"As documents of sheer snotty bitchery go, it belongs in a hall of fame alongside... umm... Socrates'rebuke of Alcibiades in the Symposium," we said the other day of KCD publicist Bonnie Morrison's email to Coutorture blogger Julie Fredrickson, who'd complained that her inability to purchase a ticket to Monday's CFDA gala constituted a "pay for play" scenario. But was Bonnie actually being a bitch? Also, do we actually know what our own classical allusions mean? According to Fashionista's Faran Krentcil, the answer to at least one of these questions is a resounding "no."

"Bonnie was doing her job, and she did it admirably well," she told us. "Most magazines do buy a ticket to the CFDA, but they do it because they want to support the organization. Without the CFDA, a lot of good things in fashion wouldn't happen, like the young designer's fund."

But what about unaffiliated journalists who can't afford to support the organization? Is it right that they should be effectively barred from covering the event? "There's always a question of exclusivity, especially when it comes to the more social aspects of the industry. There's always going to be someone saying, basically, 'I was left out, and fashion can't progress if people are left out.' But if you look at fashion as a business, as an art form, and as a social movement, it really is like Heidi Klum says: you're either in or you're out. In some ways, fashion couldn't progress if everyone was "in." If everyone was included, it wouldn't be fashion, it would be fascism." Huh! We'd never thought of it that way. Or, really, thought of it!

As for Julie, she also has a quibble with the way we characterized the situation, but hers is more minor. "If we are going to go for classical references involving Alcibiades being chewed out I think it is more like Nicia's takedown of Alcibiades before the Sicilian expedition. Except that would make Bonnie old, wise, and unprepared to lead Athens to victory and that would make me young, hot headed, and likely to be crucified for ignoring the mores of my culture. SHIT! I hate it that Thucydides is right about everything."