Gwen Stefani’s s/s2012 L.A.M.B. Collection – When Fashion by a Celebrity is a Good Thing

Text, Vivian Kelly

Celebrities have a bad rap in the fashion business. I’d taken a skeptical stance on the idea of the notion of celebrity as fashion designer, since the days when Kathie Lee Gifford “designed” a line for Wal-Mart, followed by legions of demi celebs such as Paris Hilton who capitalized on their fame to produce shoddy garments they themselves would never actually wear. The fact that THEY themselves wore Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Oscar de la Renta etc etc. said it all.

There are exceptions however, that show that celebrities CAN [in conjunction with the right team] produce a credible fashion line. The first time I witnessed this was while attending a Justin Timberlake concert at Mohegan Sun, soon after his “Future Sex/Love Sounds” tour hit. Joe Zee did an amazing job styling him and Justin carried that white suit as well as John Travolta did his in “Saturday Night Fever”.

IT wasn’t William Rast, but I recall being stupefied when mid-way through the show, he sang a ballad in a plaid William Rast shirt and jeans. That night, I began reconsidering the celebrity as fashion designer issue and resolved to actually READ the WWD articles about Celebrity X designing a fashion line to see if others besides Justin were getting it right.

Good news. In the ranks of the “getting it right” are Justin Timberlake/William Rast, the Olsen Twins/Elizabeth and James, and the subject of this post, Gwen Stefani/L.A.M.B. Until this NYFW, the closest I got to Gwen’s line was seeing pieces at Nordstrom’s on the floor. I liked what I saw and longed to see her next collection in its entirety to see if she continued to follow-through on her branding message ie: herself = a fun yet sophisticated version of cool.

A key ingredient for a brand’s success is to create an identity and to stick with your DNA. Domenico Dolce & Stefano Gabbana hit gold early in their career with the severe look of elderly Italian women clad in black crossed with sexy corsets and animal print that showed their idealized woman; one who possesses an intriguing angel-devil personality.

Gwen Stefani has similarly created a believable personality for her L.A.M.B line. She is known as a pop star who mixes classic glamour with funky contemporary clothing resulting in a mix that is the modern equivalent of Eighties’ pop star, Cyndi Lauper. Although physically these two don’t resemble one another, they share that irresistible “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” spirit that I’ve loved since Ms. Lauper debuted it in 1983 on MTV.

This season was my first L.A.M.B. show. I’m calling it a “show” even though technically, it was a presentation, set in the “Box” space – my favorite of the Lincoln Center Fashion Week venues as there’s usually little to no waiting, you can get as close as you want to the clothes and the models obligingly pose for shots.

The presentation was scheduled to start at 2:30p.m, but you wouldn’t have known that from the crowd assembled in the holding area when I arrived at 2:20. Normally tardy editors were in line waiting, snaked around the length of the tent to get what I guessed would be only a very quick glimpse of the latest L.A.M.B. collection and hopefully a look at the chanteuse cum fashion designer herself. [Ms. Stefani was not there, sigh.]

I wiggled to the front of the 4-deep crowd huddled around the models posing on the white blocks, to scan the 23 looks. There was herringbone plaid, a leather moto jacket, some fun Ikat prints and quite a bit of Noir Jewelry; in short, no huge deviations from the brand’s DNA. Just an hour earlier at lunch with Scott French and Meredith Garcia of The Fashion List at Pain Quotidian, we all agreed that the best designers like writers find their voice and stick with it. Their customers appreciate this; can count on them to deliver the goods. Make no mistake – consistency is not boring, it is an asset.

A few months ago, a stroll on the floor at Nordstrom’s Westchester Mall verified this. Marc Jacobs Mark by Marc and L.A.M.B. stood out, because they didn’t need any store signage to identify them. That odd but adorable tweak like a teeny tiny print on a puff sleeve blouse- must be Marc. Black and white herringbone jackets and red accents? Must be L.A.M.B. – it was.

With all of this in the back of my mind, once finally, inside the Box, my first glimpse revealed black and white, this time as an Ikat print top worn with brown herringbone shorts accessorized with a skinny red belt, and towering platform sandals in black, red and cobalt – very Eighties!

The rock and roll portion of the brand was most apparent in the accessories, hair and makeup, namely a leather and gold shark tooth necklace heavily kohled eyes, straight black brows and a two- tone “Pebbles” from The Flintstones hairdo.

Many of the editors in the Tents were wearing this same up-do, minus the volume and two-tone.

Ms.Stefani hit the preppy trend square on with a v-front cream tennis sweater but unlike the one from your parents’ country club, this one is minus the unflattering bulk. The L.A.M.B sweater boasts fine knit gage stitching, which make it an ideal transition piece. These days, transition pieces are where it’s at. What could be better than playing a set of tennis, taking a shower, putting on the same sweater that you walked on the Courts with and getting-on with your day? There’s something for everyone here, and even one piece will up the fun quotient of your spring wardrobe.

Sebago’s Artisan Collection – Tradition Meets Innovative Style

You say “Tomatoe” I say “Tomahto”. The same goes with the shoe brand name, SEBAGO. No matter which way you elect to pronounce it, Sebago is a great brand. Sometime during NYFW, I fell into a huge clothing rut – I no longer knew what I wanted to wear, and despite a stuffed walk-in closet at home, nothing looked right. As I sat in Robert Verdi’s Luxe Laboratory, looking at the Sebago display, the answer came to me- preppy dressing.

By this, I mean how we used to dress in the late Seventies in Middle School and at Greenwich High. There was a uniform and it transitioned me into my freshman year at Duke. The early Eighties were a throwback period to conservatism. Ronald Reagan had just been elected President, and it was good to look WASP, ie: subtly rich. At this same time, Lisa Birnbach’s Preppy Handbook came out and served as the how-to get the look of affluence.

Key to the look is the boat shoe and the penny loafer. Anyone in Middle School who didn’t have Dock or Top Siders was a social outcast. One had a rounded toe, the other a square toe, and either was acceptable, as long as they were by Sperry. Only those most tuned into fashion back then knew that the ORIGINAL boat shoe was actually manufactured by SEBAGO, in 1946. Friend, R. Scott French, fashion designer and co-owner of The Fashion List, was one of the few who KNEW. Little good this did him as his less enlightened Baltimore classmates kept insisting that his Sebago docks were “wrong” and their Sperrys were “right”.

Once at Duke, I swapped my topsiders for penny loafers in cordovan and wore them with jeans and some of my Mother’s tweed blazers and a prize Diana Vreeland red tweed blazer [with suede elbow patches]through fall and early winter.

Years later, I remembered my beloved topsiders and loafers while flipping through the September 2011 People’s Special Fashion Issue, with the blaring headline, “Kate’s Style Secrets!”. On p. 51 lay the answer to my “Whatever Do I Wear?” crisis. There, at the top of the page, were a pair of Sebago “Bala” mocassins, with an oily wax finish that looked great with Kate’s J Brand jeans and a simple button down shirt.

Years later, at the Luxe Lab, I learned from Tracee Yang, Harrison & Shriftman’s PR Rep, that today’s Sebagos are all hand made in the Dominican Republic. They’ve kept the original designs we love but they’ve added some great fashion twists, by collaborating with artists such as Stash, an innovator in urban design who exhibited alongside the late Keith Haring, when he was 17 years old. Since then, he’s added a commercial aspect to his work, by collaborating with Nike and A Bathing Ape. We loved his short moc/boot that laces up and has a bit of spatter treatment to toughen up this beloved preppy staple.

Another noteworthy collaboration is with the Filson, a “better outdoor clothing company” that was established in 1897 in Seattle, by C.C. Filson, a former railroad conductor. His fledgling outdoor clothing store took off thanks to the Great Klondike Gold Rush [1897-9].

Sebago has mixed Filson’s oil tint cloths with Sebago leathers, most notably in a ruggedly handsome bag that’s also very practical. The bags are available exclusively in Bloomingdales’ selected NYC, Santa Monica, LA, and 59th Street.

Sure to be an editorial success are the women’s collection with Kimmie Smith, who’s known for her “nuvo glam style”. She’s already done a small collection for fall that’s being well received, but lookout for the spring collection, which will be available online in February and March. You’ll have to wait until then to pickup her irresistible colorful docksides.

For now, if you’re a guy, or shopping for one, you’re in luck. There’s a nice assortment of styles at the Sebago popup store at Saks 5^th Ave. on the 7^th floor. The salesmen there couldn’t be nicer. Seeing I was near tears after slogging through the rain to discover Saks isn’t yet carrying the Plaza and Bala Sebagos I wanted, they directed me to East 34^th Street. It was there, thanks to them, that I finally scored, at Orva Shoes, just like they said, at 34 West 34^th Street.

Now, I just have to wait until late October, for my pair of “Balas” to come in. I’ve just put in my order for the first tall boot I’ve bought in years – the Saranac, which has a stylish tweed panel offsetting the rich light brown leather and a practical lug sole.

Lisa Perry’s Modern Take on the Iconic Pan Am Stewie

Text, Vivian Kelly

The Right Time and the Right Place: “The Pan Am Era”, circa 1963

My NYFW mates, Mark Behnke, Men’s Editor for Fashion Tribes and “Video Vixen” Lisa Johnson, Editor in Chief of Lisa Johnson Fitness, couldn’t wait to meet the crew of “The Real Stewardesses of Pan Am”. Unfortunately, by the time we raced over from the Donna Karan store and the Marissa Berenson Book signing, our targets had flown the coop. We still got our Pan Am Stewie fix though, as there were models dressed in the blue retro uniform handing out airplane snacks and beverages. Once we fueled-up, we settled in and started exploring the all white store. I was transported back to the early Sixties, a period in time I’m utterly enamored with. I actually DID fly Pan Am in 1963, but as an 11 month old infant, sadly I don’t remember much. Ten years later, I caught the end of the “Pan Am Era” jetstream, when I flew Pan Am , New York to Paris, and had one of the best meals of my young life -on a plane! What I remember even more than the food was how utterly beautiful the stewardesses were, with their little hats, perfect figures and immaculate hair and makeup. Barbie couldn’t hold a candle to them. Years later, when the airlines changed their title to “flight attendant”, the glamour left the building. They may as well have called them “air waitresses”.

The Lisa Perry store is a like a very cool apartment you want to spend the day in so you can look at all the coffee table books, [such as Airline], study the Roy Lichtenstein prints on the wall and try on each and every one of the colorful Sixties’ style dresses hanging on the fixtures. For a fashionista who’s enamored of this era, it’s like being deposited into a wonderful penny candy store where you want to try everything on but don’t know where to start.

A Japanese businessman was holding the last Pan Am logoed bag Lisa had designed. He couldn’t decide if he should buy it. It wasn’t leather, but it was “a great design and a wonderful piece of retro. My wife will kill me if I buy this, but…”

I encouraged him, “If you don’t buy it tonight, you’re going to kick yourself later. There won’t be any more, and you know that once you see the show, you’ll want it even more. You can tell your wife you’ll share it with her.”

He bought it.

On our way out, my initial disappointed on missing the cast evaporated when we got to chat with Lisa Perry herself about the Limited Edition bags she’d designed for FNO and to commune about our shared love for this legendary time in history.

Ms. Perry told us her collaboration with the highly anticipated TV show, The Real Stewardesses of Pan Am was suggested to her by Vogue magazine. When I asked if she would design a Pan Am suit she laughed and said she could design a whole collection based on that but only after researching the original suits. Stay tuned for the upcoming show episodes and for Ms. Perry’s Pan Am inspired suits. If the limited edition bags she put out are any indication [most were snapped up on FNO] of the success of this future collection, then she’ll have a gang-busters hit on her hands, as will ABC.

The Costello Tagliapietra s/s2012 Show – an Exercise in Consistency

Text, Vivian Kelly and Laura Wood

One of the reasons we love Costello Tagliapietra is for their consistency. That may sound boring, but far from it. You know that when you go to one of Jeffrey and Robert’s shows you will see beautiful easy clothes in sumptuous fabrics that are meant for a woman, not a girl. That is not say that the clothes are by any means matronly. The designs are sexy but in subtle way, thanks to the fit. Take the flutter sleeve orange dress with a Japanese cherry blossom print on it.

Unlike so many things that hit the runway, you can see yourself wearing this. In fact, we we sat there watching and wondering, ”Why AREN’T we wearing these dresses right NOW? The dresses [ a favorite with Vogue] hit right above the knee, which is part of the new non-slut look – a backwash against an avalanche of short rompers that most real women can never wear unless they happen to enjoy being ridiculed.

Costello is known for their great dresses, but don’t ignore the few pants that they do offer. We’re in love with the orange cherry blossom wrap front top and matching loose pants. The pants are something new onto themselves – they’ve got the chicness of a capri and the comfort of a harem pant.

Yes, the prints are floral, but because the backdrop is muted, you could wear them in both summer AND fall. The collection has the added bonus of not being overtly spring or fall and works well for women who travel year-round in different climates. You can wear these pieces in New York in spring and in a Southern climate in the late fall months. Props to these designers for understanding that they are designing for real women who want great clothes but don’t want to switch-out their wardrobe and start from scratch each and every season.

The Callula Lillibelle s/s2012 Show at the Box, Lincoln Center

Text, Vivian Kelly

It was early in the morning, mid-way through NYFW, and in the dash from our West 56th Street hotel to the Lincoln Center tents to go backstage for Callula Lillibelle, no time for some sorely needed coffee. The lobby at Lincoln Center was weirdly empty, but Neiman Marcus’ Fashion Director, Ken Downing was there, Starbucks in hand, and we stopped by to chat and to get a bead on what one of fashion’s sharpest forcasters thought of the New York s/s2012 season so far. I mentioned we were on our way to chat with William Calvert, backstage at Callula Lillibele.

“Is it Neiman’s?” Ken asked us as Mark [Behnke, of Fashion Tribes],whiled- away those few pleasant moments before hitting backstage.

Good question. I replied, “Hm, well there was a great coat I saw last time.”

“Honey, it takes more than one coat to be in Neiman Marcus” he joked. It struck me then, how hard his job is. I kept that question in mind a few minutes later, as I watched the models get into their looks and pose on the white backdrop backstage, presumably for the lookbook that would be in stores for spring.

I finally actually “met” the designer, William Calvert, after an aborted attempt to record our phone conversation a few months earlier, in which he told me that C.L. had a few winning silhouettes that worked well from size 2-12 and that he worked on tweaking the winning formula each season. I botched that interview, but this describes Callula’s mission – to make women look good and to as the French so aptly put it, “look comfortable in their skin”, and to be proud of their curves.

During our backstage interview, that took place in front of the scrim where the models were posting for the look book, William said “Callula Lillibelle is primarily a dress collection” and in answer to our other question, “it sells at Saks”. Unsurprisingly, the strongest looks were dresses such as the lemon/silver stretch tweed boatneck one that would look as good on a curvy woman as on the size zero models posing in the Box presentation.Best in show was the white “Penelope Cruz” – that had a beautiful wrap front bodice, that was both glamorous and practical.

While pointing to the models posing in front of him , he told us that he was inspired by strong curvy fashion icons such as Sofia Lauren, Penelope Cruz, Beyonce and Rihanna. Clients and fans include curvy ladies such as Oprah and Gayle King.

There were though, non-dress looks that stood-out, such as the right-on-trend pink jacquard jacket over an ivory dot lace tank and ivory pin dot slouchy shorts. It seems that grown women really WILL be wearing shorts to work, after all. Both looked great with a pair of chic Stuart Weitzman pumps.

To answer Ken’s question, ["Is it Neiman's?"], we concurred that Callula is a solid collection that is perfectly placed at Saks, rather than Neiman’s which houses cutting edge design and where shoppers go to find what they expect to see on the pages of US Vogue. The Neiman’s woman is one who counts fashion and her wardrobe in her top three life priorities. Neiman’s top customers have Ken on speed dial.

By contrast, Saks and Callula are more mellow in their approach to fashion. This brand offers an excellent fit and the fact that the designs do not vary radically from season to season is reassuring to women who want some style but who don’t want a whole new wardrobe each and every season. This collection fits her lifestyle, as while she enjoys her fashion, she doesn’t want [or need] it delivered at warp speed. She paces herself with easy to wear fashions such as Callula. Fashion and her wardrobe are important but rank lower on the priority list, and like Saks, there is a sense of decorum in her attitude. Despite the year-round throng of tourists and buzz, the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship continues to maintain the air of stately dignity when well-to-do ladies shopped there on their way to lunch and their choice of gloves was an important matter. Similarly, Callula also possesses that gracious sensibility but there’s no better way to experience it than to slip on one of William’s dresses and to see for yourself.

The Tibi Spring/Summer 2012 Collection Show at Lincoln Center

Text, Carey Reed Zamarriego

Images of Front Row and two Runway Looks, CRZ

Individual Runway Looks, from Vogue UK

“I think women should dress in a way that’s effortless but never lazy,” Amy Smilovic, the American designer behind the Tibi label has said. Naming the ladies of Charlie’s Angels as the epitome of chic style, Tibi strives to provide pieces that take the effort out of creating laidback, modern looks. A feat that’s easier said, than done. I know I toiled away in front of the mirror the morning of the show agonizing over my outfit and trying to piece together an effortless, yet contemporary. In the end, I settled on a billowy red and white striped tank, navy boyfriend cardigan, gray skinny jeans and black booties. However, when placed under the bright lights of the runway show, my cool, collected appearance quickly began to melt.

Diagonally across from me though, were three ladies who seemed to beam in the heat of the show lights and represented the crisp, effortless modern style of Tibi to a T.

Socialite and part-time reality TV star, Olivia Palermo sat flanked by a male companion on one side and TV actress Sophia Bush (One Tree Hill). On the other side of Bush was Emma Roberts, tween actress (Nancy Drew) Julia Roberts’ niece. Olivia looked fresh and classic in an oversized gauzy cream blouse, a skirt so short it disappeared when she was seated, and animal-print pumps. Sofia opted for a strapless rouge leather dress, paired with a python clutch and Emma was decked out in a deep shade of plum.

The show began with a series of shorts, pants and tops in cream and pale hues of pink, green and blue, exuding Tibi’s effortless chicness. Next, there were pops of color with mustard and outfits pairing royal blue and black. Different textiles played off one another, some more successful than others. I didn’t really care for the short-sleeved leather tops, which awkwardly flared out at the models’ waists. There were several textured pieces: an eyelet black ‘nude-illusions’ dress and shorts, and several dresses that looked like they had been pressed with prints. Well-constructed, wide legged trousers and long cargo skirts were paired with sleek, feminine tops and represented Smilovic’s desire that “a woman should dress in contradictions – youthful and sophisticated, masculine and feminine, bold and muted colors.”

The show closed with a series of tops, shorts; and my personal favorite, a strapless, pocketed genie jumpsuit, which all had the same delicate white Asian flower print atop an emerald green and black background. The look was possibly inspired by Smilovic’s time spent living in Hong Kong. My other favorites included a strapless dress in mustard and Tibi’s gauzy halter neck dresses in baby blue and cream, all of which would easily roll up and travel nicely in a bag to the island for a day on the beach and transition, with heels, for an evening out.

Trends for spring/summer:

Return to long, cargo-style skirts

Wide-legged trousers

Royal blue and black; mustard and cream; slate blue and blush

Trends for fall (as seen in the crowd):

60’s styles a-la Mad Men

70’s boho chic: large, floppy velvety hats, oversized clutches, bellbottoms and hair left long, wavy and parted in the center.

80’s preppie style a-la any John Hughes film from the time

To view the collection and for more information on the Tibi brand, visit www.tibi.com

If you’re in NYC, drop into their SoHo Location, at 120 Wooster Street, to browse.

Carey is the Editorial Director for (W)anderlust Writing. To see more of her work and current project, visit:

wanderlustwriting.com

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Tadashi Shoji Spring 2012 Show at Lincoln Center

Text, Vivian Kelly

This collection’s floral theme was in evidence before the show even started. I had enough time pre-show to inspect the head of the runway, which usually just has the designer’s name and/or logo projected onto it. That’s basic but a bit ho-hum after about 10 shows, so it was refreshing to see the green sprig and floral backdrop, which had us thinking, “spring, flowers”.

From the preview, I already knew that the tulip was a focal point of inspiration, but the preview sketch didn’t prepare me for how beautiful the tie dye short sleeve bellskirted dresses would be and how the colors so closely mimicked the pigmentation of an actual tulip bloom.

This was the strongest grouping, but there was a lot more for both day and evening dressing that was also noteworthy. The multiple tiered chiffon and tulle dresses were simple, beautiful, and simply beautiful. Next came dresses in marigold yellow, carnation, peony pin and one sublime print – a kind of broken-up floral. Designers such as Shoji, Mara Hoffman and Custo Dalmau have been using these digitized prints for a while now to create prints that suggest a specific flower or object and make an interesting alternative to a straight-forward print. It’s no wonder that young stylish celebs such as Blake Lively wear Tadashi Shoji to events where they know they’ll be photographed from every possible angle and have to look perfect. I’d like to see her in this yellow one-shoulder dress.

Touches such as ruffled necklines that imitated crushed flowers further attested to the Mr. Shoji’s creative prowess and technical skills. There were one shoulder designs that were both pretty and refined and not the least bit Eighties retro. The designer departed from floral at the end and showed gown after gown in the season’s nude for evening, which demonstrated his shirring and draping technical skill, as they defined the models’ busts and waists in the most flattering way possible.

The finale floral gown though, took the cake. It was a combination of everything that was right with this collection: the floral print. draping, ruching, one-shoulder and flowing fabric that looked as light as air. Thanks to this collection, spring/summer 2012 NY is a season that I won’t be forgetting any time soon.

Fashion Iconoclasts Have Their Day: Libertine and Custo Barcelona

Text, Vivian Kelly

“Just do your own thing”. How often have you heard this phrase? How often do you actually follow that advice?

Too risky, right? Yes and no. Two designers continue to do just that and THIS is a great season for them. They are [drumroll] – Johnson Hartig for Libertine and Custo Dalmau for Custo Barcelona.

Just for fun, I BING’d the definition for “libertine”.

According to wikipedia, “A libertine is one devoid of most moral restraints, which are seen as unnecessary or undesirable, especially one who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behavior sanctified by the larger society. Libertines, also known as rakes, placed value on physical pleasures, meaning those experienced through the five senses.”

In other words, don’t worry about what society thinks. Johnson has it right, and the young trustafarians who wear his clothes to go clubbing probably get a kick our of wearing a tee-shirt or skirt that says “Tax the Rich More” [ie themselves, or Mom and Dad]. As far as trends go, Johnson always does wonderful fitted coats which could be interpreted as “ladylike” and his bold navy, black and white stripes hit the “obvious print” trend going on this week at the New York shows.

Custo Dalau did what he always did – wild prints, mixing and matching unlikely textures for both his men’s and women’s designs. Sometimes it does get a bit excessive [as in a too bulky- too many furs and tweeds] but not this time. The 3-D effect he achieved was interesting and innovative, but we had to wait until the end of the show to have look. Normally, a collection this lengthy might be a bit of a yawn but that was definitely not the case here. The Fashion List’s R. Scott French and I loved the clothes and the music. His Iphone4 enabled him to immediately download two of the songs we loved, “Filthy Love” and “Icons of Summer”. I had to wait until I got back to the room to do it on my MacBook Pro. No matter, the clothes more than made up for that.

Group 1 was called “DUAL” and covered the casual look, and was primarily about graphics. My favorite from this set was the men’s black and white lambskin leather sweater jacket in a harlequin print. This is the sort of piece a woman would “borrow” from her boyfriend or husband and “forget” to give him back.

Group #2 was called “Kaleidoscopio” and as you can guess, was a composite of geometrics stitched together from a variety of fabrics based on raffia, cotton and silk. As at Christian Siriano, there were muted colors [beige, brown and ochre] contrasted with vibrant ones [coral pink and acid green].

The most interesting grouping though, came at the end. “Mirame” featured those special occasion pieces for guys and girls who don’t have a problem with making an impression when they walk into the room. After some discussion, Fashion Tribes’ mens’ editor, Mark Behnke and I agreed that these looks would play well in Rome, where it’s one’s duty to stand out and more, scratch that – MOST – is better. Mark was obsessed with a bronze men’s look which I’ll search-out once all of the show images are available. I’m sure it’s great, but when I attend a Custo show, I prefer to sit back and enjoy the experience; the details come later.

The only drawback to the 3-D fabrics is that they are tough to photograph, [I gave-up after a few fails]. Nonetheless, I’m sure that these colorful pieces made a sufficient impression for editors and buyers to carve-out time in their busy schedule to take another look and to order them for fashion editorials and stores, respectively.

A big “bravo!” to Custo Dalmau this season.

The Rachel Zoe Spring 2012 Collection

Text, Vivian Kelly

In line in the lobby in the Garment Center, we predicted that the Rachel Zoe spring 2012 collection would be heavy on smoke and mirrors and light on content.

When the elevator finally swooshed us up to her studio, it felt as if we were on set for “The Rachel Zoe Project”, complete with a white Diptyque candles and white calla lilies everywhere.

No sooner had we entered, than we were approached by a USA Today videographer doing a behind-the-scenes about the collection.

“So, what do you think?”

I tried to be tactful, it’s not a lot of stylists who can transition from advisor to creator. Victoria Bartlett does a good job over at VPL, but still it’s not a major brand and strictly for the Downtown girl.

“Well, I haven’t seen a lot but she’s done a nice job in that it’s age appropriate and a lot of the looks resemble those she dresses her clients in. There’s the boho chic look [pointing to ruby forest devore t-shirt and maxi skirt] and I could see a young girls wearing the “black textured canvas petit tailleur” ie: a short skirt suit that a 17 year old with good legs can pull off. The 30 looks featured Zoe’s signature style – the floaty seventies chic, the one shoulder short party dress and skinny cigarette pantsuits here young Hollywood clientele go to her for. Hers is a head to toe styling proposition which includes big structured handbags that could pass for the Hermes Birkin she carries [at a distance] and her own famous face [black lined eyes, tan skin, center parted long blonde hair and high gloss nude lips].

Reflecting on it over some ice coffee at Starbucks, we concluded that it was imitation but not inspiration. That is not necessarily a bad thing as this collection is akin to Garanimals for the twenty year old set who want to look au courant but may not know just how to get that look on an assistant’s salary. Hopefully, the collection will remain in their price range and be available on QVC.

The Right Time and the Right Place: FNO – Marisa Berenson at Donna Karan, Uptown

Text, Vivian Kelly

FNO [Fashion Night's Out] was way more relaxed than it was a year ago because this year, we determined which neighborhood was the right place to be. We got the location right – the Upper East Side, but failed the right time portion of it in one of our three picks. This year, we were determined to be in the right place at the right time.

Stop #1 was the Donna Karan Store , where super nova star Marisa Berenson, just happened to be posing at the time we walked in, alternatively with Donna as well as with her new book, Marisa Berenson: A Life in Pictures. Sometimes, being small is an asset; in this case I wormed my way in between the hefty photogs and the 4 feet separating me and one of my fashion icons. Just in case, our Video Vixen, Lisa Johnson, snapped a shot of M.B. too.

Talk about clever marketing – there were a mere 50 of the lush coffee table books available and after that, Marisa stopped signing. It’s the old limited edition play, but it works everytime, and the crowds surged forward to get one before they were gone. I opted to wait as in two weeks, Rizzoli will make the book available for sale to the rest of us. After the lucky shot, I flitted over to the author table and flipped through the book. Yes, there they were, the images of Marisa that ran in the Sixties, when Diana Vreeland was in charge of the look of American Fashion, first at Harper’s Bazaar, and then at Vogue. Marisa was a Vogue fixture between 1967 – 1970. Below, her January 1967 cover for US Vogue.

Our next two stops will be the subject of posts to come later this week: designer Lisa Perry and her Pan Am stewardess inspired collection, the Assouline Rio Themed party at their Plaza Hotel shop, and finishing FNO with a visit with Ben Krigler at the Krigler boutique in the Plaza shops. All of the above did something really special for me – they all brought me back to respective times and places where I would give my eyeteeth to have been.

Just a hint: Lisa Perry and Pan Am = early Sixties glam, when you almost felt like a member of the jet set when you flew the Pan Am NY- Paris route.

Assouline’s Rio Style, curated by Armand Limnander = Rio fun and games. Who wouldn’t want to experience the biggest party of the year on one of the world’s most celebrated beaches?

Krigler = the first true celebrity fragrance – ie: they wore it because they really loved it – no endorsement deal needed.