Social Diary 9/17/03 - Fashion Week Galore, Michael Vollbracht, Lars Nilsson


	Fashion Week Galore

Lunching in Bryant Park. 1:45 PM. Photo: JH.

Weather reports warning of hurricane Isabel, while in New York today the brightest September sun embraced the city with almost crystal clear air making the canyons along the great avenues shine clear down to Battery Park (or thereabouts).

At 11 AM I went over to Bryant Park again, this time to see the debut of the “new” Bill Blass collection as created by the company’s new designer Michael Vollbracht.

Nina Griscom

It came as somewhat of a surprise to the fashion world when it was announced several months ago that Michael Vollbracht would be succeeding Lars Nilsson as the new creative force of the Bill Blass company. The company had been purchased from the late great designer several years with the intention of keeping his fashion legacy – one of the most successful in American fashion history – alive.

This objective has been a challenge to all including the famous Blass ladies who’ve sworn by him for decades. A lot of them were there today. I sat next to one, a muse, in fact, Nina Griscom, looking fresh as a daisy, the Manhattan equivalent of the scrubbed-face farmgirl. (You had to be there.) Louise Grunwald was there, another muse; Gayfryd Steinberg, Anne Bass, Brooke Hayward Duchin, Jamee Gregory, Anne Slater, Cece Cord, Ellin Saltzman, Judy Peabody, Casey Ribicoff (who is also an executrix of the Blass estate), Helen O’Hagan, to name only a few of his myriad “girls.” None knew what to expect, only what they had always relied on: the famous Blass classic elegance, the sportif dallying with the silk taffeta and the chiffon; the clean cut snappy lines that assure a kind of tossed off sophistication.

Annette Tapert and friend

Well, they got what they came for. From the moment the great Pat Cleveland first sauntered down the runway in her stilettos, with her most delicate ambling strut, all set out in her Blass (by Michael Vollbracht), tippy-toe stopping here, and there, along the way, sending a tiny wave of her fingers or brushing a little utter self-confidence our way, the house broke out in heavy applause and cheering.

He did it. Michael Vollbracht did it. A gorgeous, rich, elegant collection of day and evening wear in the spirit of Blass. When it was over Nina Griscom said, “they’ve finally created the kind of clothes these ladies like to wear.” Meaning, I presumed, the aforementioned plus the hundreds of thousands more all over America who loved Bill Blass.

Michael Vollbracht, if you don’t know, has had a long and esteemed career as a fashion illustrator, fashion designer (he had his own fashion house a number of years ago producing memorable – and now collectible one-of-a-kind sort of clothes, very reminiscent of his illustration: rich, elegant, sophisticated and uniquely individual). Which describes the artist fairly well – although I don’t know if “rich” has fit into the scenario most of the time.

He’s very popular with a wide variety of people including some of the world’s most famous (not to say difficult) women. He’s always been known as a true artist, a man who pursued his own interests and passions. He’s also a visual memoirist, having produced a highly engaging (and illustrated) sorta memoir (with an introduction by his old friend Bill Blass) a number of years ago, called Nothing Sacred; Comments and Cartoons. You can still buy it on Amazon.

Michael Vollbracht closes out the show

So, to see the artist/designer, now a mature, or at least more mature, gentleman commit himself to the design sensibilities of another, was already a curious thing. And what a great surprise!! There was heavy applause and cheering at the end of the show when the now seriously dark grey suited Vollbracht came out for his bow. And as he exited, he turned and lightly touched the BB logo on the back wall, as if a gesture sent to heaven.

Afterwards I met up with JH who was busy with the Digital outside the tents, taking in the scene, including the corps of identically pink-suited, black net stockings ladies with little black hats, who were distributing the Star while their new editor-in-chief, Bonnie Fuller, who was giving interviews to the media. We went and got some sandwiches to eat in the park which has lots of tables for people to lunch, or just relax and watch the passing parade. And what a parade it was – from the office workers, the business people, the fashion people, the press, the local characters with their local color (I saw a man, bald on top with long day-glo red hair and a chartreuse bushy moustache). Something for everyone; New York fashion, the fashion in New York.