Man About Town: Robert Burke

Man About Town: Robert Burke

Just one more fashion related post. Oh, who am I kidding, I might have a few more left. But they're all fabulous so you can't be too bored.

The man of the hour this time is the always fashionable Robert Burke, who used to do something terribly important and have a ridiculously long title at Bergdorf Goodman until he decided to go out on his own and start Robert Burke Associates, a luxury consulting firm. If you live in New York, you can often catch Robert's commentary on Full Frontal Fashion. I'm pretty sure I could consult about luxury fashion too. I wonder if Robert is hiring.

Anyway, not only is Robert always well dressed and fashionable, his apartment is pretty handsome also. I wonder what it means that I always like the men's apartments best. I'll have to check into that.

Robert had a little help in the decorating department from his fashionable friend, Todd Romano. Todd actually used to work where I work now but that was before my time. I'm not exactly sure everyone here is genuinely happy for his success but that is a story for another day.

I love the mix of warm and cool colors as well as the fun accessories and personal accents as usual like the vintage glazed terra cotta tree stump side tables above.

The Louis XVI secretaire and the watercolor above it are from the estate of Bill Blass. Someday, I'm going to have to do a post about all who has what from the Bill Blass estate. His antiques have ended up in a lot of fashionable homes.

The photograph, Horse Neck (3 in a series of 4), above is by the famous fashion photographer Steven Klein. You have probably seen his photos of Madonna and Tom Ford in W Magazine.

The stuffed calleo bird and framed stick insect are from Deyrolle who not only have a shop in Paris but now sell items at Bergdorf Goodman. There is a really funny story about how Robert Burke got stopped at customs coming back from Paris once and in his bag were couture dress samples and stuffed birds from Deyrolle and the customs agent shook her head, said she had never seen anything like that and waved him through. Gotta love it!

I love one really dark room in a home. It's something we've been seeing a lot of lately, in addition zebra rugs, but hey, if ain't broke, why fix it? Right?

Robert, who travels much of the year, had one request for the bedroom, for it to feel as luxurious as a 5-star hotel room with all the conveniences to match. I'd say a Ralph Lauren bed and nicely ironed Leontine linens looks pretty luxurious to me! And if you look really close in the bedroom, there is a collage of black and white photos of Diana Vreeland on the bedside table from Sentimento. The chic worship the chic obviously!

Photos by William Waldron