THE EDIT: The New Vintage Is Old Money
For Estate shoppers, Palm Beach provenance is worth the trip.
Greetings from somewhere above the Atlantic. I’m returning to the city after what may have been my best birthday ever. It kicked off with seeing Harry Styles play both host and musical guest at Saturday Night Live (a birthday treat hooked up by a very cool friend), followed by a glamorous after-party at The Grill.
Harry’s LEWKS were as exciting to me as the show itself — he donned everything from new Chanel to women’s Valentino, then finished strong with Zoe Kravitz at the afters wearing that new Connor Ives:
I got about three hours of sleep and was back on a plane by 11 am the following morning. (I wore this comfy French terry polo and pant set with a Row trench.)
Despite a couple of re-routes due to closed Presidential airspace (woof), we touched down in Palm Beach in plenty of time for a celebratory birthday dinner at Donna Karan’s swanky new waterfront restaurant, Tutto al Mare (yes, sister to Sag Harbor and Southampton’s al Giorno), with friends old and new. (We were too busy celebrating to watch the Oscars, but my favorite looks were Jessie Buckley, styled by Danielle Goldberg, and Pedro Pascal’s custom Chanel.)
After a relaxing handful of days, I’m headed into the next year of my life feeling rested and deliriously happy, having had a phenomenal trip where people really showed up for me and made me feel special.
Cheers to the privilege of aging.
In Palm Beach, we stayed in the Goop Villa at The Colony Hotel, which was just as chic and well-appointed as I remember it. I went for the opening a few years ago when everything was brand new, and they’ve kept it up well. This is my third time staying there, so it felt homey and familiar. (Every detail is considered, thanks in no small part to Noora Raj Brown, who played a heavy hand in designing it.) If you’re traveling with a group, the villa has two spacious bedrooms and three beds, plus a gracious living area and functional kitchen. The hotel is dog-friendly, as is the villa, and we had a great time hanging out at Swifty’s and people-watching. I don’t know if it was the salty air, the pin-quiet bedroom, or the deep soaking tub, but I slept like a baby. It reminded me of why I keep choosing to stay here. Perfect for a girl’s trip.
I didn’t peek at the brand of the sheets in the villa, but they made me miss my bed at home. Not that they were bad! But the crispy cotton of my own percale sets (I mention this because they’re on sale for 20% off rn) makes me homesick when I’m away — they are just so good, especially if you get hot at night. I truly missed them! They regulate my body temp like nothing else. I can’t wait to crawl into them tonight with my puppies.
My skin loves the Florida humidity. I have to do so little when I’m in the 561! I just washed my face with Biologique Recherche Lait Dermo-S, slapped on a moisturizing sunscreen, and topped it with Victoria Beckham’s trusty Foundation Drops. A few taps of Saie blush, a swipe of Farah Homidi gloss, and I was done. I didn’t even bother with eye makeup.
Gotta say, humidity doesn’t stress me out now that my hair is long. I just let it air-dry and do its thing (shout-out Nutrafol! Shout out Crown Affair! Shout-out Minoxidil!) when I’m at the beach.
I have a whole-leg skincare protocol pre-beach: dry-brush, apply Lilis peel to dry legs, rinse. VEET! Then swipe with an exfoliating pad (I like Barefaced polishing pads or their toning pads). I promise you, no bumps, and you won’t even need to pack your razor.
We had all kinds of fun with this little Super 8-ish camera that looks analog but acts digital. I stashed it in my bag just about everywhere we went and deputized a friend to grab footage. Bonus: it kept us off our phones.
You’ve probably heard how great the vintage and estate shopping is in Palm Beach, and the rumors are not exaggerated. Lots of wildly rich old people in God’s waiting room, plus gobs of women who ditch wardrobes at the end of the season = wild stuff proliferating the resale shops. The Real Real produced some treasures, but Cassandra Grey won the day with a great Schiaparelli jacket we found hidden in an offbeat rack. We also did a lightning round at The Church Mouse, the infamous island-based thrift shop where you can find everything from kitschy seashell earrings for $15 to an 80’s Escada tweed suit for $200. I found a little “Town of Palm Beach Police” pin for $2 — a funny inside joke with my Uncle Brad, who, when we lived down there, always used to love to remind me that it’s the only police force in the country where a college degree is required. There’s also a fabulous edit at What Goes Around and a litany of funky consignment shops on Dixie Highway in the Soso district. I always stop on Georgia Avenue to peek at Casa Gusto, too — their boundless imagination with antiques always leaves me agog.
On the second day of our trip, the skies opened up, and it poured. We made the best of it by doing some soggy shopping on Worth Avenue, where I was on a mission to find my “something blue” for the wedding. We hit all the good estate jewelry stores looking for all things sparkly and sapphire (Richter’s is still the best curation), but came up empty-handed. We didn’t fall short otherwise, though. We found incredible cottons and silks at Kattatly’s, where Mr. Kassatly was still holding court in the century-old linen shop. He helped us pick out quilted housecoats, pajamas, and tableclothes and told us stories about Palm Beach in the 1920’s, when his father ran the shop. After that, we wandered to my favorite little Italian paper shop, Il Papiro, all the way down at the end of Worth. The place is stocked to the hilt with hand-marbled home goods and stationery, and I had a new wastebasket on my wish list. We stopped into Chanel for curiosity’s sake, but they had, predictably, a very geriatric buy — and none of the new Blazy out.
All this vintage scouting around sent me on a late-night Vestiaire Collective dig. They have a sleepy selection of designer and fine jewelry, but it hits: these Dior earrings, this Cartier cabochon brooch, these David Webb frog cufflinks, and this Dior collar necklace are all destined for some cool collector.
Happy Birthday. Great trip Jess.
Happy birthday! Sounds like a fabulous trip! VEET?