We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
THURSDAY
The rich are different, they say—but that’s a difference you might be able to live with. It’s the gold-digging, overdressed, vengeful parvenu you really need to watch out for. Patrizia Martinelli Reggiani (sometime Gucci) on her ex-husband: “If it’s the last thing I do, I want to see him dead.” Patrizia on revenge: “Get your revenge because you are right. Be uncompromising because you have been offended. Superiority [means]…finding the best way to humiliate him and free yourself.” Patrizia on her ex-husband’s death: “Paradise.” And Patrizia, who was convicted of Maurizio Gucci’s murder on Nov. 3, 1998, is only a tiny part of Sara Gay Forden’s The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed. There’s also the story of the family fashion empire itself, from its beginnings as Guccio Gucci’s single leather-goods shop in 1921 to its triumphant rebirth under Tom Ford in the mid-90s. And, of course, there are the purses, scarves, luggage, and clothes. Maurizio, on the day of his death, chose “a gray wool Prince of Wales suit, a crisp blue shirt, and a blue silk Gucci tie.” Patrizia, at his trial, wore “a black pin-striped Yves Saint Laurent suit and black hooded jacket lined with silvery fabric.” And Amber Valletta, on the runway in 1995, stalked out in “a lime green satin shirt unbuttoned nearly to her navel and a pair of low-slung, skintight blue velvet jeans, with a lime green mohair coat.” What more (short of a few billion lira) could you want? Forden speaks at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7, at the Willard Hotel, 1700 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. $55. (301) 983-1182 (Caroline Schweiter)