Blasblog: The Calm Before the Storm at the Rose Bar

Last night’s sky was eerily light, like the calm before a storm about to blow into town. “Yeah, I can feel it,” Jessica Stam said, at the amfAR gala at Cipriani’s on 42nd Street. “It’s coming.” The storm, of course, was the onslaught of fashion week, which begins in earnest today. But there were a handful of people who were eager to squeeze every little moment out of the pre-collections lull, and they made a giant migration from the amfAR benefit to the Rose Bar. In one booth, Lily Donaldson, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, Caroline Winberg, Doutzen Kroes, Noémie Lenoir, and Giovanna Battaglia got comfy. Yes, more than one gentleman in the club suddenly found his date less appetizing when that crew blew in—not that there wasn’t some eye candy for the girls, too. Vladimir Roitfeld, PC Valmorbida, and Marco Perego were making the most of their (relatively) free night, as well. But as is the case when one has work on the mind, most conversations revolved around the next few days: so and so’s Alexander Wang fitting, who was going to Rag & Bone the next day. “I can’t help it,” Lily Donaldson exclaimed of all the work talk. “I feel guilty!”