Fashion Week's Mid-Point: Ralph Lauren Celebrated

New York City is in the middle of Fashion Week, and last night was Ralph Lauren's 40th anniversary as a designer. And, as Style.com reports, he "staged an extraordinarily lavish runway show and black-tie after-party in the Central Park Conservancy" last night. It was such a big deal that Mayor Bloomberg and his lady friend Diana Taylor stepped out! New York magazine's Show & Talk blog wrote this:

Ralph himself seemed blasé. Standing by an unruly, high-spurting fountain (it was spraying guests), he dismissed the idea that he picks special models as openers: His entire shows, he told us, are filled with “the most beautiful models in the world.” Would he be seeing any other shows this week? “No. No one invited me.” (Good thing he threw a party for himself.) But no one beat Matthew Broderick in the “oh-whatever” department: “I don’t know anything about this stuff,” he said, going on to say that even so, he saw the Valentino show in Italy during his summer vacation. How did it compare Mr. Lauren's event? Valentino “was by the Coliseum, which is pretty exciting. This is Central Park.” Touché.

Lauren was born in the Bronx. Along with Charles Rangel, he's one of DeWitt Clinton High School's most famous alums. And Rizzoli is releasing Ralph by Ralph Lauren, a $135 coffee table book, next month.

Here's coverage of Fashion Week from the NY Times and New York magazine.

Photographs by Jason DeCrow/AP