PLAT DU JOUR
Byline:
GALLIANO IN GOTHAM: John Galliano is coming to New York in May at Bergdorf Goodman’s request. “We’re looking for somewhere special for the show,” explained store president Dawn Mello. “When we devoted a lot of windows to John, we sold out his collection right away. He is truly one of the future stars of fashion.” Asked whether she thinks Galliano will succeed Hubert de Givenchy, Mello said, “I’m sure he is perfectly capable of doing the job — though we would all be disappointed if he lost his own identity.”
ODD COUPLE OF THE SEASON: James Truman and Lee Radziwill. They’re seemingly inseparable and made quite a public appearance at the British ambassador’s party for Vivienne Westwood.
HOUSE HUNTING: Is Bernard Arnault about to invest in a new fashion house? Jean-Marc Loubier, director of communications of Louis Vuitton, the most profitable company in Arnault’s LVMH empire, turned up in the front row of Helmut Lang on Friday. “We have a project,” Loubier admitted, but refused to say anything more. Asked whether Lang planned a venture with the LVMH group, a spokeswoman for the company replied, “You really know the right questions to ask,” but wouldn’t elaborate.
ROYAL DESIGNER: The marriage of H.R.H. Elena, the Infanta of Spain, was the talk of Europe over the weekend — and the one designer getting all the publicity along with her was Valentino. He didn’t actually design the Infanta’s dress (that came from Spanish designer Petro Valverde). But he did outfit her mother, Queen Sofia, and a host of other royals attending the ceremony in Seville, including Sophie of Hapsburg, Marina of Greece, Bianca d’Aosta and Marie-Chantal Miller, who isn’t a royal yet, but will be when she marries Prince Pavlos of Greece this summer.
LATE AGAIN: Le Figaro’s Janie Samet appears to be confused about the starting times for the fashion shows here. She and a gang of French editors promised to walk out of shows that started more than half an hour late, and fulfilled that promise with Vivienne Westwood on Saturday.
Among the more curious members of this walk-out was Jonathan Newhouse, Conde Nast’s European boss, who bought a round of drinks for all the strikers. Samet insisted that the folks at Westwood were drinking champagne backstage even as the show ran late. “They don’t give a damn about us,” she said. But, the curious thing is that she herself has been late — Samet arrived several minutes after the shows began at both Robert Merloz and Hermes.