C\'d5est Chic, \'82a! Moneyed West Village Celebu-Moms Terrorize Kiddie Boutique

The New York Observer, September 18th, 2007

“You worry about everything but you’re also excited that they have all the stimulation,” said photographer Annie Leibovitz, of bringing up a child in New York City. Clad in her characteristic black shirt and black pants atop Nike Air sneakers, Ms. Leibovitz, 57, was helping her daughter Sarah, 5, pick out some new duds at the opening party of a new Bonpoint branch in the West Village on the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 17.

“You know, I’ve done this sort of late in my life,” continued Ms. Leibovitz, who lives in the natty nabe. “It’s one day at a time. I’m just sort of figuring it out as I go along. I thought, Should I move to Brooklyn? Because people said, ‘Move to Brooklyn!’ [But] right now it feels very exciting to live here, in the city, and I’m very, very lucky because we have a place upstate, so we have the best of both worlds. It is a tough place to bring up a child, but right now I feel really lucky that she’s getting the best education.”

Supermodel Christy Turlington, 38, arrived at Bonpoint without her two rugrats or their father, actor-director Ed Burns, looking fabulous in a baggy gray shirt and black tights. “I grew up in a suburb of a city, always wanting to be in a city,” she said. “We’re downtown and it feels very villagy and very family-oriented and we’re by the park and by the river and I don’t feel like we’re lacking anything that anybody else has.” But does she ever feel that anyone’s hostile? “Usually, as parents of little children you don’t want to be the only ones forcing this on everybody else, so I feel like we’re respectful of that with other people,” Ms. Turlington said, after thinking for a moment. “We’re usually envious of the couple that is reading The New York Times at eleven in the morning at a restaurant. We’re having brunch and we’ve been up for five hours, so I don’t feel like there’s any kind of war.”

Over to Vogue contributing editor Plum Sykes, 37, who’s trying to raise her 11-month-old daughter, Ursula, and write a movie based on her second book, The Debutante Divorcée, for HBO before the Writers Guild strike that’s rumored for the end of October. How does she do it? (Well, there was a vigilant nanny in tow.) “People in New York are so nice to babies,” said Ms. Sykes, in ruffled silk blouse, tweed jacket, and blue pants, “but I have heard that people in Park Slope have these prams and they sing the whole time and they just really annoy people. You do have to remember that not everyone is in love with your baby.”