Stylist Leslie Fremar, whose clients include Charlize Theron and Reese Witherspoon, wore Chloe, while Julianne Moore — also a client — dazzled in black-and-gold Balenciaga.
NEW YORK – Fashion week is a frenetic time when you’re reminded of your true friends based on what you’re invited to and where you’re seated when you get there. It’s not always pretty, and relationships can go south — fast (that publicist who kept you standing outside the velvet rope for more than 46 seconds was never that fun to brunch with, anyway). But at West Village fashion hot spot Omar’s La Ranita on Monday night, a true display of fashion week camaraderie took place as super stylist Leslie Fremar, who dresses Julianne Moore, Reese Witherspoon and Charlize Theron, was actually able to gather a very solid crew of fashion names for an intimate dinner co-hosted by The Hollywood Reporter.
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Fremar, who sat atop THR’s 2013 25 Most Powerful Stylists in Hollywood list, called on editors, designer Jason Wu and client Moore to fete Fashion Week and the impending November launch of THR‘s new style website, Pret-a-Reporter. Even she couldn’t believe that some of style’s heaviest hitters had agreed to a meal in the middle of the fashion world’s chaotic big dance — and on the same evening as DKNY’s 25th anniversary party and a W Magazine/Burberry bash, to boot.
“How did you get all your friends to come to dinner?” asked W market and accessories director Karla Martinez while standing at the dimly lit, dark paneled bar in the middle of Omar’s below-street-level supper club — inarguably one of the hottest current tickets in town. She stopped by in lieu of her own work function.
“An act of God?” mused a Chloe-clad Fremar, who has been busy bopping around to fashion shows including Sunday’s Lela Rose presentation, where she sat front row.
But for Monday’s 20-odd dinner guests, attendance was a no-brainer.
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“People love Leslie,” said Lauren Santo Domingo, a Vogue contributing editor and founder of e-commerce site Moda Operandi. “We both started as assistants together at Vogue, so we’ve known each other a long time. It’s pretty cool to get to this place now.”
Fremar, who had a gag running throughout the evening that the dinner was actually her birthday party (which designer Charlotte Ronson — who showed her latest goods at Lincoln Center on Sunday and came to the party with DJ sister Samantha in tow — joked about via Instagram), prided herself on playing the evening’s networking queen, too.
“Did you meet Amy Astley yet?” Fremar asked Russian street style star and founder of popular fashion website buro247.ru Mira Duma, referring to fellow guest and Teen Vogue editor-in-chief. Duma, feeling the jet lag from Moscow’s nine-hour time difference, laughed and patted the white, shiny breastplate (worn over a white Dior top) by Ukrainian designer Ksenia Kireeva.
“No one can wear this but you.” Fremar said of the futuristic look. “Go meet Amy.”
Moore, who wore a gold-trimmed black Balenciaga sheath and attended with her husband, director Bart Freundlich, was trying to nurture new-ish relationships, too, stopping over to say hi to acquaintance Joy Bryant.
“Joy! It’s so great to see you,” the flame-haired movie star warmly said to the Parenthood actress. “How’s your Fashion Week going?”
“Exhausting,” lamented Bryant with a smile.
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Other attendees had friendships that went way back. The Wall Group founder and CEO Brooke Wall, who reps Fremar along with many of the hair dressers, makeup artists and stylists working the week’s biggest shows, shared a seared scallop dish and bowl of lobster corn soup with IMG Models senior vp and managing director Ivan Bart, who teased Wall about a recent Throwback Thursday Instagram post where she was pictured wearing a T-shirt that said “Here Comes Trouble” sometime in the ’90s.
“If I knew you back then I would have signed you,” joked the agent, whose clients include Kate Upton and Karlie Kloss. Wall gave a playful eye roll as only a true bestie can.
As waiters brought out trays of peach and almond crumble and boxes of mini French macarons with Pret-a-Reporter’s Instagram handle emblazoned on top, writer and New York man-about-town Derek Blasberg had a bit of a panic attack.
“I have so many other places to be,” he jokingly complained. Indeed, Blasberg’s Instagram put him at the Odeon restaurant with supermodels Karen Elson and Frankie Rayder just after the last Fremar dinner guest departed. “I can’t believe I stayed this long,” he said scanning the room as guests finally began to depart — nearly three and a half hours after dinner began — for other style-related obligations and open bars.
Added Blasberg: “Only Leslie Fremar could make this happen during Fashion Week.”
