T&C & Me: Readers on 175 Years of Town & Country
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In celebrating 175 years at Town & Country, we realized that one of the best parts of being a long-lived magazine is that not only do we have our beloved readers today but readers going all the way back to 1846. Your great-grandmother’s wedding? Maybe it was in Town & Country. Maybe your aunt was on the cover as a debutante or your father can be seen mid-toast in a society page from the ’60s. Maybe, like Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan, finding a stack of issues in your mother’s closet recalls those difficult teenage years when aspiration was only one page flip away. To celebrate our 175th anniversary, we reached out to the Town & Country family near and far to hear their stories—or, as we call it, T&C & me.
“My official story with T&C begins in 2011, with a message on my BlackBerry from then deputy editor Hanya Yanagihara. Jay Fielden had been announced as editor in chief and was building his team. Would I want to join? I immediately knew T&C would be my next job. Ten years later it has become a defining one. On the cover we say this 175th anniversary issue is a tribute to legends we love. I might add every name on this extraordinary team—legends all. We love this magazine, and love making it for all of you. Happy Birthday, T&C.”
—Stellene Volandes, editor-in-chief
“I visited my mother recently, and at the back of a closet discovered a stack of old Town & Countrys. Flipping through them was my Proust’s madeleine—I was transported back to the mid-’80s, when as a teenager transplanted from cosmopolitan Singapore to suburban Texas, I found respite in the pages of the magazine. Here was where I discovered Slim Aarons’ iconic photographs, escaped to Lynn Wyatt’s villa in Cap Ferrat, and dreamed of learning to play polo at La Martina in Buenos Aires. In their own way, these spectacular stories and images made me feel less lonely. They reminded me of my childhood in Singapore, of a way of life I’d left behind when my family moved to America, and they would inspire me years later when I wrote my own novels. Never would I have imagined that in 2018, Town & Country would publish photographs from my own family albums, taken in Singapore during the 1930s—my grandfather looking so debonair behind the wheel of his car, my great-aunt posing in her exquisite Art Deco–furnished bedroom. I like to think that some young dreamer might have flipped through the magazine, seen these pictures, and felt inspired too.”
—Kevin Kwan, author of the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy
“Let’s lift a glass to a grand old dame who, when magazines have been dropping like flies, is still kicking up her elegant heels. Same deluxe heavy paper, no cheap, cheesy cutbacks, still relevant, smart, glamorous, and entertaining. Informative but with a soupçon of gossip, tidbits of news you didn’t realize you needed to hear and the reassurance of continuity and class. The photography is beautiful as well. In fact, I did a few T&C cover shoots way back in the day, and they were always fun and luxurious. Well styled and sumptuously catered. A pleasure, every time. Plus, they hire the crème de la crème of writers. I know this because my daughter is on her way back from Arkansas for a Town & Country assignment to profile the Walmart heiress Alice Walton, whom she loved!"
—Candice Bergen, actress
“It’s the only American glossy with a wicked sense of humor!”
—Hari Nef, actress, writer, model
“When I was about 11 years old I underwent the 20th-century procedure of getting braces applied to my teeth, a process that required a full day out of school in the olden days. The handsome Dr. Boylan had an office in the Fuller Building, on 57th Street and Madison Ave—his reception area looked like a private school’s admissions office. While I was being worked on, I was aware that another kid was getting braces in the other room. Meanwhile, my mother was in the waiting room reading Town & Country—or trying to. Her trouble was that sitting across from her was the mother of the other patient: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. How could she possibly read the magazine? Any magazine? Jackie Kennedy was not just a figure of interest, she was the living image board for millions of women, including my mother and grandmother. They loved her looks. They loved that she lived in their neighborhood. My mother fake-read her Town & Country while Caroline Kennedy and I were turning into metalmouths. Caroline finished first. When they left (and my mother could finally exhale), Dr. Boylan came into the waiting room and said with a twinkle in his eye, “Mrs. Kennedy asked me if you were really Mrs. Birnbach.”
—Lisa Birnbach, journalist and author of The Official Preppy Handbook
“To me Town & Country was always the most beautiful and interesting, the glamour of the world—places you wanted to go, things you wanted to see. And what made the magazine so special was it brought you into lives that no other magazine could get you into. It’s a part of the great history of America. Harry Benson, Slim Aarons… I mean, what a way to see life through their eyes!”
—Cornelia Guest, actress, activist, and author of The Debutante’s Guide to Life
“In 1973, T&C approached me and three friends to appear in a feature about Hartford. It was exciting fun for all of us. I had grown up reading the magazine, and here I was about to appear in its pages, a young mother invisibly pregnant at the time with my son Prescott. It was shot at Trinity College, which he ended up attending 18 years later. The full-page appearance in the April issue—trumpeted with the coverline “Rainwear: The New Look”—conferred instant celebrity status. Of course, this was celebrity of a quiet, local sort in what was a very conservative city. Almost 20 years later I played a very minor role in a fairy tale set in Southport shot by none other than Slim Aarons. The story in the July 1992 issue was headlined “Yankee Proud,” and though my picture was the size of a postage stamp it was fascinating to watch the legend at work.
—Cynthia Stewart Everets, subscriber and interior designer
“I grew up in Tuscany, in the very rural countryside. Once, an aunt—a very glamorous one indeed—came to visit and left the glossy magazine on the kitchen table. A world opened up to my eyes. Everything looked just so perfect: the colors, the hairdos, the jewelry, the houses, the clothes, the lives. It was my first glance of the glamorous world out there. Thanks to T&C.”
—Bianca Arrivabene, Christie’s Italy Deputy Chairman
“In August 1965, when I was featured on the cover of Town & Country, I had just turned 28. I’d been playing at the St. Regis Maisonette for three years, had my first cross-country tour and, as the caption enthusiastically noted, had already “played the season’s most important balls and private parties.” That was great, but still: the cover! It was both exhilarating and unsettling to see my image at newsstands and in airports. There was even a copy in the barbershop where I had my hair cut; the barber did a double-take and said, “Hey! Are you that guy?” It reminded me of times when I was a kid, walking in New York with my dad, Eddy Duchin, the famous pianist and bandleader, and people often recognized him and stopped to say hi, or ask for his autograph. Since the mid-1960s I’ve played at countless weddings and parties that have appeared in T&C, and I always get a kick out of seeing the pictures of those magical evenings. Then in 2013 T&C published a tribute to “iconic” covers, including mine, and I was reminded that the magazine has faithfully nurtured a career it optimistically helped from the start. I’m glad to say thank you by wishing Town & Country a happy 175th birthday.”
—Peter Duchin, pianist and bandleader
“For the past 25 years—indeed, for the entire third season or “summer” of my life—Town & Country has served as a reassuring constant in a world of dizzying change and frequent loss. I first became acquainted with the magazine intimately in the winter of 1996, when I went to the offices of the late Mike Cannon, then the social editor, to discuss the possibility of having my upcoming wedding featured. As Mike sat sipping his trademark beverage, Diet Coke, his Southern charm, urbane wit, and unaffected worldliness instantly made me feel at home.
Little did I know that this meeting would mark the start of a beautiful friendship with Town & Country, one that would see me through and allow me to chronicle some of the most significant rites of passage of my adult life: marriage; the death of my beloved mother, Josephine Premice; the birth of my beloved daughter, Bristol; and her coming of age in the midst of the summer of racial reckoning of 2020. The photo portraits taken over the years have given me an invaluable (and humbling) gallery of the sorrows of my changing face. As a writer, the magazine and its magnificent editors (from Pamela Fiori through Stellene Volandes) have given me a priceless opportunity to speak my truth as the daughter of a Black Haitian-American Broadway diva mother and a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant father, a rare gift in a country ruled by stereotypes and rigid social and ethnic categories. After the creative straitjacket of a television writing career in 1990s Hollywood, Town & Country gave me the freedom to depict the world as I knew it: complex, multicultural, thoroughly human. Whether I was tasked with reviewing Sally Bedell Smith’s “Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House,” her magisterial behind-the-scenes chronicle of the Kennedy White House, or paying homage to the grandes dames who raised me—Carmen de Lavallade, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson—Town & Country and its editors pushed me to find my voice and accorded me the grace and space to simply be myself. As I enter the autumn of my years and the magazine turns 175, I wish Town & Country another successful century of life! Thank you for allowing me to be part of a remarkable journey marked by a rare combination of respect for tradition and fearless embrace of change. What better recipe for immortality?”
—Susan Fales-Hill, television producer, author, screenwriter, and advocate for the arts and education
“I loved T&C young and love it old. My first cover was in 1968, as Debutante of the Year. It was the era of the Flower Child—a tapestry of daisies woven in my hair, lips parted, pure innocence. In 1975, I was the June cover and modeled the story “The Second Wedding: What to Wear, Where to Go, Whom to Invite.” My inner actress had a field day. And then in 1981, my third and most original Town & Country cover: I was the Statue of Liberty. Standing tall in a sequined silver dress, with a diamond headpiece mimicking Lady Liberty’s crown, my wrists in diamond cuffs, and, instead the torch, I held high a flute of champagne. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French; after T&C hit the stands, I married my French husband, Paul Charbin. Pure poetry!”
—Elaine Learson, jewelry designer
“I started doing the T&C horoscope column in 1989, a long time ago! It’s been an amazing journey. Years ago, when I was 19, my teacher, a famous astrologer named Isabel Hickey, put my chart on the blackboard, as she sometimes did with her students, and remarked that I should write for magazines. She was an extraordinary woman.”
—Katharine Merlin, astrologer
My mother was a faithful subscriber to T&C from the early ’90s. Decorating advice, where to shop, places to travel—the book was her bible. In fact, it’s even how she chose where I went to high school. The July 1996 issue featured an extensive “Guide to U.S. Boarding Schools.” It was like a U.S. News and World Report for elite secondary education. There really wasn’t another guide like it at the time, and it had a deep impact on her—and me. That summer, after Mom did her due diligence, we ventured to Connecticut, and chose Salisbury School for Boys, a place that had a tremendous impact on me, and where I now serve as a trustee. None of this would be lost on me when, years later, I would complete two tours as an editor at my beloved T&C, which quite literally changed my life from the beginning.
—Whitney Robinson, founder of DW NorthStar
“Manifestation can be a beautiful thing. After years of reading Town & Country, beginning as a college coed, I had a chance encounter with T&C’s first woman editor in chief, Pamela Fiori. We were both at an event for Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2002. Upon introduction, Miss Fiori recognized my Miss Porter’s School class ring on my pinkie finger and initiated conversation. “Wow,” I thought. “I read her editor’s letter every month, and now I’m actually talking with her.” That lucky engagement resulted in Miss Fiori offering to have a piece written about me. I humbly demurred and asked if they could instead write about my high school alma mater, because I believed it more deserved the exposure due to all it had accomplished for girls. She agreed (that feature is titled “Let’s Hear It for the Girls”), yet followed through with a lovely blurb written about me as well. I still made it in—and with a portrait! Over the years, Miss Fiori, whom I now call Pamela, has been supportive of my work with girls and women. She was one of the first readers of my debut novel, We Come as Girls, We Leave as Women, inspired by my boarding school experience. T&C even beautifully covered my wedding 16 years ago. My main focus has been to keep culture moving forward as well as addressing head on what is happening in the world with full transparency and empathy, despite the challenges that can arise for a female creative entrepreneur of color. I appreciate the level of inclusivity that Town & Country continues to foster while we are all experiencing real-time some of the most extraordinary events of our lives as it pertains to race. My T&C full circle moment today is, after many years, to again be invited into the pages of this most outstanding publication, with yet another fabulous, forward-thinking woman editor in chief at the helm.
—Chrishaunda Lee Perez, writer and producer
In the 1980s my family owned & operated the Huntting Inn, in East Hampton. Upon arriving, always in wonderful piles, would be waiting that month’s issue of T&C, along with a number of local magazines like Hamptons and Dan’s Papers. The covers were vibrant, adorned with either the ladies of East Hampton, an incredible model of the day, or some exotic location. T&C was glamorous to this teenage boy perusing the pages, and it became a foundation for educating myself about style and travel. Today I sit off the coast of Ponza, Italy, learning about the culture with an eye directly influenced and informed by T&C.”
–Bruce Bozzi, SiriusXM host
“While working as an editorial assistant at T&C, I spent much of my time in the archive closet sifting through physical issues (very few were digitized then!) dating back to the magazine’s founding in the 19th century. I came across so many incredible records of the past, from articles written by Evelyn Waugh to covers drawn by Jean Cocteau, not to mention the vintage ads for everything from hosiery to cars. I even stumbled upon an old photo of my aunt, age eight, attending a Christmas party at JFK Airport (then known as Idlewild)! I became so attached to my tiny space of archival paradise that friends and family began to ask about what new gems I’d unearthed. The one problem I encountered, however, was that as I turned pages, the disintegrating, pulpy paper sometimes fell from the binding of the leather volumes. So I spent nearly as much time trying to insert those ancient pages back into their proper places as I did leafing through them.”
—Flora Collins, author of Nanny Dearest
“I will never forget the first time our brand was featured in Town & Country. Back then (in 2004), we were known as Tory by TRB, and there was a picture of our Tory Tunic alongside an image of our first store on Elizabeth Street. When my friend, the late Kenneth Jay Lane, read it, he told me that Tory by TRB was confusing and simply a terrible name, and he convinced me to change it to Tory Burch. Seventeen years later we recently opened our newest boutique just blocks away, on Mercer Street in Soho. Town & Country has been there for each step of our journey. All the best for another 175 years!”
—Tory Burch, designer
“I attended Town & Country’s first ever jewelry awards in 2018. I am a jewelry fanatic, so I loved meeting all the designers. Even better, I was pregnant with my second daughter and still keeping it a secret, so it was a very exciting night. I wore this cool red lace Valentino dress with Edie Parker statement heart earrings.”
—Nicky Rothschild, socialite
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