See Something, TSE Something
Nick Haramis
March 12, 2008
Select goats who roam the high plateaus of Asia remain blissfully unaware that one day, in the not-too-distant future, their fleeces will adorn the racks of a glossy new SoHo boutique, in the form of pants, or blazers, or better yet, as a slinky black dress that hangs over the shoulders of Julianne Moore. But indeed, in terms of high-end fashion design, these goats have made it. Last night, in the upper limits of SoHo, TSE (pronounced ‘say’), the luxury cashmere house, celebrated the opening of its flagship store. And Mrs. Moore was indeed there, lingering in the back near the bar, to reside over the night’s proceedings. The second we entered, one of the exceedingly sweet clipboard-holding girls ushered us directly into the back to meet the inferno-haired actress. “We’re so glad you made it! She’s about to leave!” Really? Was she expecting us?
We patiently waited our turn to chat with the four-time Oscar nominee, although with a nearby speaker screaming a Thom Yorke remix (courtesy of the MisShapes) into our ears, a chat became a shouting match. Julianne hollered answers to questions like, What are her favorite design objects? (See the next issue of BlackBook for her answers), and gave details about her upcoming projects. Blindness, based on the Jose Saramago novel, is about the collapse of society after an epidemic causes civilians to lose their sight. Sounds like a post-apocalyptic, Children of Men-esque (which also starred Moore) sci-fi parable, no? Not quite. Moore describes it as “more of a fable about what happens in the face of catastrophe.” Wait, so how is that different from Children of Men? The visionary Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles, who stormed the scene in 2004 with City of God, directed Blindness, and Mark Ruffalo costars.
After our conversation, which was adorned with he-was-wonderful-to-work-with type accolades for her costars and collaborators, Moore darted to the exit and we celebrated our brief-but-intimate celebrity encounter with a glass of champagne, the fountain of which was running dry the closer we came to the nine o’clock closing time. As we too made our way towards the exit—not without plucking some foie gras macaroons off silver trays on our way out—the pleasant and pretty girl with the clipboard whispered into our ear that “Julianne is wearing all TSE tonight, except for her purse and her patent leather booties, which are YSL.” And that’s when it dawned on us: Julianne wasn’t dying to talk to Blackbook. No, TSE wanted the world to know how beautiful this major Hollywood actress looks in their clothing, and the questions we got to ask were the bounty. Well we’re fair, and we always honor our end of the bargain. Last night, on March 11, 2008, Julianne Moore wore clothes from TSE, and she looked absolutely stunning while doing it. Congrats, goats. You hit the big time. —Ben Barna
Posted by muffdiver on Thu Mar 13, 2008 at 11.33 am
Ben Barna,
I just wanted to say ..great piece on Julianne Moore! You really captured her spirit, and I like the use of the word “accolades’’. Plus, goats are hilarious. Keep up the good work, you are a really nice addition to BlackBook.
Posted by dolofanu on Thu Mar 13, 2008 at 07.23 pm
BB,
This was fun to read, but very confusing: is Julian Moore a goat or she just wears one?