Fashion Blog - Times Online - WBLG

Sweaters have ears

The onslaught of big brother-style filming of the front row has resulted in unsuspecting fashion editors discovering mid-conversation that they are being filmed by neighbouring colleagues who are miked up. As WW2 propaganda posters warned, 'Beware, walls have ears.' Well now it seems that so do Prada sweaters.

Primal Scream backstage at Marc Jacobs

Spotted backstage at Marc Jacobs, a disgruntled looking Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream in hair and makeup. Approached by a camerawoman he growled at her to ‘get lost’ (polite translation) before pretending to squirt hairspray at her lens. He then appeared at the show with a very peachy complexion, and groomed hair. Who’d have thought the frontman was such a fully fledged metrosexual? Perhaps make-up is the new rock n’roll.

Fashion goes wild

Animal prints abounded in the queue to get into the Wildlifeworks show earlier in the week in an example of (perhaps inadvertent) on-message dressing. The company owns an 80,000-acre wildlife sanctuary in Kenya, which is home to elephants, cheetahs and other animals; it also runs an “eco-factory” where locals are employed to make high quality, organic and fair trade apparel.

Now it’s expanding its apparel beyond a handful of t-shirts and jersey skirts into a full collection of stylish trousers, dresses, and shirts that wouldn’t be out of place at Miss Selfridge or Topshop. While the company was founded in the US, UK CEO Andrew Smith says they’re launching the collection here because of the Brits' more daring approach to fashion. And while the company’s projects are worthy – building schools, aiding reforestation and paying fair wages – it hopes to succeed on its fashionability, says Smith. It’s only when you look closely at the pattern on one of the styish smock dresses that you notice it’s a pattern of stripes and small elephant silhouettes.

See the styles on a video of the show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3JOgg-_qXw

The clothes will be available online at www.wildlifeworks.co.uk -- Jennifer Howze

Green is the new black

Isn't it good to know fashion is finally becoming eco-friendly? For one, the government will be dead pleased, but it also comes as a relief that it can be luxurious too: ethically-minded clothes no longer have to be made of hemp, recycled newspaper or biodegradable apple skins. Thanks in part to the leaders of the field - Katherine Hamnett and Peter Ingwersen of Noir - ethical fashion is getting a huge injection of glamour (Lily Cole modelling one of Hamnett's t-shirts is proof enough). As Ingwerson confirmed yesterday, 70% of his Noir collection for next season is ethically made (he includes fair trade, organic materials, and using leather as a by product under the umbrella term 'ethical clothing'). 'It's time the luxury brands picked up on this - it's no longer about hemp wearers, or granola fashion as it used to be coined, ethical fashion can be luxurious. It's becoming more about corporate social responsibility.' With Esthetica, the area devoted purely to ethical fashion labels at the Natural History Musuem, growing in terms of size and momentum with every season, this is the movement to watch.

Moet name check

Erin O'Connor

So the Moet Room at LFW  saw so many celebs popping in and out for glasses of Moet & Chandon Rose and nibbling plenty of delicious cakes by Alan Yau’s Yauatcha.

The pass to get into the VIP room was a set of Moet keys designed by Brit boy designer Gareth Pugh.
So if you have the key...you have the secret.  Here is who was there......

* Peaches and Pixie Geldof (and entourage, including Peaches and new boyfriend Fred not being able to keep their hands off each other for more than 10 secs at the PPQ show eventhough she was in the first row and he was in the row behind)

* Jackson Scott and NEW girlfriend Benoit Grimes (model in Hamish Morrow show; new face of Burberry S/S 07)

* Donna Air

* Erin O’Connor

* Margo Stilley & friend (who had clearly been up since the ELLE Style Awards on Monday 12th!!!)

* Dan Macmillan & gorgeous girlfriend Astrid Munoz

* Jasmine Guinness

* Jenny Frost (nice t-shirt…?)

* Holly Willoughby

* Kelly Osbourne

* Daisy de Villeneuve

* Lily Cole

* Thandie Newton

* Tamara Beckwith

* Greg & Lucy Rusedski

* Jenni Falconer

* Meredith Ostrom

* JC Chasez (N Sync! – making a comeback???!!!!) ...............the list was endless

Peaches and Fred

Tamara Beckwith

Holly Willoughby

Jackson Scott and new girlfriend Benoit Grimes

Fashionista Anna Piaggi

Bless his little latex socks

He might have sent models down the runway in kinky black plastic Darth Vader style coats, and be the reigning king of ‘gimp chic’ but it seems that Gareth Pugh is a nice boy after all. Someone was overheard after his show saying, ‘Gareth’s not coming to the party until later- he’s going for dinner with his parents.’ Awww. Bless his little latex socks.

Celebrity in display of non-diva behaviour shock

Leah Wood produced the wrong ticket for the Biba show yesterday and was told to leave the queue. Instead of attempting a ‘do you know I am’ (Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood’s daughter, in case you didn’t), she politely stepped aside and waited for the problem to be solved. Once inside she joined Anita Pallenberg, Diane von Furstenberg and Laura Bailey, who was wearing a bright red jumper with a giant Biba logo. Some of us have schedules to remind us which shows to go to…celebrities wear themed clothing.

Jeepers peepers

Backstage at Betty Jackson, the designer’s brief of “early-80s Japan” was translated by MAC’s make-up artists into a dramatic, punky look. Following an illustration that could have come straight out of Just 17 circa 1983, the models were given severe Kohl-rimmed eyes, circles of plum eye shadow, and a glossy, lip-conditioner pout. Jackson described the look by saying, “She’s got attitude, this girl, she’s quite forceful.” You’d have to be to rock this kind of make-up in daylight.

We love you, Jasper

Congratulations, Jasper Conran, not only have you designed a collection so brimming in I-want-that factor that we are already examining the virtues of re-mortgaging, but you also gave us the most civilised show of the week so far. Picture the usual scene: several hundred fashion types are penned into a small waiting area, likes cows to the slaughter, which is followed by a scrum as the doors open, you risk life and death to get in only to find an upstart student sitting in your seat, refusing point blank to move. Bliss it is not. 

So imagine our glee as we are ushered up the ornate staircase at the Royal Academny into a small and civilised room where we are seranaded by the dulcet tones of an orchestral pianist.  We tried tying ourselves to the chairs and refusing to leave after Erin O'Connor closed the show, but alas, all things really must come to an end.

To Marc Jacobs - and step on it!

Favourite accessory of the week: the Taxi Hailer. Sent from God, or at least it feels like it, this tiny piece of electronic excellence is what every woman wants - literally. Think of a car indicator-cum-credit card, you hold it into the air when you are late for a show, drenched from the rain, tired of walking, or just want some male attention and taxi cabs flock in your direction.  A kind of travel beacon - it's not worth visiting Fashion Week without it.

It's getting hairy

When it comes to quotidian beauty rituals, one subject invariably sprouts up: how to get rid of body hair. All women have it, yet most of us spend endless time and money pruning, grooming and whipping it clean off. Facial hair is a particular taboo. Perhaps Shilpa Shetty's finest hour in the Big Brother house wasn't standing up to Jade Goody and her cronies, but rather appearing in front of the nation with her face covered in a layer of facial hair bleach. Most women would prefer not to admit they spend time every three to four weeks bleaching or waxing away their moustaches.

The comedian and self-confessed 'serial body-hair remover' Shazia Mirza (below, right) has just spent three months without depilating from top to toe as part of a BBC Three documentary entitled F*** Off I'm A Hairy Woman. On Monday evening, while silky smooth models stepped out onto runways around the city for London Fashion Week, Mirza staged her very own hairy catwalk event at London’s Café de Paris. "It's a bit of freak show, but it's a nice one." teased Mirza as she invites her hirsute models to the stage.

A melange of  women of differing shapes, size and age and with varying degrees hairyness confidently strutted their stuff, and struck a pose – arms aloft of course so we could get a proper look at those hairy pits. The 90-piece lingerie collection entitled “Her Suit & Cute" is the brainchild of political artist Tracey Moberly who was asked to collaborate on the project. Under Moberly’s tutelage, woven textiles and fashion students from the University of Brighton learned how to spin human hair -  some, cunningly garnered from celebrities including Richard and Judy, Howard Marks, Daisy Asquith and Mark Thomas - into thread. The thread was then incorporated into the weaving process for the garments. “I myself spun over 3.5km of hair for the project! I haven’t used it all yet though.” confesses Moberly. Place your orders now! -- Ronita Dutta

For more information about Tracey Moberly’s work and to see more images from the show visit
www.sanderswood.com. (Pictures here by Claire Rees)

F*** Off I’m A Hairy Woman airs in March as part of BBC Three’s Body Image season.

Julien Madonald (OBE)

Last night the most tanned man in fashion (OBE) took to the stage with a show that promised sequins, crystals, and fur and delivered them in truckloads. But the one thing on Julien Macdonald's (OBE) mind last night when I caught him back stage was not the glittering front row (Margot Stilley on appearance no. 97) nor the prospect of Naomi Campbell's midnight e.t.a. Much more importantly, this was the first outing of his favourite EVER accessory - his own OBE medal. Because if you haven't heard, Julien (OBE) has been appointed OBE. And what is Julien's (OBE) fashion ethos? Fun, glitz and glamour - in an unabashed form 'they'll all be dancing to the Julien Macdonald (OBE) beats', he promised (helped by the GAY soundtrack). And finally, when asked which woman he (OBE) would most like to dress, what do you think was his (OBE) reply? ' Well this woman isn't with us any more unfortuantely, but I would have loved to dress Marilyn Monroe'. I wish he'd said the queen. 

Pure fabulosity: backstage at Julian MacDonald

The backstage area of the Julien MacDonald show at the Hilton Hotel last night was a camp fashionista’s fantasy. In  keeping  with the sequin maestro’s glammed-up tastes, models sat in front of Hollywood-style mirrors having their hair slicked back before being decked out in suitably bling jewels by Middle Eastern designer Azza Fahmy. One of the necklaces was worth £12 millio. Huge trays of model-friendly salmon sashimi and blueberry juice were on tap for the hungry but was anyone in the mood to eat as show organisers screamed into their headsets and dodged their way through rails and rails of fur and sequins? The man himself, in contrast, sporting his OBE with pride, made time to chat with such venerable celebrities as JC Chasez, ex of boyband, NSync. Elsewhere, Peaches Geldof sipped cocktails and Russian wives were overheard swapping makeup tips with drag queens in the loos. When, an hour later than scheduled, the show still hadn't started, the crowd were getting cross, an emotion expressed via tense faces and lots of shuffling around in handbags. Hilton’s guests looked on with a mix of bewilderment and fascination. Five find the courage to ask me for a spare ticket and some sleazier elements also asked for my number. Not sure they were after styling tips though. - Gemma Soames

Celeb watch

At PPQ, Peaches and Pixie Geoldof were front row. Pixie did the rock-chick look, wearing a black mini backless dress while Peaches was sporting a Biba-esque mini dress. Peaches was kissing and cuddling her boyfriend ...she looked really happy to be centre stage at Fashion week.

Tennis player Greg Rudeski and his wife Lucy (and her sister Oona) were font row at Amanda Wakeley too.

You don't look a day over 16

 

British model Olivia Inge on the issues facing models today. For Olivia Inge, it's not so much weight (or lack of it) that's a pressure on modelling in London as age: "Even when I was 22, I remember thinking how old I was compared to most of the girls. A friend of mine - the same age as me - was staying in an apartment here with lots of other models, and they kept calling her grandma." So how old are you now, Olivia? "21," she deadpans. "No, OK, 26. 25."

Trendwatch: Saddlebags?

Hallelujah, the Size Zero furore is officially old news. With a third of London Fashion Week already under our belts, news from the front line is that breasts, bottoms and even tiny saddlebags are back in. Hilary Riva, Chief Executive of the British Fashion Council has so far only spotted two girls she thought were too thin, which considering the number of hipbones we had to endure last season is a considerable breakthrough. Riva, was also celebrating on Monday night because after a long day of shows, the schedule finished only thirty minutes late. Fashion wonders never cease.

Civility alert

Overheard backstage: one model to another "Hey, I saw you in the Moschino campaign. You were so fucking cute" (to Jen Dawson at Premier, pictured). It's not all bitch eat bitch in fashion

Fashion Freckles

A makeup artist draws freckles on a model's shoulders

See - fashion doesn't always have to be bad for you. Top tip: use a couple of different brown kohl eye pencils and smudge lightly. Or face looking like you've stood behind a tractor. As seen backstage at Felder-Felder, devised by Georgina Graham at Camilla Lowther Management.

Nails at Manish Arora

Bored of your black nails? But too grumpy for colour? Andrea Fulerton, British nail technician of the Year 2005 and 2006, created these nails for the Manish Arora show - holographic silver crescents on
top of black nails.

For thirsty fashionistas...

The back to back show schedule (there are on average 15 a day) rarely leaves hurried fashionistas the time to grab a sandwich let alone alone sip a glass of champagne. However, for those who need to escape, the Moet Champagne bar, hidden up in the rafters of the tent at the Natural History Museum, offers some much-needed respite. With cold Champagne and a selection of cakes from Yautcha on tap, it's a world away from the crowds below elbowing their way into the next show. Who ever said fashion week was hard work?

House of Holland vs Mulberry

We get the impression that Henry Holland, the 23-year-old designer of House of Holland, an impromtu fashion label born last season after Gareth Pugh, wore a T-shirt saying, 'Get yer freak on Giles Deacon', has a bee in his bonnet about Mulberry. Nearly all of the models in his first London show, presented today at the Bluebird Cafe on Kings Road, carried bags that made digs at Stuart Vevers, Mulberry's Artistic Director. Calling him a diva in one and claiming he spreads fever in another, we aren't expecting a House of Holland for Mulberry collaboration any time soon.

Tip-top Topshop

First fashion week, next the world. Philip Green may not have had Kate Moss to cuddle up to yesterday at the Topshop Unique show (she’s on holiday, apparently) but he can congratulate himself on making Topshop the hub of fashion week.

Examples if you please:

1) Anyone who logs onto topshop.com can scrutinise, and clearly poke fun at, all the oddballs on show during fashion week via the Best in Show page (and what’s with the allusion to Crufts?)

2) Who needs a dazzling catwalk show when you can already pick up a designer piece in store? New Gen winners Marios Schwab and Christopher Kane (dress at right) have already dropped their ‘for Topshop’ collections, avaliable online today at www.topshop.com

3) Shoppers perusing the website can even enter a competition to design the next Topshop shopper for next season. See the website for details.

Size zero toilets

If it isn't the shows running late, it's the catering, if it's not the catering, it's the seating, if it's not etc.... Sunday's gripe was the cramped nature of the toilet cubicles by the London Fashion Week Marquee. Overheard was the angry comment, 'You could get stuck in these if you were a size 12', and the slightly less delicate, but nevertheless concerned, ' How is anyone fat going to use the loo.' Could this be a subliminal way of making fashionistas feel they should slim down to a size zero?

A hectic run-up to London Fashion Week

Colin McDowell reports:

After a hectic week, I decided to skip the first day of London Fashion Week and have a day of rest to get ready for the next three weeks of fashion shows in London - I'll be covering them from tomorrow - Milan and Paris.

So what was so hectic about last week?

Well for me the highlight was the opening of the Kylie exhibition at the V&A on Tuesday night. Kylie had asked me to introduce her with a little speech as part of the opening ceremony. So I joined the controversy over what should and should not be shown in museums. Most of the criticism of the Kylie exhibition has come from people who have no idea of the truly talismanic quality attached to the clothes of the famous, the sort of people who have an instant negative opinion for any newspaper ready to pay them to express them.

London Fashion Week: who to watch

You can hardly utter the phrase London Fashion Week without the words Marc and Jacobs following closely behind. Hype? That’s an understatement. Just as Armani stole the show in September - with a little help from a shimmying Beyonce - London will raise its kudos stakes again with its second international invasion.

Joining MJ will be the second hottest name on the London list, Nathan Jendon. Nathan who? Well yes, not a name that resonates with familiarity but if I tell you he has been creative director of Diane von Furstenberg for the past five years then, perhaps, the fuss seems a touche more justified.

Team MJ and NJ with some fetishistic, life-sized bunnies (Gareth Pugh), a coterie of size 0 models (someone please introduce them to the merits of chocolate), and Kate Moss’s potential appearance at Topshop Unique (let the countdown begin to the most anticipated collaboration ever) and controversy, hype and oodles of gossip are more guaranteed than rhinestones at Julien Macdonald.

A clever photographer

Hoarse from a week of having to shout over her fellow paparazzi to attract the attention of celebrities, this photographer's novel idea attracted sympathy from the stars. Voiceless, she ended up snapping more celebs than anyone.

Zac Posen backstage

If there is one place hotter than a Zac Posen show it is backstage at a Zac Posen show. Investors, celebrities and hangers-on of all sorts were chowing down on free sushi courtesy of W Hotels, and tossing back as many complimentary cocktails as they were able.

At 8 o'clock, the time when the show was scheduled to start, models were still munching mini-sandwiches (yes, photographic evidence that they do eat) and getting shiatsu massages from a team of professional masseuses.

In the curtained-off hair and make-up section a young brunette was getting the works: a hair stylist cut her locks, a make-up artist painted her face and a manicurist massaged her hands, all at once. Far from a stressed-out teenager about to face the scrutiny of hundreds at one of the biggest shows of the season, she looked like a cat who'd got the cream.

The hair at Posen was impossibly perfect: as the girls traipsed down the runway their manes slipped like silk, pin-straight and blunt-cut. Back in hair and make-up, the reality was much less pretty. To create the illusion, stylists hot-glued locks of human hair to the model's scalps and pinned them down with metal clips and squares of paper that resembled alien antennae.

Flashbulbs heralded the arrival of the man of the hour: not Zac, but Diddy, who strode, fedora-clad, into the backstage area. He took a moment to pose with the demurely dressed Nicole Richie and then underwent an elaborate pantomime with Posen, where the designer feigned showing Combs Polaroids of his clothes, and the rapper feigned interest.

Nicole Richie

The most fun people were two mini-Posens: school-aged cousins of the designer, Nathaniel Moor and Jacob Friedman (below). Nate cracked jokes, while Jake moonwalked down the catwalk. The cheeky chaps revealed they were Posen's unwilling fashion test subjects. "He would make us put on plays, like Rumpelstiltskin, and dress up," groused one. "He said he would give us ten dollars. He never did."

Heatherette

The Heatherette designer duo of Traver Raines (above) and Richie Rich puts on shows with an edge that stand out from many of the other offerings. This year's theme was The Wizard of Oz, complete with yellow brick road and freebie sunglasses that cast “over the rainbow” sparkles on everything. Richie Rich is a club kid, from an age when Studio 54 and androgynous boys on roller-skates ruled the nightlife world. Traver is a former rodeo champion from Montana who got his start designing when he fashioned leather chaps for fellow equestrians. Richie’s posse was out en masse: it encompasses legendary nightlife guru Kenny Kenny and all the people who made 1990s New York the place to be. The cowboy/club-kid compilation produced Heatherette, the show that draws hundreds of wannabes, drag queens and fashionistas to the Bryant Park tents. (The Fug Girls amply describe the chaos for New York magazine) Last year their muse Paris Hilton strutted down the catwalk; this year it was another heiress, Lydia Hearst. She stomped down the runway, a vision in multi-colored appliquéd flowers. Watching her were Russell Simons, Alan Cummings (bottom), starlets from the TV show Laguna Beach, Kelly Roland, J. C. Chasez and Puffy’s girl group Danity Kane, and strutting down the catwalk was Kimora Lee Simons of Baby Phat herself. Also striding along was NYC legendary transgender icon Amanda Lepore - “A Man, Duh” geddit? Amanda (below, blonde with sparkling crown) was dressed as Glinda the Good Witch and a battalion of tiny ballerinas preceded her runway entrance. Magic.

By far the best moment of the show occurred when an arresting male model emerged onto the runway with a wicked smile on his face. As the 18-year-old bloke passed by, it became apparent that his beaming face was due to the fact that his trousers exposed him to the fresh air. His outfit lacked pants, his bum was swinging in the breeze.

 

Flesh and fittings at Morphine Generation

It’s not everyday that someone you met barely half-a-minute prior strips down to their birthday suit in front of you mid conversation. In the Soho loft of PR firm People’s Revolution, amid racks and racks of next season’s must-haves waiting to be unveiled at this week's runway shows, a 16-year-old model, Georgia Frost, did just that. Frost was in the studio (45 minutes late, “because that’s what models do best” sniffed an attendant) to be fitted. While backstage quick-changes are part of the job of modelling at the collections, to the uninitiated, it can be a little startling.

Frost was testing out the looks she was going to be featuring at Morphine Generation’s debut NYC fashion show. While she strutted her stuff around the studio, Morphine Gen’s designer Erik Hart and stylist Frances Tulk Hart (who has styled everyone from Lindsay Lohan to The Killers) sized her up, snapped Polaroids and coordinating shoes and accessories. Frances snipped the fingers off gloves to make the look more “rock and roll.” It was a tribute to the designer’s other love: He’s also a rocker with a record coming out on his own label. He started designing Morphine Generation out of his garage, just like the starting place of any good band. 

The latest from other publications: we read everything so you don't have to

While fashion is not an industry known for its generosity of spirit, this week has seen some particularly shameless displays of Schadenfreude.

• There was a disastrously low celeb count at the Matthew Williamson show, which left New York Mag with only the handbag designer Lulu Guinness to bitch about: apparently her brow is in need of a good Botox-ing.
• The New York Times has also complained about the lack of beautiful people, reporting that with over 200 shows scheduled, designers are struggling to fill seats. Perhaps why Ice-T and his wife Coco have been at so many?
• Britney Spears made an appearance at the trashy Baby Phat show, leading many to fear that her dress sense may be about to take a turn for the worse. Is that possible?
• And Fashionista reports that Karen Elson pulled out of the Marc Jacobs show because she was “ill and exhausted”; she missed a party attended by Lil’ Kim, Mischa Barton, Victoria Beckham and Winona Ryder.

Luella Bartley's hotel showroom

The Bryant Park Hotel faces the tents where the shows take place; it's booked solid this week. Time under the windowless tents in the park - spent alternately drinking the free espressos (there are four stations serving it) or seeing hundreds of catwalk looks - can provoke a kind of fashion-lag. There are photo editors ether-netted in corners who literally do not move for the entire day. It's a bit like a Las Vegas casino, where time floats free from outside influences.

Perhaps because of this, I got off the elevator at the wrong floor and through an ajar hotel door I could see what looked like shop. In room 909 there was a small, artfully presented boutique - the Luella Bartley studio showroom. This is where buyers from top American stores could come after they had seen the looks on the runway and place orders for their stores. The showroom, said the two attendants, lasts four days, and all of the clothing, bags, shoes and accessories are shipped in—in Luella’s case from the UK, but some from as far as Russia or Japan. The makeshift showrooms are clapped together in less than a day. In the Luella suite you couldn’t tell that where there were now displays of metallic-python purses there had once been a bed and telly, but peeping behind a door revealed mountains of boxes and bubble wrap. As well as the staff, a perfectly proportioned flaxen-haired model named Susan is on hand to aid the buyers in visualizing their purchases. - Sarah

Rachel Zoe and the sunglass set at Oscar de la Renta

Perhaps the wealthy are more light-sensitive than the rest of us, because there is no reasonable explanation for the sheer volume of dowagers wearing their gigantic sunglasses inside a dimmed fashion show venue. One woman politely doffed hers upon entering only to replace them with another pair, which I presume are her “indoor” sunglasses. Based on attendees at his show, all of whom were caparisoned in cashmere suits, trussed with strands of pearls and dusted with fur, those interested in becoming Oscar’s clientele might need their own private island to even qualify. Accordingly, every spare edge of his sleek designs was encrusted with the kind of jewels you don’t normally see outside of the Tower of London.

Outside I spotted Rachel Zoe, the former stylist-and-bestie of Nicole Richie. Currently Zoe is in the throes of a vilification campaign against her for her role in encouraging the Somalian physique of her clients. Overhearing her interview with a Style.com reporter, she said she “has loved Oscar for a bazillion years,” which immediately begs responses such as “was that also the last time you had a square meal?” But when I asked to snap her picture I changed my mind. The poor girl said, “as long as you’re not mean.” Me, mean? Never, Rachel. - Sarah

The Jill Stuart collection amid the stacks

Many fashionistas tend to tote around Camilla Morton’s bestseller How to Walk in High Heels or the kind of literature that features big pictures, shiny pages, and little folded-over edges with perfume underneath. So it was a bit unusual to see the city’s best-dressed at the New York Public Library, home of ancient tomes and dusty volumes. Jill Stuart presented her Spring collection here in the arched marble halls. The theme was mod Paris, the dresses mini, the shorts microscopic a la Sienna Miller’s control-top knickers. Also on the mini side were the smattering of male models, which was odd, two of whom were positively dwarfed by the ladies on the catwalk.

The celebrity attendees list was super short: Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child was out and about again, as was J.C. Chasez of N*SYNC, if you can call an out of work former boy band member such. Judging by the paparazzi buzz he generated, my only theory is that they have never heard him sing. -- Sarah

Bling at Tracey Reese

The lead-up to Tracey Reese’s show on Sunday threw us for a loop: Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child perched on a front row seat, R&B madam Alicia Keyes sat right near by, and swag bags contained a craft kit to bedazzle your mobile phone with crystals. All signs pointed to a show heavy on the bootylicious. But what trotted out on the catwalk were classy designs, swing coats and trapeze dresses suited to a modern-day Audrey Hepburn, hardly the type to carry a Swarovski-studded moby. - Sarah

See catwalk pictures of the Tracy Reese show

Dangerous catwalk sculptures

Twinkle was quite chuffed with the large swinging mobile sculptures they hung suspended up and down the catwalk, describing them with relish in their program notes. Less thrilled were the dozens of photographers whose shots were blocked by the sculptures’ pendulums swinging into their pictures like flying saucers. French photographer Antonio Barros told me that this UFOs were nothing compared to birds on strings he has been thwacked with in past shows.

See Twinkle pictures from the catwalk

Charlotte Ronson's collection: not your daddy's rock and roll

Saturday night saw the Times flying downtown from the tents at 42nd street in my free cab (I love you Cotton!), back to clubby, cozy The Box (they still aren’t officially open yet, but apparently they didn’t get the memo) for the presentation of Charlotte Ronson’s latest collection. The designer is the offspring of rock royalty: Daddy is David Bowie’s guitarist Mick Ronson and step-dad is Mick Jones of Foreigner. Her brother Mark is the DJ for whom celebrities like Puff Daddy queue up to book for their birthday parties. But the clothes were about as far from rock and roll as you can get: pretty and girly and lovely, spun out onto The Box’s cabaret stage to the tunes of Lilly Allen and The Kooks.

Guests included The Sopranos’ Drea DeMatteo and R&B chanteuse Eve (above). Either she was moved with emotion or cutting an onion under the table, because Eve was openly crying to her mate on the banquet, artfully daubing her makeup back in place with a corner of tablecloth. Post-show, she opened her gifts of velvet cases of aromatherapy oils and asked, “Is there anything here that relieves stress?”

The next top model at Herchcovitch

Alexandre Herchcovitch never puts on a show, he puts on a spectacle, and audiences never know what to expect. Past years have ranged from troubadours wandering down the aisles trailing the models the bizarre to a gig with the funk band Animal Collective playing center stage as models wandered by. So it was a bit of a surprise when there was no surprise at Herchcovitch at all. It was a straightforward runway promenade; the only twists were wicker hats and the last look, a one piece suit with an open bum. (Wearability factor of 0, unless you are Britney and into that sort of thing.)

Lining up to see the show was a stunning couple, the star of Tyra Banks’ TV show America’s Next Top Model, Kim, and her girlfriend Amy. Seated runway-side amidst the editors and models was a chap who was slightly out of place—Sigmund Freud. No, not the man who brought us cigars and allowed us to blame our mothers, this Siggy was a very hip pooch.

-- Sarah

These men want your clothes

It's currently downtime between shows. Backstage make-up artists and hair stylists are furiously working on models. Chatting in a salad bar, a makeup artist for Alex Roi tells me that they begin work up to three hours in advance and each girl is on the runway for a total of two and a half minutes. Models scrub off the face paint the minute their job is done and rush to their next booking.

While backstage may be a-flutter, it's calm in the front of the house right now, if a little wobbly. Lotus, the elite nightclub who has set up a slick bar under the tents, is lubricating the crowd with its daily offer of free cocktails. A crowd favorite is the “French Martini”, which is vodka, lime juice and a healthy does of Chambord liqueur.

Speaking of Chambord, the spirits company has its own booth here, a complementary coat-check. A free wardrobe to stow your cloak in is not normally worth writing about, but you haven’t seen the coat-checkers. During fashion week even the cloakroom workers are male models. Some ladies seem disappointed that all the lads are taking off them is their coats.

I also spied one attendee catnapping (perhaps having snagged one too many of those free cocktails?) but, a true dedicated follower of fashion, even in her sleep she still managed to clutch her Gucci purse. - Sarah

Britney and bling rings

Saturday’s start was sedate with a thinned crowd presumably recovering from Saturday night’s gold-lamed Baby Phat show, the clothing line produced by Kimmora Lee Simons, formerly music mogul Russell Simmons’ missus. Britney Spears came out for the show, and so did, umm… her left breast. (insert “Oops I did it again” joke here). Guests came dripping in furs that last year brought protesters with lots of angry snarls, but thankfully no paint.

Sparkling rings brightened up the chilled atmosphere under the tents, courtesy of chef-turned-designer Barry Wine, formerly of the illustrious Giraffe restaurant. He was under the tent giving pretty girls his jewels to wear as in vivo advertisements. Since shuttering the restaurant’s doors says the former foodie, “I cook with bling, not butter.” Giraffe is credited with introducing the now ubiquitous “money purse,” a tiny dumpling shaped like a sack of cash. Accordingly, some of Wine’s rings are gold-dipped versions of these nibbles (right), others feature a tiny sterling spoon (above). Another witty bauble is called “I’ve been married before;” It’s a ring made from a tiny lock with 10 engagement rings hanging off of it.

Torpor at BCBG

BCBG Max Azria Friday, Day 1, 3pm
BCBG’s Spring collection might have been good, but it was hard to drag your eyes away from the intentionally stringy hair and wan make-up of the already dissipated looking models. The whole vibe at the show was one of sick-bed torpor, the models — who are customarily poker-faced actually grimaced their way down the catwalk, and the audience barely clapped. Exciting spectating was limited to seeing Donald Trump’s progeny Vanessa and a blinged-out bloke with a diamante-encrusted New York Yankees cap and a dazzling silver-dipped Louis Vuitton. I saw the same cap five seconds later on another, chinchilla-wrapped gentleman. Maybe there was a sale?

-- Sarah

Kim Cattrall and sad goodie bags

Attending to America's most powerful man is a tough job, so it makes sense that his wife, the First Lady of the United States, indulges in a little R&R, soaking up the scene runway-side at the The Heart Truth Red Dress Collection show. Ok, so this show isn’t all flash and glamour (though models such as Sex and the City’s Kim Catrall and singer Rihanna added a gloss of it), it aims to raise awareness about heart disease in women.

Amusingly enough, it nearly sent half the audience into cardiac arrest: After guests had gotten comfy in their seats they suddenly were asked to leave the auditorium—without their purses. With attendees toting handbags worth hundreds, even thousands, of pounds, the prospect of abandoning them so a guard could rifle through them was not the most appealing. But, good citizens all, the audience dispatched themselves from the tent so that Mrs. Bush’s muscle guard could ensure the First Lady’s safety. Health conscious to the end, The Heart Truth’s sad goodie bags contained tea and toothpaste.

More exciting freebies were to be had under the main lobby tent. Ringed with vendors trying to court the style-makers, each mini booth offers some gratis treat for spectators. By far the best was a wine-vending machine, which dispensed booze straight from the bottle with the push of a button. Shipping company DHL offered free espresso for a “quick pick up” (geddit?) and outside pretty girls handed out coupons for free taxi rides courtesy of…Cotton? (I don’t get it)

Strangest sighting: Thus far, it has to be the male model wearing a skirt of mobile phone products. Let's just say no one was checking out the phones.

-- Sarah

Kicking off New York fashion week

In the days before the shows start under the tents in Bryant Park, Manhattan’s hair salons and ubiquitous nail salons (one conservative estimate says there are 338 in this thirteen-mile-long island) are jampacked with people buffing, polishing and highlighting in anticipation of the fashion face-off of the upcoming week. The eyes at New York City Fashion Week aren't only the catwalk

Packed with editors, subeditors, writers and staff of fashion glossies, not to mention buyers and merchandisers of luxury retailers worldwide, the sea of folding chairs are where the latest must-have items, and cutting edge clothes are sported. They speak fashionese and are able to define words like “peplum” (that’s a flounce below the waist) and “aglet” (that’s the plastic bit at the end of a shoelace). They are also the people whose opinions can make or break a designer’s career, and they are the people who determine the trends you will be wearing each season.

It is a universe populated by people who don’t leave home without at least a trio of designer items on their bodies and a bag costing a month’s rent on their arms. These are the men and women who use the hundred pound face creams their magazines hawk.

Seated among their peers under the tents at New York’s Bryant Park where fashion week is held, they are in intense competition for the most stylish and in-the-know; this week they turn up the fashion heat.  Accordingly the spectators break out their Sunday best, they are impossibly beautiful, impeccably groomed and chicly outfitted because it is an essential part of their profession: Like a builder in a hard hat and tool belt, they are in a sense, in uniform, sporting the tools of their trade.

Here's a great FAQ from a former Donna Karan designer about the shows in New York

Also, check out the official New York Fashion Week site

-- Sarah

Backstage at Betty Jackson

Only minutes before her Spring/Summer 2007 collection trotted down the catwalk, Betty Jackson was keen to have her say about the week's favourite topic of conversation - skinny models. "Fashion aside, it really upsets me that there are girls out there suffering from anorexia. At Betty Jackson, we are very conscious to use only healthy models, and if we have suspicions that a girl is too thin, we will telephone their agency to discuss it," she said adamantly.  "They are just young, tall, slim, glossy girls - what else do you expect from models?"