Oh I have been so remiss in blogging! Shame on me! My only excuse is that I was swept up in the busy, busy days of New York fashion week. Oh, and the multiple blizzards in DC. You'd think I would have spent some of my blizzard time blogging, but instead, I merely decided to purchase virtually everything I could find on the J.Crew website. Thank goodness the snow is melting. My Amex card was beginning to smolder.

 

New York fashion week was, in a word, so-so. I thought the Marc Jacobs show was far and away the best collection. And I think Ralph Lauren is in a bit of a slump. He needs to find his mojo. Don't we all have moments like that?

 I stayed at a new hotel called Ink48, which is a Kimpton Hotel. It's way the heck over on 11th Avenue and 48th Street. It was convenient to the gallieries in Chelsea, but it was sooo cold I was too much of a wuss to walk down there. Maybe in September.

 I can't say that there were any standout moments during the week in terms of razzle-dazzle. And frankly, that's ok. The American fashion industry needs to be serious and figure out how to provide consumers with great, interesting clothes. Every time I write about how the clothes need to be more grown-up, I worry that I'm writing from the point of view of some old fart. But honestly, a little age has made me realize that the only people who can afford the clothes are older women and the styles just aren't catering to them. I don't mean, whiney 40-something women who go into a tizzy because a dress emphasizes the waist or is backless or sleeveless. Most of these women have perfectly fine bodies and just need to woman-up and get a little confidence. I mean the stuff that looks like it was meant for a 18-year-old still pretending to be a rock star. That makes no sense at designer price points.

I look forward to the Oscars and I look forward to seeing what Gabourey Sidibe will wear because she has been such a controversially big girl. I've stayed out of the kerfuffle over her absence from the Vanity Fair cover. But now after being happily surprised by the diversity on the New York runways -- and seeing how great that diversity looked -- I'm even more aggravated by the Oscar cover. I think the explanation for all those ivory girls in pale ensembles on the cover of Vanity Fair -- and no brown-skinned actresses in sight --- is a complicated mix of all the -isms, including the big one: racism. I wouldn't expect them to put some black  chick on the cover just because. But the absence of Gabourey is kinda glaring. Maybe she was already booked for something else. Or was out of town. Or on vacation.

Or maybe Gabourey simply didn't fit the aesthetic. And if that's the case, I'm not angry with Vanity Fair....I'm embarrassed for them.