Gato has fallen so in love with Marshall Field’s up-scaling over the past four years that in Gato’s next life, he wants to be reborn as a Harrod’s department store and marry it. Then Gato’s Buhddist friend reminded him that no one gets reincarnated into an inanimate object.

Religion can be so dogmatic; so Gato quickly retreated from his metaphysical ruminations back to fashion aspirations. Fashion is like the Unitarian Church, always inclusive to new ideas and Marshall Field’s has become the fashion-forward cathedral in the Midwest. Here’s to hoping this Field’s doesn’t go the way of the Gnostics.

Gato can remember when new money was looked down upon. Just a bunch of uptight Lake Foresters or Princetonites jealous that they didn’t have a gaggle of Bottechelli-esque Serbian, Italian and Greek girls screaming out the back of their Lexus.

Nuevo riche is so in these days that people are asking their hedge-fund managers to say, “She keeps all of her money in a Crown Royal sack under the mattress and the rest is vested in diamonds.”

With the sun rising over new money like a dripping-crystal chandelier in the dining room going from dim to bright, the term ghetto-fabulous is no longer a putdown.

Like a girl on a treadmill wearing a Yale sweater and five differently-gauged 24 karat gold bracelets on one wrist, ghetto-fabulous is a way to mark where you came from once one has arrived.

Chicago’s downtown Marshall Field’s has long been dressing well heeled African-American’s in Chicago in the likes of Cole Hann shoes and Kenneth Cole mixed with Sean John. Kanye West brought this South Shore look to the center of hip-hop style, a look some called “Polo-ed out” — and not just the label but dressed to watch a match in Oakbrook.

No one has captured the upscale urban style — Sex and the City at Funkmaster Flex party inside the Metropolitian Museum of Art (with free Gulfstream flights from Madison, of course) — better than the premiere issue of Suede Magazine. Suede has Alicia Keys on the cover sampling Lena Horne in her style.
Suede employs an art direction that revives the spirit of 1960s Vogue and puts it in the million-dollar condo of one Southside and two Bronx girls who made it big.

Gato spoke with Suede editor-in-chief Suzanne Boyd about the new “it girl” at the publication that she runs. Boyd said that the first thing they did to distinguish Suede was through art direction.

“When I met with Richard Christiansen, the art director, we decided that so many people had been going with stark white and minimal. We went with color, pattern and layering,” Boyd said. “Our magazine stands at the intersection of street and chic. Because this magazine was targeting newly articulated fashion demographic, we needed a new visual vocabulary.”

Suede’s couture graphic design even features custom-created typefaces, designed by Christensen, in its headers, something Gato thought had died with the music magazine Raygun.

Creating a magazine for six-figure sisters is something Boyd feels has been a long time coming.

“Trend forecasters and marketers have known that this demographic exists but no one has really gone after it before,” Boyd said. She credits the vision to the leadership at Essence, which also backed Latina magazine.

Advertising in the magazine features brands that were faithful supporters of urban media like Ford and HBO, but there are also high-end brands like Etienee Aigner.

Lush fashion layouts in the magazine are all beyond-next-level. Imagine India Arie, Prince, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri and filmmaker Wes Anderson all simultaneously directing Richard Avedon on a photo shoot.

“One of the things that is important is finding new and unique ways of treating fashion for the multi-cultural fashionistas,” Boyd said. “Eastern, African, Egyptian — a sort of rich and bubbling stew that you see on the streets of New York.”

Boyd also feels it’s important to use models who look empowered because “that’s what our target demographic is, successful empowered women.”

Editorial doesn’t just feature celebrities like rapper Nas and salon tips, (something the kinky-haired media is actually starving for), it shares the stories of stratosphere-successful African Americans like real estate broker Spencer Means.

Response to the magazine has been phenomenal, according to Boyd.

“We’ve been getting groups of people banding together and e-mailing us, telling us how much they like the magazine,” Boyd said.

Successfully launching a magazine is no longer just getting it to newsstands. It means creating a community. An important component of bringing that community together is the parties a publication sponsors.

Suede’s first event will be parties and screenings in eight cities for the new Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon movie, “Taxi.” Suede VP of Public Relations Sonya McNair promises many more opportunities for chicas and their personal-hombre-assistants to break out those fur-lined Coach boots and hit the clubs.

While Suede fits a new niche in urban media by showing how to tastefully accessorize bling with up-market fashion labels in a great layout, Boyd reminds us of her mag’s mantra.

“Suede is an inclusive thing — it’s about looking at what’s influencing strong beautiful women.”