Three Times The Fun! J.J. Martin, Mathilde Favier, and Laura Gonzalez Threw a Book Signing Soirée
In Tribeca, a trinity of must-gift coffee table books for the holiday season were on display. Ahead of the holidays, friends J.J. Martin, Mathilde Favier, and Laura Gonzalez invited an international cohort to join them for a celebration of their respective coffee table tomes at Gonzalez’ gallery.
The idea to host a triple whammy of a book signing fete came while the pals were holidaying in Sicily this summer. A far cry from a warm Italian evening, guests braved a blustery New York night on Tuesday to head to the recently opened showroom on Franklin Street for a toast.
As art curators and tastemakers gathered at a grazing station chock full of food from Lev NYC and enjoyed glasses of Moët Chandon, Martin, the founder of maximalist fashion and lifestyle brand La DoubleJ, was doing the rounds. The Milan-based editor-turned-designer recalled that she first came across Gonzalez when the celebrated furniture and interior designer posted images tagging the brand a few years back. “We wondered who this fabulous woman wearing our dresses was,” Martin told Vogue. As for Favier, the press director of Dior Couture, it seems impossible to have ever stepped foot in Paris and not met the consummate entertainer.
“I’m excited to share my favorite city with the world,” Favier said of her Rizzoli-published endeavor, Living Beautifully in Paris, in between pow-wows with Helena Christensen and Sofia Coppola. While she’ll be hot-footing it home to Paris to spend Christmas with her family, she’ll be boomeranging back to the States soon after as Dior readies to dress stars at the Golden Globes on January 5. Her own look on the night was Dior, mais oui: “Warrior themed,” she laughed, of the intricate two-piece.
True to their origin story, Gonzalez was wearing a sequin La DoubleJ number for the occasion. “I’ve been in the industry for 16 years, and my book is about the first ten years of my design career,” the AD100 talent told Vogue. Just like her two showrooms (she also has a space in Paris) celebrate the beauty of French savoir-faire and her innate ability to mix patterns, textures, ideas, and genres, so too does her book; giving readers a glimpse into the mind of the woman behind the Cartier Mansion flagship in New York as well as Parisian favorites Lapérouse and the Saint James hotel.
Like Favier, Gonzalez will be heading back to the City of Light for the holidays, meanwhile Martin is off to India for a 17-day tour of Ayurvedic exploration. Before she goes, though, she’ll entertain editors and industry insiders at a takeover of an Upper West Village townhouse, treating them to crystal and astrology sessions and sound baths. “I think we all need that at this time of year,” the spiritually-minded designer, decked out in crystal jewelry, said.
Another person for whom books were on the brain was Elle Macpherson, who stopped by the cocktail party ahead of a trip to Los Angeles this weekend to promote her autobiography. The project, titled Elle: Life, Lessons, and Learning to Trust Yourself, reflects on the Australian model’s arrival to New York in 1982 and the ensuing decades as she became one of the world’s most in-demand names. After the West Coast splash, she’s looking forward to a quiet Christmas in Miami with her family and a cozy night in on New Year’s Eve. Asked for advice for models of today trying to get their big break, she said that slow and steady wins the race: “Check in with yourself, be true to yourself, reflect, and slow down.” Sounds like good advice to heed for the hectic holiday season, too.
1/13Sofia Coppola
2/13Julia von Boehm, Ana Khouri, Shirin von Wulffen