Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

Have you noticed how Diane von Furstenberg is mentioned every five seconds on The City? Of course you have: That's where Whitney Port and Olivia Palermo spend their days "working"! But in case you've been ogling DVF's clothes on the show and you've been disappointed to find out that most of the items are no longer available, DVF comes to the rescue with possible alternatives: More

Happy Birthday | Diane von Furstenberg turns 62 today. Donald Trump Jr. is 31. Actress Bebe Neuwirth is 50. Anthony Hopkins is celebrating his 71st. Val Kilmer is 49. Legendary attorney Joe Flom is 85. Real estate mega-developer Ed Minskoff is turning 68. Donna Summers is 60. Author Nicholas Sparks is 43. Ben Kingsley is turning 65. Gong Li is 43. Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton is 57. And New Kids on the Block alum Joey McIntyre is turning 36.

The week between Christmas and New Year's, that fallow time when nothing much happens, will this year sparkle with a cultural event certain to unite us all. Yes, December 29th is the launch of MTV's The City, Whitney Port's Hills spinoff in which she works at Diane von Furstenberg, hangs out with Olivia Palermo, and dates some fame-hungry singer dude whose Australian accent may or may not be interfering with everyone's gaydar.  More

Truer Words We Never Spoken | Why does Diane von Furstenberg totally adore Madonna? "Because she isn't just about building buzz, she's about building relationships." [DVF.com]

♦  The Condé Nast memo concerning budget cuts seems to have failed to make its way to W. Last week Kate Moss arrived in NYC to do a shoot, only to discover it had been canceled and no one had bothered to tell her before she left. So, after stopping to smoke a cigarette outside JFK, she hopped back on another first class flight home, at the cost of $12,000 to the magazine. [Mirror]
♦  The latest casualties of the recession: Holly Dunlap, whose shoe line is no more, Fred Leighton jewelry, which might be going into liquidation, and even, maybe, expensive fashion shows. [NYP, WWD, WWD]
♦  Fashionistas in Moscow are coping with the plunge in the market the way any good Russian would: They're drinking lots of vodka. [stylefile] More

♦  Julia Restoin Roitfeld might call herself a designer, but apparently the fat fees from modeling are hard to resist: She's been cast in the new Mango campaign along with celebuspawn Dakota Johnson Griffith. [WWD]
♦  PR maven Kelly Cutrone may play a hard-nosed bitch on The Hills, but in real life she's all heart: After reading about Marie Conde, who fought with three muggers who snatched her purse, Cutrone collected gifts for the 26-year-old nurse's aide, including Longchamp purses, jewelry, and dinner at the SoHo Grand. [NYP]
♦  During an interview conducted, of course, lying down in a hotel room at Claridge's in London, Diane von Furstenberg is expansive on matters personal (such as her first and only female lover), her "naughtiness" during the seventies, and her political opinions: Barack Obama is "so intelligent and very detached... It gives him perspective." [Telegraph] More

♦  Alexander Wang was the big winner at Monday night's fifth-annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund awards at Skylight Studios. Wang and fellow nominees like Richard Chai, Jason Wu, Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai, Irene Neuwirth, Alejandro Ingelmo, Juan Carlos Obando, Albertus Swanepoel, Swaim and Christina Hutson, and John Patrick were feted by John Galliano (left, with Charlize Theron), Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg, Sally Singer, Andrew Rosen, Reed Krakoff, Jeffrey Kalinsky, Julie Gilhart, Julie Macklowe, Daphne Guinness, Sasha Heinz, Tory Burch and Lyor Cohen, Andre Leon Talley, Narciso Rodriguez, Maria Sharapova, Penn Badgley, Zac Posen, Vera Wang, Chanel Iman, Juliette Lewis, Harvey Weinstein and Georgina Chapman, Tommy Hilfiger and Dee Ocleppo, Lauren Santo Domingo, Peter Som, Piper Perabo, Phillip Lim, Lazaro Hernandez, Maggie Betts, Calvin Klein, Damon Dash and Rachel Roy, and James Franco. [PMc, NYO, Style.com, The Daily]More

The name Candy Pratts Price won't be familiar to the average person in the street, but the executive fashion director of Style.com has been one of the most important people in the fashion biz for several years now, as the hyperbolic testimonies gathered by the Transom at the party for her book American Fashion Accessories make clear. Zac Posen certainly doesn't mince his words: "It's serious, my love for Candy. There's exuberance, and joy...it's fierce." Neither does Francisco Costa: "She's an icon. She has this love of fashion and that's so apropos, it's so right for right now, to have Candy be celebrated." More

♦  It's a horrifying mystery that will weigh heavily on all of our minds until it's solved: Where on earth is Karolina Kurkova's belly button? [Telegraph, Daily Mail]
♦  Diane von Furstenberg confirmed last night that she has submitted sketches for Michelle Obama's inaugural ball gown: "Well, they asked me to. Of course, everybody has." [The Cut]
♦  Best outfit worn to the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards last night: Agyness Deyn's tux-style black suit with Marc Jacobs hat and red platforms. Absolute worst: Blake Lively's hideous Vena Cava dress, which we can only imagine was chosen to fulfill a contractual obligation to expose her boobs at all times. [stylefile, Teen Vogue]More

Well, this will certainly soften the blow of a certain Gossip Girl actor thinking he was Vera Wang's husband: Last night, Alexander Wang won the $200,000 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize, awarded by a panel of judges including Diane von Furstenberg, Vogue's Anna Wintour and Sally Singer, Coach's Reed Krakoff, Jeffrey Kalinsky, Theory's Andrew Rosen, and Barneys' Julie Gilhart. At the 5th anniversary ceremony held at Skylight Studios, a crowd including André Leon Talley, Tommy Hilfiger, Vera Wang, John Galliano, Charlize Theron, and Juliette Lewis saw the 24-year-old New Yorker beat out the competition, including runners-up Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai of Vena Cava and Albertus Quartus designer Albertus Q Swanepoel. [WWD, Vogue UK]

DVF Needs Your Help | CNN plans to air a documentary on Diane von Furstenberg the day after tomorrow. But it seems the network is having some trouble finding someone who owns one of her wrap dresses from 30 years ago to gush about it on camera: "If you own a wrap dress from the 1970s, write to CNN and tell them where and when you bought it, and what it means to you. Your quote or photo could then be featured on the show. Email revealed@cnn.com." [DVF]

Vito Schnabel (son of Julian) and Olivier Sarkozy (half-brother of Nicolas) hosted Terence Koh's "Flowers for Baudelaire" exhibition on Wednesday night at Richard Avedon's former studio, where the unusual art was admired by the likes of Anna Wintour, Simon de Pury, Jeffrey Deitch, Allison Sarofim, Stella Schnabel, Olmo Schnabel, Lola Schnabel, Jacqueline Schnabel, Zac Posen, Ann Dexter-Jones, Nadine Johnson, Theodora Richards, Alexandra Richards, Byrdie Bell, Benjamin Cho, Cynthia Rowley, Salman Rushie, Lyor Cohen, Todd Eberle, Derek Blasberg, Genevieve Jones, Yvonne Force Villareal, Drena De Niro, Lisa Anastos, and Gilles Bensimon. [PMc, NYM, GoaG]More

♦  Did you attempt to get your hands on some Comme des Garçons for H&M today? You're braver than us. [Racked]
♦  Cathy Horyn provides a clear-eyed assessment of Barack Obama's sartorial style, pointing out that "his jeans are the loose, jingle-the-change-in-your-pocket type. He belts them at the waist, and when he wears them with white sneakers and a windbreaker, one could almost say he had stolen the look from Jerry Seinfeld's character on the television series." [NYT]
♦  At Diane von Furstenberg's party for Financial Times editor Vanessa Friedman, André Leon Talley broadcast his delight over Obama's victory in the most appropriate way: The back of his coat was emblazoned with "The New American Dream" in crystals. [WWD]
♦  Also gushing about the Obamas? Donna Karan, who says: "I'm hoping to get to work with them—it would be my dream. They are so committed to ideals that are much in alignment with mine." [WWD]More

The Tribeca Film Institute hosted a benefit screening for the Quantum of Solace last night, which was followed by an afterparty at Tavern on the Green. Attendees included Daniel Craig, Becki Newton, Chris Diamantopoulos, Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower, Craig Hatkoff and Jane Rosenthal, Julia Stiles, Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Jeffrey Wright, Debra Messing, Andre Balazs, Andrew Saffir and Daniel Benedict, Hoda Kotb, Jill Stuart, John Sykes, Judy McGrath, Howard Stringer, Rob Wiesenthal, Liya Kebede, Stewart Rahr, Molly Sims, and Serena Altschul. [PMc, Wireimage, GoaG] More

Diane von Furstenberg, Blogger | Diane von Furstenberg is blogging—sort of. In the most recent entry on the DVF website, she welcomes the Standard Hotel to the meatpacking district (which, in case you haven't heard, is a "new luxe hotel" that's "minimalist chic but with a downtown NYC twist.") We're going to go ahead and place the blame on her assistant, though, for referring to the hotel's owner as "Andre Balaz." [DVF.com]