When Jillian Lewis looks out her Long Island City apartment window, she sees railroad lines, graffiti and a hazy New York skyline. When we looked at  Lewis’ Fall 2009 collection, we saw rib and cable knits, graffiti leggings and smoky sheer tights and blouses. Although it was an obvious and novice theme, Lewis’ attempt at New York inspired grunge couture definitely had it’s innovative moments. Lewis’ collection was impressive in the fact that it is completely wearable, but has enough edge to make a dramatic statement. The sheer/opaque tights, a-symmetrical tiered ruffle jackets, knit headgear and graffiti leggings are some of our favorites. The cable knits, on the other hand, are questionable. The models might have made them look high fashion, but throw a cable knit on your average, everyday girl and you’ve got a JC Penney sweater gone totally wrong. For those of you who watched Jillian Lewis on Project Runway Season Four, the preppy, feminine designer you once knew is gone. Long gone. Hello edge. 

Thowing up the tents in Bryant Park!

Rocking out the Ports 1961 invitation scarf and showing off some of the Fashion Week invites. Be jealous.

If you were in Brooklyn Heights today and heard techno beats blaring, it was most likely coming from the Fashion Indie office. With Fashion Week only three days away, we can hardly contain our excitement! Although many of you won’t be able to join us at the tents, you can look forward to the Fashion Indie crew bringing the tents to you! Prepare to mark Fashion Indie as your homepage, because Friday marks a week of extensive Fashion Week coverage. From runway rundowns to event reviews and moments of style to celebrity run-ins, Fashion Indie is brining everything Fall/Winter 2009 to a computer near you! We don’t mean to rub it in, but here are just a few of the shows we will be attending: William Rast, Charlotte Ronson, Vivienne Tam, Venexiana, Ports 1961, Nicole Miller, Rad Hourani, Jillian Lewis, Ilana Sunderland, Laura Dawson and Barbara Tfank. In addition to the shows we received invites to, expect immediate coverage from all of your mainstream and indie designers! 

Thanks for the photo NY Mag! 

GenArt has always been a breeding ground for new talent, but it seems for the first time, it may have missed the boat on two young designers. Fortunately, they’re making up for it.

Project Runway’s Alison Kelly of Dahl and Jillian Lewis will be hitting the GenArt runway next Monday, after already being discovered by the producers of designer focused reality show.  Yes, GenArt is supposed to “discover” talent, but I guess this time it was just easier to flick on the telly.  No qualms though, we’ve worked with (and plan to continue working with) some amazing Runway talents including Malan Breton (heart of silk) and Zulema Griffin, so I guess it’s cool that the GenArt folks are starting to.

It would be rather amazing if Alison Kelly won top prize. She really does have a pretty awesome collection and it would be interesting to see if she could “make it” after runway.