The morning of Day 1 was quickly overshadowed by news that famed British designer Alexander McQueen had committed suicide.  In this day in age, word spreads quickly–I first heard the moment I pulled up Twitter that morning.  Apparently, news broke during the BCBG show, wherein long-standing Vogue Editrix, Anna Wintour, first heard the news and went running out mid-show.  Other friends and colleagues were also horrified by the news, including Naomi Campbell who was seen soon after and described as “visibly distraught.”

As with the bad news, any news during Fashion Week is able to be funneled and shared quickly, thanks to the evolution of the fashion bloggerati.  No longer do we have to wait to read about it in the pages of WWD or The New York Times, instead, fashion followers are blogging the news, Facebooking the pictures, and Twittering the trends in bite-sized pieces.

Publishing the story first has become increasingly important.  It lends itself to getting referenced and quoted in other media outlets and it helps your blog or publication in getting ranked higher on Google.   It is even more important though, to the subjects of the matter.   One blogger’s opinion has the power to impact how the show will be received overall and dangerously lends itself to other bloggers and traditional reporters following suit.  I guess it’s a media phenomenon which some might refer to as lazy journalism.

Sponsors are catching on to new media as well.  The main area of the tents now boasts a giant leader board, sponsored by American Express.  It posts a Twitter feed in real time, by the minute, featuring Fashion related tweets from anyone that uses the #FW hashtag.  People insides the shows are twittering the stand out trends as on lookers watch from outside.

The tents are also now fully equipped for the blogger lifestyle, with a media lounge that promotes wireless internet and battery-charging outlets.

Finally, this season’s New York Fashion Week is also memorable, because it is going to be the very last season in the Bryant Park Tents.  In September, the semi-annual show moves itself to Lincoln Center.

[IMAGES: Fashion Designer and Washington Style Reporter, Ms. Bob Bland of Brooklyn Royalty, sports an outfit tailored to the morning's heartbreaking McQueen news]

[Alyson Campbell for It's All Very PR]

On opening night, Bob put the space in perspective by bringing together a collective of talented local artists to display their works in an auction-style, fund-raising exhibit.  The event also featured the Endless Summer Taco Truck, frosty beverages courtesy of Pabst Blue Ribbon, and live music by indie rock sensation, Jeff Taylor.

Later this month (July 18/19), The Arsenal will be home to a trunk show for indie designers like Brooklyn Royalty.  Keep an eye on the website for all of the juicy details.

Congrats on the new space Bob, it’s genius!

*Designer Bob Bland with her Brooklyn Royalty collection at The Aresnal

*My favorite piece(s) that were on display as part of the Art Auction

*Skakeboard art

*Wood-based jewlery by GOOD WOOD

*Good Wood’s Frankie Velez with Leah Pilon and Erin Gell

[First 3 photos courtesy of Guest of A Guest, Second 2 photos courtesy of me!]

[Alyson Campbell for It's All Very PR]

After months of brainstorming, we were delighted to partner up with Saks & BETTY, and for whatever reason, the timing could not have been better.  2009 has been a rough year so far, and more women than ever are finding themselves unexpectedly back on the job market due to the downturn in our economy.  As such–women are in need of a reinvention and some positivity, and that is just what they got on Thursday evening at Saks!

Guests were greeted with exclusive shopping discounts to the store, passed wine and a spread of hors d’oeuvres, makeovers by Estee Lauder, personal shopping assistance courtesy of Saks, hair consultations courtesy of LeMetric, and raffles by BettyConfidential, including a $2500 Smile Makeover by Celebrity Dentist, Dr. Apa!

The room dazzled with a smorgasbord of motivational women in their own right, including: Tia Walker (Celebrity Lifestyle Blogger, The Quest for “it”), Oriana DiNella (Stylist, Nolcha), Brenda Dargan (In Style), Felicia Sullivan (Writer/Blogger), Nichelle Stephens (Multi-Blogger), Kelly Samardak (MediaPost), Yolanda “Shoshi” Shoshana (Lucious Lifestyle Diva), Aryn Quinn (CEO & President, Beauty Cares), Jennifer Goodkind (A Fashionable Life Radio), Carol Kim (Us Weekly), Michelle Finkelshteyn (BagTrends.com), Andrea Syrtash (Relationship Expert), Jess Hullett (Freelancer for Cosmopolitan), Mosaka Williamson (Socially Superlative), Tiffany Winbush (Women Making Moves), Bob Bland (Brooklyn Royalty), Sabrina Chapman (Scallywag and Vagabond), Ji Cha (Hell’s Kitchen Season 5), and Yuli Ziv (Editor-in-Chief, My “it” Things), just to name a few.

The Reinvention panelists of the evening included, Elline Surianello (my client), Dr. Valerie White (Psychologist, Executive Coach & Author), and Lois Joy Johnson (infamous Style + Beauty Editor of BettyConfidential.com).

Once the panel got started, I realized the discussion was going to be even more emotionally charged than I could have imagined. The event really did cover ‘From Hair to Toe’ and everywhere in between. While much of the conversation was about hair, and a woman’s relationship with her hair, the universal theme was about taking a negative struggle that has a constant presence in your life (such as hair loss, in the case of Elline), and turning it into a positive.  Whether or not your personal reinvention has to do with your hair (or your skin, or your weight, or your confidence), we, as the female race, can all relate.

The most moving part of the evening came at the end of the night, when the courageous Ms. Aryn Quinn (CEO of an amazing organization, Beauty Cares) stood up and thanked Elline for going public with this message.  Aryn enlightened us all, that at her organization (where they help women who are victims of domestic violence to feel beautiful again), many women come in with chunks of hair missing out of their head, and all they want is to feel beautiful again.  Every woman has that right. This prompted Elline to whip off her hair in front of a stunned crowd of 150+, proving that her look, without her hair, is not one that she could walk proudly through Saks 5th Avenue with.  Because THAT is not who she is; she is a strong, sassy, and confident woman–and it’s only fitting that her “look” match her lifestyle.

Luckily, I pulled out my FlipCam just in time and got the above incident on tape:

*Me with a favorite client, mentor and friend, Elline Surianello of LeMetric

*Elline Surianello with a very-stunning-in-yellow, Tia Walker–Celebrity Lifestyle Blogger of The Quest for “it”

*Jess Hullett, Andrea Syrtash, Felicia Sullivan, Brenda Dargan, Yolanda “Shoshi” Shoshana

*Celebrity Chef, Ji Cha, chats up the “Girls in Tech” gals

*April Daniels-Hussar, Executive Editor of BettyConfidential.com and Aryn Quinn of BeautyCares.org

*Three of the incomparable LeMetric stylists: Ana, Loredana, and Cal.

*AMP3 PR family members: JoAna Swan, Kelly Byrnes, Alyson Campbell (me), and Termeh Mazhari

*Elline chats up Carol Kim, Beauty Editor of Us Weekly

*Bob Bland (Founder / Designer) and Jessi Butterfield (Makeup Artist) from Brooklyn Royalty

*Elline talks about her Journey with Hair Loss and how she came out the other side.

*Dr. Valerie White tells us how we can use The Law of Attraction to our advantage

*Lois Joy Johson brings up her best friend and co-author, Celebrity Makeup Artist–Sandy Linter

*The Big Reveal! (See video above for the real action!)

*Aryn Quinn interjects with a moving statement

*Hugging it out, emotions run high…

*Unwinding at the end of the evening with Freelance Writer, Kim Weling, and Elline, as the guests make their way out.

*From hair to toe–this photo sums up how we were left at the end of the evening.

You can see all of the photos here, and all of the video clips from the evening here.

For more reviews of the evening, check out:

-MediaPost
-BettyConfidential.com
-The Quest for “it”
-Guest of A Guest
-New York Buzz
-Whom You Know
-Lucious Diva
-Lela Luxe

For more information on our upcoming workshops at the LeMetric Headquarters, contact us here.

*A very special thank you goes out to Megan @ Saks Fifth Avenue and April @ Betty Confidential for collaborating with me on this event, and for being so wonderfully supportive and amazing to work with! Thanks Ladies, here’s to a job well done!

[All photos courtesy of Belkis Carrasco]
[Alyson Campbell for It's All Very PR]

We were seated across from Olivia Palermo who had the cameras in a tizzy, and diagonally down from Julia Allison (who was there with her super cute mom!) and was sitting next to Celebrity Lifestyle Blogger, Tia Walker. I noticed Anna Wintour during the show, watching with a stone cold face, in her signature oversized sunglasses and full-bang / bob hair ‘do. Twitter also informed me that Adrien Field was in the house (although we didn’t cross paths), and I later noticed Mary Rambin filming a ‘Head to Toe’ segment with Julia Allison on the runway on our way out.

*Olivia Palermo getting seated

The show was great: very timely in that it was reminiscent of Slumdog Millionaire, with Indian-inspired garments and Indian-inspired music. The M.I.A. remix from the Slumdog soundtrack pumped on the loudspeakers as people found their seats and when the models took the stage, they were accompanied by a live band (brass and drums), deriving its rhythm and inspiration from the infectious Punjabi rhythm.

Tia Cibani, designer for Ports, says of the line, “at a moment of challenge in our own history, we look to the very human need to rejoice in beauty and art. Luxury today can be defined in the process of creation, and in the discovery of beauty in the simplest gesture and the grandest spirit.”

Overall, the line included a focus on: apricot, amber, moonstone, jasmine, organza, gold lame, and ruby coloring, with a streak of black garments accented by hot pink.

*Jessi meeting the designer backstage, Tia Cibani

*Julia Allison & Mary Rambin filming a quick Head-to-Toe Segment

Annnnnnd… I’m officially done with Fashion again until September (except for Brooklyn Royalty’s March 20th show, of course, stay tuned for details).

[Alyson Campbell for It's All Very PR]

(Alyson Campbell for Its All Very PR)

Agenda: Mtg @ 770 Broadway / Nielsen building -> quick dinner with fellow AMP3 publicista Jackie Brook -> pit stop @ The Tents to say hi to a contact (or five) -> Depesha Magazine Launch + Delirius Fashion Show -> Tavern on the Green for Ana Maria Show + Hillary Flowers Show -> BED.

At the tents, during a blur of aesthetic over-stimulation, we run into my dear friend-turned-client, Ms. Bob Bland (who I like to call Ms. “All dots connect back to Bob” Bland) wearing one of her own pieces from the Spring ‘09 Brooklyn Royalty line who was soon after joined by her way-too-fabulous Mom, Washington Style Reporter editrice Ms. Diana Bland. We pulled them onto our bandwagon and headed on to the Depesha Event, handled by another good friend and PR peer Jeremy Logan of Jeremy Logan Enterprises–who was kind enough to allow Jackie & I to get the DJ of his event to play our client’s (Amber Lee Ettinger, AKA “The Obama Girl”) new single “Second Time” just minutes before the show (conveniently when the crowd was at its’ peak).

*Also spotted at the Tents: Jay Manuel from ANTM filming a segment for NYFW in a kilt (yes, a skirt), blazer w/ skull & cross-bones, and pin-stripped lace up doc martins (more late 80s / early 90s staples making a come-back?).

When we arrive, who is handling the red carpet entrances but none-other-than photog Rick Louis (who had handled the Brooklyn Royalty Fashion Show only days earlier on 9/7/08) who immediately greets Bob and begins an impromptu photo shoot. Then, and not a moment too soon, in walks our client, Amber Lee (with manager Edin Vusanjin in tow) conveniently wearing Brooklyn Royalty! And wow – did she know how to rock Bob’s hand-painted denim jeans + one-of-kind black hand-painted corset.

After Amber’s single had been played to a hyped-up crowd / slew of bottle-serviced dancing girls and a brief cameo in MTV’s The Real World: Brooklyn (which happened to be filming @ the event since one of the cast members was affiliated with the night’s liquor sponsor, Ty Ku) we whisked up to Central Park for the other 2 shows of the night, hosted by another publicista ~ Mitzi Zieve. MZ was kind enough to seat us front row for the presentation and offer up Amber to the photo pit pre-show for even more photo-ops of her donning the BK Royalty label. The Ana Maria & Hillary Flowers shows took off with the runway-perfect “I fly like paper, get high like planes,” (thank you M.I.A) unveiling several flowy flowery dresses that were feminine and very Aly-able.

You gotta love the PR-it-forward mentality of these other publicists of the night who understand the value of helping each others clients to get ahead, and also the inter-client cross-promotions (entre B.B. and A.L.E. AKA The O.G.) that took place all in the course of 4 fun-filled hours.

Today, I have to say now that the last evening of Fashion Week is upon us, I couldn’t be more excited to lay low this weekend and focus on being as uncool as possible! But look me up on February 1st, by then, I’ll be excited to do it all over again…

Designer Bob Bland of Brooklyn Royalty & Amber Lee Ettinger AKA “The Obama Girl”
*Photo courtesy of Rick Louis

(Alyson Campbell for Its All Very PR)