Up The Ante

Yesterday I woke up, drew the blinds and looked over the cool waters of Lake Como to see the Eiffel Tower looming on the horizon. How unusual it was to see either Como or Paris through the haze of one hundred and eight degree heat. However there it was and I got the message loud and clear. People today want everything all at once and convenient. They want the luxury and excessive opulence of Las Vegas in what equates to one of the least elegant resort spots on the planet. I absolutely love the age we live in because of the challenges it presents as an artist, be it one who uses jewels as his medium.

Today you really have to reinvent jewelry and the way you present it because of the range of uses it has. In the past, a designer was required to solve individual categories with specific pieces, formal or everyday; basta cuzi. Today, the definition of a great piece of jewelry is one that knocks ones' socks off in a formal setting but can be worn with jeans. I must hear that jean thing twice a week. I love the challenge. Lets deal with the physiological tenor of the fact that baroque pearls are easier to wear for the active women, they are casual yet imply that there are eight more strands at home. One of them, certainly, a large round strand. I did a ring for a woman with a fourteen-carat diamond in wood, she wears it everywhere with jeans, of course, and on some level it is more important then a thirty-carat in a traditional setting because, once again, there must be something bigger in the safe. There is, and this one looks less austere picking up a cheeseburger. As a side note, when wearing diamonds over fifteen carats it is best to have Roquefort cheese on the burger.

Last week I drove from New Orleans to New York city with more crap stuffed into my truck then could be imagined. It was a great trip that involved two evenings at The Inn at Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee and a night at the Greenbrier in White Sulpher Springs, West Virginia. At one point an employee of the Greenbrier asked to photograph the back of my truck complete with the three dogs along for the ride. "Beverly Hillbillies going back to the Big Apple" must of been the title of the snapshot. I have no doubt that the image is circulating the hotel. I admit great fortune that my father, who is the decorator of the hotel, is the type to appreciate the cockamamie flavor of what many fathers might find embarrassing. Anyway, what is more important is the manner that the hotels are reinventing themselves. Few would imagine a French laundryesque-meal near Dollywood; it exists at Blackberry. What an amazing place. Pastoral, bespoke, and subtle in a way that hits you over the head with luxury that emphasizes service. Pavoratti at the Grand Ole Opry. The Greenbrier is another issue all together. How do you preserve the feeling and history of this grand place and the rural environs of West Virginia? How do you keep the history of the grand dining room when everybody my age wants to eat in a different theme restaurant every night? They are doing it. Check it out. Casino opens the 2nd of July. I love that place.

I design jewelry for these places and for the people that enjoy them. Today the best piece of jewelry is one that goes from a hike to the best restaurant in town. I want you to look at my piece and know it is art first, and precious later. Kind of the way a rider looks at their boots; there is so much pride there. My boots are some of my most prized possessions. I live with mine in the mud for hours in the countryside, yet some how its perceived as fancy. I get it; I think. And even if I don't, I don't care. I'm American and we are better at this thing. We make the best red wine to go with fish. If you want to be good at design these days you must break the rules, and it's fun. Perhaps my next ad campaign will be photographed at McDonalds. A La Guy Bourdin.

I bought the most beautiful Aquamarine I've ever seen yesterday as well as a couple of vivid intense yellow diamonds which I plan to mix with Mississippi freshwater pearls. I just can't get the Southern thing out of my system as I sit here in the office in New York. I'm feeling really good about the summer and tonight plan to go to the CFDA awards. So many freaks with so much talent around, looking forward to the show.