Teen Vogue's Andrew Bevan and Bryan Boy are besties at Jason Wu's runway show.

“We did a cover story on you—did you ever get to read that?” The Observer asked flamboyant blogger sensation, America's Next Top Model judge and jet-setting front-row fixture, BryanBoy (Bryan Grey-Yambao), before taking our seats at Yigal Azrouël’s spring 2013 fashion show on Friday, September 7.

"No, no!” Mr. Grey-Yambao replied uneasily, shifting from side to side in a colorful plaid Marni top.

We were referencing Jenna Sauers’s sensationally delicious article, “How Fashion Blogger BryanBoy Became a Front-Row Fixture,” which ran in The Observer’s February fashion week edition.

We had extreme doubts that Mr. Grey-Yambao had never read the exposé, which detailed his frivolous lifestyle, bizarre ascension to the top of the fashion blogosphere and mysterious background.

“Do you know anything about The Observer at all?” we pressed onward

“Yes, of course! Someone emailed me about working with you guys for fashion week coverage.” [Editor's note: And we never heard back!]

Seeing that we were making little progress we moved on to other senseless bavard that fashion week victims inevitably resort to when one must pretend to care about the redundant and endlessly egotistical parade of style.

“So you’ve been everywhere. What has been your favorite so far?” we asked.

“I really liked Jason Wu!”

Predictable.

“Peter Som is my favorite, I really love the python," Mr. Grey-Yambao continued enthusiastically and with considerably more ease than when we had attempted to interrogate him about The Observer’s profile on him. Fashionistas don’t like skeletons in their closets, they prefer Pucci and Céline; skeletons are best left for the runway.

“Tell us about Yigal,” The Observer asked, trying to add some relevancy to the conversation.

“He’s very contemporary and women can wear it on a day to day basis,” Mr. Grey-Yambao answered.

“How are you combatting the heat?” we questioned, sweat beading on our brow

“Drink a lot of water. I’m so thirsty! I drink a lot of water and try to sit and remain calm,” he said.

Lies! You’ve been escorted in a meticulously climate-controlled town car between each show. Try rushing from show to show on the MTA and clammy taxis.

Annoyed we retreated to our seats to be miserably bored by someone else.

"We have campaign clothing and other things that are politics in a more general sense like class, race, feminism, antiwar fashion from the '60s and environmental fashion right now," Ms. Steele said of the Politics & Fashion exhibit. "And also what supporters wore, like paper dresses covered in 'Ike Ike Ike' for people in favor of Eisenhower, and a wonderful American flag dress worn in the 1890s for the Fourth of July parade, and a Catherine Malandrino American flag dress that she made after 9/11 and she gave to us."

The Transom inquired whether Sarah Palin donated anything to the show.

"She didn't offer anything, but we do have some of those funny shoes that she wore," Ms. Steele said. "I'm so sorry, I can't remember the name, but they are some kind of sexy high heels." (She meant the Naughty Monkey red peep toe pumps Ms. Palin wore when introduced as John McCain's running mate; the museum doesn't have the actual shoes Ms. Palin wore, but an identical pair.)

Nearby, an unshaven Hamish Bowles, of Vogue, was catching up with Vanity Fair's Amy Fine Collins. New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham was in his usual blue jacket and khakis, snapping photos of the socialites Alexandra Lebenthal and Gillian Miniter, plus a young woman with in an asymmetrical corset top and pixie cut. The designer Yigal Azrouel was also present.

"I'm enjoying the summer but at the same time I'm working," said Mr. Azrouel. "It's only a couple of weeks before fashion week." (He will be showing in the tents this year.)

The Transom inquired whether the designer's summer was at all ruined by the tabloid coverage of his alleged relationship with Katie Lee Joel, who recently separated from husband Billy Joel.

Mr. Azrouel didn't respond and instead smiled and shrugged.

"This is Yigal Azrouël," she said, pointing to her skirt, "and the rest is just my stuff I found."

Standing arms-folded, the bare-shouldered Ms. Duff braced against the evening's whipping winds.

She had arrived alongside her pro hockey player beau, Mike Comrie, for the premiere of Stay Cool, writer-director Michael Polish's new film, in which the former Lizzie McGuire star portrays a sexy high-school senior who flirts with a visting author.

"You know what? We’re very compatible, luckily," she said of her relationship with the boyishly handsome Ottawa Senators forward, "and it never seems like a big pressure of, like, what I have to do to make him happy, or vice versa. You know, it’s just kind of natural for us, which is great, and I think that we both have busy jobs and we’re both very public people, and that helps, too, you know, since we are apart so much. It’s not like one person is sitting at home waiting for the other. And we’re both just really supportive of each other."

Ms. Duff offered scant details of her reported new sitcom. "You know, it’s a development deal at NBC, so it came out in the press, you know, that I was doing this show called Barely Legal and it was just a pitch that I had gotten," she said. "So, it’s tough with media, when everything that happens is like written about right away, and you’re like, ‘Wait a minute, but that’s not even what I’m doing!' So, yeah, we’re developing a show together, but it’s not anywhere near ready."

Ms. Duff's co-star in the film, Chevy Chase, arrived later. The 65-year-old comedian posed for photos and, in what is becoming somewhat of a trend for this year's Tribeca Film Festival, marched right in without speaking to reporters.

Perhaps he was afraid of the accidential aggression of an NY1 cameraman, who almost decapitated a couple of red carpet reporters with one of his unruly camera cords. "We’re gonna crack everybody in the head before we do this," joked big-browed NY1 reporter George Whipple.

Fellow Stay Cool actor (and former hobbit) Sean Astin spoke on behalf of the elusive comic. "What’s the funniest thing about Chevy? Chevy. Everything he says is funny," Mr. Astin lamely stroked his elder statesman's ego. "He can basically say, 'Can you pass the, you know, the salt?' And you’re like, ‘Oh my God, that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard!’"

The previous morning, Ms. Dupre had shown up unexpectedly at Yigal Azrouel’s women’s show. Mr. Azrouel’s front-of-house PR manager (and MTV reality show personality) Kelly Cutrone seated her in the front row. Although Ms. Dupre went relatively unnoticed, reporters quickly spread news of her presence. Mr. Azrouel, who had posed backstage with the foxy and tan 23-year-old (he apparently didn’t know who she was at the time), was not pleased—he canned Ms. Cutrone and her firm, People’s Revolution, later than night.

But about an hour into Mr. Buckler’s Oscar Wilde-themed presentation on Saturday evening, as they mingled with guests sipping on absinthe cocktails in the cave-like lower level of the designer’s SoHo store, Ms. Dupre and Ms. Cutrone, who represents Mr. Buckler, laughed the whole thing off.

“I think everyone’s so focused on the designers and Fashion Week,” said Ms. Dupre, whose black Christian Louboutin boots gave a few inches to her petite stature, when the Daily Transom asked if she’d encountered any cold stares while perched in front of the catwalk. “I mean, at the shows I’ve been going to, that’s been the focus.”

“That’s not true!” chuckled Ms. Cutrone, who was wearing black jeans and a black coat over a black-and-white striped t-shirt, her hair (also very black) pulled back into a skinny braid. “Yeah, there was no big deal,” she joked.  

“I mean, well, besides that one,” Ms. Dupre said.
 
“I’m just really happy to have you here,” Ms. Cutrone replied, turning to the Daily Transom. “I’m happy that she came. I think she’s great.”

Which raised the question: How and when did these two become such good pals?

Ms. Cutrone said their friendship began a few months ago. Ms. Dupre has been working on an album (“It’s gonna be deep pop,” she said) with Avril Lavigne producer Peter Zizzo, and some of Ms. Cutrone’s “music people” associates suggested the two should meet. The rest was history.

“When I met her I was like, you know what, I really like this girl,” said Ms. Cutrone. “I’m vehemently opposed to morality, and I think that people who are insistent upon propelling morality ultimately hang themselves.”

Meanwhile, upstairs, 15 male models were posed atop box-like risers opposite a black brick wall adorned with candles and dead roses. The music was solemn—a medley of live classical piano that began with Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.”

The British-born Mr. Buckler, whose eponymous clothing line has outfitted rock stars including The Rolling Stones and The Strokes, described his fall 2009 collection, with its focus on tailoring and woolens, as something of a departure from Buckler’s denim-heavy origins. He said it was inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde’s 1891 novel in which a handsome young man sells his soul for perpetual youth while his face in a painting decays with age.  

“We looked at the shirt of the era, the kind of thing that Dorian Gray might have worn, and we looked at aging and time. We’d take a beautiful fabric and slowly keep washing it,” said Mr. Buckler, dressed head to toe in his own designs, including a gray cashmere sweater and a bamboo pant from his new collection.

Of course one couldn’t help but wonder if the evening’s melancholy aura was partly inspired by the grave economic reality facing the fashion industry. Indeed, Mr. Buckler has experienced some financial woes of his own, as reflected in recent staff layoffs and his decision to do a presentation rather than a full show.

Might his clothing line one day meet the same tragic fate as Dorian Gray?

“We’ve had to scale it back to the bare bones,” he said. “But we’re okay.”

Two of Anna Wintour's three assistants are leaving and the magazine is searching for replacements. [The Cut]  

While Whitney Port may act like she works at DVF, numerous phone calls to her extension went unanswered when a reporter from The Daily phoned. The extension turned out to belong someone named "Natalie." [FWD via Cityfile]  

The McCafe coffee station has been placed in the corner of the tents at Bryant Park, where no one seems to notice it. The coffee, however, is apparently not bad. [Racked] 

Gemma Ward, who seems to be absent from the runways as of late, has apparently gained a lot of weight while pursuing her acting career. [Page Six]

Ms. von Furstenberg’s edict—coupled with Marc Jacobs’ shocking, almost arrogantly prompt 20-minutes-late start last season, following criticism levied at his more-than-two-hours-tardy start a year ago—raised the possibility of a seismic shift in Fashion Week start times.

Alas, it hasn’t occurred. The Yigal Azrouel show in Chelsea on Friday, Sept. 5, was scheduled for noon, but the lights went down at 12:34. At Rag & Bone later that day, opening model Sasha Pivovarova stalked angrily down the catwalk at 4:36 p.m., slightly more than half an hour late. At Loden Dager on Saturday at Bungalow 8, the lights went down 29 minutes late.

On Sunday, Ms. von Furstenberg showed her own collection at the tents to a packed, excitable crowd that included pop mama Jennifer Lopez, actress Uma Thurman, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, ageless wit Fran Lebowitz, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester, tennis player Venus Williams, and the designer’s husband, Barry Diller. As if to set an example, Vogue editor Anna Wintour walked briskly into the tent at 4 p.m., the exact appointed hour. But the excess of celebrities was causing gridlock in the aisles. As invitees struggled to reach their seats, photographers all but trampled the guests and each other in pursuit of Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria.

At 4:25 p.m., an unseen voice bellowed, “Ladies and gentlemen, please sit down, the show’s about to start.” This was a drastic, unusual measure. The show seemed to really want to start on time.

“This time it’s not even the cameras, it’s just people not sitting!” complained a frenzied publicist. “I don’t know how you do this day in, day out,” Mr. Carter was overheard telling someone (he had the misfortune of being seated directly across from Ms. Longoria).

When the lights finally went down, to cheers and shouts, Ms. von Furstenberg sent out a cheery collection of flowing, flowery dresses. It was 4:38 p.m.

mbryan@observer.com

At the Yigal Azrouel show at Eyebeam West 21^st Street at noon on Friday, Feb. 1, pouty male models went down the runway wearing mustard-striped cotton sweats tucked into military-style boots, thermal shirts and cardigan sweaters; brown cords and K-Swiss sneakers; wrinkled blazers and loose-fitting jeans were paired with Paddington coats and oversized merino wool sweaters.

“This is what I wear,” Mr. Azrouel said. “I kind of like it, you aren't trying very hard and you're warm and cozy.”

“It definitely has some military style,” he said, “because I think it's really cool.”

Mr. Azrouel’s women's line, meanwhile, plumbed recent trends like the tapered pant leg, belted shapeless dresses and deconstructed blouses. There was also a sleeveless raccoon jacket in taxi-cab yellow.

“Yigal talked very much about how the city inspires him,” said filmmaker Chiara Clemente, who put together Mr. Azrouel's runway video, as Sonic Youth boomed through the speakers.

In the front row: jeweler Waris Ahluwalia wearing denim tucked into wellies, and neo-soul singer Maxwell. “There was a couple of bomber jackets on the guys that I liked,” said the latter. “And all the girls looked really nice —but you can't take them can you?” No, sir, you can’t.