I've been eagerly waiting my entire life (well, since I was like 10) to attend Fashion Week, so this past NYC Fashion Week for the spring 2010 collections was quite a milestone. And the good news is, I survived! I've never understood how editors can complain about Fashion Week being so tiring and all, but after witnessing the madness first hand, I'd say I'm a bit more sympathetic after the fact. But then again, it's Fashion Week, baby! Most definitely the best week of the year. Now that I've had the weekend to recuperate from the craziness and exhaustion, it's finally time to recap the highlights. Ok, here we go:


The ultimate highlight of the week was most definitely sitting front row at the 3.1 Phillip Lim show for AmEx cardmembers with bestie Courtney Peterson (see photos above). Andre Leon Talley and Linda Fargo hosted and did a Q&A with Lim on the runway before the show began. The collection was beautiful, wearable, and very versatile; looks ranged from a red lizard print trench to a pair of lavender, sequined slouchy trousers that could double as pajamas, to disco ball sequined shorts, to a machine washable red pant suit. The dresses Lim showcased were works of art in themselves; each a unique creation composed of some combination of lace, rhinestones, sequins, tight knife pleats, and leather panels. My favorite look was a metallic bronze disco ball of a dress (or was it a jumpsuit?) Either way, it was swishy, sparkly, and fabulous. The only misstep (literally) came when one of the models who had been struggling to strut in her heels the entire time, finally collapsed during the run of show. Not only that, but she couldn't get up, until another model finally latched onto her arm and practically carried her backstage. Yikes. And did I spot Erin Lucas from The City, sitting above the front row? Double yikes. But all in all, another great collection from Phillip.


So let's backtrack a bit. The greatly anticipated first-ever Fashion's Night Out was of course an amazing kick-off to the week. I started my night at the M Missoni store in SoHo where I mingled and snacked on one too many candy colored mini macaroons from Paris with the amazing StyleCaster crew and Kelly Bensimon who joint hosted the event. Bravo was there filming the party for Real Housewives and I was asked to sign a release form...eek! Praying I get cut out of the final edit. After several hours of champagne and shopping, we picked up and headed over to the Vivienne Tam store to celebrate the launch of Tam's newly designed HP Digital Clutch and to promote StyleCaster's live stream of the Vivienne Tam runway show. There was so much partying going on on the streets of SoHo that I'm not sure anyone was actually shopping. I mean, shopping under the influence? Never a good idea.

Earlier in the week, I also got to interview Ted Gibson, Bobbi Brown, and Nonie Creme from Butter London who is super nice and totally British (always have a weakness for the Brits!). And Ted Gibson is absolutely adorable. Loved sitting next to editor-in-chief of Style Republic Magazine, Brittany Law, at the Gottex show and StyleCaster's Jessica Karcher at Anna Sui. Watching Natasha, Lily, Sasha, Chanel, and Jess Stam walk the catwalk in person was beyond amazing--Natasha is just as fierce as I always imagined her to be! Oh, and the safety pin details at Vena