From the glass shops and evil-eye bead stands to the carpet boutiques, Istanbul's Grand Bazaar (think extremely ornate mall) offers plenty of goods to take home to family, friends, and of course, ourselves. Carving out a few precious minutes from a shoot last week, my colleague Shiona Turini and I snuck off to spend some dough. Here's a sampler of our shopping tour in Turkey:

First-stop: Meters away from the bazaar entrance. Tunics and satchels, some made from old woven fabrics, others from popular prints a la Burberry, hang from the outdoor stands, tempting buyers to spend before even stepping inside. Purchased tunics for the moms, bags for the sisters. Regret not buying these tie-dye scarves.

Second stop: Inside the bazaar, after a number of left turns. Gorgeous lamps! Wait, those are hookahs...But inside a glass shop, we find lovely actual lamps to hang from our ceilings. Sweet. Even sweeter, the Turkish delights tasted at candy stores--good for roommates and coworkers. Quick stop for Turkish coffee before keeling over from over-stimulus.

Today for lunch, I convinced a friend to stroll with me up to Rockefeller Center, where we checked out the new installation by Chris Burden: a 65-foot skyscraper made of approximately one million stainless steel pieces modeled after Erector set parts. Having read Kevin West's profile on Burden in the May issue, I had been curious to see the project, which had been somewhat hard for me to envision. While the six-story replica of 30 Rockefeller Center is dwarfed by the real 30 Rock, which stands adjacent, it's way more of a sight to behold, the sun glaring off those million miniature steel bolts and beams.

I asked a security guard--he gave his name as Mr. Johnson--watching over the base of the sculpture, what he thought of the piece, standing next to it all day. At first, he just shrugged at the giant toy model. But then, he squinted up at it and said, "You know, it is a really amazing idea, having a million small pieces and putting them together to make this." We agree.

The exhibition is in place until July 19th.

Installation photo by Alexandra Marvar; Portrait by Malerie Marder for W

Last Wednesday night, there were so many security guards at Rock and Republic's party at Beatrice Inn that it was only natural for partygoers to assume a major celebrity was en route. It turned out, however, that the strongmen were there for the jeans company's top execs, Andrea Bernholtz and Michael Ball, who apparently bring guards with them wherever they go.

Upstairs, LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy spun his favorite old-school disco anthems. Despite top billing on the invitation, he seemed itching to head off to his next gig, at Santos' Party House, a new club in Chinatown. He explained that he and the band's drummer, Pat Mahoney, are holding a biweekly party series there, called "Special Disco Version."

DJing after him was downtown it-girl Harley Viera-Newton, who was hanging out with 21-year-old realtor-to-the-Olsens Jared Seligman (subject of a profile in W's May issue). As it turns out, Harley and Seligman are next door neighbors, and Seligman told us that Harley had just been signed to Elite model agency.

Eventually, a security guard-worthy celebrity actually did make an appearance. Around 11 pm, the recently rehabbed Kirsten Dunst showed up, slouching discreetly beneath a fedora.

Top left: DJ Harley Viera-Newton; top right: James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem.

Deadlines and shipping schedules make summer Fridays something of an anomaly around the W offices. Still, my colleague, Jessica Iredale and I were recently able to escape our cubicles for an hour to meet denim designer Chloe Lonsdale. Our appointment locale? The Soho House rooftop, where the pool—made infamous by the ladies of Sex and the City—was brimming with a bikini-clad crowd who, well, didn't exactly seem concerned with corporate attendance policies.

Chloe, a Brit whose father, Tony Lonsdale, was the founder of England's famed Jean Machine chain, was in town to search for office space for her nearly three-year-old jeans line, MiH, which is a relaunch of Made In Heaven, the Seventies-era line of hip-huggers Chloe's godfather started. The Lonsdale clan is something of an about-town bunch - Chloe's elder sister Tamsin is the brains behind New York's roving social organization The Supper Club, and her mother, Chekkie Maskell, was a Seventies model who worked the Made In Heaven jeans to fantastic effect in the company's original ads. "I'm looking for something like my London office - lots of light, lots of space," said Chloe, a Saint Martins alum whose revamped line has a modern-yet-retro look: a classic shape like a high-waist is made chic with a straight leg, while the pale gold stitching along the hems and pockets is refreshingly simple. (Another perk: all the washes are incredibly soft).

Wearing a snow-white cropped pair called the Paris, Chloe, a former designer for Nicole Farhi, admits to being her own best advertisement for the growing line, which has landed at Barneys, Intermix and Ron Herman, among other stores. "I'm trying to take it slowly, because I'd ultimately like it to be a real lifestyle company," she told us. "My father wore jeans to weddings and to funerals, and he had a real cool, modern attitude about style, which is what I want my company to be about." And while Chloe got to stay put under the sun awaiting her next visitor, Jessica and I had to return to work. On our way out, we passed (who else?) Candace Bushnell, lounging poolside with a Lipstick Jungle script.

Penetration. Hump and run. Two-man combo. Get your mind out of the gutter -- we're talking soccer terms here. The first, for example, signifies the ability of a player to drive through the opposing defense. What were you thinking?

It's precisely this wink-wink sensibility that inspired Stephen Wong, former art director at Helmut Lang, to launch his own line of cashmere scarves boldly emblazoned with these double entendres. This fall the six-style collection, dubbed Wong Wong, hits the retail shelves at Colette in Paris. "The whole thing came about because my friends and I would watch football all the time on the BBC and the commentators would use these terms naturally," says Wong, a hardcore fan who plays in leagues around New York City. "But if you take it to a different context, it's funny. Some people automatically think, 'OK, that's dirty,' and I kind of like that."

Each phrase, he adds, has been carefully paired with a particular scarf color and pattern -- and only serious soccer enthusiasts will understand why. A case in point is his striped green and white design, which references Scotland's famed Celtic Football Club. The team's best known for its kick long-and-chase tactic -- a play otherwise referred to colloquially as, ahem, "hump and run."

Photo: Thomas Iannacone

Last week, I watched a 66-year-old man demonstrate he could drink hairspray.

The man was Horst Rechelbacher, the Austrian-born natural products guru who founded Aveda. (He sold the company to Estee Lauder in 1997 for $300 million.) Rechelbacher now runs a new beauty and wellness brand he founded called Intelligent Nutrients, and he performed the stunt--quaffing a cocktail of hairspray, rose petals and Pellegrino for a gaggle of beauty insiders--to prove the purity of the line. Intelligent Nutrients is just one of the growing number of beauty brands--Belegenza and Befine are two others--offering food-derived products so wholesome they're (well, technically) edible.

Many of Intelligent Nutrients's ingredients come from Rechelbacher's own 580-acre organic farm in Osceola, Wisconsin. The centerpiece of the brand is a blend of five antioxidant-rich seed extracts (grape, raspberry, cranberry, cumin and pumpkin), which is pumped into everything from styling products to lip balm. Pumpkin seed oil even showed up in the salad served at lunch, prepared by fellow Austrian Kurt Gutenbrunner.