A Culinary Retreat in the Berkshires

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The Chef Daniela Soto-Innes’s Beauty Regimen

I use this amazing creamy cleanser from La Prairie in the morning, followed by White Caviar Illuminating Pearl Infusion, Eye Cream and Cream from the same line. When I’m in Mexico, I have really dry skin so, throughout the day, I will use Avène’s Thermal Spring Water spray over my face and olive oil that I get in Italy on my lips. To exfoliate, I’ll occasionally use the Yerba Mate Resurfacing Energy Facial from Youth to the People and Dr. Dennis Gross’s Universal Daily Peels. I wear La Prairie’s Skin Caviar Complexion Essence-in-Foundation in shade honey beige because it still looks like my skin and feels so light. If I’m going out to an event, I’ll use Ilia Limitless Lash Mascara, Milk Makeup Lip + Cheek Cream Blush in Werk and Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder in Medium/Deep over my foundation. My lashes aren’t curly at all, so getting eyelash lifts has been life changing — I go to Yoli Cotray in New York. For my hair, I mostly use Ceremonia products. To wash and condition, I have Champú de Yucca & Witch Hazel, Acondicionador de Cupuaçu & Castor, Papaya Scalp Scrub and Mascarilla de Babassu and, to detangle, the Guava Rescue Spray. They are really affordable, and the brand is Latina owned, which I love. For a long time, I used Aesop’s body washes, but then someone told me that she used Aesop’s Animal Wash; it’s really gentle on sensitive skin and feels so clean. I think I’ve converted 20 people to that. For fragrance, I will light Palo Santo and infuse it in olive oil to use as a perfume. It doesn’t compete with other smells when I’m cooking, and it reminds me of Coyoacán in Mexico City, where I grew up.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

When the jewelry brand Sauer’s creative director, Stephanie Wenk, visited New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2018 for “Tarsila do Amaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil,” she was thrilled. “To see a Brazilian woman artist receiving that recognition was so important to me,” says Wenk. Do Amaral studied art, most notably Cubism, in Paris in the 1920s before returning to her home country and becoming one of the most important figures in Brazilian Modernism. “She did not surrender to the conventions of the time and was really a feminist,” says Wenk, who could not have imagined that, three years after viewing that show, the artist’s family would approach her Rio de Janeiro-based brand to ask if they could collaborate on a collection. Sauer, a favorite of local curators, gallerists and artists, crafts its jewelry mostly using stones native to Brazil; in this case, whimsical shapes were carved from colorful emerald, tourmaline, amazonite and jade inspired by the flora and fauna found in work from do Amaral’s Surrealist Anthropophagy period, which was influenced by and named for her first husband, the Brazilian poet Oswald de Andrade’s, philosophy of “cultural cannibalism.” The 29-piece collection, which includes rings and bracelets, launches on Moda Operandi for U.S.-based shoppers this week. Prices on request, modaoperandi.com.

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Turtles and Tigers and Snails, in Rug Form

When a rug conceived by the interior designer Adam Charlap Hyman caught the eye of Dara Caponigro, the creative director of the storied interiors company Schumacher, she immediately asked to meet him. Over lunch, the pair bonded over their shared love of Surrealism, wallpaper and the sculptures of the artist François-Xavier Lalanne. They also pored over various fabrics that Charlap Hyman had designed, and drawings he’d created with his mother, the painter Pilar Almon, and had thought to bring along. Thus, Charlap Hyman’s first collection of rugs and fabrics was born. Inspired by the line work in Alexander Calder’s rugs, Charlap Hyman chose to render his in the same material, abacá. That first offering, which came out in 2018, included astrological motifs and arrows, but the styles that really struck a chord depicted snakes, alligators and crocodiles. For his recently released second collaboration with the brand, Charlap Hyman continued his exploration of zoological forms, creating rugs in the shapes of a turtle, a whale, a snail, a tiger and fish. Plenty of other realms of the animal kingdom remain untapped, of course, but Charlap Hyman is undaunted. “We have found a path that is infinite,” he says. From $400, fschumacher.com.

Local legend has it that the land that Husky Meadows Farm now occupies in Norfolk, Conn., once held a homestead where, whenever they dropped by, neighbors could expect a slice of apple pie. The current owners, David Low and Dominique Lahaussois, are continuing that community-minded philosophy with Seed and Spoon, an organization that offers a series of culinary farm stays. Guests can expect a seasonal cocktail upon arrival, followed by a four-course dinner prepared by Husky Meadows’ culinary director, Tracy Hayhurst, formerly of the nonprofit dining series Plantin’ Seeds. (A recent menu included fresh-trimmed lettuces from the greenhouse with whipped feta, halibut with foraged ramps and beurre blanc and a maple chess pie, all paired with French wines from the cellar.) The next day offers a crash course on regenerative farming from the property’s manager, Adam Buggy, a tour of the wood-grown shiitake mushrooms and a cooking class in which the aim is to prepare a meal designed around the day’s harvest. With only five guest suites, each tastefully designed by the local architect Kate Briggs Johnson, it’s an intimate experience that mimics a visit to a friend’s country home, only with better food. From $1,000, seedandspoon.com.

The British creative director and designer Alex Eagle grew up playing tennis and has fond memories of rallying with friends — and of what everyone wore. “It almost felt ceremonious to get dressed in our whites and come together on court,” she says. The former editor and vintage curator founded her namesake brand, which includes women’s wear and home accessories, in 2014. Since then, it’s expanded to include Alex Eagle Sporting Club, a collection of stylish sportswear meant for on and off the court. The Sporting Club’s latest launch, the Tennis Drop, features unbranded pieces with 1970s-leaning silhouettes that are made entirely in England from Italian cotton. See the Campden Hill Dress, a tailored minidress with a pleated skirt and square neckline, and the Berwick Crewneck Jumper, a sporty second layer complete with ribbed cuffs. When coming up with these styles, Eagle looked to the vintage sports books she’s found at flea markets and men’s wear references from the ’60s, and tried to think about what was missing in her own wardrobe. “I’ve been on the hunt for the right tennis clothes — elevated garments with no logo, pieces I can throw a jumper over and wear after playing — for years,” Eagle says. “I would love to tell my 14-year-old self doodling tennis outfits on the backs of my school books that this happened.” From $30, alexeaglesportingclub.com.

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