Recent Posts
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WWD Postcard: Rafe Totengco
POSTED 4:12PM ET | Nov 19 2009 -
Miller Time
POSTED 9:43PM ET | Nov 10 2009 -
Pots O' Gold
POSTED 10:12AM ET | Nov 9 2009 -
Designing for Dancing Stars
POSTED 9:57AM ET | Nov 9 2009 -
Hints of Better Days Ahead for NYC Retail
POSTED 6:03PM ET | Nov 6 2009 -
Mind Games With 'Idiot Savant'
POSTED 4:48PM ET | Nov 6 2009 -
Rear Window with Illustrator Matteo Pericoli
POSTED 5:02PM ET | Nov 5 2009 -
Testing the 'American Fashion Cookbook'
POSTED 7:13PM ET | Nov 2 2009 -
Night Rider on Broadway
POSTED 6:21PM ET | Oct 30 2009 -
Women and Changing the World
POSTED 5:11PM ET | Oct 29 2009
October 2008 Archives
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Maria Shriver sure knows how to draw a crowd.California's first lady lured a solid-gold list of figures from government, finance, culture and entertainment to her annual Women's Conference here on Wednesday to engage in the theme, "Architects of Change."

Ethan Miller/Getty Images
When news broke that the Republican National Committee spent almost $150,000 of campaign donations to buy clothes for vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, there was no shortage of outrage. Democrats wondered aloud how the Republican ticket could "waste" so much money on clothes for a supposed "hockey mom" from Main Street, particularly after the GOP's attack machine had been so vituperative about John Edwards' $400 haircut.

At a time when even socialites have publicists, it was
intriguing to find that superstar chef David Bouley worked more or less without
one. Aiming to do an interview with him for his new Bouley restaurant, I went
through the proper channels and called his main office. After a few days with
no response from even an underling, I resorted to more direct methods: I called
Bouley's wife, Nicole, on her cell phone (full disclosure: my co-worker had the
number because her sister is working on a book with the Bouleys). And Nicole,
as it turned out, was intimately involved in the project -- from buying antique
doors with David in the South of France to handpicking artist Wouter Dolk to
design the lobby's mural. She put me in touch with her husband.
Donald Trump for years has been the poster child for the
confident developer. The Donald may be more bombastic and boastful than most,
but he shares with other developers a high tolerance for risk and the audacity
to believe his multibillion-dollar projects will succeed. But developers and
real estate executives don't seem so self-assured these days. With the global
economy in free fall, their world decidedly changed from one of plenty --
available capital, myriad retail concepts, willing partners -- to one of
scarcity. "The deals we hear about are dying," said a Manhattan-based retail
broker. "My clients' sales are off. They don't want to go forward with anything
now."

