Diana Ross, the Motown star who favors sequins and silk for her concert wardrobe, gave her friend, designer Diane von Furstenberg, a rave on Sunday for her fall 2009 collection of cozy knits and funky hats shown during New York Fashion Week.

“I loved the knits, and I absolutely loved the hats,” Ross said in a backstage interview after the runway show on Sunday afternoon in the Tent at Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan.

Knit cocoon coats, flowing sweater jackets and knit dresses over “sweater pants” were topped off by traffic-stopping hats, distinguished by huge piles of pompoms in outre color combinations of brights and dark neutrals (red, pink, orange and black, for instance.) The clothes looked like they would travel well and give women some versatile options for cold weather.

The fall 2009 look marked a distinct departure from last year’s fall/winter collection, when the designer’s inspiration was “film noir” glamor evoked by 1940s menswear blazers and slip dresses.

Velvet popped up on the DvF runway in surprising places, lending comfortable elegance to her iconic wrap dress, which became a best seller in the 1970s and established Diane von Furstenberg as a major name in American fashion design.

“I loved the velvet, too,” said Ross, who shot to fame with the Supremes in the 1960s when Motown hits became part of the soundtrack for the civil rights movement. After that, she launched a solo act that still sells out major concert venues.  Ross, with her curly black hair flowing long and wide around her, was swarmed by photographers before the show began when she took her seat on the front row.

After the models paraded single file to signal the end of the show, von Furstenberg walked the runway on the arm of creative director Nathan Jenden. Then she broke into a little dance as music director Michel Gaubert pumped the house full of the voice of Diana Ross singing one of her greatest solo hits, “Upside Down” from 1980:  “Upside down, boy, you send me, inside out, ’round and ’round …”

 (Reporting by Jan Paschal, Photos by Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

 Judge Fern Mallis had it right. “Stella was not stellar” in the Diane von Furstenberg “Project Runway” challenge.

But the leather lovin’ rock star designer made the most gracious exit after being “Auf’d” from the show after yet another poorly sewn outfit.

With the first smile we’ve seen on her face , Stella thanked the judges, said she had learned a lot, and admitted; “My ego was too big to be here anyway.” 

But she was back to her defiant self in the post-exit confessional, declaring “I’m a rock star. That’s who I design for. If you like my stuff, come buy it. If you don’t, keep walking. I don’t care.”

Meanwhile, mousy Leanne is emerging as the dark horse of the season after winning two consecutive challenges and establishing herself as probably the most flawless contestant in terms of execution.

Her blue, silky 30’s vintage dress with the ruffled back won the most coveted prize of the season — a place in an ad campaign with true fashion diva Diane von Furstenberg who reduced Kenley to tears  — and an unlucky 2nd place.