This morning, Snuggie — the blanket with sleeves — held its spring 2010 fashion show in the Park Avenue Hotel. Rather than taking place in a ballroom or banquet hall, as most fashion shows in hotels do, the Snuggie fashion show was held in a room that was only marginally bigger than our apartment with one banquette of seats and a bar stocked with fresh fruit, croissants, danishes, mini-muffins, coffee, and fresh-squeezed orange juice. Less than twenty people attended this must-see — and evidently highly exclusive — event, a first in Fashion Week history. If we ever wondered what Anna Wintour feels like when she goes to see Karl Lagerfeld’s latest Chanel couture collections before anyone else, well, now we have tasted the office of class president in the private high school that is the fashion industry.
A Snuggie representative stepped onto the modest runway to introduce the moderator, Ross Matthews, who has apparently appeared on the Tonight Show and Chelsea Handler and was actually very funny. “We understood there are some other fashion events going on in town,” the Snuggie lady said, adding that her label would be remiss if it missed out on this opportunity. Snuggie is rolling out a bunch of new styles for fall. So as not to overwhelm the crowd, they started off with a basic blue Snuggie. Then out came neat colors like red, bone (great for dads! and Kanye West!), and army green. And a child Snuggie in bright pink that comes with matching socks! But surely no one was prepared for the onslaught of in-your-face printed Snuggies. “RAWR!!” Matthews said as the very on-trend leopard Snuggie sauntered onto the runway. But if you’re more of a zebra gal or guy, Snuggie’s got you covered! Out sauntered a bold, sexy zebra Snuggie. “Double RAWR!” Matthews enthused. As if that wasn’t enough, out came the all-new tie-dye Snuggie in a swirly pattern of lovely blues.
At the Snuggie fashion show, animals don’t just come reincarnated in blanket form. This all-inclusive label’s in-your-face fashions are also for canines. Matthews warned us a cute overload was on the horizon, and out walked the pink-Snuggie–clad little girl with a blue-Snuggie–clad puppy. After them, an older male model with a white beard and white hair came out with a dog who was so comfortable in his Snuggie, the blanket with sleeves, that he plopped down on the runway and couldn’t even bring himself to do his full walk.
We left with a gift bag containing a blue Snuggie emblazoned with “Snuggie Fashion Show 2009.” But no gift is greater than the fashion show that makes you remember why you do this job in the first place.
