When ready-to-wear collections take to the runways in New York during biannual fashion weeks, they attract a large number of Palm Beachers.
At the spring collection shows recently staged at venues in Bryant Park and across Manhattan many familiar faces could be spotted in the front rows.
Most of these fashion fanatics call New York home for part of the year, so the trek to the shows doesn't require an airline ticket or hotel — just an invitation. A few, however, travel from their Palm Beach bases specifically to take in a show or two, usually that of designers with whom they have developed a relationship and to whom they look for stylish additions to their wardrobes.
September's shows are an especially attractive escape for islanders looking to forsake Palm Beach during the height of hurricane season.
Lynda Foster admitted she extended her New York trip with her husband Bill, which was specifically planned around attending the Luca Luca show on Sept. 8, because of Hurricane Ike's threat.
"I've been coming to Luca's show for four seasons," she said. "We decided to stay a few more days to take in some theater, do some shopping and get to some restaurants.
"I like the Luca Luca clothing because it's romantic and the fabrics are just beautiful," Foster said. "They're never overly eccentric or avant garde."
Part-time Palm Beacher Joanne de Guardiola, seated for the Carolina Herrera show on Sept. 8, is a regular at the designer collection presentations of Herrera, Vera Wang and Chado Ralph Rucci.
"I have a continuing relationship with Mrs. Herrera and Mr. Rucci," said de Guardiola, who leaves husband Roberto home for most of the shows, but brought him along to the Chado show Sept 12.
She went to the Herrera show solo.
"I want to go to the Dennis Basso and Badgley Mischka shows, too, but I don't know if I can make it," de Guardiola said.
De Guardiola, who works as an interior decorator, is in the process of renovating her family's new Palm Beach house and is the mother of two eighth-graders.
"My daughter has a volleyball game on [Sept. 12], so I'll probably have to miss Badgley Mischka," she said. Basso's show Sept. 9 conflicted with her Florida trip plans. "But I can't miss Ralph's (Chado) show.
"I like to know where fashion's going. And I'm a buyer.
"I think the designers I know like feedback from the women who wear their clothes. They seem to appreciate my input."
The tall, blond and willowy de Guardiola looks not only at how the clothes look, but how they move.
"That's the beauty of seeing the clothes on the models," she said. "Sometimes it's a pretty outfit, but it just doesn't move well, so I know it won't work for me."
Decorator Celerie Kemble, who grew up in Palm Beach and frequently visits her family here from her base in Manhattan, shares office space with designer Lela Rose, so it was no surprise that she was front and center for the designer's Sept. 7 show.
"I find fashion shows invigorating, dazzling and inspiring for my career," said Kemble, who planned to go to several other showings of collections designed by friends such as Cynthia Rowley, Vera Wang and Adam Lippes. "It's great especially to see Lela's show because I finally get to see what she's done with all the fabrics that come into the office during the months leading up to the show."
Kemble often buys and wears the clothes she sees on runways.
"I usually go with what the designers see me in," she said.
At Douglas Hannant's spring runway show on the rooftop terrace of the Roosevelt Hotel, a large number of full- and part-time islanders were on hand. Most of them were perennial fashion week figures, but Petra Levin and Elizabeth Belkin were fresh faces on the scene.
"I met Douglas last season on the island and bought a few things of his," said the Gucci-clad Levin. "I was so impressed with his things I decided to come to the show."
Levin called Hannant an "American Valentino" and praised his quality and "significantly lower-than-Valentino-level prices."
"I had to be in New York for a board meeting, so it worked out perfectly," she added.
Belkin, who runs the Bulgari boutique on Worth Avenue, also was in New York on business but wanted to take in Hannant's show. She met the designer in Palm Beach last season and asked him to make her dress for the December March of Dimes Glitz ball.
"I'm here for meetings with Bulgari, and am having a fitting for my dress and I thought, 'Hey, I may as well get out of Palm Beach for a few days and have a little fun in the city.' "
"I'm very fortunate to have such a loyal following of clients, so many of whom are personal friends as well," Hannant said.
"I have the privilege of living in their world and the advantage of seeing their wardrobe needs first-hand, so it seems right that they should be shown the collection first."
