Fashion Archives

New York, November 9, 2009 – Glamour magazine’s 2009 Women of the Year Awards were as thrilling as ever, honoring distinguished women like Maya Angelou, Amy Poehler, Stella McCartney, Rihanna, Maria Shriver and Michelle Obama.  Presenters included Bill Clinton, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.  Each speech was more moving than the last, and comic Amy Poehler had everyone laughing, but Tyra Banks took the cake when she introduced tennis great Serena Williams with the following anecdote:

“A couple of days ago I went to the Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum here in New York City.  So I’m walking around, checking everything out and this one figure caught my eye; and I know the real person and have even broken bread with her before, but I never really felt comfortable enough to, like, really just, like, stare at her and, like, admire her strong biceps.  And, like, I wanted to grab her biceps when I was at dinner with her, and I wanted to just kind of like pull her dress up and really, you know, get a close up of those amazingly taut legs and…the booty.  You know, I wanted to…really, like, damn, mine are nowhere near that toned!  And of course I wasn’t going to touch her at dinner, but here I am at the Wax Museum.  So my dream came true: I started to squeeze the biceps and squeeze the legs and squeeze the booty, and I was, like, oh my god, I was in heaven!  And then these little girls actually came up to me, and they were like, ‘Tyra, what are you doing?’  They were like, you’re so not cool, you’re not supposed to be touching the exhibit.  And I was, like, you guys, I can’t help it.  This woman is so amazing, and she’s so powerful, I cannot help myself.”  

New York, October 22, 2009 – Fashion Group International’s annual Night of Stars gala lived up to its title, as usual, with a bevy of A-listers from the worlds of fashion and Hollywood at the awards dinner, this year honoring "The Storytellers."

Gwen Stefani, Michael Stipe and Jon Bon Jovi were among those who presented awards to fashion luminaries like Kenneth Cole, Diesel’s Renzo Ross and Coty’s Catherine Walsh.  Dita Von Teese wore a glittering hat designed by Stephen Jones, one of the evening’s honorees.  Mary J. Blige and James Franco presented Gucci’s Frida Giannini with an award.  Blige gushed that Giannini had accompanied her earlier that day when she opened her first Mary J. Blige Center for Women in her hometown of Yonkers, NY. 

Legendary Oscar de la Renta received the Superstar award from Vogue’s Grace Coddington and Hamish Bowles, and the Bravo channel was honored as a “fashion oracle.” 

Also floating around Cipriani Wall Street at the gala were Iman, Evan Rachel Wood, Vera Wang, Tommy Hilfiger, Emmy Rossum, Michael Kors and Eva Mendes, who stopped by briefly on her way to the National Design Awards uptown.

With Caroline Torem Craig

New York, October 19, 2009 – Donatella Versace sponsored the Whitney Gala for the second year in a row, and we absolutely swooned when she walked in with Jet Li as her date!  Is there a more fabulous couple?  Li explained that the two found common ground while working to aid victims of the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, China.  “So this time we asked [hundreds of] children to draw a picture, and Versace put the pictures on bags and sells them, and the money comes back to Sichuan to help the children again,” LI explained.  “So we have a long relationship in helping people.”

But the fashion queen and movie king were but two of the A-list names at the gala.  Jennifer Hudson sang for a crowd that included Shakira, Gerard Butler, Mischa Barton, Chuck Close, Jeff Koons and Ellsworth Kelly.  A dance party followed the dinner - Taylor Momsen took a turn in the DJ booth – and as the evening wore on, the guest list swelled. 

Lindsay Lohan swooped in, and spent ten chaotic minutes marching back and forth across the museum lobby, trying to figure out where to check her coat and how to get downstairs to the party on the lower level.  Late in the evening, we realized that the mustachioed gentleman standing near us was none other than 007 himself, Daniel Craig. 

With Luisa Johns

New York, October 19, 2009 – Rag & Bone opened their third New York shop, at 119 Mercer Street in Soho, with a party on Monday.  The label’s designers Marcus Wainwright and David Neville hosted a gang of fashion types like GQ’s Jim Nelson and Jim Moore, as well as friends like Sienna Miller, who knows the guys from way back and has attended their runway shows.  Miller is staying in New York at this time, rehearsing for her Broadway run in After Miss Julie, which opens this week.

Photo: Caroline Torem Craig

New York, September 10-17 – We were totally immersed in Fashion Week, reporting for New York magazine.  And what a week it was, beginning with the circus-like fun of Anna Wintour’s brilliant Fashion’s Night Out, where we roamed Barney’s, Bergdorf’s and Saks for hours before popping in to Oscar de la Renta’s Madison Avenue boutique for his sing-along with Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler and Barbara Walters.  Genius.  Diane Von Furstenberg proclaimed FNO a national holiday!

We chatted with Kanye West’s elusive muse Amber Rose.  Tim Gunn told us what he thinks about Ungaro’s hiring of Linday Lohan in an advisory role.  We witnessed Marc Jacobs’s awe-inspiring show, and Lady Gaga’s excellent performance at his after party. 

Narciso Rodriguez had the lovely Jessica Alba and the hilarious Courtney Love in his front row, and late-late at his party at Rose Bar, we bumped into his pals Cindy Sherman and David Byrne. 

Even Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman was amazed that her partner, Keren Craig, made it to their presentation just two days after giving birth!

At Calvin Klein, the beautiful Eva Mendes sat next to Jamie Dornan, the male model with whom she made those racy, oily ads.  Thandie Newton and Rose Byrne also graced Calvin Klein, and we talked poop with The Beautiful Life stars Sara Paxton and Nico Tortorella at the after party. 

Tommy Hilfiger scored the star of the week with the lovely Taylor Swift in his front row just days after she was infamously victimized by Kanye West at the VMAs.  It is interesting that Fashion Week opened with FNO’s hopeful nod to retailers, and Hilfiger closed the week with a star-studded party to launch his new Fifth Avenue store.  Could recession-wracked retail be coming back to life?

Photos: Caroline Torem Craig