Some didn’t think it could happen, but on Tuesday night Anna Wintour, Vogue and the Council of Fashion Designers of America proved who’s got the chutzpah by staging a massive 171-look fashion show–easily New York City’s, if not the world’s, largest in history–that featured Gisele Bündchen opening in a Fashion’s Night Out t-shirt, Carolina Herrera ballgown skirt and Jimmy Choos and Naomi Campbell closing hand-in-hand with Pharrell Williams clad in an Oscar de la Renta gown and Christian Louboutins.
Organized very much like a production at Lincoln Center–where the show encircled the Josie Robertson Plaza fountains–the show featured about 150 models broken down into nine “acts,” seven of which represented Vogue’s top fall trends: Opening Act, Fifties Flair, Tartan Twist, Pure At Heart, Weekend Wrap-Up, Rock Chic, Go Global, Jazz Age Cool and Grand Finale. Tickets to the public show ran anywhere from $25 and $400.
After a hilarious live-streamed introduction by André Leon Talley that’ll surely result in more precise video editing next year, guests took their seats around a multi-circular layer runway, the sun set and the fountains and music turned on. To a mash-up of “New York, New York,” “Empire State of Mind” and Lady Gaga, Gisele led an A-list roster of supermodels, including Karolina Kurkova, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Coco Rocha and Lara Stone disembarking from atop a double-decker bus. It was, as you could imagine, so visually stimulating that at times it was hard to keep track of the seemingly endless procession of models. Indeed, blink and you could’ve missed a model or three (Gisele and Naomi walked only the inner circle, proving their worth in struts).
As the audience, which included industry bold-facers like Francisco Costa, Donna Karan, Vera Wang, Elie Tahari (who recently moved to the Upper West Side), Tommy Hilfiger, Thakoon Panichgul, Phillip Lim and Carolina Herrera, as well as celebs Leighton Meester, Ashley Tisdale, Blake Lively, Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Seth Meyers watched on in awe, Pharrell emerged onto the venue and closed the show with an interlude. “It’s Fashion’s Night Out,” he said into the mic. “Have fun and go shopping.”
I LOVE those Carolina Herrera ballgown skirts and how they are wearing them with the fashions night out tees and sashes. They look incredible. I wish I lived in a world where I could wear all my tees with a ballgown skirt. Life and trips to the grocery store would be so much more interesting. Great post as always 🙂