In the years since Cristóbal Balenciaga launched his eponymous fashion label on Avenue George V in Paris during the summer of 1937, his maison de mode has outfitted more than a few recognizable dames. And, as an in-depth New Yorker profile from last year pointed out, Balenciaga, the company, has long depended on Read More
It was after midnight last Saturday, and Bungalow 8 was filling up. I wanted to ask the famously exclusive nightclub’s regular patrons their thoughts about Iraq. John Flanagan, a 40-year-old nightlife impresario, was sitting with a large group drinking $350 bottles of vodka. “I’m upset for the American lives that are lost, and the Iraqi Read More
The 2007 Spring Fashion Week is proving to be one of the most decisive, the most black and white, in the history of La Mode. Based on what I have seen in the last few days, it’s about two things, and two things only: It’s about being either insanely, ridiculously tall, or bizarrely, frighteningly small. Read More
The 2007 Spring Fashion Week is proving to be one of the most decisive, the most black and white, in the history of La Mode. Based on what I have seen in the last few days, it’s about two things, and two things only: It’s about being either insanely, ridiculously tall, or bizarrely, frighteningly small. Read More
At the risk of sounding like a pathetic old-school fag, I must confess that the end of summer always puts me in the mood for a little early Barbra. The looming of Labor Day invariably finds me humming that haunting Streisand number entitled “The Summer Knows.” Don’t pretend you don’t know the song: It’s the Read More
Now that cutting little slits in one’s arm is the preferred form of self-mutilation, eating disorders seem almost passé. Like Balenciaga bags, everyone in New York has had one, and they’re worn fairly casually. But what’s more curious to me is that my admission of having once been bulimic has often been met with nods Read More
Now that cutting little slits in one’s arm is the preferred form of self-mutilation, eating disorders seem almost passé. Like Balenciaga bags, everyone in New York has had one, and they’re worn fairly casually.
But what’s more curious to me is that my admission of having once been bulimic has often been met with nods of Read MoreThe ladies of Park Avenue have a big problem. Yes, they can't help it. They're insatiable (and some might say insufferable, but that's for another piece); most therapists assume it's an addiction. On the Upper East Side, it's an unsurprising kind of moral failing: the state of being a handbag whore. (She's the kind of Read More
The ladies of Park Avenue have a big problem. Yes, they can't help it. They're insatiable (and some might say insufferable, but that's for another piece); most therapists assume it's an addiction. On the Upper East Side, it's an unsurprising kind of moral failing: the state of being a handbag whore. (She's the kind of Read More
To the outside world, you present a trendy veneer of Theory, Marc Jacobs and Balenciaga. Meanwhile, chez vous , the grim, unstylish grunginess of your college years lingers on like a horrid odor. Though you now earn good money and could easily afford to upgrade your lifestyle, you blow it all on trendy drag and Read More
"Mopping," "boosting," "pulling a Winona"-call it what you will, shoplifting has become the new hot transgression du jour . In the Ice Storm 70's, we had key parties and wife-swapping: Today's thrill-seekers are more apt to steal clothes for kicks than discard them for pleasure. And it's getting worse.
In the past, retailers have resigned themselves Read MoreAll right, children, you have only one guess. Who said, "Peanut butter is the greatest invention since Christianity"? No fair-you peeked at the headline and the pictures. But did you know that she practiced what she preached? Diana Vreeland's lunch every day at her desk was a glass of Scotch and a peanut-butter-and-marmalade sandwich on Read More
Fashion continues to be driven by retro and vintage, which is a polite way of saying fashion designers are not designing anymore, they're just knocking off old tat from the flea market. This is great news for you, the ordinary woman in the street. All you have to do to be totally au courant is Read More
If it's 2001, why aren't you wearing an aluminum bra and white go-go boots like Ursula Andress in that 1965 movie, The 10th Victim? I'm disappointed in you and in us: I felt sure by now that we'd all be living in modular Joe Colombo–designed fiberglass pods, sitting on Verner Panton furniture, wearing white piqué Read More
Everybody clench! Spring 2002 Fashion Week is here, and the
mode-obsessed media is shoving the spring trends into your every orifice with unprecedented ferocity. How rude! And how irrelevant to you, the ordinary woman on the street. After all, you won't be able to buy the stuff for another four or five months, so why do Read More
