Thursday night at Charleston Fashion Week (updated x2)

Image by Geoff Marshall/TheDigitelImage by cfw60thu.jpg Snag a version you can put on your site.

Update March 27: More outgoing links added at the bottom.

First reporting:

What's here? Digitel videographer Geoff Marshall was on the Charleston Fashion Week scene last night and shares a video of the festivities, but first Charlotte Gutman and Brian Wilder offer opposing takes on the night, followed by a final take from Stella, and then more links to coverage than you can shake a stick at.


Read more stories on this subject in our Charleston Fashion Week topic page. We'll be expanding this story throughout the day with links to other images, video, write-ups, and all sorts of goodness.

But if you want to see more imagery of the fashion on Thursday night, hop over to our live blog of the events, or just view the images in our Flickr photo set.

The Charlotte vs. Brian throw down

Here's their take from Thursday night's show, followed up with a final take on the night from Stella French. You can view almost all of the night's outfits on our live blog page. -- You can follow all of their showdown on our Charlotte vs. Brian topic page.

Charlotte Gutman

So tonight was once again a tremendous success in the tents of Marion Square. We rocked the house the house with our live tweeting. Between Brian and I, we were able to cover pretty much every single design off the runway. We have our system down like nobody’s business!

Now, on to fashion talk. I am pretty sure that I am not alone reserving my #1 spot of the evening for Hampden Clothing. It was the last, but certainly not the least of the shows this evening. I am pretty sure that I would excitedly wear every single ensemble that gleamed down the catwalk. Hampden’s quote for the collection is “Decades of Adaptation,” which they cleverly mirrored with cans of Tab in each goodie-bag … love it!

Pearl also really surprised me tonight. I really loved mostly every piece they exhibited. I will definitely be there. I loved Sacks Fifth Avenue’s method of presentation. Each female model was accompanied by two male models wearing sexy suits and “suite soles,” or awesome sneakers for all of you who are not familiar with the store, Suite Sole. One male model displayed the female model’s shoes on a glass platform and the other guy held the girl model’s handbag in the same fashion.

Tonight was definitely the busiest of the nights thus far, because it is Thursday. There was buzz about G. Love and Speical Sauce making a cameo, but he never showed as I heard from an inside source. But I did sit directly across from Wayne Newton who smiles a lot and has a precious daughter. I also sat dangerously close to Michael Knight who appeared on Bravo’s Project Runway during the third season in 2006.

Another thing that really stood out to me this evening was the music, which exceeded all previous musical fashion attempts. If you were there, then you heard the musical styling’s of Santagold and other hip new artists (that aren’t coming to mind ... oops).

If you were there, I really hope you enjoyed it. I know I did. And Brain, Stella and I will be there for the rest of the runway, and we hope to see all of your familiar and not-so-familiar faces. If you recognize us, say “hi” and we’ll take your picture, which might appear on the site! See you soon!

-- CMG

Follow her tweets @cowtongue

Brian Wilder

For all of those who are true Charlestonians, we actually remember when Seeking Indigo was Putumayo. But I digress ...

Day 3 was, in a word, ‘electric’. There was such an apparent buzz to the night’s festivities; it was hard not to get into the mood. Even though I was going on about four or five hours of sleep, I couldn’t help but get into the spirit of CFW.

It also didn’t hurt that Mr. Wayne Newton himself made an appearance. And by appearance, I mean right across the way from The Digitel’s point of view! It was definitely a star-studded affair for day three.

Aside from Wayne Newton, the funk/reggae band G. Love and Special Sauce made a last-minute celebrity appearance right before they were scheduled to perform at the Music Farm right up the street.

On top of that was the appearance of a Mr. Mychael Knight, of Project Runway: Season Three fame. All the planets had obviously aligned what it came to tonight’s schedule.

As far as the collections are concerned, there were a few local boutiques that did their thing tonight. First off, I must commend a Ms. Mary Norton for her collaboration with Saks Fifth Avenue on King Street. You all should know, at this point, how much of a purveyor I am about menswear in Charleston and even though the male models in suits may not have been modeling Mary Norton originals, they definitely evoked a ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend’ vibe as they walked the runway with the utmost confidence.

Secondly, I want to give major props to K. Morgan for dominating as well. Ever since her brief stint on the Ellen DeGeneres Show last year, she has grown leaps and bounds when it comes to her confidence in personal style.

Granted, the Twitter scene was not too kind to her in regards to her runway pitfall from CFW ’08, I felt like it was time to let bygones be bygones and get on with the show.

The only boutique that disappointed me tonight was Palm Avenue. Again, this is strictly from a menswear standpoint. The clothes that they had the male models in were a little too bright for my taste. Oddly enough, I feel like there isn’t enough confidence in the world that would make even the most above-average man wear something like Lily Pulitzer without wincing.

As far as a quote of the night is concerned, there was a group of young, Charlestonian women who accosted me during one of the intermissions and proceeded to ask me: “Aren’t you Chelsie from the runway? I loved you in that suit! The sneakers made you look so sexy!”

Needless to say, I was very slow to correct them…

All in all, I had an amazing time at CFW ’09, day three. I can’t wait to do it all over again and experience the flashing lights, beautiful people and some Biton antics [?]

Until then…

-- BJW

Follow his tweets @GQbound

Geoff Marshall's video report

The final word from Stella French


Read more stories on this subject in our Charleston Fashion Week topic page.

The schedule:
6:45 Seeking Indigo Fomerly Putumayo (extended show)

7:45 K. Morgan
8:05 Palm Avenue
8:25 Saks Fifth Avenue / Mary Norton

9:05 Pearl
9:25 Hampden Clothing (extended show)

Then, can we talk about how hot the male models were? Hello?!! Charleston's finest!!

So I just got home. I have been neglecting my amazing dogs for the love of fashion for CFW. Those furry love-monkeys paid me back tonight. I am talking about a kitchen full of TRASH. I hope they really enjoyed the wasabi! They are both sleeping outside tonight!! Ugh!

Once again, it is 3 a.m. How does it happen so fast?

Tonight was a special, we were graced by Wayne Newton (check the live blog) and Mychael Knight. So of course, I had to get my picture with them!! Hello talking your way into the VIP lounge! And then take a bazillion more of them both! What I loved is the fact that Wayne had amazing hair all slicked back, but even better was his daughter, sitting on the lap of Mary Norton, dancing in the front row to Santogold and MIA remixes while the models strutted their stuff! Caroline Millard, of Charlie Mag, and I both got a wink from Mr. Wayne, which sent us into a tizzy to keep on dancing in the front row!

Then, can we talk about how hot the male models were? Hello?!! Charleston's finest!! I will let Charlotte and Brian delve into those murky waters. How about the punk who dropped his shoe for the Saks/Mary Norton show and then decided to stick his tongue out and throw open his blazer for the camera at the final roundup? Um, no thanks! Little reminder, runway is about the clothes, not the models. He must have missed the memo by being self-important.

Anyhoo ... tonight each media group only was treated to only one goodie bag. -- Fight! -- Of course there were the faucet scarves. Then we also got some vitamin water (Thank you! We get so hot and bothered by all those lights and margaritas, courtesy of Brown Arnold!) and TAB in a can. Who needs PBR when you can drink TAB. Ha! Love that stuff. It's one of the sodas I drink besides ginger ale! We were flooded again by cosmetic goodies in miniature form, and by the end of the night, we had to battle out who got what. Anyone for paper, rock, scissors?

The afterparty at Fish on King Street was a huge success! The newly renovated restaurant was packed with all the beautiful peeps of Charleston. Their executive chef, Nico, stepped out into the crowd for a hot second and exchanged some cheek kisses with me and fellow patrons. Charleston's most fashionable flooded the downstairs and their special lounge and porch upstairs. The models came pouring in and the compliments started flowing. And what a better way to end the night?

Check the tweets. We blew it UP last night! -- Live pics, before you get them from the professionals, and commentary! p.s. We love the professional photographers, we just want to bring the hot stuff to all of you guys and gals who couldn't make it out tonight!

Check back tonight around 7 on our Charleston Fashion Week page for more live blogging straight from the runway.

XOXO
-- Stella

Twitter: @SvetlanaMinx