Kamala Harris Better For Business

Posted on October 28, 2024 by loiswhitmanhess

WSJ

Thank You Cousin Harvey Oshinsky For These Funnies

Posted on October 26, 2024 by loiswhitmanhess

A New Miami Restaurant Row

Posted on October 21, 2024 by loiswhitmanhess

Sunny’s Steakhouse In Miami’s Little River Neighborhood Is The Biggest, Delightful Surprise Ever.
Just letting you know that the Little River neighborhood in Miami is going to be where all the new exquisite and hot new restaurants will be located. Sunny’s Steakhouse, at 7357 NW Miami CT, is leading the way.

Our friends Alison Davis and Jan Gerits of City Life Guru took us there last night and we were shocked to see what is developing in a neighborhood that was just devoted to commercial businesses.

Sunny’s is a 13,000 square foot, 220-seat restaurant that has so many indoor and outdoor elegant rooms you will feel like you have traveled to a far away luxury destination.

It’s pricey but you can share several dishes to limit what you spend. However, the steaks and pastas are delicious so you are going to get a great meal.
Of course the crowd is super fashionable and filled with influencers but that is to be expected in any new Miami place. The staff treats you completely first class so that’s refreshing too.

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

We did a studio visit with @jenclay this morning. Being with her is like going to your happy place and forgetting that the rest of the world is a constant toothache. She is a textile artist that brings your soul to a land of total satisfaction.

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

@charooquet we are crazy for you. @pieroatchugarrygallery.
Women At Large
Nathalie Alfonso, Carolina Cueva, Carol Jazzar, Charo Oquet, Luna Palazzolo-Daboul, Chire Regans, Maria Theresa Barbist, Carol Todaro, Denise Treizman

Curated by Dainy Tapia

Here Is Hope

Posted on October 18, 2024 by loiswhitmanhess

What happened in Nazi Germany after Hitler’s suicide may offer some parallels to consider now that Yahya Sinwar is dead.

After Hitler’s death, the Third Reich continued fighting for 10 days, but many top Nazis shifted to self-preservation, making desperate overtures to the Allies. They ignored Hitler’s “scorched earth” directive, in which he wanted Germany to be left a dystopian wasteland for the victors.

Sinwar and Hitler shared a nihilistic apocalyptic worldview. Their sadistic narcissism drove them to punish those they believe had failed them. For Hitler, this meant turning on the German people, while Sinwar was willing to sacrifice Gazan civilians as a cynical strategy to shield Hamas and shift international public opinion. The huge anti-Israel demonstrations in world capitals and on college campuses illustrated its success as the memories of the October 7 atrocities. Sinwar’s unwavering Islamist fanaticism made him Israel’s fiercest foe but also the most devastating leader for Palestinians.

Now that Sinwar is gone, will the surviving Hamas commanders, like the Nazis decades ago, attempt to save themselves? If so, it might present Israel an opportunity to push for a resolution to the Gaza conflict. A cessation of fighting is only possible with the release of all hostages, the dismantling of Hamas’s remaining political infrastructure, and the complete demilitarization of Gaza. Achieving such goals would be extremely difficult, but Sinwar’s death creates an opening that was unthinkable while he was alive and running Hamas.

The annual DVF Awards

Posted on October 12, 2024 by loiswhitmanhess

Inside Diane von Furstenberg’s Venetian Home in the Palazzo Giustinian Brandolini

The fashion designer hosted friends including Oprah Winfrey and talked about how she made a grandiose space cozy and personal.

By Luisa Zargani

Diane von Furstenberg would be much happier talking about women’s empowerment and Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris than her home in Venice. “I don’t want to sound like just another rich American woman in Venice,” she says politely, yet quite firmly, in her purring voice.

And “I don’t want to pretend I am Venetian,” adds von Furstenberg, who had just arrived in Venice on the three-masted yacht Eos she owns with her husband Barry Diller.

She is very respectful of the Italian city and its history and her affection for Venice is obvious — she peppers her Instagram handle with views of the lagoon and its ornate buildings. Von Furstenberg spends several months of the year in Venice and in 2022, she decided to begin holding the DVF Awards here, timing the event with the Venice Film Festival.

“The city has always been part of my life and I compare Venice to an eternal, legendary and very resilient woman, always looking ahead,” she explains.

The annual DVF Awards were created in 2010 by the fashion designer and The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation to recognize and support extraordinary women who are dedicated to transforming and inspiring the lives of other women. From that first edition in Venice, which recognized Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, and “Selma” director Ava DuVernay, among others, each award bestows $100,000, doubling the initial grant.

The awards have drawn such powerful women as Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Oprah Winfrey, as well as A-listers such as George Clooney, accompanied by his wife and human rights lawyer Amal, who last year received the DVF Leadership Award for her work on behalf of victims of human rights abuses, and Dame Emma Thompson. Von Furstenberg admits these celebrities help draw attention to the event, but her focus is to amplify the voice of, and support, displaced, challenged and at-risk women, whether Indigenous or hailing from Afghanistan, Africa or Ukraine.

Once again, this year the awards were bestowed as the Venice Film Festival was kicking off and, ahead of the evening ceremony, von Furstenberg held a lunch for the recipients at her apartment in the city. This unfolded after a talk with Winfrey, herself a DVF Award recipient in 2012, on U.S. politics and ranging from reproductive rights to the American Dream.

Bringing People Together

The lunch reflected a key goal von Furstenberg has set with her home in Venice, which is “to bring people together and create connections, opening up a constructive dialogue.” Because, as Winfrey put it, her longtime friend is always “on.”

“Diane is this way all the time,” Winfrey says, referring to the fashion designer’s activist initiatives. “This is not a show for her. This isn’t just something to be on display. She’s always thinking about what can we do to help the world? What can we do to bring about change? She’s always trying to connect people, anything that’s going to bring enlightenment or some kind of empowerment to all of us.”

With the lunch, seeing awardees such as Graça Machel and Dame Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister of New Zealand, around the same table, “I felt it was closing a circle,” the hostess says.

Under the sparkling original Murano chandeliers, the table was set with glassware by Marcantonio Brandolini’s Laguna~B brand and placemats by Chiarastella Cattana, both based in Venice. Wooden lounge chairs around the long glass and wrought brass table by Brazilian postmodern sculptor Saint Clair Cemin juxtaposed with the imposing stuccoed walls while classical paintings added the laid-back touch von Furstenberg is known for.

To call her home an apartment is an understatement. She is renting the “piano nobile,” or the principal floor of a palazzo that usually includes the main reception room, of the 15th-century Palazzo Giustinian Brandolini on the Grand Canal — a marvel of wooden carved ceilings, Baroque gilded wall mirrors and statues of cherubs standing guard over the massive doors.

It’s a family building, owned by the 97-year-old Countess Cristiana Brandolini d’Adda, sister of the late Fiat tycoon Gianni Agnelli. The designer married the nephew of the countess, the late Prince Egon von Furstenberg, in 1969; they separated in 1973 and divorced in 1983.

“I came here the first time when I was 20, and I have been coming each year ever since,” she recalls fondly. “Egon’s aunt lives here and she realized the apartment would be suited for what I want to achieve, connecting people without a financial purpose. Also, I feel Venice will have a major role and impact in civilization in the next years.” Asked why, she simply says, “It’s an instinct and I always think positive.”

Interior designer, antique dealer and gallery director Chahan Minassian helped von Furstenberg renovate the apartment. Of Armenian origin, born in Lebanon, Minassian, like von Furstenberg, is a patron of the Venetian Heritage Foundation. On the occasion of the Venice Art Biennale, which runs until Nov. 24, Minassian was tapped to reenvision the historic Fortuny headquarters and former home of Countess Gozzi into a gallery showcase of contemporary design, opened to the broader design community for the very first time.

While opening it up to her friends, activists, artists and writers, she underscores “this is a personal home, I brought things from Paris and New York. It’s grandiose and very beautiful and I wanted to make it cozy, bohemien, reflecting my personality.”

Case in point: bold animal print rugs contrast with decorative wallpaper and ruched curtains, called Impero in reference to the 18th-century Napoleonic era. A Bert Stern image of Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra hangs in her bedroom and Andy Warhol’s 1974 paintings of von Furstenberg are placed in the family room. In her studio, a photo by François-Marie Banier of actress Silvana Mangano, a Francesco Clemente painting over the classic fireplace and a work of French artist and actress Anh Duong are some of von Furstenberg’s cherished pieces.

Also in her studio stands an imposing floor-to-ceiling bookshelf created by Renzo Mongiardino, the famed architect who renovated the palazzo as well as Countess Cristiana Brandolini D’Adda’s Venetian country estate, Vistorta. Many family photos pepper the bookshelf and the studio.

Oprah Winfrey, Graça Machel and Diane von Furstenberg.

“There is magic in connection and kindness is a currency. This is also very much what leads me in Venice, in this place, at this stage of my life, since I’ve entered the winter of my life, and I hope I have a very long winter. The important thing is to be productive. Connecting people creates energy that goes around and around,” she concludes.

The awards have drawn such.

Who To Rub Elbows With In LA

Posted on October 11, 2024 by loiswhitmanhess

Los Angeles Business Journal

Special Report
Wealthiest Angelenos

Los Angeles’ 50 wealthiest individuals are worth roughly $256 billion, up from last year’s $237 billion. Some saw huge gains over the year, while a number saw their net worth decline. Gains in the stock market and declines in the real estate market impacted a number of the area’s wealthiest..

OCTOBER 7, 2024

OCTOBER 7, 2024

Some Like It Rich

Posted on October 4, 2024 by loiswhitmanhess

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world’s richest people. The figures are updated at the close of every trading day in New York.

Rank

Name

Total net worth

$256B

$206B

$205B

$193B

$179B

$161B

$150B

$145B

$143B

$141B

$114B

$110B

$107B

$107B

$103B

$101B

$100B

$99.9B

$89.2B

Francoise Bettencourt Meyers

$89.0B

Julia Flesher Koch & family

$77.4B

$69.2B

$56.1B

$53.8B

$53.4B

$49.7B

$49.6B

Jacqueline Badger Mars

$49.0B

$49.0B

$46.0B

$46.0B

$43.9B

$43.5B

$43.0B

$42.8B

$41.8B

$41.0B

$41.0B

Giovanni Ferrero & family

$40.9B

Len Blavatnik

$40.6B

Abigail Johnson

$38.6B

Zeng Yuqun

$38.2B

Rodolphe Saade & family

$37.8B

$37.3B

$37.1B

$36.8B

$36.7B

$36.3B

$35.8B

$35.6B

Allison Zuckerman

Posted on September 28, 2024 by loiswhitmanhess

The much desired Allison Zuckerman’s “Oh the Wind is Blowing” was also delivered to us yesterday. We can’t believe we finally have Allison in our collection. We thank Richard and Eileen Ekstract for opening our eyes to this magnificent talent a few years ago. It was @lbweissman (Leslie Weissman) who helped us secure one of Allison’s most important creations which was at the @kravetswehby, NYC show. Thank you Leslie, you are a dynamo. This painting
encapsulates Allison’s commitment to preserving and celebrating the enduring legacy of Jewish culture. Yet, it also serves as a sobering reminder of the atrocities committed by the Third Reich regime, systematically targeting Jewish families, pillaging their homes (going ‘from door to door’), and confiscating their prized possessions, including artworks. Today, 100,000 paintings looted from Jewish families during the Holocaust remain unreturned.
The weight of this historical injustice reverberates through her exhibit, “From Door to Door,” underscoring a pressing need for restitution and remembrance. #stopantisemitism

Booty and La Bete, 2022, Three Dimensional

Posted on September 28, 2024 by loiswhitmanhess

We just had this masterpiece installed today. It’s called an Assemblage. Created by inventive genius @shultismike (Mike Shultis). The piece was exhibited at one of the best galleries in the country @librarystreetcollective in Detroit. Superwoman and internationally celebrated artist @allisonzuckerman curated the show. If Allison is involved in a project, you know you are in the world of solid gold collecting. Eliot and I saw this piece and snapped it up in 15 minutes. We credit the positive energy of Gallerist extraordinaire @melaniebaerschwartz who helped us every way possible purchase and love it. Thank you @fountainheadarts for taking us on the trip to Detroit. The piece is called Booty and La Bete, 2022. Oil, acrylic, wig, costume jewelry, pearls, silicone ear, silicone legs, silicone feet, zip ties, inkjet transfers, antique gown, mink scarf, taxidermy zebra rug, fake fly, purse, gloves, fake flowers, fabric, velvet, hat, toys, stuffed animals, slippers, hair brush, mirror, comb, Gucci swim bottoms, duster, fake eyebrows, fake eyelashes, wood, string, staples, screws, wallpaper and antique giraffe toy on panel 63 x 86 × 10 in. Thank you again Mike for the guts to think big.