It’s midnight and I am “Fashion Nighted Out”.

Sadly. 

This has been one fun fun fun evening.

Good taste (and some not so good taste) was everywhere.  Fortunately…and finally… the weather co-operated. It was a bit “soup-y” earlier in the day, but the clouds broke for the first time in three days to allow for a truly glorious night.

I fired up my video camera, started early and managed to hit multiple hot spots throughout the city.  My goal was to visit one “club”, one salon, one manufacturer event and one upper east side designer store. Daunting…but do-able.  It took several hours, many miles, 4 cabs and lots of patience…but it was all worth it. As always, my mission was to find the BEAUTY in fashion. Find I did…and had a great time along the way.

It all started at rooftop of the STK club in the meatpacking district. There I met with the beautifully dressed and tressed Babe Rizzuto, Conair’s VP of PR, who was introducing the BabylissPro Nano Titanium Portofino 6600 Dryer - Gold Edition to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of BaByliss.  Babe was hanging with Laurence Borrione of Scunci who was showing the power of accessories in fashion. Talk about walking the walk…Laurence was in a breathtaking animal print pant/gown. So cool…so tasteful. I asked Paola Velasquez, Babe’s associate, to find out what FASHION’S NIGHT OUT meant to them:

Next stop was the Ted Gibson salon in Union Square. The salon was totally hopping as they had just wrapped up an editor event and were preparing for a private FNO party. Jason Backe was there to share his plans and thoughts on this very special night:

The pros at the Redken Exchange were holding a special “dry style” event for customers of their Fifth Avenue store.  Famed Redken stylist Guido Palau designed four fashion week trends for the lucky clients who were able to score an appointment with any of the Redken artists that were on hand to execute the finishes. I had a chance to chat with Jenni Bingham, Senior Manager for PR for Redken, who was sporting the tres fashionable “Strictly Speaking”:

Last stop was the upper east side where I bopped in and out of the designer stores on Madison Avenue in the 60’s and 70’s.  I must say, the crowd on Manhattan’s most famous fashion street was celebrating wardrobe in a much more “glamorous” way from the meatpacking crowd (where it was all FUN fashion).

At Alice and Olivia on Madison and 65, the theme was “Carnivale”. Lynette Tatum of Sebastian set up a mini station in the store and was adding pink extensions to celebrate the collaboration with the designer and the re-launch of Shaper Hair Spray:

After leaving Alice and Olivia I headed uptown. There was so much police activity that I got a bit nervous. There had been concern because of some fresh and legit terrorist activity and it looked like something pretty bad was happening.

Turns out the heavy security had less to do with terrorism and more to do with a Justin Bieber sighting at Dolce & Gabbana on 69th. Looks like everyone is getting in on this fashion scene!

All in all, it was pretty much a perfect evening. Fashion’s Night Out has become one of the most exciting events in NYC…and is actually “up there” with NEW YEARS EVE AND HALLOWEEN.  It’s the fun, inclusive, fashionable and BEAUTIFUL way to kick off New York Fashion Week.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, Click here.