Loose Threads
Vanity Fair recently parted ways with ex-MAGA chronicler Olivia Nuzzi (as predicted here in Back Row) and I thought of her when I saw the magazine’s big two-part MAGA spread, featuring J.D. Vance, Karoline Leavitt, Susie Wiles, Stephen Miller, and more. In Trump’s second term, Condé is definitely leaning into normalizing this administration, from Vogue’s MAHA inaugural ball coverage to its glowing cover story about of Trump supporter Jeff Bezos’s wedding to Vogue’s new Head of Editorial Content Chloe Malle’s refusal to tell the New York Times whether she would put Melania on the cover or not. And now this.
Here’s Lily Collins in Armani Privé at the season five premiere of Emily in Paris. (I’ll have more Emily in Paris/Rome AHEM coverage before the holidays.)
Sydney Sweeney, who seems to perpetually be on a getting-photographed tour to promote her birthday or dating Scooter Braun or some movie or other, is currently promoting some movie or other: The Housemaid! I thought this was a straight-to-streaming thing but apparently it’s in theaters. Here’s the Galia Lahav gown she wore to the L.A. premiere.
Now that I’m in my forties and core weakness has become abundantly apparent (hello, lower back pain), I’ve been getting really into pilates on a reformer, which is a core workout like nothing else I’ve tried. Those of you in NYC looking for similar: Monad Pilates is a new studio that offers very small classes on a reformer. It’s founded by Marine Corps vet Shaimaine Loiacono, who possesses the key quality I look for in people leading workout classes, which is that he is not messing around.
Retail Confessions: Ralph Lauren
One of the American business world’s great success stories — not only in fashion but in brand-building generally — is Ralph Lauren. So many fashion brands go out of their way to be strange and inaccessible, dressing models like balloon animals or 18th century French aristocracy. Or they wrap women in glorified dinner napkins and put socks over their faces and act like WE just haven’t gotten it yet.
Ralph Lauren notably does not do that, and that’s what today’s “Retail Confessions” interviewee, who worked in the Soho and Bleecker Street stores in New York City in the aughts and early 2010s, believed was the key to the brand’s success.
“There’s a very specific clientele,” the person said. “The brand likes people who want the tacky.” No one would ever accuse Ralph Lauren of being too trendy or high-minded. And the brand wanted everyone who walked into the store to feel comfortable there.
This former employee started working at the store fresh out of college, after a veteran executive convinced them to take a sales job over a corporate position elsewhere. They remembered the stores as “show pieces” more than cash cows, in part because they attracted a fair number of celebrities.
Ahead, their stories about Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker, Guy Ritchie, and much more. But first, her Devil Wears Prada “get me the Harry Potter book early” moment with Anna Wintour.
When you reached out to me to chat, you said you had a story about Anna Wintour and I must hear it.
I’m just sitting there doing paperwork in the store, and she walks in. She says, “Hi, I would like U.S. Open apparel.” It’s before the Open started. She wants the swag. I tell her, “Well, it doesn’t exist yet. It’s in boxes in Queens, and it’s not even going to be in these stores.” She looks at me and says, “OK.” I say, “So do you want it?” She’s like, “Yes.” I say, “Do you know what you want?” She responds, “Well, you tell me.” I say, “Honestly, I don’t know what’s there.” This is lunchtime. She’s like, “I need gifts for two babies. Make them special. I need them delivered to the Carlyle by 5 p.m.” And I say, “OK.” She asks, “So you can do it?” And I just say, “Sure, I’ll make it happen.” I’m a doer by nature. I don’t like to say no. She says, “I’ll be there. You’ll see me at the piano bar by 5 p.m.”
So she gives me her credit card, address, cell phone number. And she says, “If you can’t do it, just tell me. Don’t promise it and not do it.” And I just say, “I’ll have it done.” And she says, “OK.” Then she leaves and I panic, I’m sweating.
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