Beautiful People 2007: Jennifer Rubell

You could call Jennifer Rubell America's most beautiful vintner, but you wouldn't be able to stop there. "Winemaker" is only the latest in Rubell's long parade of titles, which includes hostess, columnist, hotelier, philanthropist, mother and art collector. Confronted with the breadth of her accomplishments, she becomes demure. "I feel like I'm really lazy," she says, laughing. "I always feel like I have to prove that I do something in the world." And so she has, even long before reaching the legal drinking age. Rubell -- the niece of legendary Studio 54 owner Steve Rubell and daughter of the art collectors Donald and Mera Rubell -- was entertaining Halston and Liza at 7, sharing the after-party limelight with Keith Haring and Basquiat in her teens and managing hotels upon graduating from Harvard. She shows no sign of slowing. Now a new mother, Rubell is reinventing the domestic goddess as a demimondaine -- less Betty Crocker, more Mary Boone. "The thing that artists taught me is to invent a life in any circumstance and any way, and have it fit who you are," she says. "I think I owe so huge a debt to artists that it's almost embarrassing -- it feels like theft to me. I'm taking that way of life and sharing it with people. I think the way artists live is a great example to everyone. It's more about creating something new that suits who you are than trying to adhere to some ideal of a perfect family, a perfect meal." Rubell recently signed on as spokeswoman for Absolut Vodka's Absolut Pair campaign, for which she has authored a book of recipes to go with your aperitif. Her own vintage is now available for the artfully inclined people in Manhattan and Miami and, one might think, would not have been out of place at Studio 54. So if life gives you roses, make your own rosé.
Matthew Schneier

Jennifer wears jeans by Stella McCartney, blouse by Piazza Sempione. Fragrance: Betsey Johnson.

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