Do I Really Need a Toilet?

It’s the height of the pandemic, and I’m looking for an apartment for the first time in 17 years. Some things never change: Finding a place in Lower Manhattan is hard if you’re not fabulously wealthy. I have just seen a 150-square-foot studio on West Fourth Street for $2,000 a month, and am told that…

Helen, With the Gold Teeth

On a cold, sunny November afternoon, Helen Harris dashed through the diamond district. She did not have a deadline, per se, and nothing to rush for — scurrying is simply how one maneuvers through this section of Midtown Manhattan, through which so many diamonds that enter the United States eventually pass. Ms. Harris, 40, was…

The Very Best Looks from Couture Week SS22

Courtesy of Designer Couture season is here, and designers are pulling out all the stops. In fact, most are heading directly for outer space. That’s exactly what Daniel Roseberry, creative director of the French haute couture house Schiaparelli, did for his latest spring-summer 2022 collection. His otherworldly designs turn the cosmos into a religious experience,…

Fashion Dispenses a Happy Little Pill

PARIS — It probably isn’t surprising that a current of conservatism was seen in the men’s wear shows here, a link connecting storied labels like Dior and Hermès, where the designers Kim Jones and Véronique Nichanian produced fall collections that highlighted their design chops by doubling down on heritage. An inveterate and lifelong traveler (he…

Can Hugo Boss Actually Be Cool?

“You could hike a mountain in this,” Mr. Greider proclaimed, saying sales of suits for the brand recovered last summer, in tandem with scaled-back lockdown measures across the world. “People wanted to get dressed up and go to restaurants.” (The “suit of tomorrow” will arrive in stores in “late January.”) There are still some classic…

Requiem for Party Dresses Lost

PARIS — The last time the couture collections took place was the first time most of the fashion world, that traveling circus that reunites only during shows, had seen one another after more than a year of pandemic trauma. That was in July 2021, and the streets of Paris were afizz with excitement; air kisses…