new york fugging city

Jill Stuart’s Venue Colder Than Outdoors

J.C. Chasez

Former *NSYNCer J.C. Chasez at Jill Stuart.Photo: Getty Images

In retrospect, maybe it wasn’t the best idea for the Jill Stuart team to hold a fashion show in the frigid marble entryway of the New York Public Library on the coldest day of the year. While those of us who actually showed up shivered through a succession of cute coats, swingy tunics, and the THIRD set of underpants worn as outer pants in the last three days (So is this a trend? Because … don’t. Just don’t), it seemed like most of the folks with seating assignments just decided to ditch, probably in favor of standing in front of their wall heaters and saying things like, “Wow, it’s cold out there.” At least 50 percent of the seating in our section was filled in by the hopefuls from standing room, and a good portion of the front-row seats were eventually filled by … Jill Stuart staffers. Now, we’re no experts when it comes to the economics of fashion, but that doesn’t seem like a very good omen.

Continuing the trend of fall 2007 as the year the celebrities stayed home, the only boldfaced names who did show up were from the elite group called People Who Used to Be in Groups That Were More Successful Than They Have Been as Solo Artists: former Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland, who’s hitting all the shows this week, and former *NSYNC pretty boy JC Chasez, who looks much better now that he’s lost that mullet he was sporting back when he was dating Tara Reid. We overheard a reporter asking JC if it was true that he was thinking about starting his own fashion line á la former bandmate Justin Timberlake, but we couldn’t hear the answer over the chatter of the PR girls who were trying to decide what to do about the swath of empty seats. Perhaps he is starting his own line. Perhaps he burst into a chorus of “Bye, Bye, Bye.” We can’t tell you. Let’s just decide it was the latter. —The Fug Girls

Fug Girls Bonus: Spotted at the Tents Project Runway finalist Laura Bennett, looking exactly as you’d expect, except less pregnant: black wrap dress with a V-neck, and that lovely, dramatic red hair. Also, actress Illeana Douglas and All My Children starlet Leven Rambin sitting side-by-side at Nanette Lepore, the former toting about four giant shopping bags and wearing a shirt more at home on a flight attendant, and the latter barely able to muster applause at the end of the slightly lackluster show. We enjoy imagining what those two might have in common. Let’s hope the answer isn’t that they’ve both slept with Martin Scorsese.

Watch a slideshow of Jill Stuart’s collection.
Watch a slideshow of Nanette Lepore’s collection.

Jill Stuart’s Venue Colder Than Outdoors