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No gushing journalism worship for celebrity dresser Rita Watnick and her Beverly Hills store from the New York Times' Cintra Wilson. She says flat out that the Lily et Cie has "some of the most unpleasant service this side of France."
I had heard and read reports that Rita Watnick, the owner and self-described “curator” of Lily et Cie, was notoriously prickly to people who don’t happen to be A-list actresses or André Leon Talley. Fortunately for Ms. Watnick, her perceived distaste for the huddled masses leaves the 5,000-square-foot space largely empty, should one of her preferred clients — Mary-Kate Olsen, Renée Zellweger, Penélope Cruz — happen to drop by.[skip]
It struck me, after my escape, why Lily et Cie has a half-million pieces: Ms. Watnick isn’t selling her formidable collection so much as hoarding it. One senses that she looks upon this mountain of untouchable fashion as her children and is loath to see any of them go.
It wasn't just Wilson having a bad day. "Rita is the most arrogant, rude, un-cool, person I have come across," says a reviewer on Google. "The kind of unfriendly, peculiar vocal treatment I received from her was shocking."
Whoa, double fashion and media items: When she was an L.A. Times reporter, Tina Daunt kept her personal style blog girly but demure. Now that she's free, nipples and derrieres and assorted other allures are all good at Sugar Pop Tarts, the blog she co-authors with a French writer. What's the Huffington Post going to do, complain?