Alla Prokopov and Galina Royzman are personal shopping superstars. In what the Times calls "a city of big-league saleswomen, where it’s possible in a fancy store for a person working on commission to earn $250,000 or more annually," these two are still anomalous, and a Russian Mob joke is almost irresistible.They work apart from Bergdorf's normal team of shoppers, have their own "VIP dressing room," a team of assistants, high-profile "private clientele" and are highly elusive: initially the store doesn't want a reporter talking to "their Russian stars."

They do everything as a team, racking up some of the store’s highest sales numbers, according to executives. It’s not unusual for a client to spend $25,000 to $50,000 with them in a morning of shopping, although once a client dropped around $360,000; and just six months ago another spent $275,000. That was in a single day. Despite working through at least two recessions, the women say they usually meet their annual sales goals.

The pair work with a number of high-profile Russians (an ever-expanding luxury market), various Europeans, and wealthy New Yorkers — although naturally all identities are confidential. While obviously judgment and knowledge of a client's tastes (and, apparently, rad makeup) are necessary, both shoppers are known for their honesty. “'We learned a long time ago never to lie to a customer. If we don’t think a dress is right for her, we tell her.'" Which, when you're talking couture prices, is not a small matter.

No question these women are good at what they do — and that it's fascinating to get a glimpse into their world — but is a job like this, totally dedicated to luxury, an embarrassment in times like these? Bergdorf's seems to feel so; apparently the implicit frivolity of the occupation and the prices of the clothes were behind the store's reluctance to allow press access to the shoppers. But I think this is a miscalculation on their part: we expect a certain grotesque excess from the rich, and catering to wealth is not anything to be ashamed of, especially when it's a finely honed and specific skill. Far more patronizing is the attitude that we can't handle the existence of wealth, that we require everyone to make a sanctimonious pretense of frugality for a few weeks. Have your Christmas parties! Buy your expensive stuff! We can take it. Also: where do we fill out an application for mysterious elite shopper positions? And is discretion mandatory?

East or West, They Speak Chanel [New York Times]

Imagine that! She compares Truman Capote's classic Breakfast at Tiffany's to Sunday and the other Capote also-rans and discovers to no one's surprise that these new books are entirely (tacky) style and zero substance.

"This summer’s brand-flogging novels also reveal a kind of empty clink at the bottom of fashion’s well," Horyn noted. "Is that all there is? Has the fashion plot thinned to such a degree that it’s just about presenting life as a blue velvet ring box or a giant Birkin bag?"

Horyn tries to figure out why women continue to buy these books. Is all this name dropping aspirational? Harper Collins editor Jonathan Burnham says, "The audience [for these brand-heavy books] is Middle American women looking to buy a taste of the glittering East Coast experience, with all the silliness," while another editor says that like glamorous movies during the Depression, these books provide a glittery salve for those struggling with pedestrian struggles like mortgages.

Really? If my house were being foreclosed on and I started reading a book about basically empty women who are blowing thousands of dollars on gaudy couture, it would not distract me from my plight. It would make me want to punch these fictional harridans directly in the cooch. Which is sort of how I felt when I read this quote from Vogue's Plum Sykes, whose Bergdorf Blondes was a bestseller when it came out in 2004. "Using all those brand names is sort of bizarre,” said Ms. Sykes. “At the time that ‘Bergdorf Blondes’ and ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ came out, it seemed so modern. Now it seems old-fashioned.” Oh yes Plum, you invented brand name dropping eons ago, and now that all the plebes have caught on, it's so desperately out of touch!

Anyway, although the venerable Ms. Sykes hath declared brand-name dropping "old-fashioned," Lauren Weisberger's Chasing Harry Winston, which is chock-full of expensive accessories, has been on the New York Times bestseller list for 13 weeks so far. Clearly we can't beat 'em, so we might as well join 'em: mark your calendar for my forthcoming novel, Humping Hermès Scarves to hit book stores in the summer of 2010!

And the Plot Thinned ... [New York Times]

Earlier: Young Adult Novels Plumb New Depths Of Product Placement
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