Bridges of Madison Avenue, a brief but passionate affair with my credit card

Madison Avenue is to fashion what Amadei is to chocolate, the crème de la crème. Here you will find the floating hangers of Emanual Ungarowhere a skirt goes for $2000 a piece or the original bandage dress byHerve Leger- made famous by our very own Ms Priyanka Chopra.  This French fashion house would be considered quite the filly in comparison to the rest of the French stable and was started by Hervé L. Leroux in 1985. While the house was always known by its signature clothes that were made from foundation garments, its recent success is due to a complete rehaul by its new owner BCBG Max Azria. An old mummy in new bandages, one might say.  I find the dresses in themselves are heavy but made for our curvy Indian figures. After the liquid silk of Ungaro, this seems hard and structured and more like body armor- the perfect weapon to rein in that extra thigh. Another filly in the world of fashion is the new shoe czar,Guiseppe Zanotti. This Italian shoe maker boasts the highest level of craftsmanship that results in stunning feet jewellery. A particularly macabre take was the skeleton of a fish encrusted with crystals that found its way onto Samantha’s feet in Sex and the City – the movie. After all she had to match her shoes to her sushi!

As you walk down Madison Avenue, and the street numbers keep increasing, you also find yourself moving away from the tourists. The shops become boutiques and luxury becomes the standard for everything from bed-linen to sunglasses. Be sure to stop at Tom Ford for your eyes, PETA’s pet peev- Dennis Basso for all things fur, Pratesi for your home and Sonia Rykiel for iconic Parisian knits for those Delhi winters. It’s not all bank account purgatory though as the odd luxury outlet store like Intermix can loosen that financial corset a tad and give you an all access pass to trendy designers like Mellisa Obadash, Carlos Falchi and Zac Posen.

If you’re like me and are keeping that credit card zipped up you should find yourself at Christian Louboutin in about a couple of hours. If you want to linger before our next stop, there’s no place better than Calypso, that haven of resort wear. Otherwise, hail a cab and head straight to our destination for the day – The MET Museum.

Fashion imitates Art imitates Fashion

You might wonder why the Metropolitan Museum. What does that have anything to do with fashion? I used to ask myself the same thing every time I saw E – Entertainment cover the annual MET gala and interview Madonna on why she was dressed like the white rabbit from Louis Vuitton’s version of Alice in wonderland. I was fortunate enough to find the answer when I had visited the MET last July to be first in line to witness the museum showing off its extensive Picasso collection. Once I had finished taking in the paintings from his blue period- my favorite, I came upon an exhibition: American Woman- Fashioning a National Identity. Inside was a veritable treasure chest of costume clothing designed to take us through 1890- to 1940 as the American woman evolved in both her sense of fashion and herself. This was the first costume institute exhibition of the newly established Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection.

Charles Frederick Worth (1826-1895)- The Father of Haute Couture

Here was the heiress in Charles Fredirick Worth, the French born designer who was
the darling of the Hamptons. The clothes remind me of images of our own royalty with jewel crusted afternoon dresses. It traces the evolution of the Gibson girl where the American woman finally stepped into the sunshine and inspired Jo in that favorite of novels-Little women. The bohemian 1920’s where Lanvin fashioned decadent flapper dresses and down through to the 1940’s and 1950’s Hollywood that inspired so much of our own film industry. The most revealing feature of the exhibition was how 100 years of fashion is more than just the rise and fall in hemlines as it is a way in which we perceive ourselves through what we wear and I came away in the knowledge that as much fashion has moved forward, so much of it has remained the same.

Our hunger pangs now snap us out of our fashion reverie and we head outside to satisfy ourselves by biting into a luscious mince hot dog roll.Try not to miss the ME

T shop on the ground floor on your way out, especially if you are a lover of scarves. Square, oblong, Tiffany or Picasso, you neck will be spoilt for choice. And as fingers run through silk chiffon, a certain Hermes scarf might float into your mind and you will see just how fashion imitates art imitates fashion.

A Walking tour for a shopper and window shopping addict 

Remember when you were ten, and your little finger was curled into your mothers palm as you hid between silken Benares folds or maybe a chiffon skirt. She was talking to that neighbor who had just come back from that whirlwind visit from abroad. Your mother would say, “That’s beautiful, where is it from?” and the reply would come back casual, but topped off with a slice of smug, “New York.”

It doesn’t matter where you’re from, but if you have grown up on your mother’s diet of plastic covered vogues carefully acquired though cut throat negotiations with the local library; you have grown up with an interest in fashion that’s lying dormant and wired with affiliations that are lurking under the surface of your inner shopping GPS-New York and London, Saks and Bloomingsdale, Macy’s and Harrods.

But things have changed now. Abroad is no more that far off never-never land, but a shrug and an economy class ticket away and Selfridges, just a store where you get everything under the sun. So when I landed in New York, pregnant with expectations of large shopping spaces dedicated to fulfill my every material fantasy, I wasn’t prepared for a crash course in the history of fashion or the wondrous rabbit-hole where art and ideas furiously collided to create something that aspires to be more than just something to wear.

A little bit of 5^th

For the uninitiated, New York is a big grid composed of crisscrossing avenues and streets. Avenues are vertical numbered for the most part and cut through horizontal streets that make it a very convenient shopping experience. We begin at the top of 5^th Avenue and 53^th street. Forget about everything before 53^th street for now. Behind us is H&M, Lacoste, Kenneth Cole and whole host of high street shopping that we leave for another day or perhaps never. Right at the corner of 53^rd and 5^th is an old New York favorite, Botticelli. . Before the world became obsessed with red soles, there there will still good quality shoes to be found and since 1968, some of the best European pumps have been found here. Apart from enjoying their 15 minutes of fame on Seinfeld, it’s one the city’s best kept shoe secrets.

Next, skip forward past 54^th and 55^th street and you find the New York Institution that introduced Coco Chanel to America, Henri Bendel. Established in 1895, it boasted the who’s who in clientele is probably still where Ms Blair Waldorf gets her hair bands. The 35,000 square feet store houses fragrances, perfume, jewellery and of course hair bands. While their leather boxes,born to house that camellia brooch,will set you back a tidy thousand dollars, this is also the place for key chains for your girlfriends that will mean more than that Chrysler building magnet.

Once you step out ahead of Bendel and walk past Trump tower you’ll find Tiffany’s on your right and Mikmoto on your left. If you are that rare fan of pearls you need to stop. An opera strand of Akoya pearls or simple south sea chocker will blast that diamond necklace to smithereens. I am a pearl devotee and I entered my temple with sobriety I reserve almost only for Hermes. One look at the prices and my drool dries up. We depart quickly and continue ahead and cross 57^{th street.}  Our pilgrimages next stop – Bergdorf Goodman. Halt, pay homage.

Bergdorf Goodman window dressings are legendary. They may seem frivolous to some but really it is a meticulous meeting of fashion, art and architecture. Today’s window seems to be Tim Burton inspired with cone-head shaped mannequins and floating heads, all centered around a gorgeous lace gown. If you want to learn more, there is a book out called “Windows at Bergdorf Goodman” that tell the story of window dressing from the 1940’s when it developed from draping of mannequins to capturing snapshots of a story

A detour at a left at the window dressing will take you to one of New York’s most loved bookshops Rizzoli as well as the pianist’s heaven, Steinway.  Rizzoli is a book lovers paradise where rosewood bookshelves and wrought iron railings take you back to a time when people loved hardback.

To the right is 57th East Street where you can considerably lighten your bank account on the most coveted handbags in the world. If you are a fragrant gal, you might want to stop at Chanel and take a look at “Les exclusives de Chanel”- a collection of 12 fragrances that are only sold at their boutiques. Take a whiff of the Bois Des Iles and continue on 57^th and take a left at the Montblanc. You will now find yourself at the slightly lower profile, yet no less hedonistic, Madison Avenue or rather, “the fashionable road”, as it’s called between 57^th and 85^th street.

Next post- Madison Avenue

There are memories that rank legendary in your mind. A simple event that becomes almost mythical in proportions that you begin to associate it with everything you hold precious in your life. One such memory for me is  Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park. My sister and I used to come here and feed the geese and the ducks as the city woke to its crisp summer morning. We would pack bags of bread and compete on who was the most popular; who attracted the most swans. For those familiar with Harry potter, the Serpentine Lake memory is like lowering my head into a pensive.  I close my eyes and fall into it with a thud and I can smell the cut of a sneaky autumn waiting to rear its golden head and touch my sister’s raven hair.

As I take my fiancé, Amit, around London trying to show him my version of the city that made me, I realized that it all started here. So under the pretense of exercise, we went across the road from our hotel, dodging flying black cabs, to Serpentine lake in Hyde park. It was a perfect crisp blue-skied day and he did in fact run around the worm like lake and went as far as the Serpentine Bridge which cuts the river off as if it would the tail of a worm leaving a narrow stretch, known as Long Water.

Long water is loved by the haughty swans and was the centerpiece of our adventures as we tried to climb the white marble sculptures in the Italian gardens and play tag as my mother sat on a bench admiring Kensington palace in the background. Today, as Amit heads off for a run, I sit on a bench and watch an sprightly old woman in a brown tweed coat dip her hand into her bag and cluck out to the hungry ducks and geese.

First come the squawking brown winged ducks that zig-zag their way to attain pole position. One had a bubble gum pink beak that refused to be seen with the rest of his kind and kept a safe distance.

She notices and throws him a large slice. A skien of geese swoops in from across the other side of the lake and glides like water planes leaving glittering blue ripples in their wake.

A bevy of Mute swans gather on the other side of the lake near the tall grass and hold council. The geese saunter up to the now surrounded woman.  They show no fear. Small sparrows chirp behind her and jump like circus dogs to catch morsels but quickly fly away as the swans cut

through the crowd like celebrities would mere mortals. They are called Mute swans (Cygnus olor) because they are less vocal than the rest of their species. Pairs meander away after having a quick bite. Swans mate for life even though I believe that divorce is not unheard of. Monogamy would be hard in the face of such beauty. Try as you may there is no way to describe their majesty as they float with such elegance.

Like Henrich Heine said, “The swan, like the soul of the poet, By the dull world is ill understood.” Like that unattainable photo shopped magazine cover, you cannot help but feel inferior in the midst of their snow white feathers and long curved necks that grow effortlessly into that sharpened beak. Stunning.

Just imagine what it must be like for the Geese.

A lone Heron trots in and places its long legs cautiously into the middle of the feeding frenzy and pecks at the back of her hand, demanding attention. The crowd starts to thicken and she moves along the gravel sidewalk to cater to the new comers and leave in her wake a flock of hungry disciples.

The swan rises rises from the water and upto the gravel to tower over the rest like a bully. The neck suddenly starts to seem ungainly and the illusion is broken. I feel a hand on my shoulder and slip out of my reverie. We make our long walk back to reality.

A little bit about the Serpentine

There are over fifteen species of birds in the 28-acre man-made lake that was created in 1730. It includes herons and even pelicans even though I saw none. It gets its water pumped from the Thames river and strictly speaking the Serpentine bridge marks the end of the lake and the border between Hyde Park and Kensington gardens.  The other half, as mentioned above, is called Long Water. The lake is a hot bed of activity in the summer with its two restaurants and the Boat house. It also has a gallery located in Kensington gardens that focuses on contemporary art like Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst. This is no Tate Modern but it is one of London’s finest galleries and its free.

During the early hours of summer you can see swimmers in the Lansbury’s Lido braving the cold icy water.

Fun fact from wikipedia- The lake achieved notoriety in December 1816 when Harriet Westbrook, the pregnant wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, was found drowned in the Serpentine having left a suicide note addressed to her father, sister and husband. Shelley married Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin less than two weeks later.

In the meantime please check out our literary blog The Caterpillar Cafe that caters to bookworms and butterflies alike