Mercedes Benz Fashion Week

This morning, a few minutes before the Project Runway show got under way, several alums of the series were mingling on the plastic-covered catwalk at the far end of the tent. In the midst of all the anticipatory mayhem, we caught up with Ricky Lizalde, the last designer to be auf-wiedersehned from the show.

Mr. Lizalde, 35, whose considerable background in lingerie design probably kept him on the show for longer than most (including he) expected, came across like, as he put it, “a big crybaby.” But that stigma, he insisted, can be chalked up to the magic of sneaky editing.  read more »

Victoria Beckham (a.k.a. Posh Spice) had chosen a clear winner by the time all five of Project Runway’s finalists—Chris March, Christian Siriano, Rami Kashou, Sweet P and Jillian Lewis—finished showing their collections in the Tent at Bryant Park this morning. But while speaking to the Daily Transom, the singer and Marc Jacobs muse revealed a bit too much.

Read through for, well, it's not really a spoiler so much; but if you're obsessed with the show and want everything to be a secret, don't read through.  read more »

Some fashion week models are wearing T-shirts backstage that tout Angelina Jolie's Global Action for Children to attract attention to the cause as they get their pre-show hair and makeup done. [WWD]

Amy Winehouse was denied a US visa to attend the Grammy Awards, but she may appear via satellite. [Us]  read more »

Few of Fashion Week’s most anticipated shows are held at Bryant Park’s tents (Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler, Rodarte, and Thom Browne, for example, are all off-site), and last night’s Zac Posen show made clear the reasons.

Security guards demanded invitations or credentials at the entrance, despite the fact that the Daily Transom had breezed through all week with neither. “There are a few shows that are huge, and everyone tries to sneak in,” said one sentry apologetically. “And everyone tries to sneak in.”)  read more »

A cluster of British fashion students huddled before the 3 p.m. Reem Acra show at the Bryant Park Promenade on Thursday, Feb. 7, holding fashion trade magazines and strategizing about how to sneak inside. They fanned out, walking with purpose.

"It's a chance to see designers," one told the Daily Transom, before seeing a group with latch-on potential walking by, apologizing and walking after them.

Hamming it up inside for the pre-show flashbulb onslaught were the actresses Sophia Bush and Aisha Tyler, the latter in a cocktail dress, and news anchor Rita Cosby.  read more »

Francisco Costa, the Brazilian-born creative director of Calvin Klein Collection, was all boyish grins—he somehow manages to make dental braces look cool—after his fall 2008 collection debuted yesterday evening. As soon as all the attendees had taken their places in an I.C.U.-clean, boxy space at 205 West 39th St., sounds of approaching footsteps and solitary piano notes entered the room through mounted speakers—a kind of sensual contrast to Mr. Costa’s pragmatic pieces and warm demeanor.  read more »

Today’s—air quotes—1 p.m. Rebecca Taylor show in the Salon at Bryant Park had three distinct, carefully orchestrated parts. One involved folks sitting in chairs and watching Ms. Taylor’s clothes go back and forth. Another section was comprised of models wearing the clothes and stomping on a gold-sequin runway. And the third component, of which we were an integral part, included some 50 people holding meaningless purple flashcards for 45 minutes in a fountainside corral.  read more »

Backstage at Milly by Michelle Smith on the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 6, the slim brunette designer, wearing one of her own sparkly creations, explained the vibe of her new collection. "It’s unapologetically Uptown Girl. A lot of people are uptown trying to be downtown, with kind of a downtown edge. I’m just being Uptown Girl."

 In the past, Ms. Smith has been influenced by other locales.  read more »

The densely-packed 3.1 Phillip Lim show at the Bryant Park tents on Feb. 6 was, according to several breathless Chatty Cathys stationed behind the Transom, “almost three times bigger than last season.”

It was also, owing either to the unseasonably warm weather or the attendance of Conde Nast’s entire payroll, approximately 92 degrees in the Promenade (not quite as bad as last season’s Rodarte show in a West Chelsea loft, which devolved into a very well-dressed steamroom, but tonight’s sea of flapping programs did cause momentary déjà vu).  read more »

Becki Newton, the 29-year-old actress who stars as Amanda, the sharp-tongued receptionist in ABC's Ugly Betty, was poking around backstage after Monique Lhuillier showed her fall collection on Tuesday in Bryant Park.

"All of the girls sitting in the front row are going to have a fight over those dresses," she said, "because they are all amazing and flattering and beautiful."  read more »

Backstage at the Bryant Park tents before the Diesel show on Tuesday, Diesel founder and president Renzo Rosso, 52, was wearing, under a black blazer, a black Margiela T-shirt that said, in white block letters, “THIS IS MY SUIT.” (He is a majority shareholder of Margiela, and also the label DSquared). “It express who I am and my message,” he said.  read more »

Despite a front row that included the singer Fergie, stylist Rachel Zoe (in a coat that must have killed 6 orangutans), Kate Moss baby daddy Jefferson Hack, and French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld, the Marc by Marc Jacobs show on Monday at the Lexington Avenue Armory had the vague feel of a dress rehearsal for the real thing, the showing of the signature line, to be held Friday, February 8 in the same spot.  read more »

“I'm a very lucky man, I get to sit with Tyra quite regularly,” British photographer and America’s Next Top Model judge Nigel Barker told the Transom, referring to divalicious ANTM hostess Tyra Banks, after Betsey Johnson celebrated 30 years in fashion at Bryant Park on Monday. “That's another thing that puts a smile on my face.”

The first thing to put a smile on Mr. Barker's face was Ms. Johnson’s beat-chick-inspired presentation, followed by a retrospective of her years in the industry.  read more »

"I kind of don’t really like having fashion shows—they’re really complicated and time-consuming," said Wendy Mullin, designer of the line Built By Wendy, at the Werkette Gallery on Great Jones Street where she presented her Nordic-inspired fall line on Sunday, Feb. 3. Instead of the traditional runway, she opted to "do a photo shoot and project the images."  read more »

Maybe it was the rain, which had soaked through coats and leather boots, causing a vaguely earthy smell to permeate the packed bleachers at Cipriani 42nd Street; or perhaps it was bronzed, shiny supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who—exhausted from sucking all the life essence from New England Patriot Tom Brady?—didn’t walk the runway, but took a seat beside actress Julianne Moore just before the lights went down; or maybe it was just that it was Friday night, and there was a bar.  read more »

At some runway shows, the style of the tall, blow-dried fashion editors in the front row eclipses that of the actual models, who wear severe hairstyles and clothing that, for all its value in advancing new silhouette(s) for fall, is often not anything you’d actually want to wear.

Diane Von Furstenberg’s packed show at the Tents on Sunday, Feb. 4 was a notable exception, full of skirts and jackets in bright patterns and chunky textures, elbow-length gloves, and cool retro hats, all exuding a kind of sexy-librarian-in-Rio vibe.  read more »

Though the L.A.-based designer of Rock & Republic, Michael Ball, has expressed disdain for the Bryant Park tents in the past, he had no problem showing there on Saturday, Feb. 2.  read more »

Lacoste’s famous crocodile logo was conspicuously absent from the label’s party at the Bowery Hotel on Saturday, Feb. 2, though the show that morning, held in the tents at Bryant Park, was full of preppy duds: brightly colored patterns and white V-neck sweaters. J’ai adoré the cute gray trench!

Young guests working the surfer-skater-thug look that has become standard in this part of the city bounced from open bar to open bar, playing pool and lounging on couches while D.J. Stretch Armstrong “spun” the new M.I.A. record.  read more »

BRYANT PARK, THE SALON, 1:15 P.M.—Moments before the Duckie Brown autumn/winter 2008 show began, a few stragglers found their seats, bass-heavy trance blared.

Seat F-25 (male, effeminate, floor-length alpaca sweater, glasses): “Oh, my god! I didn’t see you there!”

Seat F-28 (male, euro-butch, fur-trimmed puff-parka, gleaming ponytail): “Ja?”

Seat F-25: “I said! I didn’t! See you there!”  read more »

BRYANT PARK, FRONT STEPS, 8:00 A.M.—A few minutes before some chilly spittle started to fall, IMG Fashion senior VP Fern Mallis, Mercedes-Benz VP of marketing Stephen Cannon, writer Candace Bushnell, and Lipstick Jungle co-stars Brooke Shields, Kim Raver and Lindsay Price huddled together and cut a red ribbon, signifying the official beginning of fashion week.

Draped in a blood-red cashmere cape, a beaming Ms. Mallis, standing tall before the main tent and its questionable Caesarian theme, appeared before the crowd of weary journalists and giraffing onlookers like a mighty torch, sent down from the fashion gods on high. Hark! Her oversized ceremonial scissors, which Ms. Shields also got to clutch, blessing, with a single snip, all tony threads and the stylish heads who weave them.  read more »

The expansion and promotion of the Misshapes's je ne sais quoi continues apace. After months of planning, construction and a few obligatory hiccups, the downtown-dwelling, party-deejaying, trendsetting trio’s official Web site will launch, they say, as early as next week. The group hopes that by cutting the digital ribbon in the midst of all the mayhem at Bryant Park, the fashion-minded site can tap into the event's publicity machine.  read more »

Last night at around 8 p.m., André Benjamin (a.k.a. André 3000) showed up at a party space in Rockefeller Center, where GQ and the C.F.D.A. co-hosted a celebration honoring the best new menswear designers in America. After Mr. Benjamin, 32, said hello to GQ’s editor-in-chief, Jim Nelson, the ever-nattily-clad OutKast musician-actor-designer spoke with the Daily Transom about, among other things, cool clothes.  read more »

Last week, Zang Toi—a New York-based fashion designer beloved by the likes of Ivana Trump, Sharon Stone, Eva Longoria and Patti LaBelle—apparently had his e-mail account breached by a nasty prankster. The Daily News reported the following day that the counterfeit message (which The Daily Transom also received), held an invitation to join Mr. Toi on Gayguyschat.com.  read more »