Sail away, sail away, sail away – ‘The Stylish Life: Yachting”

July 7, 2015

In my debut novel “Water Music,” the four gay athletes at its core explore their relationships during a vacation on Mykonos, the home of tennis player Alex Vyranos.

Alex is the son of a man who has made a fortune working for an Onassis-style shipping tycoon. At one point, Spyros Vyranos lends his son a company yacht, the Semiramide, to pilot his three friends to the neighboring isle of Delos, birthplace of Apollo. Spyros has warned Alex that the Semiramide is not a toy. He doesn’t want him drinking and sailing He doesn’t want the four winding up on TMZ.

Of course not, papa, Alex remembers telling him as he takes a swig of Dom Perignon at the wheel of the Semiramide, feeling all the power, freedom and escape that a yacht has to offer. ...

Tennis, everyone

June 26, 2015

Just in time for Wimbledon (June 29 through July 12), teNeues offers “The Stylish Life: Tennis,” a new coffee table book that ranges over the art, fashion and personalities of the modern game that began in the late 19th century. It’s a book that had me at the back cover.

The photograph (also reproduced opposite the Table of Contents) depicts the green tennis courts of Italy’s Il San Pietro di Positano resort spilling onto the jagged, pristine blue Amalfi Coast. That photograph and the reproduction of a Roger Broders poster circa 1930, with its clay courts tumbling onto a periwinkle Mediterranean Sea in Monte Carlo, are precisely what I imagined in “Water Music,” my debut novel, when my athlete-heroes vacation on the island of Mykonos. ...

American Pharoah – Inside the Vogue cover shoot (and the cover-up)

June 16, 2015

Apparently, American Pharoah was more than ready for his close-up when Vogue came calling to his home-away-from-his-Southern-California-home at Churchill Downs in Kentucky recently for the cover of its August issue, out July 23.

The coverboy – who can always check the box labeled “plays well with others” – was a perfect gentleman outside trainer Bob Baffert’s barn as he was spritzed, festooned with a garland of red roses from Susan’s Florist and snapped by Alex Lockett. The only time he went off cue was to nibble the roses’ greens. (Don’t they feed those Vogue models?) ...

Cover me: American Pharoah and the search for authenticity

June 11, 2015

What Anna wants, Anna gets – particularly when it comes to a sleek, gorgeous, well-muscled male.

And what Anna Wintour, Condé Nast creative director and Vogue editor, wants right now is American Pharoah.

Ahmed Zayat, who has pledged that the Pharoah will belong to the American people, has told Bloodhorse, which covers the Thoroughbred industry, that AP will grace the cover of the next issue of the fashion bible.

"We are breaking new territory," Zayat, who operates his family's Zayat Stables, said June 10 in a podcast interview with Bloodhorse.com.

I’ll say. Anna has featured some studs in her day – Tim Tebow (shirtless), Colin Kaepernick, her fave Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic (Speedo), Ryan Lochte (cover, with Serena Williams and Hope Solo at the beach). Now she has a soon-to-be real stud. ...

Open season: a fashion report from the French

June 3, 2015

What’s with the men at the French Open? I don’t mean their play, which, while not exactly setting the world on fire, hasn’t been terrible. I mean the way they look.

Any discussion of men’s style on the courts of Roland-Garros must begin (and, please God) end with Stan Wawrinka. With his stocky physique, pug nose and rough skin, Stan has always had a certain animal magnetism. One of his nicknames is even “Stanimal.” But his bed head and thin plaid shorts that look like boxers, complemented by a polo shirt that does not flatter his chest, suggest nothing so much as a bus-and-truck Marlon Brando in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Honestly, even Roger Federer – known for his sartorial superiority, thanks in part to Anna Wintour – has fallen short, as he did in his match against Stan, with a Nike ensemble that consisted of hot pink shorts and a deep periwinkle shirt. The contrast is too jarring.

Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal’s fashion sins have been less in his choice of outfit (blue Nike ensemble, meh) than that of accessories. On court, he sports a $750,000 watch that recalls something you purchased at a convenience store while on vacation, having forgot your real watch at home. We’re not talking croc-embossed, rose gold-plated Longines chronometer here but something with an orange grosgrain strap and lots of gears. And why, pray tell, does Rafa need a watch on-court? It’s not like he’s going anywhere. His matches last hours. Plus, tennis stadiums have clocks. So why does he need to wear the watch, except that he’s being paid to wear the watch. ...

Tom Brady and Alex Rodriguez: Statistics and probability

May 9, 2015

Is it merely coincidental that Gisele Bündchen skipped The Metropolitan Museum of Art gala precisely at the moment when hubby Tom Brady was about to be raked over the coals for his role in Deflategate?

What is it that they said in the Deflategate report? It’s “more probable than not” that it was a coincidence. Still, she and he have been staples on the gala’s red carpet for years. Let’s just say it was convenient that she had to attend that Chanel Cruise Seoul event half a world away.

Gala empress Anna Wintour filled in the football slot with Green Bay Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers – who is not in trouble for overinflating his balls, to the chagrin of some – and his girlfriend, actress Olivia Munn, whose J. Mendel gown overwhelmed with its sleeves. (The gala’s fashion proved that less really is more. The more straightforward the gown, as in Gong Li’s black lace and marsala velvet evocation of the gala’s Chinese theme, the more stunning it was.) ...

A pharaonic Kentucky Derby

May 3, 2015

Congrats to American Pharoah – and yes, it is spelled the wrong way – for winning a thrilling 141st Kentucky Derby, coming down the stretch to overtake Dortmund, the third place finisher, and hold off Firing Line, who finished second.

It was the third Derby win and second in a row for jockey Victor Espinoza, who rode beloved California Chrome last year; the fourth win for trainer Bob Baffert; and the first win in four attempts for Egyptian-born owner Ahmed Zayat, who said he has no fears for the Preakness, which will be run May 16 at Pimilco in troubled Baltimore.

With the first leg of the Triple Crown concluded, the other race begins – the one that has for 37 years has been defined by dashed hopes. Can American Pharoah do what no horse has done since Affirmed in 1978 and win the Triple Crown? His talent says yes and history says no, the experts say.

I say it’s such a pharaonic challenge as to be both an irresistible dream – and subject. (“Criterion,” the planned third novel in my series “The Games Men Play,” is told in part from the viewpoint of the title racehorse, who’s trying to win the Triple Crown.)

Part of the fun of Derby Day is, of course, the fashion, and not just at Churchill Downs. In my guise as editor of WAG magazine, I was among the judges (with WVOX Radio’s John Marino and jockey Tyler Buter) of the Derby Hat Contest at Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway. ...