I’m seeing  …  I’m seeing  …  I’m seeing RED!
No, my eyes weren’t bloodshot, I was amazingly in attendance, on Wednesday night, at the Heart Truth’s Red Dress Collection Fall 2011 Fashion Show as it pre-opened New York Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week for Fall 2011 in The Theatre at Lincoln Center.

Twenty different designers along with twenty different celebrities, as show-models, teamed up to create an exciting runway show, for a great cause, and bring out the power of the Red Dress in encouraging women to protect their heart health.  The Heart Truth is a national campaign for women about heart disease sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) which introduced “The Red Dress” as the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness in 2002.

This season’s participating celebrities and designers:  Alison Sweeney in Tadashi Shoji, Ann Curry in Carmen Marc Valvo, Archie Panjabi in J. Mendel, Audrina Patridge in Badgley Mischka, Camila Alves in Kaufman Franco, Cat Deeley in Alberta Ferretti, Dania Ramirez in Catherine Malandrino, Denise Richards in Matthew Williamson, Dita Von Teese in Zac Posen, Eva Amurri in Chris Benz, Eve in David Meister, Garcelle Beauvais in Monique Lhullier, Gayle King in Donna Karan, Giuliana Rancic in Notte by Marchesa, Julianne Hough in Swarovski, Katrina Bowden in Oscar de la Renta, a pregnant Laila Ali in A Pea in the Pod, Linda Gray in Pamella Roland, Natasha Bedingfield, who also gave us all a 5-minute concert from the runway stage after she walked it wearing Nicole Miller, Patti LaBelle in Zang Toi, Suzanna Somers in Ina Soltani and Taraji P. Henson in Naeem Khan.

“For the third year in a row, a selection of dresses worn by celebrities in Red Dress Collection fashion shows will be available for the public to bid on at www.clothesoffourback.org through a partnership with the Clothes Off Our Back Foundation. Proceeds will benefit the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health and will be used to further efforts related to women’s heart health awareness and research.”

What a great way to start things off this season, celebs on the runway, celebs in the front row.  I saw R&B singer Kat DeLuna, original Apprentice winner Bill Rancic, The Good Wife’s Matt Czuchry, Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir, New York Fashion Week Creator Fern Mallis and professional celebrity wrangler Lori Levine.  And me in the audience.

All who walked down the runway, in their respective red dress, had a great time doing it, putting their own spin, some literally, on being a model for the evening. The audience got more and more pumped as the night rolled on, culminating in Natasha’s micro-concert.  Definitely a show to not only enjoy but admire.

Backstage was, unfortunately, a closed venue but I can only imagine the density of star-studdedness behind the curtain.

Thanks everyone, celeb-models AND designers for donating your time and effort to a most worthy cause.  May the Red Dress Collection continue for many seasons to come and bring both awareness and funds to fight the disease and educate the masses.

– Mike J

P.S.  Fall/Winter 2011 is just starting here at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Lincoln Center.  It’s gonna be a blast … I’ll make some new friends, bump into some old ones, see some amazing collections, talk to a bunch of very talented designers, eat some food and drinks with celebs and, most importantly, get a heads-up on what is to come in the fashion world.  Take this journey with me, and other Socially Superlative writers, over the coming week.

[Photo Credits:  Frazer Harrison and Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images North America via zimbio.com and Mike J]

I’m seeing  …  I’m seeing  …  I’m seeing RED!