Wallpaper Born in Brazil + other weekend parties...

Psst, don’t tell too many people about this, here are a couple great semi-secret (truly NY insider) parties happening this weekend. Start out with Friday’s cocktail gathering to celebrate Wallpaper’s Brazil issue. The party takes place at the wonderful and lofty Espasso store. Espasso specializes in talented high-end Brazilian designers, and is one of the hippest furniture stores in Manhattan. RSVP with powerhouse PR agent Nadine Johnson at Wallpaper@NadineJohnson.com

Espasso, 38 N. Moore Street, New York, on Friday, May 14^th from 8pm – 12pm

If you haven’t started your summer share yet, it’s worth driving out just for the day to check out c/o The Maidstone’s open house. The hotel will present an exhibition by photographer Jacob Fellander and showcase its newly renovated rooms for our peeking. Each suite delightful and inspired by Scandinavian personalities such as Alfred Nobel, furniture designer Arne Jacobsen and world traveler Thor Heyerdahl. The main area of the hotel has been redone last year and feature a comfortable and a welcoming atmosphere: a genuine feel of "Scandinavian cozy" as Jenny Ljungberg, the owner describes it. It is the best hotel in the Hamptons by far. This is your chance to intimately get to know your knew après-beach hang out for this summer.

Local wines and cheeses will be served, RSVP is a must. From noon until 3.

c/o The Maidstone
207 Main Street East Hampton - Directions

Spring Pedals

Bikes lined up in front of The Bowery Hotel, available to guests for their own cruising pleasure

Spring is the time to enjoy the outdoors and shake off the winter blues (and why not, the accumulated extra ponds as well). The most efficient way to achieve both at the same time would be to bicycle around town. Around Central Park there are several companies that rent bikes per hour. If you are a true bicycle connoisseur you will take pleasure in visiting the exhibit Bespoke: The Handbuilt Bicycle, starting May 13^th at the Museum of Art and Design.

Talking about bespoke and highly crafted bikes, many luxury brands are coming out with lavish two-wheeled riding machines. And since we do live in a fashion centric metropolis, I thought you would be like to be up to speed on the latest designer trends in bicycles:

For a genuine Dutch version, - those guys know what they are doing, there’s practically one bike per capita in Holland - check out the stylish eight-speed, easy-riding Men’s Amsterdam Royal 8i

Ladies, if you thought pedaling around town is for messengers and dudes only, erase, or better yet, literally white-out that pre-concept notion with the all white, super chic Cruiser Bicycle by Gucci.

Gucci's ride costs around $6,000

On that same note, girls, if you rather pedal around on something more classical, say black, Chanel offers the perfect option for your urban two-wheel ride. No need to worry about your mascara getting messy. The make-up case is built in and included, bien sur!

Around $12,000, the Chanel aluminum hand-assembled bike has a quilted calfskin seat and three bags with signature logo

Self declared bicycle lover Paul Smith collaborated with Japanese saddle maker Kashimax and designed a classic Paul Smith multistripe leather bicycle seat. Here’s a you-tube video of the British designer telling how he started his career as a racing cyclist and became the extraordinary fashion designer he is now.

Tribeca Film Festival

Tickets are now on sale for the 9^th Annual Tribeca Film Festival! 44 films will make their world debut starting this Thursday and more than 500 movies are expected to be screened during the week long event. If you can’t skip work to walk to red carpet, you can participate from online from your office, or from your home couch. A $45 pass can give you internet access to 8 feature length films, 18 shot films and preview videos. Time Warner is offering flicks from the 2010 Film festival On Demand. Happy viewing!

Sidewalk Art to take home

We know New York is filled with talent. Sometimes you actually stumble across it on the streets. Turning a corner in SoHo, I saw Kazuya Morimoto, sitting on his little foldable chair, transferring the imposing loft buildings into a colorful aquarelle on his drawing pad. Morimoto is a Japanese painter working in the New York for the past five years, who only does these whimsical cityscape drawings as a distraction from his true daily work: abstracts.

If you don’t want to face the odds of running into him on a corner anywhere in Manhattan or Brooklyn, you can check out his work at the opening reception of his show this Thursday, April 15th starting at 6 pm.

Go here to see a sample of his abstract paintings.

If you prefer his cityscape renderings he accepts commissions: you can have any of your favorite NY facades on paper, painted with mastery for $800.
A NYC souvenir just can’t get more custom that that!

Kazuya Morimoto: though April 17th
215 west 57th street
The Art Students League of NY
2nd floor Pillip Harriman Mason Gallery

The Henri Cartier-Bresson opening party at the MoMA

Henri Cartier-Bresson’s first major retrospective after his death in 2004 at the MoMA’s 6th floor was competing with the museum’s sculpture garden. On this uncharacteristic April balmy evening, guests were lingering outside sipping their glasses of wines. And so was I, holding on dearly to my rose, while enjoying the warm breeze. But once I finally made it all the way upstairs, I forgot all about the outside world. Viewers get immediately sucked into a historical tour du monde in vivid black and white.

At the start, you might think you’ve seen it all before, after all, who is not familiar with the vast work of this photojournalist who founded the Magnum agency and brought to light realities around the globe never seen before.

His travels are beautifully represented on huge graphic maps by Adrian Kitzinger.
View them here.

If you missed the glorious combo of garden & photography of last night’s opening party, you can replicate this magical atmosphere at one of “Thursday MoMA nights”. The evenings always feature different DJ’s and a cash bar.

Until then, enjoy the interactive preview.

A forbidden snapshot using my phone camera of a 1951 Cartier-Bresson photo taken in Scanno, Italy

Prada, Armani, etc: Madison Avenue storefronts embrace spring

 

By Alexandra Forbes, special contributor

Spring is here! And the storefronts on Madison Avenue have embraced the new season. Here are a few of our favourites, all clustered between 77th and 65th streets:


Valentino….


Armani megastore:













Dolce & Gabbana…





Prada….


The Tom Ford menswear boutique

Chef David Chang opens Má Pêche restaurant in New York's Midtown

chef David Chang

by Alexandra Forbes, special contributor

It’ll be very interesting to see how this turns out…. David Chang, chef-owner of the cult restaurant Momofuku Ko and king of New York’s hip downtown, is opening a restaurant in (yikes!) the very touristy and corporate Midtown.
Although I havent’ been to Momofuku Ko, for the sheer annoyance factor of trying to score a reservation through the impossibly difficult online system he’s set up, I am a huge fan of his more accessible restaurants – especially Ssäm Bar, which serves what I consider to be the world’s tastiest sandwich (barbecue pork).
Now he’s opening, this Wednesday, a restaurant called Má Pêche (a play on peach, his budding empire’s logo) in a part of New York that is very…. un-Chang like: Midtown!
Let’s see if it becomes as successful and sought-after as his other restaurants…

Má Pêche
15 W 56th St
(between Fifth and Sixth Aves.)
tel. 212-247-2011