Thursday, September 16, 2010

Blondie, Scary Spice - Very Special End to Fashion Week at L.A.M.B.


One of the things we'll fail to spot most about Fashion Week is the eavesdropping. On Thursday night, as we came out of Naeem Khan and turned right back around to go into Gwen Stefani's L.A.M.B. show, a fan congested the passageway by asking a woman in a black cotton ruched catsuit and a leopard drain for a photo. The woman graciously obliged, and we heard someone behind us notify her friend, "That's the woman from that girl band. You know the one. It's called Spicy. Or Spices. Or The Spice, or something." Well, she had most of the right words in there, just never in the right sequence: It was Mel B., a.k.a. Scary Spice of that wee musical collective The Spice Girls, living up to her name by looking worryingly blonde and dressed like she'd just come from an interview for a Cats revival being staged at Scores.


Mel curled up in her front row seat and—as so many celebs have done this season —posed for more casual fan photos while her husband, Stephen Belafonte, sat behind her in a suit and pink tie. We'd read rumors that the two were divorcing, but they certainly didn't look like it, whispering to each other and taking pictures jointly as if everything were peachy. Well, almost everything: Mel showed him a photo on her cell phone, and he grimaced in mock-horror and appeared to be trying to make her delete it. Otherwise, though, they were very coupley, and we suspect their love is genuine because she just isn't that good of an actress. Spice World will testify to that.

All of No Doubt came to hold up Gwen's big show—her first runway event since 2007—and so did Debbie Harry, Interscope Records president Jimmy Iovine, a large-hat-clad Kelly Wearstler and, randomly, Christian Siriano and Twilight's Julia Jones. The later sat next to stylist Robert Verdi, and right near Omarion, who was clad in a white dinner jacket with black lapels, a pink bow tie, and a denim shirt. Clearly, he wanted to look as subtle as possible so as not to detract from Gwen's work, an aim he furthered by singing along to MGMT on the soundtrack whilst also performing a remarkably well-choreographed chair dance.