Saks Inc.

“I just threw my whole spring line in a bag, and I can mix anything with whatever—it&rsq  read more »

On the evening of Monday, Feb.  read more »

CARRIE: I have 309 days left until I slide into my white gown and float down the aisle in front of 200+ guests at the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia. But I don't yet have a white gown.

I am anxious and jumpy. "I was leaning towards this Reem Acra dress," I say to anyone who will listen, "but you know what? I'm not sure I'm an embellishment kind of bride. Maybe I should focus on lace? What about ivory vs. white? Saks only had this one dress in a soft white. What exactly is soft white?"  read more »

I have always been a "grass is greener" person. I have buyer's remorse. Recently I've been waking up in the early morning and sneaking off to the computer for just one more peek at a fabulous Ines Di Santo gown that I had loved the day before. Nah, I think, that's not the one.

At 10 a.m.  read more »

At 10 a.m.  read more »

Confront your holiday bloat! Do it now!  read more »

Confront your holiday bloat! Do it now!  read more »

AIMEE: "Eees byooteeful!" says the sweet little seamstress in the Saks bridal department in Virginia, clapping her hands. Once I'm zipped and hooked and facing the mirror, there's a knock at the door and my entourage floods in: mom, dad, my Aunt Anita, my cousin Renie and Karina, the woman who runs the bridal department. "Gorgeous!"

"Beautiful!"

"So elegant!"

"It's so you!"  read more »

"Now I show you bustle!" the seamstress says with a mischievous glimmer in her eye, flipping the train of the dress up over my head and launching into a whole explanation as she ties up a slew of hidden ribbons and does the kind of intricate work that makes it seem like she might be dismantling a bomb back there. Once all the layers are properly tied up, tiered and pouffed to a level of perfection few could imagine, Karina instructs me: "Now walk!" I do my best little strut but this thing is heavy, and I'm still a little worried I'll lose the top. "No! Walk normally! That's not normal! And you look like you're about to fall down!"

Jan. 27, 2006 6:10 p.m. 11 pounds Lenox Hill Hospital    read more »

Jan. 27, 20066:10 p.m.

11 pounds  read more »

Lenox Hill Hospital

AIMEE: "Beautiful! Elegant! We'll ghjkflshgkhkhgjkfsd and hgfsdhlkh and BOOBIES and fhkdsahhjkl," the sweet little seamstress with the accent says to me, poking and prodding and pinning my dress all around me. I am trying very hard, but quite honestly, "boobies" really IS the only word I can make sense of and, incidentally, mine are just not voluminous enough to hold up this dress.

My fitting room at the Saks in Virginia is a zoo: my parents are smiling and so happy and my sister is taking pictures with my camera (for this blog...and you're welcome) and my bridesmaid Jen L. from Florida is also scooting around taking pictures (and wait a second, why is MY camera not working? My sis is struggling with it and now she's showing it to my dad who can't figure it out either and they're giving me that "Don't upset the bride" look while my mom distracts me by telling me how good I look, which works) and the seamstress is running around and what's she saying? And now my sister's bringing me the camera and I'm trying to figure it out. And where's the woman who sold me the dress, the one I adore who might be able to tell me why it's so loose on top? And now I'm sweating. NO! Don't sweat, this is YOUR dress now!

This is so not what I expected to feel when I put on my satin Elizabeth Fillmore gown (style name: "Diva," I kid you not) for the first time. My friend Jennie had told me of the tears she shed when she tried on her gown at her first fitting. I'm a major crier, so I figured I would be trying and failing to hold back torrents of joyous tears. Instead, I'm feeling kind of manic, but, you know, maybe that's better than the tears. Apples and oranges.

First thing's first: I love the dress. LOVE it. But now that it's mine, this thing needs to fit exactly right so...

"I know you've been doing this a lot longer than me, but just to doublecheck," I say sweetly, "this will eventually stay up and fit flush against me, right?" I look down and--pardon me for getting personal--but with these cups I've got in to amp me up and fill the thing out, there is now a gap between my chest and the dress big enough for me to hold a drink in there during the cocktail hour.

Jen, ever the shy one, translates: "She doesn't want her BOOBS"--she pats her chest--"flying OUT"--she opens her hands as if to signify cups that have runneth over. Granted, I don't have much to runneth over, but still, I mean, I have to be able to move, you know? Brian and I have ambitious plans for a little "Dancing with the Stars"-esque number to a Barry White tune.

"Don't worry, here's what I do, I ghfjdsklhlk hfjklshk...." a long explanation ensues, and then, at last, comes what I need to hear. "Don't worry, will be perfect!"  read more »

A rhetorical question: Is it possible for us in the media to report on gentrification without either cheerleading or, worse (though we’ll be more readily accused of this), coming off as the reverse-snob snobs that want everyone else to leave Williamsburg except for us and our friends? Witness The Times thanking Jehovah Wednesday for getting rid of the “airline ticket offices, fast-food outlets, stores selling faux antiques and cheesy souvenir shops” along Fifth Avenue and bringing instead Best Buy! No offense to the perceptive staff at Square Feet, but isn’t it a value judgment to declare that as a result of this retail change, the stretch between 42nd Street and Saks “seems to be perking up”? And since when does a neighborhood achieve self-actualization only when a lot of restaurants open up? The headline for the December Times profile on Prospect Heights— “A Neighborhood Comes Into Its Own”—was paradoxical because of how many elements that the article celebrated about ProHo have been around for decades, if not centuries: the Brooklyn Museum, Prospect Park and Tom’s Restaurant.

On the other had, we don’t really have anything against real estate hype. It is good for the economy--particularly our economy.

-Matthew Schuerman

Nicole Miller thinks about mortality as she gets her hair did by Heidi Klum's ex Rick Pipino, just before her show begins. The creepy-yet-hot Canadian designing duo of Dean and Dan Caten sandwich Katie Holmes-dumpee Chris Klein at the party for the reopening of Saks mens' floor. Off the courts but still super-jazzed, Venus Williams takes in the James Perse store opening down on Bleecker Street. Kenneth Cole begins the official tent shows at 10 a.m. today. The Transom is not quite sure it cares.  read more »

The first in a series of what will surely become a regular feature. Ladies and gentlemen, a peek inside office life with Mr. Tom Scocca, the New York Observer's Off The Record columnist. At right: Mr. Scocca's desk, in a photograph taken just now, while he was in a meeting. MediaTom: Did you read Thursday Styles? TheTransom: Ooo, I forgot! So exciting! I love Thursdays! MediaTom: So far there are two amazing things, of which I've read only one. The one I haven't read yet is "She's So Cool, So Smart, So Beautiful: Must Be A Girl Crush." TheTransom: Jeudsadfo4wljsesuwhst MediaTom: (Coming soon: Out for Drinks With Two Buddies: The Asexual Menage A Trois.) TheTransom: Totally. Hot. MediaTom: ANY INTERACTION BETWEEN TWO OR MORE PEOPLE RESEMBLES ANY SEXUAL INTERACTION BETWEEN TWO OR MORE PEOPLE ONLY WITHOUT THE SEX PART. TheTransom: My God. It's endless. Apparently ‘man dates' was just a warning shot. MediaTom: The one story that I did read was: The Lamb on the Runway: Will customers still love astrakhan when they learn where this fur comes from? MediaTom: Because, see, it comes from NEWBORN -- OR EVEN UNBORN -- LAMBS! MediaTom: UNBORN BABY LAMBS!!!!!!!! MediaTom: And they run around failing to find any outrage over this. TheTransom: That is truly awesome. MediaTom: Maybe people will become outraged if they learn. Because they seem to be confusing PETA with Operation Rescue. TheTransom: Does PETA still exist? Is it just Pam Anderson and her assistant now? MediaTom: Check it out: "That's just a little too much," said the designer Carmen Marc Valvo, explaining why he draws the line at using fetal lambs, although he has designed a $10,000 riding coat for Saks made of swakara, a trade name for karakul farmed in Namibia. "I have no problem working with furs," he said, "but the furs we use are baby lambs that are also raised for food. It's not like the indiscriminate killing of animals." MediaTom: Then: MediaTom: Mr. Valvo's recognition of a moral distinction between types of astrakhan is atypical in the fashion industry. Most designers working with the fur expressed no compunction about using the skins of unborn lambs or those a few days old, if indeed they understand the fur's exact origins. MediaTom: WHAT THE FUCK?  read more »

When faced, at the movies, with obnoxious fellow audience members who are talking or kicking the bac  read more »

When faced, at the movies, with obnoxious fellow audience members who are talking or kicking the bac  read more »

Wednesday 1st Farewell, summer, iced skim lattes and R.N.C.  read more »

Lunch was flawless.  read more »

Confront your holiday bloat! Do it now!  read more »

All joking aside, I have to say I'm mad about stocking-stuffers!If I had my way, there would be no r  read more »

Hanukkah was once a minor holiday, a playful reminder of miracles that cast a warming light against  read more »

On Thursday, Sept.  read more »

Something is stirring in the depths of the Fashion Jungle. It's me.  read more »

No one ever thought ofGerard Manley Hopkins as being a with-it kind of guy.  read more »

I don't wear makeup.Not in that sexy, Julianne-Moore-profiled-in- Jane kind of way, where she arrive  read more »

When Gus Christensen was an undergraduate at Yale in the early 90's, his gut was so big that his fri  read more »

Ladies who lunch a little too often-the size-16 smartset-are enjoying a fashion revolution these day  read more »

My New Year's Resolutions: Be Vapid, Exfoliate, FlirtYou're nothing but a self-flagellant and a Puri  read more »

Fleshy, fashionable New Yorkers are seething.Stylish plus-size girls, like biographer Meredith Ether  read more »

I have always clung to the belief that "shrimping," i.e., toe-sucking, though not the most revolting  read more »

My mum was born in northern Ireland in 1918 (the year that British women over 30 got the vote) with  read more »

It was pouring, and two pretty young Brazilian women in furs stepped forward eagerly as we alighted  read more »

Dear Diary:April 26: C'est moi, c'est moi , Phyllis Stine. Sorry I haven't written lately.  read more »

Petite retailer Jeffrey Kalinsky stuck an Hermès dingo boot out of his lady-chauffeured Lincoln Tow  read more »

With the distinctive click-click of fashionland's highest heels, Anna Wintour had left the building.  read more »