Ellen Tracy-Mercedez Benz Fashion Week Fall 2007

I am excited to be going to the Bill Blass runway show this morning but I'm running late! Last night I attended the Ellen Tracy runway show, so I'll write about that show first.

I love Ellen Tracy clothes. The sophisticated, classic shapes are the darlings of fashionable working women of all ages. Beautifully constructed of great fabrics, with an eye to detail...how could you not love them! FYI: I always thought that Ellen Tracy was a woman, but I learned that the company was started in 1949 as a blouse company by a man--Herbert Gallen. He hired Linda Allard who eventually became Ellen Tracy's Design Director. Her name was added to the Ellen Tracy label in 1984. COMPANY, a line for weekend and dress-down-day clothes, was started in 1991. Confused? Now George Collins Sharp is Vice President of Design Ellen Tracy and he was backstage at the show, of course. I took a few photos of him (check the Advice Sisters Features Pagehttp://www.advicesisters.net/Features/Features.html in a few weeks to see links to my photo-essay features on Fashion Week).
My first stop was backstage, to watch NARS makeup artist James Boehmer explain his concept for the show. Here's the model, TAO. She's beautiful without any makeup, but this look was particularly flattering and ladylike. James explained that while there was "nothing special" in terms of a theme for the makeup for Ellen Tracy, he wanted to make it elegant. He said he was inspired (a bit) by the Robert Palmer girl and Helmut Newton but in a more modern way, without the harsh angles and deep blush. The clothes reminded James of YSL "Le Smoking Collection" and so he wanted to have a strong eye AND lip--aggressive but elegant makeup. Interestingly though, here's no blush at all in this look. James simply added a bit of highlighter put high on cheekbones so that the face glows a bit when the model turns. Again, the look is all about color and technique. The eye makeup goes all the way into the brows, but all the harsh lines are removed by blending, blending and more blending! The eye makeup is really several different colors (plus a smudged and blended black eye pencil) James used a Duo Cream Eyeshadow: "Madagascar" and blended it, blended, it and then applied "Zardoz" and blended it, blended it, and blended it. The cream duo is a sheer formula created by NARS to use alone, or underneath NARS powder eye shadows for more color, depth and intensity. Lots and lots of mascara was also applied and black liner smudged top and bottom (a LOT of smudging). Brows were gelled, but no color was applied. He applied a beautiful, creamy, velvet-matte red brick lip pencil on each model ("Forbidden Red"). He lines Tao's lips first, then filled them in with the pencil. James said that when he was talking to the designer about the makeup for the show, they kept going back and forth about the lips--should it be a stain, or a lipstick. Lipstick definitely won out. The red lip against the creamy, matte skin was the perfect accompaniment to the sweaters, coats, and pants. I'll share more of the actual colors and products plus more photos, in the upcoming Advice Sisters Ellen Tracy/NARS feature.

RAMONA from Bumble & Bumble did the hair--sleek, very tight buns full of product for shine and manageability. Creative Nail design did the manicures--a ladylike, totally sheer, iridescent pink called "Negligee"

This show was really all about city chic, as you can see from this photo of took of beautiful Ajuma striding down the runway, wearing a cinnamon alpaca coat, Cinnamon iridescent taffeta blouse, Mahogany stretch viscose 2/4 sleeve sweater, and softly draping, mahogany crepe pants. I love this warm, Fall color, and it showed up in a variety of pieces, and even in a leather jacket. Another standout was a paprika (bright warm red) angora doubleface jacket worn with mahogany silk mesh sleeveless turtleneck and mahogany stretch stain skinny pants (couldn't get a photo of it--sorry)


There was also lots of city-sleek black which looked particularly great with the classy, elegant makeup and sleek hair. Ellen Tracy showed a number of jaunty fedoras, wide patent leather belts in black and brown, and lots of very large satchels in patent leather. There were knit scarves and tunics, too. One black cashmere cable knit sweater sparkled with a sprinkling of black beads and was worn with a stunning, ivory alpaca coat and black flannell pants with a deep pleat.

Black predominated. No surprise here--black is the uniform of chic women, everywhere. In fact, there were few surprises--just lots of urban chic clothes minus tacky, wacky or weird. Every piece in this Fall 2007 Ellen Tracy collection is something a real person would want to own. It's wearable chic you'll want the minute the collection hits the stores.

Alexandre Herchovitch-Mercedez Benz Fashion Week Fall 2007

I knew I'd never make it to the actual runway show for Alexandre Herchcovitch, since I had to go downtown for backstage interviews for Gustavo Arango, so I arrived at the backstage area of the tent early, after leaving Alice Roi (just a few steps away in the other backstage tent area).

I had a long wait until I could finally convince someone to let me backstage. In the interim, I met an interesting man who represented Taiwan Vogue. Alas, I had little time to get the scoop about the makeup from the lead makeup artist for MAC Cosmetics (Philippe Chansel). I will get details from my contact at MAC and make sure that the details are included in the photo essay feature I'll be doing, later on (check the Advice Sisters FEATURES page of access it from the Home Page http://www.advicesisters.net throught the next few weeks to see what I've posted).

As you can see from the close up of the makeup photo above, the Fall trend of focusing on the eyes, with minimal makeup everywhere else, was featured by MAC for the Alexandre Herchcovitch show as well. This time, the look wasn't black or blue, but deep, dramatic brown ringing the eyes..with very pale skin and nude lips. The inspiration for the MAC makeup was really taken from the clothes. This designer's clothes are quirkly and irreverant and very fashion-forward. There were, for instance, a number of fashions created from what really looked like heavy duty black plastic garbage bags with tie necks--one paired with a palm-leaf hat with open top, and beige suede high-heeled pump/boots with long ties. This type of look requires unusual makeup.As explained to me by Philippe Chansel for MAC, Alexandre Herchovitch designs for Brazillian women olive skin, so the colors were particularly flattering to them. The "ethnic/rustic" look shows in the focus all on the eyes, with absolutely minimal makeup elsewhere. The look is naturally-messy but artfully blended. The vibe is a peasant woman's view of how beauty looks after she's been working all day ...her labors show in her eyes (in a beautiful and fashionable way, of course). The hair was done by Celso and his team from RUSK --hair slicked back in messy buns.

I didn't see the show, but I did check out a few of the outfits on the racks. As I mentioned above, some of the clothes are a bit "far out" (at least, to me). But there were some wearable, beautiful things as well. A standout for me was of soft green and teal wool plaids, one translated into a long coat that was very beautiful and wearable. Another a double-breasted mini-capelet in teal looked like it would be a comforting "shrug" to add color to an otherwise somber Fall palette.