Carson Kressley and I
The Couture Council of the Museum at FIT kicked-off the Fashion Week festivities yesterday with a luncheon at Cipriani to present the 2009 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion to Dries Van Noten and what a fun event it was! First off the MC for the event was Simon Doonan — a total ideal of mine. He walked into Cipriani right in front of me and was sporting a Goyard messenger bag with his initials in big letters on the front flap (though I don’t like Goyard, Doonan looked adorable!). When it came time to “shush” the crowd he hollered — “Hello! Attention please! Hello! What am I chopped liver!?” Did I mention that I love him?! The crowd was very ladies-who-lunch and the question du jour was unsurprisingly “Is that a Dries dress?” (when I walked-out I saw Bill Cunningham and briefly spoke with him — he too asked me if I was wearing Dries!). I spotted plenty of fashionistas — Linda Fargo, Hamish Bowles, Amy Astley, Julie Gilhart, Iman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Phillip Lim, Nina Garcia, Isabel Toledo, Fabiola Beracasa and many more. As for my table, though it was only half full (pre-fashion week busy-ness I assume), I couldn’t have been more excited to be seated next to Carson Kressley of “Queer Eye” fame. He was wearing the most fabulous Cartier watch and diamond ring (when I complimented him on them he belted out “they’re all for sale!”). Kressley is really just as he appears on TV and I was excited when he told me he was heading to Vegas soon to film a new Top Model-esque reality competition show for ABC (it will premier in January and Beth Ostrosky will also be involved). Also at the table was Amanda Hearst who was super sweet and gushed about how much she is liking working at Marie Claire and how great Nina Garcia is. More after the jump!
As for the actual award, it was handed out by Maggie Gyllenhaal who recounted the process of having her wedding dress created by Dries before concluding that she admired the Belgium designer’s ability to know better than she herself does what will look good on her. Dries then took the stage and gave a very brief speech in which he thanked everyone at FIT and said that he would like to thank most those that wear his clothes for making his dreams come alive — swoon!
From left — Iman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Bill Cunningham