VENA CAVA

While countless New York women were just beginning to glam up for their Valentine’s Day dinner dates, a block of fashion operatives lined up in the West 20s, hoping to get a little love as well. What awaited us at the Vena Cava presentation was not kisses from a loved one but skinny models (somehow they always make me want to eat more chocolate), and many, many gay men. If this seemed to bother anyone, it didn’t show. The early part of New York Fashion Week often feels like the beginning of camp: Hello, hello, kiss kiss. 

In keeping with the current fashion pulse, the Vena Cava designers went a bit tougher and less vintage this season. 

I have small familial tie to this label: My younger sister is interning for them this season. She sewed the tinsel onto this jacket. Last night she explained to me that the hardest part was on the eyes. The needle gets lost in the tinsel. I can imagine. What a haystack. It took her about two hours to sew the fringe. I’ll be curious to see if that piece actually goes to production (doubtful). This is quite common in fashion shows, what you see is not always what you get in the stores.  

DIANE VON FURSTENBERG

With a watercolor set resembling a Saharan sunset, Diane von Furstenberg sent out a collection on Sunday that felt upbeat, but not in a "Let’s-have-a-tea-party-while-the-Titanic-sinks" kind of way. It simply included many pieces that could be practically mixed into a woman’s wardrobe. (The collection was called "Nomad.") From the second look: a velvet leopard dress worn by a newly red haired Coco Rocha, you knew the collection would have oomph. Diana Ross was in attendance, and her classic "Upside Down" played during the finale while Diane mouthed along to the words as she took her bow.

Threatening to steal the whole show: Romy Schneider lookalike Natalia Vodianova and her cute blonde daughter and son, chattering to each other in the front row.

ERIN FETHERSTON

So pretty, so… out of touch. If you remember her collection for Target in 2007, she figured out how to make playful clothes that young women wanted to wear. Here, she made playful clothes that you wanted to look at. Big difference.  

But you have to give her credit for having a specific point of view. Everything from the precious chamber music to the glittery animal facemasks posed on the side of the models’ heads suggested childlike innocence. Still, the glass menagerie it called to mind sounded a note of discord—a bit off in relation to the current feminine psyche.