Glossy leather stands out at NY fashion week

Shiny leather stood out during a particularly busy Sunday at New York fashion week, with both Derek Lam and Donna Karan for DKNY making the most of the material in its most highly polished form.

In what critics hailed as a strong collection, Lam sent his models through a maze of white frames in sleeveless paneled leather tops matched with skirts that were either long and sequined or hemmed at the knee with pockets.

Equally glossy was a futuristic, figure-hugging oxblood dress with a cheongsam silhouette; the same material reappeared in another look as the skinniest of skinny leather jeans.

But it wasn't all hard-edged, as the California-born designer threw in a white cable-knit sleeveless sweater that came across as practical and feminine when combined with a fluid white dress.

Huge buttons defined Lam's double-breasted jackets, and bushy fur collars looked especially appealing on a day when New Yorkers weathered freezing temperatures and a blustering Arctic wind.

More shiny leather turned up at DKNY, Karan's youthful and unabashedly urban diffusion line, for which a yellow New York taxi was pressed into service as the runway backdrop.

Ashley Greene, the "Twilight" star who is the latest face of DKNY, was among the front-row guests who savored a collection inspired, according to the designer's notes, by the Beat generation of the 1950s.

Building on a trend that emerged at the spring-summer shows in September, there was no shortage of peplum skirts, including a high-waisted number in reptilian leather with a wide, waist-pinching belt.

Others who sent out their latest collections Sunday included the grande dame of New York fashion, Diane Von Furstenberg, the fast-rising Thakoon Panichgul, and British pop singer turned designer Victoria Beckham.

Fashion Week: Five Questions With Erin Fetherston

As Erin Fetherston celebrates the one-year anniversary of her contemporary collection, the California native tells TIME about her inspirations for the Fall/Winter season, the Oscar-nominated actress she'd like to dress next and what she loves most about New York City.

What inspired your new collection?
I was really inspired by imagery from nature, and I wanted to show the tension between elements that felt organic and elements that felt really electric. You'll see soft, ethereal fabrics like crinkled chiffon and really airy printed chiffons, as well as metallicized fabric and bright sequins. (MORE: A Brief History of New York Fashion Week.)

What's your favorite piece?
I'm pretty excited about this marabou feathered jacket that we have, and I love the printed dresses of the collection. There's one I'm especially attracted to: the body of it is matte jersey and really slim fit, and then it has a cape-sleeve on it that's almost like a cocoon cape around the back. The cape part is in this metallic chiffon, and there's something about it that looks so modern and directional.

You've collaborated with Target and Juicy Couture. Are there any brands or celebrities that you'd like to work with next?
I share the universal adoration for Michelle Williams. I've always thought she was so cute, and I also think she's an ideal Erin girl because she's just charming, beautiful and sexy without being overtly so -- she's always feminine. I think she's definitely the most exciting person to dress right now.

What other shows are you looking forward to seeing this season?
Calla Haynes. We were actually students together at Parsons in Paris, so we've known each other for a long, long time, and she's designed prints for me in the past. I'm so excited and proud of her -- her stuff is so beautiful.

You're from California. What do you miss the most about the West Coast, and what's your favorite thing about New York?
I miss the weather the most about California, because I'm a total warm weather person. It's been better this year, but it's still hard. What I love about New York is the excitement, the activity and the glamour -- there's always something to do and interesting people to meet.

PHOTOS: New York Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2011

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Barbie's wardrobe celebrated at Fashion Week bash

NEW YORK (AP) — Barbie threw open the sparkly, pink doors of her dream closet to rock a party she hosted for her fellow fashionistas.

She (well, actually the Mattel marketing machine that has kept Barbie dolls a bestselling toy for more than a half-century) hired a DJ to keep the beat and made sure the drinks flowed Friday night as models — the real-life kind — worked the balconies of a Lincoln Center atrium dressed in some of Barbie's watershed looks.

Guests mingled alongside a wall of pink-heeled pumps or stood before large computer screens to virtually rummage through the 53-year-old icon's wardrobe, from career to couture. The technology produced parting gifts of photos for her New York Fashion Week friends to preserve their Barbie moments.

The dream closet tech was a demonstration of what kids can do at home on their own computers if they visit BarbieWow.com and have webcams.

"Everything's awesome. I picked a pink dress. I have it at home," said 7-year-old Amirit Small, who attended the packed party with her dad and 11-year-old sister, Leila.

Dad was clearly enjoying the dad points he racked up for making it past Barbie's sparkly pink door rope and onto her pink carpet.

There were plenty of Barbie moments to go around among the crowd.

Steven Stolman, president of the home decor and accessories line Scalamandre, is known more for his signature zebra prints than the Barbie he was asked to style as a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America several years ago. He chose a little black number.

"We tracked it down in a Target in Milwaukee," said Stolman, whose two older sisters were Barbie fans growing up.

Among girls growing up with Barbie, who didn't spend at least some time during the impressionable years styling or dyeing the doll's hair? But what did Stolman do?

What brothers are supposed to, of course: "I used to pull Barbie's head off."

Stephanie Cota, Barbie's senior vice president of marketing, has been rolling out her gal at Fashion Week for several years. There was a runway show in 2009 for the doll's 50th anniversary, featuring outfits by 50 designers who included Vera Wang, Diane von Furstenberg and Calvin Klein.

"What better way to celebrate a fashion icon than here at Fashion Week," Cota said.

It was Ken's turn last year. The Babs boyfriend was feted at Fashion Week in looks by Rag & Bone, Yigal Azrouel and others.

In all, 75 couture designers have outfitted Barbie over the years. Cota and her Mattel crew were loaded with Barbie tidbits: There's a "Barbie Pink" Pantone color and more than 1 billion outfits produced for her since she first hit stores as a "teenage fashion model" in 1959 wearing a black-and-white zebra stripe swimsuit.

Barbie also has a shoe collection to die for with thousands of the tiny things that parents with vacuum cleaners love to hate.

On loan for the party from the city's Albright Fashion Library were Barbie-inspired outfits worn by human models representing Barbie's passage through the decades. One was 1959 Barbie in her first swimsuit, done by Liza Bruce, and another was "Black Barbie" of 1980 in an Alexander McQueen jewel-collared red wrap jersey dress.

Dolce & Gabbana did "CEO Barbie" proud with a double-breasted wool gabardine suit in, you guessed it, pink.

And what about the controversy over whether Barbie and her perfect figure promote an unattainable body image for young girls?

"The same could be said for the entire fashion industry," observed Stolman.

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Follow AP coverage of New York Fashion Week at http://twitter.com/ap_fashion and Leanne Italie at http://www.twitter.com/litalie.

Plus-size models get "Bare" at NY's Fashion Week

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In the middle of New York Fashion Week, typically filled with skinny models in slender garments, it was a celebration of the full figured and fabulous when lingerie maker Bare Necessities launched Bare Plus -- a new line catering to the rising numbers of plus-size women.

"The new American woman," says Jay Dunn, chief marketing officer for Bare Plus, noting that more than 60 percent of American women wear a size 14 or higher.

"They are no longer the minority. You would never know that by looking at media, advertising and entertainment, but they really are the majority," Dunn said.

Weight and questions of what constitutes a healthy and attractive body image have been flashpoints in fashion for years, of course. After two anorexic Latin American models died in 2006, countries including Italy and India banned underweight models from the catwalk as part of an effort to promote a healthier image of beauty.

France did not, but the style-conscious country did introduce an awareness campaign. Yet critics still say the fashion industry contributes to eating disorders in young women.

Bare Plus champions the idea that size 8 or 10 is average. Indeed millions of American women who are considered plus size fit into clothes often not found in many stores -- usually size 14 and up.

Away from fashion week's main runways, a mini catwalk of Bare Plus' lingerie showed off many animal prints, as well fabrics of lace and satin. Designs by Hanky Panky, Calvin Klein and DKNY will also be available through Bare Plus.

The lingerie collection will soon be part of a "Curvy Fashion Show," at the next New York Fashion Week in September. That show will include six individual designers and feature apparel, sleepwear, swimwear and lingerie.

"There are millions of plus size women around the world who have a voice and a style that up until today nobody has heard or seen in the proper light," said Jeff Grinstein, the Curvy Fashion Show's creator.

In the audience of the Bare Plus event were several plus-size women who said they liked what they saw.

"Plus-size fashion has been the step-child of Fashion Week and of fashion in general for just too long," said Maryellen Kernaghan, a 53-year-old blogger who has been working as a plus-size model for several decades.

"A plus-size woman, just like any other woman, wants to feel great. And lingerie really does support a woman in more ways than one," said Kernaghan, adding she fully intends to purchase some of the under-garments ahead of Valentine's Day.

(Editing by Christine Kearney and Bob Tourtellotte)

Carmen Marc Valvo's Fashion Week moment: film noir

NEW YORK (AP) — Carmen Marc Valvo's runway wended through an atrium above Times Square like the python that inspired his couture cocktail dresses and evening gowns, some of which he hopes will land on red carpets.

Playing on the light and shadow of film noir, Valvo honored Lauren Bacall in his fall collection with a palette of ivory, black, camel and deep reds and browns.

He used illusion effects, sheaths sparkling in sequins and insets in a suede python print on waists, chests and backs.

What does he like best about Bacall? "Her uncomplicated sense of glamour and sophistication. It's a collection that has a lot of polish. It's very clean-lined, but it's not at all retro. It's very modern."

Valvo has dressed everybody from Beyonce to Claire Danes. He included some looks he hopes will land on red carpets this year: a four-ply silk crepe illusion gown in ruby and another of the same style in a lively moss.

For another favorite, Valvo designed a pattern of a python out of small double-face wool pieces sewn onto netting. He placed his snake over a silk sheath underlay in champagne. The process, also used for a cocktail dress, is painstaking.

"We did a lot of fabric splicing this time. For the double-face wool, you have to cut it with a razor and sew it back," he said.

Valvo also went full-on fur in an ombre mink patchwork coat in a light camel with a darker back and in wide mink stoles wrapped simply around the necks of models. He used shaggy black goat fur on the sleeves of a jacket and feathered fox in oatmeal for a sumptuous vest.

He considers his core customer for his couture line an older lady of means who "has a sense of herself" and shops at Neiman Marcus, Saks and Bergdorf. He appealed to her in a belted ivory coat with simple lines, a similar cut in camel and a cashmere cocktail dress in moss with straight, tight sleeves just above the elbow.

"But I dress people from 20 to 80. It's really just an attitude," Valvo said. "Today's dressing is all about attitude."

Mogul Russell Simmons attended the show, which — unusually enough — had nothing BUT a front row as it curved in a single line along the second floor of the Nasdaq building in the heart of Times Square.

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Follow AP coverage of New York Fashion Week at http://twitter.com/ap_fashion and http://www.twitter.com/litalie

(This version CORRECTS reference to Russell Simmons to remove reference to Kimora)

Glossy leather stands out at NY fashion week

Shiny leather stood out during a particularly busy Sunday at New York fashion week, with both Derek Lam and Donna Karan for DKNY making the most of the material in its most highly polished form.

In what critics hailed as a strong collection, Lam sent his models through a maze of white frames in sleeveless paneled leather tops matched with skirts that were either long and sequined or hemmed at the knee with pockets.

Equally glossy was a futuristic, figure-hugging oxblood dress with a cheongsam silhouette; the same material reappeared in another look as the skinniest of skinny leather jeans.

But it wasn't all hard-edged, as the California-born designer threw in a white cable-knit sleeveless sweater that came across as practical and feminine when combined with a fluid white dress.

Huge buttons defined Lam's double-breasted jackets, and bushy fur collars looked especially appealing on a day when New Yorkers weathered freezing temperatures and a blustering Arctic wind.

More shiny leather turned up at DKNY, Karan's youthful and unabashedly urban diffusion line, for which a yellow New York taxi was pressed into service as the runway backdrop.

Ashley Greene, the "Twilight" star who is the latest face of DKNY, was among the front-row guests who savored a collection inspired, according to the designer's notes, by the Beat generation of the 1950s.

Building on a trend that emerged at the spring-summer shows in September, there was no shortage of peplum skirts, including a high-waisted number in reptilian leather with a wide, waist-pinching belt.

Others who sent out their latest collections Sunday included the grande dame of New York fashion, Diane Von Furstenberg, the fast-rising Thakoon Panichgul, and British pop singer turned designer Victoria Beckham.

Kate Spade oh so French at NY Fashion Week

NEW YORK (AP) — Kate Spade New York told a garden story for fall at New York Fashion Week in maraschino red, aqua and forest green, huge polka dots and graphic prints, offering a playful shoutout to the "crazy" girls of Paris.

Creative director Deborah Lloyd matched the walls at the brand's presentation Friday in a black dress adorned with French script reading "Toutes les filles sont folles," or "All the girls are crazy."

She perched her models on columns in a downtown space, inspired by gardens near the Palais-Royal in Paris and the columns in its famous courtyard, the cour d'honneur. "I love it there," she said. "The last time I was there, all these cute girls were being statues on columns."

Lloyd took over the company after Kate Spade was bought out in 2006. Spade had already extended her namesake line of bags to shoes, paper products and eyewear, among other things. Lloyd is credited with pushing the brand into fashion apparel while staying true to the company's roots.

"We have amazing DNA and a crisp clean sensibility with a hit of whimsy and the use of color and prints," she said. "There's definitely a French, flirtatious feeling to this collection," Lloyd said.

She went oh so French with a cobalt blue button-up swing coat adorned with a large matching bow at the neck, and a column skirt with large dots in two shades of blue and a girlie bow at the waist.

Lloyd carried a dreamy, watercolor flower pattern from a full, pleated jumper into tops and cardigans. Her "joie de vivre" embracing Paris and the fashionable women who live there also showed up in a pattern adorned with colored drawings of the women themselves, including one holding a lit cigarette.

Sacre bleu!

___

Follow AP coverage of New York Fashion Week at http://twitter.com/ap_fashion and Leanne Italie at http://www.twitter.com/litalie.