Special Delivery from Heller Highwater & Co.: Paula West at Twenty-Five

For Auld Lang Syne

The holidays offer—besides the baubles and the nog—an opportunity to think about continuity, recurrence, and what truly lasts. This year, I wrote a short piece about a jazz vocal album that came out twenty-five years ago: "Temptation" by Paula West. To me, it has been one of the lasting things.

In this essay, I try to begin to understand why: what makes a perduring piece of art carry forward within and outside a life; what changes, and what doesn't, in creative work that has survived the storm of time. 

The holidays are also a time for upbeat style, so I'm including, as candied chestnuts, Vogue profiles of two very different designers: Matthieu Blazy, who emerged from the art world to lead Bottega Veneta, and Thom Browne, who, for twenty years now, has cut his jackets snuggly and his trousers short. 

"A Jazz Album Made To Last," The New Yorker, December, 2022: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/a-jazz-album-made-to-last

Chestnut 1: "Going Places," Vogue, September, 2022: https://www.vogue.com/article/matthieu-blazy-bottega-veneta-interview-september-2022

Chestnut 2: "Strong Suit," Vogue, November, 2022: https://www.vogue.com/article/strong-suit-thom-browne-interview

A happy 2023 to everyone,
Nathan