BlackBook Magazine

Chic, sleek, slick, elegant, and stylish are all words I’m guilty of overusing. Especially "chic." I have to admit that my posts are sounding a bit like the press releases that come attached to the invitations. It’s easy to name-drop the morning after when you’re able to copy and paste from a tip sheet, and I don’t know if there are any more ways I can characterize a chic event. (I've actually used the last alternative in the thesaurus.) Can you blame me? The amount of brain cells I’ve killed from the copious amounts of chic cocktails I've downed have made staring at the blank page in the morning a challenging experience. So here I am at the W Hotel in Union Square typing away (thank goodness for modern BlackBerry technology and boring friends!) on a review of my booze-drenched, celebrity-infested week. From Brooke Shields to Socialista, with Lauren Conrad’s bratty behavior in between.

Monday: KiptonArt’s Celebratory Launch of The KiptonArt Music Series, Longchamp’s 60th Anniversary Celebration, followed by crashing Kelly Cutrone’s dinner party, and accidentally going to the Beatrice Inn.

KiptonArt’s Music Series launch was so incredibly chic! Sorry, I had to get that out one last time. Men’s Vogue hosted the event at Milk Studios, and renowned concert pianist Lang Lang was to perform. I’m sure it was fantastic; in fact Kristian Laliberte told me so when he came down the elevator to meet our fashionably late crew. We turned out to be so unfashionably late that we were denied admission, as Lang Lang was in the middle of his performance, and one cannot interrupt a concert pianist prodigy.

After our apologies, we moved on to Longchamp’s 60th Anniversary Celebration at La Maison Unique. I’m about to do a bit of name-dropping, but only because I was humbled to share a beautiful patio with Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon and her daughter Eva Amurri, Julianne Moore, and New York’s Gossip Girl, Leighton Meister. Diane Kruger was also mingling, sans boyfriend Pacey (Joshua Jackson), and she restored my infatuation with her style, wearing a summery fedora and cropped shirt. Inside, I overheard another Fashionista, Faran Krentcil, talking about how she tells all designers they are more than welcome to dress her for events. Same here, Faran! The walls paraded the vibrant work of artist Jean-Luc Moerman, and we were so moved we joined the procession by getting temporary tattoos of the genius art. Laliberte decided to get one on his face, and I’m wondering how that went the next morning (since I was just able to remove mine today).

I stayed until they put away the liquor, and I had one final dance with my friend Emerson Barth as DJ Paul Sevigny put on Frank Sinatra. I’m invited to come uninvited to People’s Revolution founder Kelly Cutrone’s dinner party at Nobu Next Door. I cannot tell you how amazing the yellowtail sashimi was. No, I really cannot, since I showed up awkwardly as they were finishing their plates. Never one to crash a party, I decided to move on to the Beatrice Inn, where I could find all the usual suspects. I even (somehow) made it to one of my new favorite plush Bowery lounges, Antik. I can confirm that the night was so packed with fun and libations, I did drunk text. A lot.

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday @ Rewind, Paws for Charity @ Arena

Tuesday’s theme was certainly charity. Taco Tuesday is apparently a time-honored tradition in the media community in which the fashionable get down and dirty behind opposing bars to raise money for their cause of choice. This time it was BlackBook vs. Roberto Cavalli. We dressed in a white trash theme and decided it would be a good idea to give revelers BlackBook “tattoos” with Crayolas. The end result; rainbow smeared tattoos, stumbling margarita fans (including the majority of the BlackBook staff), and thanks to the last push efforts of BlackBook’s beloved bartending phenomenon Logan Elsass, a winning tip jar—with an undisclosed amount of our hard-earned tip money going to the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation. Sorry Cavalli!

Later at Arena, Animal Fair magazine hosted Paws for Charity, an event that my favorite girl about town, Emma Snowden Jones, had been excited about for weeks. Marc Jacobs, Unruly Heir, FORM, Heatherette, Ed Hardy, Jackie Rogers, and Badgley Mischka were on hand to dress attendees and dogs for the catwalk in order to raise money for the Humane Society of New York. It was heartwarming to see the dressed-up adoptable pups have their 15 minutes—and heartbreaking to see someone, whose 15 minutes are scheduled to be over any minute now, snub one adoptable dog and refuse her hosting duties. A fly on the wall informed me that Hills star Lauren Conrad “didn’t like the dog she was given to walk with, and she just refused to do it. She was the host and it was being filmed and she just wouldn’t go.” Baffling LC behavior, but then again she did date Jason Wahler. Viva la Whitney Port!

Wednesday: BlackBook Issue Release Party @ Socialista

Exhausted from the week’s antics, we were due for a night off. So we relaxed in good company with friends and co-workers at one of our favorite places, Socialista. My plan; enjoy some Partida tequila, kick back on the couches, celebrate the new issue with America Ferrera looking gorgeous on the cover, and retreat gracefully. Only, after we quite literally cleaned out the bar, there was no retreat and nothing graceful in sight. Just ask the two dozen people breakdancing on the checkered dance floor. Following the Partida overindulgence, we found ourselves a motley bunch at Hudson Bar and Books, and later enjoying the flaming drinks and interesting shots (whiskey and pickle juice?) at the Rusty Knot.

Thursday: Private Catherine Fulmer Sample Sale @ Gramercy Yoo by Philippe Starck, Sephora’s 10 Year Anniversary

You’d think with the collective late nights I’d be curled up in bed with a good book by Thursday, but how could I miss a sample sale? 10 Cane Rum and the impressive space at the Gramercy Yoo, designed by the world-renowned Philippe Starck? I powdered my nose and sucked up a weeklong hangover to attend. Our web editor Ben Barna said the ladies of the evening looked “hot” and I have to agree. Genevieve Bahrenburg and Rebecca Guinness looked enviable in Catherine Fulmer frocks. Catherine has to be one of my new favorite up-and-coming designers, along with Alexander Wang and Abigail Lorick. Her fall 2008 collections affects a certain bohemian sensibility, while still being incredibly crafted and structured.

Jillian Hearst, Poppy Delevigne, Byrdie Bell at the Catherine Fulmer Sample Sale.

I had to enjoy the sunset view on the terrace, and I found Liam McMullan wearing a Batman fanny-pack and freestyling with a raucous group. “I auditioned for The Wackness,” he told partiers, “but I lost out to a Nickelodeon kid.” Alex McCord from The Real Housewives of New York also came for a look at Fulmer’s line, and although she often scares me, she didn’t look as half as crazy as she seems on the show. McCord, along with several others, confided that they were on their way to the Sephora Ten Year Anniversary party, but I had my fill of 10 Cane Rum mojitos and I felt the weight of the week upon me. I opted to go home, only to feel incredibly jealous this morning as I’ve caught wind of the details; Lindsay Lohan with Samantha Ronson, Ashanti and Natasha Bedingfield performing, Nicky Hilton and a very svelte Kelly Osbourne. That would have been the grand finale to an impressive week.

Catherine Fulmer, Serena Merriman, Genevieve Bahrenburg at the Catherine Fulmer Sample Sale.