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Off the runway at NY Fashion Week

Reuters photographer Brendan McDermid shares his experience covering New York Fashion Week, with the logistics of shooting backstage, the shows and everything in between.

Bethenny’s baby bump stars in Red Dress show

By Jan Paschal

Forget about eating for two.  Reality TV star Bethenny Frankel was walking the runway for two, showing off her baby bump in a short ruched dress during the Red Dress Collection 2010 Show on Thursday night at New York Fashion Week.

The DJ played “Baby Love” by Diana Ross and the Supremes while Frankel strutted down the runway. But she had to keep tugging at the hem of her tight red dress by designer Isabella Oliver in a vain attempt to keep her black Spanx shapewear from being seen. The crowd in the Tent in Bryant Park didn’t seem to mind. (Frankel’s best known for her role on Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New York City.”)

After all, a healthy pregnancy seems quite in tune with the reason why the Red Dress Collection runway show exists. “It’s about awareness,” stylist Robert Verdi says. “Most women don’t realize this is something that could kill them  — that heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women. Many think breast cancer is the leading cause of death for women, but it’s not. “It’s that message about exercise and diet that’s so important, and that’s why getting the celebrities out there is so fabulous,” Verdi said.

Heidi Klum,  the top model who’s also the host and executive producer of Project Runway, left no doubt that she’s back in shape just four months after giving birth to her fourth child. She wore a revealing halter gown by designer John Galliano. Brian Atwood designed the mostly metallic evening shoes, in a first for the Red Dress Collection.

Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress Kristen Chenoweth opened the show in a low-cut gown with built-in bling: a massive Swarovski crystal necklace made up the gown’s entire top. The designer? Daniel Swarovski, naturally.

Gutsy after Gaga – Meryl makes her mark in New York AIDS gala

By Jan Paschal

Even Meryl Streep  gets stage fright, or so she joked to the star-studded crowd at amfAR’s New York Gala.  Streep, a two-time Oscar winner and an Oscar nominee for best actress in “Julie & Julia,”  wowed the black-tie audience at the American foundation for AIDS research by singing a capella solo — after Lady Gaga’s dramatic performance.

  “It really takes guts to get up and sing after Lady Gaga ,” Streep said, warming up the room full of A-listers, who braved a New York blizzard to get to the gala on the eve of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week .  “We’ve got the sacred and the profane right here.”     That was a nod to Lady Gaga’s star turn in a white bikini at the white baby grand piano, which she played while belting out a bluesy romantic ballad, with a few expletives. Streep sang an Irish song called “The Parting Glass” in tribute to her friend, the late Natasha Richardson , the Tony Award-winning actress and amfAR trustee, who died last March after a skiing accident.      Streep’s clear contralto voice rang out over the hushed room and prompted many to brush away tears, including Natasha’s mother, the actressVanessa Redgrave , who is perhaps the best-known member of Britain’s theater royalty.       Redgrave told Reuters that she had asked Streep to sing as part of the gala’s tribute to her daughter, who had raised millions for AIDS research over the past decade by dreaming up events such as a charity auction of Oscar dresses.         “It was lovely, wasn’t it?” Redgrave said, adding that Streep chose the song.         The event raised between $1.1 million and $1.2 million for AIDS research, a record for a single amfAR gala, an amfAR spokesman said.         Among the guests: The Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson , who told Reuters she’ll be keeping an eye out for “a bit of madness” on New York’s fashion runways; actress Zoe Saldana  of Oscar-nominated film “Avatar “  in a Louis Vuitton  dress with a short full skirt and open back; actress Sigourney Weaver  of “Avatar” in a black turtleneck evening look; actor Alan Cumming  sans tux jacket, madly working his BlackBerry after the house lights came up; actor James Gandolfini  (late of “God of Carnage” on Broadway and HBO’s “The Sopranos”) and IMG Fashion’s senior vice president Fern Mallis , the woman who runs the tents in Bryant Park, gamely snapping a couple’s picture on their camera, as the evening wrapped up.

     Saldana, when asked which trends she’ll be watching for on New York’s fashion runways over the next week, told Reuters that “I hope with the influence of ‘Avatar’ that designers will be inspired to use more organic fabrics.”

Michelle Obama favorite Jason Wu shines at NY Fashion Week

Designer Jason Wu was already a rising star of American fashion, but when Michelle Obama chose to wear a gown he designed to the balls on Inauguration Day, Wu’s career soared.

And when he showed his collection for spring and summer 2010 on Friday at New York Fashion Week, the industry elite — including Vogue Editor Anna Wintour — turned out in force for the show at the St. Regis hotel on Fifth Avenue.

Models paraded on a mirrored runway underneath enormous chandeliers, with some guests remarking that any number of the designs would be suited to the fashionable First Lady.

Here is a video from the show. Do you like his collection?

Front row at NY Fashion Week

New York Fashion Week kicked off on Thursday with designers showing collections for spring and summer 2010. Here’s the view of the journalists and department store buyers from the front row at the Ports 1961 show at Fashion Week headquarters – the Bryant Park tents in Midtown Manhattan.

And here is what it is like for the photographers…..

‘Practical’ black’s back at Calvin Klein

Listen up, all you Oscar fashion watchers.

Black is back in a big way because “it’s practical,” New York designer Francisco Costa told Reuters after his fall Calvin Klein Women’s runway show at New York Fashion Week, which ended on Friday. Black is also among the “in” colors for gowns on the red carpet this year and will very likely make a major appearance at the Oscars on Sunday. Kate Winslet already has been showing a penchant for black during Hollywood’s awards season.

Actress Kate Beckinsale, in a skintight black leather dress, was among the celebrities who packed the Calvin Klein showroom this week to see Costa’s fall collection of  tailored coats and sculptured dresses. Many had asymmetrical hems. The horsehair boots and shoes featured high rectangular heels that were open in the middle.

Vogue’s editor at large Andre Leon Talley said after the show: “It’s hard to do an almost all-black collection, but he pulled it off! These are clothes for women who have some place to go and don’t want to look like everybody else.”

Costa talks to Reuters below:

DvF’s knits and hats hit right note with Diana Ross

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 …”

The ice queen melteth

 (Reporting by Jan Paschal)

 Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, famous for her chilly demeanor, surprised the black-tie crowd at amfAR’s New York Gala with her warm introduction of New York designer Donna Karan, an amfAR honoree, on Thursday night. The event packed Cipriani on 42nd Street on the eve of New York Fashion Week.

  Wintour recalled how years ago, “Donna enlisted the Calvin Kleins and the Ralph Laurens” and the rest of the Council of Fashion Designers of America to band together to fight AIDS, the disease that devastated the fashion industry in the 1980s. Out of that came the Seventh on Sale benefit and other work to raise money for AIDS research to find a cure.     “Everyone refers to Donna as an earth mother,” Wintour said. “When we go to visit her, she feeds us, drapes us in fabric and tells us about her latest cause.”     Actress Natasha Richardson told the crowd how touched she was by “hearing Anna speak with such heart and passion, this so-called ice queen of fashion.”     Karan, in a one-shoulder black gown, said thatafter seeing “all these designers dropping right in front of us” more than 20 years ago, she had to do something.     Liza Minnelli, also honored by amfAR, got a standing ovation after she sang. She wore a brown sequined tunic and leggings designed by amfAR chairman Kenneth Cole. Among the celebrities there were Harry Belafonte, Dick Cavett and Mario Cantone.     A Louis Vuitton vanity case, designed by actress Sharon Stone, was among items auctioned for amfAR by Jamie Niven, chairman of Sotheby’s North and South America. “Not much room for underpants,” he joked, holding up the case — a wink to Stone’s star turn in “Basic Instinct.”

NY Fashion Week music goes live

Fashion week is defined as much by the music on the runway as it is by the clothes, and several designers in New York this week have moved from DJ’s spinning tracks to live performances for their shows.

Canadian alternative country music and rock band Cowboy Junkies played hits “Misguided Angel,” “Blue Moon” and “Sweet Jane” at the Ports 1961 show, while Brazilian singer Seu Jorge serenaded models on the runway at the Carlos Miele show.

But live music on the catwalk can cause complications.

Wearing a denim jumpsuit, Jorge initially was yelled at by photographers when he first walked on to the end of the runway. They didn’t realize he was performing and thought he was ruining their shot.

And during the final walk by all the models at the end of the show, one nearly fell after Jorge stood on the train of her evening dress. Maybe the models can teach him a thing or two about performing on the catwalk!

Designer Thuy Diep had a band play at an after party to celebrate her debut in New York Fashion Week’s Midtown Manhattan tents, and she hopes to take live music to the runway as well. “Definitely at some point I would love to have a live band or musician play at my show,” she told Reuters.

What musicians do you think would perform well on the catwalk?

NY Fashion Week campaigns for style, Lohan shows support

 As the Nov. 4 U.S. presidential election draws near, New York’s Fashion Week has launched its own campaign — for style.

The entrance to the tents at Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan, where designers are showing their spring/summer 2009 collections, are painted with large campaign-like badges that read “Declare your Style,” “Fashion = Change,” “Vote Fashion, “Super Model Delegate,” and “Accessorize for Democracy.”

And this week Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign is holding a fundraiser, due to be attended by top designers who have created merchandise for sale on the Obama Web site. Actress Sarah Jessica Parker and Vogue Editor Anna Wintour are said to be special guests for the evening.

Some designers, too,  have declared more than just their style on the runway. Liz McClean sent her final model down the catwalk on Friday wearing a Barack Obama campaign badge. Charlotte Ronson took on a different cause with her show Saturday sponsored by The Humane Society of the United States, which beamed its logo onto walls either side of the runway.

Ronson’s collection attracted a lot of attention with her DJ brother Mark providing music for the show, and DJ sister Samantha sitting in the front row with gal pal Lindsay Lohan.

U.S. tennis player Andy Roddick checked out the Lacoste show on Saturday, while Friday night Australian actress Melissa George and “Prison Break” star Camille Guaty graced the front row at Nicole Miller.

But the fashion and celebrities aren’t always center of attention.