Fashionblogging: Attending the Elsie Katz Couture Show

I'd always wanted to attend a fashion show, just once. Consider it research in a fabulousness I will never attain. Yesterday afternoon, I attended the Elsie Katz Couture show as part of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Donna Baxter, the designer, is famed for gowns with a vintage feel.

If you are part of the ordinary people, at a show you sign in, get your seat assignment on a little card and then cue up until they let you in to the show area. There were plenty of famous people there even though this show, Elsie Katz Couture was one of the afternoon shows. I didn't recognize that many by name but I did see Jane Seymour who is taller than you would think and just gorgeous. Janice Dickinson teetered by on high heels. Looks exactly like she does on TV except louder, so much louder.

You sit, you hold your program, the lights go down, the music swells and the magic begins. The models are as thin as you would imagine and gawky, unwieldy in their flawlessness. This show, Elsie Katz Couture, was all about vintage glamor. Satin gowns hanging off languorous limbs. The looks varied between 20s flapper chic and fur looks that made the models look like tiny Russian dolls. Smoky eye makeup, a cascade of ringleted hair, dark matte lips and even beauty marks completed the look of decadent luxury. All that was missing were cigarette holders and Brylcreemed men in tuxedos dancing attendance. One thing I didn't know about fashion shows was that people often applaud the looks they like. Particularly gorgeous flowing gowns in gold and jewel tones received warm smiles, a couple of looks that seemed sort of woolen and bulky were met with a silence. No fashion show would be complete without a little nip slip, and yes we got one here too (you can see it in the Getty images of the show). Many of the dresses seem red-carpet ready and I am sure we will be seeing some of them at awards shows in the future. Check out the pictures of the show at Getty Images or watch video clips of this and other shows at the IMG Fashion World website.