Baby phat fashion show

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK

Oh, baby, what a fashion show

Model, daughter make their presence known

By CATHERINE FITZPATRICK

of the Journal Sentinel staff

Saturday, February 9, 2002

New York -- Like mother, like daughter. Like, wow!

Kimora Lee Simmons, the 6-foot-tall wife of hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, is one totally smokin' babe.

At the tender age of 13, she was modeling for Karl Lagerfeld. Today, she is married to one of the most powerful men in music and fashion. She sits at the helm of her own clothing line, a sizzling new label already favored by pop princesses Alicia Keyes, Britney Spears and Eve.

But Kimora Lee was nearly upstaged by her 2-year-old daughter Friday as paparazzi moved in for a surefire photo op on the front row of a Fashion Week runway. Merely by jiggling little Ming Lee on her lap a joggle or two, Kimora upped the amps during the wait for politically pious designer Kenneth Cole to roll out his menswear collection for fall.

It was an appearance calculated to generate buzz for her own label, Baby Phat, which will thunder down a New York catwalk for the first time tonight."I'm so really very excited," Kimora Lee said. "This is an audience I respect. The designers, the editors, I grew up knowing these people, so it's very important to me."

Mama and tot arrived at Cole's showroom dressed fab and funky. Kimora selected a cropped fur jacket, slashed jeans, stilettos and ice-white fingernails for the occasion. Ming Lee, suede boots and a Pebbles Flintstone coif.

After the final strobe had flashed, Kimora turned to chat with a woman on her right.

"Ahhh," she said, after a bit, "you were in St. Bart's, too?"

BIG MISTAKE

The darndest threads hang out at the fringes of Fashion Week. Take a reading on this walking chalkboard, spotted outside the Kenneth Cole show Friday.

Shail Upadhya's his name. Graffiti's his game. After inspiration struck, he designed the fabric for his jaunty trousers, newsboy's cap and matching handbag, then whipped them up himself.

Which makes Upadhya the human embodiment of the handwriting on the wall, and a sweet but regrettable fashion statement.

-- Catherine Fitzpatrick

of the Journal Sentinel staff

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