Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week will kick off with Michael Angel followed by BCBGMAXAZRIA, Duckie Brown, Ports 1961, Cesar Galindo, Cynthia Steffe, Yigal Azrouel, Charlotte Ronson, Nicole Miller, This Day/Arise: African Fashion Collective, Venexiana, Lacoste, Georges Chakra, Andy & Debb, Academy of Art University, Christian Siriano, Chado Ralph Rucci, Vivienne Tam, Lela Rose, Derek Lam, DKNY, Thuy, Hervé Léger by Max Azria, Diane Von Furstenberg, Rebecca Taylor, Tuleh, Custo Barcelona, Carolina Herrera, Carlos Miele, Jill Stuart, Tracy Reese, Donna Karan, Yeohlee, Tadashi Shoji, TonyCohen, Gottex, Badgley Mischka, Brian Reyes, Toni Maticevski, Pamella Roland, MAX AZRIA, Dennis Basso, Willow, Tibi, Narciso Rodriguez, Toni Francesc, Tory Burch, Michael Kors, Nanette Lepore, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Milly by Michelle Smith, Alexandre Herchcovitch, Anna Sui, Doo.Ri, Ralph Lauren, Isaac Mizrahi, Trias, Calvin Klein, Chocheng, Argentinean Designer Collections and Tommy Hilfiger.

On Tuesday we were invited to view the Ports 1061 Pre-Spring 2010 collection, entitled “Tea Room Collection”. The collection is a 20’s-looking mix of menswear inspired pieces, metallic threads and flapper-esque dresses. It takes inspiration from Charles Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald, an internationally successful Scottish interior designer and architect and his artist wife. The clean silhouette comes alive with Onyx and Pearl embellishments, shades of plum and nude, paddle sleeves, gold metallic tweed, and graphic velvet.

Previous collections are available for viewing on the Ports 1961 website.

Tia Cibani, head designer for Ports 1961, developed a rather literal Fall 2009 collection inspired by her recent trip to India. Although a literal interpretation isn’t necessarily a bad thing, ingenuity certainly lacks when you see a collection and can peg the inspiration, without even looking at the press-kit! Not only did the color palate, including colors like tangerine, amber and azure, scream Bombay, traditional angarkha coat inspired items were a bit too obvious for my liking. If the looks weren’t literal, they were completely out of place. Towards the end of the show, Cibani showed bright pink and black satin draped dresses…India? Really Ports, just because times are tough doesn’t mean you’re allowed to get lazy with creativity!

GALLERY: RUNWAY RUNDOWN: Ports 1961 Fall 2009

LINKAGE: Style 

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! 

The 50’s were in full swing at yesterday’s presentation of Ports 1961 Resort collection. I Love Lucy played on flat screens, an old standards jazz band played (mostly 40’s music, but who’s keeping tabs) and Becks and I stood on the sidelines as a classic fashion show unfolded.

The coolest element of the show was how “classic” it was. The models were dressed in reinvisioned house dresses from the era as a trannylicious announcer read from a script that complimented the whole collection. It was very retro, very slow and very inspiring.

Hated, hated, hated the shoes, but most of the other things that came down were pretty wearable and uber period piece chic.

TRENDSPARK: Favorite element of the collection where the knit gloves that came down with every outfit. I want this to catch on like wildfire. Very Madonna circa Desperately Seeking. I want all you women out there to wear it, want it, love it.