Lindsay Lohan to D.J. Naomi Campbell’s 38th-Birthday PartyDomenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana will throw Naomi Campbell’s 38th-birthday party in Cannes, luxury companies like Dior have shady manufacturing practices, and Bill Blass might be sold soon.
Is Heatherette Kaput?!The label is reportedly dissolving as Richie Rich starts his own fashion line and partner Traver Rains just can’t deal with him anymore.
Life Ball 2008: Agent Provocateur Guarantees Less ClothingAt a preview party last night for the 2008 Life Ball — a charity dedicated to fighting AIDS — organizer Gery Keszler announced the newest designer for its May festivities in Vienna.
party lines
Richie Rich Shares More About His Unicorn LoveRichie Rich & Co. sure do love their unicorns. But surely not all unicorns are horny beasts? We found out at the ‘Nylon’ party the other night.
party lines
Why Heatherette Missed Fashion WeekAt the launch party for Heatherette’s makeup line for M.A.C, we got sparkly designers Traver Rains and Richie Rich to talk to us about their absence this past February. Alas, it was all the ugly business side of things.
dress code
Confessions of a Cross-dresserBeing a straight cross-dresser isn’t easy for one 23-year-old Brit, especially because he’s about to move in with his girlfriend of two years who has no idea how much he likes high heels.
Heatherette: Fashion Is Like a Frolicking UnicornIn between digging up our best glitter eye shadow and glossiest lip goo in preparation for tonight’s launch party for the Heatherette M.A.C makeup line, we did some research. And the we stumbled across the most amazing thing.
Heatherette’s M.A.C Line Launches; Rethink Lash PermsHeatherette’s M.A.C makeup line hits counters, eyelash perms are not FDA-approved (surprise, surprise), and Organic Apoteke makes face cream with four pounds of rose petals…
party lines
Christian Siriano Dresses Heidi Klum, Dates a BrooklyniteChristian Siriano has been rubbing elbows with celebrities on the West Coast, but he’s finally back in New York. Last night, at the Mercedes-Benz BlueTec Auto Show kickoff party, we caught the Project Runway winner when he wasn’t chatting up fashion-world insiders like Fern Mallis and the Heatherette boys.
The Image Guru’s Black MoodMontgomery Frazier is an image guru, which he says means he’s a publicist, marketer, and stylist all in one. These days he’s working with Julie Brown (née Downtown) on a new TV show. So what does Frazier like at Fashion Week?
Philippe Starck Pans the New Royalton LobbyPhilippe Starck doesn’t like the $17.5 million redesign to the Royalton Hotel, which he once designed. Heatherette isn’t having a show this Fashion Week, and Richie Rich may be out for good! Russian model Natalia Vodianova had what may be her last catwalk during the final Valentino show in Paris and plans to take the designer to Moscow for a week and then to Brazil for Carnivale. Contrary to rumors, Puff “Diddy” Daddy says he is not considering changing his name back to Sean Combs. Paris Hilton and Stavros Niarchos hung out at the Beatrice Inn. Michael Richards and a blonde girl ate at a vegan restaurant at Columbus Circle. Cindy Adams claims that the writers’ strike will be over in two weeks and that Mayor Bloomberg is 50-50 about whether to run for president. Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner and boyfriend Matt Nye just had twins via surrogate parent. New York Times writer Alex Kuczynski will have a baby via surrogate mother in April.
intel
Why Heatherette Canceled Their Show: Our ReasonsWe love, love, love Heatherette — even though their show is a glamorous debacle every year, and even though we’re not always sure where to buy their clothes. Traver Raines and Richie Rich, the house’s creative team, are nice, fun, energetic, and brilliant. Every season their train wreck of an exposition is the highlight during Fashion Week. That’s why we are hit hard by the news that they won’t be showing this February. They were supposed to show at Roseland Ballroom this year, too, which would have meant that everyone could have come, and the after-party would have been glorious. We’re trying to find out why they’ve bailed (they “prefer not to comment,” but we’ll get it out of them — we run with the same gays, after all), but in the meantime, we’ve compiled a top ten list of reasons they might have called off the show:
1) They’re only doing a “Cruise” collection this year.
2) They, like so many other small fashion houses, fell victim to great glitter shortage of 2008.
3) The only chaps they could find had asses.
4) Tinsley ate something.
5) Boy Meets Boy went back on the air.
6) A six-foot-eight drag queen has Richie and Traver locked up in a basement somewhere in the Village because she didn’t get into their last fashion show, even though she WAS INVITED.
7) Lady Bunny ate Lydia Hearst. Totally kidding. She flossed with her.
8) Someone actually wanted to buy something from last season’s show, and they had to figure out how to make it again.
9) Richie broke an axle. On his roller skate.
10) Their Amanda Lepore popped.
Heatherette Cancels Fashion Show [Fashionista]
party lines
Traver Rains Loves Him Some Cow BallsAll this time we thought that Traver Rains’s ever-present cowboy hat was just an affectation. It turns out that the silent half of fashion-design duo Heatherette — maybe he just can’t get a word in when partner Richie Rich is around? — is a real Marlboro man. “I grew up in Montana on a cattle ranch,” Rains told us at the Lunchbox Auction at Saatchi & Saatchi on Thursday. Really? Does he know how to, like, rustle or wrangle or whatever one does to cattle? “Rope. Yeah,” he said, all Heath Ledger–like. “I spent more time on a horse than not, growing up. I was Brokeback before Brokeback was cool.” One of the specialties that ranchers rustle up around the campfire, Rains says, is Rocky Mountain oysters. And those are? “It’s fried cow balls. After they’re snipped,” Rains told us, covering his mouth and giggling coyly. We were, for once, speechless. “Um, they’re like, fried, breaded, um, you know the things hushpuppies! That’s what they remind me of.” Alas, Rains moved to New York in 1999 and has not eaten Rocky Mountain oysters since. He doesn’t know of a place that serves them in the city. “That would be fun,’ he said. “I would love to take my friends out and torture them with that.” —Bennett Marcus
Related: We can solve this problem! Where to Get Cow Balls [Grub Street]
VideoFeed
Heatherette, Batali Take Away Lunchbox Stigma for Charity
At the Lunchbox Auction for the Food Bank for New York City, Tom Colicchio said what Jada Yuan and our camera crew were thinking: “Lunchboxes aren’t cool!” But they were last night, as artists, chefs, and celebrities designed lunchboxes to be sold for charity. Flea’s deconstructionist lunchbox (“It looks like Flea has run over his lunchbox with a small tractor,” marveled Patti Smith) was a favorite, and Heatherette’s pink-and-purple glitter-fest was a feat, considering Traver Rains bought the hot lunch as a kid. To see lunchbox designs from Beyoncé and hear Molto Mario’s bidding strategy, watch the video.
Video Party Lines: Lunchbox Auction
company town
Murdoch Mulls the Liberation of WSJ.comMEDIA
• Murdoch is hinting heavily that he’ll take WSJ.com free, but Dow Jones CEO Richard Zannino doesn’t think it’s such a great idea. [WSJ]
• Well, we’ll be — Portfolio pulling down pretty good ad pages. [NYP]
• Roger Ailes, former CNBC president now with Fox Business Network, making many CNBCers interested in switching teams. It may be many things, but it won’t be boring! [NYO]
Miss Manners Hates Your BlackBerryFINANCE
• Blackstone founders Stephen Schwarzman and Pete Peterson shot up 30 places to No. 4 in Vanity Fair’s annual ranking of “The New Establishment.” Henry Kravis, who made the list for the first time, will have to console himself with No. 51. [VF, DealBook/NYT]
• Maybe CEOs aren’t all automatons after all: Scholars found that the death of a child or wife typically results in a 15 to 20 percent hit on profits — though the death of a mother-in-law often means good news for business. Let’s just hope they’re not confusing cause and effect, here. [WSJ]
• Beat this, Spence girls: The daughter of Qwest CEO Edward Mueller gets free use of the corporate jet to help ferry her from Denver to California for high school. [DealBook/NYT]
company town
Goldman, Merrill Open Books, Loosen CollarsFINANCE
• The SEC is investigating whether banks and brokerages are hiding subprime lending losses. Goldman and Merrill are the first to be scrutinized. [WSJ]
• This is how bad the market is right now: Even music bloggers are worried about it. [DealBreaker]
• KPS Capital Partners is ditching its MetLife Building penthouse for a two-story space on 66th and Lex that leaves room for expansion. [Deal Journal/WSJ]
party lines
Arts Club Honors Heatherette — But Why?
What was Heatherette duo Richie Rich and Traver Raines doing being honored by the stuffy old National Arts Club on Gramercy Park South last week? To be honest, no one was quite sure. “I was so taken aback when they called me,” Rich said, looking around him. “It’s like going to Naomi Campbell’s house. I was like, ‘Wow. I’m actually doing something with myself.’” Club president O. Aldon James Jr. explained the rationale: The club wants to be hipper. “They do not need this award,” James said. “Our award needs them.” But were the risqué fashion designers — Heatherette recently brought buttless pants to the runway — the best pick for an institution so unfashionable as to have an old-style dress code? “Oleg Cassini would protest that,” James indignantly replied. “He was a member for 40 years!”
show and talk
Nutritious, Delicious Couture
What could be better than fashion and food? Yesterday we rushed to Vanderbilt Hall to catch Tim Gunn hosting the Wish-Bone Salad Show. Designers Richie Rich and Traver Rain compared the experience to summer camp, and the models looked bewildered. “There’s some lettuce going on there. Or maybe some other vegetables,” the Asian Salad said vaguely. Backstage, one model sported onion shorts while another counted the string beans on her dress. Gunn said he preferred to accessorize with food, but our favorite model embraced the whole aesthetic: “I am the carpaccio salad.”
Wish-Bone Salad Fashion Show by Heatherette [NYM]
company town
Barbarians at the Energy GridFINANCE
• A group led by Kohlberg Kravis is taking energy giant TXU private for $45 billion, besting the Blackstone record by $6 billion. But can Kravis beat Schwarzman’s party? [NYT]
• Gary Crittenden named Citigroup CFO. Job description: Fix CEO Charles Prince’s mistakes. [NYT]
• Goldman media banker Sebastian Grigg may defect to Credit Suisse. [DealBook/NYT]
new york fugging city
Fashion Week Is All Fugged Up
We were such innocents a mere eight days ago. Times were much simpler then; we had hope in our hearts and an unfailing optimism that our job covering celebrities in Fashion Week’s front rows would be like shooting fish in a barrel, minus the ricochet.
Even though not as many famous faces showed up as we’d have liked, we managed to come out the other end a very happy, sated pair. After all, we love clothes, Champagne, and sandwiches, and we got a lot of all three this week. Here are some of the highlights and lowlights of our second stint covering the celebrity turnout at Bryant Park and, yes, of the 37 shows we saw, we did like a lot of the clothes.
party lines
Bush Twin Misses Seeing Amanda Lepore NakedThere was a sort of joy in the air at the Proenza Schouler after-party at Beatrice Inn. (And a lot of smoke — even the dubious Romanians who’ve been everywhere this Fashion Week had to take their cat and go home.) The designers had all shown and were drinking merrily. Upstairs, the dance party went on under disco lights till the wee hours of the morning.
show & tell
Eye of the Storm: Backstage at HeatheretteFrom the outside, Heatherette may have been a total fiasco, but our Jada Yuan found that inside was nothing but love. Backstage, Richie Rich’s aromatherapist was dressed like Dorothy but didn’t seem to know why. A misty Lydia Hearst remembered the boys from back in the day (“I really consider them part of my family”) while Omahyra favored Heatherette for the bloodlust: “This is the shit. Everybody’s fighting to get in here.”
Watch the video.
show & tell
Heatherette Sponsors Up the Class FactorAn army of writers, reporters, and bloggers is chronicling Fashion Week. Here are a few things we learned from them:
• Of course K-Y chose the Heatherette after-party to introduce its new lubricant, “Intrigue.” [Heard on the Runway/WSJ]
• For the rest of this week, the Payless on Fifth and 39th has the Abaeté for Payless shoes that showed on Monday. [Fashionista]
• If Ashley Olsen is in New York this week, so far she’s skipping Fashion Week. [PopSugar]
• Can’t find Proenza Schouler on Target’s Website? You can bet it’s on eBay. [FlyPaper]
• Who are the Top Ten New Faces at Fashion Week? So far, we know three. [Of the Minute]
• Could Diane von Furstenberg have scuttled out of that CFDA panel on models’ health any faster? [Off the Runway]
party lines
Amber Tamblyn, Life of the (Admittedly Crappy) PartyIs it just us, or do the parties this week totally blow? Thankfully, Amber Tamblyn, who is just one whirling dervish of former teen-talks-to-God-dramedy fun, doesn’t appear to know this. We love everything about the 23-year-old Joan of Arcadia alum, from her flirty sense of style to her dry quips answering stupid press questions (Q: “How are you handling the madness of Fashion Week?” A: “Quaaludes. Lots of quaaludes”).
new york fugging city
How Long Will the Tents Tolerate Heatherette?
Another Fashion Week. Another Heatherette show that was a complete, soul-sucking mess. And that was outside the venue. Like last season, we had seats. And like last season, that didn’t matter because the setup was such an unmitigated disaster. Somehow every other show at Bryant Park manages to make it pretty easy to get all ticketed parties in distinct lines and in their seats without screaming pandemonium. Not Heatherette. Never Heatherette. And certainly not at a Heatherette show that promised a Wizard of Oz theme complete with socialite Lydia Hearst as Dorothy.
gossipmonger
Choose Your Own Gossip Adventure!Rush and Molloy let you write your own Lindsay Lohan item. Larry King used to gamble, owes a lot of people in Miami money, according to a new book. Art-mag publisher Louise MacBain has not yet made her annual $50,000 donation to the Watermill Foundation. Richie Rich’s new boyfriend is causing trouble for Heatherette staffers. Paris Hilton dropped her best friend Kim Kardashian because Kim was getting too popular. Lydia Hearst threw an award statue into the crowd at the Paper magazine Nightlife Awards, because Moby told her to. Jennifer Connelly gained some perspective shooting Blood Diamond in Africa. Before arriving at the Casino Royale premiere attended by Queen Elizabeth, VIPs had to memorize a pamphlet on royal protocol. The cover of Vanity Fair’s “Hollywood” issue feature Brits Kate Winslet and Helen Mirren but not Cate Blanchett. Newly single Kid Rock may be back with his ex-girlfriend. Drew Barrymore still wears Uggs. Cindy Adams loves Will Smith’s new movie, does not love Mel Gibson’s. A mausoleum for Fidel Castro is being built on a mountaintop in Cuba. Former Facts of Life star Kim Fields is preggers. Joan Collins loves to sign autographs for fans, despite a recent “Page Six” item to the contrary. A kosher steakhouse opened in L.A.; Mel Gibson and Michael Richards have yet to dine there.