3.1 Phillip Lim

As many of you might already know, since I've been gushing about it on Facebook, yesterday afternoon I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a fashion show during NY Fashion Week. A lot of you probably don't care, but the fashion world has always been a strange and wonderfully alluring world to me. I once had a brief but enlightening stint in modeling when I was a 15-year-old youngster and also modeled some looks for local designers in Omaha in college. Heck, that's how I met Tyler four years ago; I was modeling censor-bar silk scraps that some might stretch to call lingerie, while he and his friends (one of his friends was seeing one of my friends, who was also in the show) snuck up to the dressing room and drank whiskey. Somehow we bonded over books and music -- cerebrally, even though I was wearing practically nothing when I walked down the runway.

Anyway, even though I can never afford anything "designer" and my biggest splurge was a pair of Frye boots for my graduation present, I do pay attention to what goes on. Which is why, when our friend Brita Olsen informed me she was helping produce a couple shows this week and asked if I wanted to go to one with Jenny and Marina, I jumped at the chance. I didn't even know whose show I was attending until yesterday afternoon when I asked Jenny on the train ride over to 66th and Park Ave.

"Phillip Lim?" she said, unsure of who exactly he was.

I, however, nearly jumped out of my seat. Maybe my eyes bulged out of my head a little bit. "Phillip Lim?!?!?" I squealed. "Oh my God!"

Phillip Lim makes beautiful, beautiful clothes. As you will see.

The entrance of the Park Avenue Armory, where the show was held. So many stylish people!

So many skinny people. I saw not one fat person. In fact, the people that were there were so...unnaturally thin. It made me feel good that while I may not be 105 pounds like many of these editors, bloggers, stylists, and socialites, at least I can eat what I want, enjoy what I eat, and still look decent. Have you ever seen The Devil Wears Prada? That's exactly what it was like.

Walking in! The Armory is breathtaking! HUGE and OLD. Everything was a military green and so old; I loved the juxtaposition of an old wartime building being used for something so modern, ethereal, and...well...frivolous, at least when compared to what the Armory used to be used for.

But then again, maybe not. This is from the Park Ave Armory's website:

The Armory was built by New York State’s prestigious Seventh Regiment of the National Guard, the first volunteer militia to respond to President Lincoln’s call for troops in 1861. Members of what was known as the “Silk Stocking” Regiment included New York’s most prominent Gilded Age Families including the Vanderbilts, Van Rensselaers, Roosevelts, Stewarts, Livingstons and Harrimans. Built as both a military facility and a social club, the reception rooms on the first floor and the Company Rooms on the second floor were designed by the most prominent designers and artists of the day including Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White, Herter Brothers and Pottier & Stymus. The Armory’s 55,000 square foot drill hall, reminiscent of the original Grand Central Depot and the great train sheds of Europe, remains one of the largest unobstructed spaces of its kind in New York. A marvel of engineering in its time, it was designed by Regiment veteran and architect Charles W. Clinton, later a partner of Clinton & Russell, architects of the Apthorp Apartments and the famed, now demolished, Astor Hotel.

And this drill hall is effing huge.


I brought Tyler's point-and-shoot and felt so juvenile and completely star-struck as, when we entered and stood at the back, I saw Coco Rocha in the front row of the nearly-empty seats. (We arrived on time, and nobody arrives on time to those things, except us and Coco, apparently.)

And just as a warning...all of my pictures are horrible and blurry because I was so excited I couldn't keep my hands still for the camera. But there's Coco Rocha's beautiful smiling face.

And then the photographers saw her, too.



Three people to her left was Alexa Chung, who just designed a collection for Madewell and who lives in our neighborhood with her rocker boyfriend.


See...dude with the fringe jacket talking to Coco Rocha...and bottom left of the picture in profile, Alexa! I couldn't really get a good picture of her though. But that's okay. I got to see her later when she walked out with Kanye.

Who is this lady? She looked so familiar I took a picture of her without knowing who she was. Geez, I know nothing about who's who.


Those giant white things were the set pieces that the models walked around. I think they were supposed to be giant crown molding, a la Alice in Wonderland...I think Dad would be proud that I recognized it as crown molding.

Filling up!

The photographers' space cracked me up and I don't know why. Maybe it's because they all look so eager with their cameras and they're all crowded together. For some reason it reminded me of the cattle trucks I would see driving to my internship from Omaha to Lincoln -- all the cattle crammed together in such a small space. If I thought too hard about where they were going I would start to cry. But not for these photographers! I know I would eventually be stealing their pictures to put on this blog since my pictures wouldn't do any justice to the clothes. And it's true.

Washed-out me and tan, Brazilian Marina Delneri. In the end, I went with Juan's suggestion and wore a black dress. I figure you can't go wrong. I did have a scarf/headband but took it off because it kept falling and looking stupid. My hair is getting so long!

Soon, the show was ready to begin! I'm only going to post a few of my favorites. But you can see all of the clothes on Style.com's site here. Their pictures are better than mine, anyway.

First gal.

I love the neutral tones, the beiges, blacks, blushes, and especially the tailored menswear look above. I like the length of the pants; it reminds me of Audrey Hepburn.

Love! I guess what I liked so much about these clothes is that they're all so...wearable. No crazy feathered onesies or sequined hotpants or anything, just smartly tailored, beautiful feminine pieces.

Last girls walking away.

Now my visual favorite, the finale!



And Mr. Lim himself.


After he walked offstage, EVERYONE got up immediately and headed out the door to the next show. But Jenny, Marina and I stayed behind and met up with Brita and talked to her for a bit.

Good thing, because who walks out right in front of us but Kanye West!

I frantically tried to pull my camera out of my jacket pocket and started snapping pictures while trying not to have a celebrity-induced heart attack.

That model posed for a picture but nobody cared; they all took a picture of Kanye and Alexa Chung. Haha.

Though I must say, I didn't know he was so short! I love the cut-out of Alexa's shirt. It's a nice detail.


On the way home, one of the models from the show, Nadiia Shapoval, got on the 6 train with us. This is what she wore at the show:

(from style.com)

She looked so cute with her skinny black jeans, black shortie boots like the ones I want, and a long-sleeve white blouse with a black bow around the collar. And a little black cape. That's her:

All in all, it was a glorious afternoon and really made me feel glad to live in New York and to be able to experience these things that I've loved from afar for so long.

I stole a Phillip Lim booklet from an empty row seat and brought it home. It has ridiculous clothing descriptions but I wanted a souvinir. This is what it said Nadiia was wearing: black lambskin paillette shirt tail dress, grizzly 'Brancusie' platform heels.

But this one is my favorite:

On Hereith: twiggy organza paneled harness back tabard, twiggy organza apron paneled skirt, black 'Christo' ankle strap heels

This is what it really was:


Anyway, I brought it home and set it on the couch next to me, where Niles immediately told me what he thought about it.

I don't know why he likes to lay on paper so much. But he really does love this Phillip Lim thing. Maybe they used a special couture paper!


I had the blast of a lifetime in the short span of the hour we were there -- we left for the city at 1:15, got there at 2, and the show started around 2:30 and ended about 15 minutes later. We were back in beloved Brooklyn by 3:30. I am so grateful that I got to spend an afternoon in a world I've only read about in Vogue and W and seen in the Harper's Bazaar special edition Collections magazine issues that I would spend $22 on.


Post Script: Just saw an update on The Sartorialist with two gals who I saw at the show yesterday. I really hated the feather dress Anna was wearing -- Jenny and I, like the adults we are, called her "the girl in the chicken dress," even though it's more ostrich than chicken. Definitely nothing like the clothes on the Phillip Lim runway!