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On
Monday night, last week (6/14/04) in Paris, Susan Gutfreund gave
a small dinner for eight at her hotel particulier off
the Boulevard Saint-Germain. Among her guests were a retired
insurance executive from Texas and his wife, a Frenchman who
divides his time between Paris and New York, a film producer
from a prominent South American family; an American woman who
represents a French couture house in New York, this writer, and
the petite French ballerina who found her fame in America dancing
on the screen with Gene Kelly and Fred
Astaire – Leslie Caron. Mlle.
Caron, who lives not far from the Gutfreund Paris residence and
also owns an inn in Burgundy, has that rare quality sometimes
found in movie stars in that she continues to look exactly like
the gamine who won our hearts in An American in Paris, Daddy
Long Legs and Gigi more than thirty years ago.
The Gutfreund house, as the NYSD reader could see in our Paris/Versailles coverage,
is spectacular, at least to these American eyes. The evening was relaxed and
quite conventional – cocktails and canapes impeccably served by two impeccable
French waiters in the large white and light salon; dinner in an intimate dining
room on the floor below and finally demitasse in the library off the grand salon.
Very comme il faut, as the French would say. Very.
Mrs. Gutfreund, an American who hails from here there and everywhere according
to the reams of newsprint turned out about her over the years, is very at-ease
as a hostess and also very down home, a nice juxtaposition to the fancier-than-most
atmosphere. She makes an effort with her guests and from what I’ve seen
of her, that effort is her signature – it’s always there.
Twenty years ago or so ago when she first hit the fashion pages in New York with
a “splash.” Her imagination and sense of luxury provided gilded fodder
for the bonanza days of the 80s and 90s in New York. What comes to mind is the
Christmas party she gave in the (now former) Gutfreund apartment in the River
House on East 52nd Street where the tree was so big it had to be brought into
the apartment through a large window and evidently some of the neighbors complained; tsk-tsk.
Later there were the stories that she’d spent something like $20 million
with the great French decorator Henri Samuel on a Fifth Avenue
duplex with a grand staircase that almost (but not quite) rivals the one in Paris.
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The
grand staircase of John and Susan Gutfreund's hotel
particulier
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The
lavish lifestyle extended to Paris to which she commuted often
by Concorde — one story in the hectically heady 1980s had
her booking two seats on the Concorde to fly a cake to her husband's
birthday party — to Paris where she entertained the haute
monde as well as the international tycoons and their princesses.
She was famous for her extravagant gifts to friends. She once sent the late Liliane (Mme.
Elie) de Rothschild, an ardent collector of Marie-Antoinettememorabilia,
some letters of the ill-fated French queen worth thousands. Mme. de Rothschild
is said to have returned the letters, nevertheless impressed by the gesture.
Suzy Menkes in a column in the International Herald Tribune, covering
a couture show in Paris, reported Mrs. Gutfreund’s suggestion when ordering
a couture dress, why not ask for it to be buttonless — that way you can “use
your own jewels instead.” Or the famous quote: “It’s very expensive
to be rich.” Shades and hues of the famous ill-fated French queen. All
this from a little girl from out there who once upon a time worked briefly as
an airline stewardess.
Times
changed; her husband ran into business reversals that, if
nothing else, changed the tone of dinner conversation and gossip
items for some time. The Gutfreunds’ marriage, however has
been one of the few that survived those cash-cushy days when so many
were riding high wide and handsome in Nouvelle Society. In the late
90s, through her friendship with filmmakers Ismail Merchant and James
Ivory, she even made a few small appearances in their movies.
With their son growing up, more time was required of them on this side of the
Atlantic where she found a weekend getaway for them on one of the last great
estates on the Main Line (in Villanova). And, after all those years working and
living amongst the work of the great interior designers of the world, she’s
taken up the vocation herself.
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John
and Susan Gutfreund
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If you
talk to Susan Gutfreund today about anything having to do with design – its
history, fabrics, furniture, porcelain, silver, Loire Valley textile
houses, woven silks of a Louis XVI pattern used
by Marie-Antoinette, she can astound you with her encyclopedic knowledge
and know-how. Friends who’ve known her for years say that she
is a bit mellower now with all the been-there-done-that now part
of her life portfolio.
Curiosity seems to have been Susan Gutfreund’s guide (and
ultimately her real mentor). She’s one of the most interesting women in
New York or Paris, as well as the stuff of novels, be it Flaubert or O’Hara.
Although they still maintain the Paris residence, because of her business, her
son in school and her husband’s businesses, the Gutfreunds spends far less
time in Paris these days – maybe two and a half months a year in total.
If you run into her on the street, she’s most likely on her way to an appointment
looking for something for a client’s house or apartment she’s working
on. Working girl makes good. |
Albemarle,
Rufus
Aston, Muffie Potter
Basso, Dennis
Benedict, Daniel
Capehart, Jonathan
Cominotto, Michael
Curry, Boykin
Dahl, Tessa
DeWoody, Beth Rudin
Duchin, Peter and Brooke
Duff, Patricia
Eaton, Phoebe
Fales-HIll, Susan
Fekkai, Frederic
THE FULL LIST
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