Thanks to a tip-off from a friend of a friend of a friend, it came to our attention yesterday that reality TV's most terrible twosome, Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, might be opening a bar in our hometown.  A quick field trip to Murray Hill and a casual chat with some Blackberry-wielding LA-types outside confirmed our suspicions--Heidi and Spencer are, indeed, in talks to open a bar in the space formerly known as The Dip at 416 Third Avenue (corner of 29th St.).  But what will it be called, you ask?  It seems like the couple really put their blond heads together on this one and came up with (what else?) The Hill.  According to the sources, The Hill is an "upscale sports lounge," and is slated to open next week.  Readers beware, Speidi has landed!


Above: Construction on The Hill's facade, photo by: Maura M. Lynch.  Heidi and Spencer: courtesy of MTV
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Marissa Ribisi and Sophia Coloma, the duo behind LA fashion label Whitley Kros, recently relaunched their website (whitleykros.com), adding quirky features like a scrapbook of travel photos taken by the designers' fictional muse. But the best part of the site, hands down, is its music, a seamlessly edited mix of French pop, Spoon, Brian Eno and Stereolab.

The man who put it all together, as we recently learned, was none other than Ribisi's husband, Beck. "He was so sweet, he came up with three different versions for me to choose from just because he got so into it," Ribisi told us, adding that the musician spent three full days in the studio working on it.

As Beck fans know, this isn't the rocker's first foray into the fashion world. (Hedi Slimane tapped the musician to mix tracks for his Spring/Summer 2005 Dior Homme show.)  But now, Beck, whom Ribisi describes as "just as obsessed with fashion as I am," may have seriously caught the design bug. According to the designer, he's hoping to help out on a future Whitley Kros menswear collection. Stay tuned.


Photos: Top, Andy Brooke.  Bottom, WireImage.

Venus Williams has had a good summer, but not in the sipping-a-fruity-cocktail-on-the-beach kind of way. No, hers has gone more like this: become the 2008 Wimbledon champion, win an Olympic gold medal (in tennis doubles with her sis, Serena, natch), design the spring collection for EleVen (the brand she launched with retailer Steve & Barry's in 2007), and expand V Starr Interiors (her own interior design firm). So what more could a girl ask for? The U.S. Open crown, for one. Currently ranked number eight on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, the Powerade-Wilson-American Express-sponsored Williams has her first match on Tuesday. While she's far from well-rested, she says she's feeling good and excited to not only play, but also show off her latest outfit (think: fuchsia-and-black bodysuit). There's just one slight problem. "I usually have matching jewelry but I left it in L.A.," she says. "I guess I'll have to do some last-minute shopping in the city."

W: Congratulations on your Olympic gold with Serena. Have you had any time to relax?
Venus Williams: Not really. I had to start practicing immediately the next day, but I'm, you know, living the dream. You gotta do it.

W: At Wimbledon, you hit your fastest serve ever: 129 mph. What speed are you aiming for at the U.S. Open?
VW: I'd love to hit 130 but we'll have to see. Sometimes when you try to hit harder, it goes slower because you're muscling it. When it happens, your arm has to be like a whip--nice and loose.

W: Will you be wearing EleVen at the U.S. Open?  
VW: I sure will. I'm wearing a bodysuit this year, with a skirt over it. It's bright pink and black with a rectangles print on it. I'll also be wearing the Goddess dress that I wore at Wimbledon, but this time in fuchsia and in black. And with matching shoes--they're black and pink, too.

W: What can we expect from your next collection for spring?
VW: Bigger prints and more prints. I was inspired by a lot of the designers' collections from fall, like watercolors and things like that.

W: When not wearing EleVen, what can we find you in?
VW: All I do is wear EleVen; you can't find me in anything else.

W: Really? So you're wearing it right now?
VW: No, actually, I'm wearing Diane von Furstenberg!

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Above: The Venus Williams-designed EleVen outfits that she's wearing at
this week's U.S. Open.  Sketch courtesy of Steve & Barry's.

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Maria Sharapova may be skipping out on this year's U.S. Open (she tore her shoulder tendon last month), but she's certainly not crying in her soup, er, Gatorade—one of the many brands she currently endorses—over it. In fact, the little hiatus from tennis is simply giving Sharapova more time to concentrate on her other love: fashion. Or as she puts it, "I'd much rather be talking about clothes than forehands and backhands." And how. When we met Friday morning at Nike's New York headquarters (to, ironically, discuss the two Nike looks she was to wear while playing in the Open), she didn't miss a beat when asked to name her favorite designers. "I love all the clothes Alber at Lanvin does," she says. "I also like Thakoon, how he uses different materials and shapes. And Vera Wang does that unstructured look that's really cool. Oh, and Phillip Lim—he has that really young vibe. Oh, and Stella McCartney—she's actually one of my favorites." Indeed, I got the sense that if I didn't move the conversation forward, Sharapova's list might just outlast one of her stellar matches.
 
P.S. On Monday, Olympic and Wimbledon champ Venus Williams will chat with the W Editors' Blog about, you guessed it, fashion—with a little bit of tennis thrown in for good measure.

W: First things first. What are you wearing?
Maria Sharapova: This jacket is Derek Lam, the skirt is Phillip Lim and the sandals I bought in Australia two years ago. They were, like, $20.

W: You're here to talk about the Nike looks you were set to wear at the U.S. Open, which, sadly, you're not playing in this year. Let's talk about them anyway.
MS: The past few years at the Open, my outfits were more glamorous and glitzy whereas these are a little toned down but are still very, very elegant. There's my day dress, which I did in a really strong color. But for night, I wanted to step down and do something elegant and flowy, with an unfinished, vintage-inspired neckline. [White versions of each dress are now available at Nikestore.com.]

W: Who are you rooting for this year?
MS: When I'm not in the tournament, I don't really care. Someone said to me yesterday, 'What do you think of the draw?' And I was like, 'Oh, the draw's out?' I'm just focusing on getting better right now.

W: Are you doing anything fun in the meantime?
MS: I've been in Arizona for the last two weeks getting rehab on my shoulder for about three to four hours a day. This is the time that I never usually have to do things so I came to New York and have had a really busy schedule with meetings and promotional events that I previously committed to.

W: Have you had any time to shop?
MS: I was just in Soho a couple days ago. We just went to one store, Kirna Zabete, because I needed a pair of Rick Owens pants.

W: And exactly why did you need a pair of Rick Owens pants?
MS: I love his pants and every season he comes out with them in the same style but in different materials, and I just needed to get the new ones for fall!

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Have you ever told a secret, and immediately gripped your hand over your mouth in horror, wondering why it is you just revealed the up-till-then unspoken nugget? I haven't had that experience since fifth grade or so—that is, until a few weeks ago, when a galley of Going Hungry: Writers on Denial, Self-Desire, and Anorexia (Anchor Books), landed on my desk. I flipped it open to the page on which my own essay begins, a re-telling of my battle with an eating disorder and the subsequent treatment I received for it. Staring at my name, my hand flew to my mouth. Secret? Not anymore.

So when my editor asked me to write a blog item about the essay, I smiled, said sure, and promptly avoided doing so until the last possible moment. As a fashion writer, my job is to report on the goings-on in other people's lives, to examine other people's creations. There has always been some safety in the anonymity of reporting; even using the occasional first-person voice on this blog feels awkward to me. Not surprisingly, it took me a good six or so months to actually write the essay, which I started well before I took my job at W last year. When I did finally dive-in, it was with the long-lens perspective of someone who has been healthy for nearly ten years. (I won't rehash the story here—that's what the book is for.) Still, particularly working in an industry that, let's face it, glorifies thinness to the point where British Fashion Week organizers called on models to provide doctors' notes before strutting the catwalk (they dropped the request on August 13, which could be another blog post altogether), there's a sudden sense of exposure that's unsettling. I have, at moments, worried that those who know me but did not know my history might now look at me differently, both figuratively and literally. Of course, there's a flip-side to the first-person freak-out, which is: Oh God, I've bared my soul...but what if nobody even reads it?  

At the same time, I'm more than humbled by the company I'm in: Francine du Plessix Gray, Jennifer Egan, Louise Gluck, and Joyce Maynard—writing of her now-famous and toxic romance with J.D. Salinger—have all contributed essays, as have a number of younger writers, whose essays are smart, often frustrating reminders of how many seemingly together women spend chunks of their lives obsessed with food and weight. I'm a big fan of the piece Egan (herself a former model) wrote, in which she laments, most of all, the hours she wasted worrying about being skinny.  "I could have learned Greek or Latin with that time," she writes. "I could have built a boat."  Then, she adds, "But what I end up feeling, in the end, is just relief at finally having been released from that tiny box of thought." Here's to that.

Last week I stopped by handbag designer Paige Gamble's new by-appointment-only atelier, located just above the Pucci store on East 64th Street, for a visit. The whitewashed, 500-square-foot space is spare, but the exotic skin bags that line the walls and tables are anything but—there are clutches in metallic copper alligator, yellow ostrich, raspberry stringray and bumpy luggage-colored crocodile, to describe a few. "Our customers have definitely had the "It" bags," says Gamble, whose client list includes Queen Noor and Carolyne Roehm. "Now they want something they just fall in love with, not because it's a label, but because it's beautiful."

One of Gamble's current favorites is a slouchy tote made of Empire python, a gorgeously textured and precious skin that rarely makes its way into big-name bags. "There are only about 50 skins a year that become available," she says, adding, "large labels have to make big multiples so they often can't use them. We get as much as we can."

Gamble, a low-key Connecticut native and former Wall Streeter, began toying with the idea of an accessories line four years ago. Inspired by a turquoise-stone covered Yves Saint Laurent bag, she went looking for fabrics that could complement her own gemstone-bedecked creations. When she discovered a crocodile skin at a tannery in New Haven, she stopped searching. Today, many of her bags (priced from $1100 to $4200) are decorated with unexpected jewels, like hand-carved jade pieces (she travels to China every year to pick out a stash) and unpolished obsidian "fingers." But just as many are unadorned.
 
Shapes are classic, chic and, as Gamble admits, frequently don't hold much more than a credit card. But she's developing a series of roomy, soft totes and structured purses for fall. And her most whimsical item has to be the lunch boxes (see our May issue for a peek). Though they're done up in pony, anaconda and other exotics, they're an exact replica of the childhood staple - complete with a matching thermos. "I hear everything from 'I have to have one in every color' to 'I don't take my lunch to work so it wouldn't work for me,'" Gamble says with a laugh. "We let people know that it's not literally for your lunch, although you're certainly welcome to use it that way. I hope someone does."

Paige Gamble Atelier, 866.544.8080, paigegamble.com

When Senior Editor Danielle Stein interviewed Kate Hudson over lunch back in early June (they met at Rice on Elizabeth Street) the actress had so much to say that it was impossible to cram all of it into her September cover story. So in the name of not wasting anything--we're a frugal bunch here at W--here are some of the extra tidbits for any of you die-hard Hudson fans out there.  

On dating [at the time of the interview, Hudson was still dating Lance Armstrong]: "Dating is overrated as far as I'm concerned. I'm not a dater. I wish I could be. I wish I could be that kind of girl who's like, oh, I've got two guys on the back burner! I'm just not like that. Because I'm not really single. I mean I am, but I have a son. Being a single mother is different from being a single woman."

On gaining weight: "If you put food in front of me I'll eat it. Did you see how much weight I gained when I was pregnant? God! I gained 70 pounds! My doctor, when I had gained 45 pounds by the 5th month, his whole thing was, Kate, look, it's okay to just eat salads sometimes."

On her diet: "Give me a good burger and I'm so happy, but I know that if I eat crap, I'll feel like crap. So I don't eat the pastas and the sugars. I try to avoid wheat or dairy. I like my coffee black."



On developing her haircare line: "This has been three years of my life. It's been a long process. There are all these regulations. I joke that it's like, you go up to people and say, I wanna make the only natural product that's going to be in Duane Reade! And they're like, ok, that's great, but let's talk to the experts. And then you realize that you got a D in chemistry and there are people who dedicate their lives to formulating something that can sit on a shelf, to understanding that certain ingredients when mixed with others can become carcinogens."

On her favorite exercise class:"The S curve. It's the stripper class. It's a real girl's girl thing. I love it."

And there you have it.

Photos: Top: both BAUER-GRIFFIN.COM; Hudson and Naomi Watts: MATRIX/BAUER-GRIFFIN.COM; bottom: courtesy of David Babaii for Wildaid

On Tuesday night, some friends and I got to see actors Kathleen Chalfant and David Strathairn perform in a friend's loft in Soho. The gathering of about 25 people was the result of a winning bid some of us had made at a benefit auction for New York's Epic Theatre Ensemble back in January. (The hammer price was $4,400.) Celerie Kemble, Boykin Curry and actress Stephanie March were among the crowd, and Stephanie told me about one of her upcoming films, a comedy directed by Ricky Gervais. "It's called This Side of The Truth and it takes place in a world where lying and sarcasm don't exist," explained the actress, who was dressed down a tank top, shorts (Old Navy, as it turns out), and Louboutin wedges. "Ricky [who also stars] plays this loser guy who discovers lying. When he meets me, he uses this discovery to his advantage," she said. "I only had about two lines, but who would say no to Ricky Gervais?"

As we balanced plates of Vietnamese food on our laps, Kathleen and David sat perched on bar stools as they read their scenes together—one was a Burns and Allen sketch, and another was from Noel Coward's Private Lives. Each also read a monologue: Kathleen's from Wit addressed her heroine's stage four cancer, and David's, from a book of Edward R. Murrow speeches, was on the topic of war. "I'm not reading something from Good Night and Good Luck," said the actor, whose salt and pepper hair and wire-rimmed eyeglasses made him look particularly professorial. "I chose this one because I feel it is particularly apropos to our current situation," he explained.

Fortunately, the mood lightened up afterward, and both actors lingered to chat a bit. David headed back to his house upstate and Kathleen returned to New Haven, where she's currently in rehearsals for the Yale Rep's production of Sarah Ruhl's trilogy Passion Play. Depending on the night, she'll play Queen Elizabeth, Adolf Hitler or Ronald Reagan. Quite a stretch from Gracie Allen.

Insanely chic First Ladies aren't the only gals to champion a killer pair of riding boots. Thanks to official sponsor Ariat, the Olympic equestrian team will be sporting their own black beauties when they hop atop their warmbloods to compete in Beijing.
 
If your "Mom, I want a pony" pleas never came to fruition, don't fret--at least you can dress the part with Ariat's ultra-luxe Monaco field boots, fully tricked-out with spur rests and saddle grips. Though W accessories and jewelry director Brooke Magnaghi thinks they might be too literal a take, she does praise the "flattering" cut. And for a mere $900, you too can own uber-equestrienne Beezie Madden's footwear of choice. Tally ho!
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In the ultimate no-stones-unturned move, an enterprising Boston designer has stitched together a birthing dress. Yes, an honest to goodness, all-access frock for the labor & delivery room. It seems Daniela Corte, while packing her hospital bag on the eve of the arrival of her first child, came up short in the cute-things-to-wear-while-you're-pushing department. So she grabbed a bolt of organic cotton jersey (oddly, she just happened to have one lying around) and started slicing. Within minutes, she had a prototype of the $98.00 Dar-a-luz, which, translated from Spanish, means "to give birth." But here's the thing: It's actually pretty chic, particularly in the steel blue shade. And for new mama bears who are secure in their vanity, it beats the pants off a ghastly pale teal gown when you're posing, bleary-eyed, for those all-important first pics.