JUDY LICHT MOVES FORWARD, FASHIONABLY

Judy Licht

Judy Licht loves fashion.  You can see it in her eyes when you run into her at the Tents during Fashion Week.  You can hear it in her voice when she talks about anything from fabric to designers.  Fashion is just in her blood.

“I think that fashion is more than just folly and frippery,” she told me, as we waited one afternoon for the next in a long day of runway shows. “It’s one of the art forms and it’s very reflective of the time we live in and what it has to say.  I was a history major, and for me, it’s part of the culture and part of the visual and cultural history of our country.”

She covered fashion as an anchor and general assignment reporter at New York stations WABC-TV and WNYW (then WNYE).  And she was one of the founding mamas of Full Frontal Fashion, anchoring much of its wall-to-wall coverage of everything under the Tents.  She says, “I really had a chance to grow up with a lot of the designers.  I mean, I’ve done Michael Kors, I’ve done a lot of people’s first shows, so to watch them grow up and become part of the establishment is fun.”

And so it comes as no surprise that Judy Licht’s new venture is all about fashion.  It’s called “First Comes Fashion”, an ambitious multi-media venture featuring a host of fashion experts and FOJs (Friends of Judy).

She told me, “we are going to be streaming all the shows live and we’re going to have stories from Patrick McMullan, his party coverage, and Robert Verdi and James Aguiar and Suzy Yahloff Schwartz.”

They’ve already made a test run, streaming the Michael Kors Fall 2010 runway show live from Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, a small teaser for a fashion-hungry audience

It may be a bit early for most of us to be thinking about our Fall wardrobes, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to ask one of the City’s foremost trendspotters, just how do you spot a trend?

“It’s actually pretty easy,” she says.  “If you go to enough of the shows, you will start noticing certain recurrent things. For example, today’s only the second day of Fashion Week and already I can tell you that bronze is the color.  It’s the new Bronze Age.  You are seeing it in almost everyone’s show. And another trend is leather.  They say something is “in the air”, that’s the expression they use at Fashion Week.”

  "The new Bronze Age", as interpreted by Adam, Ports 1961 and Isaac Mizrahi

Bronze, leather, whatever.  There are still those who will argue what comes down the runway is irrelevant.  Not so, says Judy Licht, for so many reasons.  “It matters in the same way that you’re into music and the new music opens you up to new ideas.  If you’re an art lover you go to the gallery shows, you go to the new museum shows and you see what’s current and it broadens your horizons.  Well with women, you gotta get dressed, and, yeah, we dress for function and we dress for work and we dress for comfort.  But if you’re at all imaginative, it’s fun to know how to broaden your wardrobe.  It doesn’t mean you go out and buy a whole bunch of new clothes, but if something in a new shape appeals to you and looks good on you, you might want to go there.”

And, she points out, if you can’t afford to buy it right off the runway, don’t  worry, all of these styles will show up at a shop near you, at a price point you can afford.  “This is all knocked off.  I mean, half the photographers  you see here are recording it so that it can be bought by people who do popularly priced clothing lines, and you are going to see it in the stores.  And that’s the most significant reason to follow the shows.”

So, she says, pay attention.  “Whether you choose to embrace it or you choose to reject it, you should know about it, because it is part of the way we live today.”

Debora Fougere

Photographs by Anton Brookes

FALL 2010 RUNWAY REPORT

INSIDE DAY ONE AT FALL 2010 FASHION WEEK

I loveSummer.  I mean, I really love Summer.  So, as Spring is just barely showing that it might actually make an appearance this year, the very thought of talking about next Fall’s styles sends shivers down my spine.  But that’s how the designers do it, and so must we.  And so, for the next few weeks, I’ll have a preview of just what went down the runways, and what went on in the tents, at Mercedes-Benz Fall 2010 Fashion Week.

Day One, and the designers began taking their collections to the Bryant Park runways for the very last time. Next season, they'll fold up their tents, and move northwest to Lincoln Center.

As the crowd gathered for the first show at 9AM (which really means 9:35 in the fashion world) in the iconic tents, there was a buzz among the media, rumors that revered British designer Alexander McQueen was dead. Already there was word that the enfant terrible of the British fashion world had taken his own life, just three weeks before his show in Paris.  But here in New York, the show must go on, and it did.

Mackage Fall 2010 Runway

Mackage opened this season of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.  The Canadian team of Eran Elfassy and Elisa Dahan formed the company 10 years ago, designing coats that became hugely popular in Canada, the U.S. and in Europe. This is the first time they’ve brought their ready-to-wear collection to the catwalk, and it was not only stylish, but constructed; beautifully fitted dresses, pants, skirts and tops in muted grays, whites, blacks, with the occasional pop of red.  Some featured asymmetrical zips or unexpected patches of leather.  And yes, there were coats, from simple wool designs, to military styles, to hooded jackets.

And with their dark, smoky eyes and hair draped ‘60’s mod-style over one eye, the models reflected the mix of rough and smooth, feminine yet not-too-girly look of the clothes.

There was nothing dressy about this collection, it was all bohemian and big.  The models marched down the runway in bigTimberland boots, wearing big sweaters, loose, pleated twill pants, with the bright red lipstick the only nod to glamour.

He said his inspiration for the collection was the girls at his art school in New York City, the ones who’d borrow their boyfriends’ clothes to wear to class.  And that’s something we’ll see more of this season, women’s wear inspired by men’s clothing.

PRELUDE TO FASHION WEEK

Eryn Brynie's Premiere Presentation

It is the day before Mercedes-Benz Fall 2010 Fashion Week, and I, and the other truly dedicated followers of fashion who don’t have the clout of Anna Wintour were out, despite (somewhat exaggerated) predictions of the blizzard of the century, waiting in line for our media credentials. There are a couple of reasons to arrive an hour before the little office hidden behind the iconic Bryant Park Tents, opens.  First, if you’re attending the very first show of the eight-day week at nine a.m. on Thursday morning, you’ll need to be credentialed-up a day early.  Second, there are only a limited number of vouchers for the coveted media-only gift bags, filled with Fashion-Week Treasures.  And one sure-fire cure for frost-bitten feet is a really good swag-bag!

Credentials in hand, I headed downtown to Soho for the Eryn Brinie Fall 2010 Presentation.  It was the shop’s first ever showing, held in their only New York store, with 20models, standing still on a platform, wearing items from the new Fall line.

It was the first I’d heard of Eryn Brinie.  Even though the Eryn Brinie shop is on Broadway, the main shopping drag in Soho, even brand director Tara Mulhare calledit the “best kept secret” in fashion. Erin Brinie is not a designer, but a Korea-based fashion house with five in-house designers creating looks that have caught the attention of Hollywood’selite (Jessica Alba, Rachel Zoe and Anne Hathaway have all been spotted at the New York store).  The French-inspired fashions have a real wearability, stretchy leggings, skinny twill pants and soft mini-skirts may not be for the faint of heart. But the silky pleated pants, knit tops and puffed jackets are ageless.

Eryn Brinie Piped Leggings                                Eryn Brinie Pleated Pants   

Their little black dress featured slightly ruffled sleeves anda not-too-short hemline, a great combination of dressy and comfortable when paired with opaque tights and simple stilettos. And, if this pre-Fashion Week show is anything to go by, the trench is back.  Eryn Brinie showed one in a tiny check, and another in a shiny bronze with open sleeves.

        
                       Le Cocktail Dress                                                     Isabella Trench

Mulhare said the shop, which opened in New York two years ago,has developed a loyal following of women, from 18-60. “If you look at the pieces,” she said, “you can put it on for day, you can put it on for night, it’s such an easy, wearable collection, and at this price point.  You would not believe that the average price is just $150.”

                   Hunting Jacket                                                      LeSoir Dress

Ballgown at the Supima Design Collection Finals

                                            Can you hear it?

The unmistakable sound of stilettos clambering down the catwalk.  It’s two weeks before fashionistas from around the world converge on New York City’s Bryant Park for the twice-yearly spectacle that is Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, but the first harbinger is here: 

The finals of the Supima Design Competition:

What is Supima? 

Well, it’s a fabric, cotton, to be exact.  In fact, it’s sometimes referred to as “the cashmere of cotton”.  Supima cotton is grown only in the western United States, mostly in California, and it can be turned into anything from soft, supple jerseys to stretchy denims and sleek shirting.

A couple of months ago, Supima launched the competition with an open call at Bloomingdale’s, inviting fledgling designers to create women’s eveningwear pieces that would represent the qualities of Supima cotton:  softness, strength and luster.  They had to use different fabrics in surprising ways, and, as an extra challenge, they had to recreate that most basic of cotton garments, the men’s t-shirt. 

The final six got to strut their stuff at the New York Times building, a surprisingly beautiful event space covered in golden wood, red seats, and glass walls revealing an inner-city garden.  They were creative:  a big poufy ballgown made of shirting, a sleek, tight-bodiced evening dress made of denim, a jersey collection inspired by solar panels.  But never mind all that.  The real achievement is that it all looked so comfortable!  More than that, many of the designs would suit nearly any shape.

A model showing a denim bodice gown

And the winner: Gina DeSilva was named “best in show”, with a trumpet-skirted gown and ruffled cropped jacket, all made from Kaihara denim, a soft lilac gown with a deep ruffled neckline made of Sanko and Pagmat jerseys, and an off-the-shoulder trumpet-skirted gown made from wale corduroy.

Robin Tomas took the t-shirt prize, with a three-layer longsleeve T made from majestic jersey.  If you love it, you can find it at Bloomingdale’s in the Spring:

                                            Bring it on!