Serving The Ridiculously Rich

 

Olivia Ferney - Western, BMOS'22 Grad
  I wrote recently about Nadeen Ayoub, Miss Palestine, who may become Miss Universe, because she is in the news and Western University is mentioned (see, Miss Universe.) Another Western woman is in the "breaking news" and here are some of the stories in case you missed them. 
   The rather fetching Ms. Ferney is now in Miami working for Top Tier Travel, where she cares for the needs of very wealthy people who are used to having them met. Some of the requests are extremely extravagant and outlandish, but apparently requestors don't mind that they are exposed on, travelwithlivii, Olivia Ferney's Instagram account. Click on that link to learn more, or have a look at the articles below, where some of the more egregious examples of the demands of the rich and famous are provided.
    I will begin with the interview in The Times (the one in London, the other London) from which the illustration above is taken. It is from an article done by Paula Froelich on July 18 and it does not appear to be behind The TIme's rather high paywall, so read it at the link just provided. Other, rather lower-tiered British papers also offered stories including examples of the type of demands Ms. Ferney deals with daily. See, for example:
"Meet the Luxury Travel ‘fixer’ Whose Calls with Demanding Mega-rich Clients Have Made Her a Social Media Star," The Independent, Aug. 10, 2025.
  "Olivia Ferney has fast become one of the world's most sought-after luxury travel organizers, with Instagram videos of her staying cool in the face of absurd requests from ultra-high-net-worth clients earning her nearly 300,000 followers. She revealed her clients’ wildest demands to US Travel Editor Ted Thornhill." 

   On this side of the Atlantic, The New York Times has this story and I had to look up the sports car mentioned, since it has never been mentioned by anyone in my rather pedestrian group of friends: "They’re Rich, They Travel and They Love to Complain: A Birkin Bag Overnighted to Capri. A Pink Brabus Sports car for a Gen Z Birthday Party. Olivia Ferney, a Travel Agent to the Ultrawealthy, Has Heard it all," Guy Trebay, Aug. 21, 2025. Here are some examples from behind the NYT wall:

   “We work with many billionaires and hundred-millionaires,” Ms. Ferney said, referring to her employer, Top Tier Travel. “The main word I use is ‘particular.’ Rich people like very particular things.”
   Just how particular? There was the client who authorized $100,000 charged to his credit card for his daughter’s vacation, provided she agree not to contact him. Another client demanded a last-minute doctor’s consult before boarding a private jet, fearful that her new breast implants might rupture.
   And then there was the woman who insisted on being extracted from a charter boat when rough seas prevented her from reaching a Greek party island. She complained that the waves were not even that high, adding that the captain was no longer speaking to her....
   Raised in Dundas, Ontario, population 20,000, Ms. Ferney grew up in a middle-class family that was as incredulous as her online fans were about the stories she posted.
   After attending the University of Western Ontario, she lit out for Miami, where she met Troy Arnold, the founder of Top Tier Travel. She joined the company as a fixer for those who pay $2,500 to $8,500 a month for above-and-beyond services.
   And what are those services? A custom pink Brabus 800 for a 22-year-old’s birthday party. Spring water shipped to a Caribbean island for a client annoyed that shampooing with the local tap water gave her an itchy scalp. A $75,000 Shadow Birkin from Hermes overnighted to Capri, Italy."

   We shouldn't feel too badly for Ms. Ferney since she has to travel to the top tier places and, as the article indicates, "Her therapeutic neutrality in the face of outlandish behavior may be rooted in the fact that she takes many of her calls poolside."
   If you would like to listen to more information about Ms. Ferney, she can be heard on the CBC where she was interviewed on "Afternoon Drive", with Matt Allen on Aug. 26 - "Dundas Woman Who Serves Ultra-wealthy Shares Stories of Clients in Viral Videos." 

   If you would like to take a vacation of this type and talk to Ms. Ferney, here is the website of Top Tier Travel.

The Pretty Work of Mary Petty

    

   The New Yorker has been celebrating its centenary year for most of this year and the single issue for Sept. 1&8 comes with two covers. Inside there is a short piece about Mary Petty who "contributed a series of thirty-eight vividly colored, magnificently detailed, and flawlessly composed covers, which, at least in this New Yorker cover artist's opinion, have never been surpassed in their complexity, their richness, and, most of all, their humanity." The author adds, "they're brilliant watercolors of exquisite construction, set pieces with the charm and detail of a doll's house." Petty also published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker.
   The author of the article about Perry and the covers she produced notes in the first sentence that "In the pantheon of New Yorker artists, the name Mary Petty hardly registers." Given that she is relatively unknown and given the beauty of her work (which should not be judged by my poor photo above), I thought it worth calling your attention to her.
   During almost 40 years as a contributor to the magazine, she produced 273 drawings and 38 pen-and-watercolor covers. A collection of her drawings is found in This Pretty Pace which, a reviewer notes, we should all have a look at if we are interested in "sheer perfection." The book also includes an essay by James Thurber, "Mary Petty and Her Drawings" and on the dust jacket, she is compared to Hogarth and Daumier. Harold Ross, The New Yorker publisher gave her cartoons his highest rating of "AAA" one "A" more than the cartoons of Thurber.
   Apart from producing covers and cartoons, she also provided illustrations for books by others. Her last cover for The New Yorker was on Mother's Day, May 19,1966. It is the one on the bottom right above and if the image was better you would see an older woman in an elegant room pulling a cord which breaks. 
   Apparently Petty quit abruptly when two of her cover submissions were rejected. She had lived a rather reclusive life with her husband, Alan Dunn, who also was a New Yorker cartoonist. It ended tragically. 
   "In early December, 1971 she disappeared, and was found by Dunn in a hospital, having been badly beaten in a violent assault. Permanently brain-damaged, she lived the remainder of her life in a nursing home, dying five years after the attack, alone." 

Sources: 
   I can assure you that a search for her art work is worth the effort. The article referred to above is: "The Mysterious Cover Artist Who Captured the Decline of the Rich: Mary Petty was Reclusive, Uncompromising, but She Peered into a Fading World With Unmatched Warmth and Brilliance, Chris Ware, The New Yorker, Aug. 25, 2025.
  The Wikipedia entry is helpful as usual. In it there is mention of the fact that she was assaulted, but I did not find any evidence of it in the New York papers. The American National Biography entry does provide additional information: 
  "Petty's career was tragically cut short when on 1 December 1971 she was assaulted and badly beaten by a mugger. She was found on Ward's Island three days afterward, bruised and incoherent, and never wholly recovered. She died five years later at the Pine Rest Nursing Home in Paramus, New Jersey."
  The book review of This Pretty Pace is here: "The Art of Mary Petty", Russell Maloney, NYT, Nov. 11, 1945. Her obituary: "Mary Petty, Cartoonist, Dead; Chided Wealthy in New Yorker," Barbara Campbell, NYT, Mar. 11, 1976,
   A major source is found at Syracuse University. See: "The Alan Dunn and Mary Petty Papers", which provides additional biographical information. 

CANCON: 
 For New Yorker covers by a Canadian see: "Bruce McCall RIP-1935-2023".
 Another Canadian, Barry Blitt, has done some, and here you will find a couple that depict two recent American presidents: "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words." 

Back To Books

    

   To push the post about movies down the page, here is one about books, a frequent subject. The picture below is from a two page advertisement in The New Yorker, Sept. 1&8, 2025. It is typical of many ads these days, in that, for me at least, it is not clear what is being sold. I suppose, however, that more fashionable readers will recognize, right away, that "BRUNELLO CUCINELLI" is not a bookseller, but a purveyor of very expensive apparel. To shop, click here. 

   

   According to the BC website, the marketing campaign behind the books and other of their ads is that: "The images and words that over the years have accompanied our company’s communication are inspired by our philosophy and the ethical values that are most important to us: the principles of Humanistic Capitalism and Human Sustainability, living in harmony with nature and all its creatures, the preservation and transmission of culture, the commitment to always respect human dignity." There is more. 
  You might think that is mere marketing hype, but Mr. Cucinelli, is actually a lover of books. This is what I found in: "A Day In the Life of Brunello Cucinelli," by Lauren McCarthy, in Harper's BAZAAR, Sept. 27, 2016:

"I like to sit on the couch, surrounded by all of my books. I have 5,000 books in my home, 1,000 of which I feel are close to my heart. They have always shown me the way. Books are my great passion; I could not live without them. If I were to pick a couple out of the 1,000, I would choose Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius. That really showed me the way ahead, as has Plato's Symposium, which is a dialogue on love that was written in the fourth century B.C. in Athens. When my older daughter got married, I gave her my 1,000 favorite books, and I've prepared the same thing for my younger daughter. And now I am preparing 1,000 books for my granddaughter."
  The image above also contains this caption: "Books showed me the way of life." Emperor Hadrian. It does not indicate, however, where such an array of books can be found.