Assouline and CFDA Get Cooking

“Cookery is as old as the world, but it must also remain, always, as modern as fashion.” Phineas Gilbert

The Council of Fashion Designers of America’s (CFDA) American Fashion CookBook just might be the coolest cat in town.  Assouline publication immediately renders it literary haute couture, and a launch party at Cafe SFA at Saks Fifth Avenue hosted by Saks Chairman and CEO Steve Sadove and Diane von Furstenberg is the ultimate meow.

Prosper Assouline

Steve Sadove, Diane von Furstenberg, Steven Kolb, Lisa Marsh

Meredith Melling Burke, Fern Mallis and a host of fashion insiders were present to celebrate the launch. The American Fashion Cookbook features the fashion community’s favorite dishes and preparation tips, tantalizing with Rachel Roy’s Chocolate Ganache Dipped Stawberries, Zac Posen’s Butterscotch Wafers, Diane von Furstenberg’s Saturday Night Chicken, Isaac Mizrahi’s Mushroom Truffle Spaghetti, Derek Lam’s Yellowtail Crudo, John Varvatos’ Calaloo Soup and Rebecca Taylors’ Pavlova to name just a few of the divine recipes. A forward by Martha Stewart, the queen of cooking, is a reminder that the glossy, imaginative book is nothing short of red carpet reading.

Albertus Swanepoel, Meredith Melling Burke, Steven Kolb

Lilly Pulitzer’s Key Lime Mojitos kept the party lively, and any insecurities I’ve had about cooking vanished when I looked at the floor and read Peter Som’s reassuring message.

I left grinning like a Cheshire.

Louboutin Loves/Lambasts Barbie

She may be 50, but Barbie is still a fashionista at heart. To celebrate her milestone birthday, she’s pairing up with some of the hottest designers, bringing her pink personality to home goods at Jonathan Adler and, most recently, dipping her perfectly pointed toes into Christian Louboutin shoes.

Louboutin, who will be dubbed Barbie’s “godfather” for an entire year (we’re serious), is not only sprinkling his fairy dust over hot pink, real-people shoes, but he is also transforming B’s doll-sized chaussures and packing them in itty-bitty shoe boxes so all miniature plastic fantastics can be equally well-heeled.

Apparently, Barbie and Louboutin hit it off instantly. From what we’ve seen in their new book, “My Year in Paris with Christian Louboutin,” they enjoy shopping together, lounging in the garden, even the odd rooftop burglary. Who knew Christian and Skipper’s mentor were such rogues?!

Yet like any proper maestro and muse, their partnership isn’t without a dollop of drama. The stiletto king recently knocked Ken’s catch off her Malibu dream horse when he suggested that her ankles are “ too fat,” sending feminists, bloggers and gossip mongers into a typing tizzy. Cankles or not, we think she’s a doll.