At Fashion's Night Out: The Show on Tuesday, Gisele Bundchen, Naomi Campbell, Karolina Kurkova, and 170 models descended on New York. The spectacle was taped for a Sept. 14 broadcast on CBS, and was meant to ramp up the main event: Fashion's Night Out, the global shopping event taking place Friday. It's the brainchild of Vogue editor Anna Wintour, and in New York, celebrities and socialites will be camped out at over 1,000 stores. Victoria Beckham, Nicole Richie, and Jason Wu will preside over a celebrity dog "Best in Show" contest at Bergdorf Goodman, while Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen will join Proenza Schouler's Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCullough to judge a karaoke contest at Barneys. Elsewhere, Heidi Klum will host an event at Destination Maternity in Midtown, and Dolce & Gabbana's Madison Avenue boutique will fete Naomi Campbell.
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Gone are the days of Bryant Park. Fashionistas have migrated uptown to Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park this year on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The new backdrop feels grand—but it's farther away from Chelsea, where many of the week's smaller shows take place. As Michael Kors told WWD: "Bryant Park is convenient but there is nothing iconic about Bryant Park. [Lincoln Center] elevates everything to a whole new level."
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Everyone knows seating at fashion shows is a circus in itself—and that front rows are a careful balance between influential editors, buyers, and celebrities. For the past two seasons, young fashion bloggers like Tavi Gevinson and Bryan Boy raised eyebrows when they were granted seats alongside top editors. But this year, with many editors in new jobs, the front row is bound to look even more different. W Magazine's new editor, Stefano Tonchi, came from T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and Vogue's Sally Singer took the top spot at T. Deborah Needleman, former editor of Domino, became the editor of WSJ, and Brandon Holley, former editor of the late Jane magazine, is now the editor in chief of Lucky. Each of these new editors has alliances and enemies, and needs to be seated accordingly. More complicated still is a new online rivalry: Style.com, which has long been affiliated with Vogue, is now competing against the magazine's new online presence, Vogue.com, and the editors need to be seated separately.
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If there's one thing we know, it's that after the show, there's an afterparty. And this year, the fashion set has some good late-night destinations. Tommy Hilfiger will celebrate his 25th anniversary with a "monumental thank you party" at the Metropolitan Opera House on Sunday night that includes performances by The Strokes and DJ Paul Sevigny. Downtown, Alexander Wang is keeping his big bash under wraps. But we know it will follow his show on Saturday night at Pier 94—and will be held at an Edison ParkFast lot on 10th Avenue in Chelsea. It's rumored to be a big Wang carnival with cotton candy and pony rides. Then there are revamps: '90s hotspot Don Hill's will reopen with a party hosted by Pop Magazine editor Dasha Zhukova on Friday night, and Andre Balasz's famed Boom Boom Room—which was renamed Top of the Standard—is now the Boom Boom Room again. "The Boom is Back!" is certainly reason to celebrate.
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Leave it to Tom Ford to debut his much-anticipated women's collection in the most secretive way possible. Ford will show a preview of his collection at a "small cocktail party" on September 12. According to the event's publicist, only 100 editors have been invited. Ford will reportedly debut his entire collection, which will include ready-to-wear shoes, bags, and jewelry, in January.
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Sure, there's Naomi, Gisele, and Kate. But this week we'll be introduced to a fresh new set of models—and they're younger than ever. 17-year-old Argentinean beauty Naomi Preizler, who began the week in Richard Chai's show, is rumored to be walking in Alexander Wang, as she appeared in his look book and walked for Givenchy in Paris. Melodie—who, though it's her first season, is sticking with a first-name only—stunned in bright red at Vena Cava on Thursday, and is booked for Jason Wu and Rag & Bone next week. Dutch model Bo Don debuted at Balenciaga's Paris show last season, and has also hit the runway at Chloe, Yves Saint Laurent, Prada, and Chanel. One trend in casting this year: As casting director Ashley Brokaw told The New York Times, Proenza Schouler designers Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez requested that she cast models with "life experience." "Things are steering away from the army casting we've seen in recent years," she said.
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Last year, it was Prabal Gurung, Joseph Altuzarra, and Patrik Ervell. But this semester, fashion's got an entirely new freshman class. It's anyone's guess which newcomers are here to stay, but two are filled with promise: Sally LaPointe and William Tempest. LaPointe, whose invitation came on a thick mirrored slab, is a 26-year-old RISD grad who is making waves for her bold shapes, minimalistic silhouettes, and futuristic feel. William Tempest, 24, worked as a pattern-maker for Giles Deacon before establishing his own collection in 2008. Emma Watson and Kate Moss have worn his clothes, but this is the first season he's showing in New York.
Sophie Theallet is having a moment. Michelle Obama has worn her designs. She won this year's CFDA/ Vogue Fashion Fund grant. And on Wednesday, The New York Times included her in a story about New York's "next wave" of designers. But as Theallet told The Daily Beast on Wednesday, this season, she created a "movie" in her head, and envisioned a "unique and very strong" woman as its central character. "I want the woman to feel good in the clothes that she's wearing—sexy but not too much, and the men who look at that woman and say ‘Oh my God." Theallet explained that her upcoming collection, which will be shown at a presentation on Tuesday, is inspired by everything from the architecture of Luis Barragan to "the spirit of Frida Kahlo."
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It's a big year for Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan and Naomi Campbell. Hilfiger is celebrating his 25th year in fashion—and, in addition to a highly anticipated show, will hold a public concert at Herald Square with Train on Friday night, lead a "tailgate" parade up Fifth Avenue to his flagship store, and throw a megabash at the Metropolitan Opera House on Sunday night, where The Strokes will perform. Donna Karan, who is also completing 25 years in the business, will be celebrating at her show on Monday. Naomi Campbell, too, is turning 25 in the fashion business—and will be celebrating her career at Dolce & Gabbana's Madison Avenue boutique on Fashion's Night Out, where's they'll be selling limited edition T-shirts emblazoned with pictures of Campbell.
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Marc Jacobs' empire just got bigger: The designer, who will show his spring/summer collection on Monday, opened a book store in downtown Manhattan this week. It's aptly named BookMarc, and sits in the spot where neighborhood-favorite Biography Book Shop once stood. It doesn't sell many books, of course, other than a few volumes of Moby's Dick (LOL) and The Gay Gatsby. But there are shelves and shelves of Jacobsiana: small trinkets—from postcards to key chains—that retail for less than $30.
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At the heart of New York City on Fashion's Night Out, will be the biggest retail bonanza of them all: the QVC broadcast, which features highly anticipated collections from the Kardashian sisters, Isaac Mizrahi, and Mad Men's costume designer Janie Bryant. The designers will haul to Rockefeller Center to sell their collections live on air. K-DASH, the collection from the Kardashians, will feature belted sweaters with fur, blazers and printed dresses.
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