Contemporary fine jewelry artist Cindy Chao, globally recognized for her intricate designs of rare, colorful gemstones, has collaborated with actress, entrepreneur and philanthropist Sarah Jessica Parker on a singular jewelry creation. The 2014 Black Label Masterpiece “Ballerina Butterfly” brooch (Est. HK$6 – 7 million / US$750,000 – 950,000), co-designed by Chao and Parker, will be auctioned at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite Sale on 7 October. Net proceeds from its sale will benefit the New York City Ballet.
Parker and Chao came to admire each other’s respective work as creative artists during Chao’s 2011 Masterpiece Exhibition in Beijing. Their friendship and mutual respect led to discussions of a potential collaboration. It was decided during the opening of Chao’s boutique in Beijing in 2012, where Parker was an honorary guest, that the pair would combine their creative talents, working together to design a unique jewelry piece for charity.
The Black Label “Ballerina Butterfly” brooch was completed with heart and soul over the course of two years, during which Parker and Chao held several design meetings, reviewed sketches, wax models and gemstones together. Chao began the creation process by building a wax model of the piece, as she does with all of her Black Label Masterpiece creations. The “Ballerina Butterfly” brooch melds together Chao’s craftsmanship as one of the jewelry world’s premier artists along with Parker’s discerning eye for style and design.
The resulting creation is the 2014 Black Label Masterpiece “Ballerina Butterfly” brooch, constructed of a titanium and 18-karat gold body, featuring a cushion-cut fancy brown diamond weighing 26.27 carats, three rough brown diamond slices weighing 47.71 carats in total, three pieces of conch pearls weighing 7.25 carats in total, surrounded by 4,698 diamonds and fancy-colored diamonds weighing 98.09 carats in total, completing the majesty of the Black Label Masterpiece Butterfly. The “Ballerina Butterfly” brooch is inspired by the graceful beauty and elegance of ballet, displaying the sensibility, delicate structure, strength and mellifluous movement exhibited within a ballerina. The brooch can be worn either right-side up or upside-down to create two silhouettes of exceptional splendor.
“Sarah Jessica and I are two very different creative minds sharing the same artistic vision and passion,” expresses Chao. “She truly appreciates the essence and soul of my creations, and I admire her innovative yet classic view on fashion and style. My annual Butterflies carry special meaning for me. Collaborating with Sarah Jessica for a cause we both deeply care for and believe in makes this Ballerina Butterfly all the more special in my heart.” The Black Label Masterpiece Butterflies are one of Chao’s coveted motifs and revered by collectors worldwide. Chao has designed a Black Label Masterpiece Butterfly every year since 2008, symbolizing her metamorphosis as an artist. This year marks the tenth anniversary of CINDY CHAO The Art Jewel, lending great personal meaning to this Black Label Masterpiece Butterfly. The “Ballerina Butterfly” is Chao’s first art jewel collaboration, evoking a sense of infinite creative possibilities, portraying a passion for beauty, shared by both Chao and Parker.
“I have had the great pleasure of knowing Cindy and her work for several years, and it has been an incredibly special experience to collaborate with her,” states Parker. “Cindy’s jewelry designs are true works of art; they capture the eye and imagination in a memorable way. I am so pleased to partner with her on this project, which benefits the wonderful work of the New York City Ballet, an organization that is close to my heart.”
“New York City Ballet is honored to be a part of this wonderful collaboration between Sarah Jessica Parker and Cindy Chao,” said NYCB’s Executive Director Katherine Brown. “As a member of our Board of Directors, Sarah Jessica has created a number of exciting initiatives to both build new audiences and generate philanthropic support. We are thrilled that she and Cindy have chosen to make NYCB the inspiration for and benefactor of the sale of this exquisite “Ballerina Butterfly” brooch.
QUEK Chin Yeow, Deputy Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia and Chairman of International Jewellery, Asia said, “Sotheby’s is proud and honored to be part of this exciting project, intertwining bejeweled creativity and the Performance Arts with the world of art auction. In offering this unique ‘Ballerina Butterfly Brooch’ in Hong Kong, it undoubtedly becomes a global phenomenon.”
The “Ballerina Butterfly” brooch made its debut during Haute Couture week in Paris, July 7-10. It will travel throughout Asia before going to New York, where Chao and Parker will serve as Co-Chairs of the New York City Ballet’s Fall Gala on September 23, 2014. The brooch will then return to Hong Kong in October, prior to the auction.
Category: News
Sarah Jessica Parker Co-Designs “Ballerina Butterfly” Brooch To Be Auctioned at Sotheby’s Hong Kong
This is huge! Sarah Jessica Parker will present the Fall 2014 SJP Collection at Nordstrom Tysons Corner Center on August 22 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. That means you can shop her ladylike line of shoes and handbags, and SJP will be available to meet with customers and sign their SJP purchases throughout the event, as time permits.
Parker toured the country earlier this year for her exclusive SJP line with Nordstrom, and lucky us, now she’s venturing to the D.C. area. Parker’s collection of shoes is made by artisans in Italy, and range in price from $350 for
a pump to $695 for a knee-high boot. The line also includes handbags, ranging in price from $220 for a crossbody bag to $495 for a tote. Here’s something to know for Parker’s Nordstrom Tyson Corner appearance next Friday: due to limited time, Parker will only be able to sign items from the SJP Collection for customers who have made a purchase.
Sarah Jessica Parker to Visit Nordstrom Galleria
Great news for stylish ones!
Actress and designer Sarah Jessica Parker (of HBO’s famed fashionable series, “Sex and the City”) will visit Nordstrom Galleria in Salon Shoes 4-5 p.m. Aug. 21 to show off the fall offerings from her SJP Collection shoes and handbag line. She’ll meet with customers and sign their SJP purchases throughout the event, as time permits.
The collection is available exclusively at select Nordstrom stores and Nordstrom.com/SJP, the SJP Collection is an assortment of ladylike and polished shoes crafted by artisans in Italy. Prices range from $350 for a pump to $695 for a knee-high boot. The line also features city-chic handbags that range in price from $220 for a crossbody style to $495 for a tote.
Nordstrom Houston Galleria is located at 5192 Hidalgo Street.
Sarah Jessica Parker took to Instagram today to announce that she is taking her shoes on the road with her first ever shoe tour this summer! Details have yet to be disclosed as of yet, but you can check out the adorable video below to view SJP showing off her shoes to make the big announcement. More details will be posted as they arrive!
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment has optioned the rights to Busted: A Tale Of Corruption And Betrayal In The City Of Brotherly Love, a police crime thriller written by Wendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker. It will serve as SKE’s debut television project with True Detective producers Anonymous Content.
Sex and the City’s Sarah Jessica Parker is attached to star in one of the two main roles in the hourlong show. David Frankel is attached to direct and executive produce the pilot. Don Roos will write the pilot. SKE President Jim Tauber, SKE President of Production Carla Hacken, and Steve Golin, Managing Partner of Anonymous Content, announced it.
Book is based on investigative reporters Wendy Ruderman’s and Barbara Laker’s non-fiction book of the same name. Published by Harper Collins in March, it chronicles their efforts to uncover one of the biggest police corruption scandals in Philadelphia’s history. The 2009 10-month series of articles in the Philadelphia Daily News entitled “Tainted Justice” earned them a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.
This becomes the latest series to congeal with movie elements. Frankel has directed The Devil Wears Prada, Marley & Me, Hope Springs and most recently, One Chance. Roos’ screen credits range from Single White Female to Marley & Me. Both worked with Hacken at Fox 2000, and she got the book rights from WME while she was an indie producer. She brought it to SKE when she was hired as president of production. She will be exec producer.
“Wendy and Barbara have written an amazing true story, and we’re thrilled for it to be SKE’s first television project,” she and Tauber said in a statement. “Sarah Jessica’s coming on board, along with David Frankel and Don Roos is simply a perfect combination that we couldn’t be happier about.”
SKE and Anonymous will shop the project after they’ve set the rest of the cast. Parker is repped by CAA. Frankel by Anonymous Content and WME; the book was brokered by WME and Larry Weissman and Roos by UTA. SKE’s Nick Hanks for SKE and Anonymous Content’s Dave Fierson repped the producers.
In the newest episode of Jerry Seinfeld’s Web series, “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” the comedian picked up his friend Sarah Jessica Parker to take a drive in her new Ford Country Squire. “I can’t get over how gorgeous this is!” the actress, 49, gushed of the vintage vehicle. “I grew up in a car like this. I spent so much time in the back of that car … some really great times in my formative years.” Who knew? Here are a few other things about Parker that became clear in this video.
1. She Has a Lot in Common with Seinfeld
They even talk about it! “We’re both a little hyper-aware of little things,” he noted.2. Her Mom Ran a Tight Ship
Not only did Parker talk about how her mom was “always in a rage — legitimately!” but she also told a story revealing how strict her mom could be. “Just the other neighborhood kids had [ice cream from a truck]. Not us. Not the Parker kids,” she said. “[We had a] half-gallon of Breyer’s, maybe, once every two to three months. And then it was gone in about 24 hours and my mom was like, [screaming] ‘Go easy on the ice cream!'”3. She’s Right at Home in a Diner
Her order? A patty melt on rye bread and a chocolate egg cream. Oh, and she ate the pickle!4. She Wears Reading Glasses!
You can see them in the video.5. Seinfeld Thinks She’s a Bad Tipper
When the check came, Seinfeld picked up the $37 tab and then chastised Parker when she said to leave a $10 tip. “Because,” he said, “everyone’s gonna ask her, ‘Oh my God, you waited on Jerry Seinfeld and Sarah Jessica Parker! How much did they tip you?’ What do you want her to say?” Parker smiled. “Twenty bucks?” she asked. Upon seeing how much the comedian ended up leaving (“Vulgar!” she exclaimed), Parker got a bit more serious. “It’s lovely,” she said. “I’m a total s***.”6. She’s a Self-Described ‘Really Good Driver’
(Even though other cars honked at her on the highway.)7. She’d Be Fun on Long Car Trips
Not only does she understand the value of an Etch-a-Sketch, Mad Libs and watercolors, but she can do Cat’s Cradle with string, too!
It’s not every day that Sarah Jessica Parker pops in for a cameo performance at a talent show with elementary- and middle-school children.
It’s also not every day that a student talent show takes place in the East Room of the White House.
But on Tuesday afternoon, that’s what happened. First lady Michelle Obama hosted the elaborate — yet down-to-earth — talent show to highlight the importance of arts education in public schools.
The event showcased the work of the Turnaround Arts program, which helps low-performing schools increase student achievement through access to arts education. Major artists — including SJP herself — have adopted schools across the country as part of this effort.
During the show, actress Alfre Woodard led a raucous student brass band, while Sarah Jessica Parker joined an all-girl group performing “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile” from the musical “Annie.”
At the show’s opening, Mrs. Obama said the arts help students get excited about taking their seats in class because they are thinking about the next musical they’re performing in or the instrument they can’t wait to play.
“But if they’re not in their seats then we can’t teach them anything at all,” she said. “The bottom line here is very clear: Arts education isn’t something we add on after we’ve achieved other priorities, like raising test scores and getting kids into college. It’s actually critical for achieving those priorities in the first place.”
In a surprise appearance, President Barack Obama made his own pitch for arts education.
“It is necessary for these young people to succeed that we promote the arts,” he said. “It’s a priority.”
A third “Sex and the City” movie has never been seriously discussed, Sarah Jessica Parker, star of the television series and movies, said Thursday night in New York.
“It’s not that I’m inhospitable (to the idea). We just haven’t felt it’s the right time to talk about it,” said the actress, who played the role of newspaper columnist Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO series for six years. The series, which won seven Emmy Awards, continues to air in syndication.
When a “Sex and the City” movie was proposed, Parker said she and Michael Patrick King, who directed both films, had talked about the story as acts in a play. “There is a third story, but whether or not we tell it has never been discussed.”
“In my head, it’s a small movie,” she added.
The first “Sex and the City” film became the highest-grossing romantic comedy of 2008, and the second, though it earned less than the first, held the same title for 2010.
Parker, 49, was interviewed by Jonathan Tisch, chairman of Loews Hotels, at the 92nd Street Y. The discussion was distributed on the Internet through Livestream. In addition to her work on Broadway, TV and movies, they discussed her fashion business and her philanthropic work.
Parker, the fourth of her mother’s eight children from two marriages, started performing when she was a child. Her first TV work was in 1974 on an NBC “Young People’s Special” called “The Little Match Girl,” which was shot in Cincinnati, where her family had moved when she was about 5.
While making that show, she missed five days of school and earned $500—and also managed to take home $20 in spending money, the result of spending only $1 of the amount she was allotted for lunch. That money “was a really, really big deal,” she said, adding that she also enjoyed acting. “I loved the experience of being someone else.”
Two years later, she and her brother Timothy were cast in a Broadway revival of a play, “The Innocents,” directed by Harold Pinter.
The family moved to New York in 1977, and Parker appeared in the Broadway musical “Annie,” eventually taking on the title role.
She was appearing on Broadway in “Once Upon a Mattress”–and planning her wedding to actor Matthew Broderick—when she agreed to make the pilot for “Sex and the City” despite her concerns about nudity and language in the script.
Both Broderick and her older brother Pippin thought the pilot script was “wonderful, different from anything they had read,” she said.
After she made the pilot, she forgot about it until she ran into a friend who complimented her on the show. She resisted HBO’s offer to do the show, raising many objections, but eventually agreed to shoot two episodes.
From that first day, “I didn’t regret one moment spent” on it, she said.
Asked what she learned from the “Sex and the City” experience, Parker said she learned about friendship. The show’s plotlines often dealt with her character’s close ties with three other women living in New York.
“It changed the way I looked at my friendships. That’s the emotional reward that I reaped from it,” in addition to the professional rewards and the chance to become a producer.
Parker started in the fashion business by creating fragrances, noting that since she was a girl, she had kept a list of possible names for perfumes. She also was involved in the creation of a lower-priced sportswear line called Bitten in a partnership with the Steve & Barry’s clothing chain.
“Unfortunately, they expanded too quickly” after initial success, she said.
Her latest business is a line of shoes for Nordstrom created with George Malkemus, president of Manolo Blahnik USA. Their first products were launched in February, and they have added bags and overcoats and expanded the number of stores where the line is sold.
“I would like it to grow in a smart and prudent way,” she said. “I’ve seen lots of emerging designers grow too quickly and it kills them.”
Asked about her use of social media, Parker said she had resisted using Twitter and other online forums until six or seven months ago, when she sent her first tweet about a documentary series she is producing about the New York City Ballet. She also is a member of that organization’s board of directors.
She said she has an easier relationship with Instagram, which allows users to share photos or videos with their followers, than with Twitter because of the former’s lower potential for vitriol.
Parker, who lives in Manhattan with her husband, son and twin daughters, said she sometimes is nostalgic for the New York of the 1970s despite the financial crisis and crime that the city was experiencing then. “The city used to offer more possibilities. People could come here with a dream and live in Manhattan.”
Today, high rents are making even some of the outer boroughs prohibitive for young artists, she said. “I don’t know how that can be corrected.”
