Isabel Toledo designed Michelle’s Inauguration green coat and dress. Plus, her Queen Elizabeth outfit (obviously not that tacky J.Crew cardigan).
Isabel, who also dressed Vanessa Williams for Friday’s entrance into B’way’s “After Midnight,” says, “Vanessa’s in tight ruby-colored velvet embroidered with Swarovski crystals. Corset’s lined in silk. I knew what I wanted her to look like. I wanted it romantic. Designing for a show’s different. She must dance in it, kick the train behind her, not fall over it or out of it. And it’s packed to withstand perspiration.”
Ruben, Isabel’s artist husband of 30 years: “We started with nothing. We’re Cubans. So poor we slept on other people’s beds. She emigrated at 6, me at 5. She learned with Diana Vreeland. At 13 she made clothes, watching and studying Lena, Basquiat, Warhol, Keith Haring at Studio 54.
“We send money to my wife’s family back home. We haven’t shown on runways since ’98, because then it was affordable. Now, too expensive. We watch every dollar we make.”
Isabel: “I began by working with Louis Vuitton. We sold clothes at Fiorucci. I was in Bergdorf’s 30 years ago. Then Barneys, now again Bergdorf’s. I design by doing a three-dimensional sketch, then Ruben, an artist who does watercolors and thematics, draws it.”
Ruben: “She even makes my suits. I’m a slob. But I don’t pay.”
Isabel: “Michelle buys my clothes from Ikram, the Chicago shop where she gets most things and first saw my designs. She just ordered something else.”
Then, they hugged and kissed. The Toledos fit together as well as her clothes.
Coogan’s “Philomena” grudge
A Word on Steve Coogan. Brit comedian, wry humor, supposed to be ha-ha funny, obliging, effervescent, etc. I was asked to interview him for his newie movie “Alan Partridge.” Then they canceled me. Said, “Don’t come. He won’t speak to you.” I’d never met him. Never wrote a word about him.
So . . . why? . . . He considered our reviewer wrote so badly about his earlier film “Philomena” with Dame Judi Dench that he’d never again speak to anyone from the New York Post. Okay? So how’s that for obliging, funny, ha-ha effervescent?
Pal around
David Samson of Gov. Christie fame, who resigned as Port Authority chair amid corruption allegations, once gave the PA’s $1.2 mil no-bid contract to Michael Chertoff. Lawyer Chertoff now reps pal Samson. They go back far. Chertoff’s rabbi father performed Samson’s first wedding. Anyone asking is the Port Authority paying Samson’s legal bills?
Sultana live
Urgent information: Painter Fares Rizk, a k a Sultana — “Hostess Extraordinaire” transvestiterix — now in full blond goddess regalia at Cibar, 56 Irving Place, Tuesday to Thursday.
On the move
Tina Brown’s efficiently planned Women in the World included rides for the carless via Toyota’s free shuttle service. It featured Hillary, Katie, Mika, Diane von Furstenberg, Jordan’s Queen Rania, Meryl Streep’s daughter Mamie Gummer. Amidst thousands of ladies including Barbara Bush, America Ferrera, Cynthia McFadden jamming Lincoln Center — MTV’s founder Tom Freston. So what’s he doing there? “Just checking it out,” he grinned.
DOWNGRADING Verizon’s $80 a month “Freedom Essentials” plan, this guy now pays $20. Then came a $1,700 bill for 718 calls. Verizon claimed that’s Garden City, Nassau County, LI, not NYC. A) Who’d know that?; and B) calling China’s cheaper. Plus, they contacted him for a survey on his “recent Verizon experience.” His comment? “They should know where they can put their survey.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.