Glenda Bailey

>> This evening at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, fashion's finest gathered for the 2010 CFDA Awards. Jak & Jil's Tommy Ton snapped photos of the arrivals, J.Crew's Jenna Lyons introduced herself to Isabel Toledo, and the ever-punctual Anna Wintour was later than usual, appearing after the pre-awards cocktails were in full swing.

Wintour put on her signature shades for the ceremony itself, but off they came when International Award winner Christopher Bailey thanked her (along with Tom Ford and Donna Karan) — in fact, she was beaming. Later, she got on stage to present Michael Kors with his Lifetime Achievement Award — he received a standing ovation — and told a story about how she went on a trip to Jamaica with Kors; when Ralph Lauren arrived, Kors got in the ocean and stayed there for hours because he didn't want Lauren to see him in his swimsuit.

Speaking of Lauren, he received the Popular Vote for the second year running — although he wasn't in attendance this evening. Sarah Jessica Parker, dressed in a custom gown by new Alexander McQueen creative director Sarah Burton, presented Lee Alexander McQueen posthumously with the Special Tribute Award, noting that the designer had "the most beautiful hands I've ever seen," before models took the stage in the designer's last works.

Accepting her Fashion Icon Award, Iman thanked her parents for the longest neck on any model at any go-see in the world and joked to husband David Bowie: "Move over. You're not the only icon in the house." And finally, Marc Jacobs scored the Womenwear Award — he thanked bloggers for his win and said to Robert Duffy: "i want to thank [Duffy], without you this dream would never have come true."

And the winners are . . . (nominees here):

• Accessory Designer of the Year: Alexis Bittar
• Popular Vote Award: Ralph Lauren
• Menswear Designer of the Year: Marcus Wainwright and David Neville for Rag & Bone
• Swarovski Award for Menswear: Richard Chai
• Swarovski Award for Womenswear: Jason Wu
• Swarovski Award for Accessories: Alexander Wang
• Womenswear Designer of the Year: Marc Jacobs

>> After the New York Times article two weeks ago extensively covering Zac Posen's recent financial struggles, needless to say, eyes were peeled this morning bright and early at the Altman building for Posen's Fall 2010 plan of attack. Glenda Bailey, which the aforementioned article noted was not in attendance at Posen's show last season after they had a confrontation last April, was front row this time around, as were Posen's advertising photog Ellen von Unwerth, Patricia Field, Anna Wintour, Grace Coddington, Joe Zee, and Robbie Myers.

As the lights dimmed and runway photographers scrambled for their places, Israeli "hip-hop violinist" Miri Ben-Ari stepped from backstage to the left side of the runway, where she played her electric violin throughout the show, backed by a thumping bass.  Despite the fact that Posen is still going with a pared-down runway in general, the performance added the energy of his elaborate productions of yore.  The models, too — including Alek Wek, Hana Soukupova, Anne Vyalitsyna, Posen's muse Anna Cleveland, and Coco Rocha, who closed — were clearly told to smile and work the runway; Sessilee Lopez, hands on her waist, swung her hips with satisfaction.  Posen's boyfriend, Christopher Niquet, styled the show.

The clothes, however, were telltale that Posen is making an effort to resituate himself: there were none of his signature gowns whatsoever.  In their place, short skirts with flounce, '40-style trousers, and plenty of fur. "I'm playing with clean fabrications and upping the luxury level," he said backstage after taking his bow with Rocha and Kinee Diouf.

The Accessories Council hosted their annual ACE Awards in NYC last night to honor the most influential movers and shakers in the industry. Tomas Maier was on hand to be celebrated as designer of the year for his work with Bottega Veneta, and Diane von Furstenberg smiled with a DvF-clad Molly Sims before heading in to accept the Accessory Visionary award. Hilary Rhoda took a turn down the carpet, while fellow model Agyness Deyn was there to pick up Burberry's Brand of the Year Award on behalf of her good friend Christopher Bailey.

We caught a moment with TOMS's Blake Mycoskie, who was honored with the year's Humanitarian Award. He posed for photos in a black velvet Dolce & Gabbana tux that he paired with a zebra-print pair of TOMS straight from his new holiday collection. Mycoskie arrived alongside a Victoria Beckham-wearing Erin Wasson, which got us thinking about a future Erin Wasson x TOMS collaboration. "Maybe!" Mycoskie said. "You know I need more and more talented people. I am running out of ideas." The pair apparently go way back after meeting in their native Texas a few years ago. "We're both from Texas," said Wasson. "I met him three years ago in Dallas during his first of his TOMS American tour. They were cruising around in an Airstream, going around store to store when they first were starting the company, and that's how we met."

Nine West's Fred Allard won the evening's Visionary Award, and he opened up about the trends he's sees being big this Winter — he finds the over-the-knee boots "very sexy" but thinks clogs are "not a major trend." Despite saying that celebrities like Halle Berry, Rihanna, and Eva Longoria are big fans of Nine West, Allard won't be hiring them for any ad campaigns in the near future. He said, "Celebrities are attached to a very strong personality. We decide to pick our models and change our models every two seasons and there is a reason behind that. I just don't want to be stuck with one vision of a woman. . . we are fashion shoes for the masses."

Lady Gaga, meanwhile, turned up over an hour late and quickly posed for the waiting cameras before heading in to accept the Stylemaker Award from Marc Jacobs. Other guests included Alexander Wang, Glenda Bailey, Christian Siriano, and a Zappos-friendly Betsey Johnson — click here to see the full list of winners.

New York 11/02/09. Getty and Pacific Coast News Online

>> For the second year running, the Whitney Art Musem Gala was Donatella Versace's party.  Editors — Olivier Zahm, Lauren Santo Domingo, Glenda Bailey — commingled with designers — Peter Som, Moises de la Renta, Ruffian's Claude Morais and Brian Wolk — and a smattering of models like Chanel Iman and Hana Soukupova. Christopher Kane's Versus designs even made an appearance — the Fall 2009 crystal shoes were on Byrdie Bell's feet, and Taylor Momsen — who seems to be close with the Versaces, particularly Allegra, changed into a black Spring 2010 Versus frock for the Studio Party post-Gala Dinner.

Donatella was fashionably late to the party — two hours in, she was nowhere to be found; perhaps she was still upstairs tending to VIPs — as was Lindsay Lohan, who swept in, all blonde hair and gold dress — earning comparisons to Donatella's trademark look. Lohan said she came "for Donatella" before beelining to Brian Atwood for a chat.  Keeping with the "art chic" theme, the walls of one whole room at the party downstairs was covered in paper for guests to scribble on.

>> Three weeks after they were tasked with designing the Spring 2010 Emanuel Ungaro collection, Estrella Archs and artistic advisor Lindsay Lohan took their runway bow — the former dragging the teary latter by the hand — yesterday to a beefed-up photographer's pit and an audience, many of whom just came because of the expected spectacle.

The result wasn't pretty: the collection's super-short minidresses and heart-shaped pasties peeking out of blazers and on the models' foreheads were ruled "a bad joke of a fashion show" by Style.com. Lohan's involvement was compared to "a McDonald’s fry cook taking the reins of a three-star Michelin restaurant" by the New York Times's Eric Wilson. Fabien Baron's take? "Call the fashion police!”  And Harper's Bazaar's Glenda Bailey wouldn't even comment: “You know, if you don’t mind, I have to run out the door.”  Even Dree Hemingway weighed in: "the first half might as well be alex wang last spring and i did see [Lohan] sporting that hot pink blazer of his..."

Lohan, who is reportedly being paid millions by Ungaro, called the show "the hardest thing I've ever done."  Beforehand, she selected $150,000 worth of Ungaro clothes at the Paris flagship with CEO Mounir Moufarrige's blessing, supposedly cancelling an interview with Suzy Menkes.  Some expect her to be gone before next season — even though she already said she was sketching for the next collection — but her contract is multiyear, and Moufarrige said his main goal in hiring her was to generate publicity, noting that he was suprised criticism hasn't been more negative.  And even after the wave of bad reviews came out yeseterday, Ungaro's owner Asim Abdullah was defiant that either Lohan reignites the long-struggling Ungaro, or “we go down in a blaze of glory. Or unglory."

>> Prabal Gurung is on the verge: Glenda Bailey stopped by this afternoon at his sunlit Flag Art Foundation presentation, Harper's Bazaar posse in tow, to schmooze with the designer; Meredith Melling Burke — in cropped Fashion's Night Out tee, natch — got a personal tour of the collection by the designer; fan Rachel Zoe — who recently dressed Demi Moore in Prabal — stopped by with assistant Brad Goreski, causing the usually imperturbable fashion crowd to collectively gawk; and Cathy Horyn stepped out of the elevator as I was leaving.  

For his second eponymous collection, the Bill Blass alum, inspired by "Maggie Betts, Zoe Saldana, and Indre Rockefeller," as listed in his show notes, stuck largely to what he does best: cocktail dresses, all in a palette of cobalt, white, and black.  The piece de resistance? A stunningly simple electric blue gown.