Oh, Those Party Frocks! And Prep World New York

Hello-Hello, it seems we might be back to “normal,” although ascertaining just what ‘normal’ is continues to evolve.

At the very least we return to more normal blather and bloviations topics, beginning with last night’s Met Ball. Considered by many as the fashion world’s Oscars, the night brings out the A-list.  As Hilary Alexander wrote in The Telegraph:

“In terms of style, effort, money and glamour, this red carpet mother of all fashion-fests, orchestrated by Anna Wintour for the last 13 years, outshines them all.

It was an occasion for the well dressed and the merely wealthy.”

Below we see Ms Wintour (yes, that is The André in all his regal splendor to her right) in a stunning Chanel couture gown. On the right she is with her daughter, Bee Shaffer, who wore Balenciaga.

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The formal name for the event is the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala.  This year’s event coincides with tomorrow’s opening of the highly anticipated Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty show.

Met Photos via WWD

As one might imagine, coming on the heels of the royal wedding and the two Sarah Burton McQueen wedding gowns, the atmosphere was electric. Below, the woman of the hour, Ms. Burton.

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Sarah Jessica Parker was in vintage McQueen.

AP Photos

Hamish Bowles was in McQueen.

Via

For those not familiar with the Costume Institute, it is part of the Met, housing more than 75,000 costumes and accessories.  Below, part of the Lauren clan, left to right we see Dylan Lauren, David Lauren and Lauren Bush.

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Jessica Alba also wore Ralph Lauren, she was radiant.

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There were some figure-hugging creations; below left, Fergie in a Marchesa gown more reminiscent of a wedding dress, on the right we see Beyonce in Emilio Pucci with her husband, Jay-Z.

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How snug was Beyonce’s dress? She was unable to climb the stairs in it,

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The lights are blinding, Renée Zellweger is silhouetted below.

Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty

Some of our favorite faux-prepsters from Gossip Girl were on hand, Leighton Meester was in Louis Vuitton, Blake Lively in Grecian-inspired Chanel and Jessica Szohr in… in.. umm, we have lost our notes, eek!

AP/Getty/WWD

The level of detailing on these gowns is extraordinary.

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Below, Dakota and Elle Fanning, both wore Valentino.

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Perhaps our favorite gown of the evening was Ashley Greene’s, custom Donna Karan.

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It was exquisite.

Last night the first menswear from Tory Burch debuted, seen on Kanye West; the designer was in vintage Jean Patou that was gorgeous.

Mike Segar/Reuters

Tommy Hilfiger his wife, Dee,and Jessica Stam wore Hilfiger.

Reuters

It is a busy week for Mr. Hilfiger, the designer’s collaborative line with Lisa Birnbach, Prep World, launches its first pop-up store in the US.

Prep World/Tommy Hilfiger

As covered in this post, the first pop-up store was in Paris. The temporary stores are designed to look like a beachside cottage in the Hamptons, below we show the model store.

Courtesy Image

And here is the real deal under construction in the Meatpacking district, originally scheduled to open the 28th of April, now looking like it will be ready for a Thursday opening.

The capsule collection features an array of products, many of them appealing.

 

Some of the merchandise is available online.

http://usa.tommy.com/tommy/index.jsp?ctcampaign=871&ctkwd=tommyhilfiger&ctmatch=Exact&ctcreative=10700438385&gclid=CMGv_q2izKgCFUOo4AodOWuZpQ

For more background on the line, click here. If interested in seeing the Paris Prep World, click here.

Apologies for the brevity today, but we must race out the door!

ADDITIONAL PHOTO CREDITS:

• Kristin Somody Whalen/WWD
• Steve Eichner/WWD

Preppy GOOP, & Brooks Brothers Bonanza

Greetings and salutations from the sometimes strange land of the Preppy Princess, where today we start with GOOP.  Surprisingly, this is not a Princess cooking tragedy resulting from an experiment in the kitchen on Cook’s night off.  Rather, it is a website from über-preppy Gwenyth Paltrow. (Spence, three years.)

The GOOP site is being launched the same week as Ms. Paltrow’s cooking show on PBS with CelebeChef Mario Batali, “Spain… on the Road Again“.

Photo Frappe Inc./Courtesy of Public Television Series "Spain... on the Road Again"

GOOP still appears to be under construction, but in copy on the site Ms. Paltrow explains that while she has made mistakes over the years, she has also learned things and would like to share some of them with readers.

“I want to nourish what is real, and I want to do it without wasting time. I love to travel, to cook, to eat, to take care of my body and mind, to work hard,” she notes on the site. “I love being a mother who has to overcome my bad qualities to be a good mother. I love being in spaces that are clean and nice.”

Not shared is any info on the heels worn by Ms. Paltrow to the PBS show’s premiere Sunday night in New York. British tabloid the Sun is claiming the shoes worn by the star were studded with real diamonds on the heels. Please, please, someone tell TP this isn’t true.

In the “Thank God it’s Over” department we take a quick peek at the newly renovated Saks in Boston.  If you are going to be in Back Bay, this is worth the visit, although at times it *is* far easier to navigate to Natick where one can do both Nordstrom and Needless Markup Neimans without the parking issues at The Pru.

The Meghan Jones photos above show off the new and improved look, with the second photo featuring the Swarovski crystals above the escalator in the store.

Wasn’t it divine to learn that one of the few things we try and watch on television, Mad Men, won an Emmy as Best Drama Series? Oddly enough we actually remembered to watch Sunday evening (a rare occurrence) but naturally found ourselves switching between amc and ESPN in order to see the Yankees’ last game at Yankee Stadium. And how does one prepare to attend the Emmy Awards?

Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times

If you are actor Bryan Batt (he plays Salvatore Romano, Sterling Cooper’s art director), with a glass of scotch in hand while having your eyebrows plucked. Mr. Batt said he would be wearing a Thom Browne tuxedo from Brooks Brothers’ Black Fleece collection to the show on Sunday.  Below, a photo of the actor in a scene with Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olsen.

But it turns out Mr. Batt was only one of many gentlemen clad in Brooks eveningwear. Others included Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report and Rick Schroeder of A&E’s sci-fi series The Andromeda Strain. Mr. Colbert is seen below with fellow comedian Daily Show host Jon Stewart.

Others from the Mad Men cast expected to be in Brooks included Robert Morse who plays Bertram Cooper, one of ad agency Sterling Cooper’s founders.

In the picture just below there are four Mad Men cast members and all four are wearing Brooks Brothers:

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Aaron Staton far left, who plays Account Executive Ken Cosgrove…

Michael Gladis, second left in the photo above; Paul Kinsey is his character’s name…

Mr. Batt whom we have already shown in character, and then Rich Sommer, seen far right in the four-shot in his role as Harry Crane, a Media Buyer.

This does not include at least four other men who work on the hit show behind the scenes who were also expected to be in Brooks Brothers Sunday evening.  If the fashions of the era interest you, amc-tv has a weekly Mad Men fashion blog, and there is also a good read, Mad Men Fashion: Then & Now on Black Book Magazine’s site.

The sense that all manner of things are going on simply because one is away from home is accentuated by the lack of that portable office created by a laptop. Imagine our dismay during our long weekend to find the wireless not working!

It must explain our missing the news of “The Carrie Diaries,” from SATC (Sex and the City) author Candace Bushnell. It seems we shall have the opportunity to learn all about a teenage Carrie Bradshaw, that character made famous by Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City. Ms. Bushnell has a new contract with publisher Harper Collins for not one, but two books, on Carrie’s life before Sex and the City. A comment attributed to the author from the news release:

“Carrie in high school did not follow the crowd—she led it. It was there that she began observing and commenting on the social scene.”

Both books are due out in 2010, and will be published as “teen novels.” Some readers may recall our previous mention of something due out much sooner from Ms. Bushnell, One Fifth Avenue. It was released yesterday.

Following closely on the heels of this story is more discussion of the possibility of another Sex and the City film, conversation spurred as a result of the movie’s release on DVD.

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!)