There was a knock on the door, and the company's photography conservator came in to offer a print for his office. In the book we talk a lot about the idea of collecting, whether its stocking a bar or a prop closet, says Alexis. Advertisement . The acquisition was part of a complex transaction whereby vintner Robert Mondavi purchased the vineyards and Trainas parents received the property and the house. He sits on the board of six other nonprofits as well. Alexis Traina was reunited with her familyher sisters, fashion designer Veronica Swanson Beard and photographer Claiborne Swanson Frank, and parents were in Austria for the celebration. The goal was to create a useful guide to the place and to offer a look at the people who make it special. Both Trevor and Alexis grew up absorbing exuberant taste as a baba soaks up rum. Though Traina was approved by a unanimous voice vote of the United States Senate in March, he could not officially go to work in Austria until his credentials, in the form of a sealed letter from the president of the United States, were accepted by Dr. Alexander Van der Bellen, federal president of the Republic of Austria. I was at boarding school when my parents (pictured here) called to say, We just bought a vineyard in Napa Valley! A signed pair of golf pants worn by Gary Player in the 1960 British Open ($10,000) will come wrapped with white golf tees. ". Subscribe. She chronicled it all in a blog, Alexis' Napa for the Curious and Eccentric. I am obsessed with a pine scented candle called Frasier Fir by Thymes. "I suddenly realized that that's what people ultimately want when they've filled their closets with baubles: experiences. ", It was Britt who set the gutsy tone of the house when he advised the couple on the look of their living room. Alexis Swanson Traina, the San Francisco-based author and renowned authority on wine, style, and entertaining, celebrates the launch of her new book, From Napa With Love. Here, the eighteenth-century Portuguese chairs and seventeenth-century Chinese shrine set on a dramatic black-and-white marble checkerboard floor are brought vividly into the twenty-first century with the bold vertical stripes of Keith Tyson's monumental History Painting (Baden-Baden, 1942). Although the house had survived the 1906 earthquake that devastated the city a year after it was built, it had been in the same ownership for a half century, and its patina of genteel shabbiness had confounded most prospective purchasers. Trevor's collection had its genesis when, aged 22 and newly graduated from Oxford and Princeton, he found himself at the Seagram Building in Manhattan on the first day of his first job. "We worked with a brilliant, motley crew of talent," says Alexis. Top Image: Carlo Mondavi is equal parts entrepreneur, winemaker, and goodwill ambassador. Thats me with my husband and partner in crime, Trevor Traina. The drive from San Francisco to the Napa Valley takes only a little more than an hour, but for tech entrepreneur and IfOnly CEO Trevor Traina and his wife, Swanson Vineyards creative director Alexis Swanson Traina, the two places feel as far away from each other as possible. One of my very favorite parts of the holiday season is the revolving door of sweet tokens, gestures, and gifts delivered by friends and family. The mix is no coincidence. Britt felt that this emphatic backdrop would help the art to popwhich, against all odds, it does. Feature photography by Clairborne Swanson Frank, Katie von Strasser is a former ballerina with a background in fashion and art. Trevor Traina has not been divorced. We have a number of family portraits, of my grandparents and my mother, and pieces of furniture I grew up with in various houses, he says. The following night, Alexis Swanson Traina hosted her husband and friends at a swinging soiree where designer Ken Fulk executed her whimsical, "American Graffiti" vision, reimagining Wilsey. "Alexis has been so patient with me," says Trevor. Just down the block are Oracle's Larry Ellison, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, Zynga's Mark Pincus and Apple's design genius, Jony Ive. Alexis Traina Shares Her Summer Essentials. Happy birthday to Mr. Trevor, Todd and their mother, philanthropist Dede Wilsey, who now has a home in the next town over, relied on their memories and photographs to rebuild the residence as it once was and took the opportunity to modernize some of the wonky layouts. Since then, the Trainas have made plenty of their own memories at the estate. So with $300,000 in funding from friends and family (and receiving a credit from Haas for writing up the business plan), Traina hired a small team of programmers, moved them into the upstairs nursery of his father's house and launched CompareNet. This story appears in the November 2017 issue of Town & Country. It was here that Trevor Traina and Alexis Swanson, gilded children of the city (he a dashing Internet entrepreneur, she a dynamic beauty who works with her family's self-titled Napa winery), set about house-hunting. Some of my annual favorites include the spectacular homemade fudge from our favorite nun; the sweet, seedless Satsuma oranges from our neighbors; the addictive salted Virginia HUBS peanuts from good friends; and lastly, the Enstroms world-famous dark chocolate almond toffee from my aunt. Fantasy environments are certainly a leitmotif in the couple's life together; Trevor proposed in the handbag rotunda of Bergdorf Goodman. They immediately filled it with young children, good art, and a round-the-clock point of view. With unparalleled photography, insightful journalism and sophisticated wit, it is the arbiter of Californias taste and trends. The silver-haired free spirit is known for amassing one of the most legendary prop closets in the valley, filled with trinkets and tchotchkes to. Larry Lovett, Nicole Hanley, Alexis Swanson and Trevor Traina attend Venetian Heritage MAN RAY Photo Exhibition at VBH on May 4, 2006 in New York. On October 10, she emailed us an .css-gegin5{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#9a0500;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-gegin5:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}update after evacuating from Yountville, and this week, she sent us news that she and a number of local winemakers, chefs, and other concerned citizens (including many profiled in this story) have partnered with Tipping Point to form Napa & Sonoma Relief, a fund that will provide support to those most impacted by the fires. All I knew about Napa was what I learned watching Falcon Crest. He lives in San Francisco and walks three miles a day on the steep city streets. "We didn't want flashy-new," he says. Ambassador! Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. And the rest was history.. Do you have info to share with HuffPost reporters? RSVP OUI to our newsletter and get all the latest scoop on beauty and wellness trends, tips and features. Picking up where Robert Mondavi left off, the Harlan family has completely rewritten the playbook of American wine. Photo: Photographed by Drew Alter. Located inOakville, in the Napa Valley, the home was built in the 1860s by H.W. I started by collecting American art in my twenties. It is a perfect gift for this holiday season. And the thing is, we come from wicker. (Well, almost. Alexis and I were married there on the front lawn, Trevor recalls, and our son was christened here. "It was too good to be true," he remembers. When I was growing up here, we had this thing we called scary walks, and after dinner wed go out with our flashlights and walk through the vineyards. I wrote andproduced the book infive months. Trevor's childhood homes were concocted by his vivacious mother, Dede Wilsey, in collaboration with the innovative Michael Taylordramatically pretty backdrops for dramatically pretty Impressionists. With this in mind, they were careful to create "public spaces separate from our private spaces.". To decorate his office while at Seagram's, Traina had chosen from the company's extensive collection a Nicholas Nixon photograph, "View West from Park Avenue and 55th Street, New York City." "On her watch we were really able to discover our styles and blend them," says Alexis. ", His first Big Idea came in the mid-'90s, when he tried to buy a cordless telephone. I particularly love this extra white & crisp jacket. Alexis Traina and Elena McAllister . Plus, there are our daily edits of the hottest openings, tables and tickets, as well as our coverage of the most glamorous events in what is the most stylish state in the USA. Traina is married to Alexis Swanson Traina and has two children. Aside from being a wine connoisseur, author, and entrepreneur, Traina is also a well seasoned traveler, and now that the official first day of summer is around the corner, she wants to share her favorite summer travel essentials. Needless to say, we were immediately smitten. King, Martin Luther King Jr. and Jean-Michel Basquiat on his rsum, the "Chevalier" star is on track to become movie royalty More, Get a high-tech upgrade with innovative televisions, vacuums, purifiers and LED face masks More, Interior designer Sergio Mercado worked with a Palm Beach family to create a serene oasis in the sky More, The luxury lifestyle brand opens its first guest house retreat in the Meatpacking District More, The dream team of interior designer Ken Fulk and Major Food Group brought the Italian restaurant to Dallas, More, Celebrate French haute couture and the iconic LV artisans with these coffee table books More, The James F.D. These two works formed the nucleus of a sophisticated collection that now spans the decades from Eggleston and Arbus to Gursky and Wall. Haute Living 2023 - All content and source 2019 Haute Living |, Social Media Management for Interior Designers, Social Media Management for Real Estate Developers, How Tennis Star Caroline Wozniacki Is Acing Life On And Off, 6 Skin Myths Debunked Courtesy Of The Red Door Spa, Haute Living Celebrates Rob Lowe At Grant Cardones, Haute Living Celebrates Chef Pierre Gagnaire With The, Haute Living Celebrates Katie Holmes & Her New IFC, A Celebration Of Cover Star Emily Hampshire With The, The Karl Lagerfeld Hotel Will Open Its Illustrious, Lenny Kravitz Is The New Face of Jaeger-LeCoultre, Cooking For A Cause: Out Of The Kitchen South Florida, How Padma Lakshmi Is Stirring The Pot In The Second. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Today, it is all chintz and chinoiserie, bright colours and white wicker, lovely lattice walls and chic perfection . Mine was wine; Claiborne (center)s, photography; and Veronica (front)s, fashion. The wife and mother of two also runs a carefully curated Weekends in Oakville are generally spent sans guests and are passed mostly outsideby the pool or on the tennis courtsin the company of the Trainas two children, Johnny and Delphina, and their Jack Russell terrier, Honey. My name is Alexis Swanson Traina, I am a wife, mother of 2 young children, blogger, and also Creative Director at Swanson Vineyards, where I have worked with my dad since graduating from college. Right now some 150 charities--including Meals on Wheels and Stand Up to Cancer--are benefiting from IfOnly. At Dedes, theres a full-scale hedge maze and an old-fashioned train that the kids ride all over the property. Those who can't find their dream experience in Traina's impressive lineup can fill out a "wish list." Often well put the kids to bed and then take a walk, he says. I felt that story needed to be told. Trevor Traina has not been divorced. 1999 Traina started his career as brand manager at Seagram's. How many times has Trevor Traina been married? Allison Speer, Alison Pincus, Marissa Mayer, Denise Hale, Dede Wilsey, Kathryn Lasater, Alicia Engstrom, and Ken Fulk were some of the locals who jumped the pond to attend Trainas festivities. The company offers one-of-a-kind items and experiences, from a $35 guitar pick signed by Chris Cornell (formerly of Soundgarden) to a $45,000 private training session with Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice--"luminaries," as Traina calls IfOnly's talent. "The possibilities are endless," says Traina, who has already sold 2,000 experiences. So much of HiNote is about self expression in technicolor, and its the idea of being able to tell your story digitally.. When I first arrived at the French Laundry, Napa Valleys iconic images of vineyard-latticed hills dotted with chateaus and bountiful farms and orchards resonated with me. One hundred percent! she says. For Traina, it's the sweet spot of a career spent nurturing relationships with talented people. Katie has a passion for travel and all things beautiful. Her high-society family pioneered the frozen. When the winery sold, she decided to put some of her best ideas down on paper: From Napa with Love (Abrams, $25) released in September, takes readers on a whimsical armchair tour of the valley through the eyes of some of its most notable denizens (filmmaker Roman Coppola, wine proprietress Ann Colgin, artist Ira Yeager and the like) with scrapbook-style itineraries, entertaining tips and a glimpse inside Alexis magical life at the end of a private road off Highway 29. All rights reserved. I thought that if we could give people that information online, we could control what to buy and we could influence where to buy. Three years later, Traina sold CompareNet to Microsoft for a reported $100 million. How many times has Trevor Traina been divorced? Michael Taylor decorated Trevors parents homes, and his grandmothers house in Newport, Rhode Island, was done in the 1960s by Valerian Rybar; Thomas Britt decorated the homes of Alexis parents. Subscribe to our weekly emails for the hottest openings, latest parties and in-depth interviews with the people putting California Style on the map. Aside from her professional title, she is also the wife of Weve just bought a vineyard in the Napa Valley. As we hung up the phone, I wondered just how far Falcon Crest was from this new vineyard. This story appears in the April 13, 2014 issue of ForbesLife. My whole life I have wanted to be an ambassador because it was what my grandfather did, Traina told The Chronicle before his departure. Hair and makeup by Sherrie Long (Molly Chappellet and Thomas Keller) and Bianca Rubi (all others). Consider, for example, some of her favorite pairings: Oreos and merlot, cake and Sancerre, barbecue chips and ros, chocolate bonbons and a bottle of Modern House Wines, a project that she started at Swanson in 2000 with the help of Andy Spade (another contributor to the book and one of her favorite partners in crime). In a Thursday morning ceremony at the historic Hofburg imperial palace in Vienna, San Francisco tech entrepreneur and socialite Trevor D. Traina was officially installed as the U.S. ambassador to. His passion for philanthropy, business and adventure converged in 2012 while he was looking for a Christmas present for his younger brother, film producer Todd Traina, a tennis fanatic. The mother of two is married to entrepreneur and philanthropist Trevor Traina, attends many society galas and. It was as if true refinement had sprung to life. There is madcap Dodie Rosenkranz, whose villa was decorated by Michael Taylor in a style that Britt characterizes as "palace in Calcutta." ", The couple love to entertainTrevor sits on the boards of seven nonprofits, and one of Alexis's projects at the winery is "to partner with companies that celebrate pleasures complementary to wine drinkingincluding Chicago's Vosges Haut-Chocolat, domestic caviar from Tennessee, and iced coffee from New Orleans." There's this incredible mix of business and art and creativity that's producing a new Renaissance." My fantasy was to be a gentleman farmer with three grapevines and art. The Swansons' 50th Anniversary Celebrations May 31, 2019 | By Bev Church | St. Charles Avenue June 2019 Liz and Clarke Swanson's 50th anniversary celebrations began on Thursday with a private concert at Preservation Hall, a second-line to Napoleon House and a beautiful cocktail buffet and dancing. Alexis Trainas ode to Napa Valley, which appears in the November issue of Town & Country, went to the printers before the devastating fires broke out in California earlier this month. Since her family moved to Northern California in 1985, Alexis has shuffled between her city home in San Francisco and her idyllic vineyard spread in the Valley. For the familyfull-time residents, weekenders and summer folk alikeNapa Valley has evolved into a, Jimmy Choos Beach Capsule Presents Bold Summer Essentials, California Classic: The First Truly California Sports Car, Daniel Arsham, The Artist Breaking the Mold. were big daddy and giant haystacks friends,