Another Little Italy Crops Up in New York

So many major Italian designers have opened new boutiques on upper Madison Avenue in the last month that the always elegant street could be renamed Via Madison.

An 18,000-square-foot Prada store at 70th Street will probably become the Prada for New Yorkers, who’ll leave the tiny old 57th Street shop to the tourists. k.d. lang, wearing a men’s Prada suit, and girlfriend Leisha Hailey shopped at the opening party Sunday.

Guests walking north on Madison to Prada passed the first uptown Emporio Armani, an enlarged Valentino boutique, the spacious new four-level French limestone Giorgio Armani store designed by Peter Marino, a new Moschino shop and New York’s first Etro outpost. Maybe the world’s most beautiful paisley fabric will do better in the East than the West; an Etro boutique in Beverly Hills failed.

Next to a small children’s department on the top floor of Moschino is a bathroom so whimsical it’s hard to leave. The walls are completely covered in Legos, with baskets of the plastic pieces for those inspired to add on. The mirror is set into a Monopoly board, and toys hang from the chandelier. In contrast, the bathroom at the stark, pale green Prada store is all chrome, stainless steel and mirrors. Armani’s rooms for evening wear, shoes, ski clothes, and tailored clothing were all stocked with merchandise, but the bathroom hadn’t opened yet.

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When Worlds Collide: The 1,000 guests celebrating the debut of Gianni Versace’s flagship store in a grand, 28,000-square-foot renovated Vanderbilt townhouse on Fifth Avenue last Saturday night sprawled over the shop’s five levels, listening to Versace court rocker Elton John’s performance of spirited duets with Jon Bon Jovi, which only those crammed into the second floor could see live. Just before 11:30, a cameraman from CNN burst in and announced, “The Yankees won the World Series!” The crowd was thick with young men best described as beautiful and European. “Who the Yankees?” they asked. Outside, firecrackers exploded and ebullient natives danced in the streets. Inside chez Versace was probably the only place in the rejoicing city where the reaction to the Yankee victory was a big yawn.

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Unusual Offerings: Designers and cosmetics manufacturers court the fashion press much like a tentative, old-fashioned suitor would: gifts of flowers and chocolate are delivered to hotel rooms, but anything more elaborate or expensive would be considered overkill. Philosophy, a new beauty company whose wide range of unusual products are available at Nordstrom and Barneys, sent a survival kit targeted to the rigors of Fashion Week in New York. It included Kiss Me, a rich lip balm in a nice, fat pot; Footnotes, a pumice scrub to soothe tired feet, and Wiped Out, a cleanser and moisturizer in one, for those too weary for multi-step beauty rituals.

My only gripe with Philosophy is the cutesy verbiage that decorates their containers. Funny they didn’t figure out that anyone tired enough to use Wiped Out or Footnotes doesn’t have the patience to read a jar of Exit Strategy to determine it’s a pimple cream, and would rather not be reminded that “the road to intimacy is lots of kissing” each time she greases up her chapped lips.