Dolce & Gabbana SpA

In Milan, where fashion week is currently underway, Giorgio Armani recently decided to ban Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn from his show, which took place last night. Aside from the 73-year-old designer’s apparent displeasure with Mr. Horyn’s write up of events preceding the show (and, perhaps, an unflattering comment she made about one of his trousers last year), the real reason for his decision has been a matter of speculation. Filing a dispatch from the northern Italian city, The Daily has just provided additional details and developments concerning the exile.  read more »

Italian fashion designers Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce have had a riotous weekend in New York. The two men have come to the city to reopen their D&G boutique on Madison Avenue, but they’ve also made plenty of time for partying at The Box, Bobo, Socialista and the Beatrice Inn. Speaking to WWD at a celebratory luncheon, Mr. Gabbana said that New York nightlife these days feels “more European, smaller and more intimate. It’s like Europe. But it’s still totally different.” Okay! Other guests at the midday fete included a slew of socialites like Fabiola Beracasa, Genevieve Jones, Eleanor Ylvisaker, Tinsley Mortimer and Lisa Airan. Some even more famous faces popped in, too. Kate Hudson and Eva Mendes, who are reportedly good friends with the design duo, came to look around, but Ms. Mendes said she couldn’t be bothered with the actual buying part. “I'm lucky enough that people send stuff to me, but I usually have to give it back,” she said. Ms. Hudson followed suit, telling the fashion daily: “I'm trying not to shop anymore," Hudson continued. "I've gotten in the habit of making phone calls when I see something and saying, 'Please, when that comes in, can you send it?'" Must be nice!

The Transom has actually come full-circle to love the recent work of Alex Kuczynski; she writes a weekly column called The Critical Shopper in the Thursday Style section of the New York Times. In her eight months on the job, she's trashed Sofia Coppola's films, made fun of women who lunch without eating, questioned vast income disparities in Manhattan, and generally been a total loose cannon.

And since the birth of the column in April, 2005, the blonde bombshell, who is the daugher of Peru's Prime Minister and the spouse of mega-investor Charles Stevenson, has spent in the course of her duties aproximately $25,000 dollars in self-reported sales.  read more »

Though the discount department store Loehmann's long ago sprawled into chaindom, with 47 stores over  read more »

Location, we've been told and told, is everything.  read more »

Three years ago, Belgian food suddenly swung into fashion.  read more »

Three years ago, Belgian foodsuddenly swung into fashion. Restaurants sprung up in smart downtown  read more »