Vanessa Williams and Leslie Jones On NYFW's Best Front Row: Reviews of Christian Siriano, Jonathan Simkhai, and Son Jung Wan

Christian Siriano knows his angles. Saturday’s S/S 2018 presentation featured the very best of what we’ve come to expect from his shows. Gowns so gorgeous they caused a gasp to ripple through the room? Check. Dramatic shoes available for the masses to purchase at Payless? Check. Inclusive casting features girls and boys of all sizes, colors, and creeds? Of course.

Front row filled with broads who seem like they’d be fun over cocktails? Check, check, and check—Vanessa Williams, Danielle Brooks, and Leslie Jones were all in the house.

The collection’s inspiration was a “a psychedelic hallucination of what’s inside my fantasy greenhouse” and apparently Christian Siriano grows gorgeously big shoulders, daylo bright ruffles, and stellar stripes shot through metallic.

Saturday afternoon’s Jonathan Simkhai presentation was so wonderfully Fashion Week-y. The details fade during the unfashionable months, but then a big show happens and it might as well be six months ago, a year ago, five year into the future, an infinite loop at seasonal intervals forever.

Outside, a gauntlet of street style photographers picked off a bottleneck of beautiful people who just happened to be dressed wildly and standing photogenically. Inside, seated guests jostled for a better one, and the standing room plebs sweated in a pen.

The runway was dim, lit mostly with flashes—everyone looked a little famous in the half-light, though actual famous person Halsey was also there. Then the music came up and the models marched down.

The collection had a “foundation in classic American activewear” and the clothes looked like Dustbowl Kansas and ‘90s mall fashion got thrown into a blender and strained into something tasteful.

Hot tip, everyone: The French Riviera seems like a nice place. It was the inspiration behind Son Jung Wan’s 2018 S/S collection, and based on the show, I can only assume Riviera denizens cloth themselves mostly in white, deep blues and greens. and shots of fuchsia.

They prefer cuts that sit slightly away from their gazelle bodies, made of fabrics that seem heavy for a beach town, like sexy silky housing insulation, and embellish with crystals and beads. Both men and women wear chunky metallic shoes at all times.

The most popular person was beloved Gossip Girl star Kelly Rutherford who sat front row at the show and bounced her adorable wiener dog puppy in her lap and then sprang up to present a bouquet of white roses to the designer as she took her bow.