 |
|
|
 |
Looking
south along Park Avenue South from a rooftop in Murray Hill.
10:15 PM. Photo: JH.
|
One
of those days when you’re reminded that summer’s
over but the heat stays to the point where you find yourself wishing
for the chilly weather.
 |
|
From
yesterday's Bill Blass show
|
|
It’s Fashion Week, as if you didn’t know. So
after lunch at Michael’s I went down to the Tents at Bryant
Park for Michael Vollbracht’s Bill Blass
Show. It’s a real
New York experience – you see a lot of the familiar bold-faced
names in society and fashion. The editors, the ladies, the kids,
the gents whose businesses revolve or are related to the fashion
business. Michael Vollbracht is having a personal renaissance now,
much deserved I should add, proving that great talent will always
win out.
He’s one of the best illustrative artists New York (and the
world) has ever seen. You may know his two volumes of brilliant
illustrations and commentary on the rich and/or (mainly very) famous: Nothing Sacred,
vols. I and II. If you haven’t seen
them, you’ve missed something wonderful and you can catch
a taste of it in the September Quest (on the major newstands
now) where we’ve run eight pages of his work. He writes about
his subjects very subjectively and very knowingly. He’s by
nature a very kind guy but sometimes there’s an edge that’s
inevitable when an artist puts to use his pen-knife to get just
the right shadow,
if you catch my drift.
Years ago he had his own fashion house on 7th Seventh Avenue and
created some things that are now collectors’ items – brilliant
in color and plan and execution. Two years ago he signed on to
carry on the classic sensibilities of the great Bill Blass – highly
stylish, highly wearable, all-American clothes for women of fashion
everywhere. In the beginning, the naysayers were all out (and so
were their claws and talons) but Michael’s talent transcends
the land of nay and he has produced what in the fashion business
is known simply as “money in the bank.” I sat between Jamee Gregory and Felicia Taylor, just two down from Arlene
Dahl and Rosemarie (Mrs. Robert) Stack. Jamee and Felicia were alternating
their oohs-and-ahhs, almost as if they’d choreographed it.
One Jamee, the next for Felicia, who was respectfully wearing something
a suit from Michael’s fall line. I did my (barely adequate)
best to get some digitals of some of the line, just to give you
an idea. Bravo Michael! |
 |
Felicia
Taylor
|
|
 |
|
Glenda
Bailey
|
|
 |
|
Helen
O'Hagan and Adrienne Vittadini
|
|
 |
The
girl
from WWD
|
|
 |
|
Arlene
Dahl and Rosemarie Stack
|
|
 |
|
Susan
Bodnar and friends
|
|
 |
Cynthia
Lufkin, Muffie Potter Aston, and Sharon King Hoge
|
|
 |
|
Giney
Burke, Nicole Limbocker, and Susan Burke
|
|
 |
Ivana
Trump and Rossano Rubicondi
|
|
 |
|
Jamee
Gregory
|
|
 |
|
Marge
Rubin and Zandra Rhodes
|
|
 |
Jeffrey
Banks and Dennis Basso
|
|
 |
|
Somers
Farkas and Tommy Tune
|
|
 |
|
Michael
Vollbracht
|
|
|
|
|
|
