EXHIBITOR VERGLAS PHOTOGRAPHED MELANIA NAKED
AU NATUREL: Few men can have photographed Melania Trump naked and been received cordially by her somewhat testy spouse. But Antoine Verglas was, after photographing the former Melanija Knavs for GQ magazine’s January 2000 cover. An exhibition of the Paris-born New Yorker’s large photos of actresses and supermodels — not including la Trump — opened recently at Susanna Strem’s Chali-Rosso gallery on Howe Street. It was another in Vernard Goud and Georgia Primar’s events involving international fashion photographers. Unsurprisingly, it attracted several local women dressed remarkably lightly for a cool evening.
COOKING FOR THE CLINTONS: Mona Talbott hasn’t seen former White House resident Bill Clinton in the buff. But the one-time city resident did help keep him out of a burial shroud following quadruple coronary bypass surgery. That was when, having developed her culinary skills at a Canadian reforestation camp and polished them at L.A.’s tony Chez Panisse restaurant, Talbott prepared chow at Bill and Hillary’s Chappaqua, N.Y. home. “He would say, ‘This is marvellous,’” she recalled of such dishes as the wiltedspinach-and-warmed-trail-mix salad that artist-author Douglas Coupland also recalls affectionately. “But I knew that the Secret Service were bringing him the junk food he loved.” Clinton is reputedly now a vegan, and Talbott is executive chef and partner at upstate N.Y.’s Talbott & Arding operation
PAINTINGS AND PINTS: Talbott and many from Vancouver’s haute-art community attended the launch of Angela Grossmann’s Mistressworks exhibition at Ron Regan’s Franc gallery. Grossmann’s return from mixedmedia works to straight-ahead painting is worth seeing at the 1654 Franklin St. gallery that, though tucked-away, has equally pleasurable craft breweries nearby.
ON TAPE: Full body coverage for men was recommended at Trump Tower’s street-level Stefano Ricci clothing store when master tailor Alessandro Ciprian flew in recently from Florence headquarters. Stretched around a size 40-tall client, his tailor’s tape could cost the latter up to $1,250 an inch or $50,000 for a top-line suit, possibly incorporating gold thread. The currently favoured colour is royal blue, Ciprian said, and the most popular suit costs $13,000. Not exactly Indochino prices, but peanuts beside the $150,000 alligator jacket on display.
WATCH IT: The scent of money on Alberni Street’s 1000 block increased recently when Robbie Dickson and Oleg Primbetova officially opened their Hublot watch store. Next door is their outlet for De Beers, which is to diamonds what Prince Edward Island is to spuds. Exotic car enthusiast Dickson paid $750,000 in 2015 for a Hublot MP-05 LaFerrari wristwatch. Beside the store this week, Ferrari-Maserati dealer Brian Ross parked a real LaFerrari supercar worth maybe five times its 2013 price of $1.5 million. He’d biz-jetted in from Ohio with daughter Chelsea who prefers to drive a Ferrari 488 Spyder for which papa might ask US$300,000.
TIME OUT: Time is an artistic constant for concert pianist and Hublot “brand ambassador” Lang Lang who attended the Alberni Street reception. It was especially so later in musical 6/8 time when the Shenyang-born 35-year-old played Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano Concerto No. 5 for 40 minutes with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bramwell Tovey. Back at the store, Lang Lang wore a Classic Fusion Chronograph Canada from an edition of 31 at $16,000 each. Not at the Orpheum Theatre, though, where its weight might have impeded the delicacy of the concerto’s second-movement nocturne.
SING OUT: The Chor Leoni choir’s 25th season began with Lesley Stowe chairing a fundraising dinner-recital at Lorne and Melita Segal’s Southlands home. Last year at the Casa Mia mansion, police answered a neighbour who complained about overhearing the superb male-voice ensemble’s performance. Audiences should be more appreciative next July when Chor Leoni will be the first Canadian contestant in the Bali and Singapore international choir festivals.
REMEMBERING DR. PETER: Chef-stylist Nathan Fong watched as the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation’s annual Passions gala he founded lifted its 15year fundraising total above $1.5 million. Attendees, including the late Dr. Peter’s mother, Shirley Young, also saw Scott Elliott officially succeed the foundation’s 19-year executive director, Maxine Davis, who was warmly applauded.
MARTI’S PARTY: Bruno Marti, the chef-owner of Ladner’s La Belle Auberge, is reportedly the American Culinary Federation Hall of Fame’s sole Canadian inductee. Chef Margaret Chisholm oversaw several top-flight colleagues recently to prepare a long table dinner that honoured Marti and raised $50,000 for the Les Dames d’Escoffier organization’s scholarships and outreach programs. SAM’S SYSTEM: Remembering former premier Gordon Campbell’s fatal failure to predict PST/HST harmonization backlash, B.C. Liberal party leadership candidate Sam Sullivan said his speeches refer to “every toxic substance so that no one can say I didn’t mention it before.” Given the campaign’s preferential balloting, “If all the people rate me number 2, I will win,” he said. Better to start in number 2, of course, than end in it, as office seekers tend to do. In other political scatology, Sullivan chuckled at the anagram of “promises” being “more piss.”