I missed publishing this last Friday's Fashion Industry Roundup because I was in New York City -- I was originally there to attend the Sniffapalooza Fall Ball, but within the first ten minutes after arriving at the open Bergdorf Goodman event on Saturday, I walked out due to one attendee's highly inappropriate conduct.
There must be a belief among a subset of older, urban straight women (not all of them, mind you, just a small group within that group) that behaving in an overtly sexualized manner toward any gay man within collaring distance is perfectly acceptable, but no (really!), it's not. Publicly latching onto a man you've just met, grabbing at his clothes, running your hands over most of his body and hoisting your cleavage into his face is perfectly acceptable only if you're in the process of negotiating a price per hour; bellowing Italian opera at the top of your lungs while engaged in all of the above is just the quease-inducing icing on a shockingly bad first impression cake.
Fortunately, there's more than plenty to do and see in Manhattan, which makes walking out on the reason I traveled there in the first place not as tragic an event as it could have been, so enough about that (and I apologize that I have no photos or better stories to share from the Sniffapalooza Fall Ball). But following is a before and after photo of the weather as we drove from JFK airport into Manhattan, and then the weather as we drove out of Manhattan several days later to catch our flight home.
Notice that it's clear, sunny and dry on our way OUT of the city (naturally):
Dismal on the in, Gorgeous on the out
Highlights of the trip:
1.) Friday evening dinner at Buddakan with Dr. Avery Gilbert ("What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life") and artist+industrial designer Della Chuang ("KyotEau: Bottled Memories"). Buddakan is the kind of restaurant that can only exist in NYC -- one part night club, two parts architectural fantasy, and three parts world-class eatery.
NY Mag writes: "This strange, synthetic landscape doesn't feel like a restaurant. It feels like an oversize nightclub, or a random gathering in the semi-abandoned mansion of some absent Cantonese billionaire." Their reviewer hated the space, but liked the food. All I can say to that is, when we finally finished with our (inventive and terrific) dinner at 11:30 p.m., there wasn't a single empty table in the entire 16,000 square foot place, plus the bar was hopping with a standing room only crowd, so it's not just the kitchen that's doing it up right at Buddakan.
Added bonus: Avery Gilbert and Della Chuang are both as fun and witty across the dinner table as they are in print.
2.) Taking photographs in the meatpacking district. NYC's former food processing district has gone under the knife for a serious makeover, especially in the last five to six years -- what used to be a neighborhood of slaughterhouses and packing plants is now home to high-end luxury boutiques (Matthew Williamson, Alexander McQueen, Moschino, Yigal Azrouël, Stella McCartney, etc.), a gleaming Apple store and seriously glam bars, night clubs and restaurants (such as the aforementioned Buddakan).
But this new address for sleek luxury is still dotted with brief islands of trash, dirt and graffiti, with the occasional peeling warehouse and grimy dive bar defying all attempts at gentrification:
The ghost of the Meatpacking District's past
And though it was cold and windy, we went for a walk on the High Line, a former elevated railway that was once marked for demolition but has been renovated instead into a public park space/walking area for city residents. The first completed section (there's a lot more still to go, and the committee raised $150 million for the project) is beautifully done in that spare, open style I enjoy so much, retaining the spirit of the old railway while incorporating grass, trees, poured concrete and a lot of weathered wood.
I especially liked the gently sloping park benches:
The very model of a modern railroad park bench
We also went walking through the SoHo area, and where the Meatpacking District was near deserted on a Sunday afternoon, SoHo was jammed with people. The sidewalks were crowded and every bar, cafe and restaurant was hopping busy. The retail shops in SoHo weren't nearly as bustling with traffic as the bars and restaurants, but they were certainly busier than the forlorn Meatpacking District boutiques.
I ducked into the Anya Hindmarch shop in SoHo to get a look at what Hindmarch is offering this season, and while her fall palette was for the most part pretty muted (very dark blues, greys, greens, along with black and chocolate brown), she did include a true red in several models that the staff said were selling better than any of their other items.
Our conclusion: color is in! I was also told that the new Spring collection of bags will be bright bright bright, as designers quickly realized that accessories in subdued, muted colors are not what the public is craving.
I questioned the sales assistant about the response of their clients to the collection Hindmarch recently designed for Target. She remarked that the reaction was a mixed bag -- it brought new customers into the store, but mainly to look at the lowest price-point merchandise. The regular Hindmarch clientele, however, weren't particularly pleased with the Target association, and felt that Hindmarch had tarnished the brand by allowing her clean, architecturally influenced designs to be mass-produced using low-wage labor and cheap, synthetic materials.
A fair complaint, and I got the impression that the sales assistant agreed.
One positive note to the recession: demand for reptile skins in the fashion industry has dropped-off so drastically that Hindmarch can now offer generously sized python skin clutches for half the price you would ordinarily have encountered two to three years ago. Reptile skin farms are desperate to unload their product, and a savvy designer can take advantage of that.
3.) My new hat. It was so. frickin. cold when we arrived in NYC that the first thing I did was snag a hat and a warm vest to wear under my not so weather-ready coat as we tromped around the city. The vest is thin but toasty warm, reversible with navy blue on one side and bottle green on the other, but it's the striped hat that takes me on a retro roller-coaster ride through the theme park of my mind:
Hello, the late 80's are calling, and you just picked up the phone
4.) Stopping by the Edward Bess counter at Bergdorf Goodman. Bess recently released some new lip colors that aren't available for sale on the company's website, and I wanted to bring back a couple of the items for the upcoming Vanity Bash with Louise and her friends in November.
Flabbergast moment #1: the Edward Bess sales assistant recognized me from when I first stopped by the counter back in August. Flabbergast moment #2: she remembered my name! Wha-how-huh?? I can barely remember the names of people I met only five minutes ago, so needless to say, I was more than floored.
5.) Drinking a glass of 250 year old Madeira at Asiate. 250 year old Madeira is rarely even available, much less do I get the opportunity to actually down a glass of it. A thoroughly memorable wrap-up to a Manhattan getaway.
***Note: Madeira heals all false starts.
EPILOGUE:
While I don't see any further Sniffapalooza trips in my future (one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch), it was a pleasure to amble through Manhattan for a few days in a month that wasn't August (understatement of the year).
I can always buy a hat and vest when it's too cold, but August in NYC . . . *shudder*
UPDATE (10/21/09):
I did have a reader email me and remark that the wildly inappropriate behavior I described above is not restricted to straight women and gay men, and that perhaps my limitation of the parameters does a kind of injustice to the overall issue of personal boundaries, and the lack of respect some people show for those boundaries.
My reply was that I can only speak from my own experience, and my experience has been that there's a certain subset of older, straight women who behave egregiously with and around gay men (groping, grabbing, sexualized comments about appearance, graphic descriptions of what they'd like to "do" if only he were straight, etc.), perhaps assuming that the normal rules of social etiquette don't apply -- yet aggressively invasive behavior like this is unacceptable, no matter the gender or sexual orientation of the people involved.
But yes, dealing with individuals who exhibit such inappropriate behavior in public settings is a problem for everyone, and it seems as though the "creative" or more artistic functions, such as art shows or perfume gatherings, unfortunately lead some people to believe they have permission to act-out in any way they desire, with no regard for the personal space and dignity of those around them.
One point to consider: if a man behaved in the same physically aggressive way with a woman he'd just met at Sniffapalooza, he'd be booted out of the event and asked never to return. I would have thought the Sniffapalooza organizers understood that *all* their attendees arrive with the assumption that they'll be accorded a respectful environment.
UPDATE 2 (10/21/09):
Another email nailed it perfectly (sent from a female reader), expressing so well what I was trying to say when I remarked on how some older, urban straight women behave poorly around gay men:
"I think there are indeed some woman, of many ages, that do not understand that the same rules of decorum (such as being aware of who wants to be touched, how, and when) apply to gay men, just as they do to straight men, and women, too, of course . . . I believe that there is some inherent prejudice in this -- as though a man who is "safe" may be touched or approached in any way that may please the woman."
Exactly exactly exactly. I've encountered this attitude numerous times, and it's, like, "Helloooo! I'm a human being, not a stage prop!"
UPDATE 3 (10/22/09):
The organizers of Sniffapalooza generously refunded my admission fee for both days, even though I never asked them to, and stated that they will contact the attendee and deal with the offending behavior.
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