Shelby About Town
Vanity Fair focuses on Houston, Bob Cavnar on Deepwater Horizon and the Hamptonswere here
Bob Cavnar, here with wife Gracie, has penned his take on the Deepwater Horizondisaster.Priscilla Dickson
The Menil Collection was one of the stops for the Vanity Fair exploratory team.Courtesy photo
Carolina Herrera in town for a charity event was the perfect excuse for Lynn andOscar Wyatt to throw a party.Photo by Michelle Watson/LastNightPics.com
Clo and Charles S. Cohen unveil their Connecticut play pen in ArchitecturalDigest.
Alexa Hampton, from left, Jeanie Kilroy and Duane Hampton at the book signing.Photo by Gary Fountain
Vanity Fair editor-at-large Matt Tyrnauer, director of Valentino: The Last Emperor, and a handful of editorial colleagues made the art rounds in Houston over the weekend but not before Tyrnauer dropped in for dinner with Lynn and Oscar Wyatt.
Carolina Herrera was in town for a charity event, the perfect excuse for putting on the Wyatt brand of hospitality. So the Wyatts rounded up a posse of chic friends and hosted one of their remarkable dinner parties.
The following day Tyrnauer was joined by VF's Ellen Kiell and Wayne Lawson from the New York office and West Coast editor Krista Smith. The Menil Collection curators Toby Kamps and Michelle White escorted the group through the Menil House. The group moved on to the Menil Collection where they visited the second floor "treasure rooms." They continued their treasure hunt throughout the Menil including the Cy Twombly Gallery, the Rothko Chapel, the Byzantine Fresco Chapel and the Flavin installation at Richmond Hall.
The VF troupe then headed over to the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Inman Gallery and Texas Gallery. After soaking in that major serving of the Houston art scene, they joined the Menil's Vance Muse that night at dinner at Hugo's.
The next day they were off across Texas, headed to Marfa, Austin and on to Dallas checking out various new points of interest in art and architecture.
Calling Connecticut home
Many of us know the visionary developer Charles S. Cohen, who came to know Houston and a number of the city's bold-faced types when he purchased and completely revamped Decorative Center Houston. Each year, he makes the rounds through town, hosting dinner parties at Tony's and visiting his tenants in the center on Woodway. Occasionally, he is accompanied by his wife, Clo, whom Houston came to know and adore when she was PR and marketing director for Jimmy Choo and frequently called on the Galleria store and partied with ardent Jimmy Choo fans.
Today, they are happily married and their latest creation — a vast mansion in Connecticut — is featured in the December issue of Architectural Digest. It's worth picking up the magazine to see how this high-profile, highly successful couple live when taking a break from their fast-paced lives in Manhattan. "We designed the property to enjoy a fantasy-type life in a world with many un-fantasty-like challenges," Charles Cohen told Architectural Digest.
Don't miss the photos of the garage beneath the guest house. It's decorated with vintage gas pumps and has its own car wash. This was added when Cohen's car collection outgrew the main garage.
The magazine is on newsstands now.
Booked for disaster
Oilman and bloggerBob Cavnar, who honed a national image as an oilfield expert during the Deepwater Horizon disaster, has published a book on the subject, Disaster on the Horizon, through Chelsea Green Publishing. The retired CEO of Milagro Exploration and former Houston Grand Opera board chair will be signing his take-no-prisoners tome at Brazos Bookstore from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday (Nov.13).
Press materials accompanying the book promise a hard-hitting look at "what really happened out in the Gulf." Collusion, failure, mistakes and risks are buzzwords. Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, sings the books praises. "A clear-eyed look at what really happened . . . all the more devastating because it's delivered by an industry insider."
Double header book signing
Jeanie Kilroy opened her antiques-filled home in River Oaks recently to host Duane Hampton, widow of famed interior designer Mark Hampton, and their daughter, Alexa Hampton, for a two-tiered book signing celebrating interior design. Duane penned Mark Hampton: An American Decorator and Alexa is the author of The Language of Interior Design.
Notables turned out in force to celebrate the heritage of the much-beloved designer, who died in 1998, and to greet his wife and daughter, who have a number of friends and clients in Houston. Tops on the list was former First Lady Barbara Bush, for whom Hampton consulted on the decor of numerous dwellings including the White House.
A coterie of old guard figures picked up copies of the handsome design books including Judy Gerry, Tony and Isaac Arnold, Tribie and George Francisco, Kay and George King, Nancy and Lucian Morrison, Pat and Dee Osborne, Susie Van Zandt and Isabel and Wallace Wilson.
