Ralph Lauren Returns to Greenwich & Who the New Moon Stars Wore To The Premiere

Hello-Hello & Happy Friday, whoo-hoo!

In the interest of Friday Fun, we will do a lot of photos today, leaning toward what the younger generation calls ‘eye candy’.

We begin with a topic that is off-the-charts in popularity:

Last night many stars from New Moon attended a special screening in the city, including actress Kristin Stewart.

Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for D&G

Ms. Stewart was in a Burberry trench over a Valentino dress. Co-star Robert Pattinson sported Dolce & Gabbana.

PHOTO: Evan Agostini/AP

Taylor Lautner was also in Dolce & Gabbana, a good choice as D&G sponsored the event.

Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for D&G

The film’s stars have been everywhere this week, keeping the morning shows busy.

And making promotional appearances, as Kellan Lutz and Nikki Reed did at the Toys ‘r Us in town, talking up the line of toys tied to the movie.

Andy Kropa/Getty

Last night’s screening was definitely a must for many on the social circuit, including Gossip Girl star Ed Westwick. (Can we say smoldering here?)

PHOTO: Lexie Moreland/WWD

Others from the show were on hand, Taylor Momsen was seen in more clothing and less makeup than usual.

Below left, Jessica Szohr, and on the right, Ivanka Trump.

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Also on the hit parade here at the prepatorium, a return to Greenwich for Ralph Lauren, after an absence of more than ten years. The new Polo Ralph Lauren store opens today.

The new emporium is right on Greenwich Avenue; today’s WWD story has more:

“… no expense appears to have been spared, even in this economy. From marble to moldings, lacquer and custom wallpaper, Lauren, who has a home in nearby Bedford, N.Y., was keen to bring his brand of luxury to the area.”

Courtesy Photo via WWD

Apparel and accessories are on the first floor with the Home Store on the second level.

Courtesy Photo via WWD

More from Marc Karimzadeh’s story:

“The men’s area can be accessed through a separate entrance and has an equestrian feel, with such features as a beamed ceiling and carriage lanterns. The line focuses on a more casual assortment.”

Courtesy Photo via WWD

 

The store has a posh, lush look.

Courtesy Photo via WWD

The town fathers must be pleased, Greenwich Avenue had been looking a bit bleak. Now it will be jumping, tomorrow Apple is opening their new store just a few doors down.  It is definitely a plus for all involved, the retailer, the community and the consumer.

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Today’s Pretty in Pink is Michelle Wie.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

The young golfer hugs her trophy after winning the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, her first LPGA Tour win.

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We close with a farewell to Uga VII, the much-loved mascot for the Georgia Bulldogs. Here he is at the Georgia-Florida game on October 31, 2009.

Brant Sanderlin/AJC

Below, Uga makes his debut last August in Athens.

Curtis Compton/AJC

Just how did a guy like that keep his cool?

Courtesy Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Uga VII died yesterday morning of a heart attack. He was only four years old and will be buried in a private ceremony at Sanford Stadium tomorrow.

He just replaced Uga VI about 14 months ago, a very short tenure as the team’s mascot.  The word is there won’t be any Uga for tomorrow’s game at Sanford Stadium. However, early reports indicating there would not be an Uga VIII appear to be incorrect.

For a whole slew of fun photos of this Uga, click here. For an outstanding  article on a Bulldog Rescue chapter, click here.

Goodybye Uga, from Silly Tilly (our little Bulldog Rescue girl) and all of us here at the Prepatorium.

A New Anti-Prep is Named, Pink Panther Collection in at Pink’s

Regular readers are familiar with an exclusive club, The Order of the Anti-Prep.  Membership in this society is reserved for those individuals or items so wretched, so horrid in their excess they simply shriek bad taste.  Conspicuous consumption. More than nouveau gauche.  You know what we mean, you don’t need us dredging up the gory backstory.

Our newest member is someone we have pondered naming previously, but we declined to do so out of concern for the ongoing challenges she seemed to face in her personal life.  We no longer harbor such concerns.

Once again Lindsay Lohan appeared on the Princess Radar, this time over the weekend. The reason was a plethora of gossip and non-news news stories about her demands for a First Class seat on a flight back to Los Angeles from Florida.  Ms. Lohan had journeyed to Florida for a Stoopid Super Bowl party, a paid appearance, we are speculating.

PHOTO: Steve Nesius/AP

According to Fox News:

“The 22-year-old caused chaos while departing on a Delta Flight from Tampa, Fla. on Saturday morning when the airline was unable to provide her with a first-class seat on the already overbooked flight.”

Besides being another episode in the “It just isn’t done” category, this is another in a series of seemingly endless incidents pushing TP  and the Consort over the line, leaving us no choice but to name Ms. Lohan an official Anti-Prep.  Honestly.

For those unfamiliar with the dubious title, previously named antipreps include Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian.  These individuals are also referred to as TAPWSNBN (The Anti Prep Who Shall Not Be Named), an acronym created by none other than the wonderful I Pick Pretty.

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Another stellar job in a trend report from the sharp minds at Women’s Wear Daily, as they take a look at a wardrobe basic, the white shirt.  Below, the shirt as Tory Burch does it:

PHOTO: Thomas Iannaccone/WWD

Another example, this one is from Tommy Hilfiger:

PHOTO: Thomas Iannaccone/WWD

This example comes from Thomas Pink, whose shirts we adore.

PHOTO: Thomas Iannaccone/WWD

While white is a must-have, isn’t this gem by Pink more fun?  We offer the Pink Fever shirt for your perusal and consideration.

Thomas Pink

It is one of many fabulous pieces in the retailer’s new Pink Panther collection:

Courtesy Thomas Pink

While the next item is crafted for the Man of the House, we do adore them. (However, there is not a chance the Spousal Unit is wearing these, no chance whatsoever.)

Thomas Pink

If any of these tickle your fancy and you plan on buying them online, haste in doing so may be wise, as the collection just went up Saturday and some items are already sold out.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: We must amend this to reflect updated information on the Consort’s socks sentiments: “What do you mean??!! I’d wear those, I think they’re pretty sweet!”  We stand corrected.

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The sales continue everywhere – we haven’t been posting most, as there are just *so* many. But we thought we would mention the Last Call at Emporio Armani:

And also remind everyone of the outstanding offers at J. Press.

J. Press

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We feel we must share a few more “When Pink Goes Bad” items that caught our eye:

Photo: Michiel Meewis

If one is thinking the neon creation above from designer Carly Garwin is merely an aberration, think again.

Montage Courtesy Refinery 29

The folks at Refinery 29’s Pipeline blog shared these in a post last week; you know we couldn’t keep them to ourselves!

All of these creations are from the recent Menswear Fall/Winter 2009 shows in Milan and Paris. Givenchy is responsible for the suit on the far left, Calvin Klein deserves credit for the middle photograph, and the more formal look on the far right comes from Dolce & Gabbana.  We thought the Givenchy was one of the “worst ever” suits until we saw this:

Courtesy Givenchy

To be fair, all three design houses showed some outstanding styles, especially Calvin Klein, frequently worn by yours truly.  But there was simply no way we weren’t posting some of the more outrageous creations.

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We close once again with a Pretty in Pink, sharing another delightful item from our new Lilly Pulitzer Stationery & Gift line. These are the Letterpressed Correspondence Cards, or note cards.

Lilly Pulitzer at PreppyPrincess.com

They are shown in the Color by Numbers motif; we are fond of its elegant look accented by a touch of whimsy.

Help Me Understand – the October Edition

For those not entirely familiar with The Princess (and really, who is?),  occasionally we encounter what are euphemistically dubbed IFCs, “Intellectual Fashion Challenges.” It is at these times that we need you most. As always, we plead for your wisdom, your counsel, your insight, and your answers as we ask you to “Help Me Understand.”

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One little detail: when doing the HMU we are frequently forced to discuss the “M” word, as the cost, sometimes perceived as an investment, factors into our horrified response addled thoughts.

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It is items such as this that provoke so much confusion on our part:

Hermes Plush Horse

In case you were unfamiliar with this, we share a friendly, furry creature for your little one; the Hermès plush horse. Stuffed animal. It is a stuffed animal. This fine fellow comes in three sizes, the large (shown here) for $890, the smaller size is a mere $490, and the oh-so-economical petite is $370.  Of course one could purchase all three sizes and have a veritable herd to look after. Imagine that.

As we are on the topic of little plush creatures, let us examine this:

Karl Lagerfeld Courtesy Photo

This is from Steiff, a firm we generally adore. This is a limited edition thank god for small favors, and they have been on sale almost a month, so if the little guy strikes your fancy you may have to hurry to Neiman’s or Bergdorf’s. You were wondering what precisely one receives for their $1500 investment?

• 14.5″H bear with jointed limbs, constructed of the finest alpaca wool.
• A miniature outfit designed in collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld, including black denim jeans, flannel jacket, white shirt, Swarovski® crystal-studded silken tie, leather belt with Swarovski® crystal-studded KL buckle, and tailor-made leather boots.
• Miniature sunglasses in the style Karl Lagerfeld himself wears.
• Special black-and-white gift box with KL and Steiff logos.

And how does Mr. Lagerfeld feel about being immortalized as a Steiff bear? According to W Magazine:

“Lagerfeld calls the Hamburg company’s longevity “incredible,” but he’s hardly surprised the toymaker dialed his number. The designer of Chanel, Fendi and Karl Lagerfeld collections has already been immortalized in a video game and as a lead figurine and plastic toy.”

(Full disclosure: TP finds the creature to be cute. We apologize, but we do. No fears about us adding him to the family, but we just cannot lie.)

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Our next amazing item, on that triggers a severe case of Logophobia. We mean severe. And it’s chronic. Also unrepentant. Behold the Louis Vuitton Farandole Hair Clip:

Louis Vuitton Farandole Hair Clip

Of course, there is always a plethora of designers eager to bank your pin money in exchange for providing them with free advertising, in this case D & G, aka Dolce & Gabbana. Here we have the D&G Script Logo sunglasses via eLuxury.

And to wrap things up, a look at something Posh, er, someone who used to be named Posh, Victoria Beckham with husband David Beckham. The couple was promoting their new signature double-fragrance line at Macy’s when the photos were taken a few weeks back.

Ray Tamarra/Getty Images

Naturally you would like a closer look at the thigh-high PVC boots.

PHOTOS: Splash News & Getty

The Antonio Berardi boots with very high heels are 5-1/2″ off the ground… except there are no heels. That is the best way we can describe it. The boots would run approximately $5,736 and are available by custom order only. To be fair, we remember reading somewhere that Ms. Beckham actually found the boots to be fairly comfortable, and the lack of the heel is what she felt made them bearable. Regardless of comfort, they make quite a statement…which is the hoped-for outcome of the whole exercise, don’t you think?

We say “G’bye for now!” and leave you with our final items, the Gucci logo bags.

Discreet? Understated? We think not.

Cartier does MySpace, Preppy at Milan Fashion Week?!

The Princess can’t quite figure out if Grandmother is approaching this particular holiday doing the proverbial ‘rolling over in her…,’ or privately winking at me as I tell Mommy about the newest member who is posting on the MySpace website: Cartier. The jewelers on Fifth Avenue. Exactly.

We shouldn’t be surprised; Neiman‘s did something very similar with YouTube last year as part of their 100th Anniversary celebration. (Yes, we said YouTube.) And anyone thinking TP is revving up for a rant (how very unPrincess-like, we would never do that!) is mistaken; we shan’t be making any snarky comments about Cartier’s marketing efforts. The firm has donated more than $2,000,000 to sixteen different charities through sales of bracelets like the one above. The bracelets sell for $975 with $200 of each sale going to one of the charities, covering a broad spectrum from the Boys & Girls Clubs of America to the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance.

And since we were chatting up MySpace, we thought we would share this short item from the Men’s Style page in their News site entitled “Milan Fashion Week Menswear Trends: Preppy”

The looks above include eye-catching pants on the left from Dolce & Gabbana, the aqua shirt and khaki slacks are by Versace, and Enrico Coveri did the pieces on the right. A reminder these are from the shows presenting looks for the Spring/Summer 2009 season, so they are not available now. For those not familiar with Coveri, he has been on the scene longer than even The Princess suspected, and we show a few of his designs below, all of which we find quite attractive.

Across the pond they are still playing a bit of tennis, and this evening I am reminded that in tennis as in many other sports, good sportsmanship is defined by one’s conduct both on and off the court. We leave you with Rafa Nadal’s blog post on his win over England’s Andy Murray at Wimbledon, securing his place in the Finals. Here is his post as it runs on the Times of London’s site, “The Crowd Were Fantastic – And I played Not Bad Too“. 

Rafa Nadal & Andy Murray

 

Top Ten ‘Social Status’ Brands – Is Yours on the List? And an Anti-Prep Update

Recently The Spousal Unit indicated that at times The Princess might be a bit… well, a tad ‘snarky’ in her posts. Snarky? SNARKY? Moi? Feeling the need to defend my good name and reputation, it became obvious that some research was in order. Below we offer partial results for perusal at your leisure.

snarky

Pronunciation: \ˈsnär-kē\
Function: adjective
Etymology: dialect snark to annoy, perhaps alteration of snark to irritate
1 : crotchety, snappish
2 : sarcastic, impertinent, or irreverent in tone or manner <snarky lyrics>
snark·i·ly \-kə-lē\ adverb

We were delighted to find a wealth of information on the topic, with page after page of definitions, discussion and even some debate; it was really quite educational. Frankly, our favorite part of the research involved learning that snark may also be used as an adverb. Right now I’m trying to think of a way to insert it into conversation that way. How do you feel about Snarkalicious…? Oh, TSU was spot on, as always.

Let’s start with an Anti-Prep Update. This was, quite frankly, impossible to resist. As some may already know, Paris is beyond über Anti-Prep. She actually transcends the category, surpassed only by Kim Kardashian and possibly Perez Hilton. And maybe a few others. At any rate, we present Exhibit A, a heartfelt statement from Ms. Hilton on the home page of her hair extensions site, viewable here:

Everyone should get the chance to be me. That’s why I created the world’s hottest hair extensions. Choose from ten fabulous shades and you will be a clip away from hotness.

If we had only known that everyone should have that chance. To be her. Darn it. Once again our unhotness has been exposed in all of its stark, naked horror for everyone to see. And I had no idea I had the chance to be her. No. Idea. At All.

Well, chin up, shoulders back and all that, for here at the Prepatorium we do not let little tragedies like this derail us; we move on. We stated we would be discussing the Top Social Status Brands and we will proceed to do precisely that, hotness-like hair extensions or not. Harumph.

This particular list comes as the result of extensive research done by the Luxury Institute, and The Princess is more than gratified to see who is at the top of The List. You may well recognize The Knot clutches below from the Number One brand.

The Institute polled 1600 individuals with a minimum annual income of $150,000 for the survey, and Bottega Veneta took the top spot. In a story about the poll, Luxury Institute CEO Milton Pedraza notes “Bottega is subtle and inconspicuous — and paradoxically has gotten some press for this…You know it if you’re in the know. It’s for people who aren’t looking to impress others.” Below we show a look from their Fall/Winter 2008 apparel line.

Valentino follows in second place, then Prada (landing page at Neimans seen below)

Then Chanel, followed by Hermes in fifth place.

Giorgio Armani was in sixth place, then we have Versace (that is a dress from the 2008/2009 Versace Resort line below),

then Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci and Louis Vuitton. And there you have the top ten from the list.

BTW, if you were wondering who Anna Wintour might fancy come this fall’s election, here’s a clue: she had quite a role at last night’s fundraiser for prospective First Lady Michelle Obama, at a Manhattan gallery. (Wintour is the oh-so-powerful Editor at Vogue magazine and hypothetically the role model for Michelle Obama

Judging from the list of attendees at the function it was quite the place to be.Remember our mentions of Lauren Santo Domingo in previous posts? She was also at last night’s festivities at the Chelsea gallery in a divine Oscar de la Renta frock along with Spike Lee, designers Monique Lhuillier, Georgina Chapman and Nicole Miller. (You know, the Nina Ricci-SJP-SATC-Premiere-Dress-from-You-Know-Where-Nightmare that Lauren wore first?)

Speaking of Sex and the City, Cynthia Nixon also attended, wearing Calvin Klein Collection. Others in attendance included Lebron James and his girlfriend, and you could see Zac Posen’s “Yes We Can, Obama 08” t-shirt beneath his blazer. Many thanks to Fashion Week Daily for the fab photos!

We close with this absolutely delightful image from the good folks at Barneys. It was part of an email from them several days ago; looking at it keeps bringing a smile to my face. On an afternoon when some whimsy seems like a good idea, we’ll just leave things here and say “Au revoir.” (It is linked if you feel compelled to click!)