Hey ladies, can you hear me? Hey ladies, make noise! Today was the last day of spring 2008 New York Fashion Week, and I can’t say I’m sorry that it’s over (I am so sleep-deprived it’s not even funny - though I think I lost a few pounds due to skipping so many meals). But I will miss the rush of seeing new fashion and bumping into old friends, as Fashion Week is kind of like a semi-annual college reunion - you tend to see the same people over and over again at the shows, and don’t run into them again until September or February rolls around.

Wednesday was a light day of shows, but there was definitely some big fashion news being made, as you’ll see below.

And this being my last official Fashion Week entry, I wanted to thank you again for joining me for my behind-the-seams adventure. See you in February!

All photos here. More in depth coverage by The Fashion Informer. 

Donna Karan debuted a collection she called “Chez Nueva York.” I wasn’t really getting the Nueva part - unless those crochet-edged, full-skirt looks were done in homage to the salsa-loving Nuyorican community – but I liked it, nonetheless. Standout pieces included some seriously sexy portrait collar skirt suits (very “I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar!”), comfy-crisp linen halter dresses that looked like what Marilyn Monroe might wear on a date with Tarzan, and off-the-shoulder, wasp-waist dresses that had a Jayne Mansfield vibe (don’t know who Jayne Mansfield is? That’s what IMDB is for, my pretties!). At Anne Klein, meanwhile, designer Isabel Toledo - who was appointed creative director last season - sent out a collection that rivals Narciso and Carolina for best of the NY season (at least in my book). As I watched the pixel-splattered white shirt dresses, lace-edged cocoon shifts, lacquered cotton kimono tops and transparent ocean- and bark-hued raincoats come down the runway – twisted classics of the highest order, all – I had an epiphany that almost moved me to tears: Isabel Toledo, after helming her own brand since the mid-‘80s, is about to single-handedly revive the dying mid-level American businesswoman clothing market, which has been on the decline ever since the early ‘90s, when labels like Anne Klein and Liz Claiborne stopped making clothes that were relevant or appealing to modern women. (Yes, they’re still in business. But how many women do you know who wear either label? OK, now how many stylish women do you know who wear either label?) Case closed. Yes, the pieces themselves were divine. But it was witnessing the birth of a great American designer – and the rebirth of a once-great American label – that made this show the hands-down highlight of my week.

All photos here. More in depth coverage by The Fashion Informer. 

As I said earlier, this week was pretty light on great music (and, mercifully, it was also light on Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake tunes, both of whom were played to death in seasons’ past). And after the tiptoe through the tunefest at Betsey Johnson yesterday, I figured I’d heard the last cool music I was gonna hear (at the shows, anyway). So imagine my surprise when the lights came up at Donna Karan’s Greenwich Street studio and out sashayed Irina, Coco, Freja, Raquel, Lily, Agyness, Sasha and Stam to the sound of the Amy Winehouse song, “Amy, Amy, Amy.” With its sultry, laissez-faire beat and sexed-up lyrics, this tune was the perfect accompaniment to the sultry, sexed-up fashions on parade. The fact that it’s my favorite Amy Winehouse song didn’t hurt, either. Of course, I had to sing along (for which I apologize to those seated around to me).

With a name like Chanel Iman, how could she grow up to be anything but a supermodel?  And that’s just what this pretty, multi-culti 16-year-old is on her way to becoming, thanks to having been the third runner-up in Ford’s Supermodel of the World contest last year.  She’s been modeling since she was 12, but the exposure from the contest rocketed her into the big leagues, and this week she walked in 22 (count ‘em!) shows:  Heatherette, Marc Jacobs, Anna Sui, Donna Karan, Oscar de la Renta, DKNY, Diane von Furstenberg, Michael Kors, Peter Som, Ralph Lauren, Temperley, Behnaz Sarapfour, Doo.Ri, Vera Wang, Alexander Wang, Badgley Mischka, Carlos Miele, Charles Nolan, Erin Fetherston, L.A.M.B., Marchesa and Trovata.  That averages out to almost three shows a day – which doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you figure in the time spent running from venue to venue and getting hair and makeup done at each, it’s a very long day.  Get some rest, Chanel, you’re going to need it once the European shows kick off next week!

Sure, you’ve heard all about the skinny model debate that’s raging here and abroad (and yes, we can attest to the fact that models are currently thinner than they ever have been, for sure). But did you know there’s a skinny editor plague raging through fashion, as well? The women who cover the industry have always tended to be thinner than Jane Q. Public (hel-lo!, you can’t get free samples if you don’t fit into a sample size). But this season, it seems like everyone attending the shows – from assistant editors on up - has dropped a size (or three) since I last saw them in February. And these are girls who were thin to begin with. Everywhere I looked this week, I was surrounded by size 00 women with pin-thin arms and twig legs (I’m talking upper arms that are as skinny as…well, I don’t know what, but they were scary skinny). And buyers don’t appear to be immune from shrinkage, either. “Have you noticed how skinny everyone’s gotten?” a size 4 colleague asked me yesterday. “It’s like there’s something in the water. And you really notice it when these women are photographed with their teenaged daughters, and the daughters – who are thin girls themselves – look like Amazons next to their moms. It’s weird.” I agreed that it was a disturbing turn of events. “It makes me feel so fat in comparison,” she moaned. Uh oh.

By now, everyone’s familiar with the term SWAG, which, according to Wikipedia, stands for Samples, Wearables And Gifts (who knew?). During Fashion Week, most designers leave little SWAG – or Goody – bags on the chairs of important buyers and editors (they tend to only be given out in the first few rows of a venue, but sometimes every seat in the house gets its own goody bag). When I first started covering the shows a few years ago, I would take every single piece of SWAG offered during Fashion Week. Free stuff!!! Free stuff!!! But after a few seasons, I began to get a bit more picky (as do most people who cover the shows regularly) because I quickly learned that SWAG bags typically consist of the same few items: shampoo, conditioner, makeup, an energy drink, a 10-percent-off-if-you-spend-$100 “gift” certificate to some store or spa you’d never in a million years go to anyway, and a keychain/card case/sunglasses, etc. The thing is, these bags are heavy (think about how much a full bottle of shampoo, conditioner and an energy drink are). Now think about going to 6-8 shows a day and getting 6-8 bags full of the above. That’s a lot of crap to carry around from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. – especially when you’re running around the city like a madwoman. Likewise, the makeup is very rarely a color or formulation you’d choose for yourself, and the keychain/card case/sunglasses are usually of the craptacular variety. Sometimes, you’ll open a goody bag pre-show to discover a bottle of water inside – and for that I am truly grateful (extra points if there’s also a granola bar, popcorn or other edible treat, as meals are something I don’t enjoy regularly during Fashion Week). But after mailing boxes and boxes of Fashion Week crap, oops, I mean SWAG, to my sisters and nieces, I realized all this free stuff was actually costing me money, as the postage was so damn expensive (you try sending 15 bottles of Tresemme across the country). That said, I did peek inside all the Goody Bags I was given this time around (and even brought a few home) just so I could give you all the SWAG scoop. Am I thoughtful, or what? Here’s a rundown of stuff what I got:

2 bags of Vincent Longo makeup (eye shadow, lip pencil, lip gloss)
2 bags of Shiseido makeup (eye shadow, blush)
1 bottle Narciso Rodriguez “For Him” eau de toilette
4 $50 gift certificates to Lord & Taylor
4 bufugly silver Lord & Taylor key chains shaped like a mini suitcase
1 Nars eye shadow
1 silver leather card case with makeup mirror inside
1 bottle shea oil moisturizer

And, my favorite gift of all, from the Ralph Lauren 40th anniversary show: a white #2 pencil bearing the Ralph Lauren Logo. Let me get this straight. At every other show, for designers both emerging and established, I get oodles of crap that I have absolutely no use for. But at the show commemorating Ralph Lauren’s 40th year of business in the fashion industry (an industry that has made him one of the richest men in the world), I get a freaking pencil? Nice. Thanks, Ralph. Mazel tov! Needless to say, I will be re-gifting all of the above, with the exception of the moisturizer and the L&T gift cards. And I will be keeping that pencil, too. Just to remind myself why, unlike Ralph Lauren, I will never be a billionaire.

Tuesday dawned, and it began raining the minute I set foot outside to head up to the Marc by Marc Jacobs show.  And I’m not talking a little, skip-through-the-raindrops sunshower.  I’m talking black clouds rolled in, the skies opened up and out came a torrential downpour – the kind that’ll totally destroy a girl’s Louboutins.  Fun!  Thankfully, I was wearing my motorcycle boots – and managed to wait out the worst of it under a deli awning before hopping in a cab to the Lexington Avenue Armory (which is where Marc showed his signature collection the night before), so it was all good.
 
Also good were most of the shows, which included Little Marc (as those in the biz call Jacobs’ lower-priced line), Betsey Johnson, Calvin Klein and Zac Posen.
 
Some other good stuff…

It’s a toss-up between a brown plaid dress with a solid navy side panel at Marc (one of the few looks I liked from this otherwise too-retro collection), a perfectly rendered notched-collar coat from Francisco Costa at Calvin Klein, who reworked the iconic camel balmacaan for the John Pawson set, and a spare black suit at Zac Posen, inspired by the duds worn by early American settlers (let’s call it Shaker Chic). I am all about a well-cut black suit, and his was among the best of the season.

On Tuesday, that would be LL Cool J and Tori Spelling at Betsey Johnson. Or LeAnn Rimes and Michelle Trachtenberg, who posed for the cameras at Monique Lhuillier. Or Carmen Electra and Ashley Olsen, who sat huddled over the program notes in the front row at Calvin Klein. Or wait. Maybe it was Bette Midler, Martha Stewart, Carole King, Bernadette Peters, P. Diddy, Patti Smith, Demi Moore and Lucy Liu, all of whom were at the Zac Posen show (and the latter of whom caused a near-riot on the runway when they arrived together to take their seats).

No, they’re not.  But, still, it was fun to gawk as P. Diddy sat down across from us at the Zac Posen show then jumped up and sprinted across the aisle to air kiss Demi Moore, who introduced him to Lucy Liu. It was also fun to see Martha Stewart pull out her digital camera to snap shots of Carole King, who beamed at being photographed by the Queen of All Media.  (Oh, wait, that’s Oprah.)  King then asked Stewart to introduce her to Bernadette Peters, and the two singers put their curly heads together and chatted until the show began.  It was a celebrity lovefest, people!