August 27 "LUNCH AT A 16TH CENTURY VILLA WITH DOWNTOWN JULIE BROWN"

As an American, I've always had an affinity for anything that was over 150 years old! (no smart remarks from the peanut gallery)
I absolutely love antiques, castles, historical "period movies, and vampires but not necessarily in that order. In fact, True Blood on HBO is one of my fave shows around.

So I was keen to go on vacation to Italy (Lago Maggiore to be exact), known for being a country rich with history, a great civilization and reaking in antiquites, to visit my friend Julie Schuermann, aka Downtown Julie Brown, or DTJB to all you texters or bloggers who were born after 1980. Well I thought, "whoo-hoo", that she and I would be partying all night in some Italian disco in Milan, but my dear friends, Italy is closed in August! Well not completely closed, but most of the chic people are on vacation in Ibiza, Capri, Lago Maggiore, Lago Cuomo or even, hmmm, the Hamptons. But to my grand surprise, I discovered that, Julie, that once flambouyant British fashion "diva" of MTV in the mid-80's to early 90's (thanks to moi), had metamorphed into the "lady of the manor" of Lago Maggiore. Yes, the one-time uber hipster that used to capture the attention of a nation as that sparkly "wubba, wubba, wubba" shouting MTV VJ, was now so incredibly elegant and well poised and chic! Yes, chic and that coming from "The Image Guru" himself.

Now back to the point of this blog, Julie now divides her time between Los Angeles and Italy and is married to a charming and uberly handsome German entrepreneur named Martin Schuermann. Julie and Martin bought a lakeside home in Lago Maggiore about 9 years ago and live their during the summers along with Martin's beautiful daughter Gianna, who Julie's been a step mom to since she was a wee lassie. All of the friends that they've made in Lago Maggiore are quite the social set and very proper, yet still fun. So when we were invited by Mimi & Franco Artom (a big-wig at the Fashion House of Loro Piana), I was pleased, so say the least being "The Image Guru". Mimi and Franco Artom are the social bastions of Ispra, one of the quaint little towns off the lake where they all live. An invitation by them is apparently not one you turn down, but when I heard that we would be joining some of their friends for lunch at their 16th century villa, I was most eager to oblige my acceptance (also because I really love antiquities).

What does one wear to such an outing? I asked myself. I know, I'll do something completely "Hollywood meets New York" and present myself as if I were a 1950's American bon vivant, traveling the countryside in Italy with my BFF. So I chose a canary polo shirt (no, not from Ralph Lauren) from Vicomte Arthur (Paris, Palm Beach), some pale lemon sorbet slacks from Tommy Hilfiger, a beautiful royal blue linen blazer from John Barrett (which I purchased at Daffy's on West 57th Street, Manhattan for $59) and my navy blue Polo (yes, from Ralph Lauren) deck shoes and a lovely silk neckerchief from Hermes. Not a thing that I wore was Italian, which was deliberate on my part! Julie wore a crisp white pant suit from Dolce & Gabbana replete with a low-back plungy white top, a chic white chapeau (hat), some kick-ass black Chanel glasses and some groovey white wedgies from Gucci. Yes, she turned it out!

So we hopped in her smart little black Mercedes convertible and drove to meet the Orsis in Varese (say that ten times). I have to say that upon driving up to the arched entrance, I thought to myself, OMG, this is just like a Merchant Ivory movie location and the Orsi family seemed to look like they were from Central Casting, just because they looked the part. Carlo Orsi, the head of the household, is an antiquario (or antique dealer) and his lovely wife Norris is a PR maven for Loro Piana. Their villa, or as they like to say "casa" ( yes, "casa" my ass, this was a frickin' museum) was most impressive and situated in the most picturesque setting. Their "casa", although not literally a museum, was in fact a museum. Why because it was furnished with incredibly old, rare and valuable antiques. Why, they even had a very large stuffed ostrich (yes, I said ostrich) encased in the main drawing room, along with alot of other dead remnants of animals past. But, as one of the daughters confessed to me as she was showing me around, this was her home (although she also confessed that as a child she was a little afraid of living there).

The following photos were taken my yours truly and depict the richness and majesty of living in such a residence. Most Americans might find this "casa" intimidating, but for the Orsis, this was their sanctuary. I thank Carlo Orsi for allowing me to act like a Japanese tourist by invadiing their private spaces to take these photographs! Also, thanks to Livinia for the tour of her family's residence, plus the lunch and conversation was darn good too! Oh Julie..... I did get the white wine stains out of my pants after you knocked my glass over.... into my lap (tee,hee).

Ahhh, Italian living doesn't get much better than this. Tutti mangare!

Montgomery Frazier "The Image Guru"

4:37 PM | Blog it | Travel
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