The Observer had a mix-up… just a hiccup, if you will. Somehow in the chaos of Prabal, meeting deadline, and chatting with Wes Gordon, we completely neglected our front-row seat at Hervé Léger. Now say what you will! No, we haven’t the foggiest idea who Harley Viera Newton is—or care to be seated even remotely Read More
Don’t mess with Alexander Wang. This message was more than clear. KCD guarded their most sought-after invite with a check-in process worthy of the North Korean border. Street photography happened 20 yards from entry gates. Photo I.D. required. Read More
Ah, Thanksgiving: that wonderful time of year that really proves the old adage “You can never go home again…unless you bring an entire bottle of Valium, keep your therapist’s number on speed dial, and remember never to make eye contact with your father.”
But in addition to holiday traditions like turkey, football, and screaming matches Read More
THERE’S NO JEW QUITE LIKE A NEW YORK JEW. That’s neither a matter of ethnocentrism or antisemitism so much as it is fact, and the distinction isn’t merely geographical.
New York City is unquestionably the metropolitan epicenter of Modern Jewry, a long way from the once humble home of generations-old immigrants who came from the “Old World”—as our grandparents tell us—to Read More
IT’S JUST A FACT: Last year, only five out of every hundred trades made on the New York Stock Exchange actually happened in downtown New York City, on the floor of the NYSE, right on the corner of Wall Street near State. Gone are the days when the NYSE necessitated brokerages “clustered around” Wall Street in order to hand-deliver paper copies of stocks every week. Most of the action now takes place not just outside of the exchange but often nowhere near the Financial District. Could be in Midtown Manhattan, or Midtown Dhaka, but location really isn’t the factor it used to be in making money move.
Yet, with its cobbled, narrow streets, suited workers bustling around and Gilded Age architecture, Wall Street looks like more of an old studio backlot take on New York City than what the city actually looks like these days. In other words, Wall Street is a perfect set, for anyone looking to make a scene. Which might have something to do with why the recent protesters chose it. Read More
You don’t have to be named Molly to be a Molly, though it helps. Mollies Lambert, Young and McAleer got attention not merely for their Ringwaldian monikers but for their coyly insightful writing about pop culture, their minute observations, and the manner in which they promoted themselves via social media. They’re not the only Read More
IT’S BEEN AN INTERESTING FEW WEEKS. Ever since The Observer debuted its Media Power Bachelors and Media Power Bachelorettes lists, many an inbox or IM window in the office have yet to go a day without some noting—be it laudatory, critical, generally humored, or moderately infuriated—of the lists. Feedback for a publication is usual; this kind of feedback has been, in this particular instance, patently unusual. One common response to the lists, especially by those selected for them, was: When are you having the mixer? Read More
Would Daisy Buchanan live here?
Back in April, The Observer took a look at Lands End, the Long Island home that is said to have inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby. It is, or was, a well-known if rundown manse that has since been demolished to make way for a set of new waterfront Read More
Joan Peyser spent her life writing about classical music, so it makes sense she would call a Greenwich Village (writerly) townhouse (classy!) home.
Ms. Peyser passed away in April, but she kept her home in an immaculate state, so you can forget the architect and move right in. At 23 feet wide, the home boasts Read More
This list in 2009 and 2010 reflected a recessionary New York, one thoroughly upended by economic maelstroms like high unemployment and the odd major bank collapse. No one had need of more office space; no one had financing for investments; no one had much to do save get on the blower and commiserate, or, on Read More
