MLEstyle

Want to know how Fashion Fights Poverty was last week?

Check out my time line of events:

6:00 PM – FFP begins in the gorgeous Mayflower Renaissance Hotel (I’m still getting ready @ home)

6:45 PM – I leave home later than expected (This seems like it’s always the case!)

7:15 PM – I miss the turn onto Connecticut from K St…. Crap.

7:20 PM – Stressed that I’m 1.5 hours late to the show and missed my turn, I pull out the Plumelo (kinda like a juicy plum, mixed with…?) from my new over-sized black patent leather GoldenBlue purse and bit into a piece of heaven. Ahhhhh, comfort food.

7:30 PM – Where the heck am I? Left turns only for trucks and taxis??! Great! Keep driving…

7:35 PM – Oh Shit. I have to get back on 395 and do this all over again.

7:45 PM – I accidentally found the hotel when I caught myself checking out a chick standing on the sidewalk in a must-have glammed-out gold-sequined dress (If you were there, then you know who I’m talking about!)

7:55 PM – Park and walk inside two hours late. “PHEW! Bartender, over here! Whatever you’ve got left…” …and as the night continued to get worse he said loudly, “Bar is CLOSED! Come back in 15 minutes.” Without any time to beg and plead for ONE glass of wine, a man in his most girly-girl voice came on over the loud speaker and said, “Everyone, pahleeaze take your seats! The shaooow izz about tuu beginnn!”

7:56 PM – I started to walk towards my seat briskly but still made sure to take a reassuring glance at my fabulous frock and vintage Hermés scarf tied around my hair in the Mayflower Hotel’s mirrored hallway. Bangs? Check. Lipgloss? Check. Matte powder for photos and camera? Check. At this moment, I found myself unusually thankful for Amy Winehouse. If it wasn’t for her “it took me two hours to make my hair look like I didn’t do it,” look, I would have been doubly-late for the show. So TG4AW and her bird’s nest hairstyle! It was time to find my seat.

7:57 PM – I winded my way through the glamazons and found my seat. Plop. “Hmmmph.” I turned to my right and introduced myself to a blonde woman named Rachel, She looked like she had arrived right at 6 PM and since then, had been making friends with everyone, including the bartender. “That lucky bitch,” I thought. She had a fresh glass of wine in her overly-moisturized hand (a sure sign that she had arrived early enough for the free massages), a contagious smile, and a polished man on her right arm. I confirmed my previous statement. I was right, she was a lucky bitch.

8:03 PM – The model-activist and host of the Discovery Network’s Planet Green Summer Rayne Oakes, and WTTG Fox 5 News Anchor Will Thomas were introduced as the FFP hosts. “She’s wearing Jean Paul Gaultier.” I knew it before she even spilled the beans as to what she was wearing further into the show. (Cue Wayne & Garth’s rendition of “Foxy…”). Oh, and as far as Will Thomas goes? Total yikes!!! If it weren’t for my humongous celebrity crush on Mario Lopez, I might consider him as an Emily chart-topper. His pants were so fitted that I could tell his ass was more succulent than the perfectly ripe Pumelo that I sunk my teeth into just hours before.

8:15 PM – The music starts to bump and sends a contagious wave of dancing head bobs through the seated fashion-goers. The lights began to shoot around the room, flashing every color from the Ralph Lauren Island Brights paint swatch: Lattice Red, Aruba Pink, Bicycle Yellow, Key West Green, Baltic Blue, and Purple Dahlia. “Let the fun begin!!”

8:20 PM – The models started to strut down the seemingly endless runway. This was the beginning of a long, exciting night! I was so glad that it wasn’t me walking down the runway in fabulous shoes, of course only designed for sitting. My red Christian Dior’s could not have agreed with me any more, tonight was for sitting (and the heels thanked me later on in the evening by leaving no obvious signs on my pedicured feet that I had hiked several blocks in them from a PMI parking garage to the hotel. And since when has valet ever used the excuse, “sorry, we’re full…”?).

9:20 PM – The models boob falls out of a loose dress and Rachel points and laughs loudly as she says, “Look! Her boob fell out! Haha!!!” As if the audience missed it. Duhh, it’s a models tit! Who wasn’t watching!? As embarrassing as the moment was for the beautifully long and thin model, it was just understood that those moments came with the territory of being a runway model.

9:30 PM – A nameless hip-hop performer struts his Steve Urkle look down the runway with a new song he just released. Kinda cool. Kinda weird…I couldn’t decide.

9:45 PM – Finally, the moment I had been waiting for! MerzaMPERIAL. A sneak preview at his 2010 collection?? I LOVE love!

10:00 PM – The MerzaMPERIAL show completed the grand finale with the most beautiful pieces and then it was au revoir for me. I grabbed my 5-pound gift bag full of environmentally conscious beauty products, along with my black Bottega clutch, and made a quick dash out of the hotel’s side door. After all, I wasn’t going to be late again; I had a booked Friday evening ahead of me!

Fashion Fights Poverty 2009: I came, I saw, I conquered. Good enough for me.

                

Here are some pictures from FFP that I was able to take for you guys:

Above: Rachel (left) and I anxiously awaiting the show’s start.

Above: A quick stand-and-snap image of the fashionable Washingtonians!

Above: My best shot at capturing Michael Dumlao’s incredibly Kanye-esque sunglasses.

 

Above: Will Thomas’ mega-cute culito. Aye Papi!!

 

Above: Nudie Jeans company. Rolled cuffs = mega cool.

Above: René Geneva Design

 

Above: The hip-hop entertainment…very Steve Urkle!

Above: The Retrospective Lookbook Launch Party @ L2