show & tell

Vera Wang’s Lavender, Now With Free Continental Breakfast

Vera would like to give you a croissant.Photo: Getty Images

“It smells like chicken,” said In Style’s Hal Rubenstein when he arrived at Bobo yesterday morning, where Vera Wang was showing her new Lavender line. We disagreed: The smell was distinctly more that of scrambled eggs. Our personal feelings about eggs aside, there was an upside to showing at the West Village restaurant. Guests sat at tables and enjoyed miniature French pastries and fresh orange juice — the sort of experience certainly more civilized than anything one would be getting in Bryant Park come the next day. However, the coffee being poured from Bobo’s silver pitchers actually came from Dunkin’ Donuts, which one attendant tried to hide by slipping a white plastic bag over the Dunkin’ contraband as he carried it in. [Editor’s update:We’ve since been informed that the Dunkin’ coffee was for the waiters; rest assured that the fashion world did indeed get freshly brewed Bobo’s. Phew.]

The collection featured dresses with patches of sequins down the front, and the inclusion of lots of bright-purple tights gave the show a hipster vibe. (One very shiny gold blouse also caught our eye.) Wang explained that the Lavender line’s color palate was inspired by the painter Kees van Dongen, and the look was drawn from a Chinese cult film. “[It’s] called In the Mood for Love, which is about Shanghai in the 1950s and 60s,” Wang explained. “It’s really beautiful and kind of dark, mysterious, sophisticated-sexy.” Kind of like Tribeca, before Jay McInerney found it.

As for her collection’s show in the Tent one week hence, Wang says she’s “so not” ready. But so long as we don’t detect any breakfast scents wafting through the air, we suspect everyone will be pleased. —Amy Odell

Vera Wang’s Lavender, Now With Free Continental Breakfast