Branding the man: why men are the next frontier in fashion retail

(NEW YORK) – The woman who conceived of Fashion’s Night Out did her best to encourage New Yorkers to shop.

After a circus of media and screaming fans at Bergdorf Goodman, Anna Wintour zipped over to the Meatpacking District in a black Cadillac Escalade, which paused in front of the Stella McCartney boutique.

By this time the crowd of press photographers had grown unruly and desperate for anyone who was even remotely a celebrity. Inside, a rather rumpled and ordinary assortment of guests waited for Something To Happen — anything — especially since they weren’t shopping and the bar was holding back on the champagne until some auspicious moment.

But it was Kate Hudson who made her entrance first and a sea of cellphones were raised as everyone tried to score an image of Ms. Hudson before the bodyguards ushered her into a fitting room in the back of the store.

It was Ms. Wintour, though, who sent them all into a true frenzy with some simply frozen in their tracks. She waded upstream through the photographers and citizen journalists, her trademark bob gleaming in the spark of flashbulbs. It appeared that her visit was unclear and unscheduled: was she to visit Kate in the dressing room? Where’s Stella anyway? And who do you have to &%$ to get a drink around here?

The decision was made after some murmers into a cellphone. We’re leaving. I managed to present her with a copy of my book, Branding the Man, which she carefully examined as if it were the cover of a magazine, and then thanked me, her eyes flashing beneath her bangs.

With Actress Lucy Liu at Alexander McQueen

The scene was more or less the same throughout the Meatpacking District, with revelers behaving like it was New Year’s Eve, but with better liquor. Indeed, the longest lines weren’t at the fitting rooms or cash registers, but at the bar. At Christian Louboutin, I half-expected people to start drinking out of the floor sample shoes. It was a blase group of young things who clearly had no intention of buying shoes, only of clearing out what was left of the mini-bottles of champagne.

Meanwhile at Alexander McQueen, Actress Lucy Liu looked stunning in head-to-toe McQueen. “It’s fierce, isn’t it?” she said to all who admired her, which was pretty much everybody. As Hostess with the Mostess, she did her best to talk about the clothes — in-between requests for a picture.

By Midnight the irritating drizzle sent everyone scurrying into any restaurant that would take them, while others just huddled in the hopes of finding a taxi.

A group of girls clutched ingenious little clutches with the word “Taxi” inscribed in neon letter (the purses, designed by Regine Bash, are available at www.2enlight10.com). They didn’t really seem to help them get a cab, but they sure looked cute trying.

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With all the denim available out there, there are few brands that have really stopped me in my tracks. I love my APC jeans (New Standard), but it was when I was living in Hong Kong that I discovered Nobody. The soft hand and awesome finish and wash instantly made them my favorite jean. Full disclosure: I’ve lost about 10 pounds which means that now they no longer fit. Even more full disclosure: While dancing at my +10pound weight, I ripped the ass and had to beg a tailor to fix them. I’m now really Nobody because I can’t wear them anymore.

Not to fear, this Wednesday, ScoopNYC celebrates the launch of Nobody’s Australian Heritage Collection with a special event hosted by Nobody’s Creative Director Wesley Hartwell. Since I’m stuck here in San Francisco right now, it means you’ll just have to go and check to see if they have the black jeans I so desperately want right now.

Don’t forget to RSVP!

What: Nobody celebrates the US men’s launch of their Australian Heritage Collection at Scoop

Date and Time: Wednesday, September 16th 7pm – 10pm
Address: 873 Washington Street (between 13th and 14th Street), NYC
RSVP@scoopnyc.com

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I’m just about to leave for New York for fashion week and to do some press for my book. Going to New York is a kind of pilgrimage — to art, culture, and of course, fashion. In more recent years, my trips to New York are less frenetic and driven. I am less a participant and more an observer.

I like it this way: to be alone and anonymous and observe New Yorkers being… well, New Yorkers. While I love going to museums and exploring the latest shop or neighborhood of the moment, I also love just parking myself somewhere and watching the performance on the street. It always looks as though a casting agent had come along, given them their roles, and a director calls “cue the background!”

Everyone in New York tells you how exhausted they are. I am convinced, it’s because New York is all about the moment — for everything. For everyone. Unlike any other place in the U.S., and perhaps even the world, New York is about the “Now” ; never about the “Before” or even the “Later.”

It is all about what you are doing Now. It is all about who you are Now. It is all about what you are wearing Now. No one really cares about who you were Before, or who you will be Later. Being in the Now all the time is exhausting. For the people who live and love fashion, it is even more exhausting.

But it is also what makes it all so entertaining. A walk down almost any street in Manhattan — a city which, for better or for worse, has gentrified itself nearly to the point that it is rare to discover anything that hasn’t been discovered by everyone else — reveals a parade of people wearing their very best Nows: outfits meant to appear accidental, fabulous, and very much an interpretation of who they are…. now.

See them a year from now and that look will be so yesterday — so… before now.

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