By Constance C. R. White

 

I’ve been covering the fashion shows for more than a decade, seen them in Milan, London, Paris, L.A., and even in Abidjan. But New York has an atmosphere all its own. Millions of dollars are spent during fashion week here, millions more will move on what goes down the runway. And  people will be happier, sadder or successful all because of what they wear.

 As the American show circus reaches its crescendo, here are my highly subjective, charitable notes on the scene.

 

Check back in coming weeks for my take on what designers did that you’ll want to know more about and what designers did that you’d rather they keep to themselves.

 

Lost in The Mail

 

Invitations, about 200 of them in total, start coming in a week before the shows. I usually get help sorting through them. These days they arrive by snail mail, email, telephone or a new designer stopping me on the street to come to a ‘presentation” he just threw together. He has no discernible resources other than a handful of gorgeous and skinny friends (I’m not saying one necessarily follows the other) who will model the clothes.

 

Seating remains a difficult subject for those who take for granted even being invited to a show. More on this in future blogs. Seating requires its own day of discussion.

 

TOMMY’S TUNE: KANYE WEST

 

It’s out with fan-fluttering Karl Lagerfeld and in with rap-spouting star Kanye West.

 

Sipping champagne is a good way to get people talking about things you want to know and they don’t want to talk about. It doesn’t matter who’s doing the sipping – the talker or the listener.

I hung out with bubbly and WSJ reporter Teri “the body “ Agins after the Narciso Rodriguez show, (BTW, read Agins's Sept.14 story on how to be a socialite like It girl Genevieve Jones even if you don’t come from money or have an Ivy League pedigree). Fashion folk were buzzing that there’s a lot of Francesco Clemente art in Jones’ apartment.

 

But I digress. Who should breeze by as I chat with Agins, but Tommy Hilfiger. “I’m going into business with Kanye West,” Hilfiger said grinning. “I’m going to produce his line. I feel like I have my soul back.”

Whether the designer meant his seat of spirituality or his James Brown connection I’m not sure, but the former top designer said “I’m back!”

 

HOTTER THAN A PISTOL: Tim Gunn

 

Tim Gunn’s the new black. I tried to have a conversation with the Project Runway consigliore and Parsons School of Design dean as we loitered outside the shows. Not possible. Gunn was pulled to his left, to his right and everywhere in between as regular folks tried to have a word with him.  They expressed their love for his performance on PR. If they weren’t “love you on the show”, their daughter or nephew loved him on the show.

 

 Enrollment at Parsons School of Design has shot up since PR became the new ER.

 

Heart Attack Fashion

 

You could have implanted a defibrillator in me and I still would not have gotten over my shock at what I saw come down the runway from Wal Mart, which staged a fashion show in a Times Square studio.

 

Well-tailored, curvy jackets, chic and sheer party dresses and trendy vests hit all the right notes.

 

Somebody at the big box has finally figured out that you can only sell so many 3-packs of Hanes underwear and Stayclean sweatpants before you realize that not everyone wants to walk around looking like Roseanne Barr in “Roseanne”.

The competition is getting fierce. Tarjay has nailed down the carpet on style at a mass market store and Kohl’s just signed Vera Wang. The Wal had to do something.

 

         

Heart Attack Part II

 

“I’ve never been to Wal-Mart,’’ said Elle fashion director and Project Runway dominatrix Nina Garcia, after viewing the show. Dressed in a skin-tight Ellen Tracy sweater and a sexy fringe Louis Vuitton leather skirt, she didn’t look like she’d been shopping there recently.

 

 I offered to take Nina on a field trip to the Wal. I’m awaiting her call. Nina, you have my number. Bravo, text me if you want to record the first time Nina checks out the Wal. Must-see reality TV.

Electra Electric

 

Can the East Coast contain Carmen Electra? Popular figure that she is at the Los Angeles show week, Prince’s former girlfriend and Dennis Rodman’s former wife has decamped to New York show week. There the charming actress greeted fans before and after the pretty, floaty BCBG Max Azria show swanning a strapless polka dot number by said designer.

 

But now that Azria has created a pricier line and a designer-price line, I.Q.-challenged celebrities will have to decide when it’s appropriate to wear BCBG Max Azria and when to wear BCBG.

 

Marc Bouwer’s clothes require less thought. It’s for the red-carpet, Missy. Gold silk dresses, look-at-me red silk numbers and the paparazzi-seeking heat missiles like his billowing goddess gowns in eye-poppoping jewel shades.

 

His Aireness

 

Speaking of jewels. If you’re going to wear some jewels with your Bouwer Power dress, you’ll love the succulence of Chris Aire’s red-gold and diamond adornments.

 

At Aire’s 10 p.m.-with-clock-ticking runway show, Cee-lo of Gnarls Barkley had the audience rocking. But the rotund rocker didn’t do much hip swiveling himself as whipped out his hit song.

 

BABY WHACK

 

Skipped Baby Phat’s 8 p.m. show and missed – as I knew I would – some drama (this time involving rapper Fiddy Cent) and missed patronizing, ghetto-fabulous fashions by Kimora Lee Simmons. When will this assault on style sensibilities stop? Instead, I dropped by an interesting, new exhibit on Black Style at the City Museum of New York.

 

HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE

 

At the Barneys party the other night to introduce Nicolas Ghesquiere’s new book on Spanish designer Balenciaga, Washington Post writer and Pulitzer winner  Robin Givhan (you go Robin!) said she bumped into a woman pushing a baby stroller at the party. She looked down expecting to see a cutsie in a onesie, but instead saw a dog. The woman was pushing her Maltese around in the stroller. Just so the little doggie didn’t get stepped on, she said.

My question is: Shouldn’t that doggie have been home in bed at that hour?