Stylish Condoms for BSDs

News like this always worries me. When Cavalli and Versace start designing subdued (!!!) clothes for hedgies I get a desperate need to lock down another $500mm infusion of capital pronto and find it hard not to lend at least some credence to naysayers preaching of the hedge fund "bubble." The good news, however, is that maybe this new trend will tone down the effeminate rainbow that has been painting men's collections in recent seasons brighter than it ever has since the eighties.
Incidentally, highly recommend reading page 2 of the article for those with a cursory, but developed, interest in fashion. Dsquared and Jil Sander looking good for '08

clipped from www.nytimes.com "HEDGE funds, hedge funds, hedge funds,” Richard David Story said before the Ferragamo show on Sunday when asked to account for the current mood in men’s fashion all pitched to a guy with both a high net worth and a 30-inch waist. To judge from all the $700 cotton poplin trousers (Bottega Veneta), $250 flip-flops (Hermès) and $20,000 satchels in matte tobacco crocodile (Tod’s) on offer, the fractional-jet-share crowd has coffers so deep that there’ll be plenty left over for chronographs or John Currin paintings. That Bottega Veneta man — lithe, young, carefree in his moneyed assurance — seemed to be everywhere. He was spotted at Roberto Cavalli’s unexpectedly restrained show held in a cavernous disco near Linate Airport wearing not the leopard spots and junky rocker paraphernalia one expects from this designer, but instead the subdued suits and the slouchy suede driving shoes favored by the Maserati crowd. He appeared again in shiny trench coats, knife-slim suits and a muted palette at the Versace show, designed this season by the Russian-born Alexandre Plokhov, formerly of Cloak. Another avatar of the hedge-fund hottie turned out at Valentino’s brand-consistent presentation, notable as usual for natty Roman tailoring styled in a way that is often more than a little bit campy. Wasn’t that double-breasted white jacket nipped at the waist once a uniform of sorts among the high-end gigolos populating the piazzetta in Capri?

Goldman Embarrasses Fashionistas with Smarts and Street Style

Goldman Sachs won a fancy fashionista quiz bowl after several analysts pulled consecutive weekend all nighters prepping the GS team on every manner of trivia. An Analyst who worked on the project speaking on condition of anonymity, as it's close to bonus, remarks [with a sigh] "At least this time my work was used for something. Usually the weekend pitchbooks are just coasters for the MD's Monday coffee. Naturally, they promised us that we would get to come, but inevitably "found out" that the team was at capacity right before they left for the event, but not before they made me do another turn - even internal books need to show Goldman's commitment to quality lest some bum find them in the dumpster and think less of us."

After extensive "wardrobe consultation" spanning a month the team decided to kick it old school with blue and white shirts (after all, Goldman Sachs isn't about being "wild and crazy and different"). The subtle deviations from regular banker attire is that the blue shirt was tight enough to bust at the seams, teasing the paparazzi with the possibility of a strategic wardrobe malfunction (but an undershirt was worn to prevent the world from actually seeing the hairy underbelly of banking), while the white shirt had two buttons undone and was slightly untucked, showing a Devil-may-care "we don't care that our Global Alpha underperformed every major fund on the street" attitude.
The real winners, however, are the first years at Deutsche Bank whose team won a "vast" supply of sexy lingerie. It's the closest any of them have gotten to a woman since the drunken debauchery that is investment banking training.

clipped from nymag.com Great triumph mixed with crushing defeat the other night as highly competitive people with lots of disposable income gathered at the Gramercy Park Hotel Private Roof Club for a fancy quiz night socialites, models, fashion designers, and, of course, investment bankers, who felt a little out of place. "We're investment-bank nerds, so we spent pretty much a month planning our outfits," said a member of the Goldman Sachs team. "We had wardrobe consultations on conference calls." Corporations from Valentino to Bloomberg sponsored teams, which then went from room to room, debating the questions in each. Goldman, surprising no one in the room, took home the grand prize. Other teams won various smaller prizes; Deutsche Bank, for example, won a vast supply of Agent Provocateur lingerie. Are you good enough to win a trip to a model's villa — or at least some fancy underwear? Here are the questions. (And the answers.)