Fire Island, Part 3: Backstage, Bitches!

Let's watch models getting dressed!

Actually, it's not as titillating as it sounds. The pre-show fittings went like clockwork but if someone wanted to shoot a documentary about it it would be 2 hours of "Try this on." "Ok, now give me a walk." "What shoes go with this?" etc., ad nauseam.

The real fun, as we said yesterday, was getting all the models out on stage in a timely manner. There were no pictures of that little struggle because everyone was manning their battle stations. All the pictures you see in this post were either from Saturday's fitting or from Sunday morning, hours before the show started.

It went like this: Tom was positioned at the top of the stairs leading to the runway. His job was to pace the models to make sure that they were going slow enough to give each one a chance to run back down the steps and into their next outfit. Lorenzo, all the designers, and their designated assistants were down in the dressing room, ripping clothes off the models and hurriedly throwing the next outfit on them (which wasn't easy with Stella's lace-up getups). Only once during the show was there a moment when there were no models on the runway, which caused Tom to run down the steps, burst into the dressing room and shriek "Empty stage! Empty stage!"

A special shoutout must be given to the hair and makeup people as well as the photographer, all of whom were giving their time and expertise to the event gratis:

Photographer: Koitz
www.koitzphoto.com

Makeup: Christopher Drummond
www.christopherdrummond.com

Hair: Louis Tedeschi, Tom DeGrandis, Anthony Linzalone, Robby Nelson

They were all incredibly professional and quick. At the very last minute, it was decided that, since there were fears that the weather wouldn't hold out, we would simply show one collection after the other with virtually no breaks in between. This meant that the original hair and makeup changes for each collection had to be scrapped. Still, somehow the hair and makeup folks managed to make minor changes to each look while the models were getting dressed and even managed to slap on some smokey eyes for the rougher look that Stella's collection required.

All in all, we had a blast and we have to say, there is SUCH an adrenaline rush when you're doing something like this. We can't imagine what it would be like to mount a major show but we definitely have an appreciation of the work all the behind-the-scenes people do to pull one off just so bitchy bloggers like us can sit at our desks and critique it.














A special shoutout to Virginia, who is one of our readers and won one of the VIP passes to the event. She came up afterwards to introduce herself and she was a total doll. Plus, she provided us with a couple pictures from her camera to round out our post yesterday. Luvya, girl!


More pics:

[Photos: Koitz/Virginia Z./ Projectrungay.blogspot.com]

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Fire Island, Part 2: FASHION!

Let's get our fashion on, bitches!

Before we get to the "runway" shots, a little reminder of what we were all doing there:

"Debuting this summer, S.O.S. (Shopping On Sunday), produced jointly by FIPAP and Fund in the Sun Foundation, will give you the chance to combine two cherished obsessions, shopping and working on your tan. With all proceeds supporting LGBT charitable organizations, S.O.S. will feature the most coveted labels from Seventh Avenue, including Calvin Klein, Armani Exchange, Diesel, Prada, Ron Chereskin, and many more. Malan Breton, Emmett McCarthy, and Stella Zotis from Project Runway will present live fashion shows throughout the afternoon under the runway direction of Tom & Lorenzo."

Fabulous for charity, darlings! That's what it's all about.

Now, we weren't planning on stretching this weekend's festivities out to too many posts because that gets a little overkill-y, but dammit, we have so many pictures that we just can't fit them all in anything less than 3 posts. You saw the dinner parties and the hanging out pictures already; this is the runway post; and after that, we'll do the backstage post because you're going to want to hear about the insanity of trying to get 12 consecutive looks out on the runway with only 4 female models, all of whom had to run up a flight of stairs and a ramp just to get from the dressing room to the "runway," with Hal Rubenstein of InStyle Magazine yelling "Send them out faster!" at us.

Yes, one of the models did a header on the runway; no, we're not going to tell you which one. They were working under crazy conditions for free and while we normally love watching a model fall flat on her face (who wouldn't?), we couldn't single the poor girl out. As we said, she was running up stairs and ramps to get to the runway and then had to walk in stiletto heels on a boardwalk. Suffice it to say, she brushed herself off and with a smile and a wave, carried on. The crowd loved her for it.

Malan Breton
We're so glad we chose Malan to go first because we suspect the crowd was expecting nothing more than a half-assed runway show with half-assed fashion and from the second Dayna walked out in that suit, ten feet tall in a pair of platform shoes, you could see the crowd suddenly gain a lot more interest. It was like watching a lightbulb go off. "Oh. This is a fashion show."

All looks were from his Spring '09 collection.

Emmett McCarthy
Emmett decided to have fun with it and, in his words, "gay it up." Since all the designers had the option of using both male and female models, Emmett came up with a "Lady and the Poolboy" concept and had the girls wear items from his Spring line, while the boys wore almost nothing at all. The bitch knew his crowd.

Stella Zotis
We knew, without even looking at her pieces, that Stella was probably going to be a hit with the crowd. When we went for fittings the day before the show, it was confirmed. We were thrilled that the 3 designers all presented such strikingly different collections and Stella's stood out most of all for its sheer craziness (and the fact that all the models looked so hot). When James walked out at the end with the spiked leather helmet and the gladiator sleeve on, you could hear the "oohs" in the crowd. She was a big hit. When we first approached Stella about participating in this event, we wrote "You'll be showing off your shit to a bunch of A-list queens with money! They're gonna LOVE you!" Of course, we were right.

Official Photographer: Koitz
Models: NY Model Management

[Photos: Koitz/Virginia Z.]


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