Long-Range Forecast
Now that we can safely assume we won’t be walking around in silver space suits in 2001, what will fashion look like in the new millennium? Authors Roberta Wolf and Trudy Schlachter offer some sartorial soothsaying in Millennium Mode (Rizzoli, $50) by soliciting visions from Seventh Avenue sages like Donna Karan and Carolina Herrera. John Bartlett foresees head-to-toe camouflage; Calvin Klein sees the future as, simply, Kate Moss; Todd Oldham’s brave new world is outfitted in T-shirt dresses. That seems about right; as the late Costume Institute curator Richard Martin predicts in the book’s foreword, “The future will have more congruity with the Banana Republic than with any republic dreamed of by Wells, Huxley, or Orwell.”
VANESSA GRIGORIADIS
High-Security Blanket
After a few seasons of swaddling fashionable women in her classic cuts, designer Susan Lazar is eyeing a younger style-conscious set: newborns. But despite the demands of mom-to-be friends and customers, Lazar’s new Italian cashmere baby blanket comes in an initial special-order run of only 50 (a larger selection will be available at Henri Bendel and Saks Fifth Avenue at a later date). The first of the luxury wraps (available in navy, red, and ivory) is already accounted for: It’s a gift for Lazar’s friends Russell and Kimora Lee Simmons, who are expecting their first child in January. If $259 seems a bit steep for something that will soon be outgrown, consider it a dual investment – the blanket can always double as a snuggly shawl for Mom.
BETH LANDMAN KEIL
Stretching the Point
Remember how you once made fun of Jane Fonda leg warmers and matching leotards? Now your oversize high-school gym shorts and concert tees are equally outmoded. The city’s Pilates and yoga classes are packed with models and actresses limbering up in tight-fitting pants and slinky spaghetti-strap tanks, and naturally, they’re finding their gym gear in NoLIta, where the Body Control clothing line is being sold exclusively at Language. The drawstring pants ($165) – tight on top and loose at the calves – and the sleeveless shells ($85) are ideal for contortions on your yoga mat – or slipping onto a bar stool at Canteen. Just don’t forget the shower.
SARAH BERNARD
Millennium Watch
So you’re a Wall Street raider still deciding what to buy your honey with all those zeroes on the end of your holiday-bonus check? It would be hard to make a bigger impression than with Chanel’s Passages jewelry collection. Created specifically for the millennium, the one-of-a-kind pieces range from a $34,000 pair of diamond-and-sapphire earrings to a $1.195 million diamond-encrusted necklace (call 800-550-0005 for information). But IPO-fattened cats ready to pounce on a pair of sparklers will have to wait until the completion of the jewels’ international showcase tour (during a September pit stop in Taiwan, only days after an earthquake, gem junkies were still scrambling to reserve pieces). The collection includes the “Day and Night” necklace, dripping with yellow and blue sapphires, and “Cosmos,” a 365-diamond watch weighing in at 50 carats – which means you can skip the barbells you were thinking of giving her for Christmas.
B.L.K.