboot Hall. These always make me realise I need to strive to be a better gardener! The two little peached lime trees and the miniature Metro entrance and lamp post were bought in a little store off the Palais Royal in Paris. 

If you haven't read any of Adam Nicolson's books, then do – he's one of the best garden writers around. Then again, it's not surprising. His grandmother was Vita Sackville-West.

Gumboots as art. 

I love everything about this. The simplicity of the scene, the double shelves with mismatching prints, the old wellies lined up like a leathery still life on the floor... even the leaf-green runner. So creative. {Via Homes & Garden Feb 2012}

The great Arts and Crafts garden at Hidcote Manor, which, along with Sissinghurst, has inspired Andy Sturgeon's design for the eagerly anticipated M&G Garden at Chelsea Flower Show this year. All three gardens encapsulate the ‘New English’ style of informal cottage-style planting schemes set within a strong, formal framework (often box hedges), although Sturgeon's will feature a modern mix of plants ranging from Aquilegia 'Chocolate Soldier' and Black Form iris chrysographes to clipped holly and domed umbels of hog’s fennel.

(On a little aside, we sold our house this week, just 3 weeks after we listed it. Apparently it was the Arts & Crafts-style garden that endeared it to the two sisters who bought it. I was so thrilled, as I spent most of my renovation budget on the garden rather than the kitchen, which is apparently where the money should have gone.)

Bunny Williams' glorious conservatory-inspired dining room, impressive alfresco pool house, and whimsical, folly-inspired bathroom at her Connecticut weekender, all of them inspired by her gorgeous garden. Bunny calls her bathroom 'Bath in a Garden Folly'. She says she was inspired by the grand garden rooms of 18th century Europe. Imagine washing the exhaustion off here at the end of a gardening day? {Images via Design New England}

Bunny's out buildings, which are just as elegant as her 'in' ones. {Mislaid credit: please notify me if you know}

A garden-inspired dining room at a Virginia home, also designed by Bunny Williams. The hand-painted trellis wallpaper is by Gracie.The topiary at left is planted in an antique urn from Treillage, Williams' New York garden store. {Via Architectural Digest}

An incredible trompe l'oeil in a grand American conservatory. Look at the roof. Just beautiful.  {Via Vanity Fair}

Windsor Smith's deliciously verdant hall, which has been featured repeatedly in the blogosphere but is still worth a little gaze. {Via House Beautiful}

An enchanting green house set up for afternoon tea. So simple and yet so sweet. {Via Millie's Laurel Hedge and Tove Anderson}

And lastly, it's a terrible photo, but this was my Valentine's Day gift to The Man this year. It's supposed to be a 'wisteria heart', created from entwined wisteria vines. 

Yes, I know. Rather wonky up top. It was difficult to train. (Or maybe it's the gardener whose skills are dubious?)

I had to point it out to him on Valentine's Day. (I didn't need to cover it up because he would have never guessed what it was before then.)

It was my little horticultural gesture of love.

With that, the blog is now taking a break for a little while. It's been a delight to see you here, and even more lovely to read your kind and thoughtful notes. I apologise for the brief halt in posts, but hope to see you back here again very soon!