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Last night the New York Academy of Art held its 18th annual Take Home a Nude art auction and party at Sotheby’s. Greg Lauren, Elizabeth Berkley, Heather Graham, Eileen Guggenheim, Cindy Adams, Gigi Mortimer, Liev Schreiber, a pregnant, glowing Padma Lakshmi, Kate and Andy Spade, Thom Browne, Jim Nelson and Evan Yurman showed to raise their paddles in support of need-based scholarships More»

[David Lauren, Mark Seliger, Tom Wolfe. Photos by JOE SCHILDHORN for PMc]

Last night, the Ralph Lauren store in Soho hosted a booksigning for rock photographer Mark Seliger’s new release, The Music Book, a collection of photographs mostly taken during his 10 years at Rolling Stone, where he worked with artists like the White Stripes, Nirvana, The Stones, Willie Nelson, and everyone in between.  David Lauren was on hand to mind the family store,  while attendees took turns waiting in two crowds - one to meet and talk to Seliger, another crowd gathering to meet novelist Tom Wolfe, a co-host, and the author of the book’s foreword. 

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Its been 20 years since Tom Wolfe wrote “The Bonfire of the Vanities”, a book that captured the vain and materialistic society of Manhattan in the 80s while showing the racial tensions between whites and blacks, upper class and poor.

Some believe that New York has come a long way since then, no longer The City of ‘Bonfire’ in Flames. Sure crime is way down, the city has undoubtedly become a more gentrified melting pot, and things are definitely on the upswing.

But not all things have changed…just taken a slightly different shape. Vain hedge fund managers and bankers (who think they are curing cancer over there on their Bloombergs and Blackberrys) are a dime a dozen these days.

The bond traders and investment bankers who populate “Bonfire” are passé now, Mr. Wolfe said, replaced by brash new hedge fund managers who meet clients barefoot, or in jeans with $6,000 belt buckles, as if to say, “You don’t have to like me at all, I’m merely a genius who makes you money.” [NY Times]

Al Sharpton is still around beating his drum, though he now dons suits instead of track suits, and of course Tom Wolfe, like clockwork, still wears white suits.