Tina Chai

>> Scott Sternberg has a love of elaborate sets and cookies, and his first ever Boy/Band of Outsiders runway show involved both. Meyer lemon cookies were on every seat, thanks to David Chang's Momofuku Milk Bar (the chef was also in attendance, along with Kirsten Dunst — the brand’s latest lookbook model — Bee Shaffer, Kanye West, and Aziz Ansari, who wears the brand on his comedy tours); even Anna Wintour was spotted taking a bite. And then male models started rappelling 30 feet down from the top of the ceiling.

Thick knit sweaters, cropped plaid pants, fur scarves, silk print gowns, and slouchy fur beanies all pointed toward a grungy glamorous ski-inspired feel, while sharper looks, like a thin-wale corduroy suit, injected just the right amount of polish. A striped wool blanket poncho emoted the perfect sense of Winter cozy and semi-sheer maxi dresses were adorned with diminutive floral prints. Stylist Tina Chai topped off the look with chunky heeled hiking boots, pearls from Mikimoto, and pendants from Aesa.

>> Never lacking a sense of humor, Scott Sternberg listed among "the people that put the show together" like his stylist Tina Chai and Philip Crangi, who contributed Giles & Brother jewelry, "Snuffaluffagus" and "Cookie Monster" in his Spring 2010 Boy/Band of Outsiders show notes.  But jokes aside, the beachy presentation — which included hammocks, sand dunes, beach grass, and miniature boats floating in a pool of water — set off a new round of his blazers, button-downs, trenches, and bandage suspender skirts, with a little floral print thrown in for good measure.

>> After two seasons of videos, Scott Sternberg decided to take his Boy and Band of Outsiders show live, creating tableaux vivants of models in classroom, by a lamppost, resting on a park bench, or reading a book on a bed — "I want to use the groupings, or vignettes, to create microcosms within this vast space."  Props to the man for being one of the first, if not the first this week to rent a space big enough to hold his presentation and all the guests invited comfortably.  Kanye West hit up this show too, and Jason Wu, who shares the same stylist with Sternberg, Tina Chai.

The sportwear label clearly has some major fans — Meredith Melling Burke was running around, camera out — which I've never seen her do — and got up close and personal with the brightly-colored, ankle-tied high heel bowling shoes that Boy collaborated with Manolo Blahnik on; they did look outstanding against the contrasting tights with color-tipped toes.
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>> Michelle Williams is used to others snooping around in her business, but for Scott Sternberg's Fall 2008 Boy by Band of Outsiders look book, she got to play a snoop in interior designer Paul Fortune's house. 

Sternberg took all the pictures himself with a seventies-era Polaroid camera, set on capturing Michelle informally: "There [wasn't] hair and makeup . . . no lights or anything."  His regular stylist Tina Chai was present, to ensure the look book had the un-stylized look he was going for. 

The laid-back theme is being carried over into Band of Outsiders's Spring 2009 presentation, which will involve a film featuring two or three of Sternberg's celebrity friends instead of a catwalk.  As for the reasoning?  The designer told WWD: "I don’t make runway clothes. These are clothes you wear on the street, so I’m just super-uncomfortable with it. It puts it in totally the wrong context — I want to do something closer to where the clothes are, and let people actually touch and feel them as opposed to seeing them on a 14-year-old anorexic model."
*image: source