During a week that's all about forecasting and setting trends, we're starting to think the biggest one is that 10 a.m. is the new crack of dawn. Thank God for Mariska Hargitay, without whom the front rows at Vera Wang this morning would've felt as lifeless as our hair after six days of heat-styling. By this point in the week we're always craving fresh blood anyway — there is only so much to be said, for example, about the inexplicably inescapable Leigh Lezark — so it was thrilling when an energetic and stunning Hargitay emerged from backstage to take her seat, even if she did leave hubby Peter Hermann at home. Hey, professional ogling is a tiring gig. We need the sugar rush any little extra eye candy can provide.

Hargitay had on jeans, a cardigan, and a shirt teeming with bling, the likes of which would send a magpie into convulsive ecstasy. "It's my last show!" she boomed. "I thought I'd go out with a bang!" Having previewed her pal Vera's collection beforehand, Mariska predictably and effusively dubbed it "spectacular and very different," crowning Wang "one of the most innovative designers." She then spent the entire show with a delighted smile on her face. Granted, the lady is an Emmy-winning actress, but since there aren't any joyous Law & Order: SVU episodes to channel for this, we think it was all sincere.

Other than that sighting, though, it was a barren Wang indeed. The usual suspects showed — ALT, A-Dubs, Nina Garcia, Plum Sykes — but beyond that, no dice. Two front-row seats even sat empty the entire time. One photographer resorted to snapping pictures of everyone in the front row and fixated on a gaggle of blondes, just in case they turned out to be socialites. With the Oscars possibly now a go and unique gowns thus in demand, we were frankly surprised that more famous faces weren't trying to ingratiate themselves. We can't wait until the day when no shows start before 1 p.m., the better to let the celebrity revelers sleep off their hangovers and brush their hair. But that's a slippery slope — it's all fun and games until midnight is suddenly the new lunch, and no sandwich shops are open. The horror, the horror. —The Fug Girls

Browse a slideshow of the Vera Wang collection.
Watch video of the Vera Wang show.