DvF and Mitch: lovers once, buddies forever!

As we sloshed, caked with snow flurries, into the Mandarin Oriental for the 2012 Phoenix House Fashion award dinner last Wednesday evening, we couldn’t determine whether it was the way-too-early winter outside, the Sandy-forced relocation or the early start after an endless election season, but at first glance, things looked a bit quiet. (In retrospect, we appreciated the venue upgrade, considering it was originally slated to take place at Pier 60.)

“Well there’s Linda Fargo, at least ...” we uttered to a weary-eyed publicist as she sashayed passed us in a crisp black sheath dress, before we sauntered downstairs to cocktail hour.

Below, on the 35th floor, the considerably more lively and notable fashion crowd imbibed, heedless of the blizzard-like winds that howled without mercy on the commoners struggling to get around Columbus Circle.

With the exception of Glenda Bailey, this didn’t feel like a typical fashion event; nay, it was considerably more corporate—a bit cliquey, but not necessarily in a bad way. Dashing executives (well mostly dashing) in flamboyant tailored suits sipped scotch and red wine, while a more demure population of women squawked about recent highs and lows.

This reeked of powerful retail and media industry figures rather than overcompensated stylists and over-photographed fashion mavens.

The Observer wasn’t feeling particularly social, but we decided to meander aimlessly about the lobby, gorging ourselves with vegetable spring rolls every time they passed.

Eventually, someone had the brilliance to ring the dinner gong and get the show on the road.

“You’re stuck with me,” laughed Rose Marie Bravo, the fashion branding and commerce star, as she welcomed the Phoenix House patrons now enjoying their first plating around candlelit tables. She apologized for emcee Ali Wentworth, who was “lost somewhere in the city.”

“This past week has been a tragic one,” she continued. “Many of our friends have been left homeless or without power.” She went on to explain what Phoenix House does: it helps thousands of people struggling with substance abuse and addiction through its pioneering treatment program. For a second or two, The Observer stopped sipping. But only a second or two.

Seated before us was honoree Jim Gold, president of The Neiman Marcus Group; Tory Burch, evasive and on high alert with her pending lawsuit against ex-husband Chris Burch still ablaze; and Calvin Klein’s Francisco Costa. The weather was most likely to blame for the empty seats, and there was substantial mention of Hurricane Sandy and its affect on the Phoenix House community.

“Substance abuse is an epidemic that plagues the USA,” began Phoenix House CEO Howard Meitiner.

He was followed by a young client of Phoenix House, who spoke of his history with drug abuse, dealing and violence. It was simple, honest and very effective. He said he is now rightly on track, working toward a degree in social work.

“Drug abuse can happen to anyone’s child,” said Mr. Meithner, then diving into the politics and ethos of the drug culture in America.

“But recovery is achievable and sustainable,” he concluded, just as Ali Wentworth, our long-lost emcee, finally stampeded in.

“I’ve got a husband who said, ‘I’ve just done 36 hours of ABC election coverage! You’re gonna get into bed with me!’” she blurted to our disbelief, about her hubby, George Stephanopoulos.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, not only was the fabulous hostess late because she was having a roll in the hay, she announced it to us all! Our kind of gal. And poor George, election aside, he must have still been shell-shocked by his co-host’s odd drunken-like behavior on election night—Cheers, Diane!

“They messengered this to me,” Ms. Wentworth continued, exposing a shiny Olivier Theyskens for Theory blazer that kept her décolletage in check.

“I thought I was chic, but maybe I’m just a shoplifter!”

We decided right then and there that we all wanted to leave and go home with Ali Wentworth.

Our hostess extraordinaire thankfully kept the pace brisk as we cruised into the awards segment. Monsieur Theyskens gave a poignant and astute speech before plopping a Phoenix House award in the hands of Andrew Rosen. The CEO of Theory then delivered a heartfelt personal story of his own family’s struggle with addiction and praised the Phoenix House for its wonderful work.

Tina Brown, editor in chief of Newsweek/The Daily Beast, made an anticipated handoff to Diane von Furstenberg. We never got to pester her with our gossipy questions about her publication’s demise.

“Diane is a vision broker,” Ms. Brown professed.

Once DvF accept her award, she dove into a tale of how she first met Phoenix House Founder Mitchell S. Rosenthal. Apparently Ms. von Furstenberg had mistaken the addiction innovator for ’80s star Chris Sarandon, whom she mistakenly referred to as Chris Rock. “He was hot,” she said.

“Then I got to know more about Mitch Rosenthal. I’ll spare you the details ...”

The romantic jaunts of the fashion queen brought the crowd great delight.

“This young, smashing man who looked like Chris Sarandon—created this place where shame was not an issue,” Ms. von Furstenberg gushed.

“I really want to make sure that we all raise our glass to this special man!”

At that flawless declaration, we lifted our glass, emptied it, and dashed downtown, to partake in rowdier action at Le Baron—alas, without Ali Wentworth.

Lindsay Lohan. (Getty Images)

– Lindsay Lohan is voting for Mitt Romney, which is probably going to hurt him in the polls even worse than last night's VP debate.

– Speaking of LiLo and her presidential "bumps," she did a first and called TMZ live to tell them that her mom is not on as much cocaine as she originally said.
http://youtu.be/XTehE7hykYs

– In breaking news, Ashton Kutcher is a disgusting human being who spoon-feeds his girlfriend, Mila Kunis, in public at Grom Gelato. Like she's a little baby.

– Everyone is mad at Tory Burch for selling her Hamptons home for ONLY $11 million. What is wrong with her?!?!

– Kathie Lee Gifford dropped a puppy on its adorable head.
http://youtu.be/sQzo_3yIc8M

The store, which opened another Manhattan store last October in Soho, will take about half of the roughly 15,000 square feet formerly occupied by the now-defunct bookstore chain Borders on the retail complex’s second floor.

Time Warner Center. (Courtesy Property Shark)

In a review of C. Wonder’s Soho location in recent months, The New York Times opined whether the company’s line of clothing and home decor items was an homage to Ms. Burch’s aesthetic or an attempt to steal her lunch. Like Ms. Burch, the company’s style exudes the uppercrust but is priced for the masses. Even C. Wonder’s logo bears a slight resemblance to Ms. Burch’s iconic medallion, which adorns ballet flats the world over.

Mr. and Ms. Burch divorced in 2006. Before Mr. Burch, Tory, whose good looks and blond hair also made her a popular face among high society in the city, was married to the real estate investor Billy Macklowe.

A spokeswoman for C. Wonder wouldn’t comment on the deal at Time Warner.

H&M is rumored to be in talks for the other half of the Borders space. A spokeswoman at the company wouldn’t comment.

“We’re doing very well here with ten stores from Soho to Harlem,” said the H&M spokeswoman, Nicole Christie. “We plan to continue our expansion. We are planning to open more stores for this year, and that’s not a secret.”

Borders declared bankruptcy last year, leaving vacant several large stores in Manhattan, many of which were quickly filled. As The Commercial Observer exclusively reported last year, the drug store chain Walgreens took a 20,000-square-foot space that the book store formerly occupied at 100 Broadway.

Dgeiger@observer.com

Ms. Lowell, a slim brunette stylishly turned out in an Alexander McQueen sweater dress, described herself as more of a storyteller than a literary genius like Robert Lowell, her late and beloved stepfather. "I was trained as an actress, and so I just acted out the stories and wrote as though I was telling them to my friends," she said. "I've come through it stronger and I'm trying to pass on a different legacy to my daughter: not so much craziness."

A roll call of who's who in New York drifted through the apartment oohing and aahing over Ms. Ganek's extraordinary contemporary art collection. Vanity Fair scribe Amy Fine Collins arrived in a fiery orange suit by Carolina Herrera with designer B Michael. Mercedes Bass spoke with Adele Chatfield-Taylor and Marie Claire's editor, Joanna Coles, caught up with Tory Burch and Marina Rust.

Ms. Lowell's cousin, artist Hugo Guinness, appeared in a show of family support, and jeweler Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia was also on hand. The only person missing from the guest list was Ms. Lowell's other cousin, the fabulous Daphne Guinness (who may have had more pressing matters to attend to after being recently slapped with a lawsuit for destructively overflowing her bath four times).

"I wonder who did this apartment?" said Stefano Tonchi, looking around in amazement. The W editor co-hosted the lunch. We chatted about the recent cover with naked Kim Kardashian on it and what he has in store for readers in the near future. "You'll love what we have coming up in December," he promised.

Howard Blum, Ms. Lowell's boyfriend and a former Times journalist, was sporting a particularly vibrant purple tie for the occasion.  When asked about it, he replied, "My friends kept telling me I had to stop wearing my old Horace Mann tie, so last trip to England we went shopping and got this from Richard James." When asked if he'd read the book, he replied, "Of course, several drafts of it, and she even dedicated the book to me."

The hostess, Ms. Ganek, an author in her own right, spoke of her admiration for Ms. Lowell's work. "As a fiction writer, I think that to publish a memoir is incredibly brave and honest and people really love it."

After collecting a plate of crepes, mini-pizza slices and mini-crab cakes (in New York, the larger the apartment, the smaller the food), The Observer hovered, unsure where to sit, until kindly invited to share an ottoman with Katharine Bryan, mother of long-standing Observer contributor George Gurley, while waiting for the talk to begin.

Everyone was moved by Ms. Lowell's vulnerability when she began tell her story. Caroline Weber, an energetic academic, facilitated the dialogue and gently helped to coax out the natural performer in Ms. Lowell. An animated and winsome speaker, Ms. Lowell was funny and irreverent even about the most tragic events in her life.  

Ms. Lowell began her memoir four years ago after a particularly productive meeting with a new psychiatrist who, after listening to her unbelievable life story, said, "I'm surprised you are still standing." 

Ms. Lowell then started to pour her story out onto the page. "After all," she said, facing the sea of Manhattan's social elite, "it was a story just too good not to tell."

The Wall Street Journal's table sounds like a hoot, for example, with Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Schapiro, RNC chairman Michael Steele et al. And look at Newsweek (Chevy Chase) and The New Yorker (Tracy Morgan, Judd Apatow).

But Politico's table might win for sheer variety: Mary J. Blige, Tory Burch, The Jonas Brothers, Tim Daly, and Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz. We suspect Bartz will host a Cristal pregame with the Jonas Brothers.

Fairly extensive list of guests over at Politico.

Late last week, the city’s beleaguered retail stores were awash in this mottled-honey hue. Designer Shoe Warehouse was selling tortoise ankle boots by Sergio Zelcer for $179.95. The popular boutique Poppy on Mott Street offered Nicole Romano tortoiseshell earrings for $182. Tory Burch had sold out of tortoiseshell clutches at $425. Fashion Web site Style.com was pushing a Sonya Rykiel leather belt with tortoiseshell bow ($217) as a holiday gift. And let’s not forget the $3,000 tortoise sequin jacket J. Crew presciently introduced this spring.

Tortoiseshell eyeglass frames are classic, of course. Angelina Jolie and Sienna Miller were both spotted in the style recently (Ferragamo and Dolce & Gabbana, respectively); and Kanye West broke out tortoiseshell glasses during Fashion Week in September, rapping with Jay-Z at the Marc Jacobs after-party in a tweed suit. “Tortoise has always been a best-selling color for us,” said Robert Marc, who owns eight eponymous eyewear boutiques in Manhattan and currently sells tortoiseshell frames in 63 styles. “This year, we’ve seen even bigger sales in this color because of the popularization of preppy, geek chic, retro frames.”

But the sudden au courant of tortoiseshell goes beyond geek chic.

We are wearing it because it goes with everything. We are wearing it because it’s subtle, and glaring luxury labels are gauche in a recession. We are wearing tortoise because for most of us, hare and its ilk are too expensive and/or humanely unjustifiable. And maybe we wear it because we, like the tortoise of fable, seem not to be in a winning position right now (though remember that the tortoise is all about perseverance—it lives upward of 250 years, after all).

Sellers of the shade point out that it flatters anyone’s skin tone. “It’s an easy color to incorporate into any outfit,” Mr. Marc said. And: “It always refers to something luxurious,” said Sebastian Marzaro, U.S. president of Italian shoemaker Casadei, which sells tortoiseshell pumps and sandals in several Manhattan shoe boutiques. “Even if it’s not the real thing.”

It hasn’t been the real thing since 1973, when the practice of using actual tortoiseshell was banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Mr. Marzaro, whose company has manufactured tortoise styles for about 50 years, said he noticed a steep increase in the prevalence of tortoise products in general after the CITES signing, as synthetics became more widely produced, and another boom in the mid-’80s, roughly coinciding with the release of Out of Africa. “It goes in cycles,” he said. “It goes parallel to all different prints—exotic prints like leopard, cheetah, zebra.”

Indeed, there is currently an uncanny consensus on Fifth Avenue that predatory mammals and reptiles make excellent shoes and handbags. The gentle, seafaring tortoise has the vague exoticism of furs and alligator skins but is much, much cheaper. (Many retailers specify “faux” tortoise, but most don’t bother.)

At Gucci near 57th Street one recent afternoon, the brand-new “Cruise” collection featured an understated $970 brown shirt with a decorative tortoise ring affixed to the chest, and a $645 black pump with tortoise stiletto; in two weeks, the store will begin carrying the Hysteria Medium Hobo for $1,360 (a patent leather bag with tortoise print). A scruffy sales clerk in a black suit said the collection was “beach-inspired.”

Down the street at Versace, saleswoman Carla Verschuren said a tortoise print had been revived for the fall 2008 collection from the archive of the late Gianni Versace, where it had been in hibernation since 1992. The black and yellow “Turtle” print was adorning two dresses: one jersey ($2,090) and one sateen ($2,495), both with a plunging V-neck.

Nearby at Just Cavalli, a $645 canvas blazer had a green-tinged, unmistakably tortoise-ish vibe, but a salesgirl begged to differ. “We call it cheetah,” she said. “It’s our take on cheetah.”

At Michael Kors on Prince Street, meanwhile, where tortoiseshell sunglasses are standard-issue fare (in particular a high-contrast model called the Madison, said a salesgirl named Carly), we also found a tortoise acrylic bracelet watch for $195 (without crystals) or $225 (with crystals). And the brand Lee Angel has debuted tortoise bracelets with crystals for fall ($260) in New York boutiques like Intermix and Montmartre.

“It reminds me very much of France in the ’50s, where people used to use it for hair accessories all the time, before we stopped killing tortoises, thank God,” said Roxanne Assoulin, the bangles’ designer. “People want value now. Tortoise is going to be an important trend because it’s classic, it’s something you see in Hermès, it’s very upscale-looking. And it goes with everything.”

mbryan@observer.com

The earrings Ms. Obama wore on Election Night with her red and black Narciso Rodriguez dress were designed by Loree Rodkin and cost $11,000. (They were not, however, paid for with campaign funds.) [Vogue UK via The Cut]  

Blake Lively will reportedly appear on the cover of W magazine. [Fashionista] 

Despite the current state of the economy, Tory Burch plans to open a new store in the Meatpacking District on Dec. 11. [FWD] 

Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell (ex-boyfriend of Kirsten Dunst) was asked to be appear in a Dior Homme campaign, but turned down the offer because he said it would "undermine" his music. [Vogue UK]

Tom Ford on the rumor that he's difficult to work for: "I don't think I'm a megalomaniac, though you'd have to ask the people who work with me. Either we click or they don't last very long. Do I throw tantrums? Yes. But more with Richard [Buckley, Mr. Ford's partner], at home if he's forgotten to buy milk." [Vogue UK] 

Tory Burch said that despite the current state of the economy, she does not plan on selling her label. But a 30 percent stake might be for sale. [WWD] 

Hearst International is launching editions of Harper's Bazaar in Bulgaria, Ukraine, Serbia, India and Croatia. [FWD] 

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have managed to move their fashion vision from Wal-Mart to Madison Avenue. [NY Times]

Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani have earned the top two spots in DNR.com's rankings of the 100 most powerful people in men's fashion and retail for the second year in a row, followed closely by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, Miuccia Prada, Patrizio Bartelli, and François-Henri Pinault. [Vogue UK] 

While speaking at a public hearing in Scotland to push his $2 billion golf resort, Donald Trump said, "We have a President in the United States who's terrible. He stinks." [NY Daily News]

Tatum O'Neal sang karaoke last night with Radar's Neel Shah at Broadway East on the Lower East Side. They performed a duet of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together." [Radar]

NBC might pay $2 million for footage of Farrah Fawsett's cancer treatment. [P6]

Sumner Redstone said that his dinner with ex Manuela Herzer was a pure coincidence. Apparently she showed up at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and ended up joining the Viacom chairman. "I'm a happily married man," he said. [P6]

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon will not be throwing a belated wedding party, but they have registered at Bergdorf's in case you want to send them a gift. [P6]

Tory Burch has hired Surface 2 Air designers as creative consultants to appeal to the hipster demographic. [Nylon via The Cut]

Chris Martin, Gwynee's hubby, has a little sleeping pill problem. [P6]