Socialite, Designer Tinsley Mortimer Dines at Cipriani, Has a Soft Spot forThink it’s odd that party fixture Tinsley Mortimer was recently flown to China to attend Fendi’s runway presentation on the Great Wall? Actually, the socialite (and ambassador for Dior Beauty) is big in Asia — she’s hard at work designing the fall 2008 collection for Samantha Thavasa (clothes sold only in Japan; handbags sold on Madison Avenue) and is preparing for the spring launch of a new line called Riccimie by Tinsley Mortimer. That doesn’t mean she goes out of her way to eat exotic. “I have a really poor palate,” she confesses. “So I tend to eat a lot of crap.” So is it crap, or merely guilty pleasures?
The New York Diet
Restaurateur Donatella Arpaia Binges on Oysters and Snacks on Hot Pockets
There’s no other restaurateur quite like Donatella Arpaia of Dona and davidburke & donatella: She was the first to zip around town on a Vespa (“Everyone else copied me”) and, leaving aside her discerning palate, we’re quite certain she’s the only one food writers have characterized as “comely.” Between Friday, September 29, and Wednesday, October 4, she indulged in a singular combination of sea urchin, fat-free yogurt, and black-and-white cookies.