“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

Stop the presses! Forget the dresses and the heels and the tousles of hair and the glittery eye shadow from the Costume Institute Gala. We have something far more riveting to discuss. What, pray tell is more important that Anna Wintour, Bee Shaffer and Jennifer Lopez combined? Well, Karl Lagerfeld, of course. No, not because of Blake Lively and her cascading red ‘doo or her toga-style Chanel number. Rather, from Karl himself. From the moment Karl stepped onto the Red Carpet wearing that Tom Ford tuxedo, I was awestruck. Why? Well, let us go down memory lane and see the… Read More »

Frankly, I am not a fan of these capsule collections at Target, Kohl’s, K-Mart and BlaBla’s. Who cares if some blubbery couch potato gets access to a Missoni sweater? Do we need to see more overweight people trying to look fierce? Oh, come now. Have you been to a Target lately? Just because their advertising and marketing is slick, that does not automatically translate to the clientele that moseys around the store. On the contrary. Yes, Target does do great events, like that amazing fashion show held at The Standard New York. And they get fabulous press, to the point where… Read More »

Just when you thought it was safe to step out of your Jimmy Choos, or slip off your Chanel Haute Couture sheath, or girdle your way out of that contraption, yes you Beyonce, or even peel off those teeth-hurting, sugary Marchesa confections (you know my opinion of the word confection as an adjective for a dress) comes the second half of my Not Best Dressed List from the Costume Institute Gala from Monday Night. Of course no one is safe. I am not alone in saying that this year was lackluster. Expectations ran high with Alexander McQueen being the subject… Read More »

Last night’s Costume Institute Gala was the New York City version of the Oscar Red Carpet. As Joan Rivers will surely attest this Friday night on Fashion Police, there were hits and plenty of misses. Before I share my best and worst list, I must give a shout out to Stella McCartney. This really was her night. Sure, Sarah Burton was the star of the night politically, but in terms of which designer had the best showing on the glamor-pusses? It was Stella by a mile because she dressed some of the major players of the evening.… Read More »

Last night was the big kahuna of the New York City social whirl, The Costume Institute Gala, a.k.a. Anna Wintour’s Playground. If you were not there, then you do not exist. If you are not on Anna’s guest list, you might as well just curl up and die. If you are not BFFs with a top fashion designer, then you might as well just call it a day and move out to the suburbs. Sounds harsh? Perhaps…but it is true. The theme this season was American Woman. There’s all sorts of good reasons for this theme since America’s schmatta business… Read More »

No, I have not yet seen The September Issue yet…film or magazine. I’m going to do the ritual this weekend, see the movie then flip through Vogue. I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again, I think Anna Wintour is fierce. Anyone from Lauren Wiesberger to Maureen Dowd can say what they want about Anna, but they are simply riding her Oscar de la Renta coattails. Having worked for years in Hollywood, inside the inner sanctum of celebrity, you learn really quickly that “those” people are not what they seem. When I moved to Los Angeles, my goal was to… Read More »

Many of you must know by now that I have coined the phrase “fotz”. There ‘s many applications to this term. But, what, do you ask, is FOTZ? Etymology: What started out as a sarcastic reference to something that is or someone that “thinks” they are fascinating. So, it went from fascinating to fotzinating to fotzy balloons to fotzy to the currently, most used…fotz. Here are a few good examples. Bing is fotz. What Madonna wore to the Costume Institute Gala was fotz. George Bush was fotz…still probably is. Most Republicans are fotz. Susan Boyle’s first makeover was fotz. People… Read More »

Looking through the Vanity Fair International Best Dressed List was a bit of a head scratch-er for me. First of all, can we eliminate men from this challenge? When I think of Best Dressed lists, Mr. Blackwell’s Best Worst Dressed comes to mind as does Eleanor Lambert, who originated the Best Dressed List in 1940. Rarely do I think of men when we speak of Best Dressed lists. This year’s list in Vanity Fair had too many men, the images are lame and frankly, I don’t look to Vanity Fair for their opinions on fashion. I loves me my Vanity… Read More »

Hoola-fontz is a word that appeared on the Gurko vernacular years ago that describes going out partying, flirting heavily or as gays put it “kiki-ing”. And there’s plenty of all of the above going on in Fire Island Pines…to the nth power. Throngs and throngs of people are hoola-fontzing here. Hoola-fontzers you will never want to get into a conversation with, swarming like bees to honey, or in this case…the bar. Anyhoo, how fitting that while surrounded by the unending Marlene parade that the lead stories in the New York Post is about Madonna and the long lost love letters.… Read More »

When Ali (Not-So) Wise, PR girl extraordinaire (at least in her own mind), was arrested for hacking into interior designer, Nina Freudenberger’s privates, it was major, delicious dish. Wise–who clearly does not live up to her moniker–compromised her client Dolce & Gabbana, as they were now thrust into the middle of a seriously distasteful PR scandal…debacle. But, wait one minute, that arrest happened around July 10. And today, July 30, the news is that she has been terminated from her post. Can someone explain to me the 20 day black out here? Were Domenico and Stefano in Fiji, no phones,… Read More »