SITTING in Susanne Bartsch's apartment in the Chelsea Hotel, long a Manhattan home for artists, but now fraying at the seams, it is hard to believe that New York's "Queen of Night Life" is not acting a role.

The swirling paintings, the pink stars behind the hat stand, the gilded candles and the carved four poster bed on which a sparkly corset is laid out, could easily be a set from the exhibition that opens at the Museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) today: "Fashion Underground: the World of Susanne Bartsch" ...