Celebrities were all over the front row — and occasionally the runway — at New York Fashion Week
Reporting from New York — Hollywood’s stylish set and New York Fashion Week have a long history together, and each season brings with it a unique handful of celebrities who seem to pop up everywhere all at once. (We started to call this “Kanye-ing fashion week” years ago when West — not yet dabbling in the design field — suddenly started to appear at every imaginable show.)
This round of September shows was no exception, and the surprisingly heavy celebrity turnout included several contenders for the season’s Kanye West ubiquity award.
Christian Soriano’s Sept. 10 show found us sitting across from a front row that included Christina Hendricks, Neve Campbell, Kelly Osbourne and Pamela Anderson — the last of whom could be seen later that night at Alexander Wang, where her fellow celebrity seatmates included Madonna, Kylie Jenner (whose sister Kendall walked the show) and, randomly, director Baz Luhrmann, who was seated at the left hand of Vogue editor Anna Wintour throughout.
The next day’s Hood by Air show served up another grab-bag of famous folks that included Jaden Smith, Naomi Campbell, Rick Ross, “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett (whose subsequent star turns — at Altuzarra the same afternoon and Jeremy Scott’s the next morning — earned him a definite nomination) and Whoopi Goldberg, who embodied the true spirit of the Kanye award by logging additional appearances at the J. Crew presentation, Gypsy Sport’s front row, the Tracy Reese presentation, Opening Ceremony’s Pageant of the People (where she also hit the runway) and the Marc Jacobs’ fashion-week closer this afternoon that also drew the likes of Courtney Love, Carla Gugino, Malin Akerman and Sofia Coppola.
Another fashion-week frequent flier this time around was Jessica Alba, who attended the Tory Burch show Tuesday morning and a cocktail party at Burch’s home the same evening, which the designer threw to celebrate the launch of her brand’s new Gemini Link handbag collection and included a surprise performance by R&B YouTube sensations and Beyoncé protégés Chloe and Halle Bailey.
Alba also hit the Narciso Rodriguez show and sat front row for Ralph Lauren’s foray into the see now/buy now runway format, where she was joined by the likes of Julianne Moore (who had kicked off fashion week tucking her feet under Tom Ford’s see now/buy now table), Annabelle Wallis and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
Brandon Maxwell appeared to have just one celebrity supporter in the front row when he sent his collection down the runway at the Russian Tea Room — but when it’s someone with the star wattage of Lady Gaga, that’s really all you need.
For more musings on all things fashion and style, follow me @ARTschorn.
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