Princess Diana's American Heels
"Vanessa Noel was born and raised in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania on the main line from aristocratic lineage that hails directly back to the last king of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm."
Vanessa Noel’s semi-annual bridal shoe sale is now online. Vanessa is a character. She says she is considered “the number one wedding shoe designer in the country.” (I don’t know how you prove or debunk this, but she did design my wedding shoes, and I loved them.) She lives above her shop. She has told me many, many times that she “doesn’t need publicity.” From her website: “Vanessa Noel was born and raised in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania on the main line from aristocratic lineage that hails directly back to the last king of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm. During Noel’s childhood her mother was best friends with Grace Kelly.” A list of clients include: “Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, Queen Noor of Jordan, HRH Crown Princess Marie-Chantal, HRH Princess Michael of Kent, Catherine Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge..Hillary Clinton.” She “hung bedsheets in the store window” so that Princess Diana could have the privacy to shop.
Her website, as you can imagine, is janky: you need to click on the “sale” tab to see the options in that category. But, for $200-$300, you can get an excellent, walkable, elegant shoes to wear on your wedding day that, to me, far outpace any name brand shoes.
Any white shoe can have an easy second life. Vanessa recommends Evelyn & San at 400 East 83rd Street for dyeing shoes, along with any other shoe and handbag repairs. “Edouard is excellent at matching specific colors when dying shoes.” You can even bring a sweater, dress or scarf from your closet to get an exact color match. (This is what Vanessa recommends.)
Aspiring Actress Bag, Wall Calendars, Soup Spoons for Babies
I enjoy the stylish artworks of Cynthia Talmadge. She creates work in the realm of class nostalgia. She recreated dorm rooms at rehab facilities (McLean, Hazelden); mimicked the stone sculptures that litter college campuses with a cheeky work called “Class Gift”; painstakingly rendered, in a pointillist style, the famous funeral home on the Upper East Side (this was written up in the New Yorker, by Patty Marx no less). You can now purchase an “Aspiring Actress Bag,” designed by the artist, with slogans such as “Ivy Sleaze” in her signature style. $325, 3 pouches included. A very good deal, I think.
I really like when artists have their own shops. (I’m less into gallery-run shops.) The photographer Alex Prager has one of my favorite wall calendars on offer for 2025. Her studio also makes puzzles with her hyperrealistic photographs on them. I recommend Western Mechanics.
The Gift Guide chat has a thread dedicated to wall calendars. A superb recommendation: A calendar of “sink holes, cave-ins, and other vacancies in the 20th century streetscape of Philadelphia.” Readers also recommend: John Burgoyne’s Farmer’s Market Wall Calendar; Margaret Howell’s Silk Mosaics calendar; XL calendars from Stendig (“just for the impact”); a 50-year calendar paperweight from the NYPL Shop; and a basic option from the Central Park Conservancy. I get my wall calendar for free every year at B&H Deli (it has pictures of the cooks and waitresses grinning from ear-to-ear).
I have an obsession with tracking my movements in multiple places, so I also use an Hermes planner, a birthday gift from my friend Susie, which you get a new insert for each year. A nice ritual.
Murava Ceramics, in Turkey, makes wonderful soup spoons for small children or “quirky” adults. They have an Etsy store, but I think it’s smart to just reach out and get a custom order.
A stupid hat for Valentine’s Day
If you messed up Christmas, you can make it up on Valentine’s Day. You can give anyone a gift on Valentine’s Day, kindergarten-style. If you do have a girlfriend, I think you should buy her statement headgear she’ll only wear once. A hat box in the closet adds a lot of mystery to a woman’s bedroom…
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