(Photo: Patrick McMullan)

Are White House social secretary Desirée Rogers and Vogue editor Anna Wintour suddenly besties? Their appearance next to each other on the front rows of Donna Karan, Carolina Herrera, and Thakoon, as it turns out, wasn’t an accident. “Desirée was in town for the Presidents’ Day weekend, and while she was here she wanted to take in some of the New York collections, and Vogue was happy to take her as our guest,” says Vogue spokesperson Patrick O’Connell, pointing out that she’d been profiled in the magazine in February. A White House aide emphasized that it was definitely not a shopping expedition. “Desirée was in New York on a fact-finding mission,” says the aide. “She’s acting as a cultural liaison for the White House; she’s researching fashion and music.”

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Emma Rosenblum
• Table of Contents: Mar 2, 2009 issue of New York | Subscribe!