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)

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…

Something just reminded me of this (probably an ad for the new 90210):

I’ve been to several shows in the tents so far and have yet to see the CFDA Health Booth - you know, the booth set up so that young women with eating disorders would have a place to go for help..in front of everyone in the industry?

Maybe it really is there and I’ve just walked by, but if that is indeed the case, then again, what the hell is the point of it?

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

The Shows:
Abaeté
ADAM by Adam Lippes
Christian Cota
Malandrino
Tony Cohen
Brian Reyes
Carlos Miele
Jen Kao
Nuj Novakhett
FORM

The Places:
Stanton Social
Catch 22
The Box
Brother Jimmy
French Embassy

Before you hit up the shows, step into the worlds of 2 of fashion’s hottest, chain-smoking designers. Read the following articles on the train in the morning, while waiting in line for a show, on en route to the after-parties:

• The Tastemaker by Lynn Hirschberg for The New York Times - a piece on designer Stefano Pilati of Yves saint Laurent
• Enchanted; The transformation of Marc Jacobs by Ariel Levy - a profile for The New Yorker

Fashion week doesn’t officially begin until Friday, September 5th, but some designers are jumping the gun and presenting collections today…in fact, this afternoon I’m looking forward to a showing of Nuj Novakhett, an adorable line of wearable contemporary RTW, and will give you my take on their Spring 09 collection this evening.

I’ll also be writing more about what goes on behind the scenes during fashion week (hair, makeup, castings, the different venues, styling), and how it really all works, but if you need a fashion fix right now, read the article below which I originally wrote for Iconique.com back in 2005. I found it the other day and thought it would be fun to share with you. It’s a little silly, but I hope you enjoy it!

Behind New York Fashion Week
(and the rules for making it stylishly into the tents)

There is never a better time to observe the style efforts of others than during fashion week. The city and every fashionista in it morph into 16 year old girls shopping on 5th avenue for the first time…excited, nervous, and filled with such high expectations that are bound to be slightly let down in some way or another by the reality of it all.

For people working in the industry, fashion week is hell week; a week of many long nights, followed by mornings of grainy coffee in stained mugs. The design teams frantically make last minute alterations and sometimes even add pieces to their collections the day before the show as they continue to edit and re-edit everything. PR people work on their press/socialite/celebrity invitees, making sure that their seating assignments won’t offend too many people and that their front rows will look at least as good as the presented collections. Sales teams call, email, call, mail, call, stalk, and call buyers and store owners in hopes of setting up buying appointments for the next few weeks while purses are still full and money is waiting to be burned.

The modeling agents seem to be on two calls at every given moment, talking to both the client, negotiating terms, payment and scheduling, and to the models, tracking them down and changing their schedules from one minute to the next. The models (who may very well be only fourteen and speak little or no English) run frantically from one casting to the next while squeezing in fittings and trying to navigate around New York City.

But while the week is hell for the design houses and event firms, it can also be a huge headache for those attending the shows.