In an evening that had some of the pomp of the Academy Awards but lacked the polish, the Council of Fashion Designers of America held its 11th annual awards ceremony and dinner last week at Lincoln Center.
Among the winners were Isaac Mizrahi, as designer of the year; Karl Lagerfeld, the Chanel designer, for his accessories, and Ralph Lauren, who received the council`s lifetime achievement award.
Entering the New York State Theater was like something out of ”Day of the Locusts,” as photographers and video crews swarmed around the arriving celebrities. A group from the Gotham City motorcycle club parked its cycles on the plaza in front of the fountain. Dressed in their black leathers, the bikers mixed with the fashion crowd in their sequins and pearls.
It was one of those quintessential opportunities to see New Yorkers at their well-dressed best. But at moments of peak glamour saturation, the party was so densely packed one could barely see the clothes.
”You can`t see anything anybody`s wearing, only their makeup,” Mizrahi said over the roar during cocktails. ”I only notice my own things,” Bill Blass said.
Blass dressed Jessye Norman, the opera singer, who received a special woman of the arts award from the council. She was resplendent in a floor-length metallic bronze caftan, or manteau de cour, with a cowl neck that framed her face.
The new guard
The evening seemed to mark a change in style among the fashion elite, if not a changing of the guard. It was more egalitarian, with three times as many guests as in the past, including a large contingent of fashion students.
There were very few social dinosaurs and almost no large ball gowns
(which get crushed in theater seats, anyway). The dresses were about evenly divided between long and short, the long ones tending to be pencil thin.
Most of the dresses were black, and there were many strapless ones, like the tuxedo dress worn by Lauren`s wife, Ricki. But there was also plenty of white, like Veronica Hearst`s long white sheath, set off by a blazing emerald brooch.
Susanne Bartsch, the Swiss nightclub impresario, wore a fitted feather dress with deep decolletage and a large puffed-feather headpiece (kind of Big Bird meets the Folies-Bergere). Eyeing her at one point, Lagerfeld said, ”I think the Carmen Miranda look is immortal, no?”
A sea of stars
About 2,000 in all attended the cocktail party, dinner and awards presentation, including a small galaxy of film stars, like Audrey Hepburn, Angelica Huston and Uma Thurman; American and European fashion designers, including Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Oscar de la Renta, Thierry Mugler and Lagerfeld, who was accompanied by his star model, Claudia Schiffer, and business leaders and politicians, including Mayor David N. Dinkins and Andrew J. Stein, the City Council president.
”My God,” Joan Rivers said. ”If this room ever exploded, the next issue of Vanity Fair would be three pages long.”
Perhaps as a reaction to worldwide glitz fatigue, the council had moved the evening from its site in recent years, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and adopted a more open invitation policy.
Dinner was served on the State Theater promenade, which was flanked on either side by Robert Isabell`s odalisques of yellow mimosa and a giant boxwood topiary in the shape of the council`s award statue.
Perhaps to avoid the impression that fashion is fiddling while Rome burns, the meal itself was modest: a beef stew with potatoes and carrots, and a salad served family-style, with shredded carrots and asparagus passed around in a glass. All that was missing were the steel tongs from your local salad bar.
And the winners are . . .
The awards program took place in the tiered candy box of the theater, elaborately redesigned with swiveling stages and giant awards statues. The young designer award went to Todd Oldham, an irrespressible 30-year-old Texan, and it was presented by actress Susan Sarandon.
Lauren Hutton presented a posthumous award for best menswear in honor of Roger Forsythe, the Perry Ellis designer who died last year. Marylou Luther, of the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, received the Eugenia Shepard award for fashion journalism. Marvin S. Traub, the former chairman of Bloomingdale`s, was honored for retail innovation.
Peter Fonda, who said he wanted to wear his biker`s leathers but in the end went for black tie, gave an award to Harley-Davidson for helping to bring motorcycle chic into fashion`s mainstream.
Geoffrey Holder presented a special award to Judith Jamison, the artistic director of the Alvin Ailey dance company, and Calvin Klein gave one to Huston, who came onstage to the ”Addams Family” theme in a long white Klein dress.
