Puffy’s in the house!
And so are Oscar, Donna, Calvin, Michael and Marc, as the New York Fashion Week Fall 2001 runway shows kick off this week at Bryant Park.
As if he’s not getting enough media coverage already this year, on Saturday night Combs will show his new men’s collection during the first big runway event of the eight-day fashion marathon, which starts on Thursday and ends the next Friday, Feb. 16.
But despite what everyone, their mothers and the E! Network may think (the entertainment cable network is broadcasting Combs’ show live during a two-hour fashion week special), Puffy’s sure-to-be-something presentation is just one of many highly anticipated runway shows, most of which are held in four huge white tents set up on the west side of Bryant Park.
(The tents are handled by 7th on Sixth, the arm of the Council of Fashion Designers of America that sponsors the New York shows.)
Fashion Week’s first official show, however, isn’t in the tents: On Thursday, Tommy Hilfiger takes over The Morgan Library on Madison Avenue to kick off the men’s portion of the week (males dominate Thursday, Friday and Saturday).
This includes presentations by Nautica, John Varvatos and Joseph Abboud, whose fall clothes can be viewed on a drop-by basis at an off-site cocktail party hosted by “Sex and the City” bombshell Kim Cattrall.
Womenswear designers – including the dashing Italian Luca Orlandi – take over in earnest on Sunday.
Orlandi’s Luca Luca line will be one of the first seen by the international fashion circle, a group that includes some 2,000 fashion editors, buyers, stylists and all-around fabulous/rich clothes horses.
After showing a vividly bright summer collection, Orlandi says he’s opted for a muted fall palette, featuring cold-weather fabrics such as tweed and velvet in shades of blonde, brown, beige and cocoa for day.
For evening, he’s used black with shots of hot pink. “It’s a little more elegant,” says Orlandi, who says he’s cutting fall skirts above the knee and giving dresses and tops sexy bare backs and a variety of neckline options.
Luxe, textured fabrics and precise details mark the fall collection of Pamela Dennis. In fact, so detail-oriented is her line that Dennis has opted not to show at the tents this year. Instead, she’ll welcome buyers and press into her Seventh Avenue showroom to assure them a good, close look at the clothes.
“The fabrics we’re using are the kind you want to go up and touch,” she says, listing lacquered fur, furry corduroy and “slippery velvet.” “There’s so much texture in this line that would be lost if I showed it on the runway.”
Dennis isn’t alone in her decision to abandon the tents.
John Bartlett, Nicole Miller, DKNY, and the Bill Blass company have all opted to show in their showrooms this season. (Vera Wang and Randolph Duke opted out all together, the former to work on her new wedding book, the latter reportedly so he can stage a private show later this spring.)
Of course, Diane Von Furstenberg, Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs have always staged their shows off-site, a precedent now adopted by Miguel Adrover and Daryl K, who both displayed their spring 2001 lines in empty downtown banks.
Cynthia Rowley was originally scheduled to show in the Tent, the largest Bryant Park venue. But after a trip to see a production of “Circus Oz” at the New Victory Theater, she had a change of heart.
“This theater was so appropriate and inspiring, I had to do it there,” says Rowley, being careful not to give away any of the line’s specifics. “It says a lot about the clothes without being too theme-y.”
Richard Tyler says he was similarly inspired by his chosen show venue: his sleek new space on Washington Street.
“It’s going to be like a housewarming party!” says Tyler, who’s eager to show off his new digs. “It’s totally different from the other place -very clean, more zen-like.” (The “other place” he refers to is his recently sold Grammercy Park townhouse, where Tyler presented his collections in still-life settings for many years. )
“We haven’t done a proper runway presentation in a long time,” adds Tyler, noting that his fall line offers a bit of a 1920s influence (“there’s a sort of feeling of the suffragettes in it”) and features feminine suits and “flippy coats” in lots of winter whites fabrics, pistachios and mauves.
Michael Kors says he’ll deliver in “slick yet sporty” styles aimed at the ultimate “urban equestrian.”
And Oscar de la Renta says his cold-weather collection includes “unexpected materials juxtaposed with the expected, a great deal of softness and dazzling daytime embroideries.” The show will also debut his new accessories line.
Jill Stuart, whose premiere shoe collection won awards last year after it was shown on her spring runway, will intersperse her trademark feminine looks with pieces from her jeans line, which hits stores this month.
In addition to show stalwarts, the Fall 2001 collections welcome Narciso Rodriguez, who will present his signature collection here for the first time since launching it in Milan in 1997. Returning to Bryant Park are the flashy designs of Bob Mackie and the modern sportswear stylings of Cynthia Steffe.
In what will be only the second show of her 12-year-old line’s life, Steffe features sexy, androgynous looks, such as fresh takes on menswear cut in feminine proportions.
Steffe also promises clothes with a “slick, punk feeling,” and, for her new luxury line, rich takes on old-standbys – “edgy classics, such as leather trench coats,” she says.
A line-up of the top-rated shows
Here are the most highly anticipated shows of New York Fashion Week’s Fall 2001 season.
Thursday, Feb. 8
Tommy Hilfiger (men)
Nautica (men)
Friday, Feb. 9
John Varvatos (men)
BCBG Mens
Joseph Abboud (men)
Saturday, Feb. 10
Sean Jean (men)
Sunday, Feb. 11
Alice Roi
Luca Luca
Diane Von Furstenberg
Miguel Adrover
Monday, Feb. 12
Kenneth Cole
Carolina Herrera
Badgley Mischka
BCBG Womens
Marc Jacobs
Tuesday, Feb. 13
Oscar de la Renta
Rebecca Taylor
Marc by Marc Jacobs
Betsey Johnson
Narciso Rodriguez
Wednesday, Feb. 14
Ralph Lauren
Cynthia Steffe
Michael Kors
Catherine Malandrino
Anna Sui
Thursday, Feb. 15
Jill Stuart
Helmut Lang
Richard Tyler
Cynthia Rowley
Vivienne Tam
Daryl K
Friday, Feb. 16
Bob Mackie
Tuleh
Donna Karan
Calvin Klein