BlackBook Magazine

At the Rag & Bone after-party last night, dozens of fashion industry alum and hangers-on gathered atop the Hotel Gansevoort's picturesque roof to indulge in free booze and a refreshing (pre-tropical storm) breeze. Designers Marcus Wainright and David Neville were all smiles as they greeted family and friends in celebration of a New Wave-themed collection that seemed well received by all. Set to a soundtrack of Joy Division and the Buzzcocks, Rag & Bone's show took place before a celeb-studded crowd that included Charlize Theron (who made her sole NY Fashion Week appearance, save for the 15 minutes she spent two nights prior at Benjamin Bixby's party at Barneys), Jamie Burke, Elettra Rossellini Wiedermann, and Kelly Osborne.

And just like that, the city is alive again. Let’s romanticize this, this end of summer, return to the city, the vapid and the self-important seven days of fantastic shows and merrymaking that is otherwise known as Fall Fashion Week. You know what I’m about to say. Insert varied Candace Bushnell-esqe clichés insinuating the foray into fall: the September air, the tanned Hamptonites returning from their dream cloud, and day-timers overflowing with party invites. Sounds fine to me, especially since I spent the end of summer checking my spam folder for possibly missing evites. The open bars were closed or existed only in sober memory, the swag bags had no swag -or bag for that matter, and I drank my ego deflation away at the Beatrice an embarrassing number of times. Finally, it began last night at the premiere of The Red Thread: The Inspiration and Passion of Valentino Garavani.

'Tis the season to launch e-commerce sites in London. Topshop may not be opening its doors in the States until 2009, but it will launch an American e-commerce arm on September 9 in conjunction with the debut of Kate Moss' seventh (yes, that's 7th) collection for the Brit behemoth. But Topshop isn't the only London-based boutique with an online outlet. Knightsbridge's legendary denim shop Donna Ida (which sells the likes of 18th Amendment and Stella McCartney) was slated to start stocking its goods in a virtual boutique on September 1. While the site hasn't launched yet, Donna Ida promises it'll be up and running soon.

No event is more enthusiastically overphotographed than New York's Fashion Week. That's why -- with the able help of photog BlackBook photographer Sunny Shokrae -- we'll bring you little doses of the real Fashion Week circus atmosphere off the runways and away from the risers. Today's just an appetizer, but take a look at the gallery for a glimpse backstage at the BCBG show, plus various "characters" drifting round the grounds of Bryant Park. More to come all weekend and through next week see our complete Fashion Week coverage for more models & hotties.

Considering this town's recent construction calamities, logic (and Providence) dictates that a construction site might not be the best place to hold a party. An Olsen severed in two wouldn't be good for business. But do you think hotelier Andre Balazs and Interview magazine care about people's safety?! F*ck no! Which is why the penthouse bar in the unfinished Standard Hotel was the site of the mag's "A New Look" party, whatever that means.

My first New York Fashion Week kicked off last night atChristie's in midtown. An old university chum of mine passed along an invite to the auction house's evening to "celebrate fashion week and a private preview of Christie’s fall sales of post war & contemporary art, impressionist & modern art and Resurrection: Avant-Garde Fashion." What I loved best about this party was that if I wanted to avoid an awkward encounter (with Emma Snowdon-Jones), or ran out of things to say, or if I simply had no one to talk to, there was a whole rack of art and fashion I could pretend to be interested in while planning my next move.

Last night was the official kickoff for Fashion Week, AKA: a solid week of drink, drank, drunk. Night one:

Fashion Rocks pre-party @ Mansion
The velvet rope is light even though I’m not on the list, and fruity cocktails are chaperoned around the room on giant trays. Models decked out in various rocker gear pose like mannequins, fiddling with prop guitars, drums, and one lonely tambourine. The cavernous main room never quite fills to capacity, even when the headlining Pussycat Dolls lip-sync on stage. The vibe is festive, despite the DJ spinning tired, Jersey-wedding tracks ("Come On Eileen" remix?). Spotted: Miss J from America’s Next Top Model.

Casual Fridays might be doomed to be a long and lazy weekend. You can thank Julian Schnabel, as he's ushered in pajamas as the new sleeper fashion wear. Dudes are wearing Hef silks in public! This week, designers Phillip Lim, Michael Bastian, and Tim Hamilton will unveil pajama-inspired clothes meant to be worn in broad daylight. (Last year, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, and Giorgio Armani dipped into the same genre.) Tyler Thoreson of Men's Style says, "If you really wanted to deconstruct it, you could say buried in there is some kind of commentary on our overworked, sleep-starved culture." But even then, he says he can't envision overworked, sleep-starved professionals wearing pajamas out in public.

If you've got a yen to swap the September sunshine of New York for the year-round rays in Los Angeles (or just feel perturbed that ScarJo feels entitled to direct a film about love in the big city and wish to defect), you'll be relieved to hear that not every artist has fled to New York for the month. Those who stayed behind in LA are enjoying heightened local exposure. Case in point: "Animal Magnetism," a Los Angeles show attracting handpicked work from over 50 emergent artists, chronicling and toying with the history and roles of animals in art. Expect no portraits of Jackson Pollock, though. Featuring artists such as Katherine Patterson and Jeff Alu, "Magnetism" is on display at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art through the end of September.

Behold Cindy McCain's "turquoise suit with a trapeze-shaped jacket" from Thursday night at the Republican National Convention. She's also -- horrors! -- "recycling her accessories," which include glittery jewelry commemorating her sons' service in the armed forced. Glamour's Sasha Iglehart diplomatically notes McCain "has all that sparkling going on."