Ever since Vanderbilts and Rockefellers took to Palm Beach in the late 1800s—and on through the charity-ball era White House years; the Lilly Pulitzer shift; and a series of scandals—it's been about money, money, and more money. VFArchive
Last year Palm Beach County, which extends from Jupiter in the north to Boca Raton in the south and as far west as Lake Okeechobee, zoomed ahead of Las Vegas as the fastest-growing spot in America. The population of the county now exceeds 1.5 million, and once decrepit downtown West Palm Beach has become the commercial and cultural heart of this metropolis in the making.
"This was jungle last year," says fashion photographer Kelly Klein, the wife of the designer Calvin Klein, standing outside the bam where she keeps her horses."Wellington has gotten more and more developed, and it's not just polo people or hunter-jumper people. Dressage people just bought a farm across the street." Her partner in the horse business, Stormy Byorum, a New York investment adviser, adds,"This land used to go for $1,000 an acre.
Pitt's mother's family, the Munns of Philadelphia's Main Line, have been coming to Palm Beach since the 20s. Her maternal grandparents, Charles and Mary Munn, were known for their annual Christmas card, which included a list of the telephone numbers of the 300 winter residents considered to be the right people."The idea was, these were the only people you would want to see if you came to Palm Beach," says one insider.
Back in town, Renato's and Bice are packed with"ladies wearing $7,000 Chanel suits and $500,000 worth of daytime jewelry," in the words of one observer. Over at the B&T, the lunchtime uniform is more casual."The women are all dressed the same, and it's the same style as 20 years ago," says a European visitor."They all wear white slacks with a white T-shirt—or lime green or shocking pink.
As always, however, it's the little lunches and dinners for eight at the right private houses that matter. At Pauline Pitt's one afternoon last winter, Denise Hale, Kate Ford, and Jane Dudley were rehashing the visit of the late Princess Margaret's furniture-designer son, Viscount David Linley. He and his wife, Serena, had been the houseguests ofLars Bolander and his wife, Nadine Kalachnikoff.
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