{"id":254,"date":"2007-01-27T23:15:39","date_gmt":"2007-01-28T07:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/godammit.com\/2007\/01\/27\/nan-kempner\/"},"modified":"2007-03-23T17:49:27","modified_gmt":"2007-03-24T01:49:27","slug":"nan-kempner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/godammit.com\/nan-kempner\/","title":{"rendered":"Nan Kempner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 $\"nan2.jpg\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Nan Kempner was a New York socialite famous for her vast collection of couture clothing and her delightful outspokenness, such as her \u00a0pronouncement to Vanity Fair, \u201cI loathe fat people!”<\/p>\n

I remember reading about her in W, which chronicled her luncheons and charity events and famous friends. Spy magazine used to publish unflattering pictures of her, with hilariously insulting captions. \u00a0 She is said to be the inspiration for Tom Wolf\u2019s descriptive term, \u201csocial x-ray.” \u00a0 As I google her now, I see that she was a living rebuttal to the adage: \u201cYou can\u2019t be too rich or too thin.”<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan Museum is currently hosting an exhibit<\/a> of Nan Kempner\u2019s clothing collection, celebrating her \u201ccool elegance” and \u201ciconic style.” There\u2019s that word \u201ciconic” again! \u00a0 Mrs. Kempner certainly knew how to spend money. She had 360 sweaters and 200 bikinis, along with couture gowns by all the usual designers of her era. \u00a0 She had a 14 room apartment where she could store her clothes, and she was renowned for her ability to make a plain white shirt look chic.<\/p>\n

God, what bullshit! \u00a0 Could anyone get away with this now? Such waste and narcissism and obsessive consumerism just seems nuts, doesn\u2019t it? However, if it turns out that this kind of shopping addiction is still considered some kind of accomplishment when I kick the bucket, I hope that my own lifetime of spending and hoarding will be honored with a similar tribute at the Met.<\/p>\n

I would like people to wander around a huge exhibit of my red lipsticks, my cashmere sweaters, my glorious push-up bras, my boots<\/a>, \u00a0 my leather jackets, handbags, vintage costume jewelry, my kitsch religious crap, my sneakers, my gold bangles, and last but not least, my hair products. \u00a0 The hair products alone probably represent close to $500 of wasted money.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019ve gotten myself all excited about my exhibit! I\u2019m going to have to start cataloguing everything. I can promise that I won\u2019t be through before April, when the new leather jacket I just bought online is due to be shipped.<\/p>\n

I kind of don\u2019t like fat people either, now that I think about it.
\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"