Critical Shopping

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Cintra Wilson, filing for the Times, shops the new Gucci flagship and genuinely seems to enjoy the store and its attentive sales associates. "I found candy-apple red leather pumps, with skinny black four-inch heels, and followed Adolfo to the dressing room. 'Show everything to me,' he said. I thought he was being polite. When I opened the door to swish around in the mirrors seven minutes later, he was seated outside, waiting. 'I am not supposed to say this, but you look really hot,' Adolfo said. Too good to be true. I wondered if Gucci was trafficking in 'companionship.' Adolfo delivered armfuls of dresses, and the pumps. The dress he suggested, the ersatz Von Furstenberg, was, other than massage oil, the sexiest thing I’ve seen on my body—L.A., TV-sexy in a way I never thought I could pull off. Adolfo insisted on belting it, resulting in a blushing, Cary Grant physical-comedy moment I thoroughly enjoyed." [NY Times]