How Much Is That Donatella In The Window?

It was hard to resist a quick trip to Barneys, or rather the sidewalk outside of Barneys, when we heard that Donatella Versace would be making a special appearance...in the Madison Avenue windows.
Versace, the tiny, tanned successor to her late brother Gianni as designer of the house her daughter now owns, rarely makes the sort of in-store appearances that some American designers consider routine activities, and this occasion was marked by a glamorous party inside the store to introduce the Versace men's collection to Barneys' customers. Well, re-introduce, really, since back in the '80s and '90s, Versace was a featured label downtown at the original 17th Street store. This is a new Versace, mens line, and if it looks a little sleeker and chic-er, it's because acclaimed former Cloak designer Alexander Plokhov is now working for the house.
But back to Donatella.
Frankly, the unheard-of spectacle of an international celebrity designer posing in a store window was more than we could pass up. It was almost worth going just to hear the many press photographers grouse about each other and snap at any hapless civilian whom they thought might possibly be stealing their personally reserved spot on the presumably open-to-the-public sidewalk. Even better was watching them chide each other  for breaking from the  crowd and running to catch a shot of celebrities arriving for the party like strangely overpublicized "All My Children" star Leven Rambin ("Are you kidding me?" "She sells!" "Oh, come on, I can't give away pictures of her.") or Alan Cumming ("Alan Cumming? Shame on you!"). Finally, not far after the appointed 6:30 PM time, Donatella herself swanned into the window accompanied by Barneys' public face, Simon Doonan.
She expertly negotiated the swaths of decorative aluminum foil in a tight, shiny, black dress and the highest heels we have ever seen on a non-dominatrix, and yet they only brought her up to the same height as the diminutive Doonan. To placate the crowd of photographers, and probably realizing that she would look better without the glare of the glass in front of her, Versace and Doonan quickly left the window and reappeared outside to allow for better pictures. To her credit, Donatella posed for a good while to make sure everyone got their shot.
And then it was over, and Madison Avenue returned to normal.