Written and photographed by Lisa Klein. Story sponsored by Total Health Physical Therapy.
DAY 1: WE EAT FASHION – PART 2
The next show was Pamela Roland in Avery Fischer Hall. It was similar to a box presentation but what she did was have only a few models out at a time, for about 10 minutes for each set. The models were gorgeous and the clothes, mostly evening wear, were spectacular. The woman next to me was taking pictures with her iPad, which had not even occurred to me, having just been given one a few days earlier (thank you Jim and Marina!) I whipped out my iPad and decided to ignore the fact that I felt like a total dork holding up a tablet and taking pictures with it. The pictures really are great and having the iPad made it much easier to score a good shot (it is fairly large considering the space you are in and it’s very easy to hit people with it, accidentally or on purpose, to get the shot you want.) I loved this show and the space that it was in; very beautiful with a great view of the entrance to Lincoln Center. I’m realizing I have a thing for evening wear.
I stayed until the end of the Pamela Roland show and it was now 4:30 and I realize I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. I am officially on the Fashion Week diet. I head over to the Fashion Cafe for a much appreciated roast beef sandwich and end up running into the fabulous Walter Grio. It’s so great to see a familiar face. We end up sharing a table with a talkative older lady named Sally White from Atlanta. It turns out she has been attending Fashion Week for the last twenty five years. She was at every single show I went to from that moment onward. I have no idea how she did it; I had just gone to 3 shows and I was already exhausted; she must have been in her 70’s. She gave me a lecture on the history of Fashion Week, her career in fashion (opening stores all over the country for Neiman Marcus,) and on textiles. That part was actually the most fascinating; she started out as a chemist for Dupont when they were first starting to manufacture man-made textiles. Who knew that for a long time the only option pretty much was cotton? Anyway, my next show wasn’t until 9 and Walter was off shooting his next show, so I ended up grabbing drinks back at the Hudson with the lovely Anastasia Lambrou. Anastasia now has her own fashion site, Dernier Cris (do not call it Derriere Cris, which was the mistake I kept making.) We grabbed drinks and rested our feet (even in flats there is so much standing it was challenging.) At 8pm we headed back to Lincoln Center for my last show of the evening, Parkchoonmoo.
At night, Lincoln Center is even more magical than during the day and there is a very festive vibe all around the square. People coming and going and taking pictures of each other and themselves. It’s become a thing to go to Fashion Week in outfits that you want to be photographed in; there are as many photographers taking pictures of the crowd as the models or so it seems. It’s great to see New York in its true element, as a fashion city; a city that loves all things beautiful and well tailored. The energy outside is so vibrant that I am fully awake even though moments ago I was exhausted.
Parkchoonmoo is a Korean designer and the theme of this collection seemed to be what people would be wearing after the apocalypse. I had not yet discovered the auto focus function on the iPad so unfortunately my pictures are terrible but this was not one of my favorite shows (have I mentioned how much I like evening wear?) Part of the schtick of being at Fashion Week is experiencing the creativity of the designers. Even though her designs weren’t up my alley, the construction was magnificent and she definitely deserved her spot. She showed in the Studio, which is a smaller venue, and I can see that she has the potential to do well as a niche designer.
It is now 10 pm and full exhaustion is setting in. As I leave the venue, I notice for the first time that there is a huge TV screen on the building next to the main venue and the powers that be are showing videos from the day’s shows. There are people laying down on the ground and watching the shows. I love love love this about New York. Here we are, on a Friday night, and these fashion babies could be anywhere, doing anything in this city and yet here they are, literally, on the ground watching fashion. Only in New York. It is with this magical scene in my head that I walk back to the Hudson to get ready for my next day marathon of back to back shows.
1