Daily Front Row

2010 March 18

Green Day Packers!

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Tonne Goodman and Michael Kors
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(NEW YORK) "I've never been a fan of St. Patrick's Day,” quipped Michael Kors minutes after being announced as the 2010 CFDA Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement recipient. “And now suddenly I’m the champion of the luck of the Irish!” And the green holiday might have been the perfect backdrop for this year’s nomination ceremony, sponsored by Swarowski and held at the DvF studio at the Meatpacking district, far away from all the rowdy street action. But Jason Wu still got caught up in the craziness. "I was stuck in the midst of the midtown traffic and drunk college kids,” he laughed. “I missed my category and was getting congratulations as I was running up the stairs here.”

That’s because the announcement ceremony began promptly as 6:30 p.m. this year (Marc did set a healthy trend) and even the newly unanimously-reelected Madame President Diane von Furstenberg momentarily lost track of her surroundings. “I almost blurred out the phrase Oscar nominations,” the host smiled. Then, she likened her co-presenter Nadja Swarovski to Grace Kelly, which made the executive both elated and nervous. But of course the most popular being in the big room were nominees and honorees like Alexander Wang, Tonne Goodman, Alexis Bittar, Richard Chai, and Michael Bastian who’ve all got uplifting calls from Steven Kolb earlier in the day and rearranged their schedules and meetings to make it to the party. “This is my fourth nomination and honestly, it never gets old,” offered an elated Bastian. “I’m always surprised. I have never even met Tom Ford or the Rag & Bone boys [his competition in the menswear category]. So it should be a fun night!”

And as diverse as the non-voted honorees were, Kolb assured the consensus was pretty high behind the high-powered Board of Directors meeting in the morning. "Everyone was singing the tune to the same song,” he said minutes after the nominations. That included choosing Kim Hastreiter as the Eugenia Sheppard journalism award winner. "One of my heroes told me that awards are not something that you should strive for,” said the Paper magazine co-founder. “We don't really enter magazine awards, we don't win them, and so it's not something I ever hoped for. I really just live for spark and creativity in life, but it's a very nice feeling to be part of the community, because often I feel like I work from the outside of its borders.”

Hastreiter and other honorees (see the full list here) were quickly toasted by an impressive pantheon of former winners and CFDA members like Vera Wang, Anna Wintour, Narciso Rodriquez, Glenda Bailey, Grace Coddington, Philip Lim, Stefano Tonchi, Gilles Mendel, Jim Gold, Cindy Weber Cleary, Richie Rich, Peter Som, Dennis Basso, and Lars Nilsson. And for those who are up for a trophy on June 7, talk quickly turned to the ceremony plans. "I was always a fairytale princess growing up, and my fantasy awards ball would consist of a long flowing gown from Carolina or Oscar,” recalled Swarowski accessory nominee Dana Lorenz. "Now, I would probably wear Givenchy and come with someone kooky or crazy like Bette Midler or Shelley Long."

Kors had two eternal icons in mind as his pure fantasy dates. "The first time I went to the CFDAs in the '80s, Katherine Hepburn got a special award, and I was just blown away,” he reminisced. “So having her on my arm---or Jackie O---is still a dream for me." Elated first-time honoree Prabal Gurung had a less elaborate vision. "I'm just still astounded by all of this,” said the excited designer. “Now I have to figure out if I can bring my six year old niece and nephew with me to the big night!"
VALENTINE UHOVSKI