Fashion Garments

Monday evening in New York, a lavender carpet is rolled out for guests attending the 28th CFDA awards,’s equivalent of the Oscars. This year the Council of Fashion Designers of America bestowed the best womenswear prize upon Marc Jacobs, saluted Michael Kors with a lifetime achievement award and paid tribute to the late Alexander McQueen. Naturally, the event was teeming with outfits to study, from fashion big wigs such as Anna Wintour to A-listers including Gwyneth Paltrow in a one-shouldered black shimmering Kors number to Sarah Jessica Parker in McQueen. Britain’s Christopher Bailey for Burberry took the international gong. But it wasn’t all about the big hitters.

The new it-girl

Being the great-granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway must be both a blessing and a curse. Not that it seems to have stopped the gorgeous model-cum-wannabe actor Dree Hemingway from looking rather smiley in a white Calvin Klein trousersuit. Note: the potentially hazardous white-shoes-with-white-suit look works because there is a contrast wooden platform heel involved. Whether the (piece of string?) headband is working is another matter.

The multi-tasking model

Jamie Bochert has been modelling off and on since the early noughties – this year she has appeared on the cover of Vogue Italia and in high-profile ad campaigns for the likes of Lanvin. She is also a musician who, aside from crafting her own songs, sings with her partner, actor Michael Pitt (above, with Bochert). She has even provided backup at a Patti Smith concert. Bochert has totally nailed the nonchalant fashion awards look. Her sequins are sort of downbeat, her dress length is midi (soon to be the hottest length in town) and her hair brilliantly plain.

The fashion icon

Iris Apfel is in her late 80s. Wearing Balenciaga. This is just the kind of behaviour you’d expect from a style icon – that, plus the statement saucer-sized optical. The self-confessed “geriatric starlet” has been shot by the likes of Bruce Weber, and had her personal clothes collection exhibited in galleries. Before attaining her late-in-life cult status, Apfel ran a fabric restoration company with her husband: they were hired to sort out the fabrics at the White House, no less. She attended the bash with accessories designer of the year Alexis Bittar, and naturally sported a selection of his winning jewellery.

The men

Designer Simon Spurr might not have won the Swarovski award for menswear he was nominated for, but he did get to dress the rather dashing Dr Spock, AKA actor Zachary Quinto. Spurr is English-born and trained at houses such as YSL, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein before setting up his own New York-based label in 2006. His vision is all about a well-tailored look. Both his and Quinto’s outfits are thus typically sharp. Plus, if you look closer, these simple dress shirts are styled with what looks like a cummerbund worn under a collar. How modern.

The fashion editor

You might recognise Tonne Goodman, American Vogue’s fashion director, from The September Issue. She’s the editor in the Anna Wintour documentary dispatched to Rome to style Sienna Miller for the cover. She also dressed Michelle Obama for the magazine’s March 2009 cover shoot and has shaped the look of many Calvin Klein ad campaigns. On the night, Goodman, a former model, received the Eleanor Lambert award. Her choice of an all-black Michael Kors outfit was a triumph: a masculine shirt opened wide at the neck, teamed with a long glimmering skirt that nicely kicked out at the bottom. Classy.

The fashion eccentric

Pink flip-flops coupled with a sparkly OMG necklace is perhaps not quite what you’d expect at a fashion award ceremony. But then, actually, where else could you get away with this wacky-fabulous outfit? Check those pillar box red glasses! So it’s style high-fives to Kim Hastreiter, the editor and publisher of New York’s Paper magazine, who scooped the Eugenia Sheppard prize.