Sunday, April 09, 2006

Bites from the Big Apple

Went into NYC today to have lunch with the mom before she saw Lisa Kron's play Well, which, FYI, is great and you should all go see, like, immediately, right now.

Anyway, as I had already seen "Well," I hopped back over to the East Side, walked 20 blocks and roamed around window shopping, in Bloomingdale's and the Body Shop and Barneys. It was a gorgeous day and, despite carrying around a computer in my bag, I was just happy to be out and about people-and-clothes-watching. And thinking, far more frequently than I normally do, "Damn, I hope she's your daughter, mister." I decided, at Barneys, that I would just walk around each floor, looking at the designer collections and just touching things, that I thought were pretty, seeing as how there was nothing I could afford in the entire store, except tank tops and salt shakers, and I'm not buying a $48 tank top. I'm just not. Most things were nice, but not heart-stopping, but there was this one dress. Sigh. It was Zac Posen, against whom I've nursed a grudge for a while because he's apparently BFF with boyfriend-of-an-8-months-pregnant-lady-stealer Claire Danes, of which I disapprove (although he got redemption points for dressing Marissa Janet Winokur for the Tonys.) But I digress.

There was this dress. It was so beautiful. Off-white, button-down sundress in cotton or maybe silk, I think (something soft and flowy) with wide straps and a sash and pockets, and it looked young and fresh and adorable, but not little-girly. It was just beautiful. They had a smaller size which was definitely too small for me and a larger size which might have maybe been a possibility on a good day, except not because this dress was more than one month's rent on our 2-bedroom apartment. So I spent some time staring at it, and then ascended to the other floors, looked at shoes and home furnishings and the retardedly sexist-named Mrs. John L. Strong stationary. And on the way back down, I stopped off to visit it again. Behind me there was a super-skinny teenage girl with long brown hair, fabulous jeans and heeled boots and her super-skinny mom with long brown hair, fabulous jeans and heeled boots. I went up to my dress. I held its side. I started saying goodbye. "Mo-OM." I heard behind me. The girl was running. She caught up to me and grabbed the other side of the dress. "Oh my GOD! I have to try this ON! This dress is SO CUTE." Sigh. I let go of my side and looked at her. "Here," I said. "It's the cutest thing in the store."

And made it back to Grand Central, where I bought an ice-cream sandwich and the Lindsay Lohan/ Meryl Streep W to ease the pain.

4 comments:

8yearoldsdude said...

the tone of that piece is why you are a talented writer.

Actually it is one of the things I love most about winnipeg. There are very few things that I can't buy on my stipend, and there is certainly no cultural celebration of that high-tier consumptive lifestyle. it makes day to day life very easy.

8yearoldsdude said...

margo howard, who has apparently made the jump from slate to NYT, refers to an adulterous lover of hers as BH (borrowed husband).

8yearoldsdude said...

whose man did claire danes steal? and i even read thesupeficial.com

Dorothy said...

Billy Crudup was Mary-Louise Parker's boyfriend and put a baby in her, but while working on a nouveau Shakespeare-in-Love type movie, he and Claire Danes got together, leaving MLP 8 months preggers. On the other hand, she won a Tony.

The "Modern Love" section of Sunday Styles is fascinating and disgusting . . . as I suppose it should be to learn that much about anyone else's private life. But Margo Howard's affair (and the way she spoke about it, initials aside) as was icky.