September 12 - 19 – Once the runway had been cleared of air-kissing editors and paparazzi before the Kenneth Cole show, the first of New York’s Spring/Summer 2004 Fashion Week, we found ourselves sitting directly across from Robert Redford, his Horse Whisperer costar Scarlett Johansson, Stanley Tucci and Edie Falco (both obliviously chomping on gum) and Andrew Cuomo.

The downtown crowd was awake and in midtown(!) early on Saturday morning for As Four. Chloe Sevigny tried to remain aloof and keep a straight face for the slew of photographers surrounding her, until our eyes met, and we both burst out laughing.
Beyonce Knowles was this season’s A-list star, in the front row at five shows. Naomi Campbell modeling bathing suits drew Beyonce and boyfriend Jay-Z, Anthony Kiedis, Toni Braxton, Venus Williams, Wyclef Jean, Pharrell Williams, Salman Rushdie and live-in love, model Padma Lakshmi to Brazilian swimwear company Rosa Cha’s sexy show. The same crowd, plus a thousand or so, attended the madhouse that is Baby Phat later that evening. (Sad note: Late that night, tennis star Venus Williams' sister, Yetunde Price, was murdered in California. Venus had been scheduled to model for Diane Von Furstenberg the next day.)

Backstage at Luca Luca, we ignored the pop stars and quizzed Rushdie about his recent interest in fashion. “I’m getting interested. I’ve been living for four years now with somebody who knows everything about it. So I’m getting an education.” Why have we seen him repeatedly at Luca Luca? “Luca [Orlandi] is a good friend of ours. And we love his clothes. That was a particularly good collection, I thought.” Expecting exquisite bitchiness from Queer Eye’s fashion maven Carson Kressley, we got sweetness instead: “This was the first show I’ve seen. It was beautiful, right? Love to love you, Luca Luca.”

Indie film actress Natasha Lyonne won our hearts, showing up late to Imitation of Christ, cigarette in hand, wearing a short black dress, scarf around her hair, never removing her Jackie O-style sunglasses. IOC, famous for their fashion show-as-performance-art extravaganzas, put on a comparatively low-key production this season, beginning with a long (and not very good) tap dance routine. Perhaps we’ve always been too distracted by all the theatrics, but we noticed something new at the IOC show – great clothes.