in the buff; This summer, nothing is chicer than the polish-free, flawless foot.

Byline: Maggie Bullock

Swabbing Nars's deep, dark Chinatown lacquer off my toes, Bastien Gonzalez makes one thing clear: "I'm not against polish," he says in his lilting French accent. "But it is so much more elegant to have naked nails." This charmant prince of pedicures, who honed his skills at the spa at Paris's Hotel Costes, is the secret weapon of stiletto-lovers worldwide. Maintaining a strict philosophy that the ultimate luxury, the most complete groom, is the healthy, precision-pedicured au naturel nail, Gonzalez is revered for delivering the world's most perfectly buffed toes. This summer, he brings his signature treatment-during which he polishes his subjects' nails and feet with a dentist's drill-Stateside, with monthly guest appearances at the Cowshed Spa at Manhattan's members-only Soho House. But will New Yorkers go an entire summer-a full sandal season-without color?

Reclining in one of the Cowshed's treatment rooms, lulled by the maestro's reminiscences of Sardinian summers spent hopping from yacht to yacht, "pedee-cure-by-pedee-cure," I barely notice as Gonzalez sweeps the drill gently and painlessly across the top of each nail. It's the first of four different types of buffing tools he uses to render a smooth, pink, super-natural sheen to each nail. He points out that the iconic pink-and-white "French manicure" started off as a nude but flawlessly tended nail, not the opaque, painted-on version we know today. "It's not painted to look that way," he says, gesturing to my newly cleansed, polished, scraped, shammied, and thoroughly massaged feet. "The nail is pink because the buffing action increases circulation, and it's white because it's clean." My own nails-previously dry, unevenly colored, and lackluster (which he says is due to the dehydration wreaked by constant polish)-have become smooth and glasslike. Minimal. Tasteful. Appealing.

Getting a pedicure is not just about polish-it's about maintaining the whole foot," points out Jin Soon Choi, the Manhattan manicurist and spa owner.

"Everybody who gets neutral polish is really striving

for that look-the foot that looks perfect," adds Deborah Hardwick, owner of Bergdorf Goodman's BuffSpa.

"It's like saying, 'I'm so chic I don't need polish!' " Ji Baek, owner of New York's Rescue Beauty Lounge, says of buffing. "It's a whole different level of subtle." Of forgoing color-YSL's reds! Rescue's own ...