Well, Michael has come a long way, baby, and he has just as many celebs and socialites as the best of them now.  And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.  What’s interesting is that nearly all of the really high fashion designers – Oscar, Carolina, Ralph Rucci, the late Bill Blass – are all very nice and also very organized.  No sewing dresses at the last minute, like some people who shall go unnamed.  I’ve worked many a show where the show has actually started and the look didn’t arrive until half-way through it.  Sometimes barely in time for the model to put it on!  No wonder some of these designers are “difficult”, that’s what happens when you’re not organized and fully prepared.  There have been a couple over the years who were SO “difficult” that no one in the Ground Crew would work the show.  I always wondered what Audrey told them when they called to book us the next season.  But I digress.

Michael had 58 models, including men, which is a fairly recent development.  One of the first thing the styling team told me was that they wanted absolutely no fingerprints on the patent leather shoes.  They even handed out special cloths to polish them with.  We were asked to Static Guard all the coats (the February shows are for Fall clothes) and even though many of the models had handbags for their looks the first time they went out, none of them were to carry them for the finale.  Oh, and we had to make sure they carried them in their left hand.

It was a great show, although one model was so addicted to her phone that she was texting until the second before she went out, shoved the phone in her pocket, and it rang part way down the runway.  Considering how many thousands of dollars these girls get just to walk down a runway for 20 seconds, you’d think they could give it a rest for 15 minutes.

L’Wren Scott is a celebrated Hollywood fashion stylist, perhaps better known for being Mick Jagger’s girlfriend, turned fashion designer.   She’s at least 6′2″, very likely taller, and tends to wear high heels.  After having dressed many a star for the red carpet, a couple of years ago she decided to try her hand at designing red carpet clothes herself.  I did her first show, and the clothes were to swoon over.  Can’t say I liked the color palette, but the designs were to die for.  There was much speculation backstage as to whether Mick would show up, and sure enough, he did.  He is a lot shorter than you would imagine, and very slight.

This season he brought his son with him, and it was touching to see how affectionate he was towards him.   Dustin Hoffman made a cameo appearance backstage too.  He isn’t very tall either.  L’Wren shows in the Gagosian Gallery down in the 20’s, not in the tents.  Instead of a stage, she has a very unusual set-up.  In this really large room they set up what must have been at least a 40 foot table a comfortable distance from the wall, with the chairs only on one side (the side nearest the wall)  The tables were draped with while table cloths and every three feet or so was a low, rectangular box full of coral colored roses.

So picture this enormous room with wood floors, white walls, a looong white table with bursts of color from the roses.  It was fabulous looking.  The guests were served lunch (I’d have loved  to know what it was) and then the show began.  I wondered who the lucky people were who got to sit next to Mick and Dustin.  And if they were interesting company?

Packing up wasn’t nearly the nightmare it was last season.  Last season the clothes were so delicate that everyone, including the models, had to wear little white cotton gloves.  We were nervous they would forget to take them off before they went out.  Each piece of clothing had its own bag, and many of the sleeves had to be stuffed with tissue paper.  Then there were numerous pieces that were so delicate they couldnt’ be hung up, so we carefully stuffed each one and placed it in its own box for the journey back to Paris (the clothing line is headquartered in Paris).  It was a painstaking process and took a long time.

Just as we are finishing up, L’Wren comes backstage and tells me we have to unpack everything, because an extremely important person had missed the show and wanted to see them.  Now I am scrupulously polite to clients, but I was so taken off guard that I blurted out, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”  The dressers looked absolutely horrified, they couldn’t believe it.  Unwrap everything?!?  Just then, Suzy Menkes, the long-time influential fashion critic for the International Herald Tribune swept in.  Well at least she genuinely was a big deal, it would have been even more distressing to unwrap everything for someone from the Dubuque Daily Mirror.  Elllen Barkin, who is an close chum of L’Wren’s, hung out and kept her company while we unpacked.  Fortunately we got a bit of a reprieve and did not have to unpack everything, just certain key items.  It still took a long time.

This year it was much easier – no gloves, not as much stuffing and no separate boxes for certain pieces.   Did I mention that the clothes were just gorgeous?  And the 5″ Christian Louboutin stilettos were a nice touch, not that any of those models really needed to be any taller!  I think that’s why they get the big bucks; walking in heels that high – and looking comfortable! – is not easy.  Two girls took a header on the Herve Legere runway earlier in the week because the shoes were so high, and of course the NY Post had to put them on the front cover with some ghastly headline.   Not the kind of cover the models had in mind, I assure you!

It all was great fun and I’m looking forward to September, when they’ll be showing Spring 2010.  And I’ll be sure to tell you all about it!

Straight ahead is the living room with an ivory Aubusson rug on the floor, antique furniture with ivory damask upholstery, beautiful built-in cabinets and lots of fascinating art on the walls and bric-a-brac. (she’s British, so she has bric-a-brac, not tchochkas)  I don’t know where she keeps it all, but it seems like every time she entertains, she uses different dishes and table linens (ivory with a green border and monogram.  This time the chargers were green, the dinner plates had green rims cross-hatched with gold, and the salad plates had an ivory background with leaves painted on them.  She has beautiful sterling silver flatware and crystal glasses, and for decoration, two big candelabra with four candles in each, two silver pheasnts and a bowl of granny smith apples, limes and clementines (orange).

When I arrived, she opened a botle of rose champagne, which she knows is my favorite, and put out hummus with pita chips.  We chatted for a while and then sat down at this beautiful table.  First she served an avocado and endive salad with this yummy dressing and then the main course, penne with pancetta in a cream sauce.  It was absolutely delicious – much simpler than she usually cooks, but every bit as good.  There was a choice of red or white wine, but I chose to stick with the champagne!  Dessert was four kinds of fresh berries with creme fraiche, served in individual square glass bowls.

And she sent me home with a doggy bag too!  I still haven’t finished it.  It was such a pleasure to be in such elegant surroundings, to sit at such a beautiful table and to dine on such wonderful food.  She really gives her guests an Experience, and I, for one, truly appreciate it.  And yes, I sent her a very pretty thank you card with a note inside, the next day

There is an energy I’ve never found anywhere else, and since there is only one chance to get it right, every little detail is critical.   Those of you who have listened to the audio product Dan Kennedy and I put together (XXX-Rated Sales Strategies), who have read my first book, Mayflower Madam, or who have engaged my consulting services, know how extremely detail oriented I am!   So it is a perfect fit.

As I mentioned in my newsletter (Sales Savvy, Issue #7), the number of shows this year was way way down, and the overall mood (from the design side as well as the audience) was decidedly “apprehensive” this season.  But that doesn’t mean there weren’t beautiful clothes, glamorous celebrities, and lots and lots of beautiful models!

Because of all the press I’m still doing for the book (Uncensored Sales Strategies, co-authored with Dan Kennedy)  I cut way back this year and only did four shows.  Saturday the 14th, the call time for LaCoste was 6:30AM.  It may be fun but it still is a job!  While LaCoste may be best known for those alligator shirts, they also have a pretty extensive line of sportswear as well as a pretty sizable budget.   They had 72 models (55 girl and 17 boys) walking the show, probably 75% of whom only had one look.  Our primary responsibility is getting them dressed and accessorized as specified on each model’s look card, and changing them into their second (or third) look as the show progresses.  Our second biggest resonsibility is making sure that the clothes are perfectly pressed with absolutely no wrinkles and no lint.  The lint part is fairly easy, but trying to keep the models from sitting down, bending over or doing all the other things they manage to come up with to make wrinkles, is very challenging!

So there are a lot of people backstage to oversee, and many of the models do not speak English, or it is sketchy, and many are very young (teenagers).  After the show is over, we get everyone undressed, hang up and pack up all the clothes, consolidate all the garment bags on the designers own racks, and then their team takes it from there.

Tuesday the 17th was designer, Cynthia Steffe, who designs clothes primarily for dinner or an evening out.  They are stylish, only a few are super sexy, and she uses unusual fabrications, which is what make her clothes so distinctive.   There were only 22 models for this show, which is fairly typical.  Everyone had two looks and a few girls had three.

What is fun is to watch is what the models do as they exit the runway.  There they are, doing their model walk down the runway and back, but the second they get backstage and out of sight, all of a sudden they begin to make a mad dash (skitter is more like it, due to their high heels) to their rack, undoing their buttons or belts as they run, in order to change into their next oufit.  The dressers swarm around them, with two on the floor undoing their shoes, one in the back undoing the zipper, another in front undoing the buttons.  The model stands there with her arms in the air as one or two dressers lift her dress or top over her head, using a head scarf so as not to get makeup on the clothes, while  another dresser is pulling down her skirt or pants.  If it is a really fast change, the clothes just get flung onto the floor and are hung up later.

Once she is undressed, the team goes into action to get her into her next look.  Helping her get her arms through the sleeves and her head through the neck (again, all without getting makeup on the clothes), holding the skirt or pants so she can step into them and then doing them up, getting her into her shoes and buckling them for her, putting on the jewelry, the hat, the gloves, making sure she has her sunglasses and handbag and whatever else goes with that particular look.  Take one last look at the look card to make sure she has all the pieces and that everything is tucked in or done up exactly the way it is in the polaroid on the card.

The entire change can take as little as two minutes or as long as four – we have to work fast because there isn’t much time.  Then she gets back in line, does her bit, and is back for the next change.  Most shows don’t last much longer than 10-15 minutes, and as I said before, there is only one chance to get it right.

In a few days I’ll write about the Michael Kors and L’Wren Scott shows, so y’all come back now!

Another client asked this woman what she was reading, and she started gushing about what a terrific book this is, how she’d gotten so many great ideas already, and was only part way through it!  They went on to chit chat about it a little bit more, with the woman talking it up like crazy.

On her way out, Vicky just couldn’t resist stopping by and telling her that she couldn’t help overhearing how enthusiastic her reaction was to the book, and that she was glad the woman liked it.  Well of course the woman wanted to know who Vicky was, and was so excited when she heard that Vicky not only knew me, but was actually Dan’s assistant!

She told Vicky she had been on that big tele-seminar Dan and I did at the end of January, and was now a huge fan of both of ours.  Wasn’t that wonderful of Vicky to take the time to call and tell me that?  Put a big smile on my face!

Friday 2/13  3:40-4:00 CRN Time Warner Cable

Thursday 2/19  4:00 BEST Business Radio on BlogTalk

The only personal thing I had time for last week was a screening of He’s Just Not That Into You, but had to leave half way through it to do the Gabriel Wisdom Show.  Gabe was so terrific and we had such a good time that it was worth it, but I am going to go back to see it again – the whole thing this time!  Fun chick-flick, I recommend it.

Five, yes five, calls this week with Glazer-Kennedy people such as Bill Hammond, Robert Skrob, David Bustle, Dan Cricks and Jimmy Vee & Travis Miller.  Remember, I’d be delighted to do one for you too; email me at sydney@sydneybarrows.com.

WLW Cincinnati 6:30-6:40AM

ABC Radio Network  8-8:10AM  (190 stations nationwide)

KXL Portland 9:18-9:23AM

WCCO Minneapolis 10:35-10:45AM

KNUU Las Vegas 11:08-11:18AM

KIKK Houston 11:20-11:35AM

KFBK Sacramento 7:40-7:45AM

WHEW!!!

Monday there are already several scheduled for post Super Bowl observations about the ads.  Will post them as soon as they have been finalized!  Happy watching!

Today doesn’t work for you?  We’re doing another live one tomorrow, Friday the 30th, at 1:00PM Eastern, 12:00PM Central, 11:00AM Mountain and 10:00AM Pacific.  Click on the same link and register right away!

There will be live Q&A at the end of both calls with me and Dan, and you know how rare the opportunities are to speak with Dan live.  Remember, Dan does not provide links to calls after the fact, so if you aren’t there live, you’ll miss it.