Now you can watch my interview with Ken Downing, fashion director of Neiman Marcus, about fall trends. We were standing on the runway moments before the Carmen Marc Valvo show.

Downing fits as much description as possible in our three-minute discussion.

Which collection did he love most from New York’s fashion week? Proenza Schouler (photos below). I did speak to him on the last day, however it was also before the Marc Jacobs show. Read Downing’s other faves here.

I loved this all-over pleated dress from Calvin Klein show. Strapless? Very fall 2008. Black and navy (a.k.a. night)? Also very fall 2008.

However all of the elegance of these minimalist clothes was harder to notice set to a soundtrack of scary echoing footsteps. The music did however, draw more attention to the model’s shoes, which were not really that loud. Intentional, perhaps, to draw attention to some pretty fabulous booties and T-strap platform sandals.

At the Spanx event, I met Morgan Fauth. She’s from Wayzata, went to Breck and then jumped to the East for Georgetown. Now, she works for Allison Brod P.R., which was helping with the event.

She’s wearing textured a BCBG top, a Theory skirt, and Spanx textured tights.

I bumped into Stacy London backstage at Rebecca Taylor. She said that it’s the only fashion show she could make it to…and that’s thanks to special permission from “What Not to Wear.”
It turned out she had just come from doing the voiceover for the episode that was partially taped at the Mall of America, where I’d first met her. She said–it’s a reeeeeeeally good episode.

Anyway, about Taylor’s collection, London said that she doesn’t think she gets her due as a designer, especially at her contemporary price point. In the interest of full disclosure, London used to style Taylor’s show years ago. Now see her below gabbing with Aisha Tyler and Carmen Electra in the front row.
“She has intuition about what women look good in and what women want to wear,” London said. I couldn’t agree more. London had picked out look #27 for herself–the lace dress with a peach slip. I agreed and also loved these florals in color and black and white. Everyone loved the super-sparkly gold runway. How could you not?

I escaped from a packed Alice + Olivia presentation to a Spanx event at the Bryant Park Hotel.

More on Spanx later, but I spied Lindsay Price of “Lipstick Jungle” at Alice + Olivia. At that point, I was just another face in the crowd. (See the photo…)
Then, she appeared at Spanx and we were amongst the few people in the spacious room. Soon, we were both sitting at a cosmetics’ station having custom lip glosses made for us. I told her how I had been lucky enough to sit next to her show’s costume designer Dan Lawson at Michael Kors. “I think they have the most fun with me…” she confessed. She meant when it comes to getting dressed. Having seen the show, I would agree with that.
I think the custom-lip gloss blenders from Prescriptives also had the most fun with Lindsay because without any instruction from me, they automatically mixed a hue almost identical to her berry concoction–with berry flavor fragrance to boot! While it’s not necessarily what I would have picked, I’m happy to share the cheery shade with Ms. Price. It’s also so perfectly sheer that it doesn’t matter. You can have a custom shade mixed at any Prescriptives’ an counter, where I may go to have one match the gorgeous red Lindsay was already wearing.

Vera and I have something in common–we both have an art history background. (Hey V– call me!)

Anyway, for her fall 2008 collection, she was inspired by Dutch painter Kees van Dongen, who is known for his early 20th century social portraits. Looking at his work, I’d throw him into the expressionism/fauvism category for the extreme use of color. That’s part of what Wang picked up on for fall 2008.

The resulting collection balanced color, which ranged from charcoal to rust to nearly neon yellow. She plays with proportion too. My favorite detail was the cascading, loose ruffles. So elegant without trying so hard. I kind of get the feeling that her moody, dark runway is about creating anti-wedding dresses.
We’ll be looking for similar stuff at Kohl’s come fall.  I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ve heard through the grapevine that the Kohl’s in St. Louis Park is one of the top-selling in Simply Vera.

Photos courtesy of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

Alice Temperley cited Mata Hari, a spy from the early 1900’s as a major influence. The collection was less pretty and more edgy than the past. Present-day agents should be so cool. Many looks had boots that went over knees.

Am I the only one who also almost completely forgot that Temperley had a limited edition Target line? Well, my favorite pieces were still the intarsia sweater dresses that designer is famous for.

Oh and Julia Stiles was in the audience…though I had a bit of trouble focusing. Another reporter…who shall remained unnamed…accidentally spelled her last name “Styles.” I don’t call out someone else’s mistake maliciously (I know I make plenty of my own, yo!), but only because I appreciate the Freudian slip. Seriously.

Here’s what you’ve undoubtedly been waiting for… video! I used my front-row seats at Peter Som and Catherine Malandrino for good and recorded them for you. They also happen to be two of my favorites all week. Peter Som’s show was beautiful and quirky and Malandrino’s “greenhouse” made me wake up and say–hey, there’s a lot of green on the runways!

(If you look carefully at Peter Som, you can see Eliza Dushku’s black and white dress on the lower right hand corner of the screen.)

There’s also a snipped of Liza Minnelli singing “New York, New York” at the Heart Truth’s Red Dress Collection. Let’s face it, that’s the kind of thing you have to see to believe.

Video is here.

Round-up is here (and in today’s paper).

Fashion week is over, but I have few more trends in addition to these ombre photos to show you and some more gossip, and perhaps a new, new celeb best friend.

Here’s an ode to the subtly changing hues…note that this has been seen on Missoni’s fall 2007 runways too. Top left is Herve Leger by Max Azria, top right is Monique Lhuillier, and at right is Twinkle by Wenlan.
Photos courtesy Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week

In person, Christian is just as fierce and tiny as he seems on television.

His collection stood up to the fierceness of his personality. Starting off in all black and then moving into all-cream, he showed great skill and vision in playing with volume, proportion and texture. Layers of ruffles along with the kicky jackets we’ve seen on the show are his signature here.
When this vertically ruffled, belted, knee-length dress came down the runway, Posh seemed to excitedly talk to Michael Kors. Methinks she liked it.

If it’s truly fresh that “Project Runway” is about, Christian might take home the golden sewing machine.

It’s up to Nina, Michael, Heidi, and Mrs. Beckham now…