99 PERCENT CALVIN
In what was either a very weak publicity stunt or the lamest protest in history, a trio of red-eyeliner-wearing Occupy Wall Street protesters picketed angrily outside Calvin Klein’s Midtown store as his fashion show was taking place. “The red makeup symbolizes pepper spray,” claims “protester” Felix Rivera-Pitre. “[Because] only the elite can make it in the fashion industry. These people are paying $20 for underwear,” he says, presumably referring to the show’s stylish attendees. “For that price you could give underwear to five guys.” But Calvin Klein publicists, take note: It’s the exclusivity, not the fashion Rivera-Pitre objects to, admitting, “I would go to the show if I were invited.”
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA
Buzz was a bit of a buzz-kill at bon vivant Anthony Haden-Guest’s Wednesday night party at Hiro Ballroom. Neither Haden-Guest nor guests, including Vanity Fair writer George Gurley, had yet heard the sad news that fashion scenester Zelda Kaplan had died in the front row of Joanna Mastroianni’s runway show a few hours earlier. After we told them, Haden-Guest, who knew Kaplan through a mutual friend, recalled, “She was very lively and very peppy . . . She lived to the last day, and that’s great.” Gurley, who’d first met the stylish 95-year-old club-hopping Kaplan at Bungalow 8 a few years ago, called her an “inspiration,” saying, “That’s the way she would have wanted it. She wasn’t in a hospital, she wasn’t in a bathtub — she was at a fashion show. A beautiful demise. I bet she died with a smile.”
TRIPLE AXL
In February 2010, Guns N’ Roses tucked Fashion Week performances at Rose Bar and a John Varvatos store into Axl Rose’s now legendary weeklong party spree. This season, Rose partied less and rocked more with three big concerts — Friday at Roseland, Sunday at Terminal 5 and Thursday morning’s 3-plus-hour fete at Webster Hall. Whether it’s due to a calmer lifestyle or his playing in venues built for music this time around, Rose sounds 10 years younger than he did two years ago. GNR was slated to wrap up Fashion Week late last night with a DeLeon Tequila-sponsored show at Hiro Ballroom, followed by an after-party at Electric Room.
DOUBLE TAKE
Also at Webster Hall, VIPs debated whether they were standing alongside one of the Winklevoss brothers — or actor Armie Hammer, who played both twins in “The Social Network.” When even nondrinkers started seeing double, one of the Winklevii assured Buzz we were looking at the real McCoys. Unfortunately, since the doppelgangers weren’t saying anything else, we’re not quite sure which twin it was.
OPEN FOR BUSINESS
For night spots, Fashion Week is the ultimate time to show off your new digs to the A-list crowd — and get press, to boot. The hottest of the hot new hot spots are (drumroll, please): Chinatown’s highly anticipated, extremely exclusive Paris-based Le Baron nightclub; NoHo’s Acme bilevel restaurant and lounge; Serge Becker’s concept Super Linda lounge-restaurant; the Lower East Side’s uncharacteristically flashy, old-school hip-hop-driven the Elsinore; and TriBeCa’s diverse, high-energy WIP club. In its bid to compete with this very strong field of newcomers, the reigning hottest club in town, restaurant-cum-club Red Egg, tells Buzz that it will cease night-life operations for two weeks to be remodeled by Moomba designer Tommy Zung. Well-deserved after a week of parties for designers including Richard Chai, Altuzarra, Phillip Lim and Rad Hourani.
RICH MAN, POOR MAN
Richie Rich and his partner in work and in life, Ross Higgins, had plenty to celebrate at their Wednesday night party at the Elsinore — and also plenty to gripe about. “I hate fashion, the industry. I don’t like the business part of it,” says Rich. “I like the art of it.” Higgins, on the other hand, is disappointed people ignore the fact that Popluxe is his brand, too. “It’s Popluxe by Richie Rich and Ross Higgins,” rants whats-his-name. “I’ve been doing this with him for two years and I’m not getting recognition that I’m in the business!”
TO BE OR TO BEBE
The Bebe is back! Eerily ageless Bebe Neuwirth, who will return to theater to appear in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” alongside Anthony Heald and Christina Ricci, told Buzz at Wednesday’s Vivienne Tam show that it’s been more than a decade since she appeared in any Bard business. “I’ve been chomping at the bit to do it again,” she says. But why see a play when you have Hulu? “At a certain point, people say, ‘I’ve got to get out and see something live,’ ” says Neuwirth. “It doesn’t happen without the audience.”
Additional reporting by Sheila McClear