Alas, Poor Lorick: Gossip Girl Designer's Presentation Smooshes Together Virginia Woolf, Karen Finley
"Eat the cake! Do it for real now!" the photographers were shouting at Abigail Lorick's spring/summer '09 presentation on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 4, at a penthouse in the garment district.
They were screaming at the models, who in a counter-Fashion Week moment were asked to eat large, tiered cakes covered with pink and blue frosting as they stood around in confection-colored party frocks (also tiered) and '50s-style hairdos.
The "Cake Coma" room was just one of seven live-action sets built for Ms. Lorick's presentation, titled "A Room of One's Own." The other rooms included a bedroom scene with models in silk garments poised atop an oversize bed, a garden scene, and a library set that we're sure would've delighted Virginia Woolf.
The presentation was more performance art than fashion show. Models were encouraged to break glassware and the elaborate sets seemed to become a little bit more disoriented and chaotic as the two-hour presentation wore on.
Ms. Lorick, a former model, is the real designer behind Eleanor Waldorf's fictitious fashion line on Gossip Girl. And while none of the young actresses who have worn Ms. Lorick's designs on the show made an appearance last night as they were rumored to, Margaret Colin, the actress who plays Waldorf, came to do some studying.
"I wanted to come and see!" she told the Daily Transom. "It's research."
Ms. Colin, who bears an eerie resemblance to Stockard Channing and was wearing simple gray slacks and a pink silk blouse, confessed that this was her first-ever fashion show.
"I don't know much about fashion. Most of what I know I usually pick up from magazines or the set," she said. "But I had no idea it would be this exciting!
"I think there's a little bit of anger on this side of the room," she said, looking around at the piles of picked-apart cake and broken china on the floor. On the other side of the room, models were slumped over garden chairs and playing croquet. "They're all still and behaving over there but their hair is out of control."
Ms. Colin told the Daily Transom that the line was a bit too young for her to wear, but that she liked the long cream-colored dress with a blue neckline.
"I'm just glad she's so in touch with people who are into fashion, because I know nothing about it," she said. "I wish I was this hip! I guess I'm glad I seem it on the show."
