High Gloss in New York

So, it’s back to the daily grind after an event-filled week in New York to celebrate the launch of High Gloss. We had a jam-packed schedule and now that we’re all back home, we have a tiny bit of time to breathe before we start going full steam ahead with issue two. I arrived on Monday afternoon and met up with Kyle and Erin at The Empire Hotel, where we would be spending our stay. Yes, it’s the same Empire that Chuck Bass owns in Gossip Girl (more Gossip Girl gossip in a bit). That evening, we went to the Rue Magazine party where we saw some familiar faces and mingled with new ones.

Afterwards, we headed to Kelley Moore’s apartment where she hosted a beautiful dinner for the High Gloss girls. The table setting was beautiful and the colors, our signature pink and orange. The food was just as lovely as the table.

On Tuesday, we celebrated the launch of the first issue of High Gloss! We spent a great part of the day on email, in meetings, etc and in the late afternoon, we took a little sojourn to the John Barrett Salon at Bergdorf Goodman where we had our make-up done. More on that very soon! That evening, we had our launch party at the beautiful Upper Eastside home of Karen Klopp of What2WearWhere. We had the pleasure of co-hosting with ABC Carpet and Home and Tibi.

{Photo by Sarah Winchester- Sarah also shot the “La Vie en Rose” feature in our first issue. She took several beautiful detailed shots like this one at the party. I am in love with these dining chairs. Orange and Greek key, yes please!}

{The High Gloss Team at Our Launch Party

Party Photos by Chance Yeh from Patrick McMullan}

{Bryan Zaslow, founder of JBC Style, me, and my friend, Anisha Lakhani, who was a tremendous help in organizing our party. Thank you, Anisha!}

{Me in the Mackenzie dress by Elizabeth Olliver, our fabulous hostess Karen Klopp, and our entertaining contributor, Kelley Moore who went above and beyond to make the party a success.}

{James Beard Award Winning Chef, Jason Wilson from Crush in Seattle created some beautiful and inspired bites for our fete.}

{The ultra-chic girls from Tibi, including their head of PR, Liz Walker in the center. Thank you for co-hosting with us!}

{Television Personalities Gigi Stone and Kimberly Guilfoyle}

{A huge thank you to all of the bloggers who came to the party, including Ashlina of The Decorista.}

{Jenny from Little Green Notebook and Nicole from SoHaute, both of whom are featured in our first issue.}

{Colette from Cococozy and her friend}

{Nick Olsen, Jamie Meares, friend, and Hanna Nation, who created the illustration in my header}

{Our incredible art director, Ashley Steen and I…she works around the clock to make the magazine look as great as it does and she still manages to look like a model!}

On Wednesday night, we went to a blogger preview party for West Elm, Williams Sonoma, and Pottery Barn. It was a lot of fun and was held in a great space at The Standard Hotel. I really loved this event and getting to see so many new items from the spring lines in person.

{Paloma, Shannon, Dabney Lee, and Lauren at the West Elm/ Williams Sonoma Home/ Pottery Barn event.}

After the party, I joined Dabney and Lauren for dinner at Minetta Tavern in the Village where I met Jennifer Carpenter (Deb from Dexter) in the ladies’ room and feasted upon one of my favorite star sightings- Chase Crawford and Penn Badgley from Gossip Girl! I am obsessed with both Dexter and Gossip Girl, so that night was pretty awesome. Oh yeah, the food was great, too.

For more photos, check out the High Gloss Facebook page.

This Week’s Quote

{via The Love Shop}

High Gloss Magazine Launch Party

{The High Gloss Team: Art Director Ashley Steen, Editors Shannon Wollack and Lauren Rauter, Editor in Chief Paloma Contreras, Editor Kyle Knight, Entertaining Contributor Kelley Moore, Editor Erin Gates}

This past Tuesday, we celebrated the launch of High Gloss Magazine with a beautiful party at the home of Karen Klopp, of What2WearWhere in Manhattan. We are so grateful that she opened up her gorgeous home to us. We had a great turn out! We are also very thankful to Tibi and ABC Home for co-hosting the event with us. It was wonderful to see old friends, meet blog friends in person and mingle with new faces.We had delicious food and drinks by James Beard award winning chef, Jason Wilson and the DJ spun some fabulous tunes the whole night. We could not have done it without the help of my dear friend, Anisha Lakhani and our entertaining contributor, Kelley Moore. They both helped to really put the High Gloss stamp on the party. I just finished uploading a ton of pictures taken by Chance Yeh of the Patrick McMullan agency to the High Gloss Facebook page. Come check them out and if you were at the party, be sure to tag yourself!

High Gloss Curated Sale on Gilt Home

Thank you all so much for all of the incredible support this week for High Gloss. We are all so grateful to hear how much you loved the magazine. Today at noon, Gilt Groupe will be featuring a High Gloss- curated sale featuring some of our favorite design items. Be sure to check it out!

P.S.Please say a little prayer for me. My flight was cancelled and all I want to do is get back home!

Dream Home: Pure Style Home

The lovely and talented, Lauren Leiss from Pure Style Home is sharing her beautiful dream home today. I love the abundance of white and the serene look of it all.

 

 

My dream house is white and it's surrounded by lush greenery.  I've had both of these pics below saved in my "dream home" file for years and I love them both equally for different settings so I had to share both: I love the pergola & insane yard & bridge in this one:

And I've had this one hanging up for years in my house in a secret spot because I love it so much:

{I've even crazily worked out the entire floorplan I'd want in this house one day.}  Image from Cottage Living

My entryway would feel something like Windsor's Smith's foyer.  I love the decayed silver lantern, the airiness and the fresh happy feeling you'd get walking in.  I love the ferns too and kill my fair share of them every year.

{House Beautiful}

My living room would feel something like this:

{Michael Bastian's LR, Domino}

I love the collected paintings & objects and have an ever-evolving collection.  It's light & airy yet a bit Alice-and-Wonderlandy.  It's also got this amazing organic feel and it seems like it's free & open for change & creativity, which I need.  Somewhere off of the living room, I'd love a little study - a bit darker than the other rooms- full of books and a pedestal table with some comfy wing chairs and a napping sofa.  It would feel like this:

{Southern Accents}

..with a touch of this:

{Jill Morris in House Beautiful}

The kitchen would be open & airy & bright.  There's no point in ever designing my own kitchen because I simply want this one:

{Southern Accents}

I covet those skylights covered draped with white linen!!! mmm mm mmm

{Southern Accents}

Looove the extra thick countertops, open shelving and the fresh white & green with hits of black.

My dining room would definitely have a gorgeous wall treatment.  And it would be its own separate room where doors could be shut to keep my guests lingering all night long.  (sounds creepy, I know. But I do love an enclosed dining room. ;)  I'd want it to have large windows so you practically felt like you were outside and you'd be able to see the yard & trees lit up at night.  I don't have a picture for this one but it would be smaller in size & very intimate.  And there would  be hidden speakers for music. If you went out one of the kitchen doors, you'd hit the mudroom & laundry room and then you'd walk through a door to the covered breezway to the garage. (With a walkway on top.)   On top of the garage, I'd have my studio.  It would be big & bright with high ceilings and tons of space:

{Atlanta Homes}

I would be in Heaven if it looked & functioned just like Suzanne Kasler's office!! (above & below)

{Atlanta Homes}

From the studio, you could open the door to the walkway above the breezeway and follow it to the upstairs portion of the main house where the kids bedrooms, and guest bedroom would be.  My bedroom would be white (as my own is now) which is what feels most restful to me when I just want to free my mind.  Here's a picture of what I WISH it could look like:

{by Ruthie Sommers, House Beautiful}

I could layer in the warmth seasonally in rugs & bedding, which I could mix up whenever I felt the urge:

{an old Ralph Lauren ad I think?}

My bathroom would be simple and the shower would be massive:

{Hello floors!!! Elle Decor}

It would also have a floating waterworks soaking tub and a (perfect, beautifully arched) steel door...

{Jill Brinson Sharp's home, House Beautiful}

...leading to a little secret garden for just me & my husband.  It would have an enclosed outdoor shower like this one:

..But with tons of plants & flowers.  Like an Eden.. (We're dreaming, right??)

The guest bedroom would have a bit more color & pattern and I love the idea of a happy yellow in there:

The kids would have fun rooms but I'd by lying if I told you I'd planned them out. (I'm kind of selfish about my daydreams ;) ;)   BUT they would definitely have a cool hang out all to themselves somewhere in the yard.

When I think about what's most important to me in my dream house, it ends up being the land that it sits upon.  I love having a home that is open to the outdoors and so the idea of having an incredible piece of property really appeals to me.  I'd love some woods and a swimming pond. 

Paloma, thanks so much for having me visit for the dream house tour!! 

Here's to one day getting a least a piece of our dream homes!! :)

High Gloss is here!

It's finally here! After months of hard work and sleepless nights, High Gloss has finally arrived. I couldn't be more proud of the magazine we have created. A special thanks goes out to my wonderful husband for his unwavering support and belief in this project. Thanks to my amazing team for all of your hard work and inspiration. You are the best!

I hope you all love High Gloss as much as we do and I look forward to hearing your feedback.

Behind the Scenes: JBC Style

My wonderful friend and New York girl about town, Anisha has been a tremendous help in planning tonight’s High Gloss launch party. She works at JBC Style, the most important fashion staffing company in the business. Here, she gives us an inside look at how it all comes together.

P.S. The first issue of High Gloss is launching very soon!

Dot busy recruiting in the luxury fashion sector

Ashley gets a kiss from Oliver

I take Rylee for a "spin"

In New York City, windows are the ultimate canvas. . .

Although a few girls from the office did get a little creative. . .

A fun floor lamp from Modani, a skin (easily cleaned!) from ABC Carpet & Home, a Fornasetti pillow from Barney's, and some tempaper Ashley and I applied. . . good thing they used tempaper because I'm already thinking of painting the office to match our new website which will be coming soon!

While showcasing designer Kristin Klonoski's Astrophel and Stella line, Klonoski kindly made the sketches we hang in our reception area - personal touches like that - in a home and an office, I imagine, make a place special. It's nice when art has a story.

We bought this great "Laugh" pillow from CB2 because it reminds me of what I like to do everyday, and when the always unamused Harold sits beside it, we all laugh harder.

Fashion District perks? Nicole Miller is a neighbor and kindly designed the label for our holiday wine

The Fox Building is just up the street, and what better treat than having Anchor Ainsley Earhardt drop by with her cuties  Sassie and Saks (short for Saks Fifth Avenue - doesn't get any more fashionable than that!)

We love to showcase new designers. We featured Nicole Romano a few months back, and she was just nominated last week for the Fashion Group International's Rising Star Award and named a standout by Linda Fargo. . . so maybe our eye is not so bad!

Even the most glamorous models let their hair down and play when they visit. . .

We're big Maggie Rizer (Mehran now!) fans at the office because Maggie adores dogs and dotes on her three Golden Retrievers

Harold Moscowitz and Pax Zaslow are both 11 and always disapprove when we goof around. They keep us on task

I admire that CEO Bryan Zaslow and COO Keith Geller work together and have known each other since they were 13.

And there you  have it. . . my JBCStyle New York City. . . not necessarily the most glamorous home you have featured on this blog, but my own small slice of La Dolce Vita to be sure. When work is sweet, life is sweet. We hope you come and visit. Welcome to Manhattan, Paloma - we know your magazine is going to be a huge success!