Toni Hacker and Ben Harnett held their Fall 09 presentation in Room 219 of the Chelsea Hotel last night, and we're pretty sure nobody wanted to leave.
It actually felt like a party - The clothes, shoes, bags, bracelets and belts were strewn about the four-room suite, sometimes in drawers, sometimes on the models (who posed with Milk Duds, Whoppers and whatever else), sometimes hanging off lampshades, pretty much everywhere.
The layout was like a treasure hunt, and it perfectly underscored how precious every piece of Hayden-Harnett feels. Plus, with the models stuffing their faces (one finally had to snatch a bag of cheese poofs away from another before she made herself sick) the whole mood felt funny enough so that you actually talked to other people you didn't know - a Fashion Week oddity for sure.
The collection itself was so covetable, we're already tearing pages out of the look book. The best pieces were easily identified: The little box clutch (at left), and the spat-boot-heels (whatever you call these) with Victorian style buttons down the front. Toni wanted the presentation to give you the impression that the models were just a bunch of girls that live in the room, and never leave (hence the Rapunzel braids) except to sometimes go out and buy candy. And it worked - by the end, you pretty much only wanted to deck yourself out in a leather necklace and kimono-style dress, eat Twizzlers and never leave. In fact, Hayden-Harnett almost made us late to Zac Posen, and we think that pretty much sums up how it went.
