Fashion Week: Staged runway falls, monks

NEW YORK (AP) — The Associated Press is all over New York Fashion Week, from the runways to celebrities as eight days of spring previews entered their fifth day Monday.

‘CELEBRATING
MISTAKES’ AT
OPENING CEREMONY
It’s every designer and model’s worst nightmare: To trip while walking the runway during fashion week.
That’s exactly what happened, over and over, on Sunday evening at Opening Ceremony’s show. The audience gasped as the first model took a tumble, but by the time the third “model” fell, most realized the stumbles were actually calculated.
You see, some of the models were not models at all, but rather New York City Ballet dancers.
“This was to challenge the idea of the runway show and runway stride of models. It’s an idea of not always trying to catch up and not being afraid to make mistakes,” designer Humberto Leon said. “They always got back into their place. It’s an idea of making it about how these girls do it. ... It’s celebrating mistakes in life.”
The collaboration is fitting considering the label is designing costumes for the ballet. Resident choreographer Justin Peck even choreographed the dance for their runway show.
So, was Leon concerned the theatrics would make the audience, which included Kylie Jenner and boyfriend Tyga, Laverne Cox and Jessica Alba, focus on just the dancing and not the clothes?
Not a chance. “The audience was a part of this,” Leon said. “We wanted the participation of the audience. You didn’t know if they were falling. This is a cross conversation of life. We got to share this special thing I’ve been working on this audience.”
—Alicia Quarles

MONKS AND PRAYER
AT PRABAL
It was an incongruous sight, even for New York Fashion Week, but a very moving one. With a who’s who of A-list Hollywood actresses in the front row, Prabal Gurung opened his runway show with 30 Buddhist monks who had traveled to New York to chant a prayer of gratitude for the world’s help during the devastating earthquake that killed thousands in Gurung’s native Nepal in April.
“When the earthquake happened, the first people that came to our rescue in Nepal was the fashion industry here, and I wanted to show some kind of gratitude to them,” Gurung said after Sunday evening’s show. “I go and visit the monastery (in Nepal) all the time, and I had this idea, and they wanted to do it.”
The entire runway show was dedicated to Nepal, with garments in shades of lemon, saffron, peach, tea rose and other variations of orange and yellow. There was barely a dark color in the mix. Especially effective were lovely white dresses embroidered in orange and yellow, and filmy chiffon evening gowns that floated down the runway. There was also some fringe and sparkle in the mix.
Gurung had a lot of celebrity support: His front row included actresses Jennifer Hudson, Hailee Steinfeld, Laverne Cox from “Orange is the New Black,” Kylie Jenner, and Solange Knowles.
Cox was wearing a bright blue Gurung creation. “I’ve just started working with Prabal,” she said. “It’s pretty cool. All of a sudden I am here, wearing his stuff at his show.”
Gurung said he hoped the world would learn a little bit about Nepal. “All I wanted to do is show a little of where I’m from,” he said, “and show it to the rest if the world. I hope they’ll be enticed to go visit, because that’s what Nepal needs right now.”
—Jocelyn Noveck