As we near the end of Fashion Week, we’ve invited some friends and experts to join us in a lunchtime conversation about the origins  and current state of college fashion. We will be using the discussion tool Branch, and the conversation will begin in this post at noon.

Joining us:

Richard E. Press, columnist at ivy-style.com, former CEO of J. Press, consultant at the FIT Museum
Amy Levin, founder/creative director of CollegeFashionista.com
Lawrence Schlossman, editor at Complex and co-writer of the forthcoming book Fuck Yeah Menswear
Scott Lipps, president of model agency One Management
Mary Alice Stephenson, style and beauty expert
Peter Davis, editor-in-chief of Scene magazine

http://branch.com/b/ivy-style-and-the-state-of-college-fashion

Helena Christensen and Liv Tyler. (Dustin Wayne Harris/PatrickMcMullan.com)

“The clothing’s just the sprinkles on top.” So said tattoo artist Ami James, and it could have been the motto for the evening, especially when the chocolate-sprinkled cupcakes appeared later on, one last treat for a collection of self-proclaimed oddballs, from Michael Stipe to Bono’s wife, Irish business woman Ali Hewson, to a late entry looking like the boy next door, Josh Hartnett.

They were gathered last night for the launch of the “Eccentrics Issue” of Vs. Magazine, which coincided with the official opening—or, anyway, the celebrity opening—of Paul Gerard’s Exchange Alley, the two events hosted by brunette beauties Liv Tyler, whose face in close-up stares from the cover of the new Vs., and Helena Christensen, who took the photo.

Mid-Fashion Week, and celebrating a high-end fashion magazine for the fashion-forward and runway-ready, the event was still somehow an escape from the frenzy, a respite. Yes, fashionistas and models mingled with artists, designers and rock stars, but the party was low key compared with the Marc Jacobs soirée on the same night.  The atmosphere at Exchange Alley, a restaurant that already feels local and loved, was one of nonchalant chic. The décor chimed with the night’s theme, black-and-white Hollywood studio shots matching the grayscale (splashed with pink) magazine cover. Mr. Gerard’s cooking, myriad different dishes with an Ottolenghi palette, also fit. The chef confessed to a Jack Kerouac fetish and modestly described himself as a potential eccentric, “more than your average Joe.”

Pity the poor eccentric. Quirkiness advertised runs the risk of cancelling itself out—after all, what could be more commonplace than clamoring for attention? To catch a glimpse of naked oddity one had to peek from unexpected angles, the only way to register, for instance, the tattoo of a cat on the ankle of Cobra Starship’s Gabe Sapporta. Mr. Sapporta, appropriately enough, was engrossed in conversation with Ami James, arguing that to be eccentric meant “never having to think about what it means,” never having to reduce it to a “label.”

Ms. Hewson said she knew “a lot of eccentric people who look totally normal,” and that it was “harder to find a normal person than an eccentric person.”

In this crowd, certainly, a cast of characters chosen not for fame but for quirks. There was a lot of Gaga talk; think eccentric, think Lady Gaga? Not quite. The point of the issue was not staged eccentricity but rather eccentricity as badge of dedication and passion. Mitchell Feinberg—Bronx-born still-life photographer and favorite eccentric of both Jakob F. S., editor-in chief and creative director of Vs., and Vibe Dabelsteen, the magazine’s fashion director—said, “the best eccentrics are those not extravagantly but thoughtfully so.”

Mr. Feinberg’s two photo shoots for Vs. saw conceptual art deal with the disposable: In one he plastered perfume bottles with powder, in the other he drilled a Patek Phillipe with a bullet fired from a .22 caliber rifle. He said that to be eccentric meant “to look at the world in a different way to everyone else.” According to Ms. Dabelsteen, Mr. Feinberg’s way of looking involves “caring about the finest details—that’s what makes him eccentric. Eccentricity and perfection are very close.”

If there was a queen of quirk, it was Colette. This multimedia artist, pioneer of the living art performance, pre-Cindy Sherman, describes herself as a “true New York eccentric”—the fact that she was born in Tunisia and grew up in the South of France sealed the deal. She had no compunction about wearing her weirdness on her sleeve—or rather her head. Her oversized black-and-white hat matched the décor and threatened to dominate it.

And the eccentrics’ most admired eccentrics? A tricky decision; in the worlds of art and fashion, choices are limitless. There was a vote for Salvador Dalí, for Andy Warhol, for Christopher Hitchens, for Diane Pernet, and—Ms. Christensen’s favorite—a “walking piece of art,” the recently deceased Anna Piaggi. Mr. Sapporta chose his girlfriend Erin Fetherston, “because in her spare time she’s a unicorn.”

Screengrab. From left: Andrew Warren, Serena Marron, Peter Brant II, and Nick Gruber.

Friday, opening night at pop-up club Chez André at The Standard, East Village, found teenage dandy Peter Brant II and ex-porn star Nick Gruber, who was apparently taking a night off from writing a book and developing a TV show about his two-year relationship with Calvin Klein, on stage. The duo, joined at the mic by Andrew Warren and model Serena Marron, sang and mumbled their way through a live-band karaoke rendition of "Born to Be Wild." We have the video evidence. Arguably, it is the best version of the song ever performed. Arguably!

Joining us:
Peter Davis, editor-in-chief of Scene magazine
Scott Lipps, president of model agency One Management
Mary Alice Stephenson, style and beauty expert
Kelly Cutrone, of the fashion PR world and America's Next Top Model judge

So check it out here! Our lunchtime Branch conversation on Fashion Week Etiquette.

http://branch.com/b/fashion-week-etiquette

Click through our slideshow for an illustrated tour through Alec's August, or click here for a large image.

Additional research by Jonah Wolf and Toby Wareham. Illustrations by Amy Melson.

A work by ICY and SOT. (Photo by Robert Altman)

Last Thursday, as one of several photographers pointed his lens, two grown men posed by their paintings, shyly smiling and giving no indication whatsoever that they were the reason everybody was gathered. They were young street artists, Iranian siblings ICY and SOT, whose exhibition of around 30 paintings, titled MADE IN IRAN, spent just three days in the Open House Gallery on the Bowery last week.

“They’ve been in New York less than a month,” Mona Dehghan, the artists' PR rep, told us. “They have been arrested and the like back in Iran for what they do. Expressing yourself creatively is still something that is not fully understood, so to do it illegally on the street is a definite no-go. They are here seeking asylum.” Though they shouldn't forget that graffiti is a punishable crime here too, they moved to a country where street art is considered high art. Street art's prominence in the gallery scene has gone hand in hand with the increase of economic disparity in the West, as rebellion and anarchy are suddenly exciting prospects. People such as Banksy and Dan Witz have wrenched street art's reputation and dragged it from the alleyways, and we asked the artists if the fame of these other artists has had a positive or negative effect on their own careers, especially considering we had heard more than one attendee utter the phrase “It looks like a Banksy."

“Banksy is obviously an influence to us,” SOT admitted, “but the fact that our work combines Eastern and Western cultures makes it a bit different."

Ms. Dehghan agreed, “If you’re too similar to one artist, people criticize you, but if you’re too unique, people don’t relate to you; it’s lose-lose.”

The young men were shy and conscious of the language barrier as we talked outside the front of the gallery with them and Yellow Dogs, a Persian rock four-piece that the artists met in Iran and share an apartment with in Brooklyn.

“We know each other from the skate park in Tehran,” lead singer Obaash told us. “Now we all live together and have a lot of fun.”

We asked if there was a relationship between the band's songs and the paintings on the wall. “We come from the same backgrounds. We have the same foundation, so naturally there will be a relationship. Back home, people don’t understand. We got popular after appearing in a documentary [Cannes award-winning film No One Knows About Persian Cats], but there is a difference in Iran between support and people understanding it,” ICY said. “It is the same with art. We have seen people rip our pieces off the walls at home—not cops, just normal people. They do not like it.”

The band was called away to played a short set of punk rock songs that threatened dangerously to transform the gallery into a mosh pit. The camera crews were filming for yet another documentary about the artists. Their work was impressive, but nothing particularly unique. Images of children featured heavily, and ICY informed us, “They represent innocence.” Several pieces featured shadow imagery or the theme of blindness, possibly a reference to the strict and unwelcoming society they come from, and one piece was a direct reference to Banksy, his famous Balloon Girl reinterpreted: rather than a balloon carrying her hopefully away, it lay flat beside her. But it was the story behind these young brothers that was most impressive—the fact that they are handy with a stencil was a bonus. As we overheard one admirer say, “These are good, but I just want to talk to them.”

Mary Norris. (Photo by Roni Gross)

The Observer reached veteran New Yorker copy editor Mary Norris last week at Rockaway Beach, where she was taking a deserved vacation. She had, after all, just sold a book.

After three decades of red-pencil duties, Ms. Norris has, of late, been punchily defending the peculiarities of the storied weekly’s punctuation and house style for its Page-Turner blog. From these posts, which range in topic from the dreaded diaeresis (seen in coöperate and reëlect) to the mag’s prudish-but-evolving stance on the F-word, her forthcoming book, Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, was born, with development help from her agent, David Kuhn.

An “irreverent manifesto” about the pleasures of language (“English, mostly, although I may throw in some Portuguese,” Ms. Norris wrote in an email), the book will be more instructive than personal, her editor at W.W. Norton, Matt Weiland, told us. But it’s not as if her own story doesn’t deserve telling: she has kept a blog for five years that is tangentially about alternate-side parking (tangentially being the only way one could sustain discussion of such a topic for so long), and she has written for other outlets about the two Dennises in her life—her transsexual sibling (now called Dee) and her second cousin Dennis Kucinich.

The book sold at auction for a rumored $425,000. Ms. Norris declined to comment on her advance, but noted wryly that it was considerably smaller than the reported $4 million Billy Crystal received for his memoir, which was sold on the same day. Despite the windfall, will she continue to report to the Condé Nast building every day? “Yes, I plan to keep my job,” she told us. “For one thing, I need the material.”

Photo from Twitter user @515LM.

At least three protesters have been arrested this morning at a demonstration at the Russian Consulate in Manhattan, according to an Observer reporter at the scene. Pictures of the arrests, like the one above, quickly appeared on Twitter.  The demonstration was part of a day of protests planned in support of three members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, who were found guilty of hooliganism today by a Russian court and sentenced to two years in prison.

At shortly after 10am, NYPD officers issued an order to disperse to 25 demonstrators assembled at 9 East 91st Street, who were warned that they could be arrested for disorderly conduct. Some demonstrators left, but Daphne Carr -- who organized the rally -- objected, stating, "We're not doing anything wrong. It's okay to take up half the sidewalk." Another protester, Marlena Beridze, told The Observer: "My English is poor but I'm not scared a bit. For what? What did I do wrong?"

Another protestor identified herself as Ann Pettibone, 63, an ESL teacher. "I can't believe Pussy Riot was even arrested," she told The Observer. "I saw the photo of the girls in a box and I started Googling more and more about them."

Despite the arrests, those assembled said they would begin their scheduled march to Times Square at 11:15am.

More on this story as it develops.

Update, 12:05 pm:

Masha Gessen with her children. (Photo by Jessi Rucker)

The Observer spoke with prominent Russian American journalist Masha Gessen, who read at last night's solidarity event at the Ace Hotel, as she marched with the protesters on Madison Avenue with her 6-month-old son strapped to her chest and her daughter Yolka, 10, and son Vova, 13, beside her. The kids were unfazed by the scene.

"We've been to many protests in Moscow," said Yolka, who carried a sign reading, "Solidarity with Pussy Riot."

"I brought my clarinet. I was hoping there'd be a lot of people playing music and I could jump in. I'm the choirmaster at my school," said Vova.

We asked Ms. Gessen if she gave pause before bringing her children to the event. "I am not scared at all after seeing protests in Moscow. The last one I took the kids to got very violent, but today should be nothing. I wish more people were here. I don't think this reflects the weight of this protest," Ms. Gessen said.

Update, 12:40 pm:

Ellina Graypel, a protester who played a guitar and sang songs in Russian in front of the consulate, told us she had seen a total of six people arrested. "But even one is too many," she added.

Update, 12:56 pm: 

The protest march has reached Times Square. Protesters chant, "No one should be quiet, free Pussy Riot." There are few cops on foot on the scene, but NYPD vans and cars line the block.

Pussy Riot protest in Times Square. (Photo by Jessi Rucker)

Update, 2:50 pm:

After one final song on the red TKTS steps in Times Square The Observer caught up with Xenia Grubstein, 31, an organizer of the march. Despite the somewhat underwhelming turnout (she blamed the heat), she was proud of the day's actions. “Most of the crowd made it here, so we did fulfill our plan,” she said.

Ms. Grubstein expressed her distaste for the court's decision this morning. “We expected it to be negative," she said. "Two years is not as bad as three years, but these are mothers that are taken away from their children.”

She told us she's still optimistic that in the coming weeks more will jump on board with the fight that today earned her two blisters and slight dehydration.

“I think it's going to go even more global as celebrities and regular citizens become aware of Pussy Riot," she said. "We're not done yet.”

Update, 5:30 pm:

Members of Pussy Riot Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich during a court hearing in Moscow today. (Photo by Andrey Smirnov/AFP/GettyImages)

According to the New York Times and other sources, three members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot have been found guilty of hooliganism. Sentencing is expected later today. Each woman was sentenced to two years in prison by a Moscow judge.

Here in New York, after last night's solidarity reading at the Ace Hotel, featuring Chloë Sevigny and others, a "morning musical masquerade protest party" is planned.

Protestors will gather at 9 am at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church on East 97th Street, march down Madison Avenue to the Russian Consolate at East 91st Street, and continue down Madison Avenue to Times Square. A 1 pm rally is scheduled at 46th Street and Broadway.

The organizers of the protest have instructed attendees to "Bring signs, wear bright colors (see Pussy Riot for inspiration) and bring a noisemaker and/or stringed instrument. Don’t forget to bring your balaclava masque." (Balaclavas are a signature fashion item for the band.)

Daphne Carr, an organizer of the today’s events, told us last night that today's protests constitute civil disobedience, as New York has an obscure “anti-mask law” that forbids groups of three or more people from wearing face coverings without a permit.

The three women of Pussy Riot (Maria Alyekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnokova and Yekaterina Samutsevich) were arrested in February following a guerrilla anti-Putin musical protest in Moscow's Christ Savior Cathedral. An outpouring of support from across the globe followed.