New York Fashion Week Coverage: Day Four

Click HERE For Day Four Fashion Photo Slideshow
*Photos by Patrick Butler

INVITE OF THE DAY

I had to miss Betsey Johnson’s show to attend the debut of Halston (which was recently bought by Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein and Jimmy Choo’s Tamara Mellon, among others, and is being relaunched with the help of stylist to the stars Rachel Zoe and former Versace/Dolce & Gabbana alum, Marco Zanini, as designer), but I still have to give it up for Betsey’s invite, which came in the form of an old-school 45 rpm record with a drawing of a beanik chick on the vinyl. What better way to announce Johnson’s Fall 2008 Beat Chick collection, which pays homage to her best designs from the past 40 years. Happy anniversary, Betsey!!! See you next season!

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

Speaking of Halston, after the show (which I loved), I attempted to go backstage to get a quote from Marco Zanini for my VOGUE.COM review, only to be told by a security guard that you could only go backstage if you called ahead and had it pre-arranged. Say what...?! (Typically, editors and buyers attending any designer’s show are welcome to come backstage afterward to say hello, offer their congrats and obligatory air kisses, and get a minute to interview the designer, if need be.) This was a first. I was standing there wondering what the hell to do when my pal Nina Garcia, of Elle and Project Runway fame, materialized at my elbow with her boss, Gilles Bensimon, in tow. “Hello,” she said to the security guard, as she attempted to pass. He body blocked her and repeated what he’d just told me about needing to have called ahead, yada yada yada. “What?!” said Nina. “Call who to arrange what?” She looked at me for an explanation and I just shrugged. Just then, a PR girl came out from behind the curtain and saw Nina. “Oh, she can come in,” she said to the guard as she ushered Gilles and Nina backstage. Ms. Garcia, being the class act she is, grabbed my arm and pulled me along so I could get in, too. Thanks, Nina. I owe you one!

COCO ROCHA WEIGHS IN ON HALSTON

Canadian model Coco Rocha is one of my favorite runway girls. That nonchalant walk. That great sour puss. I caught up with the 19-year-old Canadian on the street outside Halston to ask what it was like to walk in the debut show of the relaunch of this iconic label. “I didn’t know it was so historical until we were putting on the clothes and they said that it was most famous brand in the 70s,” said the very polite - and very tall - Rocha. “It’s actually quite interesting to think that it’s such a legendary brand and that it was popular before I was even born (laughs). I had a cute number on; it kind of reminded me of dance clothing. It was very soft colors - like what your dance teacher would wear.” She would know, having been a champion Irish dancer before being discovered by a modeling agent at a...wait for it...Irish dance competition when she was 14 (hence the reason she did a jig down Jean Paul Gaultier’s runway last season). “It was gorgeous!” she concluded.

EMERGING TRENDS: COLOR ME HAPPY

Color has been a big story at many shows this week. Between the bright red tweeds at Rachel Roy, the deep teal and amethyst dresses at Costello Tagliapietra, the cobalt blouses at ThreeAsFour, the harlequin sequined smocks at Sass & Bide, the wonderfully riotous color combinations at Tracy Reese and the neon plaids at Y-3, I think I’ve seen every shade of the rainbow on the runway. And that’s not even counting the gold and cardinal anoraks at Lela Rose, the to-the-manor-born patchwork blouses at Carolina Herrera and the red sequined numbers at Oscar. At Proenza Schouler yesterday, Jack and Lazaro sent out some crazy clashing colors (think: a canary yellow mini with bright purple tights and red suede platform pumps). And Thakoon’s fall collection contained just one black look - everything else was awash in pink roses, red-white-and-black lumberjack plaid or punky tartan. Looks like we’re in for a blindingly bright fall.

REGINA SPEKTOR SINGS WITH STYLE

Oscar de la Renta showed his collection, as he has the past few seasons, in a decommissioned church on Park Avenue. But this time around, his ladylike looks came out to a somewhat unconventional soundtrack: The music of anti-folk singer Regina Spektor, who performed live while the models walked, first playing a grand piano and then accompanied by a guy doing beat box. I tracked her down post-show to get the skinny. “Oh my God. I was very nervous, I’m still kind of shaking,” said the diminutive redhead as we stood in a little room off the side of the stage. “I’ve never done anything like this. I was so terrified beforehand but Mr. de la Renta is so amazing. He’s got such poise yet without any pretension; he’s so open and kind that it’s just really great to be in his presence. Every time he would come by I would relax just a little bit for a second and then it would kick back in.” So how did they choose which two songs she performed during the show? “Actually, Oscar listened to the record with the music producer, Michel, and his assistants and they picked the more fast-paced songs so the models could walk to them.” She laughed. “They tried to collage them together and not run too long but it was sort of nerve-wracking because by the end I thought maybe I ran too short but we just kept going around and around until all the models walked out.” I told her I thought it was an amazing East Village-meets-Upper East Side counterpart to the clothes and she beamed.

A CHAT WITH CARINE ROITFELD

So as anyone who works in the industry or reads The Daily knows, two of fashion’s biggest guns, editorially speaking, are American Vogue’s Anna Wintour and French Vogue’s Carine Roitfeld. There was a relatively long (40-45 minute) wait for the Proenza Schouler show to start, so I wandered the aisle of the Park Avenue Armory - which had been outfitted with two rows of benches about a quarter-mile long - in search of a style scoop. Thankfully, Roitfeld (aka, the woman who helped Tom Ford reinvent Gucci) was just a few seats away, so it didn’t take me long to find one. “No, no boys, don’t leave me on my own,” she joked to two male colleagues who stepped aside when they saw me approach with a tape recorder in hand. “I’m not that scary, am I?” I asked. “No, you’re not.” laughed Roitfeld. I asked her what the biggest difference is between New York and Paris Fashion Weeks. “In Paris I have my proper wardrobe so I have no problems if it’s snowing or sunshine. I’m ready for any occasion. In New York it’s more difficult,” she replied. “I’m joking,” she laughed. So is there a big difference between the fashion she sees on the runway here and there? “Yes, very different.” How so? “I think it’s less ummm...I don’t want to be [insulting]... [America] is a huge market but because it’s huge it has to be less creative. So sometimes you find someone very nice; I’m expecting a lot of Proenza Schouler. But here, for zees people, it’s true that a lot of shows are just for selling the collection, to be frank. And the week is so long - almost 10 days this season with the men’s shows! - and because I’m working on a men’s magazine, too, we have to look at men’s shows.” And what was she looking forward to seeing in New York? “I’m looking forward to [Proenza] tonight and I liked Thom Browne this morning,” she said. “I really loved it. It was burlesque and was really amazing. Really good. And, of course, Marc. And Rodarte, I like a lot. And I missed, who’s this guy...something Saunders?” Oh, Jonathan Saunders (a London designer who made his New York debut on Sunday)? “Yes, I heard it was very good.” Well you can’t do it all, I said. “Yes, exactly!” she replied with a laugh.

AMY ADAMS, MEET ANNA WINTOUR

Further down the Proenza Schouler front row we saw Rihanna, Brooke Shields, Dylan McDermott and actress Amy Adams (star of Enchanted and Charlie Wilson’s War), who was seated directly across from the Vogue contingent. Adams’ handler brought her over to meet Anna Wintour, who graciously shook the actress’s hand and made small talk for several minutes while the cameras flashed around them. It was like watching someone have an audience with the Pope. Later, I approached Adams to ask what brought her to the Proenza show (aside from the lack of work due to the writer’s strike, that is). “I am a big fan of theirs,” answered Adams, who was wearing a copper sequined Proenza dress. “I like their take on femininity. Their detailing is exquisite and they take classic silhouettes and give them a little bit of funk, which I love.” Cool. And was this her first time at a Proenza show? “It is my first Proenza show,” she said. “In fact, this is my first show all week.” Not mine. And there are plenty more to come, ladies, so stick around!

Click HERE For Day Four Fashion Photo Slideshow

02.07.2008