Saks is one of my top three favorite places in Boston to buy shoes, period. But last night I skipped the shoe-drooling to hang out with boys, boys, boys — or should I say men, men, men — including a very charming and super-sweet Doc Rivers, at an in-store shopping soiree at Saks, hosted by GQ.
I arrived on the early side to scope out the scene — or soon-to be scene — and immediately noticed the fan-fucking-tastic music. Anything that gets my hips to shake like that in a retail environment is certainly worthy of mention. I swung around the corner to see the maestro behind the part-disco, part-’80s-pop beats ... and lo and behold, it was Soul Clap — but of course! I chitchatted with Eli Goldstein, one half of the Soul Clap team (the other half being Charlie Levine) about his chic new ’70s-inspired glasses and what the music themes might be for my big night. (Insert shameless plug for my birthday party on October 25 at Achilles Project. I don’t really care if you’re over these; I’m not.)
Next up was “fragrance layering” from Jo Malone. Here’s the thing: the spritzer woman was smart, sweet, and really cool, but can a fragrance really make me sultry? (Hell, I thought I was doing a decent job of that on my own.) The scents were delicious and I actually already wear Jo Malone — I have since college — but the layering of the spicy and clove-y with sultry and sexy made me wee bit lightheaded. It was time to walk away from the fragrance table and find myself a drink and some blog-worthy subjects, stat.
Cucumber martinis, which looked like slime but tasted like heaven, were on hand to get folks liquored up and in the mood to shop. The crowd, made up of retail workers, Saks VIP shoppers, and lucky GQ subscribers, was a good mix of young and old, gay and straight, black and white. Way to be diverse, Saks.
Of course style icon and Saks fanatic Marilyn Riseman made an appearance. In fact, Chanel store director Mary Nobile-King and I walked right over to Dame Riseman and convinced her to have us over for tea (or a shot of vodka) and a romp in her insane closet. Dying: I mean, this woman has only been collecting Chanel bags for a trillion years, so her collection of goodies must be out of this world. She’ll only do it if Mary comes with me, which is fair enough and way more fun — I heart Ms. Nobile-King, the stylish black-and-white-wearing pixie!
Social-couple-about-town Ben and Tonya Mezrich and their entourage (including a man who they call the Cougar Hunter — yes, really) were on hand to discuss the fashion ethics surrounding the concept of the man scarf, inspired by their recent sighting of Mike Diskin wearing one. I fully support you on that one, MD. (The work boots and man-boob-revealing T-shirts not so much.)
Also on hand for some entertaining commentary was Boston Harbor Hotel’s Tim Brett. Tim has offered to be a Stuff@night guest blogger with me and will shortly be getting an invitation to party hop with yours truly. (No, Tim, I wasn’t kidding.)
We were quieted down so that a GQ style correspondent could do an informal Q&A session with Doc Rivers and Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo. Umm, can someone turn on the microphone, please? Yeah, didn’t hear a thing, but I can’t imagine what I missed: a style correspondent shooting the shit with the coach of the BEST BASKETBALL TEAM ON EARTH. Perhaps it went something like this:
GQ: Doc, the uniforms are just dandy this year. Did you have something to do with that?
Doc: Hey, man, you’re getting a little too close to my mic — back off.
In all seriousness, I got to chat with Doc and he is totally charming. Thankfully for moi, sports did not come up in this chat. We talked about his work with Action for Boston Community Development (10 percent of sales from the night will go here) and my work with Rogerson Communities and the Labouré Center (clearly I had to throw those out there!). We also dished about fashion — oh yes we did — and Doc was more than psyched to do it. Actually, he seemed kinda stoked that I asked him about his fabulous brown-and-teal pinstriped suit. Turns out heads of ECC Life & Style, Shawn Harris and Jeff Lahens, are the masters behind the suit. Big Doc was so impressed, he got Kevin Garnett and other teammates to start having their suits custom-made by ECC. Way to spread the good fashion word, Doc — this fashionista is fully impressed.
