Notes from a Stylist at the TriBeCa Ball 2011

You've gotta love a TriBeCa Ball, run by the New York Academy of Art, it's a chance for the great and the good of New York - i.e. those with money, to take a peek at the emerging artists from NYAA - i.e. those who are skint.

The evening tends to pass buy in a jocular manner as socialites and celebs teeter around the tiny stalls that the artists inhabit by day - which have been lovingly spruced up for the big occasion. Whilst the poor artists are thrown in at the deep end with their first forray into serious sales i.e. they want to flog their work to you.

For celeb spotting there was Eileen Guggenheim, Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts, Baz Luhrmann and Alexandra Richards. I did see Robert DeNiro's name on the check in list but I guess he had other parts of TriBeCa to manage that night. There were a plethora of designers - Rachel Roy, Cynthia Rowley and Kate and Andy Spade. Even Serena Shvo in the tiniest gold Herve Leger dress I've ever witnessed.

So what about the actual art...

We saw oil on canvas, prints, installations - including a bizarre brillo pad sculpture that could surely have recycling value should you run short of cleaning materials once you are bored of the picture. There were magicians and a rather annoying dancing girl who was sweating proffusely and roaming the 5 storey building being trailed by an accompanist on an accordian - I'm not sure if that was art in motion or just the entertainment.

And then there was my favorite - the people watching ....

For my bit I kept the UK support group going by purchasing a cute print from the lovely Imogen Slater - a Brit striving to make her mark in New York, who had very cute shoes on...

Surviving the press pit at Marc by Marc Jacobs NY fashion week show

If Mr Marc Jacobs sees fit to ask you to his Marc by Marc Jacobs show, (or at least his lovely PR folk KCD)  with 4 hours notice at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, the correct answer is not a) oh bugger i've got no-one to look after the kids or b) but its across town and all my other shows are at the Lincoln Centre. It is in fact c) drop everything, get your kids covered and get your ass over there to snap it from the media riser/press pit where you've been invited.

And so it was that this intrepid blogger stepped foot on the hallowed ground of a Marc by Marc Jacobs show. I met the lovely Nicolette Mason of www.nicolettemason.com in the press line who appraised me of the ' grab a seat where you can' blogger philosophy to which I seem to now be a firm believer.

Once in to The Armoury with all the other battle weary press folk - mostly Asian or Italian to be fair, I squeezed myself in the front row between lovely Nylon snapper and lovely Teen Vogue with the flu snapper (from Australia - who had got out of her sick bed to cover this...see how far people go...)

After a few whispered hints as to who the actual celebs in the frontline were...so kind these press pit dudes...I had spotted Hillary Alexander for myself and also Sarah Rutson but most of the USA celebs still remain beyond my ability to fathom. It was on to the actual show.

We saw autumnal hues, silks and tweeds, patent brogues and a whole kind of mish mash of 70's kind of thinking about 40's vibe. To be fair, had I been concentrating on the clothes as opposed to whether it is indeed possible to snap a pair of shoes coming at you at a pace when your life in the press pit depends on it....(answer...a couple of shots worked...don't give up the day job then.) I would be able to give you a much more verbose rundown. For now let me leave you with the fabbo shots and I'll get back to you on the commentary.