Bling and Style

Glitter Graphics

Newsflash: NPR actually does know how to send reporters out to investigate a story!

On Tuesday's ATC Melissa Block said that "we sent reporter Jesse Baker to the heart of the diamond district in Manhattan" to see what the creepy Lorraine Schwartz was cooking up for the glitterati of the upcoming Oscars. WOW, Jesse was just breathless with excitement for this one:

She confidently states that "If Beyonce wants someone to 'put a ring on it,' that ring had better come from Lorraine Schwartz." And speaking of Beyonce, Schwartz in her best faux artiste voice
croons, "you couldn't aaahhhsssk for a better canvas to show your jewelry on."

Baker notes that "Schwartz put pink diamonds on Barbara Streisand...was selling jewelry to Justin Timberlake back when he was still buying gifts for a girl named Britney...house calls to Elizabeth Taylor..." This aspiring NPRer was practically panting and tried to wax poetic: "...you let the jewels overtake you...it's like opening a treasure chest...pink gold, jade, titanium, gems set in gems....

I'm not sure, but I think Ari Shapiro must have been a bit jealous that it wasn't his assignment to worship at the altar of conspicuous consumption, but he wasn't about to be outdone. He was on this morning interviewing - OMG! - Sally Singer, Vogue magazine's fashion news and features director. Ooh, I just got goosebumps thinking about the fashion shows and all in New York. Ari dives in with just the right mix of shallowness and depth: "...in the shows this week are you seeing fantasy escapism or is it more depression-era chic."

And Singer is indeed up to the challenge of filling NPR's target shoppers (h/t to Juan "Toss" Ensalada) with fashion wisdom: "....style can be a place where you can be exuberant, you can be creative, you can be talented, you can be interesting--that doesn't change....this is a moment to say that times can be tough, but that's exciting, that's what brought on punk, that's what brought on the great kind of fun movements in self-expression that have trickled through you know all the booms and all the busts that have followed...

Are we having fun yet?