NEW YORK--Exactly a day before her fall ‘08 fashion show, designer Tracy Reese is at peace. Maybe it’s the sun flashing through the wide windows in her 19th-floor studio overlooking 39th Street.
Perhaps it’s the mellow sounds of John Coltrane trickling through the airy room, or maybe it’s because, as Hollis, the model, says, “Tracy is nice. She gives us food.”
Miss Reese, who showed more than 40 fall 2008 looks at Fashion Week, spent part of Saturday fitting Hollis in three different ensembles.
They’re all ultra-feminine, tailored yet graceful, bright without being garish.
Boxes of high-heeled booties are strewn on the floor. Stacks of costume jewelry glitter on a table, near an assortment of retro hats that would make Zelda Fitzgerald swoon.
Miss Reese, clad in a black cardigan, jeans and sneakers, sits next to Hollis, pinning the sides of high-waist tweed trousers.
“Don’t make my knees look fat!,” she orders a photographer snapping her at work. “I’ll let you know my sensitive issues, but I’m not saying I have chubby knees.”
Miss Reese is no waif.
Perhaps that’s one reason she is known for her ability to dress women of all body types. Celebrities have been fans of hers for years, with everyone from Cameron Diaz and Alicia Keys to Ellen Page and Oprah Winfrey donning her girlie-cool garb.
“You hate to pick favorites, but you do get down on your knees and kiss the ground when Oprah wears your things,” Miss Reese said. “Women look great in our clothes and appreciate them.
“Little Ellen Page looked so cute in our dress [at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘Juno’). We’re blessed.”
The fashion designer said having celebrities attend her fashion shows adds to the excitement. (Singers Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland were expected.)
“We’re backstage, so we don’t know what’s going on most of the time,” she said. “Every now and then, someone will pass through the back.
“Alicia Keys came through. All the girls got to meet her, and she was really cool. She’s so natural.
“That was a treat. Usually we don’t see them because we’re in the back, on our knees, buckling our sandals.”
Unlike many designers, who come up with concepts but leave the stitching and hemming to their staffs, Miss Reese completes the work herself.
She wants a seam ripped out here, a hem shortened an inch and a half there, sequins added to a silk charmeuse top, she said as she tightened a pencil skirt with safety pins.
Miss Reese began work on this collection early last October, and, in the 10 years she has been designing, she’s still not tired of the madness and mayhem that is Fashion Week.
“This is part of fashion,” the designer said. “It you get over it, it’s time to retire.
“You put so much time into it that, if you’re not psyched for it, then it’s a nightmare.”
