Fashion Week in the rain is a pain in the ass.
It's all fine until you have to schlep to a gallery in Chelsea, which seems to be happening in the middle of every day. The increasingly sprawling geography of the show schedule loses a lot of charm even in a drizzle.
We've also started to drop shows. Sorry, Cynthia Steffe. We think you are swell, but 9 AM after Fashion's Night Out was more than we could handle, so we began our day at Yigal Azrouël. The handsome designer has been getting the wrong kind of press ever since his last show in a flap with his former PR firm and the ex-Governor's whore. Then came Katie Lee Joel. Who can remember the clothes?
It's too bad because he sent out another strong collection that remixed his signature rough-edged style with shorter, more body conscious silhouettes. Azrouël mixed his menswear line in the show as well, and aside from a few pieces that verged on pajamas, it looked wearable and smart. Since there were no uninvited quasi-celebrities this season, perhaps things will go better for him. We sat behind Entourage's Emanuelle Chriqui who wore draped leopard print, and we would love to know what was in the "Gift Box" on the seats of the first two rows. Next it was on to Twinkle, where designer Wenlan Chia offered clever new twists on her inventive knits and prints. One pattern distinctly recalled a Uniqlo shopping bag with a Pac Man pattern, which could be taken the wrong way by someone who doesn't know how we feel about Uniqlo. Here, Reshma Shetty from "Royal Pains" and a second string Gossip Girl passed for big celebrities. Also, there was a Real Housewife, because it's not a fashion show without one of those gals tenaciously riding her fame for however long it lasts.
After a break it was back to the Big Tent at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week for Monarchy (which is apparently now known as Monarchy by Eric Kim). Honestly, this collection flummoxes us. It seems like a nice, solid contemporary line which is not really knock-em-dead runway fare in our book. Clearly the cheers from the audience prove otherwise, and the label, which seems to have survived the Hartmarx bankruptcy turmoil, managed to land a next generation 90210-er (Annalynne McCord) a Twilighter (Kellan Lutz), a "True Blood" star (Rutina Wesley), a Hero (James Kyson Lee) and a shrill former Supermodel (Janice Dickinson) to add glamor to the proceedings.
We finally broke out of the Contemporary box clear across town at Loden Dager in West Chelsea. Once we finally got there, the airy gallery space made for a delightful setting, and since we barely arrived in time, we snagged a front row seat. Never mind that there were actually only two rows. Here's hoping that the Times' Guy Trebay skips more shows. This season, the guys have taken a few steps away from their signature classics in favor of some computer prints, bright colors and shiny nylon windbreaker fabrics. If it didn't always work, we can give the Loden Dager team credit for sensing that the current craze for hyper-authentic, vintage style menswear may be cresting, and it's time to look ahead to new things, even if back buttoning Bermuda shorts may be a roundabout path to the future. And yes, that's actor Anthony Edwards below in the front row.
With a extra hour until our next event, we found ourselves killing time at Jeffrey, where we ran into our great friend Kanye West. Okay, we're not really friends, and we only almost bumped into him, but we were there in the same place at the same time, which is all that matters. We can report that West shops in a surprisingly low-key, entourage-free manner. Also his hair is now etched in a geometric, Keith Haring-ish pattern.
Next up was Generra, also preparing their store opening party tonight. It was a breezy presentation with boys on one side and girls on the other. New designer Swaim Hutson, of the much loved but now defunct Obedient Sons and Daughters, has a good handle on how to inject more fashion into the sportswear label without killing its easy charm. We're not entirely sure how the sleeveless blazer with matching shorts will go over, but otherwise things looked good. Hutson also ordered plates piled with tasty macaroons (whose source we are still trying to determine) for guests to eat while waiting for the models to appear, and we're not telling how many we had.
Honestly, we might have skipped the Arise African Promise Collective show if we hadn't remembered how much fun it was last season. The energy didn't quite match it this season, possibly due a 45 minute late start and a lack of Grace Jones in the show, but this show continues to defy Fashion Week logic, gleefully doing all sorts of things that simply aren't done, like playing pounding dance music, letting models smile and milking the audience for applause. Returning designer Tiffany Amber was joined by David Tlale, Eric Raisina and Jewels by Lisa, all based in Africa. As usual, the most prominent black models working (Chanel Iman, Arlenis and our fave, Sessilee Lopez) were joined by some other highly in-demand and often hard to book runway stars like Freja Beha Erichsen, Iris Strubegger, Alana Zimmer and even Coco Rocha. It was still a brisk, highly produced show once it started with a high-tech jumbotron-style backdrop and a pre-show laser display. Even if not every participant was quite ready for the heavy hitter U.S. retailers, it was refreshing to see the kind of devil-may-care flamboyance that most designers have been shying away from lately, including some eye-popping beaded dresses from Jewels by Lisa.
Next, our schedule sent us back downtown to Generra's store opening party on Washington Street, but our actual feet sent us home. Our apologies to Generra. We peeked at the shop earlier in the day, and it looked like a winner, and we probably passed up a decent gift bag, but when you have hit the wall, you have to bow out gracefully.
The Macaroons at Generra came from MacarOn
161 West 36th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Broadway. Yum!
Posted by: MK | September 12, 2009 at 06:22 PM