Celebrity stand-off
by Suzy Menkes International Herald Tribune
As Britney Spears - blonde, glossy-lipped and 40 minutes late - took her seat at Matthew Williamson's late night show, the crowd greeted her with boos. But whether or not you like the paparazzi feeding frenzy, the New York mantra is that the front row is as important (maybe more so) than what is coming down the runway.
So Calvin Klein snagged Gwyneth Paltrow (in denim and diamonds) while Marc Jacobs's stellar celebs included the rapper and designer Sean (P. Diddy) Combs and the rapper Foxy Brown (in a pelmet of a denim mini skirt), whom Jacobs embraced for immortalizing his name in rap lyrics.
At Zac Posen's show, the "Star Wars" heroine Natalie Portman was having a love-in with her fox terrier, Charlie, while "Sex and the City's" very pregnant Sarah Jessica Parker came to Narciso Rodriguez's in virginal white. Overexposed were the blonde fashionista Hilton sisters, Nicky and Paris, and the Trumps - Ivana, with new beau, and her former husband, Donald.
Flop of the week? Farah Fawcett in Rick Owens's front row - but with a remodeled face that the photographers failed to recognize. Star of the week: Stella McCartney, who opened her first store in the increasingly hip Chelsea area and proved that, even without her famous father in attendance, she can cut it.