The reason I haven't posted in ages? This. Architectural Digest: Autobiography of a Magazine, 1920-2010. Over the last few years, I've been working with a small group of fellow former AD staff to help realize a book that not only tells the history of the magazine but that doubles as a memoir for its longtime editor Paige Rense. It's a book in two voices. Each chapter opens with an introduction written in the neutral voice used by the magazine for so many years. Those histories then give way to Paige's own voice as she shares recollections of her forty years at the helm. (I think people might be surprised at how candid she is!)
Making this book was pretty much a dream project. (That old "It's not work if you love it" line.) But its launch with Rizzoli in New York on October 23rd was bittersweet. While I'm thrilled to hold the book in my hands and to know that Paige is happy, I'm also a bit sad it's over. In organizing my files and putting things away, it's been fun to look back through old images and notes, even Paige catching my typos. Yikes! I may have to share some of those over the coming weeks...
But below is how it all began. A blue toile box with Paige's 500+ page manuscript plunked inside. And yep, we're at Zinque, right across from the PDC. It was our regular meeting spot. Which likely had as much to do with its sangria as its centrality.
And below is Paige, signing and smiling, and just having a very good time at the launch. (What a perfect setting John Rosselli Antiques was.) I believe this particular snap was her signing a copy for either Thad Hayes or Stephen Shadley. But I can't quite remember. Seeing so many important designers in the room left me a little bit starstruck...
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