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Sunday night at Drai's drew many of the usual characters we've been seeing at Dim Mak's weekly Cannonball party.  Looks like they've gotten in the habit of fitting in one last weekend poolside fiesta before the Monday morning grind and another round of pool parties for every day of the week through September. More»

Downtown tastemaker Taavo Somer has our back! We hoped that our petition to save the New York diner wouldn't fall on deaf ears. Now, we're thrilled to find that it so quickly inspired the retro-loving team behind Freemans and The Rusty Knot to open a new greasy spoon on Bowery and 4th. More»

So plaid is really really popular rt now. (see clipping from today's Metro above). Not exactly earth shakingly breaking news, just saying we've not seen as much symmetric pattern and color on men's shirts since the apex of the early 90s grunge years. Though this time it seems to be more about the plaid as opposed to flannel. There is a difference.

I'm all for it really. And it's not like I'm the Sartorialist or anything, but in the everyday man's closet of gray/navy/black conservatism where the color spectrum (see above) is more a theoretical concept than it is a functional repository of possible options, plaid gives men the 'OK' to peacock it out a little bit, which is good, cause really why should the fairer sex have all the color fun? And since plaid or tartan has been around since the the time of the Iron Age from the Northern route of the Silk Road in Western China, to the isles of Wales and Scotland, it's kinda universal . It only makes sense that plaid never ever really goes away and at times, like rt now, spikes and explodes in popularity. This current plaid spike I like to attribute to the ever more abundant 'fond 1990s look back' that has also made colors more neon and prints more graphic(y) lately Plus it all works out well for the urban mountain man/farmer sophisticate looks that always do the fall/winter months so proudly.

UPDATE: Interview with Richie Rich

From Ice Princess, to Club Kid, to Fashion Mogul, Richie Rich has always been a superstar to us. Many of our friends find our mild obsession odd, but we don't care. Last night, while Kate Hudson was hanging with Ron Burkle at Rose Bar, and Diddy was causing chaos at Goldbar, Richie Rich was giving us goosebumps at Bobo. When we were randomly seated across from the famous diva at dinner, we knew we were in for a treat, and it wasn't going to be from any culinary cuisine. (Full review of the newly opened west village hot spot to follow).

For those of you who are unaware of who Richie Rich is (and it's not the comic character), he's a kid from California that, after training under Kristi Yamaguchi, joining the Ice Capades and touring the world, decided to move to New York and become one of the most fab of all the Club Kids, working at all of the city's hottest clubs while simultaneously starting a career as a recording artist and unleashing various pop singles such as "Magic" and Collision." Those theatrical talents came in hand when he started making his own clothing, which got picked up by Patricia Field. Thus, Heatherette was founded in 1994 (with Travis Rains) and the rest is history. He is still hanging out with the hottest Socialites and Hipsters, but now it's because they all want to be part of his show (Tinsley Mortimer is a regular model for them).

[photo from Patrick McMullan]

But back then, Richie Rich was just a kid trying to find his place in life. The Clubkids were infamous for taking things to the EXTREME. The movie Party Monster is a good documentation of this. Based on the book by James St. James, the film showcases the wild life of the real life "party monsters". The premeire party for the film was held at the infamous Plaid night club (pictured below) and included such guests as Macaulay Culkin, Seth Green, Wilmer Valderrama, Nicky Hilton, Kenny Kenny, and Chloe Sevigny (the old "It Girl" who has grown up a bit, staring on HBO's Big Love and recently launching a fashion line of her own).

Here's a video of the Clubkids that we dug up from the Jane Whitney show in the 90's...(Richie Rich is in there).

Finally, we leave you with a little blurb of the interview that James St. James did for USAToday:

Question: What exactly were all of you trying to achieve in the heyday? Was the club kid phenomenon just a major bid for attention? And was there anything you WOULDN'T do?James St. James: Certainly there was this post-Warholian feel of celebrity for celebrity's sake,a nd we deserved to be famous because we were fabulous. We did have an agenda, though. Drag was to be the norm. Drugs would be the utopian gateway. It all blew up in our faces, of course. But in the beginning we had an ideology.