—PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY KOST

“My bed is a Syrie Maugham 1930’s sleigh bed, upholstered in a chintz of deep pink cabbage roses garlanded with blue ribbon and outlined with moss fringing, very butch. If I wasn’t lactose intolerant, I would be eating rose and violet creams in it and reading Barbara Cartland romances.” —Hamish Bowles on what he likes in bed, in The Daily.

Chris Benz Spring 09 Timeline:

5:47 - We arrive at obscure, far west location way too early.

5:59 - Adorable girl pulls up, gets out of black car, is wearing yellow pants, blue jacket, we swoon. Take her picture for a streetwalker but then Scott Schuman pulls her away and his photo skills might be a bit better than ours.

6:07 - Obscure, far west location turns out to be really cool theatre. Bare looking, concrete set with painted wood, garbage pile-like thing on one side. A window. Three walls stage right.

6:13 - Little J, aka Taylor Momsen, takes her eighth row seat. Seriously. She might be so far back because she has a mullet now.

6:17 - We’re told they’re waiting for Anna and Proenza’s just ended. (Little do they know Anna’s skipped Proenza and ditto Chris to cheer on Federer at the US Open).

6:23 - We spot Rachel Hunter, woah, as the lights go down.

6:24 - Chris Benz shows signature Chris Benz. It’s comfortable, it’s pretty, it’s innocently sexy. We wish we could take it home.

He’s pretty cute, too.

In the most ironic news of the day: Forever 21 is suing rock band Forever the Sickest Kids for, here’s the kicker, copyright infringement. Apparently the use of ‘Forever’ in the band’s moniker is just too similar to the clothing company’s name - which is funny because we weren’t aware you could own a word, especially one as pervasive as ‘forever’ (now, a Chloe shoe design, that’s another thing…).

We would be more shook up if we felt their claim had more merit to it, but, really? Does this mean MANGO can now sue fruit sellers all across the world? Or that London’s famous “mind the gap” could be hastily changed to “mind the narrow space between”? Of course, we sincerely hope not. And we can’t imagine a judge who would disagree.

This may just go to show how ridiculously sue-happy the world has become, but we like to think of it as a great case of what goes around comes around. We can’t wait for the verdict.

—HAYLEY PHELAN

To: Tips@Fashionista.com

From: WellInformed@CintiaFan.com

Hey!

This has nothing to do with Fashion Week, but thought you’d like to know anyway -

Cintia’s in the upcoming October issue of Marie Claire, in a spread featuring Fall countryside looks.

She looks gorgeous! Thought I’d give you a heads up since she’s your mascot.

xo

Update: Sorry! It is Marie Claire!

Which moneyed fashion darling/sometimes editor/beautiful blonde said, no, shouted, “For a young designer’s show there was a ton of botox in that audience” in the presence of a particularly aged guest? Guess she wasn’t paying attention to the pretty clothes.

—PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY KOST

Jill Model (it’s Fashion Week! So we’re in the clear)

Got Her: at the 7Eleven Gallery Opening

Stalked Her: Because her form-fitting dress made us notice her the minute we saw her on the sidewalk.

Shot Her: Because we never actually thought we’d see an Herve Leger bandage dress out in the real world - We thought those only existed on socialites at parties where half the guests have photo creds.

We Say: A hot dress, Louboutins, and a skull encrusted clutch in short, it’s sick.

—LEAH MELTZER

We don’t know if it’s the schizophrenic weather, the economy, or whatever, but attendance at the shows this week has been pretty lackluster so far, and Ohne Titel yesterday afternoon was no exception.

But, if you missed it on purpose, you should be very angry with yourself, because not only were the clothes sheer, piecey beauties (and their signature swingy pants were reworked for Spring), but the shoes Flora and Alexa designed for Cesare Paciotti were just as “hot, sick and gorgeous” as they promised me back in July.

On a side note, we’re loving the see-through top trend that’s pervading the Spring 09 collections, especially Ohne’s take with the outlines of the body sort of drawn on with sequins. They also sort of made us consider leggings again - but only like theirs.

—PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY KOST

We don’t know if it was because Thakoon showed at the same place Alexander Wang shows, or if it was because there were so many bondage-inspired black shoes in the first row, but Thakoon’s collection felt a little dirtier than usual - and we liked it.

There were, of course, sexy lady clothes as per his usual, but the punctuations of midriffs and high waisted panties were right at home, especially since we always think of Freja when we’re at the Eyebeam.

Also of note: Do shows there always have to start early? Our Thakoon invite said 2:00, and yet when the photographers started yelling “Uncross your legs!” right before the lights went down, it was only 1:53.

We also spied one of Coco’s friends sitting front row next to LSD, snapping pictures of Coco every time she rounded the corner - so cute!

The Isaac Mizrahi show was at the Hammerstein Ballroom yesterday.

It’s an elegant venue, there was a live orchestra, Anna was front and center. It was all very glamourous, kind of like what I thought the industry would be like before I got into the industry.

And then Isaac’s clothes came out and they too were exactly what you think of when you think ‘Fashion Show’ - as in they were gorgeous, sometimes over the top, expertly tailored and almost all breathtaking.

He based the show on bugs, which meant kind of creepy music and lots of texture. Coco wore a wedding dress labeled “Glindafly” on the program (which made sense because it looked like the dress Glinda wore in The Wizard of Oz, but had a weird green insect-y shine to it).

And I kind of hoped that Caroline would leap across the runway in her “Green Hornet” gown.

Instead, Isaac came out and skipped around the runway while everyone cheered and I was reminded, despite my exhaustion, why fashion rocks.

I woke up bright and early today - except it wasn’t bright, it’s thundering and raining - to trek across the city to Sophie Theallet’s runway show. I abandoned all hope of appropriate Fashion Show outfits in lieu of ripped jean shorts and rain boots.

The only thing I knew about Sophie was that she was Alaia’s right hand woman for a very long time, but that was really all I needed to know. I’ve been an Alaia devotee since Cher went to that party in the valley in her red dress.

Anyway, Sophie’s clothes are nothing like Alaia’s, but they’re beautiful, just like the cast of stunning black models who wore her very simple, but perfectly constructed clothes down the sparse runway.

The collection started with a thin, white ruffled dress and slowly moved into prints and sheer black silk layered over brighter colors.

The stellar front row included Cathy Horyn, (who was also wearing jean shorts!!!), Michael Roberts, Grace Coddington, Nigel Barker and Sally Singer, who had a smile on her face most of the time.

That tells you more than I ever could.

—PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY KOST

There was kind of an awkward moment at the Jill Stuart show yesterday morning.

In between the floaty, wannabe off-duty ballerina layers and blush tones (except for the all black outfit worn, appropriately, by Karlie Kloss), one of the models had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction. As in, a really, really bad one that she didn’t seem to be aware of, leading her to continue down the runway jiggling away anyway. Guess everyone’ll just have to wait for the lookbook to see the outfit.

All the photographers (except one weird one who also had a video camera) stopped shooting, and the crowd kind of gave an “Ohh” and politely looked away.

And that’s pretty much all that happened.

—PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY KOST