CURATED LETTER N° 17

NOVEMBER&DECEMBER 2022 EDITION

No noise. No fluff. Just headlines filtered with love, and irresistible chit chat—because being “en vogue” is elegance

My Dear Friends,

There’s a certain luxury in hitting pause and tuning into ideas with shelf life. The 17th Curated Letter does just that: you´ll stay in the loop with elegance, without the usual fluff– just essentials, and irresistible inspiration.

Pause, reset, reframe, and return. I’ll be here next month with more that matters.

– yours, Harper

Bookology

Think about this: Reading a book and knowing something someone else doesn’t is pure elegance. Curated Letters´ Bookology will do wonders for how you feel about yourself!

Cover of Victor Hugo’s Ninety-Three, featured in the Curated Letters—a story about how clinging to rigid ideologies leads to ruin, while an open mind is elegance and progress.
Ninety Three(Quatrevingt-treize)

Author: Victor Hugo, writer & politician
Published: Engl. version, Little Brown &Company, 1899

Ninety-Three (1874) is the final novel of Victor Hugo(1802-1885). The story is set during a period of terror in France. Ninety-Three influenced such wide-ranging political thinkers as Joseph Stalin and Ayn Rand. It is a book about ideological convictions and similar mindsets on each side. This book is about antithesis and contrast and the logic that leads to terror.

Art is Life

Author: Jerry Saltz
Published: Riverhead Books, 1. November 2022

Jerry Saltz is one of our most-watched writers about art and artists and a passionate champion of the importance of art in our shared cultural life. Art Is Life; Jerry Saltz draws on two decades of work to offer a real-time survey of contemporary art as a barometer of our times. Chronicling a period punctuated by dramatic turning points—from the cultural reset of 9/11 to the rolling social crises of today—Saltz traces how visionary artists have both documented and challenged the culture. 

Cover of “Sofia Coppola "Forever Young,” featured in the Curated Letter—Sofia Coppola chose elegance and independence: stepping out of her father's shadow and into her creative power.
Sophia Coppola
Forever Young

Author: Hannah Strong
Published: Harry N. Abrams, Mai 2022

This illustrated survey of Sofia Coppola’s career is the definitive book on the Academy Award-winning director covering everything from her groundbreaking music videos to deep dives into her films, including The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette and The Beguiled. Celebrating Coppola’s talent as an image-maker and storyteller, the book offers a rich and intimate look at the overarching stylistic and thematic complexities of Coppola’s work from rebellious adolescence to frustrated creativity, and from loneliness to celebrity, all captured by the emotional, intimate power of the female gaze.

Red Carpet

Author: Erich Schwartzel
Published: Penguin Press, February 2022

From trade to technology to military might, competition between the United States and China dominates the foreign policy landscape. But this battle for global influence also plays out in a strange and unexpected arena: the movies. In recent decades, it has become a crucial source of revenue for the American film industry. Hollywood studios are now bending over backwards to make movies that will appeal to China’s citizens.

Artsy

Curated Letter tells you about things that caught my eye, raised an eyebrow, or are simply too intriguing not to share–with elegance, wit, and some irony.

Antique Indian dancer sculpture featured in the Artsy section of the Curated Letter—highlighting the elegance of cultural heritage. The Poddar Museum’s online "Encyclopedia of South Asian Art" is a milestone in preservation and sharing cultural artefacts.
Encyclopedia of South Asian Art

Launched by: Poddar‘s Museum of Art&Photography, Bengaluru

From Prehistoric Bhimbetka cave paintings to works by contemporary art stars like Atul Dodiya and Shilpa Gupta, India has a rich cultural heritage dating back over 10,000 years. Businessman and philanthropist Abhishek Poddar has helped launch an encyclopedia of South Asian art with over 2,000 entries spanning famous artefacts, folk traditions, craft techniques and cultural institutions from the region. The site is aimed at everyone from students and academics to general-interest readers in India and beyond. 

From scandal to blockbuster

Tate Modern presents a once-in-a-generation exhibition of paintings, watercolours and drawings by Paul Cezanne (1839-1906). Famously referred to as the “greatest of us all” by Claude Monet, Cezanne remains a pivotal figure in modern painting, which gave license to generations of artists to break the rules. His famous nude scene, which was once a British scandal, is its blockbuster

Visit Tate Modern
Van Gogh’s fakes are the real thing

The question of fake Van Goghs was brought to international attention by The Art Newspaper in 1997, when we revealed that “at least 45 Van Goghs may well be “fake”. Now the pendulum has swung the other way, with many questionable works being accepted again.

Learn More
Vermeer’s Girl with a Flute—or perhaps not—featured in the Curated Letter’s Artsy section. A reminder that in art, questioning what we think we know is not only about monetary value but also about honesty and elegance.

Vermeer did not paint Vermeer

 The National Gallery of Art, Washinton, believes it has four famous Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer paintings. But after a team of researchers inspected the paintings during the pandemic, it discovered that one of them, “Girl with a Flute,” was not painted by Vermeer. But by someone else, perhaps an associate or a student. The finding challenges the long-held perception of Vermeer as a lone genius.

Learn More

Featured

From headline-worthy to gloriously whimsical—ingredients for a worthwhile chat, or a component to build your social currency, with a female lens and the right dose of elegance.

One face, two lifetimes—youthful on one side, timeworn on the other. Featured in the Curated Letter as proof that ageing with elegance might just be a state of mind—and the most elegant way to stay timeless
Thinking young delays ageing

Our attitudes and expectations about ageing play an important role in how fast our bodies age. Those who retain a youthful frame of mind have strong bodies and sharp minds for longer than those who feel their years more. That means thinking like a young person can make you actually age more slowly.

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The world’s tallest timber Building

Switzerland is set to become home to the world’s tallest timber residential. The project, named Rocket&Tigerli, will consist of four buildings, including one that boasts a 100-meter-tall (328-foot) tower. The development will be built in the Swiss city of Winterthur, which is located near Zurich.

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A woman holding her head in visible exhaustion—featured in the Curated Letter as a gateway to explore adrenal fatigue, decoding this controversial diagnosis with appropriate elegance and with scientific insight.
Adrenal Fatigue

It is a lay term applied to a collection of nonspecific symptoms, such as body aches, fatigue, nervousness, sleep disturbances and digestive problems. James L. Wilson, a chiropractor, first suggested the concept of adrenal fatigue. Adrenal fatigue is an increasingly common yet sometimes controversial diagnosis used to indicate depletion of the adrenal glands. 

The Truth
The spiralling staircase at Dior’s new Paris flagship—featured in the Curated Letter is a symbol of elegance and represents perfectly how luxury retail has become an immersive piece of art.
Dior has a new flagship store

As a temple to the Dior Art de Vivre, the luxury house’s renovated historic home at 30 Avenue Montaigne in Paris — now its largest flagship in the world — raises the bar in experiential retail

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A smiling Norland Nanny in classic uniform—featured in the Curated Letter as the only way to raise children, with style and casual elegance, blending tradition with 21st-century expertise.
The world’s most expensive nannies

Located in the historic English city of Bath, Norland College oozes tradition but is preparing its students for the 21st Century. They may be dressed in Victorian uniforms, but these nannies-to-be learn self-defence and take lessons in advanced driving and cybersecurity. Supernannies who work for royal families can earn more than doctors.

Learn More

November Blacklist

“There is no passion to be found playing small—in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”

Nelson Mandela, Activist, President of South Africa, Nobel peaceprice winner 1918-2013

Join The Exclusive Circle

Two women in close conversation—featured in the Curated Letter as an invitation to join the exclusive Invest!ELLE circle, to connect, grow, and belong, exclusively and with elegance.

@Invest!ELLE

No matter where you are on your journey to Capital Confidence or Financial Savvy. @Invest!ELLE is designed for you, a private space that prides itself on its high exclusivity, a community where women ” talk money” without shame or blame. Come, fund yourself–meet big hearts, and great minds. Together, we discover the knowledge, skills, and resources necessary to secure your financial wellness.
Chat, make friends, learn, support, feel encouraged and belong!

This Way Please