Crossing Fifth Avenue

The view from the 44th floor of the Hearst Tower. 1:30 PM. Photo: DPC.

These are beautiful days in New York. The trees are filling out and still wearing their soft bright greens, looking delicate like dabs of Monet’s paintbrush. On the Upper East Side where I live, many of the patches at the base of the trees are planted with tulips still abloom, and now impatiens, so there is color everywhere to refine and tease the monochromes of the sidewalks and the buildings.

Giorgio Armani came to town and FIT and its Couture Council of the Museum at FIT gave a luncheon, along with Harper’s Bazaar and its editor-in-chief, Glenda Bailey; and Swarovski, the crystal luxury brand.

I was curious to get a look at the man Armani whose image is so famous worldwide. The white hair. The perfect tan, the casual, kind of laid back, elegant look that seems to cover all bases. I wondered what he looked like in the flesh – as we all do look different in the flesh. That, and the PR guru who contacted me, Jon Marder, really hyping it as something to see, got me there.

My interest in a big luncheon is not intense. However, in New York you never know. Once I skipped out on one of these thinking it wouldn’t matter and I later learned I had been seated next to Sophia Loren. Dumb or what? One of the great things about New York is the amazing choice of interest and people to see and perhaps to meet.

Armani and Close move on up to the escalator ...

... Where they pose for the posse of photographers.

I arrived at the new and wonderful (and first Green) building just as Sr. Armani was arriving surrounded by a mob of photographers, executives and security people. And Glenn Close whom I’ve seen in person before. Several times. I think I’ve even sat at table with her at some gala. She is a beauty. As great looking off-camera as on. Maybe even greater because she has a warm and gracious way about her.

Accompanied comfortably by the swarm of humanity and technology, the two stars made their to one of the escalators where they departed company with the madding crowd, and sailed off (up) together, waving. This was planned of course, as these things are. Giorgio Armani is not an accidental “legend.” He is Italy’s Ralph Lauren (and you could say vice versa). His influence is substantial. And the choices from a business standpoint, genius.

In person he looks a little more real, a little bit older than the photographs. He’s not a tall man but he doesn’t seem on the short side. He was wearing a charcoal jacket that looked like it might have been a light denim, with the stitching on the outside. With a white v-neck polo underneath. He looks so comfortable in his clothes and so off-handedly elegant and so “who really cares?”

He seems to accomplish so many things so simply.

Hearst staffers lined up to see the great Armani arrive with the movie star.

Up on the 44th floor with its spectacular views of Manhattan and Central Park on a spectacular spring day, there were long tables set for what I’d guess would be 200. You can see what the tables look like. If someone told me Armani did the room, I’d believe it.

There were more women than men, it seemed, and many of them were wearing Armani. They all looked great. Eventually Mr. Armani took his seat next to Glenn Close. Even choosing Glenn Close at your side is a great choice. He looked even better. And she was dressed in something of his, so she looked even better. Ralph Lauren, yoo-hoo ...! Over here!

The purpose of the luncheon was to launch FIT’s and its Couture Council of the Museum at FIT’s “Award For Global Fashion Leadership.” Sponsored by Swarovski and with a nice hand from Harpers Bazaar.

Dr. Joyce F. Brown, president of FIT, said, “For an institution with global reach and whose students span the world, it gives FIT great honor to present our museum’s first global fashion leadership award to Giorgio Armani who personifies style and sophistication internationally.”

The table, The menu.

Close and Armani arrive at the dining room. He greets an old friend Rosemary Ponzo (who happened to be wearing Lanvin).

Glenn Close at her table

The table setting

This is the fashion business, Awards are marketing devices. An acting out of the ritual. Fashion reigns in the world of fashion. Its influence is real; it’s financial. When you see a hundred women in a beautiful room dressed beautifully and confidently, you see many things that explain the word commerce..

The menu. Cannelloni, Rigotta Stuffed with Grape Tomatoes. So perfectly presented, you could wonder if he had something to do with that too. Delicious but only enough for the “you can never be too rich or too thin” set. The dessert. Three scoops of delicious sorbet. Thank god for the bread. This was the kind of lunch I’d always imagined Truman Capote’s swans had at the old Cote Basque. Delicious, delightful, but ... where is it?

The Arts and Culture of Fashion. Nevertheless it was perfect. The people who are involved with the FIT Museum are very serious about their mission. They are the fashion museum abuilding. They are a social archive, and they have a subject of interest that is intensely favorable. This luncheon was important because of all the associations. Swarovski, which is now run by the beautiful Nadia, daughter of the present patriarch, is a growing force in the fashion world and the fashion business (in many ways because of her). Giorgio Armani created a dress of Swarovski crystals for his Winter 2007/8 show. It has been donated to the Museum at FIT.


From The Costume Institute: Dress (Ball Gown), ca. 1872. House of Worth (French (1858–1956)); Charles Frederick Worth (French, born England, 1826–1895). French; Used Paris, France; Used London, Great Britain; Made Paris, France. Gift of Mrs. Philip K. Rhinelander, 1946.

At the table before the awarding, there was brief talk of Presidential candidates. Then it was about the night before Met Costume Institute Gala whose glamorous social heritage of twenty and thirty years ago has been ironically deconstructed under the corporate aegis of Conde Nast and its reigning queen bee Anna Wintour. This is the fun stuff. The “power” and “influence” of Mrs. Wintour has come to a point where people can regale you with complaints about a party which basically bears her name in the shadows.

A $7500 ticket will get you a seat at a table in the corner if you’re not one of the chosen ones or one of the many celebrities which have now tarted up what used to be, in the good ole olden days, a glittering social evening in metropolitan New York which now resembles a kind of hybrid Oscar Night in Vegas on the Hudson. Or rather, the East River. One of the dilemmas of corporate as social arbiter is that there is very little left for wit after the tumult and the shouting.

But back to Giorgio Armani at lunch. And at work. That is, ultimately, the beauty of this New York: commerce operating on several levels of community activity. With an aesthetic appeal. This is service. I was reminded of Ralph Lauren while taking in the lunch. This is probably an old comparison but I hadn’t thought of it before: two very astute businessmen with a powerful creative visual sense, of the same generation. I thought of Henry Ford. Or Walt Disney.

Glenn Close was the presenter. She told us how she’d loved Giorgio since Richard Gere in “American Gigolo.” She related that she had actually “auditioned” for the female starring role in the film and lost out. Never mind; she got to taunt Michael Douglas in his Armanis, and now she’s got a closet full of Armani and still wears the first jacket she bought.

Mr. Armani spoke to the audience in Italian and had a translator. Liz Peek, co-chair of the Couture Council and a trustee of FIT (in an Armani red silk jacket), spoke about the beautiful Armani clothes. It was a love-in. It was a marketing device. It was a pleasure. It was a public relations device. It raises the profile of the Couture Council which raises money for the museum. The Director of the Museum is Dr. Valerie Steele, the eminent fashion archivist/curator/ historian in New York.

Vivi Nevo and Zhang Ziyi

That's Dr Joyce Brown and Nadja Swarovski

Susan Gutfreund and Mafalda von Hessen

Jackie Weld, Susan Gutfreund, Mariana Kaufman, and Yaz Hernandez

Cathie Black and Deb Shriver

Judy Price and friend

Gretchen Grisanti and Mariana Kaufman

Karen Luter and Jennifer Creel

Rosemary Ponzo and Lynn Goldstein

Sarah Wolfe, Christina Davis, and Melissa Bernstein

Sarah Larson

Jamee Gregory and Liz Smith

Marjorie Gubelmann

Gail HIlson and Pete Scotese

Tennessee Hamilton and Dr. Valerie Steele

Amabel James

Susan Casden

Caragh Wilson and Kate Hudson

Glenn Close and Giorgio Armani

Liz Peek, Glenn Close, Giorgio Armani, Glenda Bailey, and Nadja Swarovski

Social synergy. Last night JH and I hosted a book party for Ira Neimark, along with his daughters Janie Lewis and Robin Seegal and her husband Fred Seegal at Fred and Robin's apartment. Ira has written a memoir, “Crossing Fifth Avenue To Bergdorf Goodman.” The retail business in New York is the stuff of dreams and novels (and movies) and ambition. The retail business is where a lot of people learn to be businessmen. The customer is always right. It attracts dynamic personalities who like daily adrenaline charges. It’s one of those businesses that is relentlessly demanding. These people work. The ones who stick it out, love it. They are why you like to go into stores. Or like stores when you go into them. They knew you were coming.


Click image to order Crossing Fifth Avenue.

Mr. Neimark who is a friendly man, has a modest image for someone who was a big CEO. He looks and has a bearing that belies his 86 years. He started out in his professional life as a teen-ager working as a greeter in a bellhop uniform at the now defunct Bonwit Teller’s. Bonwit’s was high end, so the kids was starting out in a good place.

Many years later as the head of Bergdorf’s, he transformed the store from something old and stodgy into what it is today. This is a life story, the kind of which can serve as a primer for a student of business.

Looking around at the crowd in the Seegal’s beautiful and bright apartment – with it full view, down the avenue toward Ira Neimark’s old stomping grounds – I could see he made a lot of friends along the way.

It was a perfect New York cocktail party held in the hours just as the sun was going down in a golden haze off to the west and the lights of the city were just beginning to flicker and beam their colors into the dusk. The waiters were serving up champagne, white wine and delicious hors d’oeuvres.

Jackie and Ira Neimark

Janie Lewis and Ira Neimark

Mallory and Robin Seegal

Fred Seegal and Liz Smith

There was a lot of picture taking among us and even Bill Cunningham from the Times came by to get a shot of Mr. Neimark and his guests. Mr. Cunningham’s appearance with his camera at a cocktail party on a weeknight in New York is a barometer of the best kind, and it was that kind of a party for that kind of a man.

But more on that and more pictures tomorrow.