A trip to Smashbox on Tuesday of Fashion Week to see the Hollywood starlets' shows:

D'Amore by Marceau
Model-actress-DJ-designer Caroline D'Amore debuted her Spring 2009 swimwear line. Models strolled the colorful Brazilian cut suits to 80s house breaks, four-on-the-floor levitating the Smashbox crowd to a poolside party on the French Riviera. Caroline's friends Kim and Kourtney Kardashian attended, as did actress Mena Suvari and the D'Amore family. They took in the frisky yet unfrantic afternoon show and cheered their favorites.
Model CC Fontana walked in the show and declared after, "I don't know how she came up with such a ____ sexy line. It's amazing. Kudos." Crowd member Merrie Kung liked the revealing material minimalism of the suits and concluded that the show and the collection were, "Whimsical and fabulous. Yes. Whimbulous: Whimsical and fabulous. Yes. With a little hot added in."

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A Grumpy Model Waits
Model Jas waits for her friend outside Smashbox after walking in the Virdis Luxe show. Speaking with the throw-away sardonic cadence of her Parisian accent, "My friend is pissing me off. So much people! Everybody is pissing me off, huh?"

Jas answers her phone: "Where the ____ are you? Mais no dude, I said just down you can make a turn to come back where I was and I'm here at my car and I'm like, 'What the ____ you doing?' I see the whole country pass next to me except you. Just come back I'm waiting for you, because, I'm sorry." Overcome with laughter, Jas gets off the phone and explains: "Just on the phone, she misunderstood me, she's like, 'I pulled just on the right side then I'm waiting for you there,' and I was like, 'Great!' I feel like, 'Two hours later...'." While she waits for her friend to drive over, Jas vents about having to listen to commercial fashion chatter backstage. Finally her friend model-actress Kali Hawk arrives and they drive their cars off to a shoot in Santa Monica.

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Much Ado About Something
Big bouncers, a big fan crowd, a reality star's comfort glamour collection. One skeptical attendee of the packed show pop mockingly put it, "Not as bad as I expected. That's a positive. Lauren Conrad Collection Spring 2009, kind of like the Sarah Palin debate: Not as bad as you expected." But still, most at Smashbox on Tuesday night seemed to understand that to enter into the sphere of Lauren Conrad is to accept the drama that has followed her for as long as we have followed her. LC consistently in, but above the fray, ever our steady star, ever a sensible California girl pursuing love and fashion.
Lauren Conrad is a true reality superstar, uniquely enduring and endearing even four years after she splashed into our TV sets on Laguna Beach. We were hypnotized by that show's vicarious music video look into the lives of the cool kids in school, but why do we still care about her? Perhaps it's that she's into life, not celebrity. Sounds nice, except for Lauren the distinction between life and celebrity is blurred. Perhaps then the reason she has endearingly endured is because she is a major pop talent, empowered rather than blinded by the glare of the spotlight.
But what about the clothes? A fashion variety pack of feminine classics: From sundresses and cocktail dresses to full-length gowns. For design kicks a bubble-dress and some floral decorations. All with a SoCal sensibility of comfort and nonchalance. "Definitely wearable," especially the pieces constructed in jersey, according to the Sarah Palin-referencing guest. There was a strapless black bathing suit in the collection that impressed even such skeptics with its neat ruching, basic elegance, and jaunty model presentation.
We might playfully mock our fascination, but we continue to pay attention. And most of us sort of like Lauren Conrad and her clothes. In any case, she is a real success even if we pretend she isn't. Or try to pop insist that she needs to have success beyond TV to qualify as successful. Either way she's already made it even as we watch her making it.

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Links:

D'Amore by Marceau: shopmarceau.com

Lauren Conrad Collection: laurenconrad.seenon.com

LA Fashion Week: mbfashionweek.com/losangeles       

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