>> Phillip Lim created the mascot skirt of Fashion Week earlier this year — not kidding, I've seen it on at least one person every day this week — and if the attendance to his newest collection's presentation is any indication, Spring 2009 will be smooth sailing for 3.1 Phillip Lim — the Tent was packed to the gills with fans, including friends Richard Chai and Irina Lazareanu, both sitting front row.

Christian Louboutin designed ruffled heels for the collection, eliciting covetousness in many — in fact, the whole Spring 2009 season is about ruffles for Phillip.  The treatment in some of the dresses and skirts reminded me of a tamed version of Marc Jacobs's Spring 2007 ruffles, but among the hazy smoke that hovered on the runway, the real standouts emerged — the stiff, open-edged zipper pieces, and the jewelry Eddie Borgo made for the occasion.
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>> It's been an odd Fashion Week without Carine Roitfeld's impeccable style or Tanya Dziahileva's cherubic face, but another person of note was missed — on the runways, anyway — Irina Lazareanu.  She's been spotted at Monday's Vogue/Cole Haan party in Missoni, yesterday's V magazine party in a sequined top, denim cutoffs, and a feather, and also yesterday, front row at 3.1 Phillip Lim.

Sitting front row isn't a new thing for Irina — she was in row one last season at Erin Fetherston — but what is new?  For the first time in three years, she's taking a break from the runway: "To be honest, I wanted to take a season off." But just in New York — she will be walking "a little" in Milan in Paris.
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