At Marchesa’s Wednesday, Sept. 10 presentation at the Chelsea Museum, models stood atop several foot tall white pedestals in voluminous evening gowns that flowed, twisted and turned about their petite bodies as the guests closely examined them like sculptures.
Georgina Chapman, the designer behind Marchesa along with Keren Craig, was fluttering about saying hello to her guests as they were being served mini champagne bottles with insertable flute nozzles that allowed them to neatly drink straight out of the bottle.
Ann Dexter-Jones stopped by. As did Olivia Palermo, Barbara Bush and Tinsley Mortimer, who was, strangely, acting out of character. When the Daily Transom approached Ms. Mortimer, she was not in the mood to catch up.
"I’m so sorry, but I am literally just running through here today," she said. Indeed, five minutes later, she was nowhere in sight.
Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, Ms. Chapman’s husband, was also bumping around the crowded room and greeting guests with both hands. But the center of attention he wasn’t.
"This is my wife’s show, not mine," he barked. "Talk to her."
Making our way around the room, Daily Transom ran into Beth Ostrosky (who is marrying Howard Stern next month), dressed in a silvery dress. Ms. Ostrosky was talking to a Style.com reporter and liked his shoulder bag so much that she asked if he could write down the name of the designer for her.
"Howard would love that!" she said to a friend accompanying her. (The friend nodded knowingly.)
Having chatted with Ms. Ostrosky earlier in the week at Jill Stuart‘s show, we asked what she thought of the massive wardrobe malfunction that occurred. (A red-headed model was sent out with one breast hanging out in its entirety as she made her way around the lengthy L-shaped runway of the New York Public Library, where the show was held.)
"That was terrible, I felt so bad for her!" she exclaimed, turning to her friend. "I was just telling you about that, wasn’t I?
"The other morning we were training for the marathon and she asked about the Jill Stuart show and I said, ‘I have to say I did not recover after I saw that poor model. She was so fragile but such a trooper," said Ms. Ostrosky.
Despite lacking the hierarchy of seat assignments, Ms. Ostrosky said she prefers presentations to runway shows like Ms. Stuart’s.
"I’m loving this. I get to have a glass of champagne, I get to mingle and talk to my friends," she said. "At a fashion show I don’t like to talk because I think it’s rude to the girls."
Also mingling was actress Perrey Reeves, with whom we had just chatted with that morning at the Nanette Lepore show. (She really is everywhere!) Since we saw her last, she had had time to go home, take a 20-minute power nap, and came back out, she told us. Nice catching up!
She too didn’t miss being granted a coveted front row seat and the faint efforts from numerous frazzled PR girls to protect her from the photogs at a runway show.
"This is just more fun for me," said Ms Reeves. "You socialize, you see people you know. It’s nice."
Young actress Leven Rambin said she enjoyed the lack of rules at presentations.
"It’s just not quite as strict to follow—you can talk to people, share your thoughts and drink a little bit," said Ms. Rambin.
But while Ms. Rambin may "share her thoughts" all she wants, drinking is technically illegal for the 18-year-old actress. (She filmed a whole episode about teen drinking for Law & Order SVU!)
"Yeah, not today, not for the next three years," she said, pointing out that she did not have a champagne bottle in hand.
"I think that at a presentation you get to be more relaxed than having to be quiet, sit still, and cross your legs," she continued. She thought for a moment. "And I bet the models like it better too.”
Looking around at the models wearing heavy sculptural gowns while making their best efforts to stand still on narrow pedestals in Christian Louboutin shoes, we weren’t convinced.
