Follies, Finery, Other Finds
A chic new off-grid escape and some other fun things to look into
I used to classify people by coasts. Since moving to California, I now organize them (the Californians, anyway) by their preferred terrain. Are you a beach person? A canyon person? A Valley person? A “town” person (aka a person who likes the possibility of being able to walk places, even if they likely never do)? There are overlaps, of course, but we’re not going to litigate that here; this is not about judgment! It’s just helpful for creating your own personally optimal Los Angeles experience. I am firmly a canyon person, but I didn’t know that for the first year. I moved to LA and like most New York transplants, first I went to the beach, then I ran for the hills.
I didn’t really feel fully at home, it turns out, until I was enveloped by trees. People who’ve visited me here know that I am so enveloped by trees I basically live up one, like a bird, or skittish bear. (Truly, I encourage visitors to limber up before making the ascent.) But being a canyon person, one who prefers cliffside views and trees to, say, easy beach access or a walkable social scene, does not mean that I always and only prefer a canyon. Last weekend, for example, we packed up and headed well into the very flat desert to stay at Folly Mojave (below), a chic new off-grid proposition pleasingly planted in an environment decidedly more Dune than Echo in the Canyon.
Folly Mojave is located in Twentynine Palms, a town just past Joshua Tree known for its naval base and preponderance of salons offering custom tattoos and Marine Haircuts. The Folly constructions run off their own solar and water, and to survey them is to feel very much like another planet, like your own little Amangiri on Mars. Except you can also hit the supermarket if needed. “You’re totally off grid, but you’re ten minutes from a Starbucks,” Folly’s architect Malek Alqadi told me during the introductory tour, which I thought was a funny thing to say (I am, admittedly, a little judgmental about people who actually prefer Starbucks) until I got a “regular iced coffee” from the Jelly Donut (one of the few venues open on Sunday morning!), and realized it was “regular” in the New York 1/2 coffee, 1/2 half-and-half and sugar, a.k.a coffee ice cream way. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was delicious. But I definitely thought it was going to be…coffee and ice? (I am aware that this is my fault.)
Folly began in Joshua Tree, with Alqadi and his business partner Hilary Flur’s take on a homesteader cabin that was snapped for Dwell as soon as it opened for business. He’s worked with Axel Vervoodt, Kim and Kanye, and more recently on an as yet unnamed big forthcoming project in the Hamptons… you get the picture. Folly Mojave is his passion project in progress, and you feel the passion part immediately.
We stayed in the Water Suite: a brutalist cube closed off on three sides and open in the back to the property’s enthralling uninterrupted desertscape, with the epic sunrises and sunsets to match. An upper floor holds an open-air separate suite with w/c, wet bar, fireplace, heated king bed and convertible roof for stargazing (utterly glorious without any light pollution, and inspired by Alqadi’s childhood visiting his grandparents in Jordan). Downstairs there’s everything you need; air conditioning, another king bed, lap pool (below) and loungers, indoor/outdoor showers, a full kitchenette, including fridge/freezer, dishwasher and outdoor barbecue set up, and an outdoor soaking tub with a window cut out perfectly to align with the sunset.
A 2 minute walk away is the Mara suite (below), which acts as a sort of gathering space/spa: there’s a cold plunge, steam shower, sauna, another pool, outdoor cooking set up, as well as more loungers. You could book the whole place for a group trip and gather at Mara for spa treatments or loungey afternoons, or just one of the suites and book the Mara for your own purposes. If you packed provisions, one could fully check in and not leave the property again until you checked out. (There’s coffee and tea in the rooms and delivery of a charming breakfast basket of fruit and perfect pastries on Sunday morning.)
If you were interested in exploring, the area has fabulous hikes through some epic rock formations (18 mins to Joshua tree national park!), and surprisingly excellent food. Grnd Sqrl had what Jason said was the “best burger he’s had in a long time,” and if Kitchen in the Desert was closer to Laurel Canyon I’d go at least once a week. I would, for the record, also go back to Jelly Donut, which had a famous 10$ apple fritter that was the size of a pizza and a diverse menu of pho options. The mind reels! The local-beloved Campbell Hill Bakery was closed when we visited, but I would definitely be keen to try that, too.
Note: Hugo was with us but the property is not pet friendly. Folly is also currently finishing up the other three suites, all of which are also named for elements (fire, earth, air), which means that until they’re done there is some light construction to contend with. The unpaved and unlit drive in is also not for the faint of heart, especially after the sun sets, but a Tesla made it no problem, and you came here to get away, remember?
For those feeling adventurous and wanting to do something different, or just to unplug and get away from it all, I think it’s just the ticket. Frankly I was surprised how much easier it was to think and breathe and be creative when you don’t have stuff all over the place. You have just the things you need, maybe they fit on a few hooks or a narrow closet or single shelf, and everything else just blends in with the landscape. It was enough to make a girl rethink her devotion to the canyons. At least part of the time.
Other travels: I went to Rio for the first time ever for a fun upcoming project about which I’ll go into more depth in the future, but for now I’ll say I’m still dreaming of lazing by the pool at the Copacabana Palace. Before that, we flew to the Hawaiian island of Lanai, where we stayed at Sensei, and I didn’t spend nearly enough time in the onsen garden. (That’s a joke, I spent nearly all my time in the onsen garden. The onsen garden—Sensei’s open air soaking baths ensconced in jungly flora and available to guests 24/7—was utter and complete heaven.)
Design.Miami LA has come to town, making its grand debut at a sprawling estate in Holmby Hills. I spun through with a friend for the preview on Thursday and we both came out especially enamored by a few pieces in the Salon94 booth by the Seattle-based Korean-American artist Jay Sae Jung Oh, who meticulously winds leather cords over junk salvaged from dumpsters, creating new constructions that look both entirely new and deeply organic—like driftwood, or in the case of my favorite chair (below), a wave from an Edo period woodblock print. “I want to make people appreciate what they have and what they might have thrown away,” Oh recently told Wallpaper about her work. I wanted a lot of it. But I also really wanted to think about it. I’ll be keeping an eye on her work to come.
More! In the desert I lived in this swimsuit (I really like the bruise/ plum purple color) and a big white Gap linen shirt. Cesta—a company I love equally for its beliefs (employing female artisans in Rwanda!) and its designs—has new bags, and I have been carrying this one everywhere. (If you want 10% off, you can use the code Alessandra-10.) Sans Faff just sent me this generously proportioned collarless shirt and when I wear it I feel like a brilliant and misunderstood creative mind. Which is pretty perfect for spring, don’t you think? If you, like me, have absolutely no idea how to do makeup; Lisa Eldridge’s videos make even impossible sounding “looks” relatively easy. Once, moments before a red carpet in Cannes, I even managed to hash out a decent smoky eye, following her step by step breakdown of a look she did on Keira Knightley before I think her Anna Karenina premiere? This was literally 11 years ago, which shows you how frequently I try anything new with makeup, but look! It left an impression! Anyway, she now has her own product line, and the sculpting lip pencil is honestly pretty perfect; if you like Charlotte Tilbury’s Pillow Talk, you’ll love it. These shorts! I got them in white and the bleached color, Fizz Indigo. They give just the right amount of Laura Dern in Jurassic Park. Which is important, in matters of waist and leg. I’m feeling rather done with little diaper-sized cut-offs, those denim short shorts with fringy edges. I want a bit more swing in my short! The woman who complained about my then-quite-modest-but-not-to-her-standards length shorts at the golf club when I was 16 would be so pleased, I’m sure. (A joke! That woman will obviously never be pleased by anything in her life.)
Other things! I saw Babes! I was really charmed by it. Pamela Adlon, who directed, is such a gift, and Michele Buteau and Ilana Glazer (who wrote it) are so fun to watch. It’s basically Broad City meets Better Things meets I Love You, Man meets Knocked Up if it was written by women? With a soupçon of What to Expect When You’re Expecting. This interview with Glazer gets right to the heart of it.
I devoured Miranda July’s All Fours. It’s sexy, honest, wild, brave, strange, raw, pretty unputdownable. I want everyone to read it so we can talk about it. I used to not quite “get” the Instagram videos she’d post of her dancing. Now I low-key cheer them? I also watched The Idea of You. There could be a conversation to be had there.
A strange, sweet, funny little indie I had never heard of and saw on the plane back from Rio: Wyrm. It’s about puberty and grief and is set in an alternate reality version of the 90s with a surprisingly deep bench of comedic actors? Need I say more?
I met the jewelry designer Natalia Pas recently and fell under the spell of her pleasingly chunky, Byzantine feeling handcrafted pendants and rings. They pack a weighty, substantial punch, but they aren’t oppressive stylistically in the way “statement jewelry” so often can be— you can layer her pieces with others you already own, or add her pendants to an existing chain, like my most deliciously magpie friend Victoria does. (If you are an aspiring pile-it-on sort, her newsletter, named for her jewelry consultancy, The Stax, beautifully touches on the way our ornaments intersect with emotion and memory in the everyday. Which certainly helps when you’re splashing out on it. At least in my case! Say it with me: future heirlooms….)
An easy upgrade: Car air fresheners—at least the pine tree gas station kind—smell terrifying, aren’t sexy, give me a headache, feel like they are probably carcinogenic? But the DS & Durga ones— especially the one called ‘85 diesel— smell low-key fantastic, and actually seem to do what they claim, i.e. neutralize odors. When your dog is panting his hot breath all over the backseat you’ll be so very glad you have it.
One more thing! Right under the wire. I just got back from seeing Waxahatchee at the Palladium here in L.A. (rarely on this coast have I seen so much flannel in one room!) and I will now be listening to this song on repeat, probably until I write you next. Care to join me?
Thank you, as always, for being here, tuning in, taking the time! It is, as ever, both a privilege and a pleasure.
Shoot me a note if you feel like it—I always love to hear from you.