Meet a CSGer: Annetta
Annetta, or Anneditor, as she is lovingly known around the halls of CSG contains multitudes. Chat at her for long enough and you might learn any number of incredible anecdotes or pick up indispensable wisdom — for instance, if you move to a new city, you must buy an incredible jacket to set the tone for your time there. This month, she shares a few morsels with the world.
NSFW
I’ll confess I struggled to write this because some of my favorite life stories are a bit NSFW. So herewith is the Annedited version. But buy me a cup of coffee next time I’m in Denver and I’ll be happy to spill the tea on who I met in the Gramercy Hotel lobby, where Patti Smith really hung out, and what happened at that crazy Grateful Dead concert. (Plus, see below for a gift with purchase!)
The Start: My Parents Grow Up
My dad was a painter and charter boat captain in the Virgin Islands when he met my mom, who was a Balanchine ballet dancer in NYC. They decided to get normal and get married, and my dad joined the government. My family ended up in France for seven years, where we lived in big old houses in Poitiers, Orleans and Verdun. I learned to read and write in French schools and studied nos ancêtres les Gaulois.
Seoul Sister
Next up, seven years in South Korea! There, I attended a convent school. I adored the sisters and decided to become a nun when I grew up. And since I was ambitious, I decided to aim for the sky and become a saint. (What happened to that career goal? Well, to paraphrase Mae West, we start off pure as the driven snow, then we drift.)
Pictured: Unfinished portrait by my dad
Walk on the Wild Side
Let me tell you, the U.S. of A. came as quite a culture shock. I finished high school in Virginia, attended UVa (wahoo wah) and fled to NYC as soon as I could. There I lived in the East Village and on the Lower East Side when they were high points for low lifes. I was a housecleaner, a (semi) competitive ballroom dancer, a graduate student at NYU and Paris Sciences Po, the editorial director of JCrew (true story), a solo traveler, the editor-in-chief of ID magazine, a waitress on St. Marks, and Martha Stewart’s book editor at Random House. I loved making books and published hundreds of art and design books, artists’ bios and lifestyle books. My favorites were the ones I fashioned from my own obsessions.
Pictured: In Venice, with a glass of prosecco (top), Sold 100K copies and helped my author buy her co-op! (bottom)
Trivia
I’ve been the Three Graces all my life. Anne means ‘grace.’ Annetta is an Italian version of Anne and Hanna is the Hebrew version of Anne. My middle name? Grace. So yeah, Grace Grace Grace. I don’t think my parents planned this out, so it’s just weird.
The Loves of My Life
I tend to think of places as relationships, so Paris is the one that got away, China is the stranger that changed my life (Hi, Ella and Tessa!), Venice is my one and only, and New York is the long, solid marriage. It’s true, I’m a Jersey girl now but I still subscribe to The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal and WNYC. Just for variety’s sake, I also get The Atlantic. (And here’s the deal: I promise to bring a dozen of New Yawk’s finest bagels to any CSGer who subscribes to one of my darlings.)
I could say, what a long, strange trip it’s been. But to double the musical cliches, I’ll say the best is yet to come. Ciao, a tout à l'heure, annyeong, and catch youse guys later.
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