Each week, Alexa is rounding up the buzziest fashion drops, hotel openings, restaurant debuts and celeb-studded cultural happenings in NYC. It’s our curated guide to the very best things to see, shop, taste and experience around the city.
What’s making our luxury list this week?
Cult French sneaker brand Hoka unveiled a huge new store, Stephen Sondheim’s stuff is going under the hammer, and sky-high Edge is holding a 4th of July fireworks celebration.
MUSIC MAN: Auction of the Collection of Stephen Sondheim
What’s more exciting than browsing through other people’s stuff?
Bidding on it, especially when the original owner is none other than Stephen Sondheim, the legendary lyricist of “West Side Story” and “Gypsy” and composer/lyricist of “Sunday in the Park with George” and “Into the Woods.”
This auction consists of 450 lots, ranging from furniture to collectibles and plenty of antique puzzles, all from his Manhattan townhouse and country home in Roxbury, Connecticut.
Sondheim fans will delight in the memorabilia, including the custom-embroidered asylum coat from Sweeney Todd.
Lots are open for public viewing from Friday, June 14 through Monday, June 17; the auction is June 18th at 10 a.m. 175 East 87th Street, Doyle.com
WRIST CANDY: Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Minis
When it first debuted in 1972, the Royal Oak was billed as the world’s “first luxury sports watch.”
It was unusual, with a bezel inspired by vintage diving helmets and visible screws.
It was also very expensive — considerably more than a Rolex Submariner at the time — and the company even ran an ad touting it as “the costliest stainless steel watch in the world.”
The watch became a superstar and celebrated its 50th birthday a couple years ago, and this year debuted in a 23-mm version in frosted 18-k yellow, white or pink gold. It’s not the first mini — a 20-mm debuted in 1997 — but this one boasts a crazy-cool shimmery finish.
From $34,400, AudemarsPiguet.com
HOME RUN: Bonacina at E.R. Butler
Some of the biggest names in Italian design — from Franco Albini to Joe Colombo, Gio Ponti to Piero Lissoni — designed furniture for Bonacina.
Yet the 135-year-old Italian company remains surprisingly under the radar despite those design rock stars and moneyed clientele that includes Agnellis, Rothschilds, plus the White House and chic hotels galore. But for the next few months, fans can see, test drive and place orders for over four dozen of the company’s pieces, including some bona fide, museum-collection icons, at E.R. Butler in SoHo.
It’s a mini-showroom of sorts, through September 15th, (rumors of a more permanent situation continue to swirl).
By appointment (email [email protected]) at E.R. Butler, 55 Prince Street.
SOLE MATE: Hoka opens on Fifth Avenue
It was just a matter of time before Hoka opened a U.S. flagship, and the shop, like the shoe, is oversized. The 9,000-square-foot store is “designed to reflect the brand’s origin in the French Alps.”
In addition to shoes and apparel, shoppers can take advantage of the digital foot measuring and fit-testing services that have become de rigueur for any running-centric brand.
For locals who bristle at the prospect of braving crowds of tourists to shop their favorite brand, rest assured: Hoka’s Flatiron location remains open.
579 Fifth Avenue, Hoka.com
BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY: July 4th Fireworks at the Edge
The city’s fireworks display returns to the Hudson River for the first time since 2013, and the Edge, in Hudson Yards, will offer some of the best views in town.
There are indoor and outdoor viewing areas on the 100th and 101st floors from which to take in New York’s celebratory displays and one or more in New Jersey as well.
Each ticket includes open bar for those of legal age, and unlimited appetizers from 8 p.m. — 10 p.m.
Tickets are $400 each at EdgeNYC.com
