| Patrick
McCarthy; Patrick McDonald; Kitty and Bill McKnight. |
Patrick
McCarthy. Chairman and Editorial Director
of Fairchild Publications which are known to the public mainly
as W and it’s daily business sister Women’s
Wear Daily.
Mr. McCarthy started out with the organization in the late 1970s when he was
assigned to the London desk of WWD and later Paris, covering the world
of fashion which also includes by organic proximity, society.
His reports from both cities, mainly his interviews of personalities
garnered him the reputation for being the meanest man in
town because any number of his
subjects came out looking like fools in one way or another. Mr. McCarthy’s
secret, however, was just to let them inflict all damage themselves. This is
not an impossible task in a world of overdeveloped egos with gargantuan needs
for attention, any kind of attention. The result, of course, was the pleasure
of seeing people have themselves in print, demonstrating their natural vulnerability
(i.e., the tendency to make fools of themselves).
The Fairchild publications were the most famous for this
journalistic technique and even though it was obvious to
anyone with half a brain, it rarely stopped
a personality from wanting the interview and, i.e., the publicity. When the results
came in, the question of course, was never “what did you expect?” but
instead: “how could they?” Or more specifically, “how could
he?”
Mr. McCarthy’s rapier approach would never have made him a D’Artagnan
but it did enhance his reputation to the point where today’s practitioners
of the W (as well as many other journals) interview do their best to
follow his lead.
When he eventually put that aside and moved on, he became Executive Editor and
then Executive Vice President of W and Women’s Wear Daily.
In 1994, he received the Eugenia Sheppard Award for Fashion Journalism (although
from two distinctly different worlds did they come), and today he is an eminence
grise in his field, despite the fact that the mention of his name can still
make some people see scarlet.
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Patrick
McDonald. According to his public relations
bio, Patrick McDonald is known as “Dandy” to the fashionista
crowd. This I never knew until I read the bio. The title sort of
fits although I don’t think it quite covers it. It also never
occurred to me that Patrick had a publicist, although it
makes sense – this is New York and he is a man who is seriously
out and about. And out and about seriously.
It never occurred to me that he might have a publicist because he doesn’t
need one; he’s his own best. Take a look at him. This is a man, no matter
where you might run into him — at a party, at a club, coming out of Louis
Vuitton on Fifth Avenue, at a benefit — always ready for his (full-length)
closeup, and like all pros, he never disappoints. There’s an artistry and
discipline in that that is rare these days, even in New York.
He’s fairly new to my eyes – I think I first saw him a few years
ago at an art gallery opening. Although he’s been a well-established New
York scene-ster for a couple of decades. The first time I saw him I thought it
was a costume. Which it is. His costume. Complete, right down to the
ever-present chapeau, the dyed red hair (what you can see of it, underneath),
the impeccably applied make-up, the color mix which although it varies, is always
consistent with the sartorial impression he’s out to create. And create
he does.
He was born in Germany, of American parents, with a twin (which
is hard to imagine on the face of it). I could be wrong but I have a feeling
you might not recognize his twin (who lives in Los Angeles) if they were together
in the same room.
He was brought up in California, went to prep school in Hawaii (Can you see him
as a preppie? No?) He went to Pepperdine, that citadel of American Conservatism-goes-
Surf City overlooking the Pacific. From there, he came (or possibly fled) to
New York, in the 1970s, where he took up modeling and the Studio 54 life.
Fashion is his love; fashion is his passion. In the 70s he worked for Fiorucci which
was the “cutting edge” retailer of that decade, and then was an assistant
buyer for Barney’s European collections. From there he worked for the late,
lamented Fabrice, and for the past eleven years and up until
recently, he was on the staff of couturier John Anthony. He
writes – there’s a column appropriately called “Highbrow” in Paper magazine.
His image has appeared in (besides Paper and the New York Social Diary) Detour,
the New York Times Style Section, Sportwear International, Russian Vogue,
and is also featured in an upcoming book The Style Makers.
Patrick personifies the New York fashionista, consistently astonishing, seriously
imaginative and whimsical and kidding but not. Off-camera, he can be as arch
as that highbrow eyebrow, yet softspoken, courteous with a bit of that down home
West Coast aw-shucks, and a very pleasant fellow, a one-man band on the run(way).
Bill
and Kitty McKnight. William McKnight is the
son of LeBrun (Brunie) Rhinelander.
His great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather Philip
Jacob Rhinelander arrived in New York in 1686 from
Germany, settling in New Rochelle. Philip’s son William
started a bakeshop on William Street and established the
family precedent of investing in city realty.
He
lived in a house on Spruce Street that was still in the family
at the beginning of the 20th Century. The most famous Rhinelander
property in New York today is the present Ralph Lauren store
at 72nd and Madison Avenue. The building, built in 1898 by Gertrude
Rhinelander Waldo (who never moved in), was occupied
by her sister and nephew, who lived there into the 1920s.
The McKnights are lifelong New Yorkers who brought up their family here and
on the family property in Southampton and move easily within the society they
grew up in and the newer members of their social circle. A very popular couple,
they love to travel to Europe annually.
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Albemarle,
Rufus
Aston, Muffie Potter
Basso, Dennis
Benedict, Daniel
Capehart, Jonathan
Cominotto, Michael
Curry, Boykin
Dahl, Tessa
DeWoody, Beth Rudin
Duchin, Peter and Brooke
Duff, Patricia
Eaton, Phoebe
Fales-HIll, Susan
Fekkai, Frederic
THE FULL LIST
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