For Your (Fashion) Consideration ...

With the world's most-watched fashion show set for tonight (red carpet kicks off at 6 pm EST, telecast at 8:30 pm), I thought it would be fun to pick three strong dresses from the Fall 2010 runways and see if perhaps they'll show up at the Academy Awards.

First up, Marchesa: Georgina Chapman quickly grew into a perennial red-carpet winner - not surprising, as her gowns are consistently romantic, statement-worthy and memorable. From her Fall presentation, I love this one-shoulder lace and silver-beaded affair. And let's face it, one-shoulder gowns have become a staple silhouette on red carpets, so who might wear this? Anne Hathaway? Anna Kendrick? Weigh in with your comments below.

Next, Monique Lhuillier: This finale gown from her Fall 2010 show sort of screams Oscars, as it's a gorgeous color and just the right amount of drama. With its strapless neckline (another red-carpet favorite), this gown is also quite bling-friendly, perfect for a statement necklace by Bulgari or Tony Duquette. Kate Winslet rarely wears American designers, but this gown seems tailor-made for her, or wouldn't it be great to see Tina Fey try a gown with this styling? She rarely goes for the frills, but after that slightly disastrous Zac Posen prom look at the Golden Globes, a dress like this, paired with a low, tousled chignon, is precisely what Fey needs.

Finally, Alberta Ferretti: I love this dress from her Fall collection. It's dreamy, tasteful, ethereal and luxe. Her use of the trompe l'oeil jewelry draped across dusty rose chiffon is nothing less than sublime. A strong cuff, chandelier earrings and a bag with a little bit of shimmer, and there's no way you're incurring the wrath of all those red-carpet haters who weigh in with snarky opinions the next day. For this look, perhaps Penelope Cruz or even Carey Mulligan, who is rumored to be considering a European designer.

No one knows for certain who will wear what until Hollywood's A-listers hit the red carpet, but this is my wish list. What's yours? Stay tuned ...

Five Moments in Bryant Park ...

We said goodbye to Bryant Park Thursday night, as New York Fashion Week decamps and heads to Lincoln Center in September. I’ve worked those tents since they first went up in 1993, but still I was surprised by how emotional Thursday night was; “the end of an era” can seem like such a cliché, but for those of us who honed our craft between those white canvas walls, the farewell elicited many memories. Here are my top five:

5. I’ll start with the silliest memory: I still recall what I wore the first time I walked into the Bryant Park tents—unfortunately, I cannot use the word chic. It was a blue and black brocade vest with nickel-sized silver buttons that I, gulp, had purposely sewn onto the vest, having chosen them as more fitting replacements for less-blingy buttons. My only excuse? It was 1993 and I was very young. Maybe someday—perhaps when she’s all of 15—Tavi will look back and cringe at what she wore to some shows.

4. The supermodel moment: In the early days of Bryant Park, I don’t think we comprehended how amazing it was to attend shows by Todd Oldham or Isaac Mizrahi and witness Cindy, Christy, Linda, Naomi, Shalom, et al saunter down the same runway. Thankfully, filmmaker Douglas Keeve documented this blazing-hot cadre of girls in 1995's Unzipped, which chronicles one season in the life of Mizrahi, and quite stands up over time if you haven’t caught it recently. The Mizrahi show that climaxes Unzipped also stands out as a favorite memory: The designer used a white scrim as the runway backdrop, and depending on where the lighting fell, it either appeared to be simply a white backdrop or, when lit from behind, was more transparent so you could view the backstage proceedings. Before the online universe changed everything about fashion (not to mention our daily lives), it was Unzipped and Mizrahi's now-famous "Nanook of the North" show that truly threw open the doors of life off (or behind) a New York runway. Here’s a link to buying the DVD on Amazon.com: http://bit.ly/buTL1t

3. Thank you, Mr. Blass: For the presentation of one of the last Bill Blass collections for which the venerable designer was still at the helm—he retired in 1999 and passed away from cancer in 2002—his PR director, in gratitude for a story I recently had written, bestowed me with a choice seat: second row, next to John Mellencamp. (Seems odd these days that anyone would seat a celeb in a second row, but the celeb frenzy that exists now really didn’t then because, again, it was more about the girls on the runway.) I also sketched then, as the immediacy of digital film or Style.com didn’t exist, and your sketchbook was your best friend for remembering trends and highlights. Anyway, the first models walked out, I started sketching, and out of the corner of my eye I noticed Mellencamp observing my work. Well, of course, my sketches got better, more elaborate, executed with decidedly more flourish. He said, “You’re really good at that,” and I blushed and stammered. Mellencamp was there because his wife, the stunning Elaine Irwin, was walking Blass’s runway, and I complimented her, genuinely, by noting she had the best walk on the runway. She really did, as the supes in those days undulated seductively down a runway; it wasn’t the giraffe stomp so typical now. Mellencamp smiled proudly at the compliment. They’re still married (they're shown above in 2008), and I like to think I had a little something to do with that.

2. How we’ll miss you, Mr. McQueen: We were exiting BCBG, the second show of Bryant Park’s first day this season, when we learned that Lee Alexander McQueen had taken his own life in his London home. Twitter and email spread the news through the tents, and one quite literally felt the mood change as editors dashed back to their offices for news and to rip pages apart to make room for tributes. And so on that first morning, the air seemed to be sucked out of the tents as though by a vacuum. More than anything, the death of this brilliant, romantic, troubled man points out a truism about fashion rarely discussed: the all-too-precarious balance of working in such a hard, brutal business, and yet it’s populated so greatly by those who are often quite fragile. The most poignant moment of Bryant Park this season took place at Naomi Campbell’s Friday-night Fashion For Relief show when, in the midst of raising funds and awareness for a country so battered by tragedy, a moment was taken to honor McQueen, with a finale of several iconic models walking the runway in his designs.

1. Finally, of course, the day the world changed: September 11, 2001, was a Tuesday, the fifth day of the Spring 2002 collections, and at 9 a.m. Liz Lange was presenting the Bryant Park debut of her maternity line. It was a bright, beautiful September morning—and then it wasn’t. Confusion initially reigned over what actually had occurred downtown, but by the time Lange’s show had concluded, the decision already had been made to cancel the rest of Fashion Week. The tents were stripped of what immediately seemed like frivolous décor—weren’t they pink that year?—and they were offered up as a site for emergency services. I thought of this recently after Haiti’s tragedy and, not unlike Hollywood celebs and their instant telethon, how the fashion industry quickly banded together both to present Fashion For Relief and to create the To Haiti With Love T-shirt (http://bit.ly/cY6awL). In those initial days after 9/11, I spent a lot of time wondering whether I had the most frivolous job in the world, especially after the call went out for volunteers: doctors, nurses, welders. And so we dived into planning fundraisers for the families of 9/11 victims, not only to make a tangible contribution in the aftermath of so much pain, but also to feel that sense of contribution from an industry that, yes, was too often dismissed as one rooted in frivolity. Season after season in the tents, we hope to witness something beautiful, something that moves us. Bryant Park has created countless memories in 17 years, but none more beautiful than what can be created when passion and energy arise out of tragedy.

Vionnet Waltzes Anew Down the Red Carpet ...

The red-carpet scorecard boasts a few new players this awards season, one with perhaps the most storied history of any A-list label: the House of Vionnet. We've seen sprinkles of its presence here and there - Carey Mulligan at last fall's London Film Festival premiere of An Education, Rachel McAdams at a Sherlock Holmes premiere in December - but Ginnifer Goodwin's appearance at this month's Golden Globes, left, put the label on a televised world stage. With the Oscar noms set for announcement at 8:38 am EST this Tuesday, you can expect stylists' phones to be ringing at 8:39 am, and surely more than a few Vionnets will find their way onto consideration racks throughout Los Angeles. Here are some notes to keep in mind when viewing the divine, drapey designs that might saunter into the Kodak Theater on March 7th.

- These days the press gets whipped into a frenzy over designers who mount full-blown shows at ever-more-youthful ages, such as Zac Posen (who launched his label at age 21) or Esteban Cortazar (who boasted Madonna in his front row when he was 17 and was named designer of Ungaro at 23), but Madeleine Vionnet was 36 when she founded her Paris atelier in 1912. Not unlike her compatriot Coco Chanel, Vionnet rose from virtual poverty to become one of the most influential women of the early 20th century.

- Vionnet forever altered fashion history with her use of the bias cut: In the 1920s she revolutionized the idea of eschewing structure (and corsets) in favor of cutting fabric on the bias so it would drape seductively on the body. The term "goddess gown," now so ubiquitous on runways and red carpets, is due to Vionnet's influence. During the house's 1930s heyday, Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich were just a few of the boldfaced names in bias-cut gowns.

- At its height, the House of Vionnet employed 1,200 seamstresses in its atelier at 50 Avenue Montaigne in Paris; Vionnet also was ahead of her time in fighting for copyright laws in fashion and fair labor practices, including maternity leave and daycare - all in the 1930s.

- The house closed in 1939 just prior to the outbreak of World War II; Vionnet retired and never reopened the house, eventually passing away in Paris in 1975 at age 98. (If you happen to be in Paris, a Vionnet exhibition concludes in mere seconds at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, with featured pieces including this 1936 evening coat, above; details about the exhibit here http://tinyurl.com/ya446md and a PDF of the exhibition's user's guide here http://tinyurl.com/ylhdo5w.)

- Ownership of the Vionnet label ultimately passed through several hands, and in 1996 the decision was made to relaunch the house. After years of speculation and indecision, Sophia Kokosalaki was named creative director, and the first Vionnet collection in 67 years debuted in December 2006. The results were met with mixed reviews, and the relaunch never really picked up steam.

- In February 2009, Matteo Marzotto, formerly general manager and president of Valentino and the scion of a wealthy Italian textile family, purchased the Vionnet label and moved it to Milan. It is now designed by Rodolpho Paglialunga, whose previous stints include 13 years as a womenswear designer at Prada.

It is roundly agreed that thus far Paglialunga is doing a masterful job at modernizing the label while maintaining the essence first visualized by Vionnet almost a century ago (Goodwin's dress was from his Spring 2010 collection, only his second for the house). Come March 7th, it will be interesting to note whether a bias-cut gown's appearance on a red carpet will be accessorized with such a wealth of fashion history.

In the pink (and red) ...

With the Spring/Summer 2010 haute-couture presentations kicking off today, I thought it appropriate to pen a love letter to my favorite couture-inspired color combo: pink and red. Such a pairing still draws askance expressions from the unitiated, those unhip to the fact that these days we're far more open to fashion's quirkier color palettes. Carolina Herrera, Matthew Williamson and Diane von Furstenberg are just a few who have employed the duo in recent seasons. And who doesn't love a pink Louboutin with its signature glossy red sole? For Spring, CL's Alta Spritney open-toe slingback comes in pink suede, satiating fans of the color combo and the designer alike.

There's a long tradition of the pink/red pairing in haute couture: Elsa Schiaparelli favored the coupling in her adventurous and often controversial designs, while more recently Christian Lacroix likewise used it to great effect in both solids and the luscious floral prints we'll all surely be missing with his absence from this season's couture runways.

With bold colors key to Spring/Summer 2010, I wanted to give a shoutout to two favorite must-haves now arriving in stores: Lanvin's Pompon PM Cabas Tote, seen above and now available at Barneys.com; "cabas" has its origins in the idea of a lady's workbasket, and I love the idea of this piece evoking the image of a woman walking through the Paris flower market, filling her cabas with peonies. And here, from Chanel's Spring/Summer 2010 preview, the house's iconic two-tone pump, tricked out in red and pink with a chrome-like platform, a chic update to the classic camel and black.

Pink and red? Separate or together, always a choice that is equal parts fresh, pretty and modern - and guaranteed to add some Spring to your step.

Magic Marchesa ...

Jennifer Lopez, Anne Hathaway, Sienna Miller, Cameron Diaz: For the past few years A-list actresses have turned Marchesa into a red-carpet staple precisely because of its combination of glam factor and romantic details, from sculpted bodices to feathers to overtly lush beading. The results sometimes can be polarizing: Witness Kate Hudson’s white Golden Globes gown, which seems to be eliciting more outrage than why the heck(!) The Hangover scored Best Comedy over 500 Days of Summer. With awards-show season in full swing, now’s the time to know a little background about the label on everyone’s lips:

-- Marchesa was co-founded in 2004 by Brit BFF’s Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig, who met at age 17 while attending London’s Chelsea College of Art and Design.

-- The name is based on the duo’s mutual love of Marchesa Luisa Casati, a noted Italian style icon of the early 20th century.

-- Casati (pictured below) lived an extraordinary life even by today’s standards; she was photographed by Man Ray and Cecil Beaton, wore the designs of Paul Poiret and Erte and was the direct inspiration for Cartier’s iconic Panther designs.

-- Her biography, Infinite Variety (available on Amazon.com) details Casati's notorious lifestyle, from walking her pet leopard on a diamond leash to throwing wild parties in her Venetian palazzo, complete with gilded naked servants.

-- Casati once brought a boa constrictor to the Ritz Hotel in Paris – and promptly allowed it to escape.

-- In 1999 Craig read Infinite Variety and gave Chapman a copy; they fell in love with the idea of Casati as the muse and essence of their label.

-- Chapman (aka Mrs. Harvey Weinstein) is both the designer and the face of the label (she appeared as herself on an ep of Gossip Girl last year), while Craig works more behind the scenes, focusing on textile design.

-- Marchesa scored its first red-carpet success when Cate Blanchett fell in love with only the second dress ever designed by the label.

-- The duo was sharing a tiny London studio when Neiman Marcus asked them to create a collection of 30 dresses the retailer was interested in putting in 20 stores. With six weeks to complete the collection, they moved to New York, borrowed a studio space, hired seamstresses and never looked back.

-- In 2006, the label was named one of the ten finalists of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund.

With Hudson's gown drawing both admiration and ire, it seems the time-honored fashion adage has never been more accurate: There's a dress for every girl, and a girl for every dress.

Globes v. Oscars: The (fashion) politics of the two-party system ...

Tonight's 67th-annual Golden Globes ceremony offers the potential for more surprises than the March 7th Oscars - at least in a sartorial sense. Oh, sure, the reasons all those A-Listers will gather around Moet-laden tables at the Beverly Hilton are all but assured: funny-yet-heartfelt speeches from Streep, Cameron and Scorsese (I'm still on the fence about Bridges v. Clooney, as much as the Hollywood Foreign Press seems to adore the latter). But from a fashion point of view, the Globes offer a terrific opportunity to think outside the box in both label and style.


Let's face it, the Academy Awards are the senior prom, where everyone turns it out in "important" gowns and jewelry. But the Globes? This is the pre-party at the cool kid's house, where the gang has fun getting a little tipsy before heading off to the Big Event. Shouldn't the clothes match this attitude?


I'm sure we'll see all the requisite players tonight: Monique Lhuillier, Marchesa, Versace, Reem Acra; Marion Cotillard most assuredly will wear Dior, while Vera Farmiga has been showing up on red carpets in Dolce & Gabbana. Might someone change it up a bit? I love the casual elegance of the Lanvin above, but with no Hilary Swank in sight, will Alber Elbaz be shown any love this evening? Will Naeem Khan's highly publicized gown for Michelle Obama translate to some Hollywood adoration? Stylists and celeb reps alike enthusiastically phoned Khan in the days after that State Dinner, but that moment occurred waaaay back in November, and the West Coast has a famously short attention span in such matters.

Indeed, make no mistake: Red-carpet looks are highly debated in the weeks, days and moments before the actress steps into the limo, with who she's wearing as much an issue as what she's wearing. Is Alexander Wang enough of a name outside fashion circles to warrant his dress as a choice? I love pretty much everything Giambattista Valli sends down a runway - including this Globe-friendly look from Spring - but he's not on the mainstream radar as much as a Chanel or Herrera. The politics of fashion are difficult to define - they evolve as rapidly as trends, tastes and a designer's hip quotient change - and yet they undeniably exist. A few actresses can be counted on to think outside the box: Chloe Sevigny at September's Emmys, wearing polka-dotted Isaac Mizrahi, springs to mind; but as big as Big Love may be, her fashion sense always will be tied to her indie cred, and I for one am glad about this.


I'm hoping tonight offers a few surprises, especially as it's roundly agreed that award-show red carpets have grown far too safe in recent years. Designers likewise will be surprised, as it's a now-notorious fact that they cannot count on a choice as confirmed until they see it on TV with their own eyes like everyone else. Too many anecdotes have been shared in recent years about a designer being told, "Yes, she's wearing your dress," only to watch that starlet hit the red carpet wearing someone else. And so designers are gun-shy about offering exclusives and instead have spent the past few weeks blanketing Southern California with their Resort, Spring and Pre-Fall collections. One designer's rep told me Friday that four actresses had their gowns out for "final consideration," with the rep hoping two make the cut: "Two's the perfect number - one on a very big name, and then another on a younger, up-and-coming starlet."


All of which is to say, the politics of the red carpet are very much a two-party system, and a two-way street.

Past or future, Peggy's present is an all-time fashion must-have ...

On last night's ep of Mad Men, Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) enters her office to find that a gift has been delivered -- she unwraps the package, and ... a telltale orange box?!? The melding of fashion and pop culture on TV's hottest show is complete as Hermes makes its foray into the one watercooler program that is just as much about style as it is the well-structured, scintillating scripts.

Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) soon enters the scene, but forget about the childish, we-love-each-other/hate-each-other banter that ensues -- instead get rapturous over that which Peggy soon unfurls from the signature orange box: a Brides de Gala scarf, the most popular silk-twill creation ever crafted by Hermes. We show it here in red, while Peggy's was accented in pale blue. Following are all the stats to start you on the path to becoming a Brides aficionado:

Origin: The house's silk-twill scarves, or carre's, were first envisioned in 1937 by Robert Dumas, grandfather of current design director Pierre-Alexis Dumas. Eager to find some way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the house, Robert Dumas (founder Thierry Hermes's great-grandson by marriage) was fascinated by the notion of printing on silk, and so created a 90-centimeter-square carre titled Jeu des Omnibus et Dames blanches, which illustrated the debut of the Paris omnibus line from Madeleine to Bastille. Each carre continues to be hand-silkscreened in much the same way since 1937, while edges likewise continue to be hand-rolled, all from a factory in Lyon, France's home to the silk trade.

1957: Dumas by now is calling on acclaimed artists for his carre designs, and in this year enlists Hugo Grygkar to sketch the famed Brides de Gala, or "gala bridles," a tribute to the house's origins as a bridle, harness and saddle maker. In July 1963, the moment in which this episode is set, a Brides de Gala would be instantly recognized as a gift equal parts chic, luxe and timeless.

Grygkar would go on to become Hermes's most prolific scarf designer, while Brides de Gala continues to rank handily as the pinnacle of most-popular designs, indeed highly sought-after as a bona fide cult item for collectors. It's been reinterpreted in more than 70 colorways over 52 years, with embroidery and sequins also finding their way onto special-edition Brides de Gala designs. If there's only one Hermes scarf on which you can invest, this is it, no question; not unlike the expression on Peggy's face as she brushed the silk against her cheek, the allure of such an icon is, quite simply, unforgettable.

(scarf photo courtesy of David Hamsley)