By Benjamin-Émile Le Hay 9/06/12 5:21pm

fashion week

Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg, Oscar de la Renta and Sarah Jessica Parker

The Oscar: De La Renta Honored by the Couture Council

Quelle chance that the venerable philanthropist and socialite Jean Shafiroff invited The Observer to wine and dine at her table at the David H. Koch Theater for Fashion Institute of Technology’s 2012 Couture Council of The Museum luncheon.  Despite the hefty $1,000-a-head price tag, around 600 guests, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Barbara Walters, Anna Wintour, Simon Doonan, Fe Fendi, Diane von Furstenberg, editrix and realty star Nina Garcia, Carolina Herrera, Mario Buatta, Yaz Hernandez, Martha Stewart, Dennis Basso, Ruben and Isabel Toledo, YUE editor Chiu-Ti Jansen and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, paraded uptown for the ruckus.  FIT’s clout was undeniable with so many powerful New Yorkers packed into the gold-leaf foyer. Truth be told, 2012 Couture Council Artistry of Fashion honoree Oscar de la Renta certainly deserved credit for the monumental turn-out. Read More

By Ted Gushue 6/11/12 1:44pm

galas

Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld and Ingrid Sischy and the Gordon Parks Centennial Gala. (Leandro Justen/PatrickMcMullan.com)

Playing Sudden-Death Musical Chairs with James Murphy at the Gordon Parks Centennial Gala

We strolled into the Museum of Modern Art last Tuesday, for a gala honoring the centennial of the birth of the renowned photojournalist Gordon Parks, who passed away at 93 in 2006.

A quick nod to the door guy, and then promptly to the bar. Still off the sauce, we grabbed a seltzer and turned around to survey the scene, only to be immediately interrupted by a bronzed figure that had surveyed our less than macho bar order. “Did you just order a sparkling water, m’boy?” photographer Peter Beard asked us.

“Regrettably so,” we admitted to the man whose legendary life-long bender makes Bowie’s Thin White Duke phase look like rehab. Read More

By Delphine Barguirdjian 6/08/12 11:30am

As Seen in SCENE

4 Photos

The Little Black Jacket, Steidl 2012

Culture Cult: Coco’s Classic

Chanel’s Little Black Jacket is having a moment—though it’s not like this classic hasn’t been having a moment ever since Coco drew up the pattern for the look that established her as the greatest couturiere of her time.

But this June, Chanel is celebrating its iconic mascot with a travelling photo exhibit featuring images from the forthcoming book, The Little Black Jacket: Chanel’s Classic Revisited. Due out this fall, the book was born out of a collaboration between none other than Karl Lagerfeld and Vogue Paris’ former editor in chief, Carine Roitfeld who styled various celebrities and personalities wearing the little black jacket while Lagerfeld stood behind the camera capturing the reinvention of this wardrobe staple with black and white film.

It comes to no surprise that, with their powers combined, Lagerfeld and Roitfeld recruited some of the biggest names in fashion, music, film and society to model for The Little Black Jacket. Read More