The San Francisco Fall Show sizzled with glamour
Words by CATHERINE BIGELOW
The opening-night gala of the 42nd San Francisco Fall Show on October 16 was like stepping back in time to an elegant Art Deco soirée.
Led by stalwart show chairman Suzanne Tucker — with expert assists from honorary chairs Aerin Lauder (luxury lifestyle guru) and Wes Gordon (fashion designer and Carolina Herrera creative director) — 1,700 art aficionados clamored to the Fort Mason Center Festival Pavilion.
Tucker, also a heralded AD100 designer, is serving in her tenth year as the talented show chairman, plus five years as Design Council chair. Yet she’s been attending for years, as a 24-year-old protege of the late, legendary Michael Taylor. His famous monochrome palettes inspired Tucker’s black-and-white theme: “The theme speaks to art, fashion and the decorative arts: Think of beautiful lacquer work or fantastic mother-of-pearl. And who doesn’t have something black-and-white in their closet?”
The cavernous bayside pavilion was tricked out for 43 global gallerists who provided exquisite shopping opportunities during the four-day fair amid their array of swoon-worthy kit — including art, jewelry, decor, textiles, photography, and objets d’art.
“Participating in this show with Aerin was an immediate, ‘Yes.’ Anything that’s designed to celebrate beauty and wonder is something we want to be a part of. And Suzanne, what you’ve created and sustained for the design industry is extraordinary,” Gordon said during Tucker’s chairman lunch. “But my husband is very concerned because when I go somewhere with Aerin where there’s shopping, dangerous things happen.”
The Fall Show has long reigned as the most prestigious West Coast confab for international design devotees. And a portion of sales from the gala preview benefited the education programs of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
“We’re thrilled to be the beneficiary of a fair that is all about art, design and decoration,” said FAMSF director Thomas Campbell. “The Fall Show’s mix of historical and contemporary is a perfect fit for the de Young and Legion of Honor museums, where we feature contemporary art as a portal to the past for our modern audiences.”
Yet tech entrepreneur and former Ambassador Trevor Traina, who recently sold a majority of his knockout modern photography collection at Christie’s, had his eye focused on the past: “I’m actually buying 18th-century European right now. The pieces are timeless and I think they’re inexpensive relative to their worth. When photography was less popular, that’s when I began my collection. I always enjoy going counter-trend.”
The entry pavilion (designed by J. Riccardo Benavides) starred four ethereal vignettes (created by Martyn Bullard; Ann Pyne and Elizabeth Pyne Singer of McMillen Inc.; Chloe Warner of Redmond Aldrich Design; and Mark D. Sikes), each adorned with bespoke de Gournay wall fabrics.
Sikes, an AD100 designer who recently completed a refresh of the historic Blair House in Washington, D.C., was also celebrating the release of the latest tome in his trilogy, Forever Beautiful (Rizzoli), in his SFFS vignette, dubbed Swan Lake.
“I was inspired by Truman Capote’s famed Black & White Ball,” Sikes said. “But there’s such a glamour in San Francisco and that’s what I wanted to evoke in this space, channeling the city’s classic swans like Ann Getty, Dede Wilsey, and Denise Hale as well as current swans Vanessa Getty, Alexis Traina, and Allison Speer.”
Deep-pocketed patrons were torn between shopping or savoring the gourmet McCall’s Catering & Events stations starring dim sum, buckets of caviar, or mini lamb chops — a delicacy introduced by founder Dan McCall in 1982 at the inaugural antiques show.
But four decades on, SFFS (helmed by director Susan Engel) has evolved beyond acquisitions or noshing into a true design dialogue. Smart panels with industry leaders are featured throughout the fair, as well as a library of the latest tomes, including Love How You Live: Adventures in Interior Design (Monacelli Press) by Rodman Primack and Rudy Weissenberg, founders of the AD100 firm AGO Projects.
Long a beloved fête among the swell set, SFFS now bridges generations, as led by the Young Collectors Co-Chairs: Samantha DuVall Bechtel, Caroline Hayward Brinckerhoff, Lauren Harwell Godfrey, Sarah Wendell Sherrill, and Cynthia Cook Smith.
“Our goal in resurrecting the Young Collectors committee is to debunk a myth that our generation doesn’t care about antiques. The through line this year was the connection to history and how it plays out today in the most modern ways,” said Wendell Sherrill.
“My dear friend Samantha hosted the show’s cantina of her father’s classic restaurant, Izzy’s Steaks and Chops, which reopens next year in its original San Francisco location. Aerin recalled her late grandmother, Estee Lauder, who remains present in her work. My husband’s aunt and cousin (of McMillen Inc., which turns 100 this year) designed the most beautiful homage to the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, which the firm participated in, with a modern nod to Art Deco. And I wore, lost, and thankfully found in the parking lot, my grandmother’s strand of pearls.”
October 28, 2024
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