Daily Front Row

2012 June 5

Boom Boom Report: CFDA Swarovski Afterparty Antics, Revealed!

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Prabal Gurung, Phillip Lim, Nadja Swarovski, Max Osterweis
Billy Farrell Agency View Gallery

(NEW YORK) Once the deluge of tweets announcing the CFDA Award winners passed throughout the fashion flock in the Twittersphere after the ceremony’s close, there was that half-hour window or so of waffling indecision about next steps for the eve. Head down to the Boom Boom Room, err, Top of The Standard, to the Swarovski after party for the CFDA awards as means of properly toasting the evening’s top crop of Trova recipients and deserving nominees? Or go home and sleep, like it was, well, any other Monday evening? (And a chilly, blustery, misty one at that. Not the most motivating temps for a night of cavorting.) 

As the party technically commenced at 11 p.m., it deceptively appeared that the bulk of the CFDA-attending chicettes had gone the latter route. The very first black SUV carpool to arrive: Rachel Zoe, Rodger Berman, Brian Atwood, Keren Craig, and a few others, breezing through the door of the Boom Boom Room just a minute or two past the start time. “Are we seriously the only people here? We must be losers if we have nowhere better to be!” exclaimed Berman with a chortle as the earliest wave got whisked to the 18^th floor, a handful of punctual press people in tow, with Craig and Zoe discussing matters of the vintage Halston variety.

The lights had gone through a dim-down or two, DJ Mia Moretti was still spinning soul, disco, and the ilk, and teensy quiches plus strawberries drizzled in chocolate made the rounds by midnight. Yet there was still room, miraculously (and thankfully, for those already teetering in heels) to wander freely. Talk centered, of course, on the awards program prior, mostly of the praising variety, with a tiny lament or two.

“It was great, but I have to say, I was a little disappointed I didn’t get to see Johnny Depp or Rei Kawakubo!” said Alexander Wang as he hung out by Swarovski Womenswear Award winner Joseph Altuzarra and his date, Kate Bosworth, in a stretch of the entrance hallway, a spazzy fit of photog flashes bouncing off the mirrored paneling.

As for Altuzarra’s rationale for choosing Bosworth as his date and one donning a pattern-saturated frock with a perfectly asymmetrical cutout (P.S. nice obliques!)? A pretty simple recipe, apparently: “She’s nice and beautiful and fun and, yeah! I think that’s a good combination.” Makes sense! Any chance of an afterparty to the afterparty (couldn’t resist a Pharrell reference, considering he—and that distractingly huge bowtie—got in presenter mode at the awards.) An emphatic no! "We'll probably stay out until three," said Altuzarra. "That's it!"  

The crowd swelled, the smoking terrace looked cozily sardine-esque, and the dance floor became a sea of toned and impeccably dressed flailing limbs. Highlights: those earliest of arrivals, Zoe & co., seriously busting moves in the northeast corner, sidled up to te glossy grand piano. Marc Jacobs entered on the sly around 1 a.m., and basically beelining for the groove-friendly section. And lest we forget, Linda Fargo  ade that glorious Technicolor belted, floral, and kind of fuzzy-looking Marni frock look even more alive as she got down to techno-y remixes.

By the bar, Sophia Bush was sipping some bubbly perched on the edge of the moving masses. Your Daily wondered how Bush wants to ring in the five-decade mark down the line, like the CFDA did this year. “I’m celebrating my 30^th birthday in July by raising $30,000 to aid a school for at-risk kids in Guatemala,” Bush dished. “So hopefully by the time I’m 50, I’ll be building an entire campus!”

The clusters of chicettes multiplied between the 1 and 2 a.m. marks, to a point where naming those notables in attendance sort of bodes less practical than mentioned the couple of folks who were not. Yet one winner who missed all the action, ceremony and all, clearly deserved his Style Icon accolade.  “I mean, I rock messy hair and a lot of black eyeliner, so I guess I often do try to look like Johnny Depp!” said Bush with a laugh and a sip of bubbly. Don’t we all, depending on the day. And today may be a more apropos day than most to go bedhead and slept-on smoky eye route, non?
ALEXANDRA ILYASHOV