• Poor Rachel Zoe! "I thought: I've done blood, sweat and tears for 15 years — why am I the victim here? I have had the nastiest things said about me! I don't understand." [NY Post]
• Shockingly, the CFDA's "Health Booth" (which educates fashionistas about eating) is deserted. [NY Mag]
• You already knew Sean Lennon was an ass: Spotted at Fashion Week, the modelizer "wore a magisterial women's coat with gold buttons and a top hat decorated with Native American bands. His girlfriend, Charlotte Kemp Muhl, wore a coyote headdress." [NY Mag]
• Justin Timberlake brings pissy back at his William Rast show. [WWD]
• Punk legend Malcolm McLaren accuses son and Agent Provocateur founder Joe Corre of counterfeiting punk duds. "I think my son actually used – maybe – the original labels, because we didn't use them all up...There'd be a roll of ribbon around in the workroom and maybe my son got a hold of those. I think he did this before he set up Agent Provocateur. Or in order to set up Agent Provocateur and fund it, he made a number of these fake clothes and sold them to dealers in Japan." [Independent]

• Speaking of Agent Provocateur: there's a new ad campaign! "Chanelling the gothic decadence of Hogarth, Caravaggio, Rubens and Delaroche’s Execution of Lady Jane Grey, it is a seething orgiastic scene of girls on top, girls on girls and boys and beasts. Peaches (Geldof) and Daisy Lowe, the bad girls du jour, both star, as does the flame-haired American actress Paz de la Huerta, who holds court over a sacrifice of a topless virgin, accompanied by two male cohorts — David Bailey’s Byronesque son, Fenton, and a 21-year-old albino boy named Alex." [Times of London]
• Intrepid fashionistas weather the storm at Fashion Week; Tory Burch even went barefoot! [NY Mag]
• Um, ex-squeeze us? Lifetime, the Project Runway-stealer, is delaying the premiere of the show's sixth season until January 2009. Resentment mounting. [Yahoo]
• Are we the only ones who are totally sick of hockey player/budding fashionista Sean Avery? Now he's decorated some booth at hot spot Beatrice Inn with sunflowers. [Style.com]
• Apparently lacking creativity, designers start predicting trends via computer programs. [NY Times]
• Knockoff jeans even bigger than knockoff bags! [UPI]
• The political tee market is also booming. Yes, Obama's outselling Mac. [NPR]
• The Mulleavy sisters keep their Rodarte label personal and awesome. "In 2005, to introduce themselves to the fashion world, the Mulleavy sisters sent out 30 handmade paper dolls, each with a paper armoire containing seven paper dresses. 'I was inspired by Zelda Fitzgerald’s paper dolls,' explains Kate, who, like Fitzgerald, drew extensively accessorized wardrobes." [NY Times]
• Dolce and Gabbana take their inspiration from Queen Elizabeth: "In place of riotous floral and animal prints, hour-glass corsetry and itsy-bitsy skirts came Argyle knits, oversized kilts that fall to mid-calf, printed silk headscarves and sensible footwear." We are not amused. [The Independent]
• Almost all the shoes we wear are imported, "yet the U.S. still imposes a tax on imported shoes that can reach as high as 67%." [WSJ]
• More PR for Ivory Coast fashion, as Patricia De Medeiros reinvents traditional motifs in her line, Tradition Mode. [Reuters]
• Pat Field's collaboration with British frump-monger Marks and Spencer is a gamble. [Independent]
• Iconic model Veruschka releases coffee table tome: “'I can’t say that I have any favorite photographs,' she said. 'Though I do have some favorite memories of the days they were taken. Working with Avedon, for example, was always a joy. But then it was all joy because that was a joyous time.'” [Style.com]
• Scandal-plagued model Jodie Kidd comes by it naturally: her grandfather tried to bribe Winston Churchill. [This Is London]
• PETA crashes DKNY, does nothing. [NY Mag]
• Following a lackluster start, Halston feels the heat. [WSJ]
• YSL has reformulated (we're guessing this means butch packaging) its Touche Eclat concealer for the metrosexual set. Zac Efron rejoices! [Telegraph]
• The fashionistas heave a sigh of relief that both potential first ladies dig clothes. [Reuters]
• DKNY, CK, battle it out at their runway shows for "most New York" designer. Doesn't Karan automatically win by having "New York" in her name? [Guardian]
• Struggling to define itself, Old Navy shops ad agencies. Remember how cool it was when it opened? Can't they just rehire whoever did that? [AdWeek]

Let me just put it out there right now that both Mr. Goldberg and I felt really out of place at this thing. First of all, even though I've lived in NYC for over 10 years, I know nothing about "society" beyond a couple of boldface names I've read in Page Six. Both of us were in jeans (all of the ladies were wearing dresses and we even saw one dude there in a tuxedo), and I'm pretty sure I was the only female who dared to eat anything off the cheese cube platters. Anyway, the only person I recognized in the crowd was Devora Rose, the Editor-in-Chief of some magazine I've never read, who appeared on an episode of The Fashionista Diaries and told one young woman that she should try not eating.

The show was playing on a large screen suspended from the ceiling so that people on both the first and second floors could see. Every time one of the wives would come on-screen, people would cheer in varying degrees. Countess LuAnn de Lesseps seemed to get the biggest response, which I guess means that she's either really popular or invited the most friends.

We made our way up to the second floor to see if we could find some of the cast. Goldberg noticed Alex McCord immediately, since she was wearing the $2,700 Roberto Cavalli dress that we watched her pick out in St. Barths — the one Simon said he could see her wearing to the Met. Not too long after, we saw her better half fetching a drink at the bar, in a Sgt. Pepper-y jacket he later told us he got from Burberry. Then we walked by the Countess, just as her housekeeper/right-hand man Rosanna popped up on the screen, and the Countess and her friends all yelled out, "Wooo! Rosanna!" We were standing next to her kids during a segment where she gives them a new puppy. They were really cute and talked about how good they think it came out.

After the show was over, a DJ started playing generic crowd pleasers ("Kiss," "Oh What A Night," Beyoncé) and housewife Ramona took to the dance floor immediately. Goldberg couldn't resist, and went out and joined her. Finally, after downing our drinks, we approached Simon, who was super nice (even though i kinda spilled his drink on his Burberry jacket). As soon as we got the footage we needed, I wanted to hightail it out of there, but Goldberg was like, "Oh, come on. We could get great stuff if we stay here and watch these people get really drunk." But the open bar was over, and I wasn't about to pay $15 for a drink, and I sure as shit wasn't about to observe drunk people while staying sober.

Earlier: Real Housewives Of New York: Fabulous Homes, Fabulous Vacations, Fabulous... Husbands?