queen carolina; From the banquettes of Studio 54 to the parlors of the Upper East Side, Carolina Herrera has always set the bar for spectacular elegance-and the standard for New York's most glamorous grandmother.

Byline: Joan Juliet Buck.

On a hot day, a beautiful woman emerges unwrinkled from a car in the west Thirties, her movements fluid and quick as she straightens up into perfect posture. She wears a white shirt, beige trousers, high-heeled shoes with laced vamps. Around her slim waist is a belt curiously made of pale-green crocodile tied into little knots to resemble lace or bamboo; she wears tiny tinkling gold bangles, 80 on the left arm in yellow gold and 80 more on the right arm in pink gold. A childhood of playing intensive tennis has made the right arm bigger than the left, and the slight variation in color saves time in the morning. Two small poodles tumble ...