Yikes! Manhattan Men Bare Hairy Knees, Plump Calves

On a sweltering afternoon early last month, Adam Newman, a 25-year-old Park Slope comedian who works for CollegeHumor.com, made a life-changing decision: He took scissors to a pair of brown corduroy pants and fashioned them into shorts.

“It’s getting hot and I’ve made up my mind. This summer, I’m wearing shorts!” Mr. Newman blogged recently. Read More

Higher-End New York Retailers: Us Worry?

Despite the truckloads of statistics floating around lately indicating that U.S. consumer confidence is plummeting (not to mention the millions of tax rebate checks in the mail), the city’s retailers seem convinced that New Yorkers will continue to shop, recession or not.

Monday brought a flood of new retail news, some of it reflective Read More

La Swinton Sweeps Oscars in Lanvin

Best Supporting Actress winner Tilda Swinton nuked the fashion competition at the recent Oscars. With her 70’s Bowie hair—remember the cover of Low, the brilliant 1977 album?—and her black velvet Lanvin one-sleeved toga, La Swinton made all those other gals in their fussy bustier glamour gowns look like a bunch of Republican drears on their Read More

Bonkers at Barneys! Sale Attracts Swarm of Sale-Hungry Shopaholics

This morning at around eight o’clock, Barneys flung open its doors to welcome stylish spendthrifts—reportedly over 100 of them—who had lined up to make like locusts at the store’s warehouse sale. Our morning coffee must have been spiked with too much sanity, because we weren’t there to report on the dumpling-line doppelganger. But a Read More

Barneys’ Green Glass

My crystal ball has a crack in it. Two years ago I predicted that by now women would surely have tired of dressing like hoochie dancers and switched to black turtleneck sweaters and gray pencil skirts. Think Doris Day in Teacher’s Pet. Yet hoochie lives on. Last year I opined that platforms had peaked, and Read More

Dubai Firm Wins Barneys Bidding War

In the early hours of this morning, the Japanese retailer Fast Retailing declined to match a competing bid to buy Barneys New York, paving the way for the Dubai firm of Istithmar to proceed with its purchase of the chain of fancy stores from Jones Apparel Group.

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