Live From CFDAs: Another Coup for Wu

The awards are about to start after a flurry of late arrivals. Daphne Guinness with Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, Zac Posen with a twirling Doutzen Kroes and Thakoon Panichgul who asked how early arrivers Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer and Lauren duPont looked in his pleated mini resort. (The latest of them all was Swarovski Award presenter Blake Lively in strapless screaming-pink Michael Kors). OK, she’s not MObama but Diane Kruger, who has the all-important task of presenting the Womenswear Designer Award is wearing Jason Wu: a cute little red dress with crafty black embellished shoulders. “I dressed her for Cannes,” Wu explained. “She just gets fashion.”

Solar Power

Francisco Costa had one concern about Calvin Klein's celebration of Visionaire's new Solar issue at the Standard hotel last night: the dress code. "I thought people might think it was too Puff Daddy," the designer joked about the all-white theme. (He was referring, of course, to the hip-hop impresario's notorious Hamptons party of old.) But Costa needn't have worried. Tyra Banks, Elettra Wiedemann, and Chloë Sevigny all played by the rules, though it took some convincing to get the latter into her ivory Chloé jacket: "I found out about the dress code after I had bought this amazing Comme des Garçons leopard-print dress," said the actress, adding that she thought about wearing the spotted frock anyway but lost the nerve. Not that she would have been alone: Costa, ironically, left his white suit in the car and emerged instead in a white shirt and dark jeans, while Italo Zucchelli, the brand's menswear designer, showed up in a hot pink jacket.

The reason for the mostly adhered-to all-white requirement? Visionaire's Solar issue, which was made in partnership with Calvin Klein, features photographs that change color in sunlight, and Costa and Zucchelli employed similar technology when designing a women's gown and a men's suit in a fabric that goes from white to pink and blue when exposed to UV rays. "They're kind of like those Hypercolor T-shirts that you had when you were a kid," said Harley Viera-Newton, "but much, much chicer."

A Conversation With Halston’s New Man

Ask Marios Schwab for the picture that comes to mind when he thinks of Halston, and he’ll admit that he reaches for the same mental snapshot we all do: Bianca Jagger, in a draped black dress, entering Studio 54 on a white horse. Unlike the rest of us, however, Schwab has the chance to conjure a new vision of Halston, one scrambled out of the brand’s sexy, seventies-heyday DNA but updated in Schwab’s own image. Last week, it was announced that the London-based Schwab would be taking the reins at Halston, a label that’s seen its share of troubles since Roy Halston Frowick exited the stage. Since 1983, the Halston legacy has been entrusted to more than a half-dozen designers, with fitful success. The previous designer, Marco Zanini, lasted only two seasons. Schwab has a rather formidable challenge before him as he seeks to turn the ship around. And the Greek-Austrian designer will be upping the ante for himself by continuing to design his eponymous label, which launched in 2005 and earned him the Best New Designer prize at the British Fashion Awards in 2006 and the prestigious Swiss Textiles Award in 2007. Here, Schwab talks to Style.com about moving into the house that Roy built.