The atmosphere of American Express Skybox. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for American Express)

“We like that you feel a little chaotic and it’s all very well planned,” explained a representative from American Express. “This is an opportunity for us to give back to our premium card members who are passionate and we are giving them a very immersive experience, as you can see, with the models running around.”

Cardmembers are spoiled with backstage tours, coups de Champagne and a gourmet spread worthy of a sultan.

“They get rushed into a show right as it is about to begin and then the best part is that after the show they get to come back into the studio and the designer comes in for a Q&A,” we were informed by one of our hosts.

The Observer threw back a few a glasses in the sun-lit salon that had been tastefully decorated with cozy loungers and a private hair salon replete with stylists, before we were ushered to the front-row of Cushnie et Ochs’s runway presentation last Friday.

The exclusive experience isn’t for your average chum. Wealthy Centurion and Platinum cardholders pony up big bucks for the VIP packages backstage at Milk Studios and in the Skybox at Lincoln Center. For this fourth incarnation of AmEx at MADE at Milk, members from Los Angeles, Dallas and even London jetted into New York for as briefly as one day of fashion shows and boozy, behind-the-scenes action.

The view from the Skybox

These folks avoid the lengthy delays of press check-in, horrendous fashion personalities and truthful banality that fashion week quickly becomes. In fact, the VIP experience utterly fabulous, if not downright obliviously serene. The Observer was more than content to dip our cup deep in the well and indulge.

“It’s pretty smooth sailing,” one well-dressed AmEx staffer confessed.

Indeed it was, perhaps the most relaxed we would be for a very long time, during a very fussy week.

It’s not all about lucrative and getting chumming with top-notch clients. American Express actually makes efforts to do some good. In addition to providing support for emerging designers through its partnership with MADE the company contributed a hefty $250,000 donation to the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, a program of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), we were told.

Thursday, September 13, American Express cardmembers will get to canoodle with celebrity stylist and reality show empress Rachel Zoe and experience a special runway show. “It's going to be an incredibly fun and fashionable evening,” forecasted Ms. Zoe.

We’ll of course be on the scene and fill you in on precisely all that goes down.

Shalom Harlow of the Model Alliance (Jason Seiler)

On a rainy Wednesday evening in the middle of June, Sunshine Cinemas was bright with flashing bulbs as photographers snapped pictures of a gaggle of impossibly tall, impossibly beautiful women. The angelic onslaught was not a coincidence: they were all there to see a special screening of Girl Model, a documentary by Ashley Sabin and David Redmon that was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Girl Model follows a 13-year-old Siberian girl who wins a modeling competition and is whisked off to Tokyo, where a modeling agency has promised her fame and fortune.

The documentary paints a grim, Dickensian portrait of the unpleasant, exploitative working conditions endured by some the world’s most attractive people; the situation depicted is not at all uncommon, and the audience, made up of dozens of models—blondes, brunettes, the occasional redhead—was rapt.

After the credits, French model Rachel Blais addressed the room. Her struggles are featured in the film, and she has become a spokesperson for better treatment for fashion models, traveling to screenings and other speaking engagements. Because of her outspokenness, she noted, she is now treated like a pariah.

“I was dropped by my French agency, by my American agency ... everyone dropped me after the movie came out,” Ms. Blais told the crowd. “The only reason my Canadian agency kept me on was because I appeared on TV so much they couldn’t drop me without drawing attention. But I haven’t worked in six months.”

This is the less-than-glamorous side of the modeling world, and it’s increasingly coming to mainstream attention: behind the Photoshopped editorials and heavily made-up surfaces, the industry still relies on unsafe, exploitative labor practices and a desperate workforce of scared young women.

That, anyway, is the allegation put forth by seven-month-old advocacy group the Model Alliance, which hosted the Girl Model screening. Facing down an industry mired in secrecy and reluctant to change, the Model Alliance has nonetheless won a series of small victories. As yet another fashion week gets underway, the women behind it are hopeful the group might become the “in thing” this season.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average income for a model in America in 2010 was $32,920 a year, and though that might seem like a reasonable rate for standing around all day, consider that that is the average salary of all 1,400 registered models. The bottom 10 percent earn approximately $9.53 per hour, while the few supermodels (those that are left, anyway) skew the numbers. In 2011, the combined total of the top 10 highest-paid supermodels, according to Forbes, was just under $100 million. Almost half of that number was earned by number one on the list, Gisele Bündchen.

Of course, that figure only accounts for models who report their income properly—not those, like Girl Model’s Nadya, who have been told to lie about their age or have conditional work visas and aren’t going to be filing taxes anytime soon.

Not only is the pay meager and often late, very few employers offer models overtime. Since they are essentially freelance contractors, they aren’t provided with health insurance. Subtract out of their pay the standard 20 to 25 percent fee per gig that goes to a model’s agency, plus another 20 percent finder’s fee the agency collects from the model’s employer, as well as repayment of any advances the agency fronted, for instance, to put up young models in one of those infamously cramped ghetto colonies known as model incubators: three bunk-beds in a room, six girls in an apartment, $1,600 each for rent. Often, models end up in debt to the very people who are supposed to be making them money.

This assumes they get paid at all. In early March, 17-year-old Hailey Hasbrook complained on her Tumblr that she had worked 30 unpaid hours, some of them very late at night, in preparation for Marc Jacobs’s Fall 2012 Fashion Week show. Her post was picked up by women’s blog Jezebel, sparking outrage. Even more galling was Mr. Jacobs’s brand’s matter-of-fact response—via Twitter: “Models are paid in trade [meaning free designer clothing]. If they don’t want to work w/us, they don’t have to.”

The Council of Fashion Designers—which elected Marc Jacobs to its board five months earlier—had recently released its annual health initiative, strongly recommending that models under 16 not be hired for shows and that fittings never go past midnight. And industry guidelines aside, it is illegal under New York Labor Laws for children under 17 to work past 10 p.m. while school is in session.

Despite this flap—and in contradiction of the guidelines—Mr. Jacobs’s show included two 14-year-old models, Ondria Hardin and Thairine Garcia, who walked down the runway sporting giant, face-concealing hats and swallowed up in layers of coats and wraps. He told The New York Times, “I do the show the way I think it should be, and not the way somebody tells me it should be.”

Of course, he can say that because he knows there are plenty of young women who will accept whatever terms he sets—and never breathe a word about it. In 2004, when a class-action lawsuit was brought against 10 of the biggest fashion agencies, including Elite, Next, Wilhelmina and Ford, for price fixing, the agencies decided to settle to the tune of nearly $22 million, to be divided among “models who have or had a written or oral contract with one of the Settling Defendants.”

One problem: In the end, the court couldn’t find enough models to step forward and receive the money.

Either not enough of them knew about the lawsuit to cash in, or most of the wronged parties decided that stepping forward wasn’t worth the risk to their reputations in the industry. In the end, several million dollars went uncollected. It was donated to, among other charitable causes, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center’s Eating Disorders Program.

That climate of fear also explains why the Model Alliance promises to protect its members’ identities while speaking on their behalf.

According to its mission statement, the Model Alliance aims to provide a “platform for models and leaders in the fashion industry to organize to radically improve the conditions under which models work.” They provide services to members who have been sexually or otherwise abused, and have teamed up with the Actors’ Equity Association and the American Guild of Musical Artists to offer a “free and discreet” reporting service to put models in touch with labor attorneys and union leaders who can advise them on workplace-related issues.

The organization’s long-term goals—put forth in a Bill of Rights—include an overhaul of the fashion industry’s labor practices: provisions for health insurance, proper immigration status, negotiable commissions, harassment-free workplaces, age-limit enforcements and clearer financial contracts for working models. The group is not a union, founder Sara Ziff is quick to point out, but an advocacy group.

Sarah Ziff, founder of Model Alliance

Ms. Ziff, a tousled blonde who has walked the runway for Prada and graduated summa cum laude from Columbia, has partnered with Fordham University’s Fashion Law Institute and filled the nonprofit’s advisory board with prominent mannequins like Coco Rocha, Milla Jovovich and Shalom Harlow.

“It’s important to get the right message out there,” Ms. Ziff insisted. “It’s not about finger-pointing, or saying that this agency is bad or this client is bad. You need to give people the chance to do the right thing. It’s easy to blame, but there have been no standards. The way you get results is by sitting down with them at the table and encouraging them to improve their business practices.”

Support for the Alliance is stronger than ever, but it remains quiet. Even the donors are anonymous: Ms. Ziff told The Observer that one big-name model had donated an impressive amount when they began their organization, but only on the condition of anonymity. Supermodels whom the Alliance has reached out to, like Cindy Crawford and Tyra Banks, have been hesitant to throw their full support behind what would seem like a no-brainer cause, possibly for fear of industry retribution. Ms. Banks told us she had been contacted by Ms. Rocha about the project and expressed interest in its goals, but added, “I’ve been so crazy lately, I haven’t had time to really look at the group yet.”

Jenna Sauers, a model-cum-Jezebel blogger who serves on the Model Alliance board (and has also written for The New York Observer), told us about her own experience in the industry over a dinner of spider-crab rolls. Ms. Sauers, a New Zealand-born beauty, began as a child model for department store catalogs at eight, took three years off at 11. When she returned to the game at 14, she found herself in an entirely new business.

“Going from child modeling to adult modeling—which is a funny term, because it’s basically dressing kids up as adults—there was a new level of, ‘Well this seems slightly odd, but I guess I’ll go with it because all the adults around me are acting like it’s totally normal,’” she said. “Like the fact that once you hit 25, you’re considered ancient. It’s like Logan’s Run.’” (Ms. Sauers is 26.)

Ms. Sauers explained that the modeling business operates behind a very well-established scrim of secrecy to protect shady business practices. “The fashion industry has been so skittish about embracing public attention on anything other than its own, very well-defined terms for such a long time,” she pointed out. “Nobody is supposed to reveal what’s behind the curtain.”

This might explain the actions of Ms. Hasbrook, the unpaid Marc Jacobs model, who recanted her complaints after her Tumblr post went viral (thanks to Ms. Sauers’s posts about it on Jezebel), in terms so affectless they sounded like the videotaped confession of a POW: “I loved working and doing looks for Marc Jacobs. I was actually one of the favorite jobs I have had so far,” she wrote. “I actually preferred to be paid in trade ... There was an entire room filled with clothes and shoes that I was asked to choose from. Everything was amazing.”

In her comments at the Girl Model screening, Harvard researcher Briana Goodale helped explain Ms. Hasbrook’s flip-flop. (A paper she co-authored, Why peers reject whistleblowers: A social cognitive examination, won a grant from the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, and has established her as something of an authority on the subject.)

“What we found during our two years of research is that it takes a pretty significant amount of wrongdoing for people inside your own peer circle not to dismiss you as a tattletale,” she said.

“You actually end up attributing traits to people who are whistleblowers, depending on the level of ‘badness’ they dealt with. For example, if you take two underage models, and one speaks up about being sexually molested by a photographer, and the other speaks up about being kept past certain hours on a school night, we found that people attribute positive personality traits to the person who spoke up about the really, really bad thing. On the other hand, people will associate negative traits to the person who spoke up about staying late ... that they’re a tattletale.”

The fear of being blacklisted is so ingrained in the fashion world that only one person still working in the business agreed to speak to The Observer on the record. Supermodel Shalom Harlow is on the board of the Model Alliance. In 2007, the 33-year-old was named one of the top 15 highest-earning models in the world. (She was also the first-ever winner of Vogue/VH1’s Model of the Year, an award we honestly thought was made up for Zoolander.)

“At this stage in my career, I may not have to worry whether I’ll be paid for a job, or if I’m going to be properly fed, or if someone is going to be sexually inappropriate toward me, but I’m the exception,” she told us by phone.

“Unless you are in that minority, there is no protection, no recourse. You could try to go through your agency, but oftentimes those agencies are the perpetrators. Until the Model Alliance, that is,” she added. “Now at least there is the beginning of some systematic order for change.”

It seems to be working. When Vogue announced in May that it would no longer be using underage models in its editorials, which pay approximately $150 (so now only lucky girls aged 16 and up will be considered), it was thanks in part to a CFDA and Model Alliance partnership. The group also holds workshops like “The Business of Modeling,” in which board member Doreen Smalls—an adjunct professor at the Fashion Law Institute, who taught the first-ever course in Fashion Modeling Law—gives members advice on how to read contracts and negotiate with agencies.

But while most everyone The Observer spoke to was supportive of the Model Alliance’s goals, some were doubtful about the group’s chances at achieving massive reform.

“I just think what [Sara Ziff] is doing is very quixotic,” said Michael Gross, author of Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women. “She’s tilting at windmills. Because when you have a 14-year-old modeling, the problem isn’t the agencies. The problem isn’t the fashion magazines. It’s not Marc Jacobs. The problem is the parents. What kind of idiot parent lets their 14-year-old go off to a big city to model without being on top of them?”

Perhaps, but if the industry weren’t ready to take advantage of poor parenting, its consequences wouldn’t be so destructive. As we dive into another Fashion Week, sure to be marked by waifish girls who look—though, fingers crossed, aren’t—prepubescent, tottering down Lincoln Center’s runways, it seems impossible to imagine that until recently there was so little oversight governing the role these young swans play in the multibillion-dollar apparel trade.

Still, as one model management veteran sniffed, “What model wouldn’t want to work for Marc Jacobs? He can make your career!”

Nonetheless, The Observer has learned that Mr. Jacobs’s company has adopted a new policy for this Fashion Week. According to a rep for the designer, “all model agencies [have been] made aware” that the young women who stomp down the runway in his ultra-chic looks on September 10 and 11 will now be offered a choice: they will be paid either in trade or in monetary compensation.

KCD's darling, Hallie Chrisman. (Patrick McMullan)

Navigating the realm of fashion publication relations can be a difficult job. For in-house publicists and leading New York PR firms, such as KCD, PR Consulting, Karla Otto, Starworks, Bismarck Phillips and HL Group—fashion week is a marathon: RSVP-management, developing press releases, endless email chains, photography and artistic direction, event and runway production, front-of-house organization, seating charts and VIP affairs!

Scheduling and logistical nightmares are frequent; editor struggles occur; and drama is a guarantee. For international firms, the chaos continues in Milan and Paris. Even more maddening, some publicists have red carpet dressing to deal with for the Grammys and fast-approaching Oscars!

It took some effort, but The Observer hunted the striking Hallie Chrisman, Publicity Director at KCD— to get the scoop on what her life has been like of late…

What does fashion week equate for you?

Since I go to London and Paris it’s actually more like fashion month—to me it equates to training for a marathon, you have to make sure you don’t burn yourself out in the beginning. New York is always the most all-consuming, as we each have our own shows we individually oversee and then are staffed to work the 20-plus shows and events we handle for New York Fashion Week. Once the team goes to Europe we generally focus more on the U.S. press aspect of each client’s show, as well as providing support to any shows our Paris office is handling. So, as I said, it’s a marathon.

KCD is everywhere, with a blue-chip roster of clients! How do you balance it all?

I’m very fortunate to love what I do and where I work, however when it’s not fashion week(s) (or the CFDA Awards, or the Victoria’s Secret show, or another major project) I always make time to see friends and travel to maintain a healthy balance between my work and personal life.

When you need a break, where is your go-to for a drink or good eats during fashion week?

One Lucky Duck Juice Bar—it is located conveniently across the street from the office in Chelsea Market. I love the Strawberry Blonde shake and then I always get a ginger shot to stave off the inevitable fashion week cold.

Take us to a show—where are you? What are you doing? We saw you at Wang!

It depends on the show, at some shows I am running the backstage press and photographers, while at others you will find me inside the venue helping seat guests and greeting the editors, retailers and VIPs.

How many people try to crash shows and after parties? Any good stories?

There are always some crashers but they are pretty easy to spot and we run a pretty tight ship so we don’t get as many as you might think. Some doors—you might not get crashers per se but more fans who will just wait outside to watch and see who is entering and exiting the event. Even though they will never get in, you have to at least give them credit for their dedication.

What celebrities are incredible to work with? Is GPS like fashion week “Big Brother?”

Fashion GPS was initiated when KCD PR approached Fashion GPS President Edwin Mullon to create a cutting edge technology to control inventory management and then events management. It’s so great that most of the industry uses it so we are all on one system to make editors, retailers and our lives easier!

Which editors do you look forward to seeing during fashion week? Who has the best style?

I wouldn’t be a very good publicist if I played favorites now would I? A lot of my close friends are actually fashion editors so it’s always great to see friends and catch up (if only briefly) during fashion week.

Any fun nightlife plans? What will be the best after party?

I try to stay under the radar during New York or else I don’t think I would be able to make it through Europe; however I try and stop by my client’s after parties if I can. Jason Wu and Prabal Gurung both threw great after parties this season and then of course there was the Miu Miu party we handled and the CFDA Impact Exhibit opening party at FIT, which kicked off the year-long celebration of the CFDA ’s 50th anniversary.

Best part of being a fashion publicist?

Getting to do what I love every day and working with some of the most talented, smart and interesting minds in the industry. Plus going to London and Paris twice a year isn’t too bad either!

It’s all over! Where do you flee to rejuvenate?

I try and get away for a weekend once I get back from Paris. This season I am planning on visiting friends in Austin for a long weekend. I also always start making my summer vacation plans during fashion week in February, this summer it will be several trips to Nantucket and is also looking like a week in Turkey.

Sunday afternoon at the Tents is always a scene. The climax is when legendary designer/aristocrat, Diane von Fürstenberg takes the stage. CFDA President-regnant; she is fashion royalty and attracts a fitting crowd:

Olivier Zahm from Purple magazine carried on with Terry Richardson…

"Could we get a word with you, Mr. Richardson?" we asked.

"No!" was the tart response.

All the same faces—no one fresh and inspiring. We're running out of options this Fashion Week. Clothes can't entertain and inform forever!

Ah-ha! Barbara Walters! She would be stupendous. The Observer stealthily began meandering past chic throngs of French editors and buyers. We weren't more than a few steps from our target when—"We're done!" snapped a KCD Gestapo.

Humph, back we dashed to our seat in A-6-1.

"A rendezvous is a meeting with suspense and expectation…" stated Ms. von Fürstenberg and creative-head Yvan Mispelaere. "Glamorous at a moment's notice, she is alive with anticipation," the program read.

The lights dimmed and Brigitte Bardot’s seductive voice purred sweetly. Out sashayed 48 ravishing looks: Parisian elegance worked in rich hues of scarlet, sea foam, lapis and glossy obsidian. Wrap dresses hugged the body with sophistication, but exuded a confident sexiness. There were DvF prints on crepe satin, including puzzle pieces, which had also decorated our invitations.

Was that a scowl from Cathy Horyn? We can't tell when she's pleased or horrified. But we love her and The New York Time’s, Eric Wilson (juste à côté), all the same!

While a few outfits would have been cozy on the dance floor at Studio 54, the majority of looks suggested an elegant femme fatale, who is a tad more timeless.

As applause filled the Tent, von Fürstenberg (guided by Mispelaere) greeted her guests with much aplomb, waving to her subjects and giving double-cheek kisses to her VIP pals...

Oh quelle chance, Lorenzo Martone!

“What are you wearing?” The Observer prodded, “is it vintage?”

“No it’s Marni,” the man about town laughed.

“Very nice! So are you going to Diane’s dinner at Indochine tonight?” (More like: can we be your date?)

“Yes…. I think I am!” Martone dished.

“Do you have a date?” we wanted to know.

“Yes I’m bringing my friend, she’s an artist…”

“What happened to Studio 54? Where is the Studio 54 of today?” we pressed on.

“I actually went to an event last year that recreated studio 54—it was great!”

…and no, we didn’t attend DvF’s intimate feast.

Photos: Patrick McMullan

"I wanted to convey a sense of strength and beauty-- this collection is about a streamlined and bold silhouette with lots of textural mixes inspired by John Chamberlain and Brancusi,” stated Som.

How highbrow! Well what ever he did worked. The women seated inside Made at MiLK Studio 2 ate it up like a Malawi at Thanksgiving! Here are a few of their WOW moments:

Mr. Mars and Ms. Coppola, at Monkey bar.

"Sofia, Sofia!" the cameramen cried at the entrance of Lincoln Center, the venue for Monday's CFDA awards. Ms. Coppola had just arrived.

"Kirsten!" they yelled.  "Marc!" they yelled. "Sofia! Sofia! Sofia!" they yelled.

Then Mr. Jacobs and Ms. Dunst went with Ms. Coppola to the left, to have their picture taken, and Thomas Mars--the lead singer of Phoenix and the director's husband-to-be--peeled off to the right.

"I have to go to the other side," he told The Observer as we edged past models resting flutes in their fingers, waiters with glass trays of flatbreads, and Anna Wintour. "I don't like to have my picture taken."

We told him that, here, he's most certainly alone in that preference.

Mr. Mars edged his way over to the cluster of stars expelled from the camera row--Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen had just finished up--as he craned his neck up, out of the haze of colliding fragrances

"I’m just looking for Sophia, where...-- oh, there she is," he said. They had been separated nearly one minute.

The floppy-haired Parisian explained he was in New York with the boys in the band recording a follow-up to Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, the album that spent years soundtracking car commercials. But of course it was quite good and The Observer talked about when we could get more.

"We are writing now, with us it’s taking a while, because it’s the way we work," he said slowly, in that Gallic lilt. "It could be six months, it could be two years."

A non-answer, he admitted.

Mr. Mars asked if Lady Gaga, the guest of honor, had made her entrance. We had not seen it, we said, so it surely had not happened. Perhaps they could book studio time together, though, if they met later in the night? He shook his head.

"She’s probably heard us, but she probably wont know my face," he said. "And that’s a good thing."

He then brushed back his hair with a hand, and wandered his gaze back to the red carpet, back to Ms. Coppola, Ms. Dunst, and Mr. Jacobs, as he stood there alone.

"Collaborating is the thing I'm the worst at."

The trick to finding your favorite designer at the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards is to scan the room for their 6-foot-tall dates. On Monday, June 7, at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Gwyneth Paltrow's sleek blond ponytail bobbed near Michael Kors; Devon Aoki's dark mane meant Zac Posen was near; and Lara Stone was connected arm in arm to Francisco Costa. Model Jessica Stam, meanwhile, stood out not just because of her height but also because of the sparkly nest of jewels around her neck: a complex layering of speaker wire, pearls, Swarovski crystals and spikes. The piece, paired with a plain black dress, was the creation of her date, jewelry designer Dana Lorenz of Fenton/Fallon, who was nominated that evening for the Swarovski Award for Accessory Design opposite Alexander Wang and Eddie Borgo. 

Looking on, Julie Gilhart, the fashion director at Barneys, which was one of the first to pick up Ms. Lorenz's collection when it launched in 2005, said:  "This is a good thing for Dana. Jewelers are typically not the celebrities of our industry and this will bring attention to her. It really validates her." 

The awards started 45 minutes late, per fashion's custom. "Ah. Good evening," said Diane von Furstenberg, the president of the CFDA, addressing the crowd. "Everyone is in such a good mood." Sitting in the audience, Ms. Lorenz was wearing a long, deconstructed Ann Demeulemeester black dress, paired with Vera Wang bandage sandals, her shoulder-length brown hair swept to the side.

"I wouldn't call it a gown because it's too grungy to be a gown," she had said of her dress several days before the awards, when The Observer met her in her office, a small, rectangular space on Chrystie Street on the Lower East Side. "I don't think it's necessary to be all Nicole Kidman about this."

This low-key attitude helps to explain the attraction to the designer, who has collaborated with J. Crew's Jenna Lyons and Proenza Schouler and whose pieces are regularly worn by first lady Michelle Obama. Ms. Lorenz, who is 35, seems respectfully rebellious toward the fashion world; she admires MTV's Daria, the animated 1990s teenager whose sarcasm and keen observations of her peers get her through the indignities that define suburban high school. Her designs are a Freaky Friday mashup of the Park Avenue mother in her Oscar suit and her downtown-residing, biker-jacket-wearing daughter: pearls layered on top of biker chains on top of crystals and gems on top of fringed chains and bleached feathers, twisted and manipulated into sparkling absurdist pieces. It is impossible to tell which layer came first and inspired the next.

ON THE THURSDAY before the awards, Ms. Lorenz and her three assistants were doing some light soldering on a few pieces awaiting shipment (an uptown space handles more complex assembly) and packaging orders for Barneys and Colette, the French boutique. Next door, another building was under construction, and there was a loud pounding coming through one of the walls. In the window above the designer's desk at eye level, a one-legged bum wheeled himself toward Rivington Street. The Fenton/Fallon store in Freeman's Alley, located directly behind Ms. Lorenz's office, was closed and will remain that way for an undetermined amount of time due to an unexpected construction problem. A few weeks ago, on the day a 20-person crew came to photograph the designer for an official CFDA portrait, the chimney of the building collapsed and a cloud of soot blew into the store.

Fenton and Fallon are two separate lines: The former is the high-end ($220 to $1500), original collection named after the designer's great-aunt and great-uncle because they never had children and she wanted to preserve the name; the latter a more affordable ($80 to $300) and aesthetically younger line named after Fallon Carrington Colby of the 1980s TV show Dynasty. "The whole philosophy of Fallon is that it's the daughter of the Fenton customer," said Ms. Lorenz. She was dressed in a simple floor-length skirt and a long-sleeve hooded jersey, both garments in navy stripes of varying widths. "She is a little punk snot who's like, 'If you're not going to buy it for me, I'm going to buy it for myself!' Because it's much less expensive." She picked up a layered Fallon necklace with red gem stones. "This has Swarovski re-created antique necklaces, biker chains, a Cartier-type bracelet running through here," she said. "It takes uptown and-not mocks it but it kind of says it doesn't have to be so prim and proper."

In 2003, Ms. Lorenz moved to New York with a "sketchbook and a ton of ideas" from Chicago, where she graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago and subsequently worked as a ready-to-wear specialist at Gucci. She took a job working for Donna Karan but left it in 2005 to "enjoy New York." That same year, she met Alexandre Plokhov at Cloak, who admired her homemade jewelry and asked if she could translate her pieces for his upcoming men's show. Barneys and Ikram in Chicago instantly bought the collection after seeing it on the runway. Vogue took notice. In 2007, Ms. Lorenz launched Fallon, and this September the store in Freeman's Alley opened. 

ABOVE THE DESIGNER'S desk, magazine tearsheets from the '80s and '90s were pinned onto a bulletin board: Melrose Place's Grant Show in a Barneys ad; Anna Wintour's first Vogue cover (November 1988), featuring a model wearing a $50 pair of jeans and $10,000 bejeweled Christian Lacroix sweater; the all-girl hip-hop act TLC; Madonna in her prime. There was also a pinned letter on CFDA letterhead.

Ms. Lorenz didn't ramble on excitedly about her nomination the way other designers might and often do. It's not that she wasn't thankful. But there is a sense that she hasn't entirely come to terms with how someone in her position-she is not a member of the organization, nor has she ever attended the awards before-is supposed to handle the press for such a thing. The CFDA is an institution not unlike high school, in which peers vote for best-looking and most likely to succeed. Part of the criticism surrounding the awards has been about the Meryl Streeps: Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang and Proenza Schouler are nominated year after year and merely shuffled among the various categories. Like the Oscars, the awards are political, and there is quite a bit of campaigning that goes on for votes.

"It's like in golf-sorry, my dad's a golfer!-you're supposed to just keep your head down," Ms. Lorenz said. "I don't have a FameGame profile. I don't go to parties to advertise that way." Later, she added, "I'm the type of person who would always rather be at home watching Daria, but I'm really enjoying this." She also said she was especially excited to meet Michael Kors at the awards. "He's a genius at creating a person, and you're like, 'I kinda really want to be that person sometimes.' And I love funny people."

Alas, at the ceremony on the 7th, Ms. Lorenz didn't win.

"And the winner of the Swarovski award for accessory design ..." said television host Alexa Chung, standing at the podium alongside Gossip Girl's Ed Westwick, "... is Alexander Wang!" (The other winners in the Swarovski categories, which are intended for emerging designers, were Jason Wu and Richard Chai-hardly newcomers. Women's designer of the year was given to Marc Jacobs; it was his ninth CFDA award.)

The next morning, Ms. Lorenz was a little hung over. She was at the CFDA after party at the Standard until 3 a.m. "I was really giddy all night long," she said by phone. "Watching the show, I really felt like a high-school kid lying on my bed reading magazines and dying to move to New York." And she didn't even get to meet Mr. Kors.

ialeksander@observer.com

The duo arrived with an elderly woman who was escorted to sit elsewhere. It was unclear who she was.

Mr. Chai was announced as the winner of the Swarovski award for menswear designer, presented to him by actor Ed Westwick and TV personality Alexa Chung. When his name was called, Mr. Chai just said, "Wow," and Mr. Christensen congratulated him by slapping his back. When the designer got up to the stage, he said it again: "Wow." Among the many people he thanked was Mr. Christensen, for being his date.

When the awards were over, Mr. Christensen turned to Mr. Chai and said, "Hold on, I have to go get my grandmother."

Read our full report from the awards here.

The awards at Alice Tully Hall were scheduled to begin at 7:30 but didn't start until about a quarter after 8 p.m. After a few thank-yous to the sponsors and benefactors of the CFDA, Ms. von Furstenberg appealed to the designers: "The CFDA promotes diversity and health," she said. "I beg you to remember that when you're planning your next show."

Brooke Shields presented the Eugenia Sheppard award to Kim Hastreiter. "Just because you're cute, connected, rich and famous doesn't necessarily mean you design great stuff," Ms. Hastreiter told the audience of designers, celebrities, editors and bloggers.

After the winners for the Swarovski awards were announced (Jason Wu for womenswear, Alexander Wang for accessories, Richard Chai for menswear), the petite Dakota Fanning, wearing a white minidress, approached the microphone. "Hello, I'm Dakota Fanning," she said and was startled by the unwarranted applause that followed. Ms. Fanning announced Alexis Bittar as the winner of the Accessory Designer of the Year award.

Caroline Kennedy arrived to give the Eleanor Lambert award to Vogue's fashion director Tonne Goodman. "I'm here because I've idolized Tonne Goodman since I was 12 years old," said Ms. Kennedy, who attended school in New York with the editor when they were children. "You might wonder why her style has not rubbed off on me in all that time." Ms. Kennedy informed the audience that Ms. Goodman was the only person in their high-school yearbook to choose brown as her favorite color.

There was a grand tribute to Alexander McQueen, presented with a somber monologue from actress Sarah Jessica Parker. Models wearing Mr. McQueen's designs solemnly walked across the stage and lined up as a video of the designer waving and walking away was shown on the screen.

CFDA executive director Steven Kolb reminded the audience that Ms. von Furstenberg will remain as the CFDA's president. "We followed Mayor Bloomberg's example and extended her term," he said.

There were a few bloopers, too. Model Doutzen Kroes elicited giggles when she announced Ralph Lauren as the recipient of the Popular Vote Award for the second year in a row and, not being able to decide whether to use the word fashion or style, called him, "the embassador of American ftyle."

Isabella Rossellini presented the Fashion Icon award to Iman. She told a story of when she first met Iman in Paris long ago and Iman was not wearing make-up. "Iman without makeup looked like a 12-year-old dough... little girl," she said, confusing the word daughter and little girl. "Did she just call her a dog?" the woman sitting next to The Observer whispered.

Earlier, outside of the award show, pedestrian onlookers were screaming not for Iman, but her husband, David Bowie, who led Iman, wearing a binding black mermaid gown. Accepting the award, Iman said, "Now my husband is not the only icon in the family."

Anna Wintour presented the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement award to Michael Kors and recounted some of her favorite stories told to her by Mr. Kors. One was about when a socialite once told the designer, "Michael, you are my Gap."

Actor Anthony Mackie presented the Menswear Designer of the Year award. "This night has often been referred to as the Academy Awards of fashion, and as someone who has been to the Academy Awards, I can tell you it is exactly the same," he said. A video featuring the nominees superimposed over Oscar films like Avatar, Up in the Air and The Blind Side played onstage, and in the end, David Neville and Marcus Wainwright of Rag & Bone were the winners. Marc Jacobs, meanwhile, took the award for Womenswear Designer presented by Jessica Biel. "I don't much believe in prizes …" began Mr. Jacobs, accepting his ninth CFDA award.

At a CFDA meeting earlier yesterday, the board unanimously voted to re-elect Ms. von Furstenberg as president for a third two-year term. Her term would have come to an end after this year; she will now serve until Dec. 31, 2012. While announcing the nominees last night, Ms. von Furstenberg said that there will be a special tribute to Alexander McQueen at the awards ceremony, which is scheduled for June 7 at Lincoln Center. See full list of nominees below.

Womenswear Designer of the Year:
Marc Jacobs
Donna Karan
Alexander Wang

Menswear Designer of the Year:
Michael Bastian
Tom Ford
David Neville & Marcus Wainwright for Rag & Bone

Accessory Designer of the Year:
Alexis Bittar
Lazaro Hernandez &  Jack McCollough for Proenza Schouler
Marc Jacobs

Swarovski Award for Womenswear:
Joseph Altuzarra
Prabal Gurung
Jason Wu
 
Swarovski Award for Menswear:
Richard Chai
Patrik Ervell
Simon Spurr

Swarovski Award for Accessory Design:
Eddie Borgo
Dana Lorenz
Alexander Wang

Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award: Michael Kors

Eugenia Sheppard Award: Kim Hastreiter, Paper Magazine

International Award: Christopher Bailey for Burberry
 
Board of Directors’ Special Tribute: Alexander McQueen

Fashion Icon Award: Iman

Eleanor Lambert Award: Tonne Goodman, Vogue