Last night in a nondescript garment-district building, Abigail Lorick presented her spring 2009 collection in a modest twelfth-floor showroom. Lorick is picking up steam now that the Gossip Girl ladies are wearing it on the show, but it’s still very much up-and-coming, and actually kind of mirrors the show: Plenty of people know about it, love it, and eagerly support it, but it’s no Proenza. It was hard to spot a girl in the crowd last night not wearing a Lorick frock. Blair Waldorf wannabes milled about in satin-y headbands with their gentlemen friends who channeled smarmy Chuck Basses with their uniformly unbuttoned necklines, sweating from the steamy, slow elevator ride up to the showroom. “If there’s no air-conditioning up there, I’m throwing a drink on myself, grabbing a gift bag, and running out the door,” one fellow said on our ride up. Charming. (The AC worked upstairs, and cocktails were served with nary a gift bag in sight.) Gossip Girl cast members in attendance included Nicole Fiscella and Amanda Setton. They insisted the label send cars to bring them to the presentation. Divas so soon, ladies?
The collection of pretty A-line dresses and jumpers in brilliant shades of emerald and navy accented with ruffles was darling and perfectly Gossip Girl. Models lounged on different sets: In one corner a girl perched atop a pile of mattresses à la The Princess and the Pea. Across the room more models relaxed in a faux-garden twirling croquet mallets with fake birds perched above their heads. At the kitchen set overrun with dirty dishes models huddled around a partially destroyed multitiered cake poking at it with spoons and pretending to feast. Eventually a kind soul carried another cake to a group of girls on the garden set. Rather than pretend, they gleefully dipped their fingers in the icing and licked it up.
Related: Designers to Watch: Abigail Lorick
