There were no cartwheels from Betsey Johnson for the first time in what feels like forever…because there was no catwalk. Instead, she invited a smaller crowd to "Betsey Crocker s Kitchen" in her showroom. Yes, folks, the designer who played Peter Pan for Spring reinvented herself as Julia Child. "It s a happy, eating/drinking show with hot waiter guys," Johnson said with typical zaniness.
Fashion s most playful designer (who recently sold part of her company and is working with some new people) is having a moment. A new generation, too young to have Betseyed in the nineties, much less the eighties, is discovering her charms. There were rumors aloft that she might do a collaboration with Target, and it s known for sure that she is about to debut an archive collection with Opening Ceremony (the groovy store/showroom/gallery) this fall.
Looking either like extras from a raunchy Ellen von Unwerth shoot or like Cyndi Lauper, the models wore rose prints, lace, and petticoats. Forced to think more commercially, too—as are most of her colleagues—Johnson also showed T-shirts from her soon-to-launch tee line as well as sweat suit separates. "It s artsy yet very real," she said, unsinkably, in a preshow interview. "It s a trip, trip, trip, trip." Some girls, come what may, will always just want to have fun.
