Written and photographed by Lisa Klein. Story sponsored by Total Health Physical Therapy.
DAY 2: FASHION SHOW MARATHON – PART 2
As I leave the Mara Hoffman show I come across Miss Piggy being interviewed in the Fashion Lounge. As I grew up watching the Muppet Show I deem this to be random and cute but I cannot for the life of me identify the tanned blondie doing the interview. I’ve seen him at many shows- does anyone know who this is?
Now it was back to see the Box Presentation for Rafael Cennamo. Somewhere in here some eating occurred (when that would have been and what that would have consisted of I have no Earthly idea). This Box Presentation was a phenomenal show. Rafael really stepped it up a level in terms of presentation, design complexity, textiles, and overall coherence to a vision. He focuses on red carpet worthy dresses, and this year he hit it out of Lincoln Center, as it were. I took about a million pictures as I absolutely loved everything about this show. I’m not quite sure how this works, but as much as I love a good Box Presentation, this designer is very worthy of a runway show next year. A Box Presentation is great as you really can see the clothes up close and spend time appreciating the design and workmanship. I think in the bigger picture a runway has more status and Rafael definitely deserves to be up a level.
After Rafael’s show, I had some time before Katya Leonovich in the Studio. I wasn’t able to get a ticket to the Herve Leger show which was a major bummer; Anastasia couldn’t even sneak me in with her (you didn’t hear me say that.) While waiting outside of that show, however, I was treated to a sighting of Paris Hilton leaving that show and going to the ladies room (was she in the first row? of course she had to be! she left front row at Herve Leger to use the bathroom??) It was a funny thing: I was schmoozing it up with the ushers as she walked by and we all had the same reaction- is that who we think it is? I proceeded to take several pics of her posing ridiculously for paparazzi outside of the ladies room. True class, that.
After meeting up with Anastasia we went to the Studio to see Katya’s show. Anastasia had gotten a backstage interview with Herve Leger and we were waiting to see the deal on that. One aspect of the utter craziness that is Fashion Week is you never really know what you have and what you don’t. Last year, Jen and I had the easiest time getting backstage at Cennamo, we had access, but this year even though we had the emails to show it, our time backstage was limited and it was actually tough to get back. Everyone is so crazy and stressed and disorganized that you have no choice but to go with the flow and hope for the best. Anyway, Anastasia was told to call the PR rep after the show to meet for the interview, then she was told it was off so we went into the Katya show. Once seated at the Katya show she was told it was back on so we left and tried to find Herve Leger but then got another call that it was off. Ok, whatever.
We watched the Katya show in the Studio. Katya is a designer we interviewed last year when she was showing as a Box Presentation. The show was good but it was hard to appreciate the textiles when you have limited visual time with the models. We had an interview immediately after the show.
The next show was a box presentation, Christopher Esber and E L Lery. Another post-apocalyptic situation with very under-made models with well crafted yet simple clothing. The music matched the clothes; it was very spooky and surreal.
My last show of the day was Venexiana. We had backstage access and an interview scheduled as the models were getting ready. Venexiana is a Venice-based designer who is very prolific; she was showing over 70 designs. We had a great interview with her as well as Philip Pelusi, the owner of Tela hair.
After a snack, we went into the show, where it turned out we had second row seats and gift bags! Alex McCord from Real Housewives of NY was doing some kind of “on the runway” interview thing and it was fun to see her. I don’t know why she is not on this season. She was always a bit of a train wreck and fun to watch. There was, however, unfortunately no sign of Simon.
After what seemed like the longest day in human history I was exhausted yet energized by my fashion marathon experience. Anastasia and I head back to the Hudson to do our nails with brilliant silver Zoya nail polish and plan for our next day.
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