Confessions from the Velvet Ropes

Egypt, February 2013

Dear Pharaonic fanatics,

I wintered in Egypt this past February and had a fantastic time discovering Cairo and Aswan for the first time. Here is a roundup of all the stories I posted about my trip on A Shaded View on Fashion:

1. Scenes from the streets of Cairo

2. Cairo's Fashion Nights & interview with Pashion magazine editor Susan Sabet

3. My stay at the Four Seasons Cairo Hotel at the First Residence & Middle-Eastern art show

4. My trip to the Great Pyramids & the Sphinx of Giza

5. My trip to the Citadel of Saladin & the twin mosques

6. Political Street Art in Cairo

7. My day in Fatimid Medieval Cairo

8. Women's demonstration near Tahrir Square

9. My stay at the Sofitel El Gezirah, the Cairo Tower, royal mummies & dinner at Cairo Kitchen

10. My interview with the designers of neo-Pharaonic jewelry brand Sabry Marouf

11. My visit to the workshops of Egyptian jewelry designer Azza Fahmy

12. My trip to Coptic Cairo

13. My stay at the Sofitel Legend Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan

14. My trip to the Temples of Abu Simbel

15. My visit to the Nubian villages on Elephantine Island

16. Felucca cruising on the Nile

17. My visit to the Fatimid Cemetery in Aswan

 My camel ride at the Pyramids

The magic of Aswan

 

Salam,

Glenn Belverio

Dita Von Teese modeling Michael Schmidt's fully articulated 3D gown at the Ace Hotel in New York, March 4, 2013. Photo by Glenn Belverio

My full report can be read here.

2012: My year in jet-setting photos. By Glenn Belverio

Dear around-the-world Wandas,

Even though I spent a lot of time in 2012 stranded on the island of Manhattan, I still managed to do some continent-hopping to a bunch of my favorite foreign locales--and one city that I'd never been to before.

In January, Diane Pernet sent me to Rio again (I had to pout and beg a little bit and she finally relented because it was during my birthday) at the invitation of Monica Mendes and ABIT (Brazilian Textile & Apparel Industry Associaton). We stayed in Copacabana which is really the more authentic, egalitarian Rio experience as opposed to trendy Ipanema.

I celebrated my birthday with Rosario, Suleman and lots of complimentary champagne at the chic Fasano Hotel. (We craftily piggy-backed on a party the hotel was throwing for Mario Testino.)

And I made some new friends at the beach!

I set my camera down on the windowsill next to my bed in my room at the Windsor Atlantica so that I could jump up and capture this gorgeous sunrise on the far end of Copacabana called Leme.

Me hanging out at the treehouse restaurant Aprazivel in Santa Teresa.

In September, I took my yearly trip to the magical music-box-like city of Vienna, where I am invited to cover MQ Vienna Fashion Week.



I usually stay close to the Opera House, but this year for the first 3 nights I stayed in the rarely visited district of Margareten. After World War I, Vienna was known as "Red Vienna" because of the left-wing government that put a lot of Socialist programs in action, including municipal housing projects for the poor. There are quite a few in Margareten (and the highway that borders the district is nicknamed the "Ringstrasse of the Proletariat") and I did my own self-guided tour of the area. This one was my favorite communal housing project: the elegant Reumann-Hof, built in 1924 (above).

Lovely late-day light in Margareten.

Backstage at the Tiberius show at Vienna Fashion Week.

Designer Mariella Morgana Meyer at the "White Mask" afterparty for the Tiberius show at the fabulous Le Meridien Hotel (where I stayed for 3 nights).

One of my rockstar hosts at Vienna Fashion Week, my friend Zigi Mueller paired stars & stripes with rainboots (it always seems to downpour for one day whenever I visit Vienna).

I really enjoyed the "Reflecting Fashion" exhibit at MUMOK in Vienna's Museum Quartier. (Maria Oberfrank of MQVFW kindly supplied me with passes to all the museums.) One of the highlights was the inclusion of Elsa Schiaparelli's collaboration with Salvador Dali, the iconic lobster dress, which was very conspicuously absent from the Met Costume Institute's disastrous Prada/Schiaparelli show. Even though I am a Freudian, I was very amused by this feminist provocation (above), "Flow My Tears 1" by Mai-Thu Perret. The mirrored face is meant to reflect back all Freudian theories projected onto women, making her impervious to them.

After Vienna, I passed through Berlin for 3 days to visit my nutty "cousins" Vaginal Davis and Isabel. (Isabel has since fled the cold shoulders of the Germans and is now somewhere in sunny northern Thailand.) Isabel and I went to the Humboldt Cube museum and I took these photos from the veranda of the museum's restaurant.

Mitte is packed cheek by jowl with trendy, soulless boutiques that all seem to sell the same bougie "design" pillows and lamps for 50 euros a pop. One moment of respite was an interesting bookstore (the entrance, above) that also hosts reading.

Vaginal Davis in her studio in Schoneberg.

After Berlin, I took a 5-day holiday in Amsterdam--my first time!--and I was instanly won over by this charming little city.

House of Cheese!

Amsterdam street style

My friend Marcelo took me out to a marvelous dinner at the Silver Mirror, a restaurant that has not changed much since the early 17th century! We quaffed champagne and supped on foie gras brulee while sitting inside the fireplace. Those tiles!

View from the window of my suite at the delightfully quirky Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy

My suite at the Conservatorium Luxury Spa Hotel

Happy art at the recently re-opened & re-vamped Stedelijk Museum

Me + Moet at the Amsterdam premiere of the amazing DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL

Artist Scott Neary took me on a tour of "his Amsterdam."

We stopped by the Theater Tuschinski to check out the eye-popping interior.

Ilanga met me for green tea out on the terrace of the Amstel InterContinental Hotel where I stayed for one very royal night.

From pristine canal-lined streets to the gritty hutongs of dynasties past: non-stop flight from Amsterdam to Beijing!

Alice McInerney of Anywearstyle.com & I at Dada bar

Design writer Laura Houseley & Beijing Design Week Creative Director Aric Chen

Full moon over the Lama Temple

Partying with rich Communist Party brats at Baby Face

Madame Cat & Monsieur Fish at Wuhao Curated-Shop

Me & Jeffrey Ying aka Oscar Madison & Felix Unger at the Baccarat champagne toast in Sanlitun Village.

Rem Koolhaas's CCTV Tower which generates almost as much propaganda as Fox News.

Beijing's arbiter of elegance, Jeffrey Ying, gave a party for the Party on China's National Day in his glamorous penthouse.

NYC-Vienna-Berlin-Amsterdam-Beijing-NYC: This was literally a trip around the world as my return flight to NYC traveled over the Pacific. Thanks for taking this journey with me.

Love,

Glenn Belverio

My "1970s New York" Christmas-tree-trimming party. Photos & text by Glenn Belverio

Above: Robert Mapplethorpe by Tom Scott, gold-dusted take-out container by Joselle Yokogawa & Mrs. Vreeland by Adrian Milton and Patrick Lehman

Dear holiday hussies, New Yawk punk-rock casualities & Studio sluts,

New York may be turning into an uninspired playground for bland honkies from the 'burbs, but on Saturday night I transported my apartment and my party guests back to the fabulously crime-ridden, decadent, gritty and glamorous '70s. The theme of my tree-trimming party this year was "1970s New York" and my guests certainly rose to the occasion with ornaments and shenanigans. The party was a mix of Old Home Week (friends I hadn't seen in years like Aaron Rasmussen & Tom Scott), new friends I met on Facebook (Carly Sommerstein, Carol Vanderkloot) and in Beijing (Charlene from Tranquil Tuesdays brought me some lovely ancient tree raw pu'er tea--it's what I drink when I'm in Beijing).

Peace in the Middle East in my kitchen!: Aaron Rasmussen, Carly Sommerstein & Mohamad A Canaan. Carly brought a dollop of Chanukah, the Communist Manifesto & Cultural Revolution porn to the party (more on that later). Mohamad, who is visiting from Beirut, quickly became the life of the party. When Mark Morgan Perez arrived later in the evening with a big bottle of top-shelf tequila, Mohamed jumped in and got us all plastered with several rounds of his take on traditional Lebanese "Dodo shots": tequila, salt, Frank's Hot Sauce, and an olive followed by a wedge of lime.

 Icon alert! Justin Vivian Bond, NYC's most revered transgendered artiste, & Patrick McDonald, the Big Apple's most important dandy institution, had a long, intimate chat in the library nook of my kitchen.

 Icon alert #2! Lesbian rock goddess Carole Pope blessed my pagan disco Druid tree with a splash of unholy water: unconsecrated prosecco.

 Sylvia Heisel & her husband Scott Taylor (a bartender at Studio 54 in the late '70s who invented the phenomenon of shirtless male bartenders) of Postmodern Productions erected a conceptual installation in my Mao Zedong VIP Room: spinning disco balls and revolutionary Red lights! Talk about a cultural revolution!

 Marisa Crawford, now a photographer and former stylist whom I assisted back in the day, and her daughter Justine were the first VIPs admitted into the Mao Room. Marisa's uncle, Paul Morrissey (yes, THE Paul Morrissey) recently screened his comeback film at Lincoln Center, which I attended at Marisa's invitation.

Artist Scott Neary, Persian intellectual Suzanne Batmanghelichi, moi avec Andy Kaufman, and Justin (who was on the floor looking for her diaphragm after it fell out of her purse.)

 Superlative sober coach Patty Powers & eternal enfant terrible Bruce Benderson.

Nancy Stout, author of the soon-to-be-released Cuban revolutionary Celia Sanchez biography, and her pal Antonia van Drimmelen engage in dialetical Marxist Melba Moore hijinks. Do the hustle!

 Sizzling hot soul sisters Joselle Yokogawa & Danielle deciphered the conundrums of the Mao Room.

 Knitwear designer (right) Tom Scott won the tree-topper award this year with his Robert Mapplethorpe ornament. A Satanic star for my tree--take THAT, Jesus!

Patrick Lehman won the Charles Nelson Reilly look-a-like contest with more than a little help from his Chester Weinberg scarf and witty repartee.

 Antonia & Christopher Voigt discussed Tibetan Buddhism while keeping a safe distance from the Mao Room (and as David Hemmings documents it).

Glamour puss & Eve Kitten creator Nancy Bacich & Patrick cooled their heels in my boudoir-slash-office.

Musician and radical guitar-pedal inventor Johnny Steele and his girlfriend showed up dressed for a night at the Mudd Club circa 1978!

 Tom's sublime Robert Mappelthorpe ornament reigning supreme at the top of my tree (sharing the title with Joselle's glam take-away carton...)

 Old-Skool East Village diehard artist John Toth battled his way through drunken, vomiting frat boys on the street to deliver his hip-hop graffiti ornament to my party!

 Scott Neary made this ornament because he wants the world to know: I Saw Bette at the Palace!

 Santa Claus is subjected to a terrifying "The Fly" fate after he's morphed with Factory casualty Edie Sedgwick. Ornament by Corey Sabourin.

 My Truman & Andy ornament & Carol Vanderkloot's NYC taxi. Goes well with Andy considering all his excrutiatingly boring taxi ride documentations (how much he paid for each ride or who paid for him instead) in his diaries.

 Joselle's glam-bam-thank-you-ma'am New York Dolls shoe ornament.

 Viva Angela! Nancy Stout made this ornament that documents "On October 17, 1970 FBI agents arrested Angela Davis at the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge in New York City. President Nixon congratulated the FBI for capturing a 'dangerous terrorist.'" !

More from Nancy: Fidel Castro's 1979 visit to New York purportedly cost the city $170,000 in overtime for 2,000 policemen! But what I want to know is: Did Fidel get turned away at the door of Studio 54?

 Christopher Voigt brought some groovy interior design to the party, which he interprets as a 1970s Nativity scene...the "virgin" in this case is on birth-control pills....

 A hot dog (love the glitter mustard) and dolls--sounds like a typical '70s New York snack! (Suzanne brought the hot dog; Mark brought the empty prescription bottle.)

 Bruce Benderson brought the Crisco to the party--but my house rule required that it be used only in the hallway or outside. I didn't want any greasy fist marks ending up on my champagne flutes and antique sconces!

 Carole Pope's punk decoupage creation is centered around "an inflated used condom"....or so the legend goes. (I can't imagine Carole putting her mouth ANYWHERE where a cock was.)

 Aaron's high-concept ornament is supposed to be me when I'm 70....or me in the '70s....or something like that....

 Elegant disco cocks by Cator Sparks

 Vintage Hello Kitty toy from Nancy Bacich.

 Rachel Spaeth brought an ornament that's supposed to be "how a disco ball looks after a night of doing too much coke" and Johnny got all pre-hipster DIY punk rock and just made his ornament from the PBR he drank at my party (he brought it himself--I would NEVER serve PBR at one of my parties!)

 Bruce & Justin

 The boys in the backroom: Patrick McDonald, Patrick Lehman, Cator Sparks and friend.

 Marisa Crawford brought a Chinese-character version of Mao's Little Red Book

 The aforementioned Cultural Revolution porn that Carly brought!

 I love getting presents at my Xmas parties! Danielle gifted me a a St. Germain & Cava cocktail kit!

Thanks for reading & happy holidaze, dolls...

Love,

Glenn Belverio

 

 

Diana Vreeland's December issues of VOGUE

Dear Vreelandites,

 Back in the 1960s it was the December issue of Vogue (during Diana Vreeland's reign) that was the big issue of the year, not the September issue. My article on Mrs. Vreeland's magical December issues can be read here on the official Diana Vreeland website.

For the December 1967 issue, an infamous Richard Avedon shoot featured an entirely nude Rudolf Nureyev. When the legendary Russian ballet dancer emerged naked from behind the screen in Avedon’s studio, Mrs. Vreeland described the spectacle thusly: “My dear, you know how it is with men in the morning? Well, it was like that and we had to wait a half an hour for it to go down and it was very strange but rather beautiful.”

 

Love,

Glenn Belverio

Beijing Design Week 2012 in Caochangdi Village, Dashilar Alley, 751-D Park & Wuhao Curated-Shop; Shang Xia store opening, Sanlitun Village, Rem Koolhaas's CCTV Tower & Beijing's #1 dandy throws a party for the Party

Dear Sinophiles & design devotees,

I attended Beijing Design Week again this year and my reports can be read on A Shaded View on Fashion:

Beijing Design Week at Caochangdi Village & Red Bricks Complex

Motorcycles, mooncakes & melting World Trade Center candles at Wuhao Curated-Shop

BJDW on Dashilar Alley with the Campana Bros & a chandelier made from 1,664 yogurt jars

BJDW at 751-D Park featuring an old East German water tower & the Dutch on abandonded architecture

Beijing's #1 dandy gives a swanky cocktail party for the Party on China's National Day

Rem Koolhaas' CCTV Tower gives the international press a collective hardon

Shang Xia store opening & partying Beijing-style

 

Love,

Glenn Belverio

Me in the Princess Bed at Wuhao Curated-Shop

Amsterdam, September 2012

Melting disco balls at the grand Oude Kirke Cathedral

Dear gouda gourmands & red-light lollygogs,

I've always wanted to visit Amsterdam and finally after all these years, I was able to add it to my September jet-set schedule. Here is a collection of my art, design, film premiere, hotel and food reports that have been posted on A Shaded View on Fashion:

My stay at the quirky Lloyd Hotel

My stay at the ultra-luxe Conservatorium Hotel & Spa and the opening of the Stedelijk Museum

17th-century dining at the hallowed Silver Mirror restaurant

Inside Design fair & Art in Redlight at the Oude Kirke Cathedral

The Amsterdam premiere of DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL

My stay at the rather royal Amstel InterContinental Hotel

My visit to the Museum of Bags & Purses

 

Me at the Amsterdam premiere of the documentary DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL

Love,

Glenn Belverio

MQ Vienna Fashion Week 2012: Madonna's brother shows his Ciccone Footwear collection, half-naked hunks backstage at Tiberius, haute vegetarian cuisine at Tian, Norway invades Austria (with far-out fashions & high hair)

Photo: Glenn Belverio

Dear wurst hounds,

My reports on the 2012 edition of Vienna Fashion Week are up on A Shaded View on Fashion:

Scantily clad male models backstage at Tiberius

Madonna's brother shows his footwear on hot models in their underwear

Mariella Morgana's creme-brulee-torched goth couture

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf trend-spotting at MQVFW Opening Night

Norwegian designers

Vegetarian cuisine at Tian, Futuristic fashions with Richard Burton, Le Meridien

Wonder Anatomie from Bangkok

PITOUR by Maria Oberfrank

Me in the front row....getting photo-bombed by Chancellor Merkin!

Love,

Glenn Belverio

America's Next Top Model Cycle 18 premiere with Kelly Cutrone & Kelly Osbourne featured a 19-year old black Elton John and the reincarnation of Pocahontas, jumping on trampolines for middle-America's amusesment.

Dear tele-trannies & fashion fans in the flyovers:

I never watch the ridiculous "America's Next Top Model" but I tuned in to the season premiere last night to see my friend Kelly Cutrone, best-selling author and owner of People's Revolution PR company, who has been chosen as one of the judges (replacing Andre Leon Talley). I'm not here to do a recap--I'll leave that to the parasitic TV bloggers--as I'm sure you can watch the episode on Hulu. I will say that Cutrone did a right-on job with her savvy, seasoned advice for the young contestants and I'll never say a bad word about Kelly Osbourne because I revere her father and adore her mother.

However, I can't resist logging in my drive-by comments regarding the segment where the models were dressed as either American or British archetypes (this season pits girls from the US and the UK against each other), and then asked to jump up and down on a trampoline while being filmed by sixty cameras. (For a 3-D effect....the money they throw away on these shows could go to feeding several African countries and then some.) The girls were expected to mimic the precise facial expressions and mannerisms of each icon they were imitating, while jumping. How on earth a 19-year old girl is supposed to possess insight into the likes of Andy Warhol and Pocahontas (which, in a racist jab, the judges imposed on the show's Native American girl) is beyond me. The judges were unrealistically harsh on the contestants, which I suppose is all part of the show's cartoonish appeal. (They acted like they had cocktails with the real Pocahontas, who died in 1617, on a regular basis and therefore understood her intimately.)

I'm surprised they didn't set fire to the contestants and then pour molasses on them while they were jumping up and down....and then berate and humiliate them for not projecting the exact same facial expressions, body odor and souls of Jackie Kennedy and Elton John.

Ciao,

Glenn Belverio

Madonna in Alexandre Vauthier on the cover of her new single, "Girl Gone Wild" shot by Mert & Markus

Dear Madge munchers,

If you're in a country that isn't being torn apart by the warmongering U.S. or Russia, you probably have the luxury of sitting at your desk and contemplating the newly released Madonna song, "Girl Gone Wild" for hours, perhaps days. While I was over the moon for M's showstopping comeback at the Super Bowl and I actually love "Give Me All Your Lovin'" (it helped that I thought the video was loads of fun), the new song--the lyrics, anyway--is disappointing and derivative. (Cyndi Lauper is flipping through her thesaurus right now searching for some options for "reductive.") I was willing to let her get away with the trite, silly fun of "Lovin'" with its sugary Toni Basil homage, but after that I was expecting some substantial William Orbit magnificence...something Ray of Light-caliber.

It's not, but isn't the cover beautiful? Looking every part the foxy cougar, Madonna chose Parisian designer Alexandre Vauthier and she is sporting a silk chiffon and nandu feather bolero from the Winter 2011 Couture Collection, made in collaboration with feathers specialist Lemarié.

But getting back to the new songs....One expects a woman pop star at 53 to write songs about her long, complicated life, yeah? But Madonna tried that with "American Life" in 2003 and was pilloried for it. So, now she's just giving us the ruminations of an anonymous disco sex doll, eternally 22 years old. Let's see how the rest of the album pans out...

Of course, the occasion of a featured Alexandre Vauthier ensemble gives me an excuse to whip out my "Penis in Furs" chestnut. This photo of me in one of Vauthier's couture pieces--a sumptuous fox-fur cape with gold beading by the prestigious house of Lesage--was taken during a visit to the Station Service showroom in Paris back in 2009.

Love,

Glenn Belverio