CARMEN MARC VALVO REINVENTS THE SQUARE

While working my first job in New York City—a fresh off the boat intern at a boobs-n-beer laddy magazine— I suffered through many an awkward "networking" lunch under the trees in Bryant Park.



Several months later (okay, 36, but who's fucking counting) I put on my big girl shoes and was, once again, awkward under the trees in Bryant Park.

But this time instead of bullshitting my way through a conversation about David Foster Wallace's influence on contemporary literature, I bullshitted my way through a throng of black-clad PR girls and watched a bunch of models wear Carmen Marc Valvo's Spring 2009 collection. (I prefer the latter. PR girls and all)

The collection was based off "the simple square." Which meant, if you don't have a love for checkerboard skirts than you're shit-outta-luck. As Valvo said, many of the pieces contained "long lengths of patent leather or organza ribbons" which played "hide-and-seek through graphic lace." The squares of fabric "counter balance the rigidity creating a synergy between structure and movement."

And who said fashion designers can't paint with words!

All the gobbedly goop about the square is fine and dandy, but my favorites were the drapey, Grecian-inspired gowns in colors deviating from this particularly white-heavy spring. There were two gorgeous champagne dresses and a softer pea-green that just seemed to float in airy bunches down the runway. Simple, but far from boring, and girly without being cloying.

Ben Chang, a photographer I met at that ill-fated Brooklyn Royalty show, was hired to take pictures backstage and mercifully gave a country bumpkin like me the golden ticket invite. All is well in the world of Fashion Week if you clutch that saintly envelope. I swear some people would hand over their first born.

I know it's silly, but I always feel too smiley and good natured at these types of things. I need to work on channeling my inner Victoria Beckham.