>>  Alber Elbaz's recent Fall 2009 runway show for Lanvin won stellar reviews, with many deeming it one of the best collections of the season; but after perusing Ariel Levy's profile of the designer in The New Yorker's Style Issue this week, we know that at the end, he was backstage with his director of communications, Hania Destelle, worrying. "After every show, I say to Hania, 'They hated it.'"  But that's just the beginning of the anxieties for Alber, whose mind seems to be equally split between creating and worrying.

He fantasizes about being skinny.

Looking over the menu one morning at the Carlyle Hotel, Elbaz said, "Should we be good today or bad?  Maybe we start good and get bad later."  He ordered the fruit salad.  He wanted the pancakes.

Elbaz thinks it's a very big deal that he is overweight. Asked what he imagines life would be like if he were thin, he replied, "Amazing," with real conviction.

Part of the problem is that he stress-eats.

He brought a bowl of fruit and put it on the table in front of the architects.  "The stress starts and we start to eat."  Elbaz sat down, put his head in his hand, and moaned. "I'm depressed," he said, and started peeling a clementine.

He even considers leaving fashion . . . »