Phillips de Pury

Ralph Lauren, who is 68, said that he will not be retiring anytime soon. [Vogue UK]

Phillips de Pury & Co. will auction off 50 pieces of jewelry worn by 50 Cent, Biz Markie, MC Lyte, Kanye West, Notorious B.I.G and Tupac Shakur in an auction called "Hip Hop's Crown Jewels." [FWD]

Mr. Blackwell has regained consciousness; the 85-year-old fashion arbiter is still hospitalized and battling an infection. [Yahoo]  read more »

Her Holiness Hadid

This morning, the world discovered that wonderful Zaha Hadid will be showing--and selling--her first collection of haute furniture late this fall at Chelsea's Phillips de Pury.

Why furniture? Why now? "Well, I mean, it started 20 years ago," the vacationing Ms. Hadid told The Real Estate by phone. "It was part and parcel of the whole idea of interior space--how pieces fit in with the fluid space."

In the early 80s, Ms. Hadid's first solo project was a house on Eaton Place (it won her an Architectural Design Gold Medal). "'How would you furnish these spaces?'" she asked herself then. The answer: "they weren't just, like, purely always functional pieces, but large objects that divide space and add to space."

Why has it taken so long to present her first furniture collection? "It's been very hectic."

The Phillips press release touted Ms. Hadid's "direct dialogue" with its space. But: "I didn't think about them putting in the gallery per se," she pointed out. "You have to work with a domestic space, or a lobby, or a work environment." If December's $296,000 sale of Aqua Table is any indication, the cost of landing a Hadid piece for your personal enviornment will be wildly steep.

Or maybe not. "I've always been interested in doing limited edition pieces, but also mass produced pieces. She pointed to her Alessi tea set, (which, predictably, Bloomberg News recently complained wasn't actually usable.)

But maybe functionality doesn't matter when furniture costs a quarter-million dollars. "It so happens that the Aqua Table has a different version as a production piece--more affordable. Most of our work can exist," she added, referring to mass production (or her version of it). "Though it's quite different."  read more »

A detail from Seamless: an ottoman?

Some breaking news from the Nation of Starchitecture: Zaha Hadid's very first collection of furniture will be shown--and sold--late this fall at Phillips de Pury's Chelsea HQ. The pieces in Seamless will be produced by the voguish new Established & Sons, whose prototype of Ms. Hadid's Aqua Table was sold by Phillips in December "for a record breaking sum of $296,000."

"It's like flying over water," Ms. Hadid said about the work before its auction.

In today's Phillips press release she adds: 'These unique furniture pieces are a direct evolution of our architectural language: soft meets sharp, combining repetition and variation, whilst balancing the smooth transition between otherwise disparate elements of furniture." Whilst indeed.

Stay tuned to The Real Estate for an interview with the glorious furniture designer herself.  read more »