Arise Magazine and Thisday collaborated on the African Fashion Collective, featuring four designers and mostly models of colour. I was surprised to see upon entering the Promenade tent that many of the RSVP’d guests hadn’t shown up, so all of the standees ended up getting seated in their place. This, despite rumours that Tyson Beckford and Naomi Campbell might be walking the runway for this show…
The XULY.Bët show began with a black and white video of Grace Jones singing about eating flesh and other bizarre cannibalistic (but sexy) notions. Kris describes the vid as animatronic, robotic talking-head, as Jones’ head was all warpy and warbled.
Canadian model and runway coach Stacey McKenzie, who was a guest judge on Canada’s Next Top Model recently, appeared in the show (thanks to Trevor Ellestad for identifying the photo for us!):
The audience went wild when these two showed up…Alek Wek and Tyson Beckford:
And even wilder when Grace Jones took to the runway:
(apologies, no images for this show. Check out style.com for highlights)
The first show of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York was most certainly a memorable one. Having just dropped our bags off at the hotel, we arrived at the tents at Bryant Park just before 10am, which is when the Red Dress Collection show was scheduled to begin.
We managed to check-in fairly quickly and dashed inside the tents, press passes valiantly hinged around our necks. You didn’t know where to look first – the entrance was flanked by two Mercedes-Benz cars, and directly ahead a fountain had been transformed into a Barbie display for the doll’s 50th anniversary. To the left is a press lounge with tables and a cafe, and to the right some booths belonging to sponsors.
And then there were the people – some dressed up, some dressed down, nothing really beyond what you’d see at any other fashion event really. Over-the-top was balanced by uber-casual with every other notch in between accounted for as well. Everyone looks incredibly serious.
The audience filed into the main tent and it was nice to see a large portion of the audience wearing red. Lights dimmed and Tim Gunn of Project Runway appeared to introduce the show. The Red Dress is the symbol for The Heart Truth, a national awareness campaign designed to educate women about heart disease and what they can do to lower their risk. The Red Dress show debuted at New York Fashion Week in 2003 and sends celebrities down the catwalk wearing designer dresses in lieu of models.
Amanda Bynes in Daniel Swarovski
Jennie Garth in Badgley Mischka – she was all smiles
Tori Spelling in Betsey Johnson – she was practically bouncing down the runway. loved the dress.
Vivica A Fox in Jenny Packam – dress was ok, but Viv friggin’ worked that runway, and it may not look it on TV but that woman has some curves.
Lynda Carter in Carolina Herrera
Daisy Fuentes in Pamella Roland
Kristi Yamaguchi in Vera Wang
Natasha Henstridge in Verrier
Nia Long in Tracy Reese
Brittany Snow in Marchesa
Nastia Liukin in Max Azria
Valerie Bertinelli in Christian Siriano
Amanda Beard in Cushnie et Ochs
Patricia Arquette in Nicole Miller – the cab we took from the airport had this little spot about Patricia and her stab at directing so it was cool to see her like an hour later on the runway.
Samantha Harris in David Meister
Cicely Tyson in B. Michael – crowd pleaser! waltzed down that runway in such a theatrical manner.
Jane Kaczmarek in Michael Kors – was one of my absolute favourites, this woman seems like a riot and her dress looked fabulous.
Susan Lucci in Gustavo Cadile
Hilary Duff in Donna Karan – she looked uncomfortable, which I found a bit shocking as she is on stage all the time.
Katie Couric in Carmen Marc Valvo – didn’t quite know what to do with her hands at first but figured it out pretty quickly.
The thing I noticed (and appreciated) most is that all of these women became so real when they came down that runway. None had a perfect body, their hair got stuck in their lipgloss, they warbled on their heels, some seemed quite nervous – it was great to see some normalcy on the runways for once!
Christian Siriano and Miss J (who looked surprisingly…manly) were spotted in the front row facing me. Who knows who was on my side!
The 51st Annual Grammy Awards went down yesterday in Los Angeles and while the women’s fashions were largely disappointing, men managed to save the day with sharp suits and bold dashes of colour.
Women who made headlines for their sartorial choices included teens Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, who were on a ‘date’ that night and opted to wear similar long black dresses. Gowns by Lebanese designer Basil Soda appeared on Katy Perry, who wore a tight pink number with an elaborate bow detailing on the front, and Paula Abdul, whose bright yellow dress was decorated with metallic elements around the shoulder and waistline. Definitely…unique.
Yet another rumour out of the celebrity designer mill, this time concerning troubled singer Amy Winehouse and a possible collaboration with designer Fred Perry:
According to the tabloids, the Rehab singer let slip during a festive holiday that she is currently in negotiations with iconic British label Fred Perry and has already started sketching out a few of her ideas.
My jaw dropped at first, too, but could Winehouse actually have something valuable to contribute to the fashion world? A number of people seem to think so: Karl Lagerfeld built upon the Winehouse style for the Paris-Londres Metiers d’Art Chanel collection in 2007; cobbler Jonathan Kelsey crafted the ‘Amy’ stiletto in her name; and Roberto Cavalli declared the singer a fashion icon due to her unique look. Um, yeah…a 2-foot high beehive is unique, that’s for certain.
Let’s just hope the Winehouse coiff doesn’t become one of the emblematic features of this forthcoming collection.
