I was so fed up with the rivers of tears and hysterical laughter of my girlfriends last month. There are only so many times you can listen to the same old story. No, my purpose in life isn’t just to buy a lot of Kleenex. And it’s not like people are paying me to sit on the couch and have me analyze their woes. September was already upon us, and September means the new clubbing and fashion season, so I took a break from the girls and went out.
I began at GUM by running into Articoli to see my good friend Pasha, a very tall makeup specialist and stylist. He works with MAC cosmetics, and you feel like Cleopatra when he’s finished with you. Well, I felt like Cleopatra, and hey, if you don’t compliment yourself, no one else is going to do it.
So I ran through GUM and noticed a new store – the German brand Laurel’s new boutique. It’s like Escada for young people, colorful and a bit provincial. I would never buy a cardigan cut like a kimono, but the velvet suit in a more everyday style for a bit over 20,000 rubles would look pretty nice on me, especially the ruby red and fuschia shades. Anyway, I had to run because the Jimmy Choo boutique was holding a presentation of its autumn-winter shoe collection.
Jimmy Choo’s shoes are all in its trademark style. I liked the stern simplicity and integrity of the shoes presented, but my friend, fashion designer and artist Masha Tsigal, didn’t like them. She said that the Jimmy Choo shoes in the "Sex and the City" TV series are more beautiful and that the Moscow boutique doesn’t offer as many choices. She didn’t seem bothered by the fact that a pair of tall boots sells for 31,000 rubles, whereas that’s what bothered me more than anything.
From there, my girlfriends and I drifted along to Tretyakovsky Proyezd, past the boutiques, rumors and bare backs and into the Tretyakov Lounge open air summer cafe, where a presentation of jewelry from Allegri and Bvlgari was taking place. I can’t say I really saw much of the jewelry, because my friend Anya, a dreadful chatterbox, turned up and spent the rest of the evening talking my ear off.
On Friday, Sept. 12, instead of going to see a movie at the Fitil movie theater, we found some real life theater on Frunzenskaya Nab. at the L’Rose flower gallery. They have a great choice of lotuses and other flowers, including exotic flowers. There’s one called "Naomi Campbell" and there’s a "Henri Matisse" tulip-shaped rose. I couldn’t resist the temptation and bought a bouquet of aged roses. It’s a French variety that has a huge number of buds, much more than usual roses.
With my roses I set off for Stoleshnikov Per. to the opening of Italian clothing boutique Patrizia Pepe. I was invited by a sweet guy from the Moscow showroom. The presentation turned out to be really dreary; there weren’t many VIP’s or society figures. Everyone just came, ate and left. I did like the clothes, though – sporty trousers, jackets with leather straps and coats tailored at the waist.
On Monday, Sept. 16, I came across a flier with information on the exhibition "40 Views of an Icon" at the Hermitage Garden in the Shukin stage building. At the exhibition, 40 artists from 10 different countries displayed their passion for the silvery bottle of Comme des Garcons 2 perfume. It’s my favorite scent, so I grabbed my friend from the showroom, and off we went. It was great – friends, acquaintances, DJs, photographers – my head was spinning from all the familiar faces around.
At 10 p.m., we left the Hermitage Garden and wandered toward Kuznetsky Most. As we got near everyone’s favorite Vogue Cafe, we saw a nice little couple for the paparazzi – the influential politician Lyudmila Narusova and her daughter Ksenia Sobchak, who would make a very eligible bride for an oligarch. They weren’t just having a quiet chat on the roadside. No, they were arguing full on! I never saw Ksenia yelling so loud, waving her hands about. Almost all the cafe’s staff were there watching. It’s good I’m not a politician’s daughter, because I’d never live down being made such a spectacle of in public.
Finally, there was a cocktail filled presentation of Zenith Swiss watches at the Tretyakov Lounge on Tuesday. Well, now I know what to ask my man (the guy from the showroom) for as a present. I loved the 1920’s style mechanical Star watch with its dark yellow diamond decorations.