Everyone Wants to Dress Michelle ObamaA horde of famous fashion designers are fawning over the woman (and her height!) after meeting her at a fund-raiser held in her honor.
company town
Goldman Defies Credit CrunchFINANCE
• Credit crunch, what credit crunch? Goldman’s record profits, which involved somehow shorting the mortgage market, have left a bonus pool of $17 billion, even larger than last year’s record. [WSJ, DealBreaker]
• The surge in the markets aside, the Fed rate-cut had one immediate bad effect: The Canadian dollar, a.k.a. the Loonie, pulled even with U.S. greenbacks for the first time since 1976. The euro also pushed past $1.40, another record. [NYP]
• It’s tough out there for a billionaire: While sixty-four New Yorkers made Forbes’s list of the 400 richest Americans, eighty-two Americans failed to make it with their paltry billion dollars. [AP]
show and talk
Thakoon Panichgul Goes to Bergdorf’s, Talks GapDiminutive designer Thakoon Panichgul had his Bergdorf Goodman trunk show this afternoon, providing a first look at his fall garments, a markedly more somber palette than his rose-hued summer wears. Bergdorf bigs were helping privileged clients find their perfect pieces, but what we were curious about was the couturier’s new collaboration with the Gap. How does a high-end designer make clothes for the khaki-clad masses? “What it boils down to in this day and age is about the ability to design for all sorts of people,” he told us. “They’re two different worlds, but what links them together is the design sensibility. I think that as a young designer you can never take for granted anyone’s business. It broadens the interest by doing things like the Gap.” He would consider doing more low-price projects, he told us, if the right opportunity came along. “For me, it’s never about low-end,” he said. “It’s a lower price point, but it doesn’t suffer in design.” For now, though, he’s considering a menswear collection. “It’ll be interesting to see what I might think up for it,” he said, “because I’m so small.” —Kendall Herbst
Earlier:
Proenza Schouler Comes to Bergdorf Goodman, Finally
At Marchesa Show, Harvey’s Girl Wishes Halston Well
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.
