You may want to sit down for this one: Michael Shvo, titan of Manhattan luxury marketing, wants you to pick his firm's new tagline.

Curbed reports that Mr. Shvo will give $10,000 to the lucky Svengali who picks the successor for Shvo's current "Exclusive Sales & Marketing" tagline. The Observer confirmed with Curbed on Friday that this was, indeed, a real competition and not a joke. Mr. Shvo, as The Observer noted earlier this month, is renowned for over-the-top marketing and for a reputation that inspires both awe and loathing in his competitors and compatriots.  read more »

Sorry, evening wear: you've just been trampled by an onslaught of designer pumps!

The extended footwear selection, set to debut in August, will be sooo huge that it will have its own zip code, 10022-SHOE -- "the first floor to be granted its own designated zip code by the United States Post Office," according to a press release; yet a Saks spokesperson admitted that it might not be the biggest shoe floor in the city.  read more »

The Observer reported last week that an apartment in the Plaza Hotel had sold for at least $50 million.

Well, The Times reports this morning that an apartment did, indeed, sell at the Plaza for at least $50 million--for $56 million to be exact.

But, here's the problem, as The Times' Josh Barbanel notes:

Last week, the online edition of The New York Observer reported a sale at the Plaza in excess of $50 million, but brokers familiar with the building could not confirm whether that report referred to the same sale or a second sale in the same price range.

So, we have, then, either one apartment for at least $50 million--or two separate apartments for at least $50 million. One or the other, or both, would, individually, represent the most expensive single-apartment purchase by far in New York City history. Confused? Anxious?

It's understandable. What's not so much is why the Plaza's handlers--including Stribling & Associates, the icon's exclusive sales agent--won't share details of what are already deals (or a deal) in contract. Why the modesty? Why not bask in a glow so bright as to eclipse even a red-hot residential real-estate market?

Stay tuned...

According to deeds filed this afternoon in city records, the seller is photographer and sociologist Flavia Robinson.  read more »