A Bath, a Bottle, a Book: Gifts for a Quiet Day

I want to steep in this marble bath at Stockholm’s Ett Hem hotel until my fingers get all pruney.

Something you want/something you need

Something to wear/something to read

This dusty old couplet is a useful reminder of what makes the best gifts, but this year I’ve shortened and simplified it to ‘a bath, a bottle, a book’ because I adore alliteration as much as I like reading and good smells (and right now, everyone needs a bottle of something.)

The book itself can be new and glossy, or an out-of-print favourite, scrounged second-hand, that you need your friend to read. That may have a whiff of ‘reading assignment’, but so be it.

This inaugural Bath, Bottle and Book is a trio of gifts for a quiet homebody, rendered weary by the season:

Canada’s own Bathorium bath bomb in Boreal Fog , $12, Holt Renfrew, Etiket.ca, has an evocative name that encourages you to go walking in the bitter cold, then come home to steep in a hot tub like a giant, human tea bag, surrounded by Boreal Fog’s wondrous eucalyptus, fir and vetiver fug.

Empress 1908 gin, $52.95, LCBO, named after the Victoria, BC, hotel, is loved for its floral notes and blend of botanicals, makes a mean martini (a very last century, female writer drink) and is arrestingly beautiful enough to be displayed on a drinks tray (the aromatic, dry gin gets its colour from butterfly pea blossoms.)

One Pair of Hands (copies available here and here), is a funny, clever and often pointed, detail-rich account of Monica Dickens’ (yes, Charles’s great-granddaughter) time spent as a cook for hire in 1930s London households after she got booted from acting school and became bored with debutante life. Why this book and this author are not more famous is beyond me.

+J Jil Sander Coming to Uniqlo November 18th

+J collection images courtesy of Uniqlo.

Who wants to join me at Uniqlo on November 18th for the new +J Jil Sander drop? (Those lucky Americans got it on November 11th, but you can figure out what you want in advance on Uniqlo’s Canadian site.)

Lining up for the first crack at designer/mass retailer collaborations is the grown-up version of camping out for concert tickets, but perhaps the lineup will be indoors, so we won’t need thermoses, blankets and lawn chairs. (The collab will be available online starting at 10:00 a.m. EST for Canadians that same day.)

I snagged a beautiful, nipped-in waist puffer from the +J collection last year, and the quality is reassuringly quite high. My new favourite coat is matte on the outside with a shiny lining, same as this year. A cuff revealing a glint of shine is just the right amount of ‘bling’ for any Jil Sander-loving minimalist.

This coming season (rumoured to be the last for this collaboration) everything has that oversized ease, which is perfect for those of us still wrestling with newly expanded waistlines, grâce à Covid.

Sander herself says it best: “This winter’s collection concentrates on distinctive silhouettes and luxurious tailoring which respond to our new sense of comfort. We return to social life, but we want to feel protected. The collection explores new oversize silhouettes with a controlled fit and variations of substantial winter classics.”

Translation: we want to feel like we’re still wearing our sweats, but it is time to start looking a little more dressed up. Perfect.

Oh, the colour of this jacket. (Faints)

A ‘November Box’ of Seasonal Treats

Former Vogue Editor Tonne Goodman’s living room is cozy perfection.

The holidays are still pretty far away but we need some frivolity now. A November box, (see last year’s here) is a collection of treats you assemble to open on that first rainy, miserable November day. It can be anything you want, as long as it’s cheering.

The Santa Maria Novella terracotta pomegrante, $69 US., is what I call ‘stealth ubiquitous’. Once you know about it, you’ll see it everywhere in photos, quietly perched on a shelf or coffee table. Safer than a scented candle, this porous, terracotta fruit is soaked in scented oil so you can bring it home to release that signature Santa Maria Novella ‘Melograno’ scent. It’s powerful at first but dissipates to perfume rooms gently for at least a year after which it can live on in a closet.

And take some inspiration from Alex Eagle’s coffee table, below. If you stack all your books into piles, each topped with an objet, candle or ashtray, it immediately looks purposeful and tidy.

Santa Maria Novella’s pomegranate is only one of many delights on Alex Eagle’s coffee table.

The Uniqlo pale grey cashmere beanie, because each year we always forget how cold it gets.

Keep a Uniqlo cashmere beanie $39.90, at the ready for when the temps continue their downward trajectory. The navy blue is already sold out, but black, pale grey, cream and a whole raft of colours are still available. And you can’t beat the price for pure cashmere.

Serge Lutens Chergui Confit de Parfum perfumed oil, $195, Holt Renfrew, named after a Moroccan desert wind, reveals its secrets slowly. It’s like discovering your favourite elderly auntie was actually a member of the resistance who lured Gestapo agents to abandoned warehouses before shooting them. In a perfumed oil this means it starts all sweet and innocent and powdery with rose, iris and honey, before warming into a heady mix of leather, tobacco, musk and incense. World War two heroines aside, it’s the perfect scent if you’re tired of smelling like everyone else.

Oversized and singular with that crazy handle, this capacious and thick-walled Waverly mug from superstar interiors trendsetter Montana Labelle will add a cool, earthy vibe to your morning Nespresso.

Watching the venerable Italian nonne of Pasta Grannies make their own pasta like trofie with basil sauce (page 28) and potato gnocchi with tomato sauce (page 115) on YouTube is pure visual Xanax. The accompanying cookbook ensures that they are truly “saving traditions and sharing skills” while giving us some much-needed, comforting fall dinner inspiration.

Laboratoire Filorga’s Meso Mask, $75, Shoppers Drug Mart, calms redness in minutes and super-hydrates too, because we all know what’s going to happen to our poor skin when the air out there is both freezing and drying.

Lindt Excellence Orange Almond dark chocolate is a souped-up and tricked-out adult version of that Christmas stocking staple, the Terry’s chocolate orange. Stash one in your November Box and hopefully forget about it, so when you open the box, there will be #surprisechocolate for you to eat right away. it’s the edible equivalent to finding $20 in your coat pocket.

It’s Velvet Pillow Season

Pillow people love autumn. As we'll happily tell anyone who'll listen - switching out pillow covers adds seasonal colour and new energy to a room and it's not half as drastic, or costly, as reupholstering your couch. (I am deeply impressed by those fearless souls who recover furniture in bold prints, but I could never do it.)

Only Pillows in the Building

The posh New York City apartments belonging to the characters in ‘Only Murders in the Building’ (now streaming on Disney+ and Star in Canada and Hulu in the US) as created by Production Designer Curt Beech and set decorator Rich Murray, offer a motherlode of design inspiration. Richly layered and expensively accoutred, each apartment is full of ‘I need to freeze frame this for further study’ details. And pillows. So many pillows.

Sting, in his cameo as a rock star and murder suspect, has an invitingly smooshy, velvet pillow-overloaded couch.

Steve Martin’s faded tv star cum amateur sleuth finds love while his patterned pillows clash daringly with his Paul Smith-ish striped sofa.

Martin Short, whose purple coat and always a silk scarf-wearing Broadway director, Oliver Putnam, has the most over-the-top apartment and the best pillows. To whit, a pair of pomegranate-pattern, sheared velvet beauts living on a tufted couch. (My screen cap, below, because for some puzzling reason, the press photos aren’t as pillow-centric as I would like.)

Bold pillows on Oliver’s couch: pomegranates are traditionally a symbol of fertility and abundance.

From the archives: wouldn’t this pillow array and suzani on socialite Jacqui Getty’s bed be perfect in a living room?

Here in the budget-aware real world, we have to rely on our own pillow-finding skills instead of a production design team:

Winners and HomeSense are always a good resource and their Fall 2021 edit is full of on-trend colours. Go early and go often and you will be rewarded.

Put the kettle on and start searching on Etsy for silk Ikat pillows.

Etsy is a great pillow and textile resource. Unlike Oliver’s pomegranates that wrap around the whole pillow, Etsy offerings often have the decorative fabric on one side only, but they are (relatively) inexpensive and it’s easy to find something under $80 Canadian.

I think it was at New York City’s ABC Carpet & Home that I saw my first $400 pillow. And that was years ago. Who knows how much they cost now? Seriously, does anyone know? I could use the laugh.

This Skirt Fits Every Body

All photos courtesy of Bleusalt.

Lord love a tube skirt. Narrow enough to look like actual “be seen in public” clothing, but the elastic waist and soft fabric feel like pyjamas.

Navy is the new black.

This Bleusalt tube skirt is on sale right now. I bought it in 'navy’ (more of a midnight blue, really) at the beginning of lockdown last year and only just wore it out this week for the first time. The soft Tencel jersey, spun from beechwood fibres, is sustainable (and just as important) it’s machine washable.

Unlike the lovely model in her crop top (above), I do wear the skirt with a longish, loose shirt that gently (and compassionately) skims over my midsection. Dark blue is a nice change from black and the narrow cut makes it look tailored enough to work with structured fall shoes like lug-soled loafers or Chelsea boots, both of the moment.

Throw on some nice sunglasses and retrieve a proper purse from the depths of your closet and it’s a painless way to help you re-enter polite society.

Walking away from yoga pants.

Your Friday Five #2

The Emmys take place this Sunday (September 19th at 8 p.m. est on CBS) and Jean Smart is nominated for her roles in HBO’s Hacks (above) and HBO’s Mare of Easttown (both on Crave in Canada.) If you haven’t yet watched Hacks, you need to binge all 10 episodes right now. I envy you.

Chanel Baume Essentiel Multi Use Glow Stick in Golden Light, $60, helps you keep a summery radiance straight into fall and prevents that “ghostly and faintly unwell” look from taking hold. This shimmery bronze stick is lightly pigmented so you can apply it with abandon on cheekbones, eyelids, and the bridge of your nose to look instantly better, glowier. And it works for all skin tones (just use a lighter hand if you are English-rose pale.)

But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria by the late Julia Reed should have won prizes for the title alone. This 2014 mix of stories, history and recipes can forcibly yank you out of a bad mood and her easy champagne cocktail of a sugar cube soaked in grapefruit bitters with prosecco poured over could easily become your party mainstay.

Pattern Beauty by Tracee Ellis Ross is the latest BIPOC-owned beauty brand to come to Sephora and I was curious to try the On the Go Curl Hair Kit , $31, Sephora, to see if its rich products could quiet my frizz. One attempt later and I have coaxed actual curls from straw. And the scent is suitably luxe — light and fresh but sophisticated. Next up, trying the hair Treatment Mask which has a richer ‘could be an expensive perfume’ fragrance. I am all in.

Sure, Issey Miyake’s new A Drop d’Issey, $142, Shoppers Drug Mart, is ostensibly a warm weather fragrance, given its pure lilac central note, but why not wear it to stay in blissful denial about the icy months ahead?

Your Friday Five

On the last weekend of August, let’s socialize, inspired by this clever, smoke-centric reimagining of Slim Aarons’ iconic poolside photos, shot by Hype Williams for Jay-Z’s Monogram cannabis company.

Bottom row, from left to right: Even if you don’t have a Palm Springs retreat at your disposal, you can still share a fancy drink outdoors with friends. Dunk puréed fruit popsicles (I like local Toronto brand Happy Pops) head first into glasses of prosecco or champagne for cocktails that are festive but not overly sweet. Created at New York’s Conrad Hotel’s Loopy Doopy bar, they’re easy to assemble and are much more than mere Instagram bait.

I often think about the ‘bowls’ of cigarettes’ at Mary-Kate Olsen’s 2015 wedding reception with now ex-spouse Olivier Sarkozy. The 2021 Covid-anxiety version of this has to be offering your guests Ace Valley Pinners in Indica Kosher Kush. These skinny joints come eight to a pack and contain only .3 mg of thc instead of the usual .5 mg. No passing around, everyone gets their own and voilà, you are cooler than an Olsen twin.

Matrix Biolage Coconut Infusion spray, $24, Chatters.ca, detangles and hydrates that unruly mess on the top of your head, turning frizz into beachy waves and infusing hair with a light coconut scent. It’ll be perfect come November for that summery fragrance alone.

Why isn’t eucalyptus more of a standard deodorant scent? Decidedly genderless, this bracing and clean-smelling Caudalie Vinofresh natural stick deodorant, $18.50, Sephora, promises 24 hour protection and is ideal when engaging with others outside in the late summer steam.

If you are hiding inside with the AC blasting, waiting for fall, you should watch '“Shetland” (the first four seasons are available on Netflix) set on the windy and cold Scottish island of the same name. With only a wee bit of violence, it’s mainly soothing, with detective Jimmy Perez (Douglas Henshall) wearing one of his many wooly jumpers, while interviewing suspects outdoors in yet another impossibly beautiful Scottish locale.

Late Summer Refresh

Romy Schneider in fashion’s favourite film, La Piscine

I am stuffing my fingers in my ears to avoid hearing anyone say “August is the Sunday of summer.” There is officially one month of summer left and I plan to enjoy it. You will find me outdoors with friends and (hopefully) with a glass of iced rosé* in my hand. In the spirit of glamorous lounging, here are some late summer pick-me-ups to keep you as looking as cool as Romy Schneider in 1969’s La Piscine.

Products clockwise from upper right: Valmont Palazzo Nobile Fizzy Mint eau de toilette, $240, Holt Renfrew, with notes of crushed mint, lemon verbena and bergamot is like running through the coolest and fanciest sprinkler on a hot day.

Set off tan skin with OPI’s From Dusk til Dune ($10.95, Trade Secrets) a pale, creamy almost-pink polish shot through with glinting blue micro-glitter that cleverly bounces light to mask surface irregularities on your nails.

For an elevated beach read, Ashley Mears’ Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit ($40, Indigo books) is a sharp-eyed but nuanced insider’s tour through the ‘models and bottles’ world of fancy nightclubs, ‘enterprising’ party promoters and beautiful women used as props to lure rich men.

Guerlain Terracotta bronzing powder, $66, Shoppers Drug Mart, now boasts 96% naturally-derived ingredients with a wide shade range in a fine powder formulation that melts into skin for a believable tan.

Summer Friday’s Lip Butter Balm in new Vanilla Beige $29, Sephora) subtly tints lips for a tawny effect to set off darker skin or amplify a tan.

Resuscitate sun and chlorine-dried hair with Klorane’s Nourishing & Repairing Mask with Cupuaçu butter ($14.99, Well.ca) Leave it on for minutes or overnight as a rinse-off mask or warm a bit in your hands and rake through your damp hair as a leave-in conditioner.

* An iced rosé is known as a ‘piscine’ (swimming pool) in France.

Not Going to New York Any Time Soon, So I Bought La Mercerie's Coffee Glasses Online

Roman and Williams Guild/La Mercerie

When we are finally back to normal, I want my first trip to be to New York City, even though three of my favourite shops: Dean & Deluca, Apartment by the Line and the original Barney’s are now gone.

The perfect place to have a galette and a coffee. La Mercerie

Luckily, at the bottom of Soho, between slowly gentrifying Canal Street and Howard Street, sits Roman & Williams Guild, the most beautiful home store with a French restaurant, La Mercerie, in the front. (I so miss eating a crêpe while people-watching-slash-evesdropping.)

I regret not even even buying a small bowl or this little scallop edged bread plate. Photo: Liza Herz

The furniture and housewares at Roman & Williams Guild are so beautiful and so expensive that it’s best not to get too tipsy at lunch because you may start planning how to sneak a $9,000 leather couch across the border. Better to focus on something small and portable. (I really regret not buying this little scallop-edged butter plate the last time I ate there.)

And the glassware! La Rochere’s Zinc glasses, are often available online. With their vertical ridges and softly fluted shapes, they are less purely functional and more decorative than say, a classic Duralex Picardie tumbler.

There’s even a shorter Zinc espresso glass, that Ottolenghi carries in London. Which reminds me, that’s another town I want to visit.

Ottolenghi usually has the espresso glass in stock.

La Rochere’s Zinc glass brings style to your morning coffee.

They also add sparkle to the bar nook in Athena Calderone’s Brooklyn home.

Coveting: A Men’s Blue Shirt

A couple of weeks ago, I became obsessed with the idea of wearing an over-sized, pale blue, men’s linen shirt as a cover-up at the beach. But by then, it was already mid-July and they were sold out everywhere. So I began searching online resale.

Doppelgänger shirt’s Poshmark listing

Clothing resale is growing rapidly online, given the surfeit of unsold garments created by the relentless churn of fast fashion. With 70 pounds of clothing per person going to landfill each year, it is definitely time to start mining that mountain of misfit clothes.

Instead of searching on a designer site like theRealReal, I tried the more populist Poshmark, and quickly found two men’s shirts: a very pale number for $25 from Doppelgänger (an Italian chain that I’d never heard of) and a never-worn one from Uniqlo still bearing its in-store fold marks and a size L sticker, for only $15.

Unlike flipping through the racks at Value Village, Poshmark wares come pre-sorted so there’s no real life digging, followed by that “eureka” moment when you spot a treasure amidst the dross. But finding the exact thing I wanted was still pretty satisfying. And there is quite a bit of summer left to wear my “new” blue shirts to the beach.