The last time Susan Lucci walked a runway, she fell. At a 2019 New York Fashion Week show promoting Go Red for Women, an initiative that raises awareness about women’s heart disease, Ms. Lucci’s heel caught the hem of her voluminous Rubin Singer gown, sending the actress tumbling to the ground.
“Thank god I do Pilates,” she said on a call on Wednesday. “It helped me pop right back up.”
On Monday, Ms. Lucci, 77, is mounting what she jokingly called her “runway redemption tour”: She is the final model in the designer Dennis Basso’s New York Fashion Week show.
Mr. Basso, who has been working for four decades in New York, is best known for embellished evening gowns and fur coats that exemplify a certain (largely bygone) uptown opulence — the kind possessed by people like Joan Rivers and Ivana Trump, who often attended his shows, as well as by Ms. Lucci both offscreen and onscreen as Erica Kane, the character she played for more than 40 years on “All My Children,” the popular soap opera that ran from 1970 to 2011 on ABC.
That role helped familiarize Ms. Lucci with her turns as a model: One plot for Erica, a diva with a taste for luxury, had the character posing for a photo shoot at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Another scene required Ms. Lucci to lie down on the fountain outside the Plaza Hotel while modeling a tiny chiffon dress in the dead of winter. “It was some of my best acting,” she said.
Erica’s grandiose persona was often amplified by an over-the-top wardrobe — big hair, big shoulders, big jewels — that brought some glamour to daytime TV, said Ms. Lucci, who described the era of shoulder pads as a time of “very nice proportions.”
The clothes in Mr. Basso’s New York Fashion Week Show, which is being produced in collaboration with QVC, will include pieces from his namesake line as well as items from his brand for the shopping channel. The designer, who was on the call with Ms. Lucci, said he had cast her as a model as a tribute to their 30-year friendship — and he promised that the ensemble she would wear on the runway posed little to no tripping risk.
“It’s a streamlined silhouette,” he said.
Shop Talk: Store Windows and Renovations Worth Noting
A Young Store’s New Look
Outline, a two-year-old boutique in the Boerum Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn favored for its tight selection of designer clothes, accessories and home goods, just reopened after a monthlong renovation. This fall, it will be the only store in New York City to sell Colleen Allen, an up-and-coming brand known for making elegant clothes and accessories from polar fleece. The store’s Colleen Allen pieces, which range from $250 to $2,700, will be offered with a mix of new merchandise from other brands including Comme des Garçons, Maison Martin Margiela and Margaret Howell.
Renovations at the store — whose founders include Margaret Austin, a former women’s wear buyer for Opening Ceremony, and Hannah Rieke, a former set designer — included the addition of a second dressing room and the installation of linen wallpaper and Murano glass pendant lamps. “We wanted it to make it feel nicer — more refined and buttoned-up,” Ms. Rieke said.
Produce of Epic Proportions
Loewe has temporarily “taken over” the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue’s store in Midtown Manhattan, installing giant sculptures of fruits and vegetables — a nearly eight-foot-tall radish is among them — that nod to motifs in the brand’s fall 2024 collection.
The installation is on view until Sept. 23. Consider it a (vegetarian) starter for the holiday season window displays to come.
Something Blue
Sacai designer Chitose Abe is paying homage to the photographer Bill Cunningham with the release of a new chore coat modeled after the style often worn by Mr. Cunningham, a New York Times photographer for nearly 40 years, who died in 2016.
Though Ms. Abe never met him, she said she had admired how he often chose to wear a “practical” French chore coat, in a shade of Yves Klein blue, while documenting the style of elite and regular New Yorkers alike on city streets. The Sacai chore coat ($1,155) is a similar shade of blue but has black panels and pockets. It is sold exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman stores in New York and is part of a small Sacai collection inspired by Mr. Cunningham — other pieces, including sweatshirts and T-shirts (starting at $190), are sold at Sacai stores and on the brand’s website.
Three Questions for a Buzzy Danish Designer
Cecilie Bahnsen, a designer in Copenhagen, is known for sculptural, romantic dresses that have earned fans in people who like to dress girlie, but with an edge. Ms. Bahnsen often styles her cloudlike confections with loafers or sneakers, like the pairs she has developed as part of an ongoing collaboration with Asics.
In a brief interview, which has been edited and condensed, Ms. Bahnsen — who plans to release her next Asics shoe this fall — spoke about her aesthetic and her label’s upcoming show at Paris Fashion Week.
How poufy is too poufy for a dress?
I don’t think there is such a thing as too poufy. We are always adding volume. To me, it’s about volume and movement but with a lightness — that’s what makes it feel Scandinavian. It’s decadent and simplistic at the same time.
You’ve made pieces in several colors — blues, greens, pinks, whites, blacks. Your new collection incorporates another shade: swampy brown. What inspired that?
I was looking at a darker romance for the latest collection — trying to step away from all of the pink we had used with earthier tones. We develop all of our textiles in-house. It’s one of my favorite parts of the design process.
What can people expect from your show in Paris?
We will show our new handbag design. There will be outerwear, bags and knits, all shown with our dresses to tell a full story.
Browsing for … Backpacks
The start of September means many people are returning to high schools, college campuses and office buildings. At the retailer REI, that means a noticeable uptick in backpack sales, said Rebecca Randall-Lally, the company’s merchandising manager for backpacks. She oversees the styles sold at each of the store’s nearly 200 locations nationwide.
This year, some of the more popular backpack colors at REI have been earthy greens and raisin-y purples, Ms. Randall-Lally said. Styles designed with hydration in mind also appear to be trending: “There’s definitely interest in reusable water bottle pocket features,” she said, adding that most of those specialized pockets can hold a bottle of only up to 30 ounces — making them a bit too snug for the 40-ounce Stanley tumbler.
Popular at stores in Boston: Osprey’s Nebula 32 backpack in “green tunnel” ($140). “It has a breathable back panel and lots of organization and compartments,” Ms. Randall-Lally said.
Popular at stores in Chicago and Minneapolis: The North Face’s Borealis Luxe Pack in black with burnt coral metallic trim ($105). “The women’s specific suspension system has articulated shoulder straps and a rounded back panel,” Ms. Randall-Lally said.
Popular at stores in Denver: Fjallraven’s Raven 28 backpack in navy ($120). Ms Randall-Lally said it has “storage, with organization, and a heavy duty eco fabric.”
Popular at stores in San Diego: Thule’s Aion Travel Pack 28 in dark slate ($189.95). “Something versatile,” Ms Randall-Lally said, that could be used “on campus or to go to the gym.”
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