|
All news is attributed to the source from which it was received so that readers may judge the validity of the statements for themselves.
Have Joan Jett news to report? Email us at jettfc@aol.com, and please include the source of the information so it can be validated.
Underneath it all during Fashion Week
from: USATODAY.com
by Olivia Barker, USA TODAY
Part trade show, part social event and part marketing blitz, New York's Fashion Week is up and strutting. (Related photo gallery: Go behind the scenes at Fashion Week)
With an eye toward people rather than clothes, USA TODAY reporter Olivia Barker and photographer Robert Deutsch spent a day poking around the tents at Bryant Park, navigating the backstage thicket of blow-dryer-wielding stylists, pole-like models and headset-wearing publicists and sizing up the scene along the catwalks.
Johnson, Herrera do it differently
Betsey Johnson is to Carolina Herrera what a misfit is to a debutante — when it comes to the designers' clothes, personal aesthetics and, as a tour of the Monday shows revealed, behind-the-curtain shenanigans.
Backstage at Betsey, Johnson's trademark prom-dress-on-acid look — an only-Betsey alchemy of corsetry and crinoline — was on full display. The balcony of Irving Plaza became a bar-cum-dressing room: Chandeliers draped with fringed lampshades hung from the ceiling, while gilded mirrors and black-and-white photos of rock icons such as Debbie Harry and Billy Idol lined the red walls. (Located about two miles south of Bryant Park, Irving Plaza is typically a concert venue.) As JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS' I Love Rock and Roll pumped out of the stereo, stylists molded models' manes into Mohawks and smeared on streaks of fuchsia and orange face paint. Amid the hairspray bottles and eye-shadow palettes littering the tables lay overturned plastic champagne flutes.
"Grab a beer and enjoy it!" Johnson shouted.
At Herrera's Bryant Park backstage, however, there was room to lounge. Models sat cross-legged on the floor, smoking and poring over The Daily, Fashion Week's quotidian rag. Herrera discreetly powdered her face and reapplied her lipstick in the corner of the room. Her frocks, fur-trimmed and ladylike, hung neatly on racks.
The scene also was relatively sedate elsewhere at Bryant Park, among the flirty ruffled gowns at Oscar de la Renta. The designer, dapper in a charcoal pinstripe suit, held court with fashion heavyweights, some literal, like Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley, who wrapped his impressive girth in a long brown fur stole, draped over a Juicy Couture tracksuit.
At Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta, dressers wore safety pins on their lapels for easy access; at Betsey Johnson, they wore them in their ears.
The hubbub was muted at Herrera, but maybe that's because the designer is anticipating something else: her daughter Patricia Lansing 's baby. "I'm due today," said Lansing, who works as a designer for her mother. "I really shouldn't be here."
The spotlight's on... Anna Nicole?
Yes, Laura Bush made an unprecedented first-lady appearance at the tents, promoting her awareness campaign on heart disease. Still, the celebrity wattage was relatively low on Monday by Fashion Week standards. (Regulars blamed the Grammy telecast the night before for siphoning off A-listers.)
Katie Holmes was a no-show at Carolina Herrera, and at Oscar de la Renta, Billy Joel and Barbara Walters were about as bold-faced as it got. At Badgley Mischka, paparazzi lights and lenses were turned toward Mariska Hargitay and accidental stars such as Nicky Hilton. Also earning front-row status and the attention of TV cameras: Carson Kressley. As photographers scrambled for a shot of the Fab Five frontman, one ticket holder muttered, "All this for Carson?"
So it's no real surprise that Anna Nicole Smith could steal the show. She shimmied into the Betsey Johnson event, her towering blond curls, persimmon-stained lips and newly svelte self an irresistibly campy magnet even for seasoned fashion folk. Sex and the City stylist Patricia Field snapped away with her point-and-shoot; Suzy Menkes, grande dame of The International Herald Tribune's fashion page, clicked away with a disposable camera. Even Ellen Von Unwerth, whose work is more Vogue than Star, joined the hive of paparazzi swarming around The Anna Nicole Show star.
"She's baaack!" sang a chorus of show attendees. It's the tagline for Smith's latest incarnation as the pitchwoman for TrimSpa, the caffeine-spiked weight-loss pill that's responsible for slimming Smith down. (The company says that when taken a half-hour before meals, the drug curbs cravings courtesy of something called Hoodia cactus.) Smith is not revealing exactly how many pounds were shed until an E! special Feb. 22, although The New York Post reported on Tuesday that she's a size 10. The former Guess girl sashays down the Heatherette runway on Thursday.
|
| |
This Week:
No shows scheduled this week.
Click on the LIVE DATES link for upcoming shows |
Item Of The Month:
|
