Nordstrom at NYFW

Celebrated society columnist and industry insider Ben Widdicombe captures the culture of fashion at the shows and all over town.

Pamela and Deniz are our Fashion PR experts and fixtures on the NYFW beat. They're bringing all the runway action to you with reports from inside the tents at the week's hottest shows.

Cheri, Nordstrom's National Beauty Director, takes you behind the scenes to reveal the season's biggest beauty trends and makeup artists' tricks of the trade.

NYFW Spring 2011: Follow Our Coverage

 

Our New York Fashion Week Team has arrived, and we’re sharing the excitement at the Lincoln Center and all over New York City. We’ve got access to bring you the best this season, and we’ll have new posts everyday of Fashion Week—so you won’t miss a thing. Meet our guest bloggers and follow the action at our new blog.

TAKE ME TO FASHION WEEK

 

Fashion Week Pirated: House of Paul

Another bittersweet milestone in the last season of Fashion Week at Bryant Park was the final presentation of “The House of Paul,” a long-running "fashion show" put on by the backstage tech crew on W. 39th St.

These rarely seen teams behind the scenes are the unsung heroes of Fashion Week—the gents and ladies integral to making it all happen. It's only fitting they should have a lighthearted celebration of their Fashion Week triumphs.

Once a season the crew boss Paul (who does not like to share his last name) chooses a theme, and his team designs clothing from the materials at hand, which usually means lots of duct tape and cardboard. Although the presentation is viewable by anyone passing on the street, its existence is almost completely unknown by the fancy editors and celebrities attending the real Fashion Week just a block to the north.

This season had a cheeky pirate theme. About two dozen crew members came out in homemade designs, waving cutlasses and generally underdressed for the 30 degree weather and snow. The future of the House of Paul at Fashion Week’s new location, Lincoln Center, is uncertain. But no label ever had quite the send-off that this one did today.

Young Designer Takes a Bow: Ms. Cassini

Was it inevitable it that the 13-year-old fashion blogger phenomenon (Tavi Gevinson: Style Rookie) would be followed by a 10-year-old fashion designer? Meet Cecilia Cassini from Encino, California. She told me, “I am the youngest fashion designer in America” and said she was being filmed at Fashion Week by the "Today Show" for a piece slated to air in April.

Cecilia was wearing a sequined skirt of her own design, as well as one of her cardigans with sequins on the shoulder, although that piece was obscured by her faux-fur Miu Miu jacket.

The bow on her head is her signature. “The most famous dress I made is the bow dress,” she explained. “It has a big bow on it.”

Cecilia, who produced her first skirt at age six, is no relation to the famous designer Oleg Cassini. But the sister of her mother’s close friend “used to be the manager of Kim Kardashian, and now she’s my manager,” she said.

While her work is currently available only in one Southern California children’s boutique, Cecilia confidently predicted she would soon be in more stores nationwide.

What's Next for Elie Tahari

Entering the W. 42nd headquarters of Elie Tahari, one is immediately aware that one is in the presence of Serious New York Fashion. A receptionist, sitting alone at a completely unadorned, 20-foot-long glass table, takes your coat and leads you into a waiting room decorated in three shades of sand. There are almonds on a tree-stump side table.

Tahari is as warm and dry as the color scheme of his atelier. Speaking on the day of his fall collection debut, he recalled what first inspired him to become a designer.

“Fashion was Hollywood; it was glamour,” he recalled. “Early on, when I was a young man, I was excited by the women I saw in Israel and what they were wearing.”

This season, the designer—already a favorite for his women’s sportswear—is expanding his men’s range with a suits line. Look for slim-cut jackets and flat-front pants in a variety of fabrics and styles.

“Men give me more feedback than women about what they want,” he joked. “There’s definitely an opportunity in the market.”

Painting It Picture Perfect

Outside the just-concluded Tracy Reese show, New York University MBA student Katherine Haden obligingly kicked off her shoe to find out its label.

“Giuseppe Zanotti,” she said, bending over in a beautiful vintage Pierre Cardin cream dress that she was wearing underneath a black one-button Milly jacket, shot-through with silver. Her bag was Marc Jacobs.

“I specialize in luxury brands and marketing,” said Haden, handing me her card. “But I also like to paint—oil painting, mainly portraits. I love capturing expressions, and I’m always drawn to people's eyes.”

Haden also worked with iconic jeweler Tiffany before going back to NYU. This well-rounded New York woman is clearly as brilliant as her outfit.