“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

Since New York Fashion Week started, I’ve had this gnawing feeling in my gut that I could not quite put my finger on. Yes, it could be stress since I’m producing several projects during the week plus having to write my daily musings…where does the day go? Leading up to fashion week I was inundated with news about fashion bloggers. New ones, old ones, newly famous ones, bloggers photographed by Anna Wintour, a blogger that actually hired a publicist, others touting their front row-ness, bloggers who were cast in ad campaigns, bloggers sponsored by major fashion brands, bloggers with capsule… Read More »

What do Selma Blair, Christina Ricci, Kelly Rowland, Sean Lennon, Robin Thicke, Charlotte Kemp Muhl, Helena Christensen, Miike Snow, DJ Cassidy, Ali Hewson, Harley Viera Newton, Mia Morretti have in common? Fashion’s Night Out in the Meatpacking District, which we have sub-named…Fashion Lives Downtown. Say what you want about Fashion’s Night Out, that Anna is only doing this for Vogue, or that Jews in Borough Park are mortified because it falls on Rosh Hashanah, or that this is about drinking and not shopping, but Fashion’s Night Out is like The (Fabulous) Blob and literally engulfing all of Manhattan. Yes, I… Read More »

In today’s Women’s Wear Daily, the discussion is whether New York deserves a Men’s Fashion Week, similar to those in Milan and Paris. Listening to the argument, one has to side with the reality that New York needs one in order for these designers to compete with the international business cycle. Naturally I MEAN WHAT?!? has a different agenda, and are voting in favor of New York Manzie Week. Imagine how much fun we will have, especially with the next series of shows being Spring 11, when light frothy outfits come tra-la-la-ing down the runway on gossamer wings. (Note: Whoever… Read More »

Madonna is finally jumping into the fashion business?!? I knew that she was hankering to become a schmatta peddler for years but was waiting for the right time and the right deal. And I guess this is it. There is no time like the present and there’s no place like Macy’s…though I wish she would just stay home. Anyone who is anyone that reads I MEAN…WHAT?!? knows how obsessed I am with this whole celebrity-turned-designer quagmire that we find ourselves in. And not obsessed like “I am obsessed with my Sarah Jessica Parker for Halston number” but more like, “Can… Read More »

Here is what I cannot stand about the liberal media. That you have a certified jerk and admitted Oxycontin addict like Rush Limbaugh, rushed off to the hospital while on his Christmas vacation, admitting to the medical crews that he was taking drugs for his back problems. That old excuse? Where are all the conflicting reports? Where are the many spoofs on his drug addiction? Where is that hospital report? If this was any other well-known person (I hate to call him a celebrity because he is so gross), it would be all over the tabloids. But yoo hoo…must you… Read More »

Would everyone just leave Michelle Obama and her wardrobe alone for five minutes? I have never seen anything like it. This woman is not allowed to step out of the shower without some yenteh looking her up and down, snapping a photo and printing it, and as of late…dishing her. Today the NY Daily News trashed Michelle for sporting an expensive, alligator purse. And naturally, to salacify (yes, I made that word up, it means to make more salacious) the wearing of the bag, the NYDN offers up a vote to their “sophisticated” readers as to whether she “should” or… Read More »

Reading about the new Monkey Bar and the obsession that Graydon Carter has regarding who sits where kind of gives me the willies. I don’t know why. Part of me would like to think that he’s busy editing Vanity Fair, the magazine I look forward to reading each month, though I will say it has been lackluster as of late. Could there be some kind of correlation? This month, with everyone’s hero Johnny Depp on the cover, the magazine is so thin, it’s like one of those glossy handouts in the Hamptons. And lo and behold, there’s a story about… Read More »

There’s nothing like an awards show to warm the cockles of my heart. It gives me a chance to put forth the I MEAN…WHAT?!? Not Best Dressed List. And last night, the CFDA Awards did not disappoint. There were some mini doozies…but doozies, just the same. It is probably best that I MEAN..WHAT?!? put out the Not Best Dressed List since we are not “true” fashion insiders and objectivity is the key. A “true” fashion insider is not likely to say something like, “What the hell was Aerin Lauder wearing, doesn’t she own a mirror?” because a true fashion insider… Read More »

My go-to reference for fashion is Style.com. It is by far the best website for fashion (not because my friend is an editor there) but because it has a confident, fresh voice plus the whole Vogue /  Anna Wintour thing going on behind it. It’s a frothy Vogue. Today’s story on Why Everything French Is Hot Again reminds us that the French have contributed way more to the world cultural stage than French Fries…or as George Bush so eloquently re-named them, Freedom Fries. Frankly, I think France (and I am sure the French would agree with me here) have never… Read More »

Did you watch the video of Wanda Sykes from this past weekend’s Corrsepondance Dinner? It was hilarious…as is she, always. So now, naturally, comes the backlash against some of her wisecracks about Rush Limbaugh. I mean…what?!? The fact that Rush, the Oxycontin addict, should be spared anything, considering the venomous tirades he spews on air, with psychotic right-wing, gun-toting, racists hanging in on his every word, is just shocking. He has said things that if a black man (or woman) said it, would be treated much differently by the media. Political correctness is one of the main motivations for why… Read More »