Mayor\'s Relationship With Speaker Comes With Candid Fashion Advice

Stan Honda/Agence France-Presse â€" Getty Images Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, in 2011.

A few weeks ago, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg arrived at a party in an Upper East Side town house, gestured toward a woman in a noticeably tight gown, and offered, to anyone bothering to listen, a lurid admiration of her backside.

“Look at the ass on her,” the mayor said, according to Jonathan Van Meter, another party guest who happened to overhear the mayor.

Unfortunately for Mr. Bloomberg, Mr. Van Meter also happens to be a journalist â€" and he included the startling anecdote in a New York magazine cover story that was published on Sunday.

The article, a profile of Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker and Democratic candidate for mayor, offers insight not only into Mr. Bloomberg’s party manners (or lack thereof), but also his strongly held opinions on personal appearance, which he has a habit of sharing with Ms. Quinn.

In a candid moment, Ms. Quinn confided to Mr. Van Meter that Mr. Bloomberg frequently and vociferously weighs in on her style choices, often in a judgmental manner that could fairly be compared to that of a Bravo reality show host.

“The mayor is going to yell at me when I get out of the car because I have flat boots on,” Ms. Quinn told Mr. Van Meter. “The mayor has no use for flat shoes.”

Is that so

“I was at a parade with him once and he said, ‘What are those’” Ms. Quinn said. “I said, ‘They’re comfortable,’ and he said, ‘I neve! r want to hear those words out of your mouth again.’”

“He likes me in high heels,” Ms Quinn continued, amid laughter from her aides and security guards.

The mayor is also critical of Ms. Quinn’s hair-dyeing routine, often pointing out when she has missed a few gray roots.

The speaker does not take kindly to those remarks.

“I’m like, ‘Did you wake up being this big of’” a jerk Ms. Quinn said, although she opted for a more colorful appellation. “Or did it take, like, all day to ramp up to it to be able to insult me like that”

The speaker, who counts Mr. Bloomberg as a key ally as she prepares her mayoral bid, seemed generally unbothered by the mayor’s wisecracks, calling Mr. Bloomberg “much more silly than people think.”

She described their relationship as “not that complicated” and suggested that she finds pragmatic ways to collaborate with Mr. Bloomberg’s team, even if, as she put it, “he’s got a potty mouth.”