Yesterday Diane von Furstenberg and CFDA CEO Steven Kolb held an event in New York to announce the nominees for this year's CFDA awards. The nominees were not a surprise. The usual names like Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen for The Row was in the mix alongside Jack McCollough and Lazaro Henandez for Proenza Schouler, Marc Jacobs, Rachel Roy and Alexander Wang.
Last year's fashion icon award went to Lady Gaga leading many to question how they will be able to top that. Even Kolb tweeted: 'How do you top @ladygaga from last yr? We will!' This time the award will go to Johnny Depp, the first male to ever receive the award but while I've always been a fan of his, I'm not convinced that he can top Gaga.
Shenae Grimes is the latest in a long string of stars who decide to get an internship in the fashion industry. Kanye West had one at Fendi, Tallulah Willis interned at Harper's Bazaar and 'Ugly Betty' star Mark Indelicato bagged a placement at Carolina Herrera.
The 90210 star has bagged an internship at Teen Vogue - a placement that she bagged through her publicist. "I was sick of L.A., so I wanted to come to New York. I found [editor-in-chief] Amy Astley’s contact through my publicist, and I e-mailed her," she told The Cut. "I'm a little audacious. As expected, her internship doesn't involve the usual coffee runs and endless hours of returns. "I’m shadowing everybody," she explained. What are her actual duties? "No fetching coffee or photocopying, which is what I thought would happen," she said. "My editor is Andrew Bevan, who’s a dear friend of mine, and I attend a lot of pulls with [fashion market editor] Mary Kate Steinmiller. We pull clothes for shoots and stuff like that," she explained. "Oh, and I’m blogging for the website as well."
If it's elegance that you're looking for, Carolina Herrera is the designer to go for. For anyone else, sticking with elegant, classic pieces would result in a regurgitation of past ideas but season after season Herrera manages to work with these themes in different ways.
Her signature pieces felt more relevant this season because of Herrera's use of colour and print. A floor-length dress came in silver at the top and blue at the bottom; a shorter style appeared in pink and red print and conservative dresses in simple shapes came in bright blue or red adding a relaxed feel to the otherwise dramatic evening based collection. Caroline Trentini stood out in a gold sequin gown that I'm sure we'll see on Renee Zellweger very soon.
After a promising start to the awards season with the Golden Globes, the SAG awards were disappointing in the wardrobe department. The majority of the looks failed to excite at all and January Jones, Lea Michele, Tina Fey and Winona Ryder were the best of a bad bunch.
Carolina Herrera's spring/summer collection bean after the designer looked at photographs of a family wedding of one of her seamstresses from her atelier. "The hats and costumes and details were just so fantastic, I asked to see more," she told Hilary Alexander. "They bought me books, and then I spent several days visiting the Korean Museum in New York. I was captivated." Her interest in the country was clear. Models came down the runway wearing wide brimmed straw and felt hats in black and green - resembling the traditional styles worn by Korean male farmers - styled with an ivory v-neck blouse and a grey over-the-knee traditional skirt.
Like many designers Herrera showed florals but hers were the boldest we've seen, which is hardly surprising as the designer turned to botanical plates as a source of inspiration this season. Plant motives appeared on the front of a dramatic volumous strapless dress and came embroidered along the the bust of floor length gowns and printed on a green wrap dress. A light blue off the shoulder dress looked like it was printed with images from a botanical garden. As usual evening dresses were strong but the collection often felt overdone with too much going on at once.
Last night saw Anna Wintour host the much anticipated Fashion's Night Out fashion show. The show - which is New York's largest ever public show - was designed to get the public excited for Fashion's Night Out which takes place in America on Friday.
The Council of Fashion Designers 2009 included the likes of Michael Kors, Carolina Herrera, Oscar De La Renta and the Olsens but this time round there are some newer additions to the table. Sophie Theallet, Steve Allen and L'Wren Scott form part of the 2010 class, which has a total of 25 designers. The newer members are welcomed at a party in October at Vera Wang's house where they can get to know the good company they are in, even better.
