I broke my rose gold Rolex learning to surf at Wiborg Beach. I have always been obsessed with watches. My first watch was a stainless Rolex Air King, and I have always loved Panerai watches. Today, I am more obsessed with the new Panerai for women. The band is substantial, and looks like your boyfriend let you borrow it. The Panerai watches, are the new boyfriend jeans, all we girls wish for.
Stacey Bendet took fashion to the next level. She and her stylist, Cleo Wade, drove all over America in an airstream taking the brand on the road. They had Pop-up Shops and local benefits, but shopping wasn’t what made the trip special. It was working with girls and women in need. “I cut a girl’s hair and she started to cry,” said Cleo.”It was her first haircut. She was 15 and sexually abused.” The haircut shed more than just hair and tears, but an abusive self image. Congrats Stacey and Cleo for your amazing adventure and for being so hands-on in your quest for change. The end of the tour party was held at Surf Lodge in Montauk. I was left with such warmth after hearing their stories. Stacey isn’t just dressing women, she’s changing lives. Wooooo
Woman on the Verge…of a breakdown or a breakthrough? Real Housewives‘ Kelly Killoren Bensimon explains the truth behind her blowup.
By Elisa Lipsky-Karasz
“KELLY: YOU ARE A NUTCASE!”
“Goooooo seek professional help!!!!!!”
“Kelly u r crazy for real.”
So read some of the 1,515 comments posted on Kelly Killoren Bensimon’s official Real Housewives of New York City blog after the now-infamous Saint John episode aired in which Bensimon had what she’s calling a breakthrough but armchair psychologists are calling a breakdown.
“I am not crazy. I am unpredictable,” Bensimon says. And in case you were wondering, “I’m not in therapy.”
After watching the cringeworthy show, some might say she should be. During a disastrous dinner served up by Bensimon’s nemesis, Bethenny Frankel, Bensimon argued with the other housewives, frantically ate jelly beans, and fled to her room and, ultimately, New York. According to her, the others started it.
“It went from an everyday scene to all of a sudden Housewives, Big Brother style,” says Bensimon, who has denied popping pharmaceuticals like those jelly beans. Off-screen, she points out, she was dealing with the stress of a nanny who had quit and fielding calls from her daughters, Sea and Teddy, who were begging her to return home.
“I think it was deeply disturbing. It seemed like she had a break of some kind, but I can’t say exactly what it was,” says Andy Cohen, Bravo’s programming chief, who denies Bensimon’s claims that she felt “literally forced” to go on the trip. “She was not forced to go to Saint John by Bravo or the producers,” he says. “That’s untrue.”
Whatever happened, they can arguably all be happy that the on-air histrionics translated into Housewives’ highest ratings to that point (2.3 million viewers). It also landed Bensimon, Frankel, and Jill Zarin on Us Weekly’s cover, making them reality-TV A-listers.
“I’m embarrassed that I allowed myself to feed into it, but I don’t think I would handle it differently. The ratings were amazing, so no, absolutely not,” Bensimon says, showing little remorse over what she’s dubbed “Scary Island.” She adds, “Whether it’s my nail color, my hair color, or the shoes I’m wearing, everything about me bothers them.”
Either way, she thinks the wave of attention, however humiliating, might be worth riding. “I don’t have any regrets. I’m glad I went on Housewives because the show has made me more known,” she says.
“You say ‘crazy Kelly,’ that search engine’s going to go bananas, but if you say ‘sweet Kelly,’ it’s going to go nowhere,” continues Bensimon, shrugging off the criticism of viewers for whom reality TV is a blood sport.
In fact, “crazy Kelly” pulls up about 11.9 million hits on Google. While a dubious honor, such numbers are part of Bensimon’s publicity math. She runs more calculations: 6,000, the dollars she can raise for Feeding America with the sale of six Kelly-brand feather earrings; 70,000, the number of views in four days on the homemade antibullying PSA she posted after the Saint John gang war on her official YouTube channel (“This past season, bullying became a really, really big issue,” she says); and 294 million, the number of “media impressions” created by her March 2010 Playboy cover. “With Playboy, I think I superseded Housewives. It was huge,” she says.
It’s not that Bensimon is any stranger to attention. But it used to be from a select crowd of fashion designers, like Marc Jacobs and Francisco Costa, fellow socialites, and front-row photographers. As founding editor of Elle Accessories, a style-book author, and the wife of influential photographer and former Elle creative director Gilles Bensimon, she occupied a lofty perch in the fashion world. Even after her 2007 divorce, she was still in style. Her decision to plunge into the fray of reality television has raised some well-groomed eyebrows. And Bensimon knows it. “The Real Housewives of New York City is not considered something that people want to be a part of,” she says. But, she says, “I never had a voice before, and now I do.”
She’s using it to talk about everything from safe sex and bullying to her decorating choices. “I’m trying to do all these inspirational projects. I try to make pancakes,” she says, referring to an episode of the show. “I’m horrible at it.”
Whether the other housewives feel equally inspired is up for debate. “They want to go to the parties I go to, they want to hang out with me, they want to do the things that I’m doing,” she says, a comment that would probably make Frankel shriek.
“None of us care about [Kelly’s] superficial lifestyle,” blogged Frankel last season. “She is a complete phony and now she has been exposed and her small circle of New York supporters has turned on her. The emperor has no clothes.”
Frankel has since scored her own show, Bethenny Getting Married?, and Bensimon is trying to take the high road: “I wish her well. I don’t need to smear anyone.”
It’s a far cry from her previous role as Gilles’s wife. “When I was married, I was protected. No one was allowed to talk about me,” she remembers.
She remains on good terms with her ex, who shot her Playboy spread and vouches that “she is a very good mother.”
“It’s easy to judge,” Gilles says, pointing out that in fashion, no one’s shy about doing that. “One side has crucified her; the other side thinks it’s good for her.”
Meanwhile, Bensimon is focused on moving forward. “I’m 42, and I have this new life,” she says. “Yes, I’m more mass market. And that’s okay. It’s my job…. I’ve worked so hard. It wasn’t always lollipops and unicorns.” She sips her tea. “I tell my girls, ‘Your mom gets paid to engage in inappropriate behavior.’ It’s an amazing opportunity for them to see that being mean is not okay. I tell them, ‘If you’re in a situation like this, walk out. Don’t come back with jelly beans.’”
What do kissing and blood have to do with each other? A lot according to Kristen Stewart, the female star of the latest Twilight movie Eclipse. The best part of movie, next to Robert Pattinson’s foxy good looks even when pale, is the message of abstinence. Love vs. Lust? I’d take true love any day.
This Fourth of July, I was so flattered to grace the cover of Social Life Magazine. The cover graced my special earring from my new jewelry line Kelly by Kelly Killoren Bensimon. Not only was the cover so amazing, but the cover story was one of the most real stories ever written. No snark and all honesty. New York is where I work, and the Hamptons is where my daughters and I live. Thank you again, Social Life Magazine for all of your hard work. I am truly honored and flattered.
“I sat in that row way up there,” said GAGA,” and I saw Cher, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, and I thought to myself one day I’d be on this stage.” And GAGA’s wish came true, just like in The Wizard of Oz ( which she used as a storyline), GAGA clicked her platforms and got to come home to Madison Square Garden. Her costume changes by Zoldi were clever, playful, and artistic. GAGA is more than a music sensation, she has a healthy message: “Respect people for their choices, and live life to the fullest. Living well is the best revenge”.
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