Falling DollarsEverything that happened last week, in case you weren’t paying attention.
ByMark Adams
gossipmonger
PETA Causes a Ruckus in the House of Donna KaranA PETA protester accosted designer Donna Karan inside her Central Park West apartment after an assistant mistakenly let her in. Kyle MacLachlan and his wife are expecting a child. Tom Cruise, Jennifer Lopez, Demi Moore, and a host of other stars all turned out for Madonna’s “Raising Malawi” (Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon did not, however, after learning that the event was sponsored by Gucci). Rachel Zoe came to Fashion Week with eight suitcases, two of which were for accessories. R.E.M. played a series of impromptu shows on the Lower East Side earlier this week.
intel
Melania Is Getting a Wild(enstein) Look in Her EyeWe’ve always sort of thought that Melania and Donald Trump looked like one another. Not in their facial structure, per say, but they both do this Sports Illustrated–swimsuit-model pose for pictures, where they squint their eyes and open their mouths a little bit. It’s like they just burped during sex and are trying to blow it away or something, without ruining the moment. But now we’re sad to say that Melania is beginning to look a little bit more like someone else these days. Granted Melania is still stunningly beautiful and has a long way to go before people start calling her a “cat woman.” But there’s definitely something going on with her eyes there that is beginning to look a bit too familiar.
Day Six at the Tents
in other news
PR Firm KCD May Have Been Involved in Marc Jacobs Bribery MessNew details have emerged after last night’s announcement by the state attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, that Marc Jacobs International may have paid up to $30,000 in bribes to a superintendent of the Lexington Avenue Armory, where the designer’s fashion show has taken place over the past few years. It turns out that Jacobs, whose show takes place at the location on Friday, is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation as well. “It’s illegal to receive a bribe, but it can also be illegal to pay a bribe,” Cuomo told the Post. And Marc isn’t the only New York icon who might be dragged into this mess. KCD, the fashion-PR powerhouse that handles the booking and design of his (and many other) shows, is also under scrutiny by the AG’s office. Apparently, Jacobs had allegedly been paying James Jackson, the Armory administrator, for nearly a decade, through KCD as an intermediary. Oh, no! The smear of this scandal is spreading across the fashion scene. Will Julie Mannion, the KCD design guru who has created Marc’s shows, be involved? What about Bonnie Morrison, the jocular face of the firm these days? KCD hasn’t been charged with anything, but these are socialites; we need them to stay unsullied. Think about the party pictures, people! The party pictures.
SHAKEDOWN WAS A CRIME OF FASHION [NYP]
Related: Breaking: Marc Jacobs May Have Paid Dearly to Show in the Armory [The Cut]
intel
A Smorgasboard of Video Look Books for Your Mid–Fashion Week SlumpNormally on Wednesdays at Daily Intel, we treat you with a Video Look Book post in which we go on the street to videotape some of the fabulously dressed New Yorkers that surround us every day. It’s an homage to Fashion Editor Amy Larocca’s weekly “Look Book” in the print version of New York. But this week, we don’t have one. That’s because the Video Look Book has found a new home, on nohib.com’s glamorous new fashion blog, The Cut. And it’s been thriving there! Since Fashion Week started, the blog has hosted seven new Video Look Books. If you’re missing your fix of people who dress (or think they dress) better than you do, click below to see the characters we’ve found this week. And while you’re at it, poke around at The Cut and in all the rest of nohib.com’s extensive online fashion coverage, including up-to-date slideshows and model and designer bios!
•Chicago Shopgirl Flies In for Marc by Marc Jacobs
•The Trend Forecaster Sees Bright Colors in the Future
• Plum Sykes Exposes Fashion Week’s Cold Truth
• Recent Fashion Grad Wants Wintour’s Help
• Rugby Ralph Lauren Designer Beats on Her Miu Miu Bag
• Freelance Stylist David C. Melton Will Give You Vertigo
• Cognac Wellerlane Loves Fur, Poodles, and Fake Eyelashes
The Cut [NYM]
company town
Semel Out at Yahoo, Microsoft In?FINANCE
• Courtenay Semel’s dad, Terry, is out at Yahoo. And Microsoft’s $44.6 billion bid for the company might just be déjà vu. [NYT, Deal Journal/WSJ]
• Recession-has-already-started watch: The economy lost 17,000 jobs in January, the first time since the lovely tech-crash days of 2003 that total payrolls have shrunk. [Reuters via NYT]
• One of the few lucky bankers with a bonus burning a hole in your pocket? Try London restaurant Vivat Bacchus’ new “Bonus Tasting Menu” for a mere £1,000. [DealBook/NYT]
gossipmonger
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
Examining Our First Fashion Week Survival KitToday, publicists for Peroni Italian Beer, a sponsor of Fashion Week, sent us a very generous survival kit to help us make it through the coming two weeks. It included a lot of useful things that will keep us feeling healthy enough and looking unhealthy enough to fit right in at the tents at Bryant Park. But some of the objects had us scratching our heads. What on earth, for example, do we need a gift certificate to a spa in Miami for? Below, we’ve divided the contents of the kit into two categories: things that we know the uses for and things that, well, we’re not quite as sure about.
Thanks, guys! This will really help!
1 tube deluxe body crème [For feeling soft while we look sharp.]
1 packet Emergen-C [For energy.]
1 pack Peroni mints [Because try as we might, we always end up having to talk to people.]
2 packets Advil [Since the above effort always gives us a headache.]
1 emery board [To sharpen our talons, of course.]
1 box TipToes [Well, we’re certainly not going to be wearing flats.]
intel
The Skinny on Milan’s Male ModelsRemember how, during the past few fashion weeks, there’s been such a to-do about the health of female models? In 2006 in Madrid, designers were ordered to select only runway models with a healthy body mass index and officially banned from using any that set an unhealthy example for young women. This was followed by political efforts in other cities, including New York, to institute the same kind of rule. Designers and buyers alike took sides in the debate. Well, it’s been a while since we’ve talked about the issue, but we’re wondering whether it might be coming up again this season. As many fashionistas are winging their way back to New York from the Milan shows today, we’re hearing that there’s buzz about the size of the models. The male models.In this week’s Italian menswear shows, as you can tell from scanning through New York’s extensive photo galleries, there was an emphasis on the super-skinny. “The models did look more like stick insects than usual,” texted one fashion guru while idling on an airport runway waiting to come home. “Even Dolce & Gabbana [who often favor overmuscled hunks] had slightly more slender models!” This is a city that made headlines for plastering itself with cautionary billboards of a naked anorexic woman before last fashion week, too. We’re not saying any of these guys are unhealthy (we’ll wait until the swimwear shows start to really start judging), but they’ve certainly gotten that “colt look” going. Kate Bosworth would kill for those legs!
European Menswear Shows [NYM Fashion]
gossipmonger
Brooke Shields Shares the Love on ‘Lipstick’Lipstick Jungle may top Cashmere Mafia because Jungle star Brooke Shields is nicer to her castmates than Mafia star Lucy Liu is to hers. Details editor Dan Peres says he’s going crazy and putting on weight because wife Sarah Wynter is pregnant. Kid Rock paid a busboy at Southern Hospitality $1,000 after he returned a $200,000 watch found on the floor of the bathroom that belonged to a Rock posse member. Val Kilmer was spotted running around town with Chad Lowe’s girlfriend, Kim Painter. Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce refused to use his credit card at Tenjune and left to go find a club where he could use cash. Donald Trump is hosting a Celebrity Apprentice party at Tenjune during Fashion Week. Uma Thurman and boyfriend Arpad Busson were all over each other at lunch at Lever House.
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]
show and talk
Footage From London Fashion Week
Last week’s mix of shows, parties, models, and high-heel-induced blisters may have left you in a haze — and in massive fashion withdrawal. Luckily, our pals across the pond put on their own Fashion Week, with freakier clothes, wilder makeup, and, let’s face it — a lot more fun. Couldn’t get your passport in order? Check out our runway videos and interviews with the designers, from stately Paul Smith to monochromatic Sinha Stanic (where a stampede nearly caused a real fashion emergency). What was Christopher Kane (see above) thinking with the chiffon and snakeskin combo? Did Eley Kishimoto drop acid and take a trip down Strawberry Fields? Watch the videos to find out. And check out slideshows of all the London collections.
Video: Christopher Kane Collection
Videos: The London Collections [Archive]
the week in beef
Cranky Fashionistas Hungry … for BloodNew York’s Fashion Week is over, and in the five minutes between the closing of the tents and the start of London’s Fashion Week, all the stylish folks have had just enough time to focus on their distaste for one another. Seeing as industry-standard diet of clen and champers does little to help one’s mood, we can’t be surprised at this week’s outpouring of bitchery. A quick rundown of the postshow battles:
Rachel Zoe vs. Anna Wintour
In Sunday’s Times’ mag, stylist and possible “raisin-faced” alien Rachel Zoe unwisely taunts Anna Wintour: “Anna Wintour is one of my heroes, but they say I’m more influential,” the stylist tells Lynn Hirschberg. “As great as it is, Vogue won’t change a designer’s business. But if an unknown brand is worn by a certain person in a tabloid, it will be the biggest designer within a week.” Oh no, she didn’t. But she did! And now let’s follow the backbiting path over to…
intel
Someone Ran Off With Alice Temperley’s Shoes!Over a glass of Champagne at the Moët Lounge in the Tents on Saturday, we caught up with British designer Alice Temperley just after her runway show. She was relieved and delighted, but revealed that the road to Bryant Park was paved with some extremely sticky flagstones. “Two weeks ago somebody stole £25,000 worth of Christian Louboutin shoes for the show,” she said. At the last minute, Temperley had to take her footwear designs for the runway show to a different retailer and have them made quickly. We’re glad everything went well in the end, but we have to wonder who was big enough to carry off such a load of shoes, and tasteful enough to appreciate them? Somewhere in London’s West End, we’re betting there’s one really happy drag queen
photo op
And It Has Begun…The glamour! The clothes! The unnameable feeling that is the opposite of Schadenfreude! Yes, folks, Fashion Week is upon us. For all the ins, the outs, and the unders, check out Show & Talk, New York’s Fashion Week blog.
the morning line
Three Punished for Deutsche Deaths
• More than a week after the Deutsch Bank blaze killed two firefighters, three FDNY honchos have been reassigned for failing to regularly inspect the building or come up with a plan to fight a fire there. [NYT]
gossipmonger
Oh, Poor Fashion WeekFewer Hollywood stars than usual are expected at Fashion Week when it starts September 5, because the Emmys and the MTV Video Music Awards are the same week. Dan Rather was confused by the “Thriller” dance stunt performed by Katie Couric’s staff last week, though he thinks her job is safe. Arianna Huffington may be dating Newark mayor Cory Booker. Cuba Gooding Jr., who is married with three kids, recently made out with five girls in one night at Tenjune. Jeremy Piven got into a heated argument with his mother at Nobu Malibu, though it’s unclear about what. Gwyneth Paltrow has been trekking around Spain with Mario Batali for a PBS cooking show (and hubby Chris Martin almost didn’t get into the premiere of her brother’s new movie). Cameron Diaz had a romantic dinner with John Mayer at Mai House in Tribeca. Residents of Martha’s Vineyard are happy that Larry David and Laurie are broken up and that Larry is dating again.
show and talk
CFDA Welcomes New Members, Prepares for the Tents
As New York’s fashion designers count the days till Fashion Week, which starts this year on September 5, two days after Labor Day, battles for models and tent times are heating up. But at the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s party for new members at Diane von Furstenberg’s studio last night, no one would name — and only a few would acknowledge — the most diva-ish designers, who politick to cast and schedule most fiercely. “There are model problems sometimes,” acknowledged Stan Herman, a board member and former president. “There are time-slot problems sometimes. There are moments that designers go, ‘I can’t show next to that person’ or ‘I won’t show next to that person.’ But not very many.”
show and talk
Nicole Miller Likes to Show in the Early EveningIt’s still early summertime, which makes even the most precocious among us think ahead only to this fall — except for fashion designers, who are all prepping their spring 2008 lines (which, natch, they’ll show this fall). We bumped into Nicole Miller the other night, at the Soho Grand after the Interview screening, and she told us all about planning a new show — the science of picking dates and times, and the dreaded curse of model-hoarding.
party lines
The Exquisite Vagueness of a Conversation With DVFWhat: “Diane von Furstenberg celebrates International Woman’s Day”
Where: Bergdorf Goodman
When: Last night
The Fashion Week tents will have to leave Bryant Park. You’re CFDA president — where should they move?
Oh, I have a dream about that, so I’m not gonna say.
Any hints?
No. It’ll be a nice spot.
Is it in … Brooklyn?
No.
show and talk
Dispatches From Milan Fashion Week
New York Fashion Week might be long over, but the fashion fun never stops. Last week was the Milan collections, and both Ann Watson, Henri Bendel’s fashion director, and Linda Fargo, Bergdorf’s fashion senior veep, filed reports for nohib.com. Ann liked Moschino, Dolce & Gabbana, Alessandro Dell’Acqua, and Linda dug the shows at Jil Sander, Marni, and Fendi. Their full reports are at Show & Talk.
Linda Fargo of Bergdorf Goodman Likes Jil Sander, Marni, and Fendi [Show & Talk]
Ann Watson of Henri Bendel Likes Moschino, Dolce & Gabbana, Alessandro Dell’Acqua [Show & Talk]
gossipmonger
Helpful HarveyHarvey Weinstein doesn’t help his designer girlfriend Georgina Chapman get coverage — well, except for that meeting with Anna Wintour when she was starting out. Fashion Week interlopers were able to buy tickets to Bryant Park shows on Craigslist. Food Network star Paula Dean had a run-in with a naked man in the hallway of the Regency Hotel. Later, skaters: The Roxy closes for good on March 10. Lynyrd Skynyrd will perform tonight at Snitch, accompanied by a dozen strippers. Lindsay Lohan will attend Robert Altman’s memorial service in L.A. after skipping the one in New York. Megaproducer Scott Rudin won’t return Cindy Adams’s calls.
intel
One Fewer Reason for Models to SniffleIt’s not easy to keep underfed women healthy while they toil through sittings and strut endless runways, all at the height of cold-and-flu season. “Everyone gets sick during Fashion Week,” says 1 Models president Scott Lipps, whose agency reps Angela Lindvall and Helena Christensen. Enter John McDonald, the restaurateur behind Lever House and Lure Fishbar, who’s now in the haute anti-sniffles business, too. He says he has spent the past two years developing E Boost, a slickly packaged powdered drink that contains vitamins B-12 and C, magnesium, zinc, potassium, and amino acids. How’d he get the right mix? “It was hilarious,” says McDonald. “I would get white packets from the lab every day and pop them in water. We would see how many particles floated. We thought of adding ginseng, but it clumped.” The product has been available for only two weeks, but he’s distributed it via model agencies and at Grammy events; soon, it’ll be aboard NetJets time-share planes and at W hotels. You know, the kinds of places where you simply couldn’t pop a comparatively unchic Emergen-C.
gossipmonger
Miss Anna Likes Cat People!Anna Wintour was in on that Romanian “Cat People” Fashion Week stunt from the get-go. Heidi Fleiss is set to sell a tape that supposedly features former client Charlie Sheen gallivanting with a transsexual named Kayla Coxx. Anderson Cooper wants kids. Georgina Chapman would like you to know she was in twelve movies before she landed roles in the Weinstein-produced Factory Girl and Nanny Diaries, thank you very much. Bungalow 8 owner Amy Sacco is a proud size 12.
show and talk
Meanwhile, Back at Bryant Park…While you’re huddling for warmth under your desk, our sister blog, Show & Talk, is braving the tents at Fashion Week. Here’s what’s going on.
There’s dirt:
• Jay McCarroll unloaded both barrels on Tim Gunn.
• We tracked down why Marc Jacobs shows are always late.
• Model May Andersen explained why anorexic women are ruining it for the naturally skinny ones.
• And what does a straight man do at Fashion Week? John Legend knows.
show and talk
Fashion Week Is Here!
Oh, happy day! It’s the start of Fashion Week in New York, and everyone from designers to models to socialites to — of course — New York Magazine is gearing up for it. We’re especially pleased to bring back nohib.com’s full Fashion Week extravaganza. We’ll be posting next-day slideshows of all the shows. We’ll be giving our fancy new video player a good workout. We’re bringing back our Show & Talk fashion blog, which will bring you instant trend reports, lots of Harriet and Amy, plenty of Video Look Books, and, most thrillingly, the return to New York of our beloved Fug Girls. All that, plus we’re letting you post comments on Show & Talk. (We expect to regret that last bit.) It’ll be more fun than a Marc Jacobs costume party.
New York Fashion Week Preview [NYM]
gossipmonger
Anderson, CelebutanteFox News compares Anderson Cooper to Paris Hilton, and CNN isn’t happy. (Which we imagine was the point.) Steve Madden will underwrite Fashion Week’s Designers for Darfur even though IMG backed out. Hillary Clinton is trying to infuse her campaign with some stand-up comedy. Jeremy Piven jokes that he’d like to settle down with a girlfriend if he weren’t “gayer than Liberace in 1972.” Parsons fashion chairman Tim Gunn to become chief creative officer of Liz Claiborne (but still do Project Runway). Bill Clinton will not be the next president of Harvard.
show and talk
The Menswear You Missed in Paris
Snappy suits, ninjawear, Technicolor hues, and icy whites. That’s what we found at the Paris menswear shows this week. We’ve got Gaultier and YSL, Vuitton and Watanabe, and more. Watch our slideshows to find your favorite looks for fall. Then click and repeat until the tents go up at Bryant Park. It’s almost Fashion Week!
Fall 2007 Menswear [NYM]
21 questions
Questioning Fashion Week
Have a tingling sense of excitement in your fingertips and AmEx cards? That’s right, kids: New York Fashion Week is right around the corner. Nymag.com will, of course, be all over the festivities like a clingy wrap dress, but we can’t quite wait the ten days till things get going in earnest. To whet your stylish whistles, our fashion team got ten top fashionistas to answer Daily Intel’s notorious 21 Questions. Where does Anna Sui get her coffee? Who does Narciso Rodriguez stay up for each night? Is Jack McCollough’s thread count snobby? We’ve got all those answers and much more.
21 Questions for Karolina Kurkova
21 Questions for Phillip Lim
21 Questions for Pat McGrath
21 Questions for the Proenza Schouler boys
21 Questions for Narciso Rodriguez
21 Questions for Behnaz Sarafpour
21 Questions for Peter Som
21 Questions for Jessica Stam
21 Questions for Anna Sui
21 Questions for Gemma Ward
in other news
Free Papers Are Also Responsible for Late Trains, Garbled AnnouncementsIn a study released yesterday, MTA officials have named free, hand-distributed tabloids like Metro and amNew York as the chief culprits behind subway floods. The statement, needless to say, reverberated around the papers in question — and their competitors — this morning. It would, however, be useful to recall that after the most infamous recent floods, in September 2004, the MTA invoked not the Fourth Estate but rather the Lord Almighty as the perp. (There was a lot of rain as a result of Hurricane Frances.) And, indeed, the transit authority’s own inspector general earlier this year rattled off the following list of shortcomings:
• There’d been “historic neglect” of valves.
• First responders were reduced to arriving at flooded subway sites by subway, which took hours. Some of them never even made it.
• MTA failed to set up a clear-cut center of command for the cleanup effort.
• Trash and muck, including — but by no means limited to — newspapers, free and otherwise, had clogged the drains.
Lawyer’s Delight
Plaintiffs: Michael Wright, professionally known as Wonder Mike; Guy O’Brien, p/k/a Master G; collectively p/k/a The Sugarhill Gang
Defendants: Rhino Entertainment Co.; The Sanctuary Group; Sugar Hill Music Publishing Ltd.; Joseph Robinson Jr.
Accusation: Wonder Mike and Master G, two of three original members of Sugarhill Gang, say the son of the couple who signed them back in 1979 stole their names through fraudulent trademark applications and has put together a replacement band that performs — well, lip-syncs — Sugarhill’s songs. In a lawsuit filed Oct. 20 in a Manhattan federal court, Wright and O’Brien also say the poseur is laying claim to their royalties, and that they haven’t been paid for at least fifteen years on any of their recordings.
early and often
A Slow Train From N.J. to AlbanyYesterday, miraculously, Christopher Street lost its title as the gay-friendliest stop on the PATH train. And with some sort of gay unions suddenly soon-to-be legal on the far side of the river, one can’t help but remember that those trans-Hudson tubes, like so much else, keep the two states tightly linked. What are the chances of this era of good gay feeling making its way across the George Washington Bridge? At first glance, says Jon Dolan at Early and Often, things look good. Eliot Spitzer has said he’s in favor of gay marriage, and polls show the majority of New Yorkers agree. But it may not be that easy: There is, after all, the Republican-controlled State Senate to consider. It’s all explained at E&O.
Spitzer’s Support for Gays Will Not Be Tested [Early and Often]
in other news
A Possibly Bullshit Theory on the Cosmic Meaning of Goldman Partnerships
The biennial Rite of Riches is here again: Yesterday, Goldman Sachs unveiled its new partner managing directors — 115 of the lucky bastards. It’s the finance world’s ultimate prize, not least because PMDs get a share of the firm’s revenue. Based on Goldman’s projected 2006 intake of $36 billion, these hard-working ladies and gentlemen stand to rake in about $9 million apiece this year alone. It’s a cause for celebration, of course. But it’s also a reason to polish up résumés. Because unlike at practically every other company in the world, when you reach the top of your game at Goldman, it’s the exact moment you start contemplating your next job.
grub street
Be Thin Like Adam Platt
How does a restaurant critic — a man whose very vocation requires him to eat prodigiously — stay lithe and slim? (And how can the rest of us get a job where weighing in at 225 is considered “slim”?) In his most recent Gobbler contribution to Grub Street, New York’s leviathan of a professional eater, Adam Platt, shares the trade secrets for keeping in shape. Remember, he says, that nutritionists are your friends and that bread baskets are your enemies. There are more tips where that came from; just take a run down Grub Street.
How a Restaurant Critic Diets [Grub Street]
cultural capital
What’s New, Pussy Cat?
With this week’s release of Pussy Cats Starring the Walkmen, the New York warble rockers have breathed new life into Harry Nilsson’s 1974 original Pussy Cats, an odd album produced by John Lennon in the midst of his “lost weekend” debauchery. The Walkmen faithfully and completely re-create the pop gem, a bewildering mix of classics and originals recorded while Lennon and his drinking buddy Nilsson were tearing through L.A.’s bar scene.
The release also reanimates an almost-forgotten strand of creative gimmickry: the full-length cover. Past reimaginings have run the gamut from genre makeovers (Booker T. & The MGs’ McElmore Avenue was a funky Abbey Road) to hipster novelties (Pussy Galore’s Exile on Main Street, a cassette-only limited edition) to theatrical nerdiness (Rufus Wainwright’s recent restaging of Judy Garland’s classic 1961 Carnegie Hall performance). Some hit and some miss, but that’s no reason to give up on the genre all together. Now the Walkmen have us thinking about some other bands we’d like to see paired with classic LPs.
show and talk
Ask a Retailer: Paris Edition
The buyers from Kirna Zabête and Intermix reported from Paris on their favorite collections from the spring 2007 shows. What will you be wearing next season? Space-age outfits, goddess dresses, and Lucite heels. One hopes not at the same time.
