Fashion Week 2008

On the afternoon of Friday, Sept. 5, a black SUV pulled up in front of an abandoned industrial warehouse on 12th Avenue and 54th Street. Out stepped Bergdorf Goodman buyers Linda Fargo and Roopal Patel—delicately, because Ms. Fargo was wearing high, white, gladiator-inspired sandals; Ms. Patel’s were severe, black, and dominatrix-looking.

Mere feet away, an army of publicists manned the entrance to the Rag & Bone fashion show, which had commandeered a portion of the building’s vast acreage. The two front-row fixtures from Bergdorf greeted New York Times writer Eric Wilson before breezing through the line. A horde of standing-room-only guests, restrained by a rope, looked on impatiently (some sweatily), shifting in colorful ballet flats or Converse sneakers.  read more »

On Thursday, Sept. 4, before hitting the Bryant Park shows, I made a beeline for my neighborhood optician to check up on business. I had expected to see hordes of women snapping up those smart-lady Tina Fey glasses, the very same ones that had endowed Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for vice president of the United States, with such an air of faux gravitas the night before. Thirty-seven million people of varying political persuasions watched the bespectacled Alaskan overachiever deliver her acceptance speech! Eyewear, and the unwitting marketing thereof, has never loomed larger on the American landscape. If this political stuff does not work out, Ms.  read more »

Over the summer, Council of Fashion Designers of America president Diane von Furstenberg sent letters to Fashion Week designers beseeching them to start their shows on time this fall, rather than offer the traditional wait of 40 to 45 minutes.

Ms. von Furstenberg’s edict—coupled with Marc Jacobs’ shocking, almost arrogantly prompt 20-minutes-late start last season, following criticism levied at his more-than-two-hours-tardy start a year ago—raised the possibility of a seismic shift in Fashion Week start times.

Alas, it hasn’t occurred. The Yigal Azrouel show in Chelsea on Friday, Sept. 5, was scheduled for noon, but the lights went down at 12:34. At Rag & Bone later that day, opening model Sasha Pivovarova stalked angrily down the catwalk at 4:36 p.  read more »

The young designer and downtown socialite Catherine Holstein was surveying a rack of clothes in her publicity company’s showroom the other day, planning out looks for her first runway show, scheduled for Sept. 6 at the Bumble & Bumble salon in the meatpacking district. She was wearing a schoolmarmish pale-pink, midcalf-length wrap skirt from her new collection. “When I first started designing, everything I did was kind of short because I love wearing short things,” said Ms. Holstein, 24, a Parsons School of Design dropout. But she soon grew bored with short. “I brought my hemlines down. My main hemline now is below the knee, shin-length, more 1940s.  read more »

On a recent sunny Thursday, Simon Spurr, men’s wear designer, was at the Denise Williamson Showroom in Soho, perusing the garments that will be included in his debut New York Fashion Week presentation on Sunday Sept 7. Among these were a slim, dark gray three-piece suit with a four-pocket, eight-button vest; several pairs of jeans (one with erratic bleach splotches staining the blue denim; another made in black leather); some elegant striped dress shirts accented by handsome neckties; and a tan, vintage-style trench coat complete with a discreet pocket for cell-phone storage.

Asked his favorite piece, Mr. Spurr, 34, pointed to a black leather motorcycle jacket.  read more »

For two years, Kelly Cutrone, the brash headmistress of public-relations firm People’s Revolution and frequent guest star on MTV’s The Hills, has banned Julie Fredrickson, editor in chief of Coutorture.com, from her fashion shows. In a well-publicized incident that was covered from MSNBC to MediaBistro.com, Ms. Fredrickson said she quietly asked Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour if she could get a video interview at Costello Tagliapietra’s Fashion Week show in Bryant Park in September 2006. Ms. Wintour agreed, but after just two questions, “Kelly went apocalyptic on me and told me to get away from Anna immediately,” Ms. Fredrickson said. This is what happens when you are a blogger who crosses a publicist.  read more »