Sunday, September 7, 2008

Sunday in the Park With...


All the girls, J.Lo, Venus, Leighton, Rachel, Eva, Anna and Tim. Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, has morphed from seven days to nine and the fashion glitterati were all, at Bryant Park yesterday.

My dear friends, Peter and Linda Levy, graciously hosted me at the IMG and MB hospitality suites. The afternoon ended with a trip to the Amex Skybox, where Venus held fashion court and chatted with reporters about her burgeoning biz. In between, we caught the Herve Leger and Diane Von Furstenberg shows. I somehow forgot to factor lunch into my day, so I may have hallucinated those angels with harps...Either way, this is my idea of heaven!!!

I don't care how jaded you are, if you are there, it's a blast! The shows never start on time, and if crowds make you anxious, pop a Xanax, or watch it at home, on Full Frontal Fashion. The people watching is fab and when the house lights come up, I have to force myself to focus on the clothes instead of whose in the front row.

The first show we saw was Herve Leger by Max Azria. The real Herve Leger, best known for his "bandage dress" silhouettes from the early 90's, no longer owns the right to his name. He gave that up, when his fashion company, was bought by BCBGMAXAZRIAGROP, in 1998. In the last few years, vintage Leger dresses were showing up on fashionable, media darlings. Max Azria re-launched the label, and is now producing his own versions of the iconic, bandage dress. They are already having a moment and at about 2/3 of the original price, the new Leger's will wrap themselves around a lot more bodies, than ever before.

The most striking thing about the show, was the models. I have never seen thinner girls on the catwalk, EVER!!! These women made Kate Moss, in the grunge years, look like Kirstie Allie. If you shot a cannonball between their thighs, no skin would have been grazed. We are talking women whose weight is measured in double digits!!! The looks were not particularly memorable, and for a strictly one note collection, (literally, 34 bandage looks), it was oddly disjointed, with no unifying pallette. The buzz here, was the bones.

I met Herve Leger, in Paris, when he was designing for Guy Laroche. Since he did not have the right to use his name, he was called Herve LEROUX, (a nod to his reddish hair). His clothes for Guy Laroche, took advantage of his magnificent use of jersey and his spectacular eye, for dressing a woman's body, to it's best advantage. I still love the cocktail dress that I own from his 2005, Fall collection. What's left of his red hair, must be up in flames over BCBG winning fame and accolades over the look he created. Herve Leger is a genius...I hope this stokes his creative fire, and inspires him to bring us a new look, all his own...again.

I had high hopes for the DVF show. I like her work and loved her Fall collection. Her inspiration this season was Diana Vreeland and she named it Rock Goddess. The cover of her line list was a gorgeous print of orange, magenta, marigold and iris and white. How could it miss???

The whole collection looked like something, Kate Hudson, Rachel Zoe and those wascally Olsen twins, would wear to dinner in St. Barts. You can usually count on DVF, to produce great clothes, that could be worn to work, daytime, for example, but not here. So, if you happen to be the Hostess at Dune in Southampton, look no further...DVF has you covered (and if you don't mind showing a little bootie, pick up a few Herve Leger's).

That's all.

xox,
Dd

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