Critical Shopping

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Cintra Wilson took a spin through the recently opened stores of Madison Avenue for this week's critical shopper column, taking an extended stop at the new outpost of art collector/designer/gazillionaire's wife Lisa Perry. After the visit to Perry's new Temple of Mod, Wilson decided that Perry's "limitless resources have enabled her to explore the most whacked-out refinements of her own sense of style, which, in a nutshell, is that of André Courrèges." To Wilson, Perry's style is so blatantly derivative that she positions herself less as a designer than as a superfan with an otaku-like dedication to preserving the aesthetic of Courrèges, even if it's Perry's name on the label. [NYT]