(Photo: Patrick McMullan)

As Fashion Week ballooned over the last decade to World’s Fair size, it became a magnet not only for celebrities but for those who want to be seen with, and treated like, celebrities. What was once a (glamorous, to be sure) trade show turned into a spectacle of entitlement. But this year that came to a halt. Calvin Klein and Zac Posen canceled their postshow dinners. Vera Wang moved her show to her boutique. And, in the most austere move of all, Marc Jacobs cut the guest list for his show from 1,800 to 700 and completely eliminated his notorious celebrity quotient. If you think that’s hard on Posh Spice, pity longtime Jacobs PR woman Kate Waters. “I’ve been getting texts all week saying, ‘Poor you,’ ” she said wearily. “Is there an I Hate Kate Waters blog yet?” Still, “only a handful of people have been really awful. The real irony is that they’re the ones who really have no reason to be there anyway—the real borderline people who you see at the show and you’re like, ‘Why are you here?’ ” And company president Robert Duffy has her back: “No one gets a plus-one. I made an exception for one person, and one person only—and that’s Anna Wintour. Anna gets to bring a guest because she got us our jobs. Anyone else who wants to get us a job, they can have a plus-one, too.”

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Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by David Colman
• Table of Contents: Feb 23, 2009 issue of New York | Subscribe!