The puffery and self-congratulation were flying as fast as a PETA pie last Thursday night, when the rag trade toasted itself at the American Fashion Awards. A scratchy mix of art and industry, the awards recognize genuine creativity on the one hand (they singled out Bruce, the author of a tiny line of carefully wrought pleated and padded outfits) and the nakedest corporate greed on the other (a special award to Bernard Arnault, whose company, LVMH, has gobbled up everything from Hard Candy nail polish to Donna Karan underpants). Full disclosure: the author is an American Fashion Awards voter (all the voters are journalists), though few of her favorites made... More >>>