Still Dancing on the Lip of the Volcano?

The last time there was a disconnect this vast between economic realities and one-percent spending was 35 years ago, and Julie Baumgold was its keenest observer. She weighs in on the current moment.

The year was 1987. A week after the stock market crashed, Christian Lacroix staged his first show in New York—at the World Financial Center. As frantic traders flitted about upstairs, models downstairs twirled in tutu skirts and neon, taffeta and mink. Julie Baumgold was there to capture it all for New York magazine, trailing Lacroix and his Whirlers—a crew that included Blaine Trump, Nan Kempner, and Gloria von Thurn und Taxis—in a week of revelry, dancing on the lip of the volcano. T&C caught up with Baumgold.