New York Fashion Week: Rihanna at Opening Ceremony, cattiness in the camera pit and more awesome gossip
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You’ve seen the new York Fashion Week Spring 2013 runway looks, the celeb sightings and the street style photos but if you’re curious about the latest front row gossip, read on for peek at what fashion editors are ranting and raving about behind the scenes.
Opening Ceremony’s opening act
The hottest ticket of the week belonged to Opening Ceremony‘s New York Fashion Week debut. Based on the epic shows Humberto Leon and Carol Lim have staged for Kenzo (escalators as runway, giant fruit installation, acrobatics) fashion insiders had every reason to expect nothing short of fashion fireworks from their first OC fashion show and the design duo didn’t disappoint. Staged in a giant warehouse space, the show opened with a flash of headlights as a gang of luxury cars zoomed into the space and one by one the models climbed out and took a turn around what may have been the longest track in fashion week history. The after party struck up right away complete with pop-up shops, hot dog carts, zine newsstand and nail salons. Oh and Rihanna and Justin Bieber were there too. Fireworks indeed.
Model behaviour
Fans of The Face will know all too well the tension between models Naomi Campbell and Coco Rocha, who, rumour has it, quit the show on account of Naomi’s legendary mean streak. Well, the two former co-hosts were once again breathing the same air (albeit with what seemed like a thousand other people) at Diane von Furstenberg’s spring runway presentation. Coco, who was sitting front row, didn’t even look up when Naomi closed the show to cheers and applause from the crowd. And any mention of Naomi was conspicuously absent from Coco’s Twitter feed, where she wrote: “Amazing cast of girls at @DVF. Love seeing @KarenElson_ and @joansmalls stomp the runway.” Curiouser and curiouser.
Kids in the front row
It’s official, the under-12 set has invaded New York Fashion Week. We spotted snazzily dressed preteens at almost every show this week, from Rebecca Taylor and Herve Leger to Alexander Wang and 3.1 Phillip Lim. Apparently a super style-y kid is this season’s hottest fashion accessory. Not to mention, having a designer-clad Mini Me on your arm is pretty much guaranteed to get you street styled, and for some fashion week goers, the blogs are where the real action is.
Waiting to exhale at 3.1 Phillip Lim
When editors arrived at 3.1 Phillip Lim’s Spring 2014 presentation they (and their designer heels) found themselves toe-to-toe with an expanse of pinkish rock salt. The floor of the giant open space had been dusted with a heavy layer of winter salt, which, while beautiful, brought back bad memories of beloved leather boots ruined by slushy salt stains. The salty setting also caused quite a dust-up (literally) during the finale as an army of models took a finale stomp around the room, leaving show-goers coughing and choking on a considerable cloud of salty dust. Model Hanne Gaby Odiele smiled sympathetically at us as she sashayed by.
Cattiness in the camera pit
The photographers responsible for the runway images you’ve been clicking through all week have been particularly vocal this season, barking at front row VIPs from the camera pit to uncross their legs and get their Manolos out of the shot. At Altuzarra, a particularly New Age-y shooter shouted, “uncross your legs and open your heart!” while at a packed Diane Von Furstenberg show, the entire pit colluded together, booing loudly and heckling one particular front rower, “Red socks! Red socks! Red socks!” and then erupting in jubilant cheering when the offending socks retreated underneath the chair. At Zero Maria Cornejo, photogs even shouted at a model to “look up!” mid runway walk.