On the Road: My NYC

In most cities I visit, I find myself on a manic dash to visit all the cool new stores, restaurants and museum shows I've read about or heard about from friends. Not in New York though. When I return to the city (there's only one, right?) these days, I find myself wanting to go back to the same places over and over. I want to feel like I'm home. I want to go to all the places that make it feel like mine. On my most recent trip, because Christopher and the kids were with me, we woke up on our first day there, left the house and found ourselves doing our usual weekend routine - walk down Houston, get the kids a smoothie at Miss Lilly's, get ourselves a coffee at Third Rail and then head to Washington Square park - except because we didn't have Ginger with us, we went to the playground (for old time's sake) instead of the dog run. We wandered back down Broadway, all feeling slightly overstimulated by all the people and shops. So we took a detour on 2nd Street and went to see our friend Hugo's annual painting show at John Derian. I wanted to buy every single piece.

It felt so good to be in the city, but exhausting too - I'm not used to having adrenaline running through my body all day anymore.

We continued our trip down memory lane the next morning by heading out to the North Fork where we've spent the last 8 summers. Our house there is rented to friends at the moment so we stayed with some other friends, although we got a glimpse of home when we stopped by to check up on it. It was lovely to be there and not feel responsible for doing the dishes in the sink or making sure the pool was the right temperature. We have so many lovely memories with friends and their families on Long Island, and while there it felt like we had never left.

On our morning school run we would often pop into Miss Lilly's for a smoothie on our way to school. Marvin makes the best ones in the city, and he always makes sure you leave there with a smile on your face.

Christopher misses his mornings at Third Rail so much that he drinks his coffee in England from a mug that has the barista's face on it.

Heading into Washington Square park sans Ginger :(

Zach reliving his glory days in the playground. Coco felt that she was too old be seen on the monkey bars. 

One of the wonders of jet lag is getting the city all to yourself in the morning. 

My favorite new painting of Hugo's at John Derian. 

Paperweights at John Derian.

Just before we decided to leave New York I was redoing our apartment and I was really looking forward to hanging some of these papier maché animal heads in Coco's room. Someday.....

Apart from Freeman's, which is in our building, Lovely Day is our go-to family restaurant in the city. It's mostly Thai food, but it also has a burger for Zach who doesn't love Asian food. I love this picture because, while we were waiting to be seated, Zach just pulled up a chair at a table of complete strangers - who didn't even speak English! - and made friends. 

We couldn't go to Long Island and not stop at Brieremere for a pie. At this time of year they do a fresh fruit pie (strawberries in May/June) with cream on top that is just completely irresistible. 

Even though we knew we wouldn't be schlepping things back to England, we also had to stop at Beall and Bell in Greenport. It's my favorite furniture store ever. It's unpretentious, reasonably priced and is jam packed with eccentric stuff. The owners Ginger and Ken have an incredible eye for style.

Beall and Bell.

Beall and Bell. 

Amy (our host for the weekend) and our friend Leo who just did the incredible San Francisco Bay Lights project. 

Zach reunited with his favorite rope swing at Amy's house.

I can't tell you how good it felt to watch the late day sun shining on the water and across into the house. 

There's nothing like a North Fork summer sunset. I made everyone come outside to appreciate it with me.

Reunited with our North Fork friends - Yvonne, Leo, John and Rachel. 

I love the mix of rag rugs and Missoni rugs in Amy's guest bathroom.

The little glimpse we got of our house while visiting the friends who are renting it from us this year. 

My last view of New York at the airport. 

Fashion in Art: Anh Duong

Hi everyone. God, I've been delinquent on my posts recently! I'm sorry to have left you hanging. I had my book proposal due, and then I had a painful week-long drama with an infected wisdom tooth that eventually had to be taken out, and then I went to New York for 10 days for my sister's wedding. I will post some pics from that in the coming days. Wait 'til you see her stunning Lanvin dress!!

Don't worry I am not abandoning my blog. I love doing my blog. I see it as a weekly creative practice that motivates me to write, take pictures, and do research that all contribute to the other projects I am working on. It's like a little laboratory of ideas. But occasionally when I am fully focused on those other projects I need to give them all my attention. When I am away I encourage you to follow me on Instagram. My user name is amandacbrooks. I post nearly every day, if not multiple times a day!

So at the moment I've been fixated on looking at fashion thru the eyes of artists. I love the timeless quality clothes take on when they are painted, regardless of how trendy they are in real life. Anh Duong is a particularly compelling painter of clothes. Because she is a girl who loves fashion in her own life, there is a particularly personal and complex relationship between herself and the way she dresses herself in her paintings. They are not only engaging to see when first painted, but as with some of the older ones shown below, they will become even more interesting and iconic over time.

Do you remember this dress? It's from the 90's, and I'm pretty sure it's Donna Karan or DKNY. I wish I had bought it. 

I don't know who made this trench but I imagine it's by someone iconic, like Burberry. It's incredible how dramatically the folds of the trench are painted. I also love the fishnets and the glimpse of the red soles on the Louboutin boots. Remember that Fendi bag?

This might be my favorite of all of Anh's self-portraits. Anh was one of my very first friends when I first moved to New York, and this painting reminds me of how she is dressed when we are out of the city relaxing in our down time. It reminds me of riding our bikes from her house to have a swim in the nearby bay. Also, what's more timeless and chic than a striped shirt with jean shorts, a sun hat and flip flops?

Obviously I love the leopard, but I also love it in the context of the quotidian NYC life in the background.

I love this DVF dress. I actually wore it to the launch of I Love Your Style in 2009 that DVF hosted for me, but I think its looks even better here as Anh portrayed it. I can't even imagine trying to paint ruched polka dots!

The combination of the mundane (Listerine, presecription medicine, toothbrushes and razors)  and the glamorous (Missoni towels and Chanel no5 perfume) is inspired.

The colors in this painting are incredible, and I love the focus on the sunglasses and the thigh-highs.

This painting is another one of my favorites. I'm not sure who designed the gorgeous dress but if I had to guess I would say Lanvin?!? And isn't the teddy bear brilliant?

You must know by now that I am a sucker for fresh flowers in your hair.

The striped reflection, the way the lace is painted, and the Louboutin shoes and bag are all amazing. I love this one.

Anh in her Christian Lacroix couture wedding dress and the self-portrait she did wearing it. It was - and still is - one of my all-time favorite wedding dresses. 

The colors and details in the floral lingerie and the stripes - in fact, in the entire painting - are incredible. If I had the chance to hang one in my house, this would be it. 

Life on the Farm: Kaiser and BangBang

For all the animal joy that exists on the farm in every direction that you look - chickens, kittens and dogs on the lawn, pigs and horses in the stables, donkeys and more horses across the field - there is, unfortunately, also a good dose of animal heartache.

Late in the autumn, Coco lost one of her beloved pigs suddenly and without explanation. The twin Gloucestershire Old Spots had been her 10th birthday present the summer before last, and she fed them and cared for them all that first summer. When we returned the following summer, the girls were unrecognizable - huge and fat and not so appealing to cuddle. But Coco loved them, especially Clementine, the friendlier one. And so our hearts broke when Becca, our groom, called to say she found Clemmie stone dead in her pen one morning. She was so heavy that my husband had to tie chains around her and drag her out of the farm yard with a tractor. Coco and I had been in London the night before, and thankfully the whole ordeal was over before we reached home.

Then our beloved dog Ginger went missing. For 24 hours we couldn't find her. We checked the stable and the barns and then walked, drove and rode horses through every square inch of the farm and the surrounding farms in search of her. Nothing. Sometimes she would follow home a neighbor who rode down our bridleway, but they would always call to say that Ginger was with them. No one called. I even drove down the nearest fast road, wincing at the prospect of finding her alongside it. We went to bed that night in tears and woke up to that dreaded feeling when your body remembers something is wrong before your brain has the chance to. It wasn't long into that next morning when we all heard a bark outside the house. I ran outside and Gingy came running around the corner, barking and then murmuring reassurances as we hugged her and cried with relief. Becca explained that she heard barking while feeding the horses down in the field and discovered Ginger in an outbuilding that no one had been in for months. It was then that my poor husband remembered that he'd stuck his head in the building that morning and not realised that Ginger had followed him inside.

Ultimately for me, the greatest long-term sadness came when a fox ate our rooster. We bought Kaiser at our local agricultural show in the beginning of last September. He was just a few months old with humble feathers and a feeble crow. Soon we got a dozen hens to join his family, and his evolution began. Each month his feathers intensified in color and began to curl at the ends. His morning cry grew louder and more authoritative. He started to strut around the farmyard, seemingly posing for me when I got my camera out. In the months we knew him he went from being an awkward teenage boy to a magnificent and proud gentleman. Then one night in early spring, a fox got into our chicken house, probably the same one that ate 6 of my brother-in-law's hens a week earlier. We didn't notice anything amiss until Christopher walked into the side yard where the chickens live and saw a massive pile of feathers outside their door. We quickly realized that we hadn't heard Kaiser cock-a-doodle-doing that morning. Slowly through the day the reality dawned on us and by evening we knew he was gone. There was only one other hen missing, and we like to think that Kaiser died defending his girls. I gathered up a pile of his most beautiful feathers, and I keep them in my room in a vase on the windowsill.

Our new rooster is called BangBang. I love the name, don't you? It was Christopher's idea. He is already a grown man, and we got him in the hopes that it's not too late in the season for him to make some chicks with the hens. He is lovely but shy - I've barley been able to get a photo of him. But I have every hope that, in time,  he'll make his way into my heart as Kaiser did.

Kaiser, on the day he came home with us.

The chickens live in our kids' old play house. I love how they sleep on the banister of the balcony. Sometimes we check on them before we go to bed and can hear them snoring! That's Kaiser down on the right. 

Christopher giving Kaiser a cuddle.

This was the first snow, and I was so excited to see what the chickens were going to do, but they just went about their day as normal.

Kaiser and his bouquet of ladies.

Kaiser in his full-feathered glory, just before he died.

What's left of our handsome boy.

Here's BangBang running past me at speed. Hopefully he'll settle in and become more friendly. Before he came to us he lived with other roosters who apparently fought with each other all the time, so has some scratches and scars. He's healing nicely though and already looks quite handsome, don't you think?

Met Ball 2013: My favorite looks

For the first time in 10 years, I didn't spend Met Ball Monday getting my dress steamed, my hair and makeup done, my shoes and bag picked out, my jewellery delivered, my mani/pedi color perfected or the car service ordered to deliver my husband and me to the bottom of the big steps on Fifth Avenue at 83rd Street. Instead, on the warmest, sunniest day we've had in England this year, I took my son for a two hour horseback ride, made a big lunch of oil-poached halibut and blood orange salad, helped my kids with their homework, wandered around the farm with my daughter and our dog visiting the baby lambs along the way, had an early evening swim in the pool and then enjoyed our first summer supper outside, joined by the kids' grandmother. Life is good. But the day wasn't without a bit of nostalgia for the excitement of the Met Ball - the choosing what to wear, the people watching, and even just the thrill of being included. But mostly I was looking forward to waking up this morning and seeing what everybody was wearing. I wouldn't say that punk was the most flattering, or easy-to-pull-off theme The Met has ever chosen, but many of those who approached it with restraint, a new perspective, or just ignored it completely (Anna Wintour being at the head of hat pack) got my vote.

Carey Mulligan wore my favorite look of the night, hands down. Polished, clean, simple with just a hint of punk in her Balenciaga dress.

The brilliant razor blade chandelier at the entrance. Photo by Steven Kolb.

I also really loved Taylor Tomasi-Hill's Thom Browne gown. It's beautiful, flattering and not without a bit of the punk spirit. Thom's on a roll, and so is she. 

Antony Vaccarello is one of my favorite new designers, the only trouble being that you need to look like a supermodel in order to wear his clothes. Who better to impersonate a supermodel than Gisele?

Kate Bosworth seems to be more of a fashion icon than an actress these days, but not without good cause - she has great style. I love her in this Balmain mini, and she reminds me that in most cases there's nothing better than a simple black pump to wear with a party dress.

I love how much Sofia Coppola and Marc Jacobs are just themselves. Sofia always looks chic without looking like she's seeking attention (despite being every fashion girl's favorite style icon), and Marc always looks chic while seeking maximum attention. You can see why they're friends. 

I wish Gwyneth had done something more interesting with her hair and make-up, but the Valentino dress is inspired. 

There's never been a year when Bee wasn't on my Met Ball best dressed list. She always finds the perfect dress for her and never falls prey to a kitschy theme.

The flower-lined, flag-adorned main staircase in The Met entrance. The pink lighting at the top makes it. Photo by Steven Kolb.

The brilliant Olympia LeTan clutch Michelle Williams carried. Photo by Olympia LeTan.

Anne Hathaway looked great. I love the vintage dress and the Edie Campbell-inspired blonde hair.

Amazing Blondie. Every time I see her I can't not think of those pictures of her at CBGB which are among my all-time favourite style moments. Photo by Amy Astley.

What a pretty dress! Of course it's Nina Ricci - Peter Copping is the king of the pretty dress. And who better to wear it than Carolyn Murphy? I love how classic and simple her style has become.  

Giovanna Battaglia wears Dolce Gabbana better than anyone. The ornate style suits her, and she knows how to put it all together, including the safety pin crown. Gorgeous! Photo by Giovanna Battaglia. 

Alexa Chung always finds a way to look like herself - sexy and cute at the same time. She looks flawless here - dress, hair, shoes, bag, hair are all working.

It's easy to be annoyed by the Brant brothers - they are ridiculously precocious and always seem to be out on the town way past a normal teenager's bedtime. That said, they always look good. I especially love Harry's makeup here. Photo by Selby Drummond.

Thank god Vogue still appreciates New York society girls Like Dr. Lisa Airan and Marina Rust who dress way better (no stylist needed) than most celebrities do. While Lisa always looks good, I am particularly taken by Marina's feminine and romantic minimalist chic.

Another supermodel - this time Anja Rubik - in an otherwise impossible-to-pull-off Antony Vacarello dress. I love the lips and shoes matching the dress so perfectly.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Julianne Moore's dark green Balenciaga by Alex Wang dress. However, this is where the theme can lead a girl astray - I wish she hadn't tried to punk it up with her hair. 

Lauren Santo Domingo will go down as one of the great beauties of our day, and I LOVE her Dolce&Gabbana Alta Moda dress. (I just wish it was two inches shorter!).

The look inside The Met. I love all the pink. Photo by Steven Kolb.

Cara Delevigne's Thakoon dress and punk-inspired makeup, hair, and jewelry is just the right dose of  rebel-chic.

I am so taken by Leelee Sobieski's modern take on minimalist style. Her embroidered tulle Dior gloves add just the right dose of the unexpected to an  otherwise toned-down look. 

I love these two. Lena Dunham looks so pretty with her slicked down hair and sexy makeup, and the Erdem dress is pretty and sweet and suits her beautifully.

My only regret for The Met Ball, without having even been there, is that they didn't get PSY to perform!!! I would have loved to see the fashion world get their Gangnam Style on. Still, it must have been so fun just to see him there in his stylish red checked tux and get a photo for your kids.