Rachel Antonoff Fall 2012: Sweet Sea Dreams and Songs by Alia Shawkat

You can always count on there being a few heartwarming surprises at a Rachel Antonoff presentation--on top of a collection of sweetly wearable clothes, of course. And, needless to say, yesterday's presentation did not disappoint. Let's start with the clothes and then get to Mr. Wendy (the cat supermodel) and the amazing performance by Alia Shawkat. (Yes, I asked her about Arrested Development.) For fall Antonoff diversified her line, with a larger variety of pieces, from two-toned pants to embroidered dresses to a red miniskirt with a change purse sewn in as a pocket. There was a dynamic range of color and print, with easy separates for day, and elegant dress options for night. The starting point for such a mature collection, was actually an activity Rachel did with her mom as a child.
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You can always count on there being a few heartwarming surprises at a

resulted in floral creepers and patent flats that were, as always, a delight.

After catching up with Rachel, I got up-close-and-personal with Mr. Wendy, the male cat model. He refused quotes, but looked like he was having a great time in the arms of the pretty models. (You can follow him on twitter, where he is much more talkative.)

Then, I was whisked away by the PRs to meet Rachel's friend, the unbelievably amazing Alia Shawkat, who sang at the presentation. I desperately tried to seem cool while asking Alia about, singing, acting, and of course Arrested Development.

Steff Yotka: Are you nervous about performing in front of all these really critical fashion people? Alia Shawkat: Yeah! Definitely. I'm the only one drinking, that's probably why.

So that's the trick? Yeah.

Are you playing with a band? There's going to be a bass and an accordion and my voice. Just jazz standards, so nothing too scary.

Did you come to New York Fashion Week just for this? Yes! Rachel has been very close to me for many years, and I'm always proud to come out and wear her outfits and stuff. She has such cool clientele, not including me, but really awesome other people.

Including you! Ok, including me. [laughs]

Do you have any new acting projects coming out soon? Yes. I have a couple of things coming out. A movie called The Oranges coming out in September, a movie called The Hand Job that my friend Sarah Steele is in as well. Um, a movie called He Loves Me that I have a part in. A movie called Brass Teapot... So a bunch of stuff.

Do you want to say anything about Arrested Development? Arrested Development.

I know a trillion people ask you about it. We're just all really needy, addicted, couch potatoes. Yeah, well I think they're writing it [the movie] right now, so we're all in the waits to see what happens.

Cool. I'm waiting with bated breath. Me too! I can't wait.

I forgot to ask for tickets to the premiere, so Mitch Hurwitz, if you're reading this, please think of me.

And after such a big day for team Antonoff, there was even more excitement at night. Rachel spilled the beans to me about some big Saturday night plans, "Actually, Zooey Deschanel is wearing our dress on SNL tonight, so we're going to go home and watch!" (The dress even gets a mention in Deschanel's monologue.) Overall I think Saturday was a really, really great day for Rachel Antonoff.

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