“Creating something that is universally beautiful. That is art.”
The man behind those words was Tokyo-born Shu Uemura, who created an internationally-renowned luxury Japanese brand that revolutionized the world of hair. An extensive line of ethically-sourced products is encapsulated in translucent bottles showcasing light, artistic typography, and “rare, precious, natural ingredients outsourced from Japan.”
It is a true story of art meets beauty meets science meets environmental soundness—and it perfectly embodies Byrde + the b.
“In my 30-plus-year styling career, I have never seen anyone’s hair so soft and bouncy after just one shampoo or hair mask,” declares Scott Bond, owner and head stylist at Byrde + the b, an award-winning full-service luxury salon and art gallery in Washington Depot. “The silkiness and shine are beyond anything I have ever seen.”
Impressed by unparalleled results, Byrde + the b now exclusively uses and offers only its products and Shu Uemura, acquired by L’Oréal in 2007. When entrusted to carry the brand, Byrde + the b joined an elite group of only 350 salons in the United States and one of six in Connecticut.
“Byrde + the b is rated A+ in the industry,” explains Catherine Ouellet, business development manager for Shu Uemura Art of Hair. “It’s in the 1 percent of the top 1 percent of salons in the country; truly the best of the best.”
Bond similarly praises Shu Uemura.
“Results are instant,” affirms Bond. “It’s a multi-sensorial brand: you see and feel the difference. Everything smells incredible and lingers, but not in an overpowering way. It’s also the only line when I have used conditioner on fine hair without problems.” Supporting the products’ superiority are seven pillars, each incorporating three levels of care to fulfill different hair needs: nourishing shampoos, conditioners, and treatment masques; some also contain leave-in products, including restorative oils and styling aids, explains Ouellet.
From the soft waves of tsuki shape texturizing spray, to the light bubbles of awa volumizing mousse, to the kaze wave that represents the curl mousse’s weightless finish, the brand stays loyal to the art of wabi—finding beauty and inspiration from natural sources.
Color Lustre is infused with healing musk rose oil and goji berries, renowned in Asia as the most concentrated natural source of antioxidants. Harvested by shaking a tree to avoid crushing them, the berry extract protects hair from oxidation and color fade.
Yubi Blonde—fueled by white peonies symbolizing purity and Japanese traditional beauty—benefits platinum or silver hair. Rich in Vitamin D, the flowers are cherished for their moisturizing powers. Committed to responsible sourcing, selective and sustainable breeding spans 15 years, enabling continuous blooms cared for by farmers who harvest by hand only in May and June, and leave half the flowers unused.
Influenced by the blending of Haigo art, such expertly-crafted formulas are art palettes in the hands of hair stylists who use the color-coded, highly-customizable collection to achieve exquisite results for clients.
“Gorgeous tresses and timeless art are always in season, and you’ll make the holidays extra special by giving someone the gift of beautiful hair,” Bond states. —byrdeandtheb.com
A historic Colonial Gets Dressed Up for the Holidays
By Zachary Schwartz
In 2011, Elizabeth Garber Daniels was living in New York City and looking for a weekend holiday home with character in Litchfield County. Frederick A.P. Barnard’s historic home was the first house she toured, and it instantly checked all the boxes.
John Gruen
Barnard, Columbia College’s tenth president and the coeducation advocate who Barnard College was named after, built his Litchfield summer home in 1886. Situated proudly on North Street, the home is located just outside of Litchfield town along the thoroughfare of similarly magnificent Colonial homes. Notably, it is also located directly across the street from the Forman School, where Garber Daniels attended as a student.
John Gruen
The home changed hands many times over a century, and in 2011, Garber Daniels became the tenth documented owner. Just three months later, she married her husband and hosted the wedding reception at their new residence. “I never lived in a historic house, and I always wanted to. I love the character of an old house,” says Garber Daniels. The five-bedroom Colonial, with its white façade, black shutters, brick chimneys, and top floor balcony made a dreamy setting for an autumn wedding.
John Gruen
Garber Daniels is uniquely suited for ownership of a historic home, given her family’s architecture practice and her own professional background at Williams Sonoma Home. Her brother, Cincinnati-based architect Tom Garber, worked on the home and drew architecture plans. “During the architectural remodel, we used so much architectural salvage that we found in the attic. When I reconfigured the bedrooms, I just had to go shopping for extra crown moldings in the attic,” says Garber Daniels. For additional inspiration, her mother chronicled historic details of the Litchfield home, including census records, articles about Barnard, and old photographs of the home.
John Gruen
As for interior design, Garber Daniels blended colorful modernity with meaningful antiques. “The house is a mixture of family heirlooms from my mother and grandmother in Cincinnati that I mixed with furniture from when I used to run the flagship store of Williams Sonoma Home in New York City.”
John Gruen
Nowhere is this amalgam of old and new more evident than the living room. Above the fireplace is an orange and yellow Marshall Noice painting, opposite a glossy red Michael Barrett sculpture, and adjacent to Garber Daniels’ grandfather’s 1939 watercolor paintings. Another example of coherently juxtaposed designs include an Hermès riding saddle hanging on the foyer banister across from vintage Vanity Fair illustrations under original dentil moldings.
John Gruen
The dining room is a particularly dramatic forum for holiday parties. Above the dining room table hangs a Michael Marra Chandelini martini glass chandelier, adding a luminescent twinkle of grandeur to the custom French countryside scenic wallpaper. “We do a fair amount of entertaining. I have a huge pantry full of all sorts of china, crystal, and place settings for entertaining. I can do all sorts of seasons and themes,” says Garber Daniels. During the holidays, the family assembles two Christmas trees in the corners, each decorated with London and Paris-themed ornaments, two of Elizabeth’s favorite cities. Following dinner and DIY cocktails, it’s not uncommon for dinner guests to amble over to nearby Litchfield town for continued holiday jubilation. Holiday home rings true in every sense of the word.
Goods and Services for Spreading Joy to You and Yours This Season
This year, you might still be giddy about the return to holiday normalcy—Bring on the trappings and tidings! Or, maybe you’re surprised (panicked?) it’s here again so soon—Is there a sensible way to scale this back? Either way, creative purveyors and experience-makers from across Litchfield County (and beyond) have lined up unique goods and services for spreading joy to you and yours this season. [Sponsored]
By Brandee Coleman Gilmore
The Season to Shine
The salon shampoo experience is hard to top—every-thing smells scrumptious, and leaves your hair look-ing and feeling otherworldly. This holiday, luxe salon Byrde + the b suggests treating your holiday honey to that luxurious salon feeling right in their own shower, with a Shu Uemura trio. This best-kept-secret for beautiful, healthy, shiny hair hails from Japan, and is a favorite of supermodels. They’ll help you hand pick perfect products for a stress-free experience. $156
For the person who spends winter on the slopes (or simply surviving the local temps), 3 Guys Ski & Ride is where to get gear. They stock, of course, skis and boards, but also rugged apparel for men and women. This season, they love the ladies Highlander Jacket by Marmot. Its body-skimming down silhouette fits great under a shell, or can be worn every day as an outer jacket. $225
During the digital age and the dead of winter, many of us appreciate an opportunity to unplug with a good book. You can check off your list with a range of best sellers at House of Books in Kent. Your nephew’s not a reader? No problem. They’ve got fun stocking stuffers and extras, too, like pens, toys, candles, and notebooks! If you aren’t sure whether they’ll like the latest novel or a gripping piece of nonfiction—go with the gift card. $5-40
Your furry friends need to have their stockings stuffed, too. Depot Dog Boutique is your source for all things pet wellness, carrying everything from leashes and toys to sweaters and snacks. This season, they also stock a selection of horse blanket coats by Canine Styles, made to keep your doggos warm and stylish. $100-135
Today’s high-end sports cars are so good, so capable, there’s simply no way to explore their limits on the street. Owners often can’t resist the opportunity to drive them as they’re meant to be driven. The Lime Rock Drivers Club offers a “ticket-free” opportunity to run your ride without speed limits. Whether you’re experienced or a total novice, you can purchase four hours of track time that includes in-car coaching by world class professionals. $750+
It’s hard to go wrong with high-class hooch—especial-ly when it’s locally crafted. Litchfield Distillery doesn’t disappoint this year with its holiday release of a lus-cious Rum-finished Bourbon Whiskey, bottled at 100 proof. The five-year-old Connecticut-grown bourbon rests an additional seven months in South American rum casks to bring out notes of caramelized sugar, with hints of molasses and dark fruits. The bottle comes in a classy wooden box with two rocks glasses, and is available at several local retailers. $89.95
The holidays are all about toys—even for the grown up girls and boys in your life. No quarters are required in this 60-game tabletop arcade unit, available for delivery from Encore Billiards & Gameroom. It features classics like Pacman, Space Invaders, and Donkey Kong for one or two players. You just plug it in and play… until your screen time is up. Made in the USA, and also available as a cocktail table or upright unit. $1795+
After the hustle and bustle of the holidays, settling in for some self-care would be the best gift. The Spa at Litchfield Hills has the perfect holiday treat: their limited edition spa package includes a 50-minute Cause+Medic CBD Massage, an OSEA Organic Spa Facial, a Spa Pedicure, and Spa Manicure. Let your loved one usher in 2023 with professional pamper-ing. Gift certificates can be purchased online, over the phone, or in-store. In-store pickup or shipping available. $430
Newcomer Plaid Rooster Co. is sleigh-ing the soy candle space, boasting fresh scents and small batches hand-poured in Litchfield County. Launched in the doldrums of 2020, their mission is to awaken the senses (cue the rooster) with only the finest natural, non-toxic ingredients. This holiday’s bestseller is their ‘Lump of Coal Fire Bowl’, a hand-carved wood dough bowl filled with American-grown soy wax. It’s infused with a rich smoky fragrance, and nestled in reflective black glass. $44
Holidays are the traditional time to send warm wishes, but expressing kind thoughts in a note is never out of season. Sumptuous stationery makes for a lovely yet practical gift, and D.K. Schulman in New Preston has all you’d want. This season, they have a new collection of scallop-cut note cards from Gros-venor Stationery Co. of London. The edges are hand-painted, and the scallop-cut carries to the envelopes. You can also literally wrap up your shopping here with the curated selection of housewares, jewelry, ‘gifts for him,’ and wrapping services. $70/set of 10
for the ‘Whimsical Wonderland’ holiday gift shop, hosted by the Washington Art Association & Gallery open Wednesday through Sunday November 25 to December 24. Designer and artist, Paige Boller, chairs this year’s events. Kick off the weekends every Friday from 5-6:30pm with a ‘Jingle & Mingle.’ Have a little holiday cheer over cocktails with your friends and neighbors, and keep an eye out for a special surprise! Return on Saturdays for TAX-FREE shopping on one-of-a-kind offerings by local artists and artisans.
Sinatra sang, “The charm of you is comparable to a Christmas tree with toys.” This season, you can literally charm your significant other with a line of 18-karat gold, jeweled charms designed exclusively for Hays Worthington in New Preston. Create a unique gift bracelet recalling all those special moments of life. If you haven’t ever popped in to ogle the other eye candy on display at this fine and period jeweler, you’re in for a colorful treat. Open Thursday – Sunday, 11:30 – 5 pm.
The gingerbread tradition at The Silo began with the late Ruth Henderson, a native of Germany, where gingerbread originated in the 16th century.
By Elizabeth Maker
Of all the countless Christmas traditions, few are as family-interactive, creative, aromatic, and tasty as making your own gingerbread houses.
This Thanksgiving weekend at The Silo at Hunt Hill Farm in New Milford, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, you can sign up for a class with local legend Nancy Stuart, head of The Silo Cooking School, and decorate a pre-constructed gingerbread house with “a crazy assortment of tons of candy” and vanilla icing, Stuart says. Walk into the warm, rustic, creaky barn with a 22-foot-tall Christmas tree, and your senses are infused with the spirit of the season.
“Even though I make the houses ahead of time, I make sure to have fresh sheets of gingerbread cooking in the oven when people show up, so they get the full aroma,” Stuart says. “Then, they can cut out gingerbread people or make additions to their house with it.”
Prepping for gingerbread season is year-round, Stuart says. “I’m constantly hitting up the stores for buy-one-get-one-free candy. The store clerks must think I’m a candy addict.” Bowls are set before guests, full of gum drops, M&M’s, candy canes, Hershey kisses, peppermint bark, Fruit Loops, Kit Kat bars, Smarties, Necco wafers, Snow Caps, pretzels, Lifesavers, licorice, raisins, coconut flakes, shredded wheat, “I mean, it’s endless,” she says. The houses can be as wild and whimsical, or tightly-engineered as the creator desires. “Some people like to have it all symmetrical and purposeful; others go crazy and put stuff everywhere.”
The gingerbread tradition at The Silo began with the late Ruth Henderson, a native of Germany, where gingerbread originated in the 16th century. Henderson and her late husband, Skitch Henderson, founder of The New York Pops, opened The Silo in 1972, and “the place quickly became the Valhalla for Christmas lovers,” says Alessandro Piovezahn, chairman of the board of directors for the Hunt Hill Farm Trust, Inc., which oversees The Silo.
“We want to keep the Henderson’s magical love of Christmas alive, and that’s what we’re doing, especially now that we have the gingerbread queen, Nancy Stuart, back,” Piovezahn says, watching the chef bustle around the kitchen of the prestigious cooking school that has drawn denizens of celebrity chefs to teach classes through the years, including Martha Stewart and Jacques Pepin.
Stuart, a Bridgewater native, started working at The Silo in 1988, but left five years ago during transitional times with management. “It took me 16 months to convince her to come back,” says Piovezahn, “and here she is. Just look at that sparkle in her eye, that expression of pure joy! She completely embodies Ruth’s enchanted spirit.”
The playful, sassy Stuart tells Piovezahn to “be quiet and get back to work.”
The gingerbread classes are scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend, November 25, 26 and 27, from 1 to 4 pm. Children and adults are welcome. It is suggested that guests team up in two’s, rather than have large groups working on one house. The cost is $100 per house. To register
A typical day for Madeline Smith includes playing nine holes of golf, an hour of tennis, kayaking around Lake Waramaug, and walking two miles through Hidden Valley Preserve in Washington. In winter, it’s indoor tennis in Kent, yoga with friends, cross-country skiing through Steep Rock and line dancing in New Milford.
Smith is 97. She turns 98 on December 13. She’s never used a cane, walker, or wheelchair. She doesn’t wear glasses. All of her joints, bones, and bottom teeth are “the original make and model,” she says with her signature rosy-red-lipstick smile. She washes, cuts, and colors her own hair, manicures her own nails, cleans her own apartment—all three floors—and does her own laundry and gardening. “The only time I’ll get my nails done is if I’m going to be traveling, which I’m about to be doing a lot of.”
It was late October, and Smith was offering guests coffee and pastries at her Bee Brook Crossing apartment, contemplating what to do for Christmas. “I have three children, and they’re all vying for me to visit them;” a son in North Carolina, a son in Arizona, and a daughter in California.
“Christmas was always so special,” she says, remembering the 55-acre farm where she and her family lived since 1965 on Scofield Hill Road in Washington. “We’d always have a big Christmas Eve dinner and mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Washington. Then my husband and I would stay up all night wrapping presents. We went crazy with gifts for the kids!”
She recalls her days traveling the globe as a Pan Am stewardess from 1946-1951 and her romance with pilot Charles Smith. “We fell in love and were married within six months. I had to leave my job because back then girls had to retire if they got married!”
Her husband died in 1989, “and that’s the only time in my life I have been stressed or depressed,” she says. “I don’t dwell on myself. I don’t have a computer, I don’t have email. That way, I can sleep at night!”
Sari Goodfriend
Smith has been a Lake Waramaug Country Club member since 1971, and has become a legend with her impressive sports scores and effervescent love of life. “Once when Madeline was 90, she said, ‘you know? I’ve never swum out to the dock,’” says club beach manager, Mo Van Moffaert, one of her closest friends. “So we swam out to the dock. Then she said, ‘I’ve never been on a kayak.’ So we went kayaking. She hasn’t stopped since.’”
Van Moffaert shares the same birthday as Smith, December 13, “except I’m 35 years younger, but you’d never know it, the way she goes. She’s always dressed to the nines: high heels, gorgeous dresses, gold jewelry. But at the same time, she’s humble and kind. A real class act.”
Club tennis pro, Dillon Sullivan, says his daily highlight is hitting balls with Smith. “We usually hit for an hour. She won’t miss. She’s incredibly consistent. Then she’ll go play nine holes of golf. She literally turns heads.”
Her secret? “I take a multivitamin, a biotin, a zinc, and a blood pressure pill every day. I eat everything! When my daughter comes, we make batches of soup from veggies in my garden, and freeze them so I can eat soup all winter.”
When Smith turned 80, her friends gave her a 14-karat-gold tennis racket charm for her necklace. When she turned 90, they gave a gold tennis ball charm. “They keep saying, ‘wait until your 100th birthday!’ What do you think I’ll get? A golden golf club?”
Regional Hospice Offers Personalized Care at New Milford Hospital
By Pamela Brown
When my dad was facing the end of his life, my family and I wanted him to spend it in a place near our home in Danbury that offered around-the-clock medical attention accompanied by personalized care and compassion. Until his last breath, the Center for Comfort Care & Healing at Regional Hospice of Danbury provided that tender loving care. Now the nonprofit is opening its arms to the Litchfield County community through New Milford Hospital.
“Hospice is an actual philosophy. It’s about giving the patient everything they need in order for them to die with dignity and compassion, and allowing them to have the journey be exactly as they need it to be,” says ToniAnn Marchione, LRT, (M) BS, COO of Regional Hospice, a nonprofit organization based in Danbury.
Regional Hospice has partnered with Nuvance Health to provide personalized care to adult patients with life-limiting illnesses at New Milford Hospital. In July they unveiled two newly renovated private suites. “Relationships such as this one with Regional Hospice allows for the most compassionate, respectful, and efficient care for those at the end of their lives. It’s one more way we are innovating, partnering, and ultimately improving how we care for our patients no matter the stage of health or illness,” says Sharon Adams, President of Danbury and New Milford Hospitals.
Bryan Haeffle (Left: ToniAnn Marchione, LRT (M) BS Chief Health Operating Officer & Compliance Officer, Regional Hospice; Right: Deborah Bailor, BSN, RN, BA Director Patient Care Services, New Milford Hospital)
The two newly-designed suites each include hospice beds for easier mobility, a soothing color scheme, gentle lighting, and sleeper sofas to accommodate loved ones for overnight stays. “We tried to make it as peaceful and comforting as possible,” says Marchione. Both rooms are located at the end of a hall and adjacent is a living room for family with comfortable couches and chairs for private relaxation.
New Milford Hospital staff has been trained in specialized hospice education and will provide 24/7 physician and nursing care. Family members will be supported by Hospice’s interdisciplinary staff of registered nurses, aides, bereavement counselors, social workers, chaplains, trained volunteers, and specialized therapists.
“At our center in Danbury oftentimes we have a wait list, which is one of the most difficult things for me, Cynthia [Roy, President and CEO of Hospice], and our staff. It’s painful for us because not everybody makes it here,” says Marchione. “Adding these beds at New Milford Hospital coincided with our strategy over the next few years, which is to expand the compassionate care we offer, in the Center and in the community, further into Litchfield County.”
No one ever wants to lose someone important to them, but I’m grateful my dad spent his last days in a place where I could spend time with him surrounded by professionals who offered him the specialized, heart-centric care that he needed at a time like this. “We want every patient to have an individualized hospice experience in which they live life to the fullest, whatever that means to them, until the end of life. We want their journey to be filled with peace and contentment,” says Marchione.
Excellent Indian Food at New Milford’s Tandoori Flames
By Charles Dubow
Litchfield County is blessed with an abundance of truly excellent restaurants. Much of the reason for this bounty is the excellence of our farms and the willingness of chefs to source locally, but it is also because our communal palette has been so much more sophisticated—and demanding. When dining out—or, as became increasingly popular during Covid, in—Litchfielders can choose from an array of cuisines ranging from Italian, Mexican and Greek, to French, Thai, Japanese and, of course, modern American. Now we can add top-notch Indian food to that list.
Jim Henkens
Opened three years ago along an unprepossessing stretch on Danbury Road in New Milford, Tandoori Flames offers an expansive menu of classic Indian dishes that will satisfy long-time aficionados as well as provide for the uninitiated an appetizing introduction to the food of the subcontinent. Despite the enormous global popularity of Indian fare, opening a restaurant in New Milford was still a bit of a risk. “There had been another restaurant with the same name in the same place and it was in rough shape,” says chef and owner Vinjith Vikraman. “Everyone told me that we would never be a success.” But, happily, recent visits would prove the naysayers wrong. The renovated interior of the restaurant is clean and airy and light. It was humming with the sound of happy diners tucking into their mixed tandoori grill and rogan josh. The service is swift and professional, and the food is delicious.
Jim Henkens
“These are recipes I learned from my mom,” says Vikraman, who has been a chef for 15 years and cooked around the world, including for Carnival Cruise Lines. He is rightfully proud of his butter chicken, which is a rich curry made with chicken in a spiced tomato and butter sauce. Like all dishes served here, diners can ask for their level of spiciness, ranging from mild to super spicy. Other menu highlights include vegetable samosas, killer tandoori lamb chops, Malabari fish curry, shrimp biryani, tikka masala and tandoori chicken. There is also a wide selection of vegetarian dishes and the freshly-baked naan is worth the trip alone.
As the saying goes, ‘You can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy.’ That statement has never been truer for Gregor McCluskey. “My heritage of spending summers in Scotland as a young boy then visiting our family home there and spending time with friends as I got older gave me a vision,” says McCluskey.
Inspired by his homeland’s coarse terrain and working class, McCluskey embarked on a mission to create an all-natural performance fabric for sportsmen like himself that offers comfort and durability. “I pulled my aspiration out of my lifestyle. As a kid I’d be out canoeing, building rafts, catching fish. My true love was the outdoors. It sent me on a purposeful life,” he says.
After a successful career in corporate America, and more than 20 years of fine-tuning his idea, McCluskey created BRÃEVAL (pronounced brave-all), a high-end line of sporting apparel, and then opened a retail shop in 2011. “Scottish people are very outdoorsy. It’s a sophisticated place yet rugged. It’s a unique lifestyle. You can see farmers wearing beautiful tweed coats, but they’re farmers, and that’s what I fell in love with.”
Miki Duisterhof
Aimed at the ‘sporting adventurer,’ a term McCluskey coined, it’s for anyone seeking to wear one outfit for multiple purposes while looking presentable. “I wanted to take American plaid and make it more performance-oriented and sophisticated.” As McCluskey explains it, he owes it all to his great-great uncle, Big Jock, a well-known character in Scotland who was caught hunting grouse on the lord’s property in the 19th century. “He left the Upper River Valley and came to Connecticut, went up to Canada where he traded blankets and shirts in Buffalo plaid, then made his way to Montana where he traded with the Native Americans because they loved that red-black cloth. They thought he used blood from his great enemies to make that red dye, and he did little to dispel that. I’m proud of that story, of our heritage.”
It was only fitting that McCluskey found the name of his store while attending his 106-year-old grandmother’s funeral in Scotland. “I always loved the name of her home, BRÃEVAL House,” he says. “I looked it up and the translation to English was the Upland River Valley between the mountains and rugged brae of the Scottish highland. That’s me—I’m an outdoorsy guy, a little bit of a rebel. It gave me a vision of what the brand would be.”
McCluskey fused American design with Scottish tradition, incorporating Rob Roy tartan of the Clan MacGregor in his sustainable designs. The apparel is made of proprietary all-natural Tiera fabric of Merino wool and long staple cotton. “You get the soft suppleness and absorption of cotton and the incredible performance attributes of wool, such as wicking and it’s biodegradable and fire retardant,” says McCluskey who is committed to promoting a more natural way of life that can be traced to his roots.
“There’s no question I was meant to do this,” he says. “I love it because of the connection to my family and Scotland. I’m proud of it and I’ll work harder because of it.”
3 South Street, Litchfield, 860-482-7260, braeval.net
Twenty years ago, my family and I decamped from Brooklyn to Bethlehem—two places that have little in common other than beginning with the same consonant. Brooklyn was a literary mecca. I couldn’t walk my dog without running into a half-dozen other writers. Bethlehem? I was more likely to run into a cow. I was a bit lonely for writerly company. But then I met a handsome, spry, gentleman who changed all that: Joseph Montebello.
A new generation of writers have since moved to Litchfield County, and if we are bits of fabric in a patchwork quilt, Joseph was the stitching. It was devastating to hear of his untimely death in September. It is impossible to imagine attending literary events everywhere from the Oliver Wolcott Library to the Gunn Memorial Library without Joseph, an elegant, erudite moderator. To be in conversation with him—on stage and off—was to feel attended to. He was a careful listener, with a laugh that was at once easy, and had to be earned.
Joseph was 80 at the time of his death, though he had such a light spirit that he seemed easily ten years younger. He and Ron Leal, his partner of 49 years, moved to Litchfield full-time when they both retired in 2004. Joseph and Ron married in 2005 when civil unions were recognized in Connecticut.
Joseph had been Creative Director and Style Editor at HarperCollins, laudable positions that highlighted his great sense of design and style, but his degree from Syracuse University was in journalism, and writing—along with Ron—had his heart. He was able to fulfill that dream in Litchfield County, writing countless articles and profiles for Litchfield Magazine.
I will always think of Joseph seated at his large round dining table in the beautiful home in Litchfield he and Ron shared with their six Westies, Amy, Carrie, Emma, Portia, Cate, and Maggie. The entire room was surrounded by immaculately curated books. Consummate hosts, the pair brought friends together and into a world that felt warm, glamorous, safe, fun, and most of all, full of love. “I believe he died the happiest he had ever been, because his love of this community was returned tenfold,” Ron says.
Here’s to a life well-lived, Joseph Montebello. You have left an indelible mark, and you will be sorely missed by all who respected and loved you.
Along US-7 in Falls Village is John Robshaw’s transportive new interiors shop, an emporium of vintage fabric bolts, furniture, bedding, artwork, and antiques. Unassuming from the outside, this is a secret waiting to be divulged. But John Robshaw’s store is no mirage—it’s truly a little shop of treasures.
Robshaw’s design background burgeoned while studying at Pratt Institute. His professor encouraged him to go on a work trip to Mumbai, where Robshaw discovered block printing. He returned to New York where he honed his craft by block printing yards of upholstery fabric. He later developed his passion into a flourishing textiles business, which now sells hand-drawn and patterned pillows, linens, towels, and more. He’s since worked with major department stores and private clients, designed the interiors for Litchfield County’s Falls Village Inn, and launched a children’s décor line with Crate & Barrel.
Robshaw landed in Connecticut nearly two decades ago in search of a respite from New York City. He was attracted to Litchfield County’s farm properties large enough to hone his block printing craft, its community of designers, and the quick drive from Manhattan. He initially rented from fellow designers Carolina Irving and Daniel Romualdez in Kent, then purchased his own home in Sharon, where he now resides with his wife, photographer Rachel Robshaw, and their daughter.
He opened his first store last year in a former Falls Village farmhouse. “I always thought it would be fun to have a shop in Connecticut because there are so many designers that come up here shopping,” says Robshaw. “People that are around this area are dropping their kids off at boarding school, and they may have a house in Greenwich or Palm Beach or Colorado. It’s fun around here because everybody is jumping all over.”
To visit John Robshaw’s store is an immersive bazaar experience. His travels throughout India, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and afar are evoked through loud suzanis, vibrant ikats, Gujarati patchwork, indigo weaves, and Robshaw’s signature block print textiles.
“It’s an old house, so there are different bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and it has the flow of an old house,” says Robshaw. He uses this layout to his advantage by creating vignettes throughout the store. For example, a downstairs bedroom with Robshaw-patterned bedding, Indian wallhangings, and an upholstered settee give way to a tucked away cupboard full of fabrics. Hostess gifts from lands far away include Myanmarese red dye pots, tables with camel bone inlay, and hand-painted pillows. It’s cacophonous, smashing, and a delicious feast for the eyes.
In the backyard is a barn chock-a-block with wooden chairs, rugs, mirrors, and other Indian antiques. Rare finds include a towering wooden canoe and ornate bajots. “It’s really nice to create this environment that is interesting and lets people wander around and find things. The mix of the old antiques and new projects is fun because it gives more layers,” says Robshaw.
Robshaw occasionally works at the shop on weekends, so lucky visitors may shop the souk with the designer himself.
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