Cliff Notes
Badgley Mischka's youth movement & the latest Gossip Girl rumor
Kellie Pickler, from left, Kelly Osbourne and Rummer WillisPhoto by Clifford Pugh
Badgley Mischka gownPhoto by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz
Mark Badgley, left, Jim MischkaPhoto by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz
Herve Leger gownPhoto by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz
Houstonian Britt Maren at the Diesel showPhoto by Clifford Pugh
There's a youth movement going on at Badgley Mischka.
In past years, Teri Hatcher and Sharon Stone have been spokesmodels for the line, which specializes in Hollywood glamour gowns. But at Tuesday's show at Lincoln Center, Kelly Osbourne, Kellie Pickler and Rumer Willis occupied celebrity row. Willis, 22 and newly a redhead, is the line's newest spokesperson; ads of her touting the lower-priced Mark + James collection are in all the current fashion magazines.
For someone who has been in the public eye since birth — her parents are Demi Moore and Bruce Willis — the young Willis seemed inordinately weirded out by the hordes of photographers who surrounded her as she made her way to her seat.
Reality TV favorite Osbounre, sporting a jeweled headband, seemed nonplussed by the attention and former American Idol contestant Pickler just seemed happy to be there, although it seemed odd that she was wearing a black one-shoulder cocktail dress at 10 in the morning.
Once the show started and the lights went down, the trio were among the most animated attendees of the week as Willis loosened up. "That's awesome," she squealed to Osbourne upon spying a pair of jeweled tights.
The designers sprinkled their three different lines — Couture, Collection and Mark + James — throughout the show, which seemed subdued at first, with a lot of black and less embellishment that the brand is known for. What's Badgley Mischka without flash, I wondered?
But then they sent out glittery numbers in jewel tones — magenta, teal, emerald, amethyst — and other flashy looks before closing with a slew of glamour gowns, so all was right with the world again.
The duo will be in Houston March 1 as the featured attraction at the Passion for Fashion luncheon at the Hotel ZaZa, benefitting the Houston Community College fashion and design programs. I'll interview them in front of the audience in a format similar to Bravo's Inside the Actors Studio. (Trivia note: Mischka is a 1985 graduate of Rice University.)
Bandage or bondage?
You have to be young or thin, or both, in order to squeeze into a body-hugging Hervé Léger bandage dress, although Max Azria loosened the silhouette just a tad for fall and and introduced a houndstooth jacquard pattern.
He also embellished some dresses with so much hardware that it would be nearly impossible to wear them to the airport because you'd never make it through the metal detector.
While shades of brown dominated, Azria threw in a couple of black leather outfits with studs and harness that veered so close to an S&M theme that when I mistook "bandage" for "bondage" in the program notes, it made perfect sense.
Diesel strikes Gold
Gossip girls and guys were wondering if a romance is brewing between Chace Crawford and High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens because they seemed awfully chummy on the front row of the Diesel Black Gold Collection show. As far as I can tell, it was a public relations ploy and not romance that brought them together by publicists eager for maximum exposure. Crawford has also been spotted at the Calvin Klein menswear show and Hudgens has been front row at Marc Jacobs and Tibi.
The Diesel collection, aimed at the affluent twentysomething, features skinny pants that fit tighter than an Hervé Léger bandage dress, Civil War-era military jackets, chunky knitwear and furry ankle booties.
Former Houston model Maren Stavinoha, who goes professionally by the name Britt Maren, appeared in the show in skinny jeans and a blue military-style jacket. Considered a rising star in runway circles, she is walking in most of the major shows this week.
Narciso's minimal moment
After all the flash on runways this week, it was refreshing to catch Narciso Rodriguez's artful minimalism.
Known for lean lines and architectural structure, Rodriguez sent out a tightly edited 29-piece collection of monocromatic dresses, some with veiled overlays and hints of rust or lavender, and coats in soft geometric patterns. In past seasons Rodriguez often cut his dresses close to the body, but these had a looser feeling.
Particularly strong were coats in a soft gray argyle pattern — they're the kind you'd wear year after year.
