Fashion Week was slightly lackluster. Granted, I saw some beautiful clothes. There was the glamour girl evening wear collection by Carmen Marc Valvo viewed by the reunited Salt and Pepa from the front row. Models sported tightly pulled hair buns and sexy secretary spectacles, ensuring that guys would make passes at these lovely ladies in glasses. And Zang Toi's show-stopping closer, featuring "America's Top Model" winner Dani, included urban ski-wear, downtown chic sportswear in a mix of stripes and patterns, a couture-esque group of evening gowns in stark red and black, and feminine satin silhouettes in black and white. Yet, the biggest celeb I saw in the audience was Rev. Run's baby girl Angela Simmons. How's that for star power?
In fact, reality stars had the run of the tents. That was a treat for a reality TV junkie like me and I got a kick out of seeing Nikki Taylor and the cast of Bravo's "Make Me a Supermodel" (Perry is so dreamy) and meeting models from "America's Next Top Model" and "The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency." But what, no Sienna? Not even one Olsen? Along with the C-list TV personalities were loony Fashion Week fixtures. That is, people too old to to try to wiggle their way to the front of the standing room line and into the tents with the seat assignment guests. It's actually a little depressing to witness such desperation at an age when you'd think women wouldn't need something as superficial as the fashion industry to make them feel special. Lighten up folks, it's just fashion.
Check out my unbiased report on the fall fashion trends for the cool women's lifestyle website, SheKnows.com: Fashion week fall trend report
Fashion Week Fall 2008 got off to a rocky start. It rained. No, it poured on Friday but I was determined to get in my first show of the season. After all, this was the first time I'd officially registered. Oh yeah, I waited in line outside Bryant Park for an hour on Thursday thinking I would beat the credential pickup rush. Wrong. Anyway, back to the rain. I navigated my way through semi-flooded NYC streets to get to Yigal Azrouel's show at some out of the way location on W 21st and 10th Avenue. Bit I was excited because I actually had an invite. I soon learned, however, that an invite doesn't mean squat except that you are guaranteed standing room. Gee thanks, but I got standing room seats in the spring without paying $65 for a press credential. Excuse my crankiness, but it was cold and rainy and I was feeling over Fashion Week before it began.
Once I took my place with the rest of the standees, I had ample time to check out the industrial loft space scenery. Billy Joel's pretty and pretty young wife Katie (she was born in 1981 and the Piano Man was born in 1949, you do the math) was also amongst those without a confirmed seat, so I guess I shouldn't feel too bad. Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley came in and curiously took a seat towards the back.
After about a 25 minute wait, I got a decent seat and enjoyed the show. The clothes were extremely wearable. Layers, earth tones, pinstripes, and pleated school girl mini skirts seem to be trends for Fall. Hot colors include olive, purple, gray, chartreuse, and black.
Friday evening I went to Bryant Park and was finally able to pick up my press credential. With no invite necessary, I got standing room for the packed Nicole Miller show. The bohemian collection was inspired by "a modern day Joan of Arc" and featured a bevy of metallic dresses in gold and silver, hooded capes, and a modern take on "the little black dress." I also popped in an exhibition at the Steinunn showroom where live models wearing creepy yet cool white face paint posed alongside and were at times indistinguishable from mannequins. Next up was "Project Runway" designer Victorya Hong's show at the Altman Building in Chelsea. Plenty of "Runway" cast members past and present were in the front row including first season winner Jay McCarroll and this season's super talented but truly annoying Christian. Hong's Nabe line looked like something you'd find at Macy's -- lots of suiting and separates in black and white -- but so far I hadn't seen anything in terms of presentation or design that really blew me away.
That all changed Saturday night with Alexandre Herchcovitch's show in "The Tent." First off, I'd never seen a show in the big tent. Fashion Week staple and "America's Next Top Model" judge/photog Nigel Barker was in the house. And photographers frantically snapped photos of some downtown "it" girl in the front row. I googled and found out it was Leigh Lezark, but I still don't know why she's famous. Miss USA Rachel Smith also sent bulbs flashing. At first I couldn't place the face, but then I remembered Rachel was on MTV's "Pageant House." No disrespect to the stunning beauty queen, but OMG you have to check out the You Tube clip of her free fall.
Back to the show, where the true stars were Herchcovitch's minimalist collection (see lead photos) and compelling production. The lights dimmed and a recorded voice echoed: "People, all different, sitting in the darkness, all wondering....what is behind that curtain?" Then the models emerged. The techno beat pulsed. Brilliant. I actually got chills. The first half of the Brazilian designer's collection was all black. Black dresses in modern, geometric shapes and a variety of lengths. The second half of the collection showcased flowing sheaths in vibrant colors and bold patterns. The last dress was bright orange, a perfect contrast to the sea of black dresses that opened the show.
My final show of the weekend was Verrier, a "From Russia With Love" meets Upper East side, ladies who lunch collection. I loved the crystal-encrusted, pretty in pink cocktail dresses, but most of the clothes were a bit old-fashioned for my taste. And why the heck did the models have on white bras showing underneath their sheer blouses? (some photos courtesy of nymag.com)
In September I went to Montreal and to my pleasant surprise there's lots of great vintage and secondhand exploring to be done. Here are some photos of me doing what I do best -- shop. Here I am perusing secondhand boutiques called friperies and thrift stores along St. Laurent Blvd (known as the Main) and in the trendy Village-like neighborhood of Mount Royal and checking out church bazaar flea markets. Did someone say jewelry for .25? I was in retail therapy heaven! (photos courtesy of John Carluccio)
Blue Plate Fashion specializes in original cotton prints with embroidery and other East Indian flourishes done in modern silhouettes. You’ve probably purchased a Blue Plate skirt or top at your favorite department store or boutique. But the trendy fashion line is branching out with a couture line just in time for the approaching holiday season.
During New York Fashion Week Spring 2008, I spoke with Seema Anand, Blue Plate's head designer, inside the fashion house's exotic showroom. The gracious designer tells me that the showroom, which has a gorgeous antique swing from India as its centerpiece, is modeled after the colorful and vibrant city of Little Jaipur.
Here are the highlights of our chat:
Question: Tell me about your couture line and what differentiates it from the regular Blue Plate fashion line?
Seema Anand: The regular line is mainly prints and 100 percent cotton and the couture line is satin and embroidery detailed work with crystals. The silhouettes are similar and the only difference is fabric and the embroidery, which makes it more special and slightly more expensive. I don’t see a big difference though. Couture is something you wear in the evening and special occasions but the customer is the same for both lines. The couture line is priced reasonably, even though we call it couture. The line retails from $75- $300. The line is for the holidays and evenings. The contemporary bride could wear the whites and the shorter dresses instead of a traditional gown.
Q: Did you have trends for 2008 in mind?
SA: Silhouettes have to be with what’s happening in the mainstream market. There was a lot of talk about the bubble dress and dresses with an empire waist, so we incorporated that in the line. We used crystals on the chest and neck area to make it special. I remember when we used to do a lot of tulle skirts and one of the magazines used the tulle mini-dress for a prom dress. They took it to the next level because girls were so sick of wearing the basic prom dress and that’s when this trend came about. When you have modern girls who don’t want to look like everyone else, give them modern shapes. And that same thing could be used for other special occasions and weddings. The couture line is for a customer who’s looking for something different and doesn’t want to wear traditional pieces.
Q: Tell me about Blue Plate's accessories line.
SA: There’s a jewelry line and turbans and scarves. The jewelry is handcrafted as well. It’s not very pricey but it’s very special. There’s a lot of bling. It’s great for clubbing and eveningwear because it’s glitzy and has great colors made from Austrian crystals. It retails from $35 - $300. It’s quite unique for the price.
Q: What designers have you been inspired by?
SA: My biggest inspiration has been Jean Paul Gautier. I loved the collection he did with the tattooing that became popular. A lot of his inspiration comes from different cultures and he does a lot with mixed media. Christian Lacroix and Balenciaga do a beautiful job. I also love the way Diane von Furstenberg has come back – it’s fabulous.
Q: What’s next for Blue Plate?
SA: We’re hosting a white and gold party in October to launch our white line of dresses. We want to have our own Blue Plate store within department stores and we are launching a website in India. I spend half of my time in India. The young girls there are starved for fashion. It’s a great time to be there. Everything is new and business is booming. With the accessibility of computers, girls are able to see what’s happening in the fashion and celebrity world. They love American fashion. Q: What’s your advice for up-and-coming fashion designers?
SA: [Fashion is] very glamorous on the surface, but it’s a lot of hard work. You have to bring something new every season. You can’t do a line once and disappear. Keep turning out new work and good designs. And stand behind your [fashion] line.
I got my first taste of New York Fashion Week during the Fall 2008 shows when I scored an actual invite to the Venexiana show. I can't remember much about the clothes (they were nice), but it didn't matter cause I'd made it into the tents, baby. The music was blasting and my adrenaline was pumping as I watched the "yes they really are that thin" models strut on the cat walk. This was better than a rock show. The blistering cold weather and stubborn security guards, however, deterred me from going to more shows. My gutsy fashion gal pals told me to just walk up to the Bryant Park entrance and waltz in. Without an actual invite, I didn't have the nerve.
But the recent Spring 2008 shows were a different story. I guess actually writing about fashion and shopping instead of just obssessing over clothes has given me the confidence to rage ahead into the Full Frontal Fashion frontier. The second day of Fashion Week, I sashayed up the main entrance with a fellow newbie. When asked by a burly gatekeeper if I had an invitation, I calmy replied that I was on the guest list for "fill in the blank" designer's show. Once inside, my new friend and I giggled like school girls. We were in the tents, baby. Then we did what all Fashion Week attendees without an invite to a particular show do and waited in line for standing room tickets. "I'm a freelance writer," I informed the blonde, model-y looking guy with the clipboard who at that moment stood between me and the Terexov show -- my first of the season. "You're lucky my friend is a freelance writer," the charming cad joked and scribbled "S" for standing room on two index cards. Victory was ours.
The rest of Fashion Week was eventful but exhausting. I went to Richard Chai's show and his lovely collection was ruled by shades of silver, ecru, and indigo and plenty of men's inspired cuts for women. I waited in line for more than an hour to get a free pair of Havianas flip-flops, which either makes me way cool or a big loser. On the down side, my standing room requests were rejected a few times, surprisingly for the Met Life Snoopy show and predictably for Michael Kors where I spotted Star Jones and Anna Wintour rushing in.
My most memorable moments were spent at the Style 360 shows in Chelsea's Metropolitan Pavillion. There I attended -- assigned seat and all -- the debut of Alexis Phifer's "Ghita" line. Alexis is engaged to rapper Kanye West and the hip-hop superstar (I know he would love that description considering he is, as he told hilarious shock jock Wendy Williams, "the number one human being in the world") was sitting in the front row with his Mom, proudly watching his girl's rockin' '80s inspired frocks rip the runway. Before the show, Kanye bobbed his head to the DJ spinning Prince's "She's Always in My Hair" (boy did that track take me back) and several cuts from what else but his new album "The Graduate."
Other Style 360 highlights include characters from my favorite reality TV shows: Malan Breton of "Project Runway"' showed a sophisticated collection that climaxed with a darling wedding gown and Loris Diran's ready-to-wear collection was styled by former "America's Next Top Model" judge Nole Marin. A surprisingly masculine-looking Miss Jay Alexander was front and center for that show honey! I also saw smugly handsome photog and ANTM judge Nigel Barker sitting pretty at several shows.
Another notable off-site presentation was "Project Runway"' contestant Zulema Griffin's avant Afrobeat Spring 2008 collection at Chelsea's RushArts Gallery. The collection, "Slave to the Rhythm, Fela's Wives," was inspired by late Afrobeat artist Fela Kuti who had 27 wives. Zulema's largest collection to date features a mix of bold African prints and metallic fabrics.
I can't wait until the Fall 2008 shows. I've made more contacts. Hopefully that means more invites.
Best Fashion Week Freebies: Havianas flip-flops Espresso gelato Baby Phat wallet in hot pink Henri Bendel chocolate bars Karma Champagne- brand new single serve, sparkling wine from California
"You know who you look like?" a woman once asked while I was getting my hair pressed. "Grace Jones." The musky smell of hot hair and Afro Sheen lingered. My tweleve-year-old face sullened. "She thinks I look like that scary lady?" I must have thought to myself. Detecting my dismay, she offered, "I mean that as a compliment." I feigned a smile. When the woman left, my hairdresser, Shirley, told me, "You don't look like Grace Jones. You're prettier than that."
You see, at that age I didn't want to be associated with anyone darker than I already was. Growing up and to this day, the beauty of darker skinned black women is often prefaced with the footnote, "You're pretty for a dark-skinned girl" or the obnoxious cat-call "Hey dark and lovely." I still don't understand what skin color has to do with your degree of beauty. Yet twenty-five years since I was offended that someone thought I looked like Grace Jones (the only real similarity is that we've both been blessed with high cheekbones and dark brown skin), I'm re-discovering and embracing that mad icon of brazen sexuality and avant-garde style. I've been combing vintage stores for a t-shirt with her androygynous image. During a recent trip to a Brooklyn Salvation Army, I was digging in the $1 record crates and found copies of her 1982 "Living My Life" LP and the 12" single of the rhythmically intoxicating single "Slave to the Rhythm."
The sales clerk gave me and the album covers a puzzled double-take. "Isn't that the girl from Conan [the Barbarian]?" I loved Grace as a nocturnal seductress in the campy vampire flick "Vamp," as the crazed Amazonian villain opposite James Bond in "A View to a Kill" and as the comical diva Strangee in "Boomerang," however I didn't immediately recall her from "Conan." But an older man standing next to me did and he proudly told the clerk, "Yes, that's Grace Jones." Weeks later, I'm sitting in the Musee' d'art contemporain de Montreal (the Contemporary Museum of Art in Montreal) watching the uncensored version of Grace's stereotype-riddled (black face, pickinnies, Venus Hotentot), gender-bending high-art-meets-couture fashion video for "Slave to the Rhythm." I'm mesmerized. She is unashamedly black, bold and beautiful. I want to be as fearless in my skin as she is in hers. Ms. Jones is a muse for black girls and self-empowered women everywhere.
What's up with this trend in movies like "I Know Who Killed Me" and "Grindhouse" where strippers become amputees in some kind of freakish scenario and are transformed into crime-solving heroines with rechargeable or gun metal body parts? In the absurdly gross and perhaps intentionally hilarious "I Know Who Killed Me," train wreck starlet Lindsay Lohan's finger falls off after her turn at the pole and her leg mysteriously disconnects during the middle of the night. Sorry if I spoiled any essential plot points for anyone planning to see this stinker, but the good news is it's probably already out of the theaters (it's worth checking out on Netflix though). But on the clear heels of naughty Cupie doll Rose McGowan's stripper with a machine gun leg of gold role in "Grindhouse," I'm starting to wonder if Hollywood honchos are fulfilling some sort of sadistic fantasy.
At least in NBC's revival of the "Bionic Woman -- airing September 26 at 9 p.m. -- the new and improved Jamie Summers will kick butt with her clothes on. And for a classic dancing girl's tale, nothing can beat the campy genius of "Showgirls." Elizabeth Berkley does beat a guy down with her spiky, thigh-high boots, but the only thing fake about Nomi were her fire-engine red Lee press-ons and strained blonde ponytail extension.
Not even a torrential downpour could stop trendy and eco-friendly New Yorkers from getting their fashion fix. Thousands. Yes, thousands of drenched customers waited on line a few weeks ago – some overnight -- outside of the Whole Foods supermarket in the East Village for the chance to grab one of award-winning accessories’ designer Anya Hindmarch’s oh-so-trendy “I’m Not a Plastic Bag” canvas totes, which sold out in a few hours at her Soho boutique in June. Thank goodness for my press credentials or I would have been standing in the rain with the rest of the fashion-crazed masses.
Some of the patrons I chatted with seemed sincerely interested in doing their part to save the planet by reducing the use of plastic bags, while others were design students and borderline Hindmarch stalkers. But my hunch is that many of the drenched fad followers waiting in line, which was curiously overrun with young Asian men, were eagerly snatching up the hot $15 bag (limit 3 per customer) to flip it on Ebay where it’s selling for up to $300. Whatever the bag seeker’s motivation, Hindmarch thinks the recycling message is still loud and clear.
Despite her good intentions, however, the designer has received her share of backlash. The most attention grabbing take on Hindmarch’s bag is fellow Brit designer Marissa Vanderzee’s cheeky “I’m NOT a smug twat” bag ($41 U.S.). On Vanderzee's website she says her bag “is a reaction to the it-bag phenomenon, a reaction to the faddishness of fashion...and it helps you avoid using plastic bags!”
Whatever your bag is, there are plenty of styles to choose from, including Whole Foods’ large “Honey” carry all for only a buck. Happy shopping!
Check me out in New York Magazine: Tracy at Swap-O-Rama! The writer approached me because I had so many darn bags. I know before I venture to a swap that I'm gonna leave with more than I came with, but I really outdid myself at the Swap-O-Rama in April. Since then, I've been to countless swaps, including the recent, hot-and-sticky Thrift On! on the Botanica Bar in the East Village.
And swaps aren't the only place to find cool clothes for free. Take a look at the above photos to see a couple great garments I found on the street. Wow, I really am a bag lady, huh?
I found the long, vintage plaid skirt after an abandoned stoop sale in downtown Brooklyn. It had the $40 price tag from Ollie's -- a vintage store in Carroll Gardens -- still attached. And the unique, checker and flower print dress...well... I grabbed that sucker from under a fence in Clinton Hill. No, I'm not kidding. I'm serious about my freebies and that fence wasn't going to come between me and a cool dress. Remember, only suckers pay retail!
These are a few of the priceless, '60s frocks I found at Beacon's Closet (photos below), the notorious Brooklyn consignment shop where you can buy, sell, and trade for clothing and accessories. If you've been turned off by the sometimes snooty attitude of Beacon's hipster employees, don't let that stop you from getting your thrift on. After all, having Beacon's turn down the bags of what you thought were pretty cool clothes that you lugged from your not-so-close abode, is like a fearless shopper's right of passage. And the more you become familar with Beacon's style, the luckier you'll be. My last trip, I got credit for $95!
The Park Slope store (220 5th Ave.; 718-230-1630) has a reliable mix of contemporary pieces from H&M, Forever 21, and other fashionable outlets and one-of-a-kind vintage pieces. At the Williamsburg store (88 N. 11th St.; 718-486-0816) -- where I traded several pair of too-skinny, skinny jeans I got on FreeCycle and scored my first and only Coach bag -- leans more towards vintage and designer apparel.
Now I have my own Vintage Store on Etsy, Tracy's Pop & Shop Too, where you can purchase two of the dresses pictured (not the black multi-color dress from Paris because it's one of my favorites).
