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This week's installment of New York mag's Look Book is particularly timely: They've found a ghost! Eek!

Oh, we kid (and not particularly well, either). Meet Michele Oka Doner, a sculptor who wears the dress at right in 20 different variations. Horrifying, yes, but at least the coat is from Herm s. Her hair and red lips haven't changed for over 40 years, but Lady Doner insists she knows this looks "correct." Our roundtable might disagree. This week, Intern Alexis consults Adam Hearst and Martha Burzynski for help.

Adam Hearst, author of The Devil Wears Burberry and Her Boyfriend Wears Thomas Pink.

Michele Oka Doner describes her style as "simple" — how would you describe it?

Classic, Elegent, Marge Simpsonesqe... any woman who can wear the same outfit in different colors, and fabrics is so regal just think of her like the Coco Chanel of Soho.

What was Michele for Halloween?

Typically she wears her black velvet version on the dress with an orange ribbon on all hallows eve but due to yesterdays unseasonably warm weather and sunny skies, Michele was at a loss. Going out on a whim, she took the white dress out of her suitcase (she leaves for Miami next week) and thought she would go for a summer look. The neighborhood kids thought she was the coolest CORPSE BRIDE they had seen all night.

Michele used to go to Switzerland to get her undies... Discuss.

Michele first started wearing Hanro back in the mid-'70s when she and her mother would take an annual ski-holiday to visit her stepfather who was a Swiss Banker. After four or five of these ski trips, she was hooked on these underpinnings, but the real kicker is that she fell in love with a man named Sven who moved to the states for her and later became a waiter at the Odeon back when it first opened but she caught him in bed with another man and it was over.

What does she wear when she's sculpting?

Being that Michele's sculpting is "organic," one would only think that she romps around her live/work space Soho loft in her birthday suit. Being the proper lady that she is she wouldn't want to dirty these fancy dresses that she now orders from a designer upstate.


Martha Burzynski, freelance writer and full-time dilettante

Michele Oka Doner describes her style as "simple" — how would you describe it?

What all the monks you need to know will be wearing next season. Also, grandmothers attending end of the year performances at the Experimental Theatre Wing at Tisch.

What was Michele for Halloween?

A recent nightmare. Harriet Miers. Duh.

Michele used to go to Switzerland to get her undies... Discuss.

In the immortal words of Cher Horowitz, "I mean, you see how picky I am about my shoes and they only go on my feet!" Maybe the extraordinary softness of Hanro is the only thing to have touched Michele — maybe she is still a virgin expecting St. Ann's-bound progeny to spring fully formed from her skull.

What does she wear when she's sculpting?

Early Anne Demeulemeester. Before she became part of the establishment and started printing her labels in English.