Maureen Dowd made an appearance at the Laura Smalls presentation at Benoit yesterday, and she described the collection as “sexy” — twice! The Times columnist explained that the last time she attended a Fashion Week was right before 9/11, so she hasn’t “really felt like coming since then.” What brings her now? “It’s nice to take a break from all the nastiness in politics in Washington right now. This is all so beautiful,” she remarked, taking in the mirrored walls and red banquettes of her Parisian-style surroundings. Any other shows on the docket? “Diane Von Furstenberg, because I know her a little bit. We correspond from time to time, and I think she has really pretty clothes,” Dowd said. She then bestowed the ultimate Washington compliment upon Laura Smalls’s dresses: “They look like something Michelle Obama would wear.”