Isaac Mizrahi

We've already heard about rich people trying to hang onto their private jets in the face of global economic collapse. And we've heard how the chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld Jr., is selling off his private art collection. Even the $50,000 tables at New York's fanciest benefits may be left empty come spring.

And so The Wall Street Journal has posed a reasonable question: Is Bling Over?

Francois Henri Pinault, the CEO of the PPR luxury group that owns Gucci, reportedly said a few weeks ago that the rich will always be rich. Still, Francesco Trapani, chief executive of the Bulgari Group, recently had to sell his 137-foot yacht. And Barry Sternlicht, the chairman and chief executive of Starwood Capital, told The Journal that he's "just waiting out the tsunami. That's what this is, a financial tsunami."  read more »

Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin will launch her own brand of jeans and attend New York fashion week with Maria Sharapova. [WWD]

Target will open four pop-up stores in New York this week--in Midtown, Union Square, SoHo and the East Village--where shoppers will be able to buy designs by Sigerson Morrison, Jonathan Saunders and Anya Hindmarch weeks before they arrive in stores. [Vogue UK]

Meanwhile, here's a slideshow of Mr. Saunders' collection for Target. [The Cut] 

Isaac Mizrahi's collection for Liz Clairborne has leaked. [WWD] 

Vivienne Westwood has recorded a music album. [Vogue UK] 

Gen Art will make select looks by  JF and Son, one of its labels, available on Yoox.com one day after the garments are sent down the runway in its 14th annual Fresh Faces show. [WWD] 

 

Residents of the Hamptons will be doing their part to raise money (and the average contribution figure) for Barack Obama's Victory Fund at an August 17 fund-raiser with special guest Caroline Kennedy, according to an invite sent in by a reader. (Obama will not be in attendance.) The hosts of the event are Ross Bleckner and Dorothy Lichtenstein, and the co-hosts include just about everyone in Hampton's society.

According to an invite, illustrated with an Obama portrait and bearing a "Carpooling Encouraged," reminder, co-hosts in alphabetical order include Alec Baldwin, Christy Turlington Burns & Ed Burns, Barbara Lee Diamonstein-Spielvogel and Carl Spielvogel, Laura Durning, Jason Epstein, Katie Lee and Billy Joel, Ellen Chesler & Matt Malow, Obama veteran donors Jay Johnson and Brian Mathis, Isaac Mizrahi, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rosie Perez, Jane Rosenthal, Russell Simmons, and Robert Zimmerman, among others.  read more »

What will become of 37-year-old NBC News correspondent David Gregory, wonders Felix Gillette, since "lame-duck presidents create lame-duck White House correspondents."

John Koblin looks at the new advertiser-friendly glossies on the horizon—WSJ from The Wall Street Journal, FW from The Washington Post, Manhattan and others—and notes, "the traditional, cozily amorphous job of the editor—rumpled visionary, bold procurer, acid social critic, lover of words!—is starting to look very different. Sort of...crisper... As envisioned by businesspeople, the New Editor seems a kind of bland, affable and well-connected creature … much like, well, a businessperson."

Is The New Yorker's James Wood becoming a guru for writers? Leon Neyfakh checks out the tips offered in Mr. Wood's new book, How Fiction Works, and asks, "Who will heed them? And will the fact that Mr. Wood has laid them out so plainly in this succinct volume—something few literary critics, to say nothing of book reviewers, have the heart to do these days—increase the likelihood that aspiring writers will eventually absorb and adhere to his standards?" Plus: David Carr.

Plus: Madonna's brother... Issac Mizrahi... The New Old Gays.

“Today I was talking about my favorite look, especially right this minute,” said Isaac Mizrahi, the new designer for Liz Claiborne, on Tuesday, July 15. “If I was so thin, I would wear only oversized men’s clothes with the shirts all buttoned up, and a big belt, you know? And big pleated pants, maybe a little short … with some kind of flat, probably, or if I was a girl, some giant shoe. This is what I would wear, with little round glasses or something. And I can’t wear that. I’m too fat for, like, a belt. I can’t wear an ironic cinched belt, I can’t! I’m too fat.  read more »

Isaac Mizrahi is annoyed with having to do jury duty. [P6]

Real Vogue interns say their jobs were nothing like Sean Avery's in that they were not flown to L.A. or given their own desks. Shocking. [The Cut]

Bill Murray and wife, Jennifer Butler Murray, who alleged that he abused her, drank too much, and was addicted to marijuana and sex, quietly divorced on June 13. [TMZ]

Barack Obama has Sheryl Crow, Yo Yo Ma, and Howlin' Wolf on his iPod. [RollingStone]

Regarding her mother's high profile divorce from Peter Cook, Alexa Ray Joel told People magazine her mother "is standing up for herself, I think that's admirable.  read more »

Isaac Mizrahi's favorite hair pomade has been discontinued, so naturally he holed up in his apartment and made a lifetime supply of his own, to be called I-Hair. [P6]

Being married to Gwen Stefani means getting used to her untamed fashion sense, or as Gavin Rossdale puts it, "It's like marrying three different people a week, because you never know who's going to come out of the bathroom." [P6]

HarperCollins is suing Victoria Gotti, daughter of Gambino family boss John Gotti, for collecting a $70,000 book advance and then failing to pen the actual memoir. [NY Daily News]

Yves Saint Laurent was laid to rest in Paris yesterday with over a thousand guests arriving to wish him farewell, including Marc Jacobs, Christian Lacroix, John Galliano, Sonia Rykiel, Jean Paul Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood, and Claudia Schiffer. [WWD]

Jane Fonda is so over men. [P6]

Tyson Beckford likes to pick up non-famous women at New York Whole Foods markets. [The Cut]

Last night, on the fourth floor of Bergdorf Goodman, the fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi was holding court in the middle of a small, packed room of guests, who seemed to rotate around him with the slow, awe-struck deference of pilgrims circling the Kaaba during Hajj.  read more »

Animal lovers—like frisky ladies’ man Matt Lauer, schmatte heiress Dylan Lauren, architect Richard Meier and our local NBC favorite, Chuck Scarborough (in his ladies’ sunglasses, we hope!)—are at the Mandarin Oriental hotel for the ASPCA’s Bergh Ball.  read more »

Today, the New York Post follows up on the story of a $48 million Southampton mansion, that broke yesterday on The Real Estate. The 10.5 acre property--known as "Old Trees"--may not have had open houses already, but plenty of celebrities recently passed through.

Last weekend at "Old Trees," [Owner Donald] Burns hosted an event to benefit the "God's Love We Deliver" charity. Guests included neighbor Chuck Scarborough, Isaac Mizrahi and Kyle MacLachlan.

- Michel Calderone

The revival of Neil Simon’s 1963 Barefoot in the Park with Amanda Peet and Patrick Wilson at the C  read more »

The revival of Neil Simon’s 1963 Barefoot in the Park with Amanda Peet and Patrick Wilson at t  read more »

The best news about the new Roundabout production of The Women is its curtain call.  read more »

For God's sake, buy yourself a pet.  read more »

When Chanel Inc.  read more »

Life is full of surprises, and j'adore Isaac Mizrahi.  read more »

For many time-challenged New Yorkers, dressing up means getting to the dry cleaner before going to d  read more »