There were lots of friendly faces in attendance at the W New York Downtown’s party celebrating a new site-specific installation by artist Jennifer Steinkamp. And you don’t even have to sneak into the hotel to see it: it is, in part, an animated video being projected in large scale right onto the side of the Washington Street building. Within moments of arriving, we spied photographer billy farrell (who, we probably don’t have to remind you, is striking it out on his own), hard at work snapping photos before heading over to his own launch party at Le Bain. And not too far away stood Stefano Tonchi, who was the first of many fashion-editor dominoes to fall when he jumped a few alphabet letters earlier this year, leaving the Times‘s fashion rag T for Condé’s W. When we asked Mr. Tonchi who he was wearing, he looked at us as though we’d asked what color the sky was. “Prada,” he said. “My usual.”
Narciso Rodriguez, who co-hosted the bash, is a self-professed “big fan” of Ms. Steinkamp’s work; he’s a bit of a collector, as it turns out. “I love Pat Steir’s work, and I have some Thomas Ruff that I really love. I have a few of his pieces,” he said. And how does Narciso Rodriguez strategize getting through Fashion Week? “I try to keep focused, keep cool, drink lots of
