Another Madison Avenue Working Stiff

I’ve been working at a magazine for the past few weeks and today my first issue came from the printers. The magazine is called Quest and is basically New York’s last Society magazine — capital S. We cover the Upper East Side/Hamptons/Greenwich/Palm Beach crowd.

They were closing the November issue when I started and I was thrown a few last-minute stories to bang out, including a piece on the latest book by Nicholas Foulkes, my comrade at The Rake, on the most legendary costume balls of the 20th century. I also got to do an advertorial for The Plaza Hotel which was kind of fun, and copy edit Taki.

We’re still figuring out my role, which will likely be a combination of editorial and marketing duties. One of the things I need to do is revamp the website and start blogging daily. New Yorkers are encouraged to follow me and the crew at Questmag.com. You can also follow us on Twitter, where some of our tweets will be penned by Robert I. Brown, the teenage blogger I wrote about a couple of years ago, who moved to New York last month and is interning at the magazine while studying fashion merchandising.

And of course if you’d like to subscribe, send an e-mail to subscriptions@questmag.com.

Quest occupies a penthouse office strewn with oriental rugs and sailing paraphernalia. My office features an old wooden desk. I haven’t asked yet if I can smoke my pipe.

There are some interesting coincidences with the magazine. First off, they interviewed me some five years ago for a story on dandyism when I was living in California. And friend Bruce Boyer has scribed for Quest in the past.

But most coincidental is the office’s location: Madison Avenue at 48th Street, which is just one block from J. Press and four blocks from the historic Ivy intersection of 44th and Madison, where Chipp and Press were once located across from Brooks Brothers.

Speaking of the brethren, my golf game should stay sharp through the long winter since I can hit on the simulator every day at lunchtime.

I still plan to continue Ivy Style — at least until my four-year graduation day — and hope the site doesn’t suffer too much from neglect or misplaced commas. And with any luck I’ll come across some interesting fodder for the site. — CHRISTIAN CHENSVOLD