The "It boy" article has been done. Dozens of times. So what lead NYT's Sunday Styles along the path to revisit the archetype? We're not sure, exactly, but it seems scribe Peter Davis got his hands on a "new" term: male socialite — always an excuse for a Styles piece. So there Davis goes, traversing the charity party circuit in search of an explanation for the XYs in Gotham's party pages.

The job description was codified: those usually gay men accompanied women whose husbands abhorred the black-tie circuit; the men were well dressed and cultured and knew to step aside when photographers raised their cameras. After the party, they escorted their dates to their front doors, and no farther.

Davis then goes on name drop codified examples of male socialites: jewelry "exec" Luigi Tadini, Derek Blasberg (seen here uncomfortably close to the also-straight Men's Voguer Hud Morgan), and, of course, Fabian Basabe. The new male socialites, you see, are not gay.

(In the interest of fairness, both Tadini and Basabe have explicitly expressed their heterosexuality to us. Blasberg – who we've never had the chance to meet – needs no explanation.)

The Socialite Wore a Black Tie [Peter Davis, NYT]