Fashion Week Stargazing: Day 1

Fashion Week Stargazing: Day 1


ABOUT midday on Thursday, after the Kimberly Ovitz spring 2013 runway show on a pier off the Hudson River, Phil Oh, the street style photographer behind the blog StreetPeeper.com, stood out in a cheerful turquoise and green turtle-print polo shirt by Michael Bastian.


It was only the first day of New York Fashion Week, the kickoff of a fashion marathon that will take its participants to London, Milan and Paris after the New York shows end on Sept. 13, and Mr. Oh seemed unnaturally calm about what lay ahead.

How does he handle it all?

“Adderall,” Mr. Oh said, before snapping a few shots of editors crossing the West Side Highway. “That’s how I survive fashion month.”

Earlier that morning, the Olympic gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross was backstage at the BCBG Max Azria show in Lincoln Center, waiting, like everybody else, for her seat. Ms. Richards-Ross, who said she landed at 5 a.m. from Los Angeles, wore a daring, see-through top with a wide center strip. “It helps to have an athletic figure,” she said. That and the couple of gold medals she brought along. “They go with everything,” she added, laughing. When she finally took her seat, a chorus of popping flashbulbs greeted her.

Even more popular for the cameras was the reality star Whitney Port. The photographers lingered so long, snapping away, that a woman in the sixth row commented, loudly, “C’mon, she’s not that exciting.”

By comparison, the atmosphere was civil at the Richard Chai Love show, which took place immediately afterward. This was the first fashion show for Russell Westbrook, a guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and he looked the part, in his red suede sneakers and wire-rimmed eyeglasses. “Sometimes, the N.B.A. feels like fashion week,” he said of his stylish basketball cohorts. His front-row seatmate, Nick Cannon, wore a brown baseball cap backward.

Downtown at Milk Studios that day, all eyes were on the Creatures of the Wind show. Sure, there were stars, but more of the industry kind. Then it was across the highway to Ms. Ovitz’s show at Pier 57, where her father, the Hollywood power player Michael Ovitz, was backstage, while his girlfriend, Tamara Mellon, the former president of Jimmy Choo, sat front row, stilettos crossed.

On Friday, as people were still recovering from the after-parties that followed Fashion’s Night Out (the bash at Westway for Supreme, the cult skateboard company, went past 4 a.m., according to those who attended), the pace of Fashion Week began to pick up.

The Peter Som show at 10 a.m. kicked off a full day that included roughly 40 shows, including such heavy hitters as Jason Wu, Rag & Bone, Billy Reid and Tommy Hilfiger.

The mood at the Som show, held on the second floor of Milk Studios, was electric. The trick to landing a front-row seat? Be young and restless.

With minutes to go before the first look of spring 2013 strutted down the runway, nearly everyone was out of their seat assignments. In one section, Olivia Palermo, unattainably slim with bouncy Kate Middleton-style curls, stood to chat with Alexis Bryan Morgan. Meanwhile, in the middle aisle, the “Girls” actress Allison Williams was attracting the bulk of the attention, pretty in a burgundy cropped sweater and matching skirt, until the teenage sensation Hailee Steinfeld teetered in on sky-high platform pumps.

Wearing a green long-sleeved lace dress by Mr. Som, naturally, Ms. Steinfeld was wide-eyed. “It took me an hour and a half to get ready,” she said, adding that she was not a morning person.

That wasn’t the case for the blogger and Fashion Week veteran Bryan Boy. “I’ve been up since 5:30 this morning,” he said, clutching his red Jason Wu bag. “I turned 30 this year, and I feel time is the ultimate luxury. I get up early every day. I R.S.V.P.’d ‘no’ to all the parties.”

But if he was feeling older, Bryan Boy’s wrinkle-free complexion certainly didn’t show it. “Oh that’s not genetics,” he said with a laugh. “It’s makeup.”