Pilar from the Supreme SS08 showpackage as seen exclusively at MDC

I spent much of the morning of August 23rd circling the Soho/Chinatown district that surrounded the Women/Supreme offices, intent on being the first client to nab the Supreme show package. I was literally sitting in La Esquina, downstairs when I got the text that the damn thing had finally arrived. When I got to Paul Rowland's office, the scale of the production left me gobsmacked. An army of assistants were compiling these massive cards into huge black photographer's boxes, neatly wrapping the whole proposition with a black grosgain ribbon. "Now this is what you called boutique," I thought. I fled like a thief to the MDC offices to make sure that package got a priority scanning and uploading!
Sure enough, next day, the phone rings and its a symphony of dismissal and sniping. "Unnecassary" "pretentious" "over-done" were some of the more polite bleating that went one. But I love excess as much as I love discipline and was moved as to how commited and also how mad the whole production Paul had wrought, really was.
So cut to the night of September 10th or rather, the early hours of September 11 2007. The Marc Jacobs shows unspools backwards and when it is done, the 56 girl cabine had been defined by an unprecedented 19, yup count em 19 Supreme girls led by new find, Lera. What a shut-your-mouth statement. What we wouldn't have given to be the fly on the MJ studio walls on Spring Street when Marc himself received that package. Because the raw, torn, ghostly aesthetic Rowland photographed was in eerie synchronicity with the ripped, stripped bedraggled pieces that Marc had already designed for his collection.

Alice from the Supreme package and at Marc Jacobs

Maybe it was a one season stroke of dumb luck and maybe it was not but anyone who obssesively tracks the grinding wheels of the various agencies can easily imagine the fury of some of Supreme's competition at that 19 girl statement. Toni Garrn's opening and closing at the Calvin also served to pretty much hand the freshly concluded SS08 NY new girl sweepstakes to the Women/Supreme camp. So now all of Milan and Paris craves Toni. But will they get Toni? I love the look on Toni's face in the midst of all this. So pure. (PS : That was a nice trick of Karl Templer's in the Times in misspelling Toni's name as Tonne ) Which now makes us drum our thumbs in anticipation for Milan because powerhouse IMG is aggressively positioned to stampede through the European platform to output a new season of Irinas and Anabelas and Serafinas. If its one thing I've always admired about IMG is the clarity of their need for monopoly. They do not take kindly to runner-up status so I'm sure someone, somewhere over there intends to seize glory in late September/early October. Meanwhile, we are sure, Women/Supreme's European network is eager to carry the baton from NY. The battleground will be the Prada, particularly that Girl 1 slot that has traditionally been an IMG moment, (Think Daria, Sasha, Irina K). Wouldn't it be hilarious if Madame Prada decided to wheel out a grand old girl like an Eva Herzigova or Kirsten McMenamy to open instead? How about a Sunniva moment?
But enough analysis . Here's some cheap gossip, the kind that fuels the modeling industry like unleaded gas....Which blue chip men's agency is set to face some big changes in the very near future. It might mean new blood or it might mean the end. But as Red Models proves, hungry young agents never die, they just come back with their star models under a new name...And which former agency head is now peddling their services in the world of advertising. She's been circling the agencies as the new representative a certain megolith of a commercial client with the stated intention of cutting into the agency's commisson rates. She is not receiving a warm reception. Oops...said "she" . Did I give her way just now? ..Why were there such big names at the Nicolai by Nickly Hilton show? Cuz Nick Nick's people dropped upwards of 40K for certain models to walk!...And this one is not a blind item. Its about Irina Lazraneau who is so seasoned now, she collaborates with and orchestrates her "dressers" backstage. The girl is so swift she can scan her outfit's card , break it down and dress her damn self! "Shoe on line! Shoe on line! Give that girl two more seasons! She'll be legendary.