At home: Donna Karan 走进唐娜•卡兰的家《金融时报》
When you walk into Donna Karan’s New York apartment, the first thing to greet you is the heady smell of essential oils. It is the first indication of the importance of meditation and spirituality in her life. Further evidence is provided by artworks depicting the 72 names for God, photos of the Dalai Lama (one of her acquaintances) and shelves of books on Kabbalah. Karan may be renowned as a fashion designer with a multi billion-dollar company, but she is also a yogi who first became interested in the benefits of alternative therapies when she was 18. “I have chosen a spiritual path,” she says, “because without that, life makes no sense to me.”
步入唐娜•卡兰(Donna Karan)位于纽约的寓所，扑鼻而来一股浓浓的精油味，一下子就说明了静坐与意念在其生活中的重要地位；进一步的证据则是刻画上帝72种称谓的艺术作品、达赖喇嘛（Dalai Lama，与她相识）的照片、以及介绍喀巴拉教(Kabbalah)的好几大柜书籍。但卡兰为世人所知的头衔或许是时装设计师，以及拥有一家资产达几十亿美元的公司，但她同时也是一位瑜伽修炼者，18岁那年第一次对替代疗法的种种裨益产生了兴趣。“我选择意念修炼，”她说，“因为没有它，生活对我就会变得毫无意义。”
Karan describes her 7,000 sq ft apartment as “a one-bedroom bachelorette pad”. Situated on the 16th floor of a historic 20-storey block (Calvin Klein used to own the penthouse), the space was originally divided into three apartments that she gutted and transformed into a huge, loft-style space.
卡兰把自己面积达7000平方英尺的寓所说成“未婚女子的单卧公寓房”，它位于一幢历史悠久的20层大楼（卡尔文•克莱恩(Calvin Klein)曾拥有该大楼的屋顶公寓）的16层，整个寓所原先被隔成三套独立公寓，她把隔墙拆除后，把它改建成了一整套超大面积的阁楼式住所。
Rice paper walls and swing doors separate the sleeping, bathing and living areas, but in effect this is one elongated open-plan space with its entire frontage facing east over Central Park. Visitors barely have the chance to take in the white glazed walls, black lacquered woodwork, limestone floors and Balinese furniture, before Karan hustles them out to her terrace – a walkway that encircles the apartment. “If you want to see New York – here it is!” she says. Indeed it is a stunning view, not only of the Park itself, but of Harlem in one direction, downtown in the other and the Hudson river on the west side.
米色壁纸与推拉门把睡眠区、洗浴间以及起居间分隔开来，但事实上，这是一套加长版的开放式房屋，整个正面朝东，放眼望下去就是中央公园(Central Park)。卡兰把客人都催促至阳台（它是绕房而建的长廊过道）后，他们才有机会领会光面白墙、黑漆木器、石灰石地板以及产自巴厘岛(Balinese)的家具搭配在一起后的美感。“若想饱览纽约胜景，此处便是！”她说。毋庸置疑，从此处眺望，美景荡人心魄——不仅是中央公园本身，而且还可看到一侧的哈莱姆(Harlem)与另一侧的纽约市中心，西边则是哈德逊河(Hudson)。
This is not her only home. Together with her late husband, Stephan Weiss, Karan brought up their children and later entertained their grandchildren (Karan now has seven) in the Hamptons. Since Weiss’s death in 2001, Karan has also built houses for herself and each of their children – her daughter, Gabby, by her first marriage, and Weiss’s son and daughter, Corey and Lisa – on Parrot Cay, in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
此处并非卡兰的唯一居所，她与已故丈夫斯蒂芬•魏斯(Stephan Weiss)一起，在纽约汉普顿斯(Hamptons)的寓所把几个孩子抚养成人，孙子孙女（如今共有七个）也在此居住过。自从2001年魏斯去世后，在特克斯和凯斯科斯岛(Turks and Caicos Islands)的鹦鹉洲(Parrot Cay)上，卡兰专为自己与每个儿女分别盖了房——包括她的女儿盖比（Gabby，她第一次婚姻所生）、她与魏斯的儿子科里(Corey)与女儿丽萨(Lisa)。
“When Stephan knew that he was dying, it was his biggest fear that I would not be able to hold the family together, so I built this series of homes that we call ‘the sanctuary’, the place we go to really get away,” she says.
“当斯蒂芬知道自己将不久于人世时，他最担心我难以让全家人再和睦相处，所以我专门盖了这一连串我们称之为‘避护所’的住所，可以让我们真正远离尘嚣，”她说。
Karan and Weiss both grew up on Long Island, New York. They met on a blind date when she was 18 and he was 28. More than a decade later, after they had both married other people, they met again and were married on Long Island in 1983. Weiss was not only her co-chief executive, the business brain who masterminded the company going public in 1996 and later negotiated a handsome deal with the luxury goods company LVMH, but also a talented artist. It was he who designed the seven Donna Karan fragrance bottles, each inspired by the curve of a woman’s back. This year will see the launch of an eighth design by Zaha Hadid.
卡兰与魏斯都在纽约长岛(Long Island)长大，经人介绍初次相会时，卡兰18岁，魏斯28岁。随后他俩各自成家，十几年后，他俩再次相逢，并于1983年在长岛共结连理。魏斯不但是她公司的联席CEO与智多星（为公司出谋划策，并于1996年成功上市，之后又与奢侈品公司路易维登(LVMH)谈判签下大合同），而且自己也是一位天才艺术家。正是他设计了七款唐娜•卡兰的香水瓶，每款的设计灵感都来自女人背部的优美曲线。今年唐娜•卡兰公司将推出由扎哈•哈迪德(Zaha Hadid)设计的第八款香水瓶样。
It was Weiss, too, who chose this apartment for Karan, although he did not live long enough to see its transformation. “I had been looking for a new place to live in New York for a while,” says Karan, “and Stephan could not stand my indecision any longer, so he said, ‘You have no choice – this is where you are going to live.’ You might say he placed me here.”
也正是魏斯为卡兰选中了这套住房，虽说他自己没能看到整套房彻底改头换面。“我当时一直在纽约找寻新居所，”卡兰说，“而斯蒂芬实在忍受不了我的优柔寡断，于是他说，‘你别选了——将来你就住在这。’你或许觉得他硬是把我安排在这儿住。”
By then, they both knew she would be living there alone. But although Weiss may never have lived in this space, his presence is everywhere. At the head of her bed Karan has hung one of his paintings showing a plus and a minus sign: “Stephan used to say that you could either look at the plus or the minus in life – that is your choice. When I was crying that he was sick with cancer, he would say, ‘You could be run over crossing the street tomorrow. I am right here beside you, so what are you crying for?’”
当时，俩人都心知肚明届时唐娜会独自一人居住于此。但是，尽管魏斯可能从未在此真正住过，但他无处不在——卡兰的床头挂着一副斯蒂芬的画作，上面画着加减符号：“斯蒂芬常说人生不是加就是减——自己无法选择。当我因他罹患癌症而痛哭不已时，他总是这样对我说，‘世事难料，说不定明天过马路会被车撞死，但现在我就在你身旁，你还哭啥？’”
Her favourite space in the apartment is her yoga area, where she spends at least an hour and a half every morning. Now in her mid-60s, her youthful figure and healthy glow are testament to this commitment.
寓所里，唐娜最喜欢的地方当数瑜伽房，她每天早上至少在此练一个半小时。如今她已是60好几，身材依然苗条、皮肤依然那么光洁，这就是持之以恒练瑜伽的结果。
As you might expect, there is also a huge closet for her clothes – “as most of them are black, it can be incredibly frustrating trying to find the ones I want.” Karan favours the sort of easy, mix-and-match pieces that propelled her to stardom in the 1980s. “If I can’t sleep in it, do yoga in it and go out in it, I don’t want to know,” she says.
毋庸置疑，她衣柜里的好衣服非常多——“由于自己的多数衣服是黑色，要找件自己喜欢的衣服，着实让人大失所望。”卡兰喜欢那种休闲与混搭款的服装，凭籍它们，她于上世纪80年代一举成名。“夜里睡不着时，我就在家里练瑜伽，走到长廊眺望远处，也不问自己为什么，”她说。
There is no guest suite at Karan’s home, which she shares with Steph, a chocolate Labrador who sleeps on her bed every night. But there is plenty of “guest furniture”: low Bali couches in the TV and yoga areas, for example, provide extra sleeping space when required.
卡兰住的地方没有会客厅，她如今与一只名叫Steph的巧克力色拉布拉多犬相依为命，狗狗每天晚上陪伴她入眠。但家里的“宾馆式家具”很多——在电视房与瑜伽房里就排放着好几把巴厘矮沙发椅，因此可以随时充作临时睡床。
Weiss used to tease her about her passion for alternative therapies, yoga and nutrition, but Karan has founded the Urban Zen Center in his honour, based in his former 8,000 sq ft art studio on the border of West Village. This month, she is showing his work there for the first time in public and launching a book to accompany the exhibition.
魏斯过去常取笑她痴迷于替代疗法（瑜伽与营养疗法），但卡兰却以她丈夫的名义成立了城市禅宗中心(Urban Zen Center)，地点就在他以前的艺术工作室，工作室面积达8000平方英尺，紧挨着纽约西村(West Village)。上个月，她在此首次向公众展出了斯蒂芬创作的作品，并为此专门推出了一部著作。
“What Stephan did believe in was the need for change in the world,” she says. “He taught me the importance of a process he called ‘connecting the dots’. He used this literally within his own work, inspired by the string theory of modern physics, making random dots on a piece of paper that he then connected with painterly strokes. But over time, he also showed me that connecting the dots is a metaphor for our complete existence”.
“斯蒂芬真正笃信的是世界需要因时而变，”她说。“他教给我所谓‘连点成图’这个过程的重要意义。他受到现代物理学中弦理论的启发，把该理论应用到了自己的实际创作中；他在一张白纸上随意画了很多点，然后再用画笔把它们联接起来。但随着时间的流逝，他还向我说明连点成图实际上是隐喻了我们整个生存状态”。
The Urban Zen Center is a community meeting space that hosts forums, conferences, lectures, concerts, art exhibitions – and, of course, yoga classes. In many ways, it is the tangible side of Karan’s philanthropic Urban Zen Foundation, established in 2007. That was driven by her desire to change the healthcare system into a wellbeing system, integrating eastern and western practices. Urban Zen champions the idea of “connecting the dots” through initiatives that include taking care of doctors and nurses, as well as patients. Karan says: “Each and every one of us is, or will be, a patient or a caregiver. Nobody gets away from illness.”
城市禅宗中心是团体活动场所，举办各种论坛、会议、讲座、音乐会与艺术展，当然也开办瑜伽训练班。从许多方面看，它就是卡兰2007年所创办的城市禅宗基金会(Urban Zen Foundation)的直观体现，该基金会的创办动因就是她希望融合东西方的具体做法，扬长避短，把医疗体系改造成大众健康体系。通过诸多积极做法（除了照顾好病人外，还得照顾好医生与护士），Urban Zen大力倡导“连点成图”的理念。卡兰说：“我们每个人现在（未来也是）不是病人、就是照顾病人的人，谁都无法躲避疾病的袭扰。”
Haiti, just half an hour by plane from Karan’s island home, has been a major beneficiary. The Foundation became heavily involved after the 2010 earthquake, providing homes and practical help to the displaced. Earlier this year, Karan was recognised for this work as recipient of the 2012 Clinton Global Citizen award.
海地(Haiti)是主要受惠国，从卡兰位于特克斯和凯斯科斯岛的家到海地，只需半小时航程。2010年海地大地震后，基金会全力参与抗震救灾，向无家可归者提供临时住所以及施以援手。今年初，卡兰因此而荣获2012年度克林顿全球公民奖(Clinton Global Citizen award)。
Although she loves her own apartment, Karan says that in many ways her home is really Weiss’s studio. “It has the most amazing energy – pure Stephan. Friends often say I should move in but I don’t think of it as belonging to me.”
虽然卡兰非常喜欢西村的公寓，但她说在很多方面，自己的居所实际上成了魏斯的工作室。“它具有最神奇的力量——里面摆的全是斯蒂芬的作品。朋友们常说我应该搬进去住，但我觉得它不应该属于我。”
In her own hallway is a Francis Bacon painting that she bought Weiss shortly before he died. “Bacon was Stephan’s favourite artist. We had a deal that I would only spend x amount of money without his approval, but on his last birthday, I broke that deal. It is Bacon sitting down, twisted into several poses, but for me it is also Stephan and I – me the yogi and him the artist, the electric red background being our love.”
在自己住所的长过道中，挂着一副弗郎西斯•培根(Francis Bacon)的自画像，这是魏斯临去世前，她买给他的。“培根是斯蒂芬最喜欢的画家。我俩曾有约定，我花任何钱都得经其许可，但他的最后一个生日那天，我破了规矩。画面中的培根坐在那里，扭动着身体摆出各个造型，但在我看来，画的就是斯蒂芬与我——练瑜伽的我与艺术家的他，红色电动背景就代表着我俩之间的爱。”
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Favourite things
最心爱之物
Karan’s favourite things are works by her late husband, Stephan. One is a patinated bronze model of “Camera and small roll of film” (1998). Its stylised form comes directly from the “connecting the dots” method he used to make his sketches. The roll of film was later reincarnated in the Larger Than Life series of monument-sized pieces (2001-2003). As Karan says, “Stephan loved photography, both personally and as a study for his work.” She also adores the patinated and lacquered bronze “Shoe” (2000), with its abstracted high-heel – a design, she says, that she is dying to make for real.
卡兰最心爱之物当数其已故丈夫斯蒂芬创作的作品，其中一件是创作于1998年的“相机与小卷胶卷”(“Camera and small roll of film”)青铜塑像，它程式化的形态径直源于斯蒂芬“连点成画”法，魏斯在自己的素描中应用此法。那卷胶卷后来在2001年至2003年拍摄巨型建筑物的Larger Than Life系列作品中再次得以派上用场。正如卡兰说道，“不管是作为个人爱好还是为个人创作而研习，斯蒂芬都很喜欢摄影。”她还特别喜欢斯蒂芬创作于2000年的青铜与紫铜作品“Shoe” ，它带着抽象的高跟底，她说自己会努力把此设计变成产品推向市场。
‘Stephan Weiss: Connecting the Dots’ runs until December 31 at the Urban Zen Center , New York. A book of the same name is published by Assouline, $95
《斯蒂芬魏斯：连点成画》作品展在纽约城市禅宗中心举办，时间截止期为12月31日，同名著作由阿苏利纳出版社(Assouline)出版，售价为95美元。
译者:常和 |
