Nicholas Boston

And we’re not talkin’ strollers in Park Slope! Doppelgängers—stylized, creepy, vacant-eyed—are dominating fashion iconography this fall. Stylist Phillip Bloch thinks it’s pure narcissism.  read more »

Is it just us, or does the fact that jeans company Levi Strauss & Co has commissioned Damien Hirst to design a few pieces for the spring season smack a bit of desperation?

Whatever, last Saturday evening, after the show at Gagosian gallery, which represents Mr. Hirst, nice Levi designer Adrian Nyman told us about the genesis of the collaboration, which took about four months.

"I had done a collection that Damien had bought at the Barneys department store that he really liked," he said. "So, he contacted me because he wanted to have more of the range"—Britspeak for line—"and through there we just struck up a rapport and I said, 'Would you like to do something?' I had this idea of Warhol with the new Warhol—you know, Damien has taken that torch. So, that was kind of the nexus that we jumped off from. And Damien created all this artwork just for the fashion show, so on many levels it was a great experience."

The resulting apparel: a pair of jeans, a mini skirt and a "Classic Trucker," all done in a rainbow striped pattern.

Also at the Baby Phat show on Friday Night: age-defying Dame Bethann Hardison–African American model from the 1960s, founder of her own pioneering modeling agency, Iman collaborator and confidante, and mother of actor Kadeem Hardison–was a veritable celebrity magnet.

Ms. Hardison, clad in a bare-shouldered summer print dress, was her usual outspoken self.

"I'm doing a forum next week to discuss the lack of the black image in fashion," she said.  read more »

Some of Diana Ross's beautiful progeny showed up at the Baby Phat show at the Roseland Ballroom on Friday. In fact, Evan Ross, 19, and his sister, Chudney Silberstein, 31, were early arrivals."We've been to a few parties," declared Mr. Ross, who said he's looking forward to an upcoming Roberto Cavalli event. "It's my favorite town to party in. I'm not leaving New York for a minute."

A budding actor, he recently won widespread acclaim for his role as an IV-positive, gay teenager in the HBO special, Life Support, opposite Queen Latifah.  read more »

Last night, photographer Jessica Craig-Martin opened her show, "American Summer," which pays homage to the Hamptons benefit circuit, at the Greenberg Van Doren Gallery on Fifth Avenue.

here was visual documentation of lots of labels and footwear, air-kissing and cosmopolitans—drinks, not people.

Ms. Craig-Martin, who shoots for Vogue and Purple (not People!) and has worked on ad campaigns for Tracey Reese and Kate Spade, among others, welcomed an eclectic group of well-wishers, including novelist A.M. Homes, Sotheby's auctioneer Tobias Meyer and curator Clarissa Dalrymple.

The photographer is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts, and her department chair, Stephen Frailey, looking Hampton-tanned himself, also showed up. "I love that—he Brooks Brothers and the little pig in the blanket,” he said, pointing to one of the pictures.

"Yup," Ms. Craig-Martin said. "In the Hamptons, even the wieners are Brooks Brothers."

On Wednesday night, Tommy Hilfiger and Condé Nast threw a party at the Museum of Modern Art, to celebrate the designer's new book, Iconic America: A Roller Coaster Ride Through The Eye-Popping Panorama of American Pop Culture (written in collaboration with master adman George Lois, the creative force behind Esquire magazine in its heyday).

"You look at everyone from Martin Luther King to Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe—both alive and not alive—Mickey Mouse, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mickey Mantle," said Mr. Hilfiger, who arrived with his beautiful girlfriend of a year and a half, Dee Ocleppo. "You look at everyone from, maybe Jackson Pollack, to …" He paused.  read more »

In the 1990s, galleries moved in droves from SoHo to Chelsea, following the Dia Center. Now, the same process is happening on the Lower East Side—only this time the New Museum of Contemporary Art is the draw. A walking tour of the new landscape.  read more »

No fewer than 20 Arden Wohl-esque headbands were spotted at the Whitney Museum’s Art Party on Wednesday, June 6.  The evening’s dress code was, after all, “hippie chic,” in honor of the museum’s current exhibition, “Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era.”

Socialite Genevieve Jones looked beautiful in her daisy headband.  Man about town Paul Johnson-Calderon chose a red one (with a matching sash around his waist). to accessorize his tuxedo. The artist duo Andrew Andrew, who dress as twins à la Gilbert-and-George and Viktor-and-Rolf, sported matching ones.  “We bought them in a Japanese supermarket in Hawaii,” they boasted. 

Top model Agnyess Deyn was a standout in her canary-yellow mini-dress by London label Preen.  The Manchester, England, native recently moved to New York.  “I’m still in my honeymoon period with the city,” she said with a smile.

The actress Rosario Dawson, stunning in Max Azria (the design label sponsored the event), said she’s looking forward to Fourth of July Weekend in the Hamptons, where her buddies are throwing a big bash.  Last summer in the Hamptons, The Transom kicked it with Ms. Dawson and her madcap moms, Isabel.  This year, she said, she feels a bit out of it.  “Oh, I don’t even know all the parties,” she said.  “No one ever tells me, I’m never invited anywhere, you know that!”

But attention comic book fanatics: Ms. Dawson is the prototype for a crime-fighting heroine in a comic book named O.C.T.: Occult Crimes Taskforce.  The trade paperback of the first four issues is coming out June 13, and shortly thereafter Ms. Dawson hits the road on a book tour. Whee!

Conspicuously absent from the crowd were the art-world power brokers--curators, critics, gallerists and the like – most of whom are jetting their way to Europe and the month-long jamboree of big exhibitions there.  “There’s only a handful left,” said Whitney director Adam Weinberg of the art gang.  But, no worries, the poor artists themselves are still here, he said. Oh, phew.

Luba Azria, wife of Max, was introduced to Walis Singh Ahluwalia, the jewelry designer.  Ms. Azria, perhaps inspired by Mr. Singh Ahluwalia’s turban, decided to inform him that she’d once attended a great Eastern-meditation camp, of sorts.  “It was a totally amazing experience. It changed my life,” she said.  Mr. Singh Ahluwalia blinked and nodded blankly.

“I’m building a big, beautiful house for all my friends, brick by brick,” he later said about his gem company, House of Waris. 

At last year’s party, Moby told The Transom that he’d washed his hands of the whole affair (“I’m bored,” he’d said.)  This year, he didn’t wash his hands after peeing.  The head-shorn musician turned from the men’s room urinals and headed straight for the door.  “What I love about this party in particular is it’s this odd combination of socialites and degenerate artists,” he said.  “And they sort of rub off on each other.”

In the wake of the Don Imus “nappy-headed hos” scandal, fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger wants to get something straight.

“There’s a rumor about me being a racist,” Mr.  read more »

A new brand of big glossy is spreading through downtown. But is anybody actually reading it?  read more »