BlackBook Magazine

Milan, you saucy little thing, you silly fashion gender bender. Fashion week wrapped with Silvia Fendi pitching platform wedge shoes for men. Why not go all the way with a nice heel or stiletto?

Versace seems to own Milan this year. First politics, now cars. But not just any car -- Lamborghinis. The fashion house is teaming up with venerable automakers to roll out the new Murciélago LP 640 Roadster, which promises to be a truly stylish ride. During Fashion Week in Milan, the Italian rapscallions agreed to design the interior of a limited-edition Lamborghini car and its accompanying accessories like gloves, bags, suitcases, and trolleys in the latest collaboration between the two luxe brands. Accessories go on sale in November.

The Sao Paulo Fashion Week experience wrapped up Sunday night with Brazil's most famous fashion export, Ms. Tom Brady, gracing the Colcci runway, a flamboyant and highly anticipated return home for the locally grown superstar. By that time, we were on a plane flying over this city of endless skyscrapers, fascinating, heterogeneous, and engaging people, and nonstop, electric energy, exhausted from the constant shows and parties that had decimated the normally resilient BlackBook squad covering the seven-day affair. Check out the photo gallery, then see our recaps from Day 1 and Days 2-3, with yet more photo galleries.) Even local scenesters and fashion folks we talked to confessed they were looking forward to a good night's sleep and sustenance that didn't come in a champagne flute. With the merry decadence behind us, we're heading back to New York to recover, and looking forward to our next trip back, when BlackBook returns to debut the BlackBook Guide for Sao Paulo later this year. Stay tuned.

In other words, "everything's great!" Days two and three of Sao Paulo Fashion Week were decidedly more Brazilian than day one. The Japanese crew was still present, but the shows were all about the things Brazil does best: swimsuits and incredible bodies (see photos). There was enough gratuitous skin to keep the masses happy following the national futebol team's 0-0 draw at home with arch-rival Argentina. We checked out the game at a dinner hosted by our homeboy and Brazilian TV star Henry Castelli, shaggy-haired paparazzi fodder and one of the country's biggest celebs.

Being that we'd never been to Sao Paulo's version of Fashion Week, we were a little confused when we strolled in on Tuesday morning to the cavernous Fundacao Bienal de Sao Paulo pavilion that houses the bulk of the shows -- and found ourselves surrounded by hordes of Japanese people. We chalked it up to our general state of confusion, the 9 a.m. caipirinhas we'd had on the way from the airport, and the fact that this city is like a huge, denser version of LA. Turns out we were in the right spot, however. (Check out our photo gallery for full Day 1 action.) This edition of SPFW coincided with Sao Paulo's Japan week, the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to Brazil (Sao Paulo has the largest population of Japanese people outside of Tokyo). The special Japan theme was enough to draw Japanese fashion bigshots like Kenzo Takada, Issey Miyake prez Nobuyuki Ota, clusters of elegant Japanese fashion women, gaggles of Japanese schoolgirls, and of course, us.

From the front rows to behind-the-scenes, our flâneur with film discovers beauty from every angle during Fashion Week in the City of Lights.

Click here for full gallery!


THE KAISER: Karl Lagerfeld at the Fendi party.

Our nightlife columnist Holly GoNightly closes the bar at the Opening Ceremony party.

For more party pics, click here!

Scene queen Sophia Lamar at last night’s Opening Ceremony celebration.

People everywhere—and by people, I mean bloggers—keep announcing that this is going to be one of the best Fashion Week weeks ever, and it has nothing to do with the clothes. The writers strike may have struck the Golden Globes, but it promises to leave New Yorkers star-struck. The glitterati have so few lines to memorize these days that they’ve come to flood the tents and fêtes with their shiny Hollywood presence.