At Heatherette, drag queens, Hiltons

At Heatherette, drag queens, Hiltons
Newark Star Ledger - NJ, USA
... Katie Lee Joel, the former host of Bravo's "Top Chef" and wife of Billy Joel, sat front and center with Beth Ostrosky, the model and girlfriend of Howard Stern ...


NEW YORK --A Heatherette show means celebrities, spectacle and more drag queens per capita than is typical in Manhattan's Bryant Park. "It's always fun," says Carson Kressley, the fashion guru from Bravo's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." "Sometimes it's a better show in the audience than on the runway."

But Heatherette's spring 2007 show Tuesday night did not disappoint, with Paris Hilton boogying down the runway, a light show with pink glow-in-the-dark air traffic controller wands, and hot male models in Florence Henderson wigs. And that was just the first three minutes.

Hilton opened the show -- nearly an hour late -- by sashaying down the runway-cum-landing strip in a black-and-gold giraffe-print halter dress, toting a suitcase on wheels, perhaps for the first time ever. On the return trip, she started dancing, then blew a kiss to the audience before ducking backstage. She returned a few minutes later with dour-by-comparison sister Nicky Hilton, both in striped jerseys and short gym shorts with jeweled stripes down the sides.

Other amateur models included an almost unrecognizable Mena Suvari in a thick blond wig with heavy bangs and an exuberant Kelis, who worked it in a short tulle skirt and heavily embellished bustier.

An intermission of sorts featured dancers in T-shirts and florescent hula skirts, sort of like a Gap commercial in hell, followed by a break dancer. Nicky Hilton returned in a black strapless cocktail dress with a tuxedo front, followed by Heatherette's favorite transsexual, the buxom Amanda Lepore, wearing a black strapless ... bathing suit? undergarment? does it matter at this point? She was clearly playing the role of the officiant, a point hammered home by Paris Hilton as the bride, all dressed in turquoise.

The collection itself managed to make the same trends that look ridiculous from more serious designers -- bubble skirts, knickers, lots of metallics and bling -- young and fun and almost wearable, for the most part. The white shirt dress with the jeweled collar? Cute. The long-sleeved short-all printed with multicolored letters and numbers ... for men? Not so cute. "I am a child of the '80s, so I love all the nostalgia ... except bubble skirts," Kressley says. "Will they just quit with that already?"

There were more famous faces on the catwalk than in the front row. Katie Lee Joel, the former host of Bravo's "Top Chef" and wife of Billy Joel, sat front and center with Beth Ostrosky, the model and girlfriend of Howard Stern, until they were escorted to new seats on opposite sides of the runway. Also spotted: Stylist Phillip Bloch and Jay "Miss J" Alexander of "America's Next Top Model."