NEW YORK — With the New York runway shows only a few weeks away, many designers are trying to squeeze in a few more days of sun and fun before the last-minute push to finish their collections.
Several designers attending last week’s Council of Fashion Designers of America party in the garden of Arnold Scaasi’s Beekman Place apartment building here said they were content just to take in the idyllic surrounding. But others said they have a few pre-show adventures ahead.
Perhaps the most ambitious pastime is something Nicole Miller tries to do on a regular basis. “I always try to get some wakeboarding and waterskiing in. I go every Sunday morning for a couple of hours with my son,” she said.
On working weekends, she plans to go out to the Hamptons Saturday afternoon and come back to the city on Sunday.
Calvin Klein’s Francisco Costa said he already had his summer sojourns. Earlier this month he retreated upstate to Saratoga and checked out the horse races. The designer said he would like to get out to his country home in Bellport on Long Island at some point, but that might not happen before the show. “I’m in work mode now.”
For Gilles Mendel, in-line skating in Central Park on Sunday mornings is the ideal August escape. Of course, he dresses for the occasion in cargo shorts, a Yellow Man tattoo-printed shirt with a Fruit of the Loom T-shirt layered over it. “It not only looks right but it’s made of those lightweight fabrics that always keep you dry.” Mendel said.
He said he likes to hang out on the 72nd Street transverse watching the in-line skaters groove to Eighties music, especially disco and funk. “That’s where you might see me with my sunglasses — maybe not dancing — but close by,” he said.
Mendel even plans to lace up the in-line skates on Sept. 10 just days before his runway show in Bryant Park. “That may be the most surreal moment,” he laughed.
Project Alabama’s Natalie Chanin said she, Butch Landry and their four-month-old daughter are heading to the “Redneck Riviera” in Alabama, where they will hang out at their house, kayak in the Gulf and eat great seafood. Chanin will also work on her book, “The Project Alabama Stitchbook,” a primer for people who want to re-create Project Alabama pieces at more affordable prices. Stewart, Tabori & Chang will publish the book in fall 2007.
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Tina Lutz will also be mixing in work with her last summer getaways. Since Coach is hosting an event for its collaboration with Lutz & Patmos, Lutz and her design partner Marcia Patmos will skip a formal presentation for their own label. That’s welcome news for Lutz, who hopes to spend some long weekends at the country house on 42 acres she and her husband built in Rhode Island. With a new venture with Volkswagen and another with the Japanese streetwear chain Uniqlo, Lutz will have plenty to do even when she is out of town.
CFDA president Steven Kolb was also mixing business with pleasure. Instead of staying in Pebble Beach, Calif., for last Friday’s fashion show featuring finalists from the Council of Fashion Designers of America/Vogue Fashion Fund, Kolb planned to drive along Route 1 to San Francisco.
Yeohlee Teng said she will steal away to Sagaponack on Long Island for a weekend or two. “I enjoy bike rides and long swims in the ocean and pool. I’m a little afraid of the ocean’s undercurrent. But life’s full of undercurrents, isn’t it?”
Another Hamptons goer is Carmen Marc Valvo, who said he will probably try to unwind by “pruning his magnolia and hydrangea trees and will do a last lap in the pool.”
Dana Buchman will also be basking in life’s simpler moments, when work allows. “I’ll sit down with a book under a tree outside our house in Bellport. I just finished ‘The Places in Between’ about a man’s walk across Afghanistan. It was exotic and mysterious — it took me away from all this,” she said.
Others at the CFDA party weren’t so sure they would get to slip out of town before their runway shows. Esteban Cortazar plans to stay put for the most part. “Aside from being in jail in my studio, I’m not really doing much. If anything, I might take one last weekend to spend as much time as I can on South Beach, going in the water and meditating by myself.”
Thom Browne is also all work these days. Gesturing toward the 6,000-square-foot garden overlooking the East River outside Scaasi’s apartment building, he said, “This is pretty great. It shows what fashion can give you if you do well.”