With lush colors, rich fabrics, and bold gestures, decorator John Barman and his associate, Jack Levy, pull off a daring riff on a classic Italian style.
By Carol Papper
"IT ALL STARTED with the curtains. The stylish New York City couples knew that they wanted a look inspired by the romance and faded grandeur of Venice, but they also craved strong color. Combining the two in their boxy modern duplex appeared next to impossible. But then their decorators, John Barman and his associate, Jack Levy, discovered a traffic-stopping Italian silk taffeta in iridescent blue with an electric red sheen..."
ENTERTAINING FOR BEGINNERS
Oprah's Chef, Art Smith helps a young couple get cooking. Carol Schatz Papper gets the dish.
By Carol Schatz Papper
"...Sadly, such love can lead to love handles. So when planning menus for Oprah, Art makes sure there are healthy options. If she asks him to make his buttermilk-fried chicken, a real crowd-pleaser, he'll grill some low-fat fish, too. He always serves salad dressing on the sides, the way Oprah prefers it, and accompanies a rich home-baked dessert with fresh fruit and sorbet. He advises the Raffs to follow suit."
Lynn Whitfield won an Emmy as Josephine Baker--then her career hit a bump
Written by Carol Schatz/Reported by Nancy Matsomoto
"IT MAY ONLY BE A MANHATTAN ICE-cream parlor, but Lynn Whitfield is impeccably coiffed, impossibly manicured and importantly dressed in a Vertigo ruby blazer and black pants as she shares an after-school snack with her daughter Grace, 3, who is herself picture-perfect in a navy blue pinafore. Wouldn't it be easier to do this in jeans? Perish the thought. 'One of my missions,' says the 40-year-old actress, 'is to keep glamor going.'"
Ornamental and fragile, the little ones are loved by many and stepped on by a few
By Carol Schatz
"Make no bones about it, a German shepherd cannot be tucked under the arm and carried like a purse. A black Labrador will make confetti of the antique pillows piled at the head of your bed. Big dogs may have their virtues, but it is small ones that make perfect design accessories for home or wardrobe."
Appreciating the Tailor's Art is Suddenly Fashionable
By Carol Schatz
"'I love you, I love you!' shouts Vincenzo Furfar, the head tailor for Napoleon, a men's specialty store in New York City. His enthusiasm punctuates a dinner hosted for eight tailors by Kiton, an Italian suit maker, at one of Manhattan's finest French restaurants. Kiton has flown the tailors in for a weekend of entertainment, put them up in a deluxe hotel, escorted them around the city in private cars, and presented each with an expensive bolt of super 150's wool. Why? 'To us, the master tailor is a vital link in providing the level of craftsmanship that Kiton demands,' says Andrew Tanner, one of Kiton's two U.S. representatives, looking crisp on a humid evening his handmade Luigi Borrelli linen shirt, handmade tropical-weight Kiton suit, and a handmade seven-fold silk tie."
Collage artist and jewelry designer Apryl Miller inhabits a zany landscape of her creation
By Carol Papper
"APRYL MILLER THINKS too much outside the box to live inside a white one. So when it came to decorating her 4,000-square-foot Manhattan apartment in a brand-new building, she knew that it would take more than a conventional designer or architect to create the home of her imagination. 'What I wanted in my house was very individualized,' she says, 'and when I realized that I couldn't expect anyone to know what was in my brain, I had to do it myself.' Drawing on her experience as a collage artist and jewelry designer, Miller custom-crafted a uniquely colorful family space that defies expectations..."