How Cynthia Rowley, Fashion Designer, Spends Her Sundays

To judge from the society pages, the fashion designer Cynthia Rowley and her husband, Bill Powers, seem to be out on the town six days a week. But on the seventh day, the couple downshifts (slightly) into the rhythms of family life. Which is to say, “We do extreme activities,” said Ms. Rowley, 57, for whom family means her husband, a 48-year-old writer and art dealer, and two school-age daughters, Kit and Gigi. If your idea of unwinding is racing go-karts or singing Iggy Pop songs, then let them be your relaxation counselors. If not, try to hang on until the rocket returns to home base, a house in the West Village.

RARING TO GO I wake up like I’m shot out of a cannon. It depends on Saturday night, but I wake up between 7:30 and 8:30.

SURF’S UP I make coffee and then try to do a workout with my kids. There’s not a lot of places that will allow all ages. We like SurfSet, which is a workout with stationary surf boards that are mounted on rubber balls, and they play surf videos.

EXTREME EDIBLES It’s fun to make breakfast together in the morning. We go between very healthy and very not healthy. This Sunday we’re making avocado and crunchy bread with a little lemon and some shaved radishes, and also we might take Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts and put them in the waffle iron and make them into doughnut waffles. I need a good name for that.

HIGH-OCTANE We also do a go-crazy, goofing around all day. We jump rope or play cops and robbers. All of us might go to a racecar place calledPole Position in New Jersey. It’s like a go-kart thing. I think it goes about 40 miles an hour. Is that possible?

photo: http://www.graziaaustralia.com/plus-size-formal-dresses

IF THERE’S SNOW Or sledding in Central Park. We have sleds at the ready down in our basement. We have a lot of Flying Saucers, but the best kind are those inflatable inner tube ones. Those go so fast.

ART SPIES The Whitney has a lot of workshops and studio classes for kids. We never miss a show there. We go early on Sunday, and it’s not crowded yet. But I don’t mind a little bit of a crowd. That’s a good people-watching place. Overhearing people’s conversations about art; that’s always entertaining.

THE B WORD Lunch is a little more on the fly. I really detest brunch. I think it’s a waste of a good day. Detest is a little too severe, but I would say I’m not a brunch person. That just takes so much time, when you could be doing something really fun.

ERRANDS I might go grocery shopping or go see my female ironworker,Marsha Trattner. Is that the right word? She’s making a railing for our house that’s also a slide. She teaches at SVA but also has a workshop in Red Hook that makes cool stuff. The railing is sort of like an art piece for our house.

HOME BASS I have my bass lesson every Sunday at five o’clock. I use that term loosely. I’m learning. We have the all-girl band. Gigi plays guitar, Kit plays drums and I play bass. They are never more embarrassed than if somebody they know comes over.

DISH DESIGN I like to cook, either just for us or for friends. They make fun of me because I try to invent my own stuff. They say, “Why can’t you just make a plain old baked potato?” I think cooking has the same creative process as designing, where you have the ingredients, you have the alchemy part of it and you have the satisfaction of seeing your creation become a reality.

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC After dinner we might play a little music. Bill has a very good singing voice. We’ve done Iggy Pop, “The Passenger”; Rolling Stones, “Little T&A.”

ADULTS ONLY Bedtime for the girls is around 10. Then Bill and I stay up late so we can have our grown-up time. We get to hang out and talk or maybe watch something a little more R-rated. Maybe till 12:30 or 1.

RECOVER When I get ready to go to sleep I’m out cold, like frying-pan-over-the-head. But then I don’t sleep very long. Somebody told me it’s like I just recharge my batteries, plug in for a few hours and then go again.

see more: http://www.graziaaustralia.com/semi-formal-dresses-au