With her unique mix of ebullience, sincerity and style, ninety-three-year old Zelda Kaplan, has been known to observe, "It takes courage to be who you are."

Kaplan has, for some years now- as her profiles in New York Magazine, The Times and the HBO documentary, "Her Name is Zelda", attest -captured the hearts and imaginations of her fellow New Yorkers. A popular peripatetic in the nightlife of the city that doesn't sleep, she’s Manhattan’s cool club matriarch. She is always (even if it's a private party night) welcomed at Bungalow 8, Double Seven and the other exclusively trendy Manhattan hot spots where, because of her insomnia, she prefers to sip champagne and dance a slow fox trot 'till dawn. Says one nightclub owner: “Zelda’s got juice.”

During Fashion Week, when she is not striding down the cat walk ("She has the soul of a ... Read More

Christian Cota has just entered his late twenties and exudes, at first glance, a faintly dangerous, Mephistophelian allure.  Tall, slender, with blue black hair, twinkly blue green eyes, high cheekbones, an aquiline nose and an aristocratic slouch, he could easily be mistaken for the spoiled boy star of one of Visconti’s historic Italian epics.

However, when he starts to speak, his soft, well-bred Spanish lisp is immediately apparent. So there’s nothing Italian about him after all. And in about five minutes, one can’t avoid realizing that there’s nothing even remotely decadent or wicked about Christian either. On the contrary, as Ana Oritz recently noted, he’s a really, really “good soul”, and, fortunately for female fashion followers everywhere, he’s currently one of the most talented, forward-looking young designers in America.

Some facts: Christian was born, bred, and still vacations (at Playa del Carmen) with his family in Mexico. He traveled ... Read More

Greg Lauren’s new sight specific installation, “Counter Couture” opened at the French Institute’s Art Gallery at 22 East 60 Street in Manhattan on February 4, just in time for Fashion Week. And a suitably smart crowd including but not limited to: Elizabeth Berkley, the artist’s film star wife, Chiu-Ti Jansen, Dori Cooperman, Dylan Lauren, screen writer Jenny Lumet, Mary Randolf, Agnes Banks, Bonnie Pfeifer-Evans, Estella Cohan, Beth Lauren, Elizabeth Hayes, Tristan de Terves, Tal Shapsa, Jerry Spyer, Marie Monique Steckel, and Ralph and Jerry and Brad Lauren -was there.

Dominating the show: a video sculpture ‘Suit Screen’ in which a row of ten impeccable, life size, white suits, hand stitched by the artist in stiffened Japanese packing paper acts as the screen on which the Hitchcock classic “To Catch a Thief” is projected and re projected in an infinitely occurring loop. It’s an ode to the ... Read More