There are few hotels in Washington with a guest registry like the Jefferson’s: Vivien Leigh, Tom Stoppard, and Leonard Bernstein have all stayed in the historic property since it opened its doors in 1923 (originally as a residential building for the city’s haute citizens)—not to mention several presidents in the past decade. 
Now the recently renovated boutique hotel, which is designed to recall President Thomas Jefferson’s beloved Monticello home and located just four strategic blocks from the White House, is hoping to attract a new generation of luminaries with its intimate 1,160-square-foot spa.

With just three plush treatment cabins on the premises, your chances of running into cross-party competition in the waiting room are blissfully slim, although once inside, you’re admittedly unlikely to care. Guests who recline in the aptly named Book Room—a charming little haven filled with 800 leather-bound volumes on Jeffersonian subjects from architecture to wine—nibble on pre-treatment snacks by executive chef Damon Gordon or zone out by the wood-burning fireplace before following their aesthetician through the spa’s mother-of-pearl entryway. Continue reading ›

When it comes to exercise, running is a last resort. The farthest I’ve ever run is just over 5K, and that was in high school. I’ve never experienced “runner’s high,” mastered steady breathing, or even managed to shake the feeling that I would rather be doing just about anything besides another lap. Part of the problem was always my overactive mind, which is very adept at justifying my inertia, every thud on the pavement inspiring another reason I should be alphabetizing my spice collection instead.
 
iMinds may have just changed all that. The Sydney-based company has come out with a catalog of eight-minute downloadable trivia tracks designed to freshen up your general knowledge on such topics as the Federal Reserve and Film Noir, as well as more esoteric ones like the Barbary Pirates, Krumping, and even Eternal Truths. After taking it and myself for a test run around my neighborhood, I was shocked to find that I’d run, well, much farther than I’d gone in a long time. The topics I listened to were meticulously researched, breezy, and set to music that sounded like the Discovery Channel at its most thrilling. A disquisition on Crop Circles was over before my hamstrings had loosened up. Not only was I distracted enough to run without a sense of impending doom but I was interested, too. (iMinds accompanied me to work the next morning.) While I won’t be signing up for a marathon anytime soon, iMinds, which will continue to release hundreds of new tracks in the coming years, will be my informed companion whenever the spirit moves me to try for that extra lap.

—Megan Conway

iminds.com; 99 cents per track or $14.99 for 36 tracks

Spring can’t come soon enough for me, and it’s not just because the heat came on in my apartment this week for the first time since last winter. No, it’s because Europe’s recent runways were literally awash with my favorite, favorite shade of pink: dusky, delicately flushed, the precise shade of the palest rose petal, and beautiful on skins dark and fair. There it was in soft, I-must-have-this-now drapery at Lanvin, in romantic, ruffled wisps at Givenchy and Valentino; it turned up as a silky, liquid metallic skirt under a belted leather trench at Dior. I think it must be impossible not to look pretty when wearing this sexy/sweet, lingerie-ish shade—which is why, for now, until the collections come in and I can wear it on my body, I will wear it on my face. Because spring’s velvety palette of blushes and nudes reminds me of my favorite makeup shades, too. And according to my exhaustive research, as long as you vary the textures—balance shimmers, glosses, mattes—there’s no reason not to try several at once. What could be chicer with a wardrobe of winter whites, grays, and camel? Our favorites, straight from the Vogue Beauty Closet: Continue reading ›

Last time I remember being called “fresh,” it was in the eighth grade after back-talking my social-studies teacher. But being called fresh now—after weeks of fashion shows and late-night fashion parties—is quite the compliment. I wish I could say my healthy-looking, dewy, fresh-scrubbed skin was due to my relentless regimen of loads of sleep, lots of water, and using my moisturizing SPF daily, but, alas, I usually neglect to do all of those things.

So why can’t you tell by looking at my skin? I discovered this Lancôme tinted moisturizer (with SPF 15), and it has changed my morning makeup routine ever since. I can just slather this miracle product on my face and it instantly evens out and perfects my skin. All I need to do is apply a little bronzer in long strokes on my cheeks and a touch of black mascara—and I am out the door in seconds. So please, call me “fresh” all you’d like.

—Lauren Santo Domingo

“You’ll injure yourself.”  These cautionary words came from my unofficial marathon coach, my friend Jacob, the one who recently ran a 50-mile race over punishing hills and is familiar with every species of ache and strain, the one who sternly admonished that I was running too fast—the one I should have listened to before the intermittent twinge in my left leg blossomed into a constant shooting pain that one afternoon left me hobbled on a lonely stretch of Brooklyn asphalt, unable to continue.

Then a colleague at Vogue told me about Troy Stallman who agreed to assess my situation at his Manhattan facility, All Systems Go. Troy specializes in something called Muscle Activation Techniques (M.A.T.). The idea behind M.A.T. is that many aches and pains, including sports injuries, are the result of weakness, which causes some muscles to work too hard as others shut down. “Your body is like a symphony orchestra,” explained Troy, who wields his metaphors with the same confidence he applies to a knotty quadricep. “Some muscles are tuned up and ready to play; others are off in the corner, smoking.” Inevitably, he said, the weak muscles stay weak, while the strong get stronger, leading to additional stress and imbalance.  Troy’s mission is to wake up the sleepy ones—or, since the signals from brain to muscle are like cars on a superhighway, to make sure all lanes of traffic are open and flowing. Continue reading ›

Call it street chic (Balenciaga), urban sport (Alexander Wang), or even nouveau Goth (Givenchy). Spring’s cool girls have cool hair to match—and this season, youthful irreverence goes beyond rock-’n’-roll tangles to punky, often pastel, streaks of color that have had the front rows buzzing from New York to Paris.  

The night before Proenza Schouler’s surf-and-skate-themed show, hairstylist Didier Malige and team hit Frédéric Fekkai’s SoHo salon, painting edgy aqua and violet streaks onto models’ hair—Clairol Jazzing in Jet Grape, Icicle, and Mood Indigo; Manic Panic in Atomic Turquoise, Electric Lizard, and Bad Boy Blue, to be precise. Inspired by supermodel and Meisel muse Kristen McMenamy’s unapologetically au naturel hair color (currently visible in Lanvin’s quirky fall ad campaign), hairstylist Eugene Souleiman added ethereal white streaks at the crown for designer Martine Sitbon’s gray-centric Rue du Mail runway.
 
Still, it was Brit stylist Katie Shillingford, sitting at Nicolas Ghesquière’s presentation for Balenciaga, who catapulted the trend from runway to reality with enough effortless cool to inspire some serious hair envy. Her choppy ombré bob, which moved from platinum-white at the roots to a dusty blue before turning inky noir at the tips, looked shockingly chic.

—Catherine Piercy

“It’s happening,” says hairstylist/colorist Laurie Foley of the peroxide-powered wave that’s sweeping the spring shows, turning fashion’s favorite faces into white-hot versions of their formerly honeyed selves.
It all started at the Met’s Costume Institute gala back in May, when model Raquel Zimmermann sent flashbulbs popping on her way up the red carpet, courtesy of her brand-new, radically platinum hair (not to mention Proenza’s tough-chic off-the-shoulder wool-satin mini). Foley had lifted her look to an icy-white pitch for the Gucci campaign.

That fashion moment ignited a spark that was still burning bright at Marc Jacobs’s spring show. This time around, it was Russian stunner Vlada Roslyakova that fueled the trend while sitting in a makeup chair during fittings: Marc spotted her newly chilly shade—transformed from strawberry- to white-blonde just one week before by (you guessed it) Foley—and promptly sent the colorist into action.

“I got the call on Saturday night,” says Foley. “Marc wanted a ‘white goth’ version of beauty.” And so it passed that nearly half a dozen girls—from runway regulars like Jessica Stam and Siri Tollerød to newcomers Ginta Lapina and Hannah Holman—crossed over to the bright side by 8 p.m. Monday. Bleach is notoriously hard on hair, but “platinum can look very rich, very expensive with the right upkeep,” assures Foley, who preemptively armed her young charges with bottles of Alterna’s restorative Ten shampoos, conditioners, and masks before sending them on their way. Continue reading ›

There is something undeniably brag-worthy about getting your workout at a dance studio rather than a gym. Housed in the same building as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ailey School, the Ailey Extension offers a program for nondancers that has all the prestige of a studio and none of the intimidation. The instructors are first-rate; all of the classes are $17 each, with no need to sign up in advance; and neither fancy footwear nor chignons are required.

Set to a thumping Bollywood-inspired sound track, Masala Bhangra (masala means “spicy” in Hindi) is a standout. Created and taught by the very toned and vociferous Sarina Jain, the physically demanding class is a modern adaptation of the ancient Punjabi bhangra dance, known for its core-shaking beats of the two-sided dhol drum. Though a stereo ordinarily blasts these rhythms, a live percussionist will keep the beat during a special workshop at 5:30 p.m. on October 17.

My first class incorporated lots of lateral chassés, jump-turns into squatting positions, and hand and wrist twisting, none of which any of the students (a random assortment of gym rats in search of novelty), principally myself, were remotely successful at. But it didn’t matter—we were all having too much fun. Says Jain, “I always remind my students at the beginning of class to pretend they’re at my wedding and so let’s celebrate!” Continue reading ›

Optimism is the buzz from Europe, so it makes sense that looking on the bright side is very literally the beauty message, too. Cheery, supercharged, superglossed lips were the word on Milan’s runways, where sunny Crayola brights provided a refreshing alternative to the well-worn classic red. Models with tangerine-lacquered lips, courtesy of Pat McGrath, blazed down the runway at Prada (center). Over at Bottega (left), it was a burst of crisp magenta that took center stage on canvases of flawless skin (again, the handiwork of McGrath), while at Missoni (right), mouths came up poppy-pink. By happy coincidence, they’re shades that almost perfectly match the five electric glosses in Make Up for Ever’s Glossy Full Couleur lineup. Fuchsia Pink—sheer, but it packs punch—is this department’s clear favorite.

Make Up For Ever glossy full couleur, $19
Sephora.com

—Christina Han

Six exercises to help keep your legs, back, and core in optimal shape for wearing fall’s mile-high heels.

In a fashion season that’s both redefining extremes—Derek Lam and Alexander Wang’s bathing-suit-inspired bottoms have shown us that the line between shorts and underwear is a thin one––and celebrating endless legs, it’s not altogether surprising that high heels have reached previously unimagined, skyscraping heights. So while stepping into a pair of vertigo-inducing heels might seem unavoidable this fall, you can at least minimize the damage those Balenciaga fur boots inflict on your body, particularly the lower half, by being physically prepared. We checked in with trainer Melissa DeLancey of CLAY Gym & Spa in Greenwich Village to find out what can be done to prep those all-important hamstrings, glutes, and core muscles. As for keeping your balance, you’re on your own.

1. Jump Rope
With a rope (or faking it with your hands), do jump rope intervals. Try for 50 jumps in a row (or until you trip) and then take a 30 second break; repeat until you’ve completed 500 jumps. This is great for your calves, and it’s also a cardiovascular and plyometric workout, which means that it burns a ton of calories and is good for your bones.

2. Reverse Lunge to Balance
Standing on your right leg, step backward into a lunge, flexing your back foot and bending both knees deeply. Push off your back toes, propelling yourself forward,  and return to your standing balance. Do fifteen lunges, and then switch legs. This works all the major muscles of your legs, especially your glutes. Continue reading ›