West Elm collabs with a celebrity chef, Cynthia Rowley designs whimsical watches, more NYC events

Each week, Alexa is rounding up the buzziest fashion drops, hotel openings, restaurant debuts and celeb-studded cultural happenings in NYC. It’s our curated guide to the very best things to see, shop, taste and experience around the city. 

What’s making our luxury list this week? A buzzy French interior designer opens a gallery in TriBeCa, Wildflower blooms in Chelsea, and one of NYC’s favorite chefs collabs with West Elm.

Laura Gonzalez is a Paris-based interior designer who, for now, may be best known for designing many of the Cartier flagship boutiques. But she’s also on a bit of a tear with hotel design (most recently the Hotel Hana in Paris), and has firmly established herself as a designer to watch. This just got a lot easier with the opening of her first space stateside, on Franklin Street in TriBeCa. The floor-through storefront is absolutely gorgeous, filled with pieces from her own furniture and lighting collections as well as select pieces from others. The piece de resistance is undeniably the custom fireplace by ceramic artist Laurent Dufour, set in the far reaches of the space, under a typical-for-this-type-of-building skylight. 

LauraGonzalez.Fr

The site of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion (the Stonewall Inn) was designated a national monument by President Obama in 2016. The storefront next door was secured by Pride Live several years ago and, during Pride Weekend, debuted as the first LGBTQIA+ visitor center within the National Park System. And what a debut it was — the opening event featured President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Elton John, Cynthia Erivo, Katy Perry, Adam Lambert and others. The Center is meant to be an educational resource for of LGBTQIA+ history and culture, the 2,100 square foot space offers tours, programs, a lecture series and a dedicated theater space. It is free to the public.

StonewallVisitorCenter.org

Marcus Samuelsson has his hands in many proverbial pots, including restaurants, cookbooks and podcasts. But as of this week the award-winning, Ethiopian-born Swedish-American chef, can add furniture and accessories design to that list. His collection for West Elm just launched, with 32 pieces ranging from furniture to lighting, tableware to textiles, and even art. Each piece, whether in form, color or texture, nods to the varied facets of Samuelsson’s rich background. They even shot the ad campaign on Smögen, the island in Sweden’s Gothenberg archipelago where he grew up.

WestElm.org

Last year, the fashion designer Cynthia Rowley met Coralie Charriol at a party in the Hamptons. It was a fateful moment. Charriol, who is CEO and Creative Director of the brand, was a fan of Rowley’s designs and thought “it would be fun to put some of her iconic surfboard prints on the dial of Charriol’s Surf Navigator watch.” So they did. That watch, the 36mm Swiss-made Surf Navigator, is now available for pre-order in a choice of two prints (Shark Deterrent and a summer floral), is water-resistant to 300 feet, and retail at $2,450 with 10% of proceeds being donated to SeaLegacy.

Available as of July 15th at Charriol.org and CynthiaRowley.com.

Ever since Half King closed several years ago, their one-time space on 23rd Street (in the shadow of  the High Line) has seemed cursed. Then again, Half King is a hard act to follow. For the unfamiliar: Half King was co-founded by war journalist Sebastian Junger and, for 18 years, was the go-to spot for creative types, especially writers and photographers. Wildflower is the latest to give it a go in their old space. It’s a very decorated but approachable interior (by Handwerk Art and Design) that remains true to the name — meaning florals galore, on wallpaper and upholstery fabrics, plus well-chosen lighting fixtures and overall color palette. We can attest they make a lovely cocktail (if you’re into gin & tonics, they have six on offer) but have not yet sampled the menu, which is very what’s-not-to-like (crowd pleasing sandwiches, salads, mains) with a few surprises including French Dip Poppers.

WildflowerNYC.com