On Friday March 19th, Donna Karan dropped into Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills to show her spring 2010 collection to the ladies who love her and her easy-to-wear yet sophisticated clothing. She was accompanied by Neiman Marcus Fashion Director Ken Downing, dressed in a slim grey suit and white shirt, who was just back from the Paris fall shows. Donna was wearing one of her spring 2010 mis-matched suits: a straight skirt in a grey slate washed-out denim type fiber, with a jacket in a a slightly darker shade that was belted and fell below the hips with ragged edges. She wore a long heavy cotton grey scarf, and brown leather strappy flat sandals. In other words, casual comfortable chic, but dressed up enough for any city in springtime. She was accompanied by her longtime pr woman Patti Cohen, in a similar spring style of Donna Karan collection. The program started with Donna and Ken showing the spring 2010 pieces on an impromptu runway between folding chairs, where ladies oooed and ahhhhed over the clothes, deciding which ones they’d purchase. In fact, Donna brought many into her boutique after the show and lecture, to help them try on pieces and style them herself. She’s such a hit with\ shoppers – smart, funny, self-deprecating, and utterly down to earth. She’s the earth mama of fashion – with incredible flair and a bodysuit. – Merle Ginsberg

FASHIONRULES: Your NY fall show was fantastic and chic. What have you been doing since showing in early February?

DONNA KARAN: I don’t rest on my laurels for long! I went to London. People thought it was for fashion week -but it was to speak at a center on women’s spirituality and Kabbalah.

FASHIONRULES: We’d love to talk about fall 2010- but it won’t be in the store till July or August, so let’s talk about the spring collection you can buy at Neiman Marcus right now that you’re showing today.

DONNA KARAN: Yes, we shouldn’t linger on things you can’t have yet! This spring summer collection is all about atmosphere. Nature. The beach. Think Malibu or the Hamptons. All of nature talks to me – the sky, water. The colors are very cloudlike, if you notice, and the color of stones with water running over them.

FASHIONRULES: How do you start designing a collection?

DONNA KARAN: It all starts with the fabric. The fabric has to talk. I have a conversation with the fabric. I was thinking clouds, and about wind blowing – a lot of these dresses and skirts and even the light coats from spring summer are like a wisp of fabric blowing over the body – very soft. Fashion is really all about your body. And it’s all an illusion, isn’t it? Most of us don’t look like these models who are here today. I am wearing the same look as that model – but I feel like I’m two of her! But the reality is – she has to wear it, and so do I! My clothes are very forgiving – they almost all stretch, and the idea is to camouflage the things you want to hide, and show the things that look great. No one has fat shoulders! I always show as much shoulder as possible! Your shoulders will never gain weight!

KEN DOWNING: I love it when you get sexy. These clothes are very sexy.

DONNA KARAN: To me, the word is “sensual.” Sensuality – these fabrics caress the body, they’re not obvious. I love the nude jersey wrap dress. Gwyneth Paltrow wore that one already. I love nude color against the skin – that is real sensuality. Skin is what it’s all about. Draping soft fabric on skin is sensual. I like the whisper of a scarf over a dress in a very light fabric. Our leather jackets this season are in very pale green or stone and they’re belted and flare out on top of the straight skirt. These leathers are weightless and I love the idea of wearing leather in the spring and summer – it’s the perfect fabric. And particularly for Los Angeles.

FASHIONRULES: You did a poppy red wrap dress with a full skirt, and a poppy long red gown – you don’t usually do such strong colors – just black or neutrals.

DONNA KARAN: Talk about a red carpet, right? I love the idea of this weightless gauze red jacket over a red jersey dress. Layers create effortlessness and go to so many different activities and through any time of day. Again, the gauze coat creates an illusion – it hides the curves and the arms, but you can see through it to skin. And yes, after 25 years in the business, I’m still doing wrap dresses. Who would think I would still be wrapping? I could actually call myself a “rapper.”

FASHIONRULES: In this collection, there are a few t shirt dresses that are ruched and draped and assympetrical.

DONNA KARAN: Yes, I’ve always loved light jersey t-shirt dresses. This is the NEW t-shirt dress. It’s got more fabric
and therefore it’s a bit dressier – it’s day into evening.

FASHIONRULES: You created a new kind of suit look here – a burlap jacket that’s a bit rough but beautifully shaped with a waist and hips, and then a straight skirt in jersey over cotton.

DONNA KARAN: Yes, my goal was to create a new suit – a more modern one. This was the challenge of the collection. Women work and travel and need suits – but they want them to be feminine and easy and light. There’s some origami folds in the hem of the jacket and in the skirt, a little bit of crunch in the fabrics. The fabric designed itself – it tells us what it wants to do!

FASHIONRULES: Some of the gowns and longer dresses are floaty but also really sexy – and ethereal, too. They’re both modern and a bit like the 1920’s.

DONNA KARAN: Having an emotion with the clothes is what I’m after – I want the clothes to take you on a journey somewhere. If you don’t feel something, it’s not working.

FASHIONRULES: You’ve become as well known for your devotion to zen, spirituality and wellness, as you have as a fashion designer, it seems.

DONNA KARAN: Well, I like the idea of dressing people from the inside out. Clothes should whisper your secrets. It became imperative to me to create a community of consciousness. I wanted to dress people – and address people. We have to look just outside ourselves for inspiration. That’s why I created the line Urban Zen. For instance, when it comes to healthcare, we’re really talking about “insurance care.” What about patient care? I created something in Urban Zen called the Integrated Therapist Program seminars. After all – who treats the patient? How does a patient deal with a life threatening disease? I lived through that with my late husband. That was my journey. I love the idea of healing, in whatever way we can. I also started a program that is about spirituality and kids. I wanted to bring yoga and nutrition to schools.

FASHIONRULES: These are very L.A. concepts! And you are such a NY person!

DONNA KARAN: Well – truthfully – L.A. is a place that I love! I wish I could spend more time here!

The CFDA Awards – essentially, the Oscars of fashion – will take place at NY’s Lincoln Center on June 7th – and the nominees were announced late this week. The late great Alexander McQueen will get at Special Tribute Award, which will not leave a dry eye in the place, we’re sure – and all that well-done makeup – but here’s the rest of the list:

• Womenswear Designer of the Year: Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, Alexander Wang (the looks below are by Jacobs, Karan and Wu for fall 2010
• Menswear Designer of the Year: Tom Ford (WHAT a year he’s having!), Michael Bastian and Rag & Bone
• Accessories Designer of the Year: Alexis Bittar, Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler (for those awesome briefcase handbags)
• International Award: Christopher Bailey from Burberry
• Eugenia Sheppard Journalism Award: Kim Hastreiter of Paper Magazine
• Eleanor Lambert Award: Tonne Goodman of Vogue
• Swarovski Award for Women: Joseph Altuzurra, Prabal Gurung, Jason Wu
• Swarovski Award for Men: Richard Chai, Patrick Ervell, Simon Spurr
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Michael Kors

There are thigh-boots – and then there are THESE, worn my Madonna on a date with Jesus Luz to see the play “Fela!” at the Eugene O’Neill Theater in NY, and then to the Morimoto Japanese restaurant in the Meatpacking district of New York. The couple – who many suspected of being broken up till recently – went to see the musical, produced by Jay-Z and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, with Madonna pal Jessica Seinfeld – then attended an after party at SL Lounge. Then they went to Iron Chef Morimoto’s Tenth Avenue sushi den Morimoto after, and Madonna donned this teeny tiny striped red dress, a texturized croc-looking coat, and these CRAZY high boots, with a major slash of thigh showing! Well, a girl’s gotta dress sexy on a date, we suppose. And what of these funny amber aviator boots at night? Madonna is nothing if not filled with fashion affectations!

Showest is the annual Las Vegas hypefest convention for movie theater owners, getting ready to grind out summer blockbuster season. Robert Downey Jr. was on hand to promote “Iron Man 2,” which is the blockbuster of blockbusters to beat. Yes, the stars of the biggest movies show up to promote the pants off them – and in the case of “Sex and the City 2,” the colorful summer dresses out of them. (All three stars present wore black dresses when interviewed with Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush, though – SJP in Marchesa tulle, Kristin in Oscar de la Renta chic, and Cynthia in Roberto Cavalli sexy cut outs). The three clothes horses of “Sex and the City 2,” opening May 28, are sure hoping to break its $415 million dollar world box office take for the first movie, which came out two summers ago. (Writing a sequel and producing and editing it in two years could not have been easy for director/producer Michael Patrick King – but no doubt he had a big payday.) Kim Cattrall is starring in Noel Coward’s “Private Lives” in London right now, but Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon donned bright summer floral or color laden silky creations, much like all the brights, whites and flowers they wear in the movie – and they received an ensemble cast award from Showest. (If you want to see the very fun trailer for “Sex and the City 2,” it’s all over the internet – Apple, You Tube, Access Hollywood, all have it. Alicia Keys’ “New York” is its theme song, and it apparently has a HUGE eighties fashion flashback in it.) Ensemble award, indeed – we expect some pretty fabulous ensembles in the movie, from Pat Field and her team. Meanwhile, here’s this fun fact: speaking of the eighties, Sarah Jessica Parker and Robert Downey Jr. lived together in that infamous decade. Both are in very different places now, that’s for sure.

“The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” was always just a matter of time – n’est pas? Casting seems to have begun about a year ago, but now it’s official: Paris Hilton’s two aunts will be on the new Bravo reality show show, Kim and Kyle Richards. They’re Paris and Nicky’s mom Kathy Hilton’s young sisters, and what could be more Bev Hills than that! They’ve both been actresses, but Kim is 45 and twice divorced, and Kyle is 41, married – and has four daughters! That should make for something interesting television! Plus it’s hard to believe Paris and Nicky won’t show up a bit. Adrienne Maloof-Nassif is a 48-year-old whose family, the Maloofs, owns everything from the Palms to the Sacramento Kings. She is married to Dr. Paul Nassif, a plastic surgeon who has appeared on multiple episodes of E!’s Dr. 90210. Again, instant good television. Camille Donatacci Grammer is the 41-year-old former Playboy model who is married to Frasier star Kelsey Grammer for 13 years. They have a 9-year-old daughter, Mason, and a 6-year-old son, Jude. Both children were born via a surrogate mother after Grammer was diagnosed with severe irritable bowel syndrome. Boy, it just gets better and better, doesn’t it? Lisa Vanderpump-Todd is a former actress who co-owns two restaurants with her husband, Kenneth Todd (one of them is Villa Blanca in BH, and has two children, Pandora and Max, and an adopted son, Cedric. The restaurateur made news recently when her Bentley was stolen out of her garage and later found in a ditch near Mulholland Drive. Bravotv.com, the home of the cable network famous for “The Real Housewives of New York” and “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” has not announced when the show will start airing. One thing’s for sure – the clothes will be more colorful that on the “NY” show, and less ridiculous than on the “Orange County” show. We can’t wait to see what these ladies wear on camera, who does their hair, and what keeps them slim – and we have a feeling we’re going to know all of this and more. And how smart of Bravo to already have two big names attached: Paris Hilton and Kelsey Grammer.

Kristen Stewart might be young, slim, highly attractive – but she is a bit of a fashion tomboy, most often. We like her rock n’ roll leanings – black clothes, a lot of sneakers – she’s a big movie star but also, a seriously cool girl. It would be weird for her to start wearing bright red gowns or prints or anything too frilly and girly. But at this week’s premier of her new rocker chick supreme movie, “The Runaways,” she’s sporting spring summer 2010 Pucci – a tiny strapless dress in a watercolor blue washed print – surprising! With her hair pinned up and bright lipstick, she’s much more girl than usual. Maybe she didn’t want to be that closely associated with her character, 80’s rocker Joan Jett – who came to the NY premier – who’s always in black (Joan Jett and the Blackhearts), has a shag haircut, and who Kristen really resembles in real life. The buzz on the movie from Sundance is already huge – but we’ll see how that translates at the box office. Stewart’s appeal from “Twilight” might give Joan Jett a whole new audience. Meanwhile, Stewart was seen kicking around NYC in Bird by Juicy Couture leather leggings during her days, when she was doing interviews. Perfect look for early NY spring. And the $895.00 leather leggings are now marked down to $627.00 on Juicy.com.

Sisters Linda and Chrys Wong, designers of the super cool line The Battalion (created in 2006) are showing their eco-friendly clothes, spun from organic crops and recyclable fabrics, on Tuesday March 23 at the Spring Arts Tower, 453 South Spring St, LA 90013, 8:30 on Tuesday night. If you’re interested, you can RSVP to rsvp@thebattalion.us. They do their production here in Los Angeles, and their fall 2010 collection is called “Of Dry Places,” and is based on the mysterious energy fields of the Integratron in Joshua Tree California to the majestic Redstone Castle of Sedona Arizona. Autumn/Winter 2010 is about feel and texture, a collection inspired by the desert. We saw the spring 2010 show at Downtown LA Fashion week last October and just loved it. They are one of the few lines that has literary references like Anais Nin combined with a great price point. You can shop online and find their entire spring collection at shopthebattalionclothing.com.