PARK Magazine

COVER STORY
Her pal Winston at checkout in the local Tractor Supply
of the mini horses and donkeys she had rescued, so this is a
fresh start. “I have to get settled in. Last year we had a major
ice storm. I want to get through another winter to sort of see
what I need and what I don’t need.” Although a few animals
she rescued from a kill shelter are on the way, and she is building
a barn on the property.
For now, she has two miniature donkeys, Madonna and
Snooks, and one mini horse, Hubert – that are really pets with
which she will never part. She also has an assortment of dogs
and cats, and her 18-year-old African Sulcata tortoise, Socrates.
“This tortoise hated New York so much in the winter. He’d
stick his head out and look at me like, what is wrong with you?
I am an African Sulcata. I am not from the North Pole.”
Raiding Carolina Herrera’s closet, washing ponies
with Oscar de la Renta
Carolina Herrera is a longtime family friend. “I adore her,
she’s so elegant and I always think what, would Carolina say?”
says Guest. She’s a perfectionist with a classic look, and over
time Guest has realized that classic style works best for her
as well. “Carolina’s clothes are always so beautiful. Her closet
is my favorite place to steal clothes from. I will steal whatever
I can get my paws on, and she knows it.”
Oscar de la Renta would visit the Guests on Long Island
often, and take Cornelia’s brother, Alexander, to play miniature
golf. She was much younger, but the late designer would
teach her. She’d wake him up early in the mornings to help
her bathe her pony, Memo. “He’d come back in the house, and
my mother would say, ‘Oscar, where have you been?’ And he’d
say, ‘I was with Cornelia in the barn washing Memo.’” And
while you’re trying to picture that elegant man slopping around
a barn, Guest doesn’t remember if he dressed down, she was
only four or five years old at the time.
Halston
Halston was a neighbor and friend and greatly influenced
Cornelia, teaching her how to walk properly in a dress, with
her shoulders back. “I’ve always had good posture from
riding, but you kind of relax. And he was like, ‘no, no, no,
you never relax.’”
He gave Guest a pair of Elsa Peretti hoop earrings that
she still has. “I wear them all the time, and the simplicity,
yet again. You look at these people that really have stood
the test of time and it’s so beautifully classic. They sort of
stayed in their own lane. This is a lesson in life. When you
find a lane that’s good for you, stay in it.”
She also notes that the late designer was ahead of his
time, utilizing cruelty-free Ultrasuede fabric back in the
1970s. When Guest launched a bag line, she also used Ultrasuede.
Halston didn’t use the synthetic fabric to avoid animal
cruelty, it was so that women could throw a dress in the
wash and shake it out and it was ready. “But think of the
maverick that Halston was. None of these people could have
done what they’re doing today without him because he
really paved the way.”
Studio 54
As for Halston’s substance abuse problems which were
documented in the recent TV miniseries, Halston on Netflix,
Guest was unaware. “I was so young. I was so protected.
People always say to me didn’t you see this at Studio 54?
Well, I think I was probably the best-protected person in
New York between Halston and Steve Rubell, no one ever hit
on me, no one ever offered me a drug. So, I was very protected
in this crazy world. I really never saw what was going on
upstairs. I never saw any of that, and so I had such a different
perspective of it than everybody else.”