Hey Glamazons! I know that I start off all event posts saying how tired I am, but it's the truth: I'm exhausted. Pretty much every single day of my life, if that's possible hahaha.

But, I felt like I had a little bit more energy than usual after attending the Daisy Fuentes fragrance launch event Tuesday night (more on that in a bit!) so I hit up my friend Elaine to find out if anything was hopping in the city.

Lo and behold, there was the premiere party for Russell Simmons' new TV show on Oxygen, 'Running Russell Simmons' going down at Lavo. I quickly called my other friend Adair (that's him in the pic above wearing the green sweater...he works very closely with Russell so you'll probably see lots more of him on the show!) to let him know I was coming over and jumped on the train.

Side note: I'm pretty sure that about 99.9% of New York nights begin in this manner: one event leads to one phone call that leads to a string of texts and before you know it you've nailed down a location. SCORE!

After arriving at Lavo (which just so happens to be one of the newest and hottest joints in the city) it was only a matter of seconds before I'd talked the list girls into letting me inside the party. The first folks I noticed were those two publicists from the show 'The Spin Crowd' (which to me is a serious fail! Have any of you watched it? It's so boring..yawn...)

Here's Russell along with Jonathan Cheban (on the right) and Simon Huck (on the left) from 'The Spin Crowd.' At least they left their annoying co-stars at home...

I then noticed my good friend Carlos from PEOPLE magazine and miserably failed in trying to greet him because the music was sooooo loud! (Shout outs to DJ Cassidy for spinning some great music! I was dancing up a storm by the end of the event hahaha).

After greeting some more familiar faces, I was finally given about 2.5 seconds to chat it up with Mr. Russell Simmons himself. Now, before I began please note that I think he's an awesome man and a lot of our discussion centered around yoga so I won't bore you with any of that stuff.

But, I did ask him the million dollar question of "Why should we be excited about your show?" and he responded by saying that he "hopes that it's different" from what's already out there. How so? Well, according to Russell, he didn't really script his show too much and tried to bring big issues to the screen such as gay rights, animal rights and tons of social political activities.

He also emphasized that we'd see him engaging in a lot of prayer and yoga as well as take a glimpse into his dating life.

Of course, you know I had to ask if he only dated models. (Because that's all he's ever around you know...models) and he said "Well, I can only date one person at a time. I meet models a lot since I live and work in the Fashion District."

Russell with his honey of the moment, model Heidy Allende. They even gave a smooch on the 'green' carpet. Besides being gorge, Heidy is actually a really nice woman and gave me hugs and not those fake air kisses like most models do which is a plus in my book!

Hmmm...doesn't sound like too good of an excuse to me, Russell, but I'll let it slide. Check out some highlights from the event below:

Gayle King was there! She didn't stay very long so I wasn't able to get close enough to declare my undying love for her or beg for a job at O Magazine...sigh...

Pepa showed up and actually partied! The highlight of the evening came when DJ Cassidy played 'Shoop' and Pepa hopped on stage to rap her lyrics! Made my LIFE to see her perform. I've been in love with her since sixth grade and always wanted to see a Salt-n-Pepa concert. Alas, they broke up before I was old enough so seeing Pepa do this is probably the closest I'll ever get. I would have taken pictures but my phone and camera were already dead. I know, a serious blogger fail...ugh....

Selita Ebanks was looking her usual pretty self. Nick Cannon was also there, but neither of the two seemed to notice each other. (Or if they did they did a good job of pretending hahaha). It was kind of weird to see Selita not all glammed up in a tight fitting dress and uber high heels, but either way she's still beautiful so whatever.

Oh and I think every female at the party (except me) took a picture with Tyson Beckford...because he's just that pretty.

Russell's brother Rev. Run and his fam also showed up to give love (don't you miss their television show!? I do!) and I even got in a five second chat with funny man Tracy Morgan. Ashley Dupre was there (wearing a lot of clothes) and Rev. Al Sharpton made sure to greet everyone there at the party. So, as you can tell Glamazons, good times were had by all. I mean, any man that can bring a crowd like that out on a Tuesday night is just destined to have a fab television show!

Be sure to check out 'Running Russell Simmons' when it premieres November 2 at 10/9c on Oxygen and let me know what you think about it.

xo

Ferocia

Of all the myriad events that took place at Fashion's Night Out, Dolce&Gabbana and Naomi Campbell's was one of the best. Why? Well, you gotta love a party with celebrity sightings (Naomi Campbell, Chris Brown, Fabolous) AND a dance routine to "Run This Town" performed by models in fishnets and leather hot pants. (Do you see Naomi working it below? Yes, girl, get it!)

Leave it to Naomi to throw one of FNO's most amazing soirees! Celebrating 25 years of excellence in modeling over her legendary career, Naomi and Dolce&Gabbana joined forces for a fab t-shirt line and an even more amazing event.



Naomi, who storms the catwalk like no other in the business, performed a dance sequence choreographed by the one-and-only Laurieann Gibson (you definitely know her from Making the Band, BoomKatPow! ring a bell?). Here she is pictured with the dancing models.

The models each represented a different look from Naomi's career and rocked one of the uberfab t-shirts, which boast iconic images of Naomi shot by world-renowned photographers from Steven Miesel to Patrick Demarchelier. The t-shirts support Naomi's amazing charity, Fashion for Relief. 





After her fun dance routine, how could you not want to support? Check out pictures of the amazingness below. I'm sorry, no matter what anyone says about Ms. Campbell, that girl rocks!

Naomi and the amazing Anna Wintour who was literally everywhere last night!

Yum, Chace Crawford was there!

 

Naomi brings out all the boys: Chris Brown and Fabolous came by.

The gorgeous Selita Ebanks stopped by the event, in Dolce&Gabbana of course.

Denise Richards came to show her support.

Nicky Hilton also made an appearance in a cute LBD.

How cute are Naomi and Tyson Beckford? 

Kisses,





Coutura

Hey Glamazons,With New York Fashion Week days away, the discussion about African-American visibility in Fashion has resurfaced---thanks to Bethann Hardison. The former model and agent, who also happens to be my hero, hosted an informal meet-and-greet with models and casting directors last night called the Paradigm Shift. Held at the Deitch projects, the meeting is the latest effort in Hardison's crusade to give models of colors a significant presence on the runway.

Designer Sophie Theallet famously used only black models in her Fall 2009 runway show.

The mother of actor, Kadeem Hardison, Bethann is responsible for initiating the discussion with industry heavyweights about diversity in Fashion, which indirectly led to the wildly-popular Vogue Italia issue and the i-D magazine September cover that features four rising supermodels, Chanel Iman, Jourdan Dunn, Sessilee Lopez and Arlenis Sosa. Hardison acknowledged how her efforts made the i-D magazine cover a possibility: "...the fact that they can find four girls is genius. That means something," she told Modelinia.com. "It’s much improved from 2007. i-D’s always been cutting-edge. But the fact that you can find four girls? That’s a tribute to the work we do.”

Here are recent covers depicting black models from Trace's Black Girls Rule! issue to the legendary Vogue Italia "All-Black" issue.

Bethann Hardison's own career is just as groundbreaking: a successful model in her own right, she's guided the careers of such prominent African-American faces as Tyson Beckford and Veronica Webb. Though her strides toward diversity in Fashion should be heralded, she acknowledges that racism on the runways persists. For example, Naomi Campbell made headlines recently by asserting that ad execs, in fear of losing consumers during a recession, refrain from using black models for their campaigns: “I don’t see any black woman, or of any other race, in big advertising campaigns," said Naomi. "People, in the panic of the recession, don’t dare to put a girl of colour in their campaign, full stop. Nor of any other race. It’s a shame. It’s very sad.”

When I interviewed Hardison last September, she explained that yet another impediment to creating diversity is that designers don't see their aversion to use black models as racist. "Though their actions aren't necessarily racially motivated, there are racially-conscious results," she said. "Designers claim they want uniformity simply because it's editorially appealing, but they have to modernize their thinking. Uniform-looking models don't reflect the world."

Why aren't designers using black models for campaigns or runway shows? Do you think it's a product of racism, because they want uniformity or because they fear that they'll lose consumers? Do you think diversity in Fashion increased after the Vogue Italia issue proved that black magazine covers sell? Do you anticipate that more designers will use black models this Fashion Week? Discuss.Kisses,Coutura