• Hi, I am the owner and main administrator of Styleforum. If you find the forum useful and fun, please help support it by buying through the posted links on the forum. Our main, very popular sales thread, where the latest and best sales are listed, are posted HERE

    Purchases made through some of our links earns a commission for the forum and allows us to do the work of maintaining and improving it. Finally, thanks for being a part of this community. We realize that there are many choices today on the internet, and we have all of you to thank for making Styleforum the foremost destination for discussions of menswear.
  • This site contains affiliate links for which Styleforum may be compensated.
  • We would like to welcome House of Huntington as an official Affiliate Vendor. Shop past season Drake's, Nigel Cabourn, Private White V.C. and other menswear luxury brands at exceptional prices below retail. Please visit the Houise of Huntington thread and welcome them to the forum.

  • STYLE. COMMUNITY. GREAT CLOTHING.

    Bored of counting likes on social networks? At Styleforum, you’ll find rousing discussions that go beyond strings of emojis.

    Click Here to join Styleforum's thousands of style enthusiasts today!

    Styleforum is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

NYC Socialite Style, Circa 1972

DandySF

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2003
Messages
908
Reaction score
115
For the flight from San Francisco to New York I picked up a batch of newspapers and magazines. While flipping through W i came across this 1972 photo of Jerome Zipkin. In his heyday he escorted some of NY's most fashionable and prominent women. Aside from the tie, what he's wearing doesn't look too far from what I'd consider wearable by today's standards.

18567042.jpg
 

Twotone

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2008
Messages
1,019
Reaction score
43
He looks like a five-pound sausage in a three-pound skin.

Twotone
 

butterflystyle

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2009
Messages
384
Reaction score
3
His pants are lapels are equally, repulsively, wide.
 

RSS

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
Messages
11,554
Reaction score
4,516
Mr. Zipkin was a "walker" as they say.
 

mack11211

Distinguished Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
6,551
Reaction score
122
The carpet made that pattern wherever he put his foot down.
 

Kei-bon

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2008
Messages
221
Reaction score
1
i like the lacquered paper lampshade ... and maybe that tie.
 

comrade

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 10, 2005
Messages
8,944
Reaction score
2,241
Originally Posted by DandySF
For the flight from San Francisco to New York I picked up a batch of newspapers and magazines. While flipping through W i came across this 1972 photo of Jerome Zipkin. In his heyday he escorted some of NY's most fashionable and prominent women. Aside from the tie, what he's wearing doesn't look too far from what I'd consider wearable by today's standards.

18567042.jpg


He must have been a billionaire or especially well-endowed.
 

DandySF

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2003
Messages
908
Reaction score
115
He was the heir to a NYC real estate fortune. In 1985 he was placed in the International Hall of Fame on the Best Dressed List, which is now run by Vanity Fair.
 

RSS

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
Messages
11,554
Reaction score
4,516
Originally Posted by comrade
He must have been a billionaire or especially well-endowed.
Guys ... he was a "walker" ... that's W A L K E R. He was gay and well-connected ... endowment was not a consideration. As far as husbands were concerned ... he was safe. As far as wives were concerned ... he knew everything about everyone. When the husbands were busy ... he "walked" the wives.

I quote from WWD's edition of 9 June 1995:

NEW YORK - Jerome Zipkin, a man-about-town who became a confidant to some of society's best-known and most affluent women, died Thursday at his apartment here. He was 80.

The cause of death was lung cancer, according to Steven Kaufman, a longtime friend who was with Zipkin when he died. Also present were two other close companions, former first lady Nancy Reagan and Louise Grunwald.

Although he lived alone for virtually his entire adult life, Jerry Zipkin was most often seen in the company of others, usually women of a lofty social stature. He was known as The Walker and The Social Moth, the former because he was the man who escorted many of society's most glittering women to its most glamorous events, the latter because of the indefatigable manner with which he carried out his mission.

When the Ladies Who Lunch sat down to pick at their asparagus in restaurants like Le Cirque, Zipkin was there. When they needed an escort to a charity ball or a private dinner party because their husbands were too busy or too bored, Zipkin was available. When they wanted to sit with an amusing companion at a major fashion show, someone with whom they could dish with discretion, Zipkin did not disappoint.
 

comrade

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 10, 2005
Messages
8,944
Reaction score
2,241
That's what I love about SF: a limitless fount of social historical
minutiae, or trivia. Thanks guys.
 

MetroStyles

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
May 4, 2006
Messages
14,586
Reaction score
30
Originally Posted by mack11211
The carpet made that pattern wherever he put his foot down.

This is clever.
 

Featured Sponsor

How important is full vs half canvas to you for heavier sport jackets?

  • Definitely full canvas only

    Votes: 55 35.3%
  • Half canvas is fine

    Votes: 61 39.1%
  • Really don't care

    Votes: 17 10.9%
  • Depends on fabric

    Votes: 27 17.3%
  • Depends on price

    Votes: 28 17.9%

Forum statistics

Threads
505,205
Messages
10,579,266
Members
223,891
Latest member
dfkoknee
Top