From Coco Rocha to Isaac Mizrahi: How the Fashion Set Made it Through Sandy
Photo via Chris Benz's Instagram
How Chris Benz copes with hurricanes.
As Sandy howled through NY and NJ, the area's most fashionable residents clung to their Twitter handles to offer words of encouragement and to vent their own frustrations. While some were more fortunate — Diane Von Furstenberg tweeted her support from Australia, and Jason Wu sent a shout out from Beijing — plenty of designers, models, bloggers, and stylists were right here in the trenches. Here's what they were up to during Hurricane Sandy.
1. The day before Hurricane Sandy hit, Isaac Mizrahi had some sage advice for one follower: catch up on Breaking Bad. He tweeted that the show made for "perfect viewing for the perfect storm." But the so-called "perfect storm" derailed some of his own TV-watching plans the next night when he lost power and tweeted, "Freaking out. Don't like the world without TV."
2. Fellow New Yorker Chris Benz was also bummed to miss out on some quality TV time. He tweeted on Monday that if the powere went out before RuPaul's Drag Race then "Con Ed will lip synch for their life." Fortunately his focus seemed to shift to his Halloween costume the next ay when he wondered if the Manhattan-based costume shop Abracadabra was still open.
3. Like Isaac and Chris, Rebecca Minkoff began the storm wondering what she'd be watching. She took to Twitter to ask for Netflix suggestions (hat's off to the woman who suggested Dawson's Creek season 3), but when the power went out she and her family were quickly on the move. Eventually they found some comfy bean bag chairs and a place to rest their heads on the Upper West Side.
4. If Minkoff had headed to the east side she may have run into another fashionable Sandy refugee. Prabal Gurung made his way to the Andaz 5th Avenue hotel after losing power on Monday night. Riding out a storm in a luxe Midtown hotel? Not too shabby, and Prabal was well aware. He later tweeted a proud shot of the view from his "home away from home."
5. Nigel Barker also fled his apartment after tweeting pics of the damaged West Village building. He and his family made themselves at home in designer Pamella Roland's loft. While Nigel seemed to have reached his stress-level threshold during the hurricane—he tweeted constant updates about the Hudson River rising—his kids sure seemed to be enjoying their new digs just a couple days later.
6. Like Pamella Roland, Christian Siriano provided a sanctuary for friends in need. Before the storm he announced that he was fully stocked with candy, pizza rolls, and orange soda (a well-balanced storm diet, for sure) and after the storm rolled through he offered cinnamon rolls and coffee, not to mention electrical outlets for his pals looking to charge their iPads and phones.
7. Celeb stylist June Ambrose took a decidedly more gourmet approach to Sandy. Rather than pizza rolls and soda, she and her family gorged on wholegrain waffles, curry and coconut milk fish stew, gluten-free oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies, and honey-roasted chicken. She documented it all in what she called her "Frankenstorm Cooking Chronicles."
8. Coco Rocha passed the time with an old summer camp standby—playing cards. The model played UNO and drank Coronas by candlelight in her Westchester home. She also checked in with Nigel Barker, who she called "favorite news/weather man" because of his regular tweets.
9. Though most New Yorkers were holed up in their pitch-black apartments, Buzzfeed's Amy Odell still managed to find some style inspiration. After the storm she stayed with family, including a 2-year-old in sparkly hot pink pants. "Now jealous of more than just their power and running water," she tweeted about the tot's fashionable ensemble.
10. Joe Zee, creative director at Elle and host of the Sundance Channel's "All on the Line with Joe Zee", went through it all. He lost power, tried to drown his troubles in a few bottles of wine, scavenged for food, photographed some fallen trees, and lived the Sandy-induced vagabond lifestyle for a few days. Which is why we don't blame him when he jumped ship this morning. He tweeted a photo from some tropical locale and said, "Sorry NYC but I had to." We understand Joe, we understand.
