Today the light is white, framing trees and buildings; people are like an altogether separate piece from the horizon, as if we might walk into a painting.
It’s romantic and of another time. This is strolling weather. In Central Park I can smell the dirt, the greens are intense, there’s a serenity and languor to the day as if the haze is a material weight. I’ve made time this morning for inspiration and beauty while I’m walking Finnley. I take the familiar path east through the park, to pop out at the far southeastern corner at the Plaza and Bergdorf’s. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the windows and soaked in the setting. A theme is running ahead that begins settling in me like the heaviness of the mist.
Flowerboxes with dainty white flowers and soft greenery gently ask to be noticed at The Plaza. Blaring “Romance Here,” a new Diane Lane movie called, Paris Can Wait is playing, at the Paris. Van Cleef and Arpels seduces with a grand gesture for a pretty woman–a gift with an afternoon of love-making at the Plaza. It’s in the air, with this soft light of classicism. At Louis Vuitton the Old Masters and handbags display cherubs, pastels and miss-mysterious-Mona Lisa. At Chanel creamy dogwoods are all in a row, with trademark pearls glowing like the morning light. And at Fendi, glossy meringue rosettes are piped onto a giant porcelain platter that may have fallen down the rabbit hole of Laudurée.
We end at the Pulitzer Fountain across the street from the Plaza. When the fountain was commissioned it was to be romanticized to have a similar feel to the Place de la Concorde. The dreamy atmosphere is in the cascading water, birds dipping in, and mythological goddess Pomona on top.
The easy and natural call of summer lays the palette for strokes of floral prints, both ditsy and large. The soft, frilly dresses and tops that were budding into the fashion landscape in the spring, are prolific now. Lace, crochet, and embroidery are happy bedfellows to mystique and conquest. It’s romantic out there! We’re ready for a summer fling, a dalliance with amor, at least an enchanting outfit!
Later this week on Plumage 59, How to Wear Romance.
Photos: Dawn Bell Solich