NEPTUNE PAPERS: ISSUE NINE
La Cavalerie, the Provençal family estate of the late couturier Emanuel Ungaro is now cared by his daughter Cosima Ungaro and her husband Austin Feilders. They have transformed the domain into a luxurious hospitality project and artisanal olive oil production.
Ungaro was born to humble beginnings in a family of tailors who fled the Fascist regime in Italy for Aix-en-Provence in the 1920s and would ascend to become one of the defining designers of his generation before his passing in 2019, aged 86. After learning his craft under the tutelage of Cristóbal Balenciaga and André Courrèges, he set up his own label in 1965 where he would go on to dress the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy and Deeda Blair in his signature blend of romantic prints and sensual dresses before retiring from fashion in 2005.
But Ungaro never forgot his Provençal roots. For years he searched for a country retreat from Paris, somewhere between Aix-en-Provence and Tuscany when he came upon La Cavalerie, a 65-hectare estate in the foothills of the Luberon mountains. The property, which dates back to the 12th century, had been through many incarnations: from a Commanderie for the Knights Templar in 1176, complete with its own chapel to conversion to a monastery in the 18th century and an orphanage thereafter. The estate had been abandoned and in a state of disrepair when Emanuel purchased it in 1986. Over the next half-decade, he proceeded to restore the property working with local stonemasons, painters and architects to transform it into his own private “Maison de Liberté” that he and his family would escape to every summer. “This place changed my father,” recalls Cosima.
“We are stewards of this place,” says Austin. “We wanted to transform the place into something where people can feel a sense of growth, refuge and to feel anew.”
When Bill Sofield and his partner, Dennis Anderson, purchased their Maine lighthouse 25 years ago (on a whim—they were reading the Sunday New York Times real estate section over breakfast), it’s safe to say they had no idea what they were getting into. At the closing, which was the first time they’d set foot on the island, their lawyer whispered, “We have a way to get out of it. A loophole,” Anderson remembers. “We just looked at each other and said ‘but who ever gets to do something like this?’”
By now a sort of mutual reliance has sprung up between the house and its owners. It always needs their attention, and they crave the kind of simplicity and singularity of purpose that spending time here encourages. The rest of the year, their lives are chaotic in all the familiar ways: Anderson runs Bedford House, a vintage and antique furnishings shop in Westchester, New York, and Sofield is the founding partner of the Manhattan architecture and design firm Studio Sofield.
The Studio’s work is often called daring, which translates as highly imaginative, unexpected and a little over the top. Among its early jobs were a Hudson River house for artists Helen and Brice Marden, the SoHo Grand Hotel and many gleaming Gucci boutiques worldwide. Current projects include the reimagining of the Flatiron Building as residential apartments and the Paul Rudolph townhouse once designed for design Halston recently purchased by Tom Ford. “Our style references in almost every aspect were the same, and from the moment we met we were able to speak about design in a kind of shorthand” say Ford.
Despite the glamour of it all, Sofield’s values remain simple: “For me, the idea of luxury is really telling people it’s okay to enjoy things, whatever they are. It doesn’t have to have status”.
This Issue also features: Adrien Chenel, Aline Chastel, Amanda Brooks, André Balazs, Athena Calderone, Bill Sofield, Bruce Gagnie, Casalta, Cheska Vallois, Chris Wallace, Eli Zabar, Flora Byk, Flynn McGarry, François Halard, Gabriela Rosales, Giuseppe Ducrot, Golshifteh Farahani, Hope Atherton, Jamie Wyeth, Jennifer Vitagliano, Josh Smith, Julien Devergnies, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Michael Bargo, Nicolas Dreyfus, Nicole Vitagliano, Niki Rollof, Patrick Eugene, Patrick McGrath, Robert Wright, Romain Ginac, Zara Home and more!
