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.

Today, aside from my usual 10-6 writing job, I was asked to step into the studio to pose as an ‘arm’ model for our upcoming holiday issue. I agreed because, well why not - plus, I’ve always loved going on photoshoots. And although I’ve never modeled before (not even a hand or a foot), I do sort of understand what makes a good model:

• A good model is on-time
• A good model takes direction
• A good model has a positive attitude

Determined to be a good model, I called my art director, Darryl, this morning to confirm my call time, which he was very relaxed about (’Case, just show up around 5′). I of course was slightly excited and spent the rest of the day worrying about when I was going to be able to squeeze in a manicure to tame my super long, ‘witch-length’ talons.

I started to worry about my nails and then called, emailed and texted all about how I should have them shaped, what color they should be painted, etc. I got no response at all (later I learned that his phone died) and just decided to keep it simple, go with a sheer, pale pink shade. Of course I ended up leaving the office later than I wanted to and ran into the nail place on 28th Street and Lexington - where I got (drum roll) a fairly decent 20 minute manicure! Unfortunately I was about 15 minutes late, thus starting out my highly anticipated career as a supermodel in bad form.

Anyway, I walked into the studio and was greeted by 4 artistic, pale but adorable boys. Darryl told me to put my arms above my head so that the blood would leave them and make them look better. I asked Darryl which of my arms he wanted to use and with fairly little hesitation he said the left one. Now I’ve never really compared my left arm to my right one, but perhaps the freckle placement is a bit sexier on the left now that I really look at it.

My ‘inspiration’ for the shoot came was a tear from ELLE featuring an arm stacked with cuffs, bent in the shape of a Z. It looked fairly simple, but as we began shooting and my arm was awkwardly twisted on a large sheet of white, I started to wonder if I was going to be able to deliver a decent shot.

I wore a large gold spiky cuff by SURevolution, a lucite one from Alexis Bittar, an elaborately beaded one by Miriam Haskell, and ended up holding/reaching for a diamond detailed wooden cuff by Jessica Kagan Cushman. The photographer and Darryl kept teling me to relax my hand, bend my fingers, move things slightly to the left, etc. I think we ended up getting the shot, and Darryl said we could get a big blow up of my crooked little arm for the office. The whole thing only took about 30-45 minutes.

It was a nice break from the typical day - its always fun to be back in the studio. If any of you need an arm model please know that I am in very high demand, and charge a ridiculous fee of 1 venti regular coffee per shot.

The cuffs and bracelets shown here all available at VIVRE, except for the CHANEL one.

The models are here! It’s not even August and yet it’s already impossible to grab a latte without tripping over several long-legged gazelles. Oh models - how I love them!

I used to be really crazy about Gemma Ward.
My little Gemma obsession began with the British Vogue cover she shared with Lily Cole. I loved the whole shoot and from that issue on, I seemed to notice Gemma everywhere. I found her look otherworldly (like a zillion people before me) and had a really hard time not looking at her.

For my first “real job” out of college, I was hired as the pr manager for a recently launched women’s contemporary line. I always joked about getting our clothing on Gemma, how she should be opening our shows, etc. I had her Prada campaign taped up by my computer along with other tears, and we even ended up calling one of the mannequins in our showroom ‘Gemma’.

I actually met Gemma once. I was sitting in my office and got a call from the president of our company, who was two blocks away at the Starbucks at Spring & Crosby. “Gemma Ward is here!!” she hissed into the phone. “You have to get down here!”

“Oh my god!! Did she just order?? Is she stunning? Keep her there - I’m running down as fast as I can!!” And I did just that. I dropped everything and left the office squealing and running faster than Forrest Gump. I ran down Broadway and must have looked really crazy, because at this point in time, I was also about 7 months pregnant with Oliver.

Slightly breathless, I arrived at Starbucks, and just as I ran in, she was walking out. “Hi!” I squealed, “You’re Gemma Ward! I think you’re fantastic!” She was ridiculously nice (as any beautiful, super lucky and privileged, Australian teenager should be) and introduced me to her sister. We ended up talking for several minutes and then I asked to take a picture with her (I know, I know…but this is what really happened, ok?!). I look awful and she looks perfect.

Anyway, she’s been in every campaign and worthy magazine, but now that she’s trying her hand at acting, I’m not as interested. I haven’t really had a model crush since my Gemma one, but here are some of the other girls I adore:

• Karlie Kloss - love LOVE her. got that same ’science fashion’ look as Gemma
• Daria Werbowy - experienced and just perfect, she’s the woman you want to be
• Natalia Vodianova - such a beautiful face
• Bruna Tenorio - just so pretty, I always want to absorb the looks she’s in
• Inguna Butane - reminds me of Bruna, always so fresh
• Morgane Dubled - there is just something so delicate and vintage about this girl
• Siri Tollerød - have a feeling I’ll be loving her in a season or two..