Day 8: A Fashionable Fete with Erin Fetherston

November 1st, 2013 // 0 comments

Happy Friday everyone! I am taking a little break today from the normal content of The Cookbook Diaries to share with you a fun story I recently wrote for Anthology magazine (with stunning photos by the fabulous Amy Dickerson). For those of you who are new to the blog, Anthology holds a very dear place in my heart. This San Francisco-based quarterly was started a couple of years ago by two friends (writer/editor Anh-Minh Le and art director Meg Ilasco) who share a passion for beautiful interiors, fashion, art, books, food, and travel – and for telling the stories of the creative people who work in these fields. They started the magazine in 2010 and this week marks their 13th issue. Congrats ladies!

The magazine is gorgeous – with thick, glossy pages and the most dreamy photography. It's quite possibly the only magazine I read cover-to-cover when it arrives. Reading the stories of artists, graphic designers, musicians, authors, and other creatives is endlessly inspiring to me. I've been fortunate to write several stories for Anthology over the past year, many of which involve my favorite subject: dinner parties. The first was at a loft in Brooklyn, the second in an artist's atelier Nashville, and for their Fall Sartorial Issue, I collaborated with fashion designer Erin Fetherston to create an elegant soiree in gorgeous Tribeca apartment.

Erin and I met last year when I prepared brunch at her place for a Refinery 29 party. We hit it off immediately, so she's asked me to cater several dinner parties at her house since. We have a good friend in common as well: fashion writer/blogger Erin Hazelton, who I'm pretty sure is the one who gave Erin got my name to cater in the first place. Anyway.

It was so fun getting a chance to plan a party with Erin. She's gorgeous, her home is totally dreamy (she decorated it to resemble her former apartment in Paris) and it has a perfect layout for entertaining. And she legitimately loves throwing dinner parties. We chose the menu together (she's a pescaterian, so we kept it simple and healthy), I did the cooking, Jean-Luc Le Du (of Le Du's Wines) chose the wines, and Erin handled the flowers and decor. Her whimsical design aesthetic carries into every aspect of her home: pastel colors adorn the walls, silk flowers climb a hanging candelabra above the table, the furniture ranges from ABC Carpet & Home to Paris flea market finds, and the whole scene is bathed in early evening light streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Erin recently married Gabe Saporta, lead singer of Cobra Starship (you can see see their beautiful Barbados wedding featured in Martha Stewart Weddings) and the two are absolutely adorable. Other guests at the party included Alexandra Wilkis-Wilson, co-founder of Gilt, artist Will Cotton and his girlfriend Gagosian gallerist Rose Dergan, Gabe's longtime friend Louis Epstein, frontman of the indie-pop group HITS, and the beautiful Erin Hazelton, whose blog The People I Like is one of my favorites. And moi! Because I was writing the story, I stayed for the whole evening and had a ball. We must have sat around the table until midnight telling stories.

I had to laugh, though. Most of the women were wearing designs from Erin's fall collection (and shoes from who knows where) and I was wearing a $20 dress from Gap that I bought in college, plus a pair of wedges that an old roommate gave me. C'est la vie!

For the rest of the story (and delicious recipes from the evening!), you'll have to pick up the latest copy of Anthology. (Subscribe online or pick up from one of these shops. Many locations of Anthropologie carry the publication as well.) In the meantime, enjoy these gorgeous photos from Amy...

The lovely Alexandra Wilkis-Wilson (L) and Erin Hazelton (R), wearing pieces from Erin's fall collection.

Scenes from the apartment (above); gorgeous views of the Hudson river.

Crudités with Roasted Garlic White Bean Dip.

Louis Epstein and Gabe Saporta pre-party (above); Will Cotton and Rose Dergan.

A trio of French wines from Le Du's (a magnum of Clos de la Roilette Beaujolais, a bright Quincy from the Loire Valley, and a minerally Crémant from Jura); Erin gives a toast.