Amy Larocca’s Paris Fashion Week Dispatch, No. 3The fashion director awaits an announcement at the Dior show, gets stuck behind a pillar at Hussein Chalayan, and is showered with cupcakes and champagne at Lanvin.
Jac Is Paris Fashion Week’s Top ModelThe runways in Paris were filled with unexpected surprises and some very special appearances, but Jac came out on top.
Has Fashion Defied the Hemline Index?The fall collections were full of micro-minis, plunging necklines, bodysuits, and slits up to there. Not exactly what we were expecting.
The Best of Paris: Our Top Twenty LooksParis Fashion Week just wrapped, and we can’t contain ourselves. The clothes! The colors! The drama! Oh the French, they always know how to deliver.
ByAmina Akhtar
behind the scenes
Video: Silicone Dresses at Hussein ChalayanHussein Chalayan’s spring collection was a sight to behold: spiked silicone dresses, perfectly still models, and a rotating stage. Artist Jeremy Kost got all this on film.
Heather Mills Blows Her Stash on Vegan ShoesIf you won $48.6 million in your divorce settlement from Paul McCartney, what would you spend it on? We’d probably make like Heather Mills and start by blowing some of the stash on shoes. But we’re not vegans like Mills.
NewsFeed
Padma Thinks Women Are More Sensitive in the KitchenPadma Lakshmi, profiled in this week’s Page Six Magazine, says she thinks women have more sensitive palates, and she won’t start dressing like Mario Batali anytime soon.
first looks
Video: Inside Shane&Shawn, Nolita’s Newest Shoe StoreWe’ve been treated to a video tour of Shane&Shawn, Mulberry Street’s sparkling new shoe boutique and home to Shane and Shawn Ward’s eponymous line of men’s and women’s shoes.
loose threads
Tom Brady May Model Skivvies for Calvin Klein!• Tom Brady may be the next Calvin Klein underwear model. (Please, God, let it be so.) Kimora Lee Simmons’s main squeeze, Djimon Honsou, is the label’s current bod of choice. [NYP]
Historic Brooklyn Navy Yard Houses Get a Stay of ExecutionBrooklyn Navy Yard: The Feds have indefinitely delayed plans to tear down ten nineteenth-century houses here in order to build a supermarket. Patina before potatoes! [Brownstoner]
Dumbo: The waterfront Empire Stores warehouse is so decrepit that the park surrounding it has been closed for safety, and everyone’s pointing fingers over who let the Civil War–era pile languish for so long. [Brooklyn Paper via Curbed]
Elmhurst: This no-frills Queens hood isn’t slated to do so well in the real-estate boom, but maybe it’ll fare better than expected with loving testimonials like this: “At sunset, the dirty black bricks of the six-story apartment buildings turn deep red and almost dark pink. At night, it’s peaceful.” Ahhh… [NYDN via Queens Crap]
in other news
‘Times,’ Toilet Meet CuteWhen we heard about futuristic new self-cleaning public toilets that the city unveiled, we went right to our favorite sources for this type of coverage. “WHAT A RELIEF,” the Daily News said, under a headline that read: “AND A-WEE WE GO” The Post led with “Helle-LOO-jah,” and a headline of “TOILET IS GOOD TO ‘GO.’” But imagine our surprise when we found that the best write-up of all was in the New York Times. They go through the experience of using the toilet in detail, in a style that can only be described as architectural-review-meets-anthropological-study:
There are two architectural flourishes, both on the roof: a small pyramid of glass, like a little model of the Louvre, and an anachronistic metal stovepipe, reminiscent of a cozy shanty or an old outhouse with a crescent moon carved into the door…
Sadly, these little surprises are forgotten with the first look at the toilet itself, an imposing, metal, cold-looking receptacle in the corner. There is no little stall around it, and so it looks exposed, like the facilities available in many prisons. It, too, is quite damp, for perfectly good reasons explained later, but the image first evokes a dungeon or a scene from one of the Saw pictures.
Mediavore
Keith McNally Sued; Huckabee Serves Clam Chowder in New HampshireAccording to a new class-action suit being brought against Keith McNally, servers at Pastis and Balthazar were forced to foot the bill for customers who walked out on their checks, in addition to being denied minimum wage. [NYP]
Frank Bruni, like many other critics, believes a restaurant’s chicken dishes speak volumes about its overall quality. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
E-mails sent by Starbucks Corp. managers reveal their efforts to prevent unionizing among their employees, although labor experts say the activity is not illegal. [WSJ]
in other news
Countdown to iPhone: The Lines Begin
What hope does a covetous indie-film star have? The iPhone doesn’t go on sale till 6 p.m. Friday, but as Racked reports, queues at the midtown and Soho Apple stores started forming yesterday. Here, the first guy on line at each location. (We suspect this isn’t the first time the guy in midtown has slept out for days for something.) Good luck, kids.
iPhrenzy: The First People in Line [Racked]
21 questions
Model Karolina Kurkova Really Loves Green Juice
Name: Karolina Kurkova
Age: 22
Job: Model
Neighborhood: Tribeca
Who’s your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional?
The Statue of Liberty.
What’s the best meal you’ve eaten in New York?
Pure Food & Wine’s Raw Tiramisu — it’s the most amazing I’ve ever had.
In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job?
Create fantasy.