CITY Issue 53

ACTION PERFUME: ESTÉE LAUDER Simple Pleasures A bottle of perfume may smell as sweet or subtle as a country garden, but if the bottle isn’t equally beautiful, good luck selling it. No wonder Estée Lauder turned to Kazumi Yoshida of the luxury textile house Clarence House to design a limitededition artist bottle for perennial favorite “Pleasures.” Each of Yoshida’s delicate flowers bloom like the notes that await inside. The scent is also available as a limited-edition candle. $58 for 2.5 oz. Go to www.esteelauder.com LOS ANGELES: KATSUYA HOLLYWOOD Starck goes Hollywood With the opening of the smash hit Katsuya in Brentwood last year, prolific designer Philippe Starck, along with Master Sushi Chef Katsuya Uechi, put his trademark stamp on the L.A. scene. The second outpost recently surfaced on the urban corner of renaissance-ridden Hollywood and Vine, and is proving the first time was no fluke. A humbled Starck explains the evolution of not just another hip sushi joint with cool cocktails. “First I must explain that Katsuya is not my creation. It’s a stage, a platform around Mr. Katsuya,” he says. “That means I don’t try to express anything of myself, I just try to express my best what I think of Mr. Katsuya. It’s a very special world because at the same time I’m obliged to be very humble, which is not my style, but it’s a very refined and sophisticated thing to express the personality of someone by using your own personality and your own creativity. I think the result works very well.” The front bar-lounge-restaurant is buzzing nightly and for those in the know, the private, funky S Bar, located behind the eatery with separate entrance, is the brainchild of SBE CEO Sam Nazarian and Brent Bolthouse, the duo behind legendary hotspots Hyde Lounge and Area. All this begs the question, has the designer gone Hollywood? “We love coming to L.A. because in Europe we have a very, very stressful life and it’s about hysteria and we work a lot on big projects, and the pressure, the politics, the drama—it’s non-stop,” Starck says. “Here you just have to think about your next Bentley or something like that. On one hand it’s not very good for your brain but on the other it’s very good for your brain.” He laughs. “My way of working is more about trying to find the square root of things, the essence, the bone. I think I express this difference at Katsuya, and I think I’ve succeeded to express the essence of Japan. It’s a matter of proportion, materials, feeling, light, noise, and it’s absolutely not gimmicky. I don’t care about architecture, interior design.” With the floating sushi knives encased in clear plastic resin, a kimono-painted ceiling, and provocative geisha photographs with bright red parted lips on most of the white interiors, Starck was not going for a typical eye catching design. “We start to have what I love, not a place made of steel, stone, aluminum, or concrete but to start to have a movie. You arrive here and if you want to just have a glass or food—perfect. If you want to feel the story, you are in the story. Everywhere you put your eyes its a little game, it’s a question and if you want you can play with it.” —CD 6300 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles. Or go to www.sbeent.com/katsuya/ 24 CI T Y http://www.esteelauder.com http://www.sbeent.com/katsuya/

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CITY Issue 53

CITY Issue 53 Contents Letter from CITY Our Friends Action Wanted City Moment In Rogue Fast Food The Amused Bouche Fit Unnatural Wonders Paradise Found Gold Standard Parc Yourself Get Wet Naughty or Nice Raise the Roof Luxury Is... Bird of Prey Hardwear To Die For Twisted Sisters Basic Instinct Where To Buy It Socials Icon

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.