Billionaires Hit the Slopes

social safari
by
R. COURI HAY
Honoree Hillary
Clinton & James
Glaser @ The
Elizabeth Glaser
Pediatric AIDS
Foundation Gala
Randy Kemper and Tony
Ingrao named to Margaret
Russell’s AD100 List @ the
Four Seasons Hotel
Rocco Ritchie and Mummy
Madonna do Gstaad
Valentino, Salma Hayek & Giancarlo
Giammetti @ the Tower Hotel
Billionaires
Hit the
Slopes
Valentino at home, The Palace
turns 100, baubles and birthday girls
I
n Gstaad, the most intriguing billionaires are the ones who do not
want to be seen. The richest girl in the world was here, but nobody
knew it because that’s the way she wanted it. Then there’s the other
side of this golden coin, personified by the designer Valentino, who’s
dubbed “The Emperor” by his intimates and his partner Giancarlo
Giammetti. The debonair duo entertains the crème de la crème in their
chic chalet, Gifferhorn. Their wood-paneled home overflows with Old
Master paintings, rare antiques and serious contemporary art. A posse
of pugs and a tiny Yorkshire terrier roam freely. Blue and white Meissen
vases capped with delicate birds and porcelain flowers line the mantle of
the main stone fireplace, which is always aglow. Warming these highly
100 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2014
Princess Tatiana and
Prince Nikolaos of
Greece in Stockholm
personal rooms are lush rust and
gold paisley and pony-skin print
fabrics; exotic carpets in shades of red, rose and beige. Every surface is
an exquisite still-life. Lounging on the cozy silk-fringed furniture you
may find Prince Nickolaos and Princess Tatiana of Greece and Denmark; Margherita Missoni; Tatiana Santo Domingo; Elton John and
his spouse David Furnish; Khali Lassir, Maria Longoria, Charlene
Shorto and Madonna and all her children, including Rocco Ritchie,
who is quite a cut-up both on and off his custommade snowboards.
Rocco, his pal Dominic Sesto and their self-proclaimed team of “Loose
Cannons” made videos on the slopes and frolicked on Valentino’s Sheep
by Claude Lalanne until someone whispered their value: $5 million.
All told, the impeccably dressed pair are this Swiss village’s “Hosts
with the Most.” At their intimate New Year’s Eve party, the slim and fit
designer wore a Black Watch plaid suit. On another day they donned
velvet ensembles: “Val” wore burgundy and “GG.” moss green. “We did
not dress the same on purpose!” Giancarlo swore.
They entertain effortlessly and flawlessly; their chef is the best
in town. For dinner there are extraordinary plates with intricate leaf
motifs and cabbage- and artichoke-shaped vessels filled with miniature
vegetables. Valentino confides, “I have over 100 different sets of china.”
The first course is miso-crusted asparagus presented on a ceramic
box lined with lemon wedges and decorated with tiny pink orchids.
Everything is light and healthy. “I don’t have rich banquets,” laughs the
Emperor, who adds, “I eat simply.”
The twosome received a thousand-piece puzzle as a house gift and,
with the help of their guests, completed it in five days. It turned out to
be a vintage New Yorker cover covered in fanciful animals. The magic is
©Patrick McMullan; ROB RICH
Princess
Marie-Chantal
and Prince
Pavlos of
Greece in
Luxemburg
Margherita
Missoni
and
Tatiana
Santo
Domingo
lit up
Gstaad
social safari
Mark Badgley and James
Mischka host a birthday
party for Cornelia
Guest @ Templeton
Jean Shafiroff
& Governor
Andrew Cuomo
@ the Mission
Society
Lisa Jackson
launches
L.J. Cross @
Phoenix Roze
on Madison
Avenue
Jeweler Judith
Murat debuted
a collection
to benefit
Pancreatic
Cancer Action
Network in
Palm Beach
in the details. They have an embroidered pillow that says: “You’ll always
be my best friend, you know too much.” Hahaha! As Aileen Mehle,
the peerless society columnist, likes to write. Who else would tell
you these things?
The Palace Hotel Turns 100
The Gstaad Palace hotel is the life and soul of this Alpine social scene.
Marchesa’s Georgina Chapman and her husband Harvey Weinstein
were among those who checked in. Roman Polanski has his own
table next to the fireplace in the Great Room; at tea time, you’ll find
him and his wife Emmanuelle Seigner catching up with friends. I ran
into Ann Dexter-Jones, Laurence Graff, Simon de Pury, Patricia and
Henry Hay, Sima and Peter Merian and Victoria Wyman. Members
of the Schertz family, which has owned the Palace for three generations,
gave a gala to celebrate the hotel’s hundredth birthday. Everyone came
to scoop up the Beluga and foie gras and quaff Perrier Jouet Fleur de
Champagne Rosé while viewing vintage film clips of Elizabeth Taylor
and Richard Burton’s grand entrances, and waiters in white tie and tails,
on ice skates, delivering cocktails on silver trays as Rolls Royces pulled
up to the hotel’s front steps. Among those who do Gstaad regularly are
HRH Crown Prince Pavlos and Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of
Greece and their daughter Princess Olympia; Prince Nikolaos and
Princess Tatiana of Greece and Denmark; Pia Getty; Janna Bullock;
Sharon Handler and Ambassador John Loeb; Anne Hathaway;
Beanie Esteve; Yoko Ono; Lady Liliana and Lord William Cavendish
and their children Georgiana and Edward Cavendish.
Andrea Schertz, who currently heads up the Palace, hosted a
Great Gatsby-themed party at the GreenGo, the infamous nightclub
underneath the hotel where the young, royal and rich flock after
midnight. I spotted the Material Girl’s daughter Lourdes, Zoe
Remmel, Julian Hay, Eugenia Bullock, Arina Berezovsky and all the
pretty young things who go to Le Rosey, on the dance floor that is
102 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2014
Michele Riggi gave
a birthday dinner for
Marylou Whitney @ the
Palazzo Riggi
Liv Tyler and Georgina
Chapman @ Cipriani
suspended over the pool. I’ve been asked not to reveal the names
of the madcap flappers who jumped into the water, but I can tell
you they were fined 2,000 euros and banned from the hot spot
for two years. Time will tell if their billionaire fathers will procure
them a pardon. The next king of Bhutan is currently enrolled at Le
Rosey and the future Grand Duke of Luxembourg is among the
alumni, along with King Juan Carlos I of Spain, King Baudouin
I of Belgium, King Fuad II of Egypt, King Ntare V of Burundi, Aga
Khan IV, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Winthrop Rockefeller,
to name but a few.
The Alpina and the Eagle
Over at Marcel Bach and Jean-Claude Mimran’s Alpina, the über-chic
hotel whose Sixth Senses Spa, along with Café Royal’s Akasha Spa in
London, are the edgiest and most luxurious state-of-the-art facilities of
their kind in the world; there were screenings of The Wolf of Wall Street
and Philomena. Guests included Ingrid Sischy, Tabitha Simmons,
Craig McDean and billionaire Bob Manoukian, who gave a postscreening supper at his villa. Rachel Lehmann, the savvy gallerist who
owns the Lehman Maupin Gallery in SoHo, christened her art-laden
chalet on the Alpina’s grounds with a lively fête. She reproduced her Jeff
Koons sculpture of Mickey and Minnie Mouse in ice at the entrance
so no one would, get lost because a bouquet of colored balloons just
doesn’t cut it in Gstaad, n’est-ce pas?
DJ Brendan J. Sullivan, who wrote the Lady Gaga memoir Rivington
Was Ours, spun into the wee hours for the cognoscenti you always
see at Frieze and Art Basel. The exclusive Eagle Club, whose
members include Prince Nicholas Romanov, the columnist Taki
Theodoracopulos, Roger Moore, Claire and Jamie Barber, Adnan
Khashoggi and Loulou and Geoffrey Moore, is the only place to be
seen at lunch. Otherwise, it’s better to stay home and take a nap. Unless,
of course, you’re invited to Valentino’s. ✦
©Patrick McMullan; ROB RICH
Morgan O’Connor and
Pamela O’Connor @ Tony
Ingrao’s opening