Not all European designers in New York this week came for the Costume Institute fete. Alexis Mabille, one of the bright young lights of Paris fashion, is in town to celebrate a friend's birthday. His Gotham sojourn provided a break from working on the collection he will show during the July haute couture season, the follow-up to his breakthrough effort in January in which he turned his fancy for fanciful bowties into a fabulous lineup of young, alluring clothes. While Mabille hopes to retain the chic factor next time out, he won't show at Angelina's tearoom again, and not only because the venue is too small to accommodate his growing guest list. It seems that Mabille has transferred his allegiance to another famed Parisian sweets emporium, Laduree, for which he has designed a bowtie cake, to hit the menu in June in several delectable flavors including citrus, strawberry and pistachio. "It's interesting to do something completely new," he said. Speaking of which, while his New York exploits typically center on downtown, this trip has taken Mabille off the beaten path of hip. On Wednesday a friend took him to the Frederick Law Olmstead Awards luncheon in Central Park's Conservatory Garden, named for the park's great landscape architect. There, he marveled at "all these ladies dressed in pastels." And one evening he found himself at Swifty's. "It wasn't young," he said, gallantly ignoring the occasionally indiscreet nips and tucks one might notice in such a venue. Rather, Mabille gauged the crowd by its accoutrements: "So many JAR earrings! So many Cartier necklaces!"

Top: A look from Alexis Mabille's January couture show. Bottom: Mabille with a model.

Now that Valentino has retired from the fashion house he founded, he's spending more and more time in New York. The city that never sleeps seems to be agreeing with the legendary designer, who is exhibiting a stamina that much younger party boys would envy. In the past ten days we're seen him at the New York City Ballet gala; at designer Adam Lippes' apartment for writer Bob Colacello's 61st birthday party; and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Insitute gala with Claudia Schiffer on his arm. Tonight, socialite-turned-actress Alison Sarofim will host a fete celebrating Valentino's 76th birthday party at her West Village townhouse.

Aside from the social scene, it may be the designer's new Jacques Grange-designed apartment that has made the Big Apple so alluring to Val. Unlike his more over-the-top residences in Capri, Rome, Gstaad and London (not to mention his Louis XIII-era chateau outside Paris) his Manhattan apartment is much more understated, according to Grange.  "He wanted it to be more modern and light. He wanted a change," Grange told me recently. One
impetus for the shift is Valentino's extensive collection of contemporary and modern art, for which he wanted a more neutral background. 

After last night's Broadway premiere of Top Girls—the star-studded cast includes Marisa Tomei, Martha Plimpton and Elizabeth Marvel—revelers headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for an after-party of schmoozing, boozing and a buffet of the restaurant's fine cuisine (think extra-drippy Caesar salad). I asked Plimpton what she thought of the party's venue. "It fits in with the theme of the play, I guess," said the actress. "How so?" I asked, trying to surmise the connection between Caryl Churchill's cerebral work and the neon-lit 43rd Street tourist destination. "Well, the 80's! For maybe 30 seconds in 1983, [this place] was really cool," she quipped.

Dressed in a sleek, sheer belted wool number, Plimpton herself looked anything but dated. Turns out that the ensemble was custom designed for her by Malan Breton, best known for his appearance on season three of Project Runway. The designer, who was also at the party, told me the two met via an unlikely and thoroughly modern channel: Myspace.com. "We had mutual friends," says Breton.

"Myspace is better than Facebook," Plimpton declared. "Facebook takes over your life!"

Above: Martha Plimpton with Malan Breton. Photo: Bennett Raglin/Wireimage

Last week, I ran into Liz Goldwyn at the opening night gala of the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment." The Los Angeles heiress and filmmaker, who owns a near-legendary collection of vintage clothing—that night she was wearing a pale blue couture Yves Saint Laurent gown from 1979—has been designing fine jewelry over the past several years. (Her pieces go for prices up to $6,500). Goldwyn told me about her newest fashion world venture, a gently-priced accessories collection that is being sold at Opening Ceremony. The line, called Springtime Romance, consists of vintage headpieces and sweater guards (the bejeweled clips that girls used to wear to hold their cardigans in place) from the 1940s and 1950s that Goldwyn found at estate sales and flea markets. (Because the items, priced between $150 and $350, aren't actually reworked in any way, she served as more of the line's curator than designer.)

"I'm so excited because Kylie Minogue bought one of the headband hats," she told me giddily. "I'm going to look for photos of her to see if she wears it!"

Photo of Goldwyn by Steve Eichner

I'm not usually one to stray from my same few pairs of tried and true blue jeans, even with—especially with —the rapid frequency of denim launches these days. But after recently checking out the new designs of Allureblues, I've decided to move on and change my ways.

Created by a team of young female designers, the collection delivers just what women like myself want in a pair of jeans: minimal details and great washes without the all the bells and whistles. (No crazy embellishment! No over-the-top whiskers!)

The raw indigo washes actually feel soft and the waxed black denim is chic with a polished edge. The line also comes in various shades of grays, navy, and a style with buttons at the ankles. Arriving in New York this July at stores like TG-170 and Blush, the jeans will surely make getting dressed more difficult. Something else to love—the cuts are meant the flatter a woman's curves. Basically, why wouldn't you want a pair...or four?

Literally. That's where I found myself moments after arriving at the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South for a little Q&A with Dita von Teese. There she was, curled up on the queen-size in her eighteenth-floor suite, on top of the covers and fully clothed, in a vintage pink lace dress and scads of diamonds by Cartier, Chopard and Dior.

Interviewing a stripper in bed—how apropos. Von Teese is in town for her new gig as the face, or ambassador, rather, of Cointreau. the 160-year-old French orange liqueur. Tonight marks the New York debut of her Cointreau-inspired routine, which she claims is "the most extravagant show I've done." Ooh la la. And considering she's made her name swilling about nearly naked in one giant martini glass after the next, the question isn't why she's shilling for a liquor label, but, what's taken so long? "I knew with this martini-glass act, I could eventually collaborate with a spirit brand but the opportunities that had come before just didn't seem like the right fit," von Teese explains. "And [Cointreau] is so historic and sophisticated and French."

It's also the first of a series of no-brainer projects for her. She's just begun work on a retro-style guidebook and, come fall, she'll partake in the European launch of her first-ever lingerie collaboration with yet another French firm: Wonderbra. Again, von Teese says she's been approached by dozens of lingerie companies, but she held out for something, "I knew I wouldn't be embarrassed of," she says. "It could be a disaster, you know? I wanted only lingerie that I would want to have in my lingerie drawer." Like everyday stuff? "Well," she corrects, "Everyday for me."

See a sneak peek from von Teese's London show on YouTube.

In this hyper-ambitious town, plenty of businesses are launched on a single great idea. Katie Campbell has two. Her pretty little Mott Street shop, True Boutique, not only caters to a wide range of sizes—from 00 to 16—it also offers presto-chango onsite tailoring. "I got tired of buying clothes and then having to take them somewhere else for alterations," says Campbell. "I wanted to wear them immediately." An LA transplant and Emmy-nominated producer, Campbell had a major television career in play before heading east and shifting gears to retail. But her avid shopping over the years has paid off, honing her instincts for clothes that look great on a variety of body types. For True, she's scored exclusives with Cloak and Dagger and Dallin Chase up to 16, and also stocks four denim brands (Beija Flor, C.Enne V, James and Jordache) in larger sizes. Not that Campbell is neglecting the skinny glamazons replenishing their wardrobes from Nolita's tiny boites. "It almost slipped my mind," she says. "But then I remembered: Gotta get those 38-inch inseams."

True Boutique
278 Mott Street
New York, NY 10012
212.431.7709

Marlene Dietrich had her smoky le smokings. Joan Crawford, her padded linebacker shoulders. But as for their contemporary Bette Davis, who would have celebrated her centenary on April 5, fashion was hardly at the forefront. In fact, she's quite famously known for shunning that whole Hollywood glamour-gal persona. The actress frequently kicked vanity to the curb to bravely play an assortment of ghastly looking characters, from a dying syphilis-stricken moll (Of Human Bondage) to a cake-faced vaudeville has-been (Whatever Happened to Baby Jane). Nevertheless, Ms. Davis still managed a fair share of sartorial moments on the silver screen. Take, for instance, Fashions of 1934, in which she's a platinum-blonde glamazon á la Jean Harlow while embroiled in a counterfeit couture conspiracy creating knockoffs of the latest Parisian fashions. Several years later, Davis won her second Oscar for her role in 1938's Jezebel; its plot is based around a red gown she rebelliously wears to the Olympus Ball. Then there's that cocktail dress in All About Eve (1950) which Davis made famous while uttering the oft-quoted line, "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night." As it turns out, the Edith Head gown proved Davis's impromptu styling prowess: It was too big when she first tried it on, so the actress simply tugged the whole thing down a bit, transforming its roomy bodice with a square-shaped neckline into a sexy off-the-shoulder number. Now, Davis is about to make a posthumous fashion turn when, in September, the U.S. Postal Service releases a commemorative 2008 stamp in her honor. The image, of Davis dolled up in diamonds and a lush fur coat, was painted by Brooklyn artist Michael Deas and is based on a photograph taken during the filming of All About Eve.

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