CULTURE

Day 212:30 p.m. Champagne. Eggs Benedict. More oysters. Live jazz. What better way to start the day? At Beehive, a former boiler room turned casual resto that has held on to its industrial feel, it’s all about live music, art and food. (541 Tremont St., 617-423-0069, beehiveboston.com)

By Shirine Saad

First published in FASHION Magazine November 2009

48 hours: Bodacious Boston

The anti-preppy guide to the bluest of blue-blood meccas.

8 p.m. You rarely hear sounds as perfect as those at Symphony Hall—its design was fine-tuned by a Harvard physics professor. Enjoy a superlative classical concert among the ravishing neo-classical architecture. (pictured, 301 Massachusetts Ave., 617-266-7575, bso.org)

9 p.m. Commission a bespoke cocktail at Drink, a new Barbara Lynch lounge in the über-cool Fort Point area. The “mixers” ask you to choose a liquor, then whip up a unique concoction from scratch. Down yours while nibbling on foie gras lollies, quail brochettes and quince confit. (348 Congress St., 617-695-1806, drinkfortpoint.com)

Photography by James Levine

By Shirine Saad

First published in FASHION Magazine November 2009

48 hours: Bodacious Boston

The anti-preppy guide to the bluest of blue-blood meccas.

2 p.m. Finally, time for a decadent seafood lunch! Stroll the hip South End and stop by Barbara Lynch’s B&G Oysters, where you can choose from 12 types of the molluscs from the raw bar. Chase your selection with a delicious lobster roll, a favourite of local foodies. (pictured, 550 Tremont St., 617-423-0550, bandgoysters.com)

4 p.m. Maybe you won’t get to see every one of the 450,000 works at the Museum of Fine Arts, but make sure you spend some time in the comprehensive contemporary-art section, browsing works by Mona Hatoum, Chuck Close, Bridget Riley and Takashi Murakami. (465 Huntington Ave., 617-267-9300, mfa.org)

By Shirine Saad

First published in FASHION Magazine November 2009

48 hours: Bodacious Boston

The anti-preppy guide to the bluest of blue-blood meccas.

Boston is no longer all puritanism and Ivy League, though the legendary seafood platters still abound. On your next trip to this East Coast metropolis, check out avant-garde art, sip made-to-measure cocktails in underground bars and shop cool in concept stores.Day 110 a.m. How many prisons do you know that have Frette sheets? Check in and accept the welcome champagne coupe at The Liberty Hotel, the city’s liveliest hot spot. Formerly the Charles Street Jail, the hotel has revamped its interior with a chic, urban touch. With four restos and bars, including star chef Lydia Shire’s Scampo restaurant, and a stunning view of the Charles River, your weekend is sure to be romantic and cool. (215 Charles St., 617-224-4000, libertyhotel.com)

11 a.m. Isabella Stewart Gardner built her palazzo-style museum to house her collection of opulent Chinese antiques, Italian Renaissance-master paintings and John Singer Sargent portraits. Be sure to take a break from the galleries to admire the museum’s lavish garden. (pictured, 280 The Fenway, 617-566-1401, gardnermuseum.org)

By Shirine Saad

First published in FASHION Magazine November 2009

Calendar Tip: SubUrbia

By Elisa Kosonen

SubUrbiaAugust 19 to 31; from $22; Playwrights Theatre Centre, #201-1398 Cartwright St., Grandville Island; twentysomethingtheatre.com.
Put down the remote and check out SubUrbia, where Entourage and Clerks collide on stage and a rock star meets up with his high school friends at a local convenience store for one life altering night.
Photography by Sabrina Evertt; shown left to right: Shaun Aquiline as Tim, Ian Harmon as Jeff, Deneh Thompson as Buff, Abby Renee Creek as Bee-Bee, Rhys Finnick as Pony, and Rachel Aberle as Sooze.

Career: Boss Lady

Women bosses, have a lot to gain in acting more like, well, women.
By Tralee Pearce
Photography by Miguel Jacob. Styling by Rita Fiorucci. Hair and makeup by Min Min Ma for Artistgrouplimited.com.

Vilifying women bosses remains a fetish in contemporary culture. Think we’re beyond the moth-eaten Disclosure boss-as-villainess trope? Now it’s called The Devil Wears Prada, and it still trades in taking down the powerful top chick.
Being the boss ain’t getting any easier for women. But they are finding new ways to avoid the “b” label while still asserting themselves. Just ask Joey Berdugo Adler, 46, who found herself heading up the Canadian arm of the premium jeans label Diesel International after her husband and business partner, Lou, died of cancer in 2003.
“When I first stepped in, I made some bold moves,” says the Montreal-based boss. “The word on the street was that I’d lost my marbles.” She said some people had no problem bluntly telling her, “Lou would have done this differently,” but she quickly learned to put her foot down. “I valued his legacy, but at the same time I had to imprint my own personal style on the company in order to succeed.”
If you ask her now, three years later, what kind of boss she is, she’ll tell you that she’s forged a path somewhere between tough and fair. “Men can be tough without being emotional. Women have to prove themselves more. I went through that.”
Emira Mears and Lauren Bacon, who run the blog Boss Lady ( bosslady.ca ) out of Vancouver, say that while it’s still a work-in-progress, this new middle ground is a refreshing change from the ’80s power suit era of leadership, when there was “the idea that to succeed, women must be more like men.”
“Women have a lot to bring to the business world that is different, and we would be doing a disservice to everyone by not bringing ourselves—gender and all—to the business world,” says Mears, adding that the slow pace of change is one reason they started the blog, which is aimed at women entrepreneurs. “In Canada, women are starting businesses at three times the rate of their male counterparts, according to recent stats.”
Margaret Knott, the director of pharmacy initiatives at Mississauga-based AstraZeneca, the second-largest pharmaceutical company in Canada, can remember a time when her male boss would carry her briefcase out of misguided chivalry. “It used to be that if a man took off his jacket, he was getting down to business, and if a woman took off her jacket she was a secretary.”
With seven children ages three to 35 in Knott’s blended family, there’s no question that she’s implemented what you might call “female” initiatives in the workplace. Her 23 employees know she’s flexible on how, and when, they work. “I never check the clock. We value family here. The only issue is if work is not getting done.”
Authors Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio see this as part of a trend. In their new book, The Girl’s Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch), they suggest that women bosses drop the micromanaging and any dictatorial tendencies and act more like, well, women. “It really has to do with a lack of role models,” Friedman told NBC’s Today correspondent Natalie Morales recently. “I mean, when we were growing up and coming into the professional environment, we had really tough women bosses, but they had learned from men.”
As Diesel began growing from 35 to nearly 50 employees, Adler hired a human resources person to ease the transition. “My door is always open,” she says. “But it was starting to be impossible to be equitable.” So she set up a road map covering such things as employee discounts and—a big one for her—family leave in the case of death or illness. She is also fierce about promoting from within.
“A boss once didn’t want me to advance—he put me in a slot. I’ll never do that,” Adler says. In her case, it was important to institutionalize the “touchy-feely” stuff that women are supposedly better at, in order to free herself up to focus on the bottom line and set a corporate example. “When it comes to business, there’s got to be structure and a chain of command. Otherwise, there’s no accountability,” she says.
And, Knott says, don’t be afraid of navigating office politics. You don’t have to pick sides, nor do you have to be pals with everyone. “But it’s not a bad thing to understand the people around you and their motivations.”
Both Knott and Adler say integrity and honesty are the top characteristics to embrace—especially if you’re the non-confrontational type. “Everybody knows that they can walk into my office. Even if they made a $10,000 mistake, I won’t yell. I don’t care. As long as you say to me, ‘I’m sorry. I’ve made a $10,000 mistake,’” says Adler. It’s not a popularity contest; it’s smart business. “People don’t have to like me, but I need them to respect me. And you hope they will if you treat them fairly.”

Jetsetter: Booming Bangkok

Viia Beaumanis says Bangkok is just wild.
shown: The Amanpuri resort, Pansea Beach, Phuket, Thailand; amanpuri.com.

Axis of the Buddhist nation’s spiritual ideals, carnal pleasures and chaotic commercialism, the Thai capital of Bangkok is a breathtaking jumble of old and new. Here, in one of the modern world’s largest metropolises, a proliferation of luxury malls has seen an influx of major-label flagship stores, as local editions of style magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar hit newsstands, and fashion absorbs 30 per cent of the city’s retail space. But it’s not all about shopping in Bangkok. While its name has been translated by some as the “village of wild plums,” Viia Beaumanis, investigating its chic nightclubs, mad markets, cheap but first-rate surgery clinics, stylish restaurants, model bars, luxe hotels, louche sex district, golden temples and breezy pansexuality, says Bangkok is just wild.
SLEEP
Metro LuxeNestled in the embassy district, with staff draped in Yohji Yamamoto, the 171-room Metropolitan Hotel (from $225) is the city’s most fashion-y hotel, its in-house restaurant, Cy’an, among Bangkok’s most lauded, and its Met Bar a stylish city watering hole.
Brand NewClustered around a lush courtyard, the five spacious spa cottages of the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok (from $245) add private spa rooms to living, bed and bath, and include rain/steam showers, outsized tubs, iPods, gratis mini-bars and private terraces.
DINE
Straight to BedA space-age module equipped with international DJs, Bed Supper Club, a Wallpaper*-approved space, serves up chic cuisine and cocktails to international hipsters.
Fish HookPhilanthropic, fashion-friendly Koi, with outposts in New York and L.A., feeds models for free several nights a week. Because, you know, they’re starving.
SHOP
Luxe LaneModish addresses line Soi Thonglor; start with H1. A beehive of decor, book, art and clothing boutiques, it also houses the stylish, fashion designer–owned restaurant To Die For. An H2 is in the works.
Fabric LandJim Thompson’s Bangkok home, now a museum, was a social enclave that welcomed friends like W. Somerset Maugham. Today, the gorgeous textiles of his famed Thai Silk Company are available at several shops—and two factory outlets—in his adopted hometown.
Mall CrawlMany of traffic-jammed, mall-centric Bangkok’s shopping centres are linked by SkyTrain and SkyWalk. Gaysorn, with its Louis Vuitton and Prada flagships, is restricted to international brands, including locals such as Thakoon Panichgul, whose designs are carried stateside at Jeffreys and Barneys and have appeared in Vogue. At Erawan Bangkok, you’ll find Etro, Rick Owens, Marni and chic Asian labels in Club 21.
NIGHTCAP
High TimesDon’t miss the vertiginous ultraglam of Sirocco, a glass-walled rooftop bar and restaurant perched on the sexy 63th floor of the State Tower.
BEAUTY
Beauty SpotBook a double suite with a shower, steam room and bath at the elegant Devarana Spa. Request an energizing Thai massage, then have yourself exfoliated with rose petals.
Plastic FantasticBooming medical tourism sees Bangkok’s top surgery clinics catering to foreigners at state-of-the-art facilities for a third of what they’d pay at home. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) lists BNH, its sister hospital Samitivej and Bumrungrad International as reputable; the last was spotlighted on 60 Minutes and The Today Show in the past two years. Factoring in the cost of airfare? Thai Airways offers medi-holiday packages. If wrapping a browlift into your stay sounds a bit adventurous, these facilities also offer dental—with laser whitening priced at $250 as opposed to $1,500, and veneers from $450 per tooth instead of $1,000 to $1,800.
GOOD TO KNOW
Gold StandardBangkok’s splendid Grand Palace, a walled-in compound of gilded royal structures, includes the Chapel Royal of the Emerald Buddha, the holiest site in Thailand. Note: One cab driver told us it was closed for a “special ceremony.” It wasn’t. A common scam; cabbies will try to divert you to other temples—ones that pay them a commission.
Cine EastChic House cinema on Royal City Avenue screens art and indie films not seen elsewhere in Thailand.
Bar CodeFollowing a 2001 government measure to improve Thailand’s image, Bangkok’s bars, once open round the clock, now close at 1 a.m. Moreover, police raid bars, confiscate ID and round everyone up for compulsory urine tests. To which we say, how about getting the teenage girls offstage in the skeezy sex district and leaving the happy party people alone?
Site to SeeBangkokrecorder.com lists shopping and nightlife information.