Fashion Week Highlights: The Home Stretch
» Zac Posen showed the kind of pretty dresses that made him famous. What has also made him famous, of course, is his dazzling knack for networking, which was in full effect with a starry audience of Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy, Marisa Tomei, Leighton Meester, Venus and Serena Williams, Anna Wintour, André Leon Talley, Bernadette Peters, Diddy, Julian Schnabel, Bette Midler, Juliette Lewis, Kate Mara, Jada Pinkett Smith, Veronica Webb, Joy Bryant, Rachel Zoe, Ingrid Sischy, and Fern Mallis. [WSJ, Wireimage]
» Calvin Klein's 40th anniversary show was predictably A-listy with Eva Mendes, Lauren Hutton, Anna Wintour, Tyra Banks (whispering conspiratorially with Glenda Bailey), and Serena Williams in attendance. Equally newsworthy as Francisco Costa's minimalist, neutral-paletted, space-agey designs, though, was the fact that Rachel Zoe got totally abused by the paps, who told her to "eat a sandwich," and that she's "a terrible role model." Welcome to reality TV stardom, Rachel! [The Cut, Guardian, WSJ]
» At Cynthia Rowley, held in a Chelsea loft, the second-tier guests were forced to climb onto rickety wooden bleachers, and "broken bones were averted only because practically everyone who was assigned seats at the very top of the bleachers decided not to risk it," say the Fug Girls. Those in safety watching the scuba and surf-themed clothes from actual chairs: Jill Hennessey, Julia Stiles, Tatum O'Neal, Candace Bushnell, Alan Cumming, Amanda Beard, and James Frey (?!) with his wife Maya and daughter Malin. [The Cut, NYO, WWD]
» Tommy Hilfiger, whose company is hoping to go public, managed to scrape together a few random boldfaced names for the front row including Diane Kruger, Michael Pitt, Hilary Swank, John Legend, and Leigh Lezark, none of whom probably now remember any of the navy and white outfits they saw on the runway. [WSJ, NYSun]
» Vera Wang's excessively conceptual spring line—unveiled in the presence of Anna Wintour, Alexis Bryan Morgan, Tinsley Mortimer, Nina Garcia, Venus Williams, André Leon Talley, and Patrick Demarchelier—was inspired by the French artist Niki de Sainte Phalle. Wang's non-bridal wear has gotten a lot of bad reviews in the past but Robert Burke declared this collection would "be a huge success." [Fashion Wire Daily, The Daily, Wireimage]