There, I blinked, and Labor Day is here! My associates laugh when I say that if you blink, you can miss the Hamptons season, since it goes by so quickly. The Hampton Classic Horse Show always marks the end of summer, but it’s the most fun ever, especially on Grand Prix Sunday, when the world’s…

If you haven’t toured the fabulous Holiday House Hamptons showhouse, presented by HC&G, you’re in luck. We are delighted to announce that it has been extended through Sunday, September 4, so there’s still plenty of time to drop in and check it out. Featuring rooms decorated by 21 of the world’s top designers, a rooftop…

A stable of major talent: That’s precisely the case on August 4, as the Hamptons design industry celebrates its best and brightest at the sixth annual HC&G Innovation in Design Awards (IDAs) at the fabulous Campbell Stables in Bridgehampton. Robert Campbell, founder and CEO of footwear giant BBC International, built the new 18-stall facility and…

On June 18, more than 400 people attended the opening gala at Holiday House Hamptons, presented by HC&G. Everyone agreed that this showhouse, the third collaboration between HC&G and Iris Dankner of Holiday House, was the best yet. The spectacular 13,000-square-foot contemporary home overlooking Mecox Bay, transformed by 21 top-notch interior design firms, kept decor…

Yes, it is indeed the 15th anniversary of HC&G! When the magazine debuted in the Hamptons, it was surprising, audacious, gorgeous, and instantly embraced by the community. All terms that still apply to it today. As I read through our early issues recently, I was struck by how modern and current each edition still looks—proof…

The crowd at the fifth annual HC&G Innovation in Design Awards, held on August 6 at Guild Hall in East Hampton, got quite verklempt when the evening’s special honoree, Richard Meier, in all his credentialed glory, made a simple speech about how he rises in the morning, looks out from his deck, and is overwhelmed…

I didn’t know Francis Fleetwood, who died in May, but his legacy is everywhere, especially in the more than 200 houses he designed in the Hamptons. An architect on the level of Robert A.M. Stern, Michael Graves, and Richard Meier, he is credited with reviving shingle-style architecture on the South Fork in the mid-1980s (see…

During the first two weeks of July, the East End turns into an art lover’s paradise, with something for everyone, whether Lichtensteins and Harings or surfboards and C-prints. This year, the big tents sprang up seemingly overnight as three major fairs took over various locations in Bridgehampton. The opening-night VIP preview parties, with their attendant…

Our summer season usually kicks off with Much Ado About Madoo, a garden fair and party at the Madoo Conservancy in the heart of Sagaponack, held this year on June 19 and 20. Madoo, a gorgeous garden masterminded by the late Robert Dash, positively hummed with the chatter of garden enthusiasts and the clink of…

“NEVER YET WAS A SPRINGTIME, when the buds forgot to blow,” wrote American poet and author Margaret Elizabeth Sangster, whose observation on the inevitability of nature’s cycle has had me thinking about our own cycle at Cottages & Gardens Publications. This month, we are 13 issues into our annual count of 31, with the rest…

We all know that our intrepid Editor in Chief, Kendell Cronstrom, is constantly traveling to shoot the best homes in New York, from the Hamptons to the Hudson Valley. But only a few of us are aware that he has been much farther afield during the past year, “traipsing around Europe,” as my mother would…

The Doris Leslie Blau showroom in the Interior Design Building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side was the venue for last month’s judging of the fourth annual HC&G Innovation in Design Awards. Editor in Chief Kendell Cronstrom invited Jennifer Mabley and Austin Handler of Mabley Handler Interior Design, architect Alison Spear of Arquitectonica, designer Robert Passal…

HC&G’s presentation of the Holiday House Hamptons designer showhouse has struck a chord with the people of Sag Harbor. After a fabulously successful White Gala on opening night, the house—actually three separate residences in the luxury Watchcase complex—opened to the public on a weekly schedule. And now we’ve been asked to keep the beautifully decorated…

The Doris Leslie Blau showroom in the Interior Design Building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side was the venue for last month’s judging of the fourth annual HC&G Innovation in Design Awards. Editor in Chief Kendell Cronstrom invited Jennifer Mabley and Austin Handler of Mabley Handler Interior Design, architect Alison Spear of Arquitectonica, designer Robert Passal…

HOLIDAY HOUSE HAMPTONS (HHH), PRESENTED by HC&G, is open in Sag Harbor! This special designer showhouse is your chance to get an insider’s look at the renovation of the old Watchcase factory in Sag Harbor. Rather than only one house, you can tour a freestanding townhouse, a bungalow, and a factory loft, all of which…

As we head into the 13th year of HC&G, we are busy preparing for our big decorator showhouse of the season—not to mention a staggering array of other design-related events throughout the summer. ■ For starters, HC&G is presenting the second annual Holiday House Hamptons—a showhouse that isn’t a true “house,” but rather several residences…

If you are going to San Francisco next Spring, be sure to pick up a copy of SFC&G—San Francisco Cottages & Gardens.” I made this announcement at the sold-out NYC&G Innovation in Design Awards in New York City in September, to cheers and applause from the captains of the design industry who were in attendance…

The word is out: architects are the new rock stars. Previously it was common to pass the names of our brokers or decorators around the table at dinner parties, and now it seems everyone is dropping the names of their architects. ■ More than 30 of those names were dropped in the most recent issue…

Waving to my neighbors as they breakfasted on their Juliet balcony on the edge of the gurgling Silvermine River, wearing comfortable robes and contentedly reading their newspapers at a beautifully set table, I remembered the main reason I love my home: the double balconies that run the length of my house and hang over the…

I recently moved a double-sided Vicente Wolf–designed couch from my just-sold Manhattan apartment to the center of the great room that takes up half my house in Wilton, Connecticut. It is sitting there in all it’s glorious whiteness, inviting groups of sparkling conversationalists to perch on either side. I brought in a few other things…