Much like Mr. Roberts' book that come out during last fashion week—the one in which an almost-nude male model played shepherd and wore sheepskin by Dolce & Gabbana—Fighters and Flowers is an oversize book of photographs featuring beautiful male models doing masculine things while wearing feminine floral prints designed by Mr. Cavalli.

"The prints on the clothes were photographs by Roberto which he turned into prints and it just reminded me so much of what I see in Brazil. So I said, 'I have an idea, why don’t I take the clothes to Brazil and see what I can do with them,'" Mr. Roberts told the Daily Transom. "Art could be interpreted as very difficult for men to wear—you know, covered in flowers and leaves. I thought that maybe I could find a solution by showing all these very tough guys in that kind of situation and that kind of atmosphere."

Nearby, a very tan Mr. Cavalli, dressed in jeans, a blazer and large sunglasses, was kissing the hands of female guests and signing copies of the book for Top Chef judge and cookbook author Padma Lakshmi and model Poppy Delevigne.

"Yes. I like very much," said Mr. Cavalli in his heavy Italian accent. "Just before I say to Michael, 'Maybe we have to start something more together, more with my photos because I like a lot.' We are in the same planet, Michael and I—the fashion planet."

Mr. Cavalli saw Vogue's creative director Grace Coddington and moved towards her to say hello. They engaged in a conversation about cats—it turned out they both owned several.

"I’m a big fan of Michael's," Ms. Coddington told the Daily Transom after Mr. Cavalli drifted off. "He’s an odd one because somehow here in America people are good at one thing. And he’s good at so many things—writing, drawing, being a fashion editor, taking photos."

Ms. Coddington said she has been very selective about the shows she plans to attend; on Friday, the first day of Fashion Week, she only made it out to Rag & Bone, which she thought sent out a much better collection than last season.

"Every season I am still excited by [Fashion Week.] I’ve been in the business for such a long time and people are always saying 'You must be bored by now.' But if I was bored I’d step out," said Ms. Coddington. "You have to be excited about it. The shows are the fodder that I will feed off of for the next six months. It doesn’t even matter if they’re good or bad. It’s another whole restart, refresh, begin, relook, so I’m always very excited."

But Mr. Roberts seemed more excited about the European men's wear shows than the ones currently showing in New York.

"I saw Ducky Brown today. I think the men's wear here is O.K., but it’s a bit weak," he said. (Mr. Roberts said he more often finds inspiration for his work at the Milan and Paris shows.) But he will still be checking out the New York shows over the next week to see if one of our designers might have what he's looking for.

"If I find clothes that work in my fashion work, I’m very excited. If I don’t find it, I get very depressed," said Mr. Roberts. "Generally I formulate ideas I want to do before I go to the fashion shows. And then it’s simply a question of looking for what will fill that idea. I don’t go to fashion shows looking for ideas from designers. I mean I’m sure they have great ideas, but they’re not very interesting as far as I’m concerned because I have my own ideas."

The book is collection of photos that Mr. Roberts took in Sicily over two and a half days, the theme of which is a glistening male model posing as a shepherd while wearing sheepskin designed by Dolce & Gabbana. (Hel-lo!)

We wondered if Mr. Roberts was concerned about PETA coming after him. 

"They have an issue with everyone so at least I won't feel left out," said Mr. Roberts. In fact, he was a bit more concerned over the reaction to his inclusion of sheep in some of the shots.

"One or two people actually thought it was about bestiality which I found really annoying," he said, unnervingly calmly.

Carla Gugino, an actress on Entourage (who was once again outfitted in an A-line dress befitting the set of Mad Men) appeared to be quite taken with with Mr. Roberts's photos. 

"I was just saying, what if you were wondering through the Sicilian country side and found him?" she said, pointing at the male model, wearing nothing but socks, white boxer briefs and a sheepskin coat.

What would you do, Ms. Gugino?

"I don't know that I can tell you!" she replied, suddenly getting shy. "I would possibly have to capture him or something."

Also milling about were socialites Maggie Betts and Lauren Remington Platt, who recently told Vogue they've been trying to show less of themselves at parties such as this one because they are concerned about overexposure.

Hewing to her newfound reticence, Ms. Platt, who was wearing wearing fitted gray slacks, a blue button-up shirt, and an oversized silk scarf over her left shoulder, declined to chat with Daily Transom. "I don't do press," she said, before saying hello to Fabiola Beracasa, Dori Cooperman, Annie Churchill, Jennifer Creel and Anisha Lakhani.

And just as we were feeling a tad rejected, we found ourselves in the company of actor Danny Masterson and his business partner and childhood friend, stylist Ilaria Urbinati. The duo are in town browsing Spring and Summer collections for their new, 5,000-square foot store, Confederacy, which is scheduled to open around September 15 in Los Angeles.

"There's the neighborhood where we all live and like to hang out—most likely you’re downtown, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, or East Hollywood—and no one likes having to go to Beverly Hills to shop. It fucking sucks," said Mr. Masterson.

"And to shop at all the same stores!" chimed in Ms. Urbinati. 

"So instead of spending six hours driving to Beverly Hills, you can come and hang out at our store in East Hollywood," Mr. Masterson explained.

“It’ll definitely be a store that you’re more likely to see in New York than L.A.—brick walls, tin ceilings, cement floors, and recycled wood everywhere,” he continued, before his partner finished his sentence for him.

“And we’re also going to have a gallery, a café, and we’re going to have bands perform,” she said."It's going to be a little bit of a culture center. I think L.A. really lacks that kind of thing."

On the topic of their ideal customer: “Someone who is rad,” said Mr. Masterson.

“Some who has a lot of money,” said Ms. Urbinati. “Kidding!”

“It’s someone who really digs the aesthetic of the shop and the clothes. Basically someone semi-cool. If you're semi-cool you will really enjoy it,” said Mr. Masterson. “If you’re stuffy and conservative, it probably wouldn’t be for you.”

New Yorker fashion director Michael Roberts is moving over to Vanity Fair, according to a press release just issued by Conde Nast today.

Full release after the jump.

—Gabriel Sherman

Again and again, the cry rose from the placard-waving rabble on East 42nd Street. "Hypocrite!" they yelled as men in tuxedos and women in evening gowns ducked their heads and ran the gantlet outside the entrance to Cipriani 42nd Street. Literary agent Andrew Wylie and writer Jamaica Kincaid approached. Ms. Kincaid's face bore a grimace. Mr. Wylie wore a confused smile. Behind them stood a woman dressed as the Grinch, holding a placard that read, "Cheapriani: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." The agent and the writer scurried inside. "Hypocrite!" cried the crowd.

The density of our urban life requires us to make dozens of moral decisions on a daily basis. But most of those decisions–giving to a panhandler, stealing a cab from the guy down the block who's been waiting longer, cheating on a spouse–are made without an audience, so the jaggedness of our life paths are known to no one but ourselves. Occasionally, though, a situation arises when moral choices must be made in a public setting, where one's decision is noted and recorded by one's peers.

The scene outside Cipriani 42nd Street on May 12 was one of those situations. The catering space was being picketed by almost 100 members and supporters of Local 6 of the Hotel, Restaurant and Club Employees and Bartenders Union. The union has been picketing the restaurants and catering spaces owned by the father-and-son restaurateur team of Arrigo and Giuseppe Cipriani since late January [see "Now Invading Manhattan, Father and Son Cipriani Start Rainbow Room War" in The Observer , Jan. 25] because, the union charges, the Ciprianis eliminated the union positions at the Rainbow Room.

Yet the scene was even more remarkable because of what was going on inside the soaring, vaulted space of the former bank: The PEN American Center was holding its annual gala, an event that raises money (approximately $600,000 this year, before expenses) to help the organization carry out its goals, which include protecting First Amendment rights of writers and campaigning for the release of imprisoned writers in more than 90 countries.

So almost 700 members of the city's meritocracy were faced that night with a decision. If they crossed the picket line to attend the event, which was arguably for a good cause, the perception was that they were disregarding the plight of the union workers.

Among those who did not cross were former White House spokesman George Stephanopoulos, authors Gay Talese and Paul Auster, actor Griffin Dunne and monologuist Spalding Gray. When labor leader Victor Gotbaum and his wife, New York Historical Society chief Betsy Gotbaum, arrived together, Mr. Gotbaum did not cross the line. His wife did.

She was hardly in the minority. Those inside included former Washington Post editor in chief Ben Bradlee, playwright Arthur Miller, authors Salman Rushdie, Judy Blume, Susan Cheever and Hannah Pakula, Grove-Atlantic publisher Morgan Entrekin, actor Ron Silver, Brill's Content founder Steve Brill, CBS News anchor Dan Rather, ABC Entertainment executive vice president Susan Lyne and former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein.

Mr. Bernstein's presence inside shocked some picketers who could see him through the glass doors of the hall. When Mr. Bernstein had arrived, he had taken a leaflet from a union worker and spent a long time studying it. Then Mr. Bernstein told those assembled that he would not cross the picket line. Technically, he didn't. He went around to the back entrance. "I took the chicken's way out," Mr. Bernstein later admitted to The Transom. "I told myself if there were no pickets [at the back entrance] I would come inside. It's hardly an elevated stance. I wish I could be more principled about it."

Mr. Bernstein did not seem at all sheepish, and frankly, there didn't seem to be a whole lot of guilt mucking up the elegant Philip Baloun décor, which included a flower-wrapped candelabra in the center of every table. Yet, the conflict on the sidewalk was broached again and again during the evening, between the appetizer of shrimp salad and the entree of filet mignon alla Cipriani.

"We are extremely sorry that you had to endure this," PEN American Center president Michael Scammell told the crowd when he took the podium. Copies of a statement by PEN were passed out to each table. It read, in part, "While PEN is not in a position to assess the merits of this dispute, we do vigorously support the fundamental rights of all people including workers pursuing their rights to organize and bargain with employers, to express their views freely and fully. In particular, we have invited the Union to make information about this matter available to our guests. The board and many members of PEN deeply regret being faced with the choice of withdrawing support for our organization or crossing a picket line. We further regret having been drawn into a dispute to which we were not a party."

Some guests seemed put out that any more time would be devoted to the picketers. "Toss it," said Carol Mack, the wife of Earl Mack, the former chairman of the New York State Council on the Arts, as the sheaf of papers made the rounds of her table.

PEN executive director Michael Roberts told The Transom that the first he had heard from the union was on May 10, although John Turchiano, a spokesman for Local 6, said that he had contacted PEN three weeks earlier.

Mr. Roberts said that PEN had been in contract with Cipriani 42nd Street since mid-December, before the union announced it would picket, and would have lost in excess of $100,000 if it had canceled the event. Critics contend that most of the tickets had already been purchased, which suggests that the event itself could have been sacrificed, but Mr. Roberts said that then PEN would have "been under obligation to return the money." Mr. Roberts claimed that on May 10, Mr. Turchiano asked him if he would move the event if the union found another location, but that he never heard from Mr. Turchiano again. "I inferred from that that there was no alternative," he said. Mr. Turchiano denied this, saying that he had told Mr. Roberts to try the Waldorf-Astoria.

Mr. Roberts continued, "I don't want to get into characterizing the union's motives, but I think that the event got a lot of publicity for the union. One tends to doubt how serious they were about an alternative. It was a major public relations bonanza."

Mr. Turchiano replied: "We're picketing every event at Cipriani 42nd Street. We were not targeting PEN. This guy seems to have a persecution complex."

At the gala, the picketing issue refused to go away. When it came time to present the PEN-Newman's Own First Amendment Award of $25,000 to ReLeah Lent, an English teacher from Florida, Judy Blume got up and pointed out that neither principal of Newman's Own–Paul Newman or writer A.E. Hotchner–were there, because they had refused to cross the picket line. "So instead they got me," said Ms. Blume.

Later Mr. Rushdie, who had also entered via the back way, told the crowd, "I've never crossed a picket line until tonight." He said he did so because it was "open season on writers" these days and "that makes PEN's work all the more important." Referring to the fatwa following publication of The Satanic Verses , Mr. Rushdie said, "Quite simply, the issues we're facing here are those of life and death." Those issues, he said, "take precedence."

In an interview after the event, Mr. Hotchner said that when he told PEN he wasn't coming, "They told me, 'Why don't you put on your tux and come over, and if there's a picket line, you can leave.' I told them, 'That's a really squirrely notion.'"

Mr. Hotchner, Mr. Newman and the publishers of George magazine had considered holding their May 19 dinner for Newman's Own- George Awards at the Cipriani-controlled Rainbow Room. Instead it will be held at the U.S. Customs House. (The organizers of the I Am Beautiful-Vision & Voice Awards, to be presented on June 7 to Geraldine Ferraro, Gloria Steinem and others, have also pulled out of Cipriani 42nd Street.)

Mr. Hotchner said PEN was naïve to have been unaware of the picket problem. "It didn't take a structural engineer to figure out that Cipriani was using non-union labor," said Mr. Hotchner.

Later on the evening of the event, Mr. Rushdie told The Transom that he had spent most of the afternoon thinking about whether he should cross the picket line, but decided that "my conscience would have hurt me more if I didn't come here tonight."

In a phone interview, Gay Talese, who went to Elaine's instead, said that he found Mr. Rushdie "a little shortsighted on the issue" and "did not want any more posturing from him."

"What's comical and what's sad is the pretense to idealism that knows geographical limitations," said Mr. Talese. "PEN has always had more compassion for faraway places than for the issues at home. They see tragedy and turmoil that must be rectified in faraway places, and right there on 42nd Street, outside of Cipriani 42nd Street, there are fellow Americans who have legitimate grievances." Mr. Talese, who has been a PEN member for some 30 years and who said he is "aware of the great work" the organization does, nonetheless opined that the situation called for "people who respect liberal causes to take a stand, not for vacillating or finding excuses to saunter into this gala dinner."

Fashion weeks may intrude, but they do not annoy Mr. Roberts, who's also a photographer and filmmaker who received an MTV award for best breakthrough video in 1988 for Bryan Ferry's "Limbo." And when the fall shows swing into New York on March 28, Mr. Roberts will be most watchful. For at the not-even-open Mercer Hotel in SoHo on March 31, Vogue editor Anna Wintour and New Yorker editor Tina Brown will fete the artist upon the publication of his first children's book, The Jungle ABC (Hyperion-Callaway), which he brilliantly illustrated in intricate, cutout-collage style. Iman wrote the introduction.

This in the same week that Donatella Versace's Versus show takes the stage at Roseland on March 28, and Giorgio Armani presents his Emporio Armani collection, the same show stopped by the Paris police on March 11. Even Mr. Fashion Forward himself, Helmut Lang, has decided to present his spring 1998 women's collection here on March 31 rather than in Paris, where he has shown for several years. In fact, Mr. Lang is in the process of relocating his headquarters to New York from Vienna, his native city. Meanwhile, the fashion faithful can worship the latest offerings from the Americans. Something for everyone, from Daryl K. to Oscar de la Renta. Local heroes Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors will be back home from Paris and their triumphant debuts as designers for Louis Vuitton and Celine, respectively.

The last time Ms. Brown and Ms. Wintour planned anything so convivial was when they lunched with Diana, the Princess of Wales, at the Four Seasons restaurant around the time the Princess' frocks were auctioned at Christie's last June. Mr. Roberts does not come to Ms. Brown and Ms. Wintour by any comparable tiara trickledown; he simply has been their mutual friend for over 20 years. When Ms. Brown edited Tatler in the early 1980's, Mr. Roberts was the glossy's style and art director. Later, in New York, he was the style director of Vanity Fair for a spell when Ms. Brown began editing the magazine in 1984. Mr. Roberts currently is the director of fashion visuals for The New Yorker , where his work appears in the weekly as fashion sketchbooks from the collections here and abroad, and his cover illustrations range from special fashion issues to the star-spangled study of an African-American figure on the cover of a special "Black in America" issue in April 1996.

Between working for Ms. Brown, Mr. Roberts was design director for British Vogue when Ms. Wintour edited the magazine in the mid-1980's. In fact, when Mr. Roberts worked on Vanity Fair in New York, he lived in the basement apartment of a MacDougal Street town house owned by Ms. Wintour and her husband, Dr. David Shaffer. Dr. Shaffer's first wife, the posh caterer Serena Bass, another Londoner who now resides in New York, introduced the two men. Mr. Roberts knew Ms. Bass in London during the 1970's when he was writing the fashion column for the Sunday Times , having been hired by Harold Evans, the former editor of the London Times and the husband of Tina Brown.

Not quite Bloomsbury, not exactly the Algonquin Round Table, but a certain, oddly loyal circle of friends nonetheless. One perfectly crafted for a biographer of the Sally Bedell Smith school, no doubt. Six Degrees of Bryan Ferry or at least Twelve Degrees of Pamela Harriman. Any thorns in this gold-woven crown of competitive Brits abroad, any dramas? Yes, sure, but mostly all forgiven, if not forgotten. Friends recall an interview in which Mr. Roberts once compared Ms. Brown to a TV dinner, or British slang to that effect, but never mind.

"Michael is the Cocteau of the fashion world," Ms. Brown said when she named Mr. Roberts to his New Yorker job in April 1997.

Mr. Roberts was born in Buckinghamshire outside London and attended an art school nearby. Although he was in no great rush to tumble too far down memory lane, he said that his people were not extraordinary, nor part of any fashion set. At 18, he moved to London, where his first job was assisting a professor of fashion at the Royal College of Art. The professor introduced him to the elderly fashion writer for the London Times , whom he later replaced.

Writing about fashion and related matters for the the London Times in the late 1970's, Mr. Roberts took an edgy, New Journalism approach. "The newspaper was filled with award-winning journalists then. I'd become a writer by default, but I felt I had to offer something of the same value, not P.R. handouts." He visited Mae West in her Los Angeles apartment before her death in 1980. "While I was there, she saw some apparition float through the room," Mr. Roberts remembered. He spent an evening carousing with Halston and his gang. "They all thought I was as out of it as they were, but I wasn't. I wrote everything; one of those mean journalistic things I used to do until I got bored of it." Halston was furious. As was Emanuel Ungaro the Sunday Mr. Roberts' column began: "Emanuel Ungaro has a great charm. He wears it around his neck."

In Paris, where Mr. Roberts resides most of the year because he prefers the light there to London or New York, he begins his workday at 5:30 A.M. "Cut and paste. Spray. Stick. These millions of pieces of paper," he explained. "You get the best paper in Paris, and I jumped on this technique because in my graphic paintings, I was trying to get as clean an edge as possible. I couldn't get it with a brush."

The week before he jetted off to the European fashion shows in Milan and Paris, Mr. Roberts was joined at Da Silvano by another friend and protégé of Ms. Brown and Ms. Wintour from London, Gabé Doppelt, VH1's creative director for fashion. Seared tuna and potatoes. One glass of red wine "for the ticker," Mr. Roberts requested. Against the current tide of fashionable informality, Mr. Roberts wore a handsome jacket and tie.

"A nice white shirt and a dark suit are the most subversive things you can wear. You hide in plain sight."