I love my job and know I am fortunate to work in an industry that I’m truly passionate about. What I don’t love is that many times I take that love too far. Like today, for example, I wore my fabulous printed Roger Vivier pumps all around the city, and now the bones in my feet feel as if they are going to push their way through my skin. I might never be able to walk again. But anyway, onto New York Fashion Week and the Spring 2010 collections…

Yesterday I stopped by a presentation for A La Disposition (I now want a coat with a bustle), I ducked into 2 events at store in SoHo, had dinner with my girlfriend and happened to see Dina, Yael and Tamar – otherwise known as the Magnes Sisters – towards the end of our meal.

Today I started off the day at a medioche presentation, met Kelly (a new favorite publicist of mine) at the Society of Illustrators to preview the new science fiction installation and have a quick bite in the cafe before heading out to meet LaQuan Smith and Telfar. Let me tell you guys – LaQuan Smith is awesome. He might have a lot to learn, but he’ll get there (and soon). I die for his neon dresses and sooo much more. (I’m also going to do a feature on him in the coming weeks for StyledOn, so you better start reading that as well!)

I watched Chanel Iman walk the runway for Rosa Cha (which was rather good, actually). I saw a few other things not worth mentioning. Unfortunately I missed the Cuz Love Killz show (a grafitti-inspired collection), which I really wanted to check out.

And then there was Fashion’s Night Out… and for me, it was all about Nicole Romano and the Plaza. Very successful event and I wore the sexiest little tuxedo shorts and one of her amazing tassel necklaces.

Tomorrow I have a crazy schedule: Alejandro Ingelmo (SHOES!!) | Yigal Azrouel | Copperwheat | Ideeen | Luca Luca | Nicole Miller | Costello Tagliapietra | Indashio | Persona Party with Amber Rose, Russel Simmons & Kanye West

I had better get a good night’s sleep because my toes are still numb and I can barely type. ‘night!!

I’m typically more of a Prada girl, but everything about Chanel’s resort 2010 collection show – the setting, the clothing, the make-up, the hair, the overall styling – is really speaking to me. Sit back, relax, read Sarah Mower’s review below, see images from the show, and just image you were there:

A cruise show on a boardwalk snaking along the Venice Lido with the sun about to set, gentle waves rolling in, and a whisper of a breeze to make sinuous shapes flutter in movement…it couldn’t have been a more poetic or, given the times, more uniquely audacious Chanel moment. “I wanted to reinvent the mystique,” said Karl Lagerfeld, talking about locating the collection in one of Coco Chanel’s favorite summer haunts—she visited Venice for almost ten years beginning in 1919 and met Diaghilev here. But Lagerfeld might also have been speaking about reinstating the long-lost leisurely sensation of a fashion show as an exceptional one-off experience. The 350 guests reclining on sun beds in the famous white tented cabanas certainly felt privileged to be witnessing the extreme glamour of the designer’s learned-but-light invocation of an important part of Coco Chanel’s biography, one that was overlaid with passing allusions to Visconti, Fellini, the Venice carnival, and the city’s art treasures.

“Coco on the Lido,” as Lagerfeld called it, started with a tableau of figures in tricorne hats and cloaks—cover-ups for a play on girdles and bras as bathing suits. Next came Tatjana Patitz promenading in creamy lace as the picture-hatted Edwardian mother in Death in Venice, her sailor-suited son Tadzio and his two sisters in ingenue fan-pleated dresses trailing behind. From there, the sequence took off into matelot- and gondolier-inspired stripes, interpreted in long-line fine-knit cardigans and playful beachwear with funny red and white striped wedge booties. The references kept streaming out—

Its sad, but true – I’ve barely written about the fall 2009 collections at all (aside from Abaeté and Rebecca Minkoff, which I attended on the very first day of New York Fashion Week), but I just wanted to remind you that the very best shows have either just happened or will be happening very soon:

Prada is out!
Marni is out!!
Bottega is out!!!
Jil Sander is out!!!!
Miu Miu and more, still to come…

Stay tuned to ThoseExtra4Inches.com as I’ll be listing my top looks of the season, just as I did for Spring ‘09, as well as a trend report or some sort of condensed version of one. Have any of you been watching the shows? Have a favorite already??

Often times, designers get panned for showing collections that contain pieces that are too show-y, but now is the time to celebrate these fantastic costumes!

For my dream Halloween costume, I would gladly enlist the help of Gareth Pugh, Alexander McQueen, Viktor&Rolf, or the boys from Heatherette – in fact, I’m planning on being a jellyfish, so if any of you boys are reading this and want to help a girl out, feel free to give me a call! Anyway, see below for several of my favorite picks from the past few seasons…

Wicked Witch of the East | Gareth Pugh

Vigilante | Viktor & Rolf

Click below for more of my favorite picks…

Now that the shows are finally finished, I’ve selected 15 of my favorite looks from the spring 2009 runways.

Just a brief note: I love LOVE Giambattista Valli’s Spring ‘09 Collection so much, but I want to live in Jil Sander every moment of every single day. Marni’s show was amazing… so much fashion, so little time. Upcoming Spring Trends? Sheer layers, fringe detailing, asymmetrical lines and hems, one-strap tops, mid-drift baring silhouettes, and so much more…

Lanvin | That color combination! The volume!

Narciso Rodriguez | Black and white and perfect

Balmain | Ridiculously cool, love this look

Stella McCartney | A little sparkle, a lot of sex appeal

Donna Karan | Sexy, strong, and slinky

Bottega Veneta | Smooth as butter

Calvin Klein | Sculptural, metallic, and stunning

Jil Sander | Fringe benefits aplenty

Giambattista Valli | Big skirts, perfect pleats, little waists – oh my!

Peter Som | Gorgeous color. love love LOVE

Miu Miu | Sharp dressed and stunning

Marni | So cute. I die! I DIE.

Alexander McQueen | Somewhere over the rainbow

John Galliano | Show-stopping drama

Oscar de le Renta | Pure elegance

(All images courtesy of Style.com)

Sometimes we forget that Manhattan is an island, but it is…and last night I almost fell off of it. Ok, ok – not really, but I did go to yet another event waaay over on the west side at 645 W. 42nd Street, this time at espace and it was worth the trek.

We ventured to the edge of New York to celebrate Nicole Romano’s Spring 2009 Collection, which included several pieces of ready-to-wear and more of her fantastic jewelry.

Nicole looked stunning (as usual), this time wearing one of her new dresses, a cocktail version of the gown shown below. Walking through the crowd, I heard plenty of whispers expressing interest in each of the dresses as well as the jewelry. The long tassel necklace was exceptionally eye-catching.

Nicole definitely gets sexy and the entire event reflected that casually sexy attitude. The wine was good, the crowd was good, and even Countess LuAnn deLesseps from the desperate Housewives of New York was there and interviewed Nicole for BetterTV. Click below for images of the collection and espace…

In the Promenade at Bryant Park, during the Carlos Miele Spring 2009 Collection show, the girls look gorgeous, happy, perfect. With shining hair and smiling eyes, they were serenaded by Brazilian singer Seu Jorge (who has an amazing voice, made the girls laugh, and brought a joyfulness to an otherwise dreary fashion week).

Miele describes the collection as a dance between nature and the female body. His love for architecture, art, music as well as his core influences such as Brazilian landscape artist Roberto Burle Marx, led him to design his island hideaway in Florianopolis, a simple shaped house that blends into the landscape – which coincidentally served as inspiration for his spring 2009 collection.

Unfortunately you can’t really see any of the dresses in my photographs (perhaps I should invest in a real camera instead of just relying on my iPhone), so you either have to trust me when I tell you that they were stunning, or you’ll have to go to style.com and look at the collection yourself. Anyway, click below for my not-so-hot images and more info on this show…

P.S. I finally saw Karlie Kloss walk in a show – haunting yet stunning. Also fell in love with models Sheila Marquez, Eniko Mihalik, Kamila Filipcikova. OH – and the big sparkly cuffs by Juliana Scarpa were simply fabulous and definitely worth looking into.

After a looong day at work on Tuesday, I managed to make it to Tony Cohen’s Spring 2009 Collection Show at the Salon in Bryant Park.

New York fashion fixtures Patrick McDonald (who pens the Highbrow column in Paper Magazine) and Leigh Lezark of the Misshapes were seated front row opposite me (which sort of tells you a lot about the attendance of the show).

The collection featured lots of draped, tucked, and gathered chiffon which floated down the runway. All-in-all, it was a pretty collection that I can imagine many of my friends (as well as bi-coastal It girls) wearing.

And as pretty as the clothing was, the hair was crazy. Big and sort of scraggly, it only accentuated the wobbliness of the girls as they struggled to walk down the runway in heels that seemed unstable (although I would love to try a pair). Actually, I wasn’t a fan of the casting for this show in general, but that may simply be due to the overall styled effect or just sitting front row where I worried about being crushed by a falling model.

On a related note: The spring shows, in case you haven’t noticed already, are quite devoid of jewelry compared to the fall. Tony Cohen’s show did include some jewelry, and although it was Erickson Beamon, which is usually all kinds of wonderful-gaudy bling, but it was stripped down to just simple rope chain necklaces. Click below for images for the show (and a close-up shot of the shoes) below…

I have to be very honest here – I have always felt that contemporary lines should not show during fashion week, that they dilute what is special about runway shows; that runway should be reserved for more theatrical pieces shown on dazzling sets, etc…

However, after working in the industry for a while now, I have not only come to accept the inclusion of contemporary collections, but truly appreciate their presence at fashion week. After all, the contemporary collections are the ones we’ll actually be wearing.

I barely made it to the tents in time for Abaeté’s Spring 09 Collection on Saturday, but did thanks to one slightly crazy driver who nearly ran over a film crew. My first ‘real job’ was at Abaeté (I was there for over 3 years handling the pr and marketing) and so this line, designer Laura Poretzky, and all of the amazing people there will always be very, very dear to me.

For Spring 09, Poretzky was inspired by the dichotomy of the two sides of a woman: the good and the bad. She also looked at clothing from the inside out and paid close attention to underpinnings (lingerie, girdles, netting, etc). The bad girl, according to Poretzky, is celebrated with bondage-tight black jersey pieces, corseted details, and peek-a-boo netting. The girl girl, with ultra feminine, flirty bows and a pretty pastel palate (which was inspired by summers spent in France).

Because I’ve been through so many seasons with Abaeté, I probably view the shows a little bit differently than other people do, paying special attention to all of the people in the audience (like Neiman Marcus’ Ken Downing and ELLE’s Kate Lanphear), the new collection of footwear for Payless (which is always good) – and then of course to the clothing! All of the pieces in yellow and a sheer blue striped silk were super pretty and the I loved the more dramatic make-up and swept back hair this season. Her blouses and top were also quite strong, but the bike shorts, layering of tops, and use of tights in a few of the looks were a bit much. An overtly sporty departure for Poretzky, but still a collection true to her signature feminine aesthetic.

My top picks from Abaeté’s Spring 09 Collection? The trench in look 14 was ridiculously chic, look 21 was perfect amounts of sweet and sexy, both the bowed white/blue swim suit and the yellow one with corseted details were gorgeous, and the yellow one strap dress would look fantastic in an episode of Gossip Girl (and I mean this in a good way).

Right after the lights went back up at Abaeté, I ran out of the tents and straight into a cab to rush over to the ADAM by Adam Lippes Spring 2009 Collection Show. The show was set to take place in the garden of the New York Theological Seminary, but was moved inside a gorgeous Gothic church due to the looming rain storm.

For his spring 09 collection, Lippes was inspired by color, ease, and MoMA’s Color Chart exhibition months earlier. The first few looks were sent out with loose knit hats embellished with big studs that looked hideous in person, but once the hats were gone, things started looking better. There was bright pink, vibrant yellow, electric blue, lots of white and black too. My favorite look was the last one (especially the amber silk georgette floor-length shirt dress) and it was great seeing Siri walk.

After the show I walked in the pouring rain for blocks, practically ruining a pair of satin Celine peep-toe pumps. Needless to say that by the time I got home I was hating on fashion week and swore off going to any parties I had RSVP’d to for the evening. Of course I ended up going out later that evening (and had a great time), but it took watching Margaret Cho and eating couple slices of pizza to get me back in the mood.

Click below to see more images from Abaeté and ADAM by Adam Lippes including links to their full runway collctions.

Somehow in today’s sweltering heat, I managed to make my way past 7th avenue…past 8th…and all the way to 11th for a runway show of the FORM Spring 2009 Collection at The Atelier Skylounge at 635 West 42nd Street.

Even if it was a fairly long walk down one of Manhattan’s trashiest streets, it was worth it: the show took place on the roof of the relatively new Atelier building against striking blue skies and a breathtaking cityscape.

After spotting Miss J. Alexander (yes, Miss J. Alexander from America’s Next Top Model), we grabbed lemony drinks before heading to our seats to soak in a little sun. Seats were arranged over the entire roof and it was a good thing we had sunglasses as we were seated facing downtown.

It was actually incredibly relaxing and the show ended up providing a calm in my otherwise fairly crazy day. And there were none of the crazy theatrics I was expecting since Tara Subkoff was involved.

But on to the clothing – Georgette, chiffon, twills, and various knit pieces were created by designer Jerry Tam in warm dessert shades of ochre, sand, grey, khaki and soft sky blue. The collection featured everything from short spring trench coats to bright white swimsuits layered with encircling clouds of delicate gauze. I feel like this is another collection equally suited to the spring as it is to the fall, but this could be due to my own personal mindset or simply because a lot of the looks were shown with boots.

The pieces all have a deconstructed romantic rocker-chic element to them and while I’d love to own many of the looks shown, I do feel the collection could have been edited down. The torso-chain jewelry was also a bit overused and sort of odd…Click below for more images from the FORM Spring 2009 Collection and scene below.

My fashion week officially started today around 2pm, on West 37th Street, with a presentation for Nuj Novakhett’s Spring 2009 Collection.

This contemporary collection is extremely wearable with flattering flounces here and there in colors consumers will actually wear (black, sand, red, blue). Although more ‘fall’ than ’spring’, the line consists of smart pieces that are as romantic as they are versatile. One piece in particular caught my eye – a sort of one strapped black dress with gentle draping simply named ‘classic black crepe dress’.

Novakhett’s innovative tailoring and feminine silhouettes make her not only one to watch in the future, but one to wear now.

Another thing I want to mention is the fact that Novakhett showed her collection as a presentation, not on the runway, and yes, there is a big difference between the two and there are certainly good and bad things about both.

During presentations, refreshments might be served (wine at Novakhett’s show) and the atmosphere is much more social and less structured; there are no seat assignments and people generally walk around and mingle. The down side to this is that many people tend to walk in, glance at the collection and then search for familiar faces to gossip with.

Presentations also held over a span of time (Novakhett’s was from 2-3pm), versus runway shows which happen only once and can be slightly dependent upon the most important attendee’s schedule (i.e. “Hold the show! Anna will be here in only 10 more minutes!”). During runway shows, a look is sent out once and may or may not end up in the finale depending upon where it falls in the line-up, giving editors only a few seconds to really judge an entire look – presentations allow for a much more leisurely review of each piece, providing ample time for details and construction to be studied (at most presentations, you are allowed to get rather close to the models if you want).

Now, one of the great things about runway shows is seeing all of the runway models in action (I remember seeing Sasha walk for the first time…*sigh*). Because presentations end up taking so much of a model’s time (they are just sitting or standing for hours), they tend to feature newer, less-experienced girls who are working the presentation for trade or very little in return.

Both presentations and runway shows allow for infinite possibilities as far as lighting, music, set design, hair, make-up, and whatever else go, but runway shows are always more hectic and always more dramatic.

Tomorrow I’ll report on what goes on at Form, which should be a little crazy as buzz-worthy Tara Subkoff (the pint-sized, overly difficult and dramatic “designer” of Imitation of Christ) is art directing. The FORM collection is inspired by the Rococo movement, and Tara’s overly-theatrical shows in the past have garnished such reviews as: “a bleak political statement – involving a slideshow of images from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a George W Bush impersonator in the front row and miserable male models who opened the show on a catwalk adorned with political flags” by Vogue UK, so this should at least be interesting…

Anyway, click below to see images and more information from the Nuj Novakhett Spring 2009 Collection Presentation

Black Lace: Givenchy, Christian Lacroix, Dior, Chanel, Anne Valérie Hash, Armani Privé
Sheer Beauty: Valentino, Christian Dior
Fabulous Fur: Givenchy, Chanel, Armani Privé, Jean Paul Gaultier
Take a Bow: Armani Privé, Christian Dior (esp. accessories), Elie Saab
Black & White: Dior, Armani Privé, Chanel, Anne Valérie Hash, Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier
Sweet Pastels: Armani Privé, Anne Valérie Hash, Christian Dior, Valentino
Color Pops: Christian Lacroix, Jean Paul Gaultier

Favorite Collections: Christian Lacroix & Christian Dior
Most Wearable: Givenchy
Most Original Accessories: Anne Valérie Hash’s shoulder piece & necklace – love love love them

Check out the shows for yourself at style.com and let me know what you think…