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Fashion Façade Falters at Brian Reyes


From left, Amerie, Brian Reyes, Tracee Ellis Ross.Photograph by Patrick McMullan

For those of us who communicate via hand gestures and scrunched faces, Fashion Week is a real exercise in restraint. At shows, we try to blend in with the impassive writers, editors, and guests who would rather perish than betray their inner monologues.

Thank God, then, for actress Tracee Ellis Ross, whose enthusiasm broke the mold at this morning’s Brian Reyes show.

While Kristen Bell and her stylist murmured studiously at the fantastic dresses being paraded down the runway, Ross couldn’t contain herself. Her eyes bugged and her hands flew around in an endearing frenzy as she signaled her approval, leaning over to pal and Girlfriends producer Mara Brock Akil to compare notes. “FABULOUS,” she mouthed several times, most definitely in the silent equivalent of all caps.

This relaxed us. Our girlie inner shoppers had desperately wanted to gawk at certain pieces in the collection, and thanks to Ross, we felt free to love things openly. We particularly liked a pleated blouse in a welcome shade of orange, a white organza mini-dress with a black sash, a billowing knee-length number in box-cut black organza, and a funky olive cut-to-there sleeveless dress.

After the show, Ross wiggled through the mob of photographers around singer Amerie to say hello to the divine Vogue legend André Leon Talley, who looked approximately eleven feet tall in his white calf-length croc coat. He could have hidden both of us in there and sneaked us around town. We wish he would consider it.

The Fug Girls

Browse Brian Reyes’ new collection.

Fashion Façade Falters at Brian Reyes