RackedWire: Hayden-Harnett Takes Us Out to the Ball Game; Stuart Weitzman's UWS Trickery

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NOLITA—Last night at Hayden Harnett's party for Brooklyn artist Hugh Hayden, we were not asked to sit facing a wall with our hands bound and sip pureed dinner through a snorkel with a funnel attached. OK, so the same can be said of every party we've ever been to, but we mention it because yesterday Hayden told W Magazine that he threw a funnel-snorkel-dinner-sipping party in college, making us extremely grateful that last night's snacks (cookies and champagne) were a little less conceptual. Hayden-Harnett hosted the event to celebrate an installation of work by Hayden (no relation) in their Elizabeth Street store. The pieces are made of either tennis balls or those plastic balls you find in play-pits at McDonalds, and they range from a recognizable and presumably functional chair to an abstract ball formation emerging from above the storefront. They're all pretty fun to look at, and none of them require a snorkel to appreciate. [Editor's Blog]

UPPER WEST SIDE—Usually when stores get sneaky about their opening dates, it's because they're embarrassed about running late. Stuart Weitzman's UWS boutique, on the other hand, is moving in the other direction. Per blog My Upper West: "Check out the stealth move the upcoming Stuart Weitzman store pulled. A few weeks ago, we posted that the UWS is getting a new Stuart Weitzman store, located on Broadway between 75th and 76th, with an opening set for November 2009. It seems that those involved in getting the store ready to open were moving fast, as the opening is now advertised to occur in September 2009. Stuart Weitzman fans can now get their fix a couple of months earlier!" [MUW]