Laliberte Fashion Week Diary: Rough Stuff

Approximately 8 hours before I was ready, the driver taking Annabel V and I to the Ruffian show called me while I was scrubbing my face with Shu Uemura. Nursing a Courtney Love-style FNO hangover, we chatted with Emal, the dude behind the wheel of the Audi TDI (oh, summer memories) as we navigated rainy traffic and anti Obama protesters.

The doom and gloom lifted at Exit Art, where familiar faces & four Advils banished the lingering effects of the Morning After. Front row faces like Douglas Friedman, Robert Burke, Ally Hilfiger, Annie Churchill, and Carol Han rocked out to "Back in the New York Groove" as designers Claude Morais and Brian Wolk debuted "Les Demoiselles of Ruffian," a not too subtle reference to the Picasso riffs that dominated the runway. The rain trenches in the crowd were mirrored by spring counterparts in Green and Beach Linen, while sheer slip dresses made me feel chilly. Dying over the Picasso-inspired hand-embroidered dress with a special matching accessory, namely what Wolk calls "the most expensive hat in the world." Double props to the Christian Louboutin for Ruffian shoes that Carla Bruni would kill in, if she was allowed to wear heels.

I had time to chat with Teen Vogue's Andrew Bevan, whose T-shirt read "If You Ain't Cowboy, You Ain't Shit," no doubt in support of Erin Wasson's later show, and Friedman, whose jagged scar was a result of "falling off a motorcycle in Bali." That's one glam accident.

-- Kristian Laliberte