Sarah Jessica Parker Lets Her Kids Play in Her Closet—& More From Fendi's NYFW Party!
Rihanna Photo: Getty Images
The best part about fashion week is any excuse to throw a party is a valid one, and Fendi’s unveiling of its new flagship store on Madison avenue, seemed as good as any other reason to celebrate. To commemorate the event, the Italian label asked Rihanna, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jourdan Dunn, Rachel Feinstein, and Leandra Medine, to each design a custom Baguette bag, which would then be auctioned with the proceeds going to the charity of their choice. All of New York – and some of Paris, and definitely Rome – showed up to the occasion.
Erykah Badu. Photo: Getty Images
The party, DJ’d by Erykah Badu, who arrived on the red carpet with big yellow headphones around her neck that matched her giant Fendi bag, drew a mix of VIP’s and randos – who WAS the girl that showed up in a tuxedo top and hot pants, like some kind of Lisa Frank dancing bear? – but in the end, everyone was exquisitely dressed, and everyone piled up to snap a shot of Rihanna when she finally made it to the red carpet— 15 minutes after the event was over.
Martha Stewart, Rachel Zoe. Photo: Getty Images
Martha Stewart walked the red carpet in a brown Fendi coat, the first item by the label that she ever purchased, “I bought it 16 years ago, I was in Aspen at the time.” The coat, much like the woman wearing it, had seemingly not aged one bit. Rachel Zoe revealed that her first Fendi obsession was not the Baguette, but the Spy bag, she also confessed to a weakness for Fendi coats, “they make me swoon,” the stylist said, as she ran into the store, already bumping with Badu’s magic beats.
Rosario Dawson. Photo: Getty Images
Rosario Dawson also had fond memories of her first Fendi purchase, a classic logo Baguette, “I started working at 15 and designer bags were not really in my mind, I was more interested in helping my mom with her mortgage,” she recalled, “but I remember, it was such a monumental moment when I purchased it, because I did it myself. I didn’t wait for anyone to get it for me.”
Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Getty Images
Rachel Feinstein, the New York-based artist who has a penchant for vintage Fendi which she buys at resale stores in Soho and Miami Beach, where she grew up, perhaps had the deepest concept for her bag design, “as soon as they approached me, I thought of Rome and how when you walk through the city, you feel everything that has been there before, and you are just this speck in the universe, “ she added, “I thought of this mosaic in Pompeii, one of the most famous ones that was covered by the volcanic ashes and then saved, it’s something extremely decadent and beautiful, which makes you aware of your own mortality.” The Marc Jacobs favorite will be missing the show this season for the first time, since her husband, the artist John Currin has a show in Los Angeles the same night. But she still offered up some fashion week advice: “Try not to get too dressed-up and think about it too much because it’s over in three minutes. Just have fun!”
Sarah Jessica Parker. Photo: Getty Images
Although many identify the moment the Baguette was featured in Sex & the City as the moment the bag became iconic, Sarah Jessica Parker thinks of it differently. Her relationship to the brand is very personal, as they were the first label to ever lend to the TV show. And what did they lend? You guessed it, a Baguette. “We were working with very little money, and for the house of Fendi to turn over a chalice like that for us was a huge deal,” the actress explained, “it was also a gateway, I think, for other people to feel comfortable lending to us. I feel a lot of affection towards them.” Parker, who must be one of the most enviable closets of all time, does not have any problem when it comes to letting her children play with her clothes. “there are no hard and fast rules about anything in our house except the couch,” she says between laughs, “I tell them ‘that’s a grown up couch,’ and I worked my entire life to be able to pay for that couch and please don’t jump in the couch! But the closet, they are allowed in.”
