Interview

In 1956, Yul Brynner’s cinematic triple-header—playing the polyamorous, hard-ruling King of Siam in The King and I, the vengeful Pharaoh Rameses II in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, and a Russian expat mentor to Ingrid Bergman’s faux Romanov princess in Anastasia—established him as one of the most talented young actors of his generation. Nearly 25 years after his death, Brynner’s lesser-known passion—photography—is being presented to the public. Curated and compiled by his daughter, Victoria Brynner, Yul Brynner: A Photographic Journey (Edition 7L) features intimate portraits of friends (Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn), behind-the-scenes industry snapshots (Dean Martin joking with Jerry Lewis), and personal photographs (including Brynner family photos). Split into four volumes, with forewords by Bruce Weber, Martin Scorsese, Stefano Tonchi, and longtime Interview editor Ingrid Sischy, Yul not only captures the actor’s life but also provides a window on the world as Brynner saw it—and a spectacular one at that. An exhibition, Yul, Yul Brynner: A Photographic Journey, will also be on view at New York City’s Lehmann Maupin Gallery from September 12–25. More info at yulbrynnerphotographer.com and lehmannmaupin.com

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"Leather bags. Like leather leather-we've done it before but never as wearable and straight-up cool as now," says Douglas Bensadoun, the creative director of ALDO. He's talking about the brand's brand-new collection of Natural Handcrafted Milled Leather handbags which, for a slightly a higher price than the standard ALDO handbag, reflects its higher quality constructions. Bensadoun couldn't resist explaining that the "leather leather" is "even awesomer" than the synthetic bags. And they're making sure you take notice: One of the most clever and ubiquitous campaigns for fall, shot by Terry Richardson, features Jessica Stam, unable to decide between the two lines–On-Duty and Jodas–each of which come in three styles.

PHOTO BY TERRY RICHARDSON

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PHOTO BY JACK SIEGEL

"I used to think of restaurants as being cinematic," Taavo Somer says. "Like you were creating a setting. But now I think of them more like characters or people. When you sit down to have a meal with someone, the restaurant is the third participant in that interaction." We're sitting at the bar of Gemma, the Italian restaurant Somer designed for the ground floor of the Bowery Hotel. Just down the block is Peels, his much-anticipated follow-up to Freemans, the go-to restaurant that defined an era, and a neighborhood.

Asked about the relationship between Peels and his original creation, Somer half-joking suggests that "They're dating," although the real romance here is Somer's classic love affair with New York. While Freeman's end-of-alley location and taxidermy-filled interior makes it feel like a clubby retreat from the city, Peels's location at the busy corner of Bowery and 2nd Street inspired Somer to create a more "feminine" persona. Large windows open the cream-colored space to the street, while a to-go counter and diner-style seating creates an easy-going, deliberately democratic accessibility. Somer hopes that Peels will serve as a functional meeting place—a hybrid of the McNally brunch-and-beers bistro Balthazar and the late-night Polish diner Veselka—the kind of multi-purpose New York institution where a varied crowd will comfortably mix, and customers might stop by multiple times throughout the day. Since the restaurant is scheduled to be open from 7:30 am until 3am, that won't be hard.

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© ATELIER ROBERT DOISNEAU, 2010.
FROM ROBERT DOSINEAU: PALM SPRINGS 1960 (FLAMMARION)

The iconic black and white images of Paris by French photographer Robert Doisneau have become one of the great clichés of the city, the kind of thing that brings out of everyone's inner lensman. They've been played out on coffee mugs, T-shirts, calendars, and postcards: his pictures of beautiful boys and girls anointing the streets, artisans and bourgeoisie enjoying their hard-won leisure time, and couples–oh the couples!–gallivanting in front of  architectural legends. These photographs, particularly Doisneau's most famous Le Baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville (Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville), a commission for Life Magazine in 1950, comprise the mass-market vernacular of Paris—an idealized, and permanent, form of marketing

Given this, it's either odd or oddly fitting that in 1960, the photographic chronicler and venerable crusader of black-and-white, who was born and lived his whole life in Paris, was commissioned by Henry Luce's Fortune Magazine to create a body of work that, until now, has remained relatively unknown. Bound for Palm Springs, perhaps the most manufactured place in America, Doisneau was asked to make images in color and illustrating the contents of an article entitled, "Grass and Pleasure Grow in the Desert." The editorial that ran comprised 23 shots. The content is bland: golfers on greens, and cocktail-sipping house wives. The edit failed to do justice to the ironic, intelligent, and poignant, and above all, highly-spirited body of work that Doisneau created for this commission. The forthcoming Palm Springs 1960 (Rizzoli) brings together all the pictures that the magazine disregarded from the magazine's edit.

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