Charity on the Catwalk

Fashion column in The Northside (local San Francisco newspaper)
Write-up of Passport 2005, Macy's annual fashion show/benefit for HIV/AIDS charities.
Download ns_nov_05_p_7.pdf

Excerpt:
As I step onto the red carpet – one free of the bright pop of flashbulbs, an early sign that this year’s Passport fashion show is not the star-studded event of yore – I don’t yet know that the hottest thing I’ll see all night will be a five-year-old boy.

I proceed into the pavilion at Fort Mason, a darkened hangar of black walls and floors, and grab a sour apple martini. Any fashion writer worth her Manolo’s knows that trends are found in the crowd as well as on the runway, so I pay attention to the beautiful people swarming about: paper-thin girls with pants tucked sleekly inside round-toed boots or in minis and ankle-length tights, women wearing satin frocks and belted trenches. The peasant skirt is predictably everywhere and chunky necklaces hang from every neck. I can’t help but raise my eyebrow at a few looks: an older gent in a sequined lavender button down who’s trailing a fluffy (faux?) fur coat from one arm, a woman sporting a black felt hat that looks like a beret impersonating a soufflé. So far, Passport is quite a show, and the runway has yet to see its first footstep.