Native Son 2010 . Directed by Eric Ray David­son from Eric Ray David­son on Vimeo. (2D version)

There comes a time when one thing, no mat­ter what it is, even though we love it, can become mun­dane. In the midst of the furry, fran­tic, and excite­ment of fash­ion week, there’s always that ques­tion of “what’s com­ing next?” Who’s going to wow the crowd with the lat­est avantgarde.…those push­ing the enve­lope to dis­cover what’s under­neath the sur­face and cre­ate some­thing so fresh and invig­o­rat­ing that it becomes unfor­get­table and ulti­mately sets the stan­dard for what is to become. And then there’s that rare occas­sion, ‚ when I parked along side Chelsea Piers in the midst of cold and snow, to dis­cover the almost indus­trial set­ting for what turned out to be the venue of the world’s first debut pro­duc­tions ever seen before.

After enter­ing the front door at Pier 59, walk­ing up two flights of stairs and fol­low­ing signs with arrows pointed every which way, we entered the  space which show­cased one of fashion’s most his­tor­i­cal moments. The venue itself was noth­ing fancy, but it didn’t have to be. Merely an empty space that, on a reg­u­lar day, would typ­i­cally con­sist of mod­els, pho­tog­ra­phers, styl­ists, design­ers, and cre­ative direc­tors fever­ishly work­ing their way through a photo shoot of some sort. Although sev­eral design­ers have come and done in this stu­dio, on this night, it was all about Eric Ray David­son, Direc­tor and GQ Pho­tog­ra­pher, and Kyle Fitzgib­bons, Designer, of a new 3D pro­duc­tion of fashion-​​forward design to the nth degree.

Team­ing with REAL D, the stereo­scopic tech­nol­ogy com­pany behind the ever-​​popular Avatar, the pre­sen­ta­tion intro­duced a gritty, indus­trial con­cep­tion of the 2010 fall col­lec­tion for Native Son, a lux­ury menswear label from LA designed by Kyle Fitzgib­bons. Adorned in 3D glasses, the three minute film brought a new life to the idea of how fash­ion and tech­nol­ogy can coin­cide. As a tech-​​geek myself, it was refresh­ing to see the two indus­tries col­lide in a com­pro­mise of art, talent, inter­ac­tion and sophis­ti­ca­tion that could vir­tu­ally set the stan­dard on how audi­ences can really view fashion.

Fas­ci­nat­ing as it was, this was more than a pre­sen­ta­tion, but bet­ter yet, an moment in time that set a his­tor­i­cal pre­cen­dent in the way we view new col­lec­tions. This is one of those small win­dows of oppor­tu­nity that show­cases the mind, abil­i­ties, and flat out balls it takes to bring a cre­ative idea  into fruition and into the 21^st cen­tury. I have to say that I was left anx­ious to see what’s in store next! 

Held at The Bow­ery Hotel, which made a fab­u­lously inti­mate set­ting, the Loris Diran’s fall col­lec­tion “Unspo­ken” show­cased beau­ti­ful silks, lace, and vin­tage glam cul­ture into each design that came down the cat­walk. Inspired by the silent movie era, Loris Diran’s designs incor­po­rated a con­tem­po­rary approach to the glam­orous 20s style with stun­ning sil­hou­ettes, struc­tured suits and flow­ing gowns. After chat­ting back­stage with Loris after the show, it is clear that his love for design shows through the strength and close detail that is inter­wo­ven into each piece. The soft­ness and quiet con­fi­dence that came down the run­way cre­ated the illu­sion that I should be sit­ting next to one of the old movie icons of the day.

Alto­gether, the show incor­po­rated designs for both men and woman. At Loris’ after-​​party located at The Gates, we recapped the designs on the big screen where a video of the show played through­out the evening while all gath­ered to toast and cel­e­brate in his beau­ti­ful col­lec­tion. Indeed, it was a fab­u­lous day…and evening!

Caught a pic at a Zink Mag­a­zine party dur­ing NY Fash­ion Week at the Juliet Sup­per Club, a fab­u­lous lounge in Chelsea. Custo Barcelona straight off the run­way from the night before. Gotta love it!

Mod­els, make up artists, hair­styl­ists and Mario Moya’s entire team fran­ti­cally pre­pared back­stage for the debut of his fall 2010 pre­sen­ta­tion. I had the oppor­tu­nity to head back­stage prior to watch the last minute touches being made…nail pol­ish, makeup, curl­ing irons, clothes, all in what may seem to the ordi­nary eye, a hot mess.…but under­ly­ing it all was sim­ply orga­nized chaos, for lack of bet­ter words. With the help of Wayne Har­ris, our NYC fash­ion styl­ist, I wig­gled my way into one of Moya’s fab­u­lous dresses (of which I had a hard time giv­ing back at the end of the night!). 

As guests made way through the front doors, they could watch the mod­els as they graced the plat­form to have their pho­to­graph taken for Mario’s look­book. Iron­i­cally, the black cur­tains which hid the front of the room, soon drew aside to show­case each model stand­ing on wooden crates. Indi­vid­u­ally adorned with Mario’s beaut­fully struc­tured designs, each model took on the per­sona of Moya’s cre­ations. Artis­tic, glam­ourous and clas­sicly tai­lored, these looks incor­po­rated both lux­ury and sophistication.

Orig­i­nally from Chicago, Moya spent a por­tion of his career work­ing under­neath the famed Theirry Mugler in Paris and after­wards, returned to NYC to cre­ate his own col­lec­tion for the mod­ern, lux­u­ri­ous woman. Indeed, the looks were flat­ter­ing and time­less. Kudos to  Mario Moya and his team for a fan­tas­tic presentation!

Just a few days after arriv­ing in NYC for the Mercedes-​​Benz Fash­ion Week, I had the plea­sure of spend­ing the after­noon with for­mer Project Run­way con­tes­tant, Emmett McCarthy at his beau­ti­ful bou­tique in Nolita called EMc2. Accom­pa­nied by our crew of design­ers, styl­ists, and tv hosts — Richard Lowe, Wayne Har­ris, Patrick Hazle­wood, and Nathan Young­beck, we spent a few hours scop­ing out McCarthy’s lat­est inspi­ra­tions and learn­ing more about his future expec­ta­tions with this label and his pas­sion for fashion.

Off the busy and fran­tic streets of Man­hat­tan, Emmett’s calm nature and gen­tle per­sona was refresh­ing as he opened his doors to let us come in and explore his bou­tique. Com­pli­men­tary to his per­son­al­ity is his style of vintage-​​inspired dresses, hats, hand­bags, and shoes. As a lover of vin­tage myself, I com­pletely fell in love with the fab­rics he used, giv­ing me an even greater appre­ci­a­tion for the hard work taken to cre­at­ing designs which express the true nature of his art and love for the longevity that vin­tage pieces bring. 

For­merly a stu­dent at the Fash­ion Insti­tute of Tech­nol­ogy and a grad­u­ate of Par­sons School of Design, Emmett spent some of his career work­ing in both Paris and Lon­don. Post-​​Project Run­way, his mis­sion to bal­ance cur­rent trends with time­less chic cul­mi­nated not only with the estab­lish­ment of his bou­tique, but also a part­ner­ship with QVC to sell his new line of hand­bags and shoes. In addi­tion, he’s also work­ing a deal with JC Penny to launch his acces­sories. With a com­bi­na­tion of great style and qual­ity at an afford­able price let me know that he’s not just con­cerned about mak­ing a buck, he’s also real­iz­ing the impor­tance of incor­po­rat­ing qual­ity pieces that are afford­able in today’s econ­omy. Com­mend­able at that, Emmett’s bou­tique was set to be a “win­dow to the world” and every piece of cloth­ing is designed right in Manhattan.

His phi­los­o­phy? “Fash­ion is for now, but style is for­ever.” And what a great way to put it! Inevitably, his work will last through­out the years and I, for one, am look­ing for­ward to wear­ing his dresses, which were made from one of a kind silk tie fab­rics that will no longer be seen other than through this clothes. Of course, I ended up tak­ing home a few other fab­u­lous pieces like a long, bright-​​blue coat with gold but­tons and lined with the same silk tie mate­r­ial that makes his clothes so unique, and a vintage-​​inspired black hat with a red feather care­fully placed to one side, and to top it off, I got a fab­u­lous green leather hand­bag, which came from his newest line of acces­sories soon to be launched and sold on QVC.

Next time you’re shop­ping down­town in NYC, make sure and stop in EMc2 on Eliz­a­beth Street. Fab­u­lous wear and time­less style make this bou­tique one to watch.

A kick-​​off for our first night of the Mercedes-​​Benz Fash­ion Week in NY started with an evening of “Emerg­ing Designs” organized by Sebas­t­ian & Bar­quet and co-​​organized by Richard Lowe, a lead­ing designer in the fash­ion indus­try. Ben­e­fit­ing the Save the Gar­ment Dis­trict Cam­paign, this event brought aware­ness to the grow­ing com­mer­cial­iza­tion which has taken place in Chelsea, a bur­row of Man­hat­tan which has long been the hub for fash­ion com­pany head­quar­ters, fab­ric and trim sup­pli­ers and fac­to­ries for almost a century. What bet­ter way to pro­mote this cause by bring­ing in fresh designs cre­ated by some of NYC’s newest emerg­ing design­ers?! Each designer cre­ated a piece that was inspired by a par­tic­u­lar piece of furn­tire crafted by world renowned design­ers and show­cased at the Sebas­t­ian & Bar­quet Gallery located in Chelsea.

Red & white wine pro­vided by Argen­tin­ian wine spon­sor, Dona Paula, fash­ion and fur­ni­ture lovers from all over Man­hat­tan min­gled and mes­mer­ized at the inno­v­a­tive craft­man­ship and design. Seeing the cre­ative tal­ents of some of the fresh­est new and upcom­ing design­ers truly made a great start to the Mercedes-​​Benz Fash­ion Week.