Marist students reap benefits from volunteering at NYC extravaganza

Marist College student Kari Maguda felt a bit like a bouncer on Saturday night.

But she wasn’t working the door of a hot new nightclub. She was the gatekeeper for the reserved section at the Lacoste collection at New York Fashion Week.

"We just had to make sure that everyone who got in there had the right ticket," said Maguda, a sophomore fashion merchandising major from Rocky Hill, Conn.

This week, Maguda and other Marist fashion program students are hopping Metro-North trains and heading down to New York’s Bryant Park to volunteer at the show, which previews the fall/winter 2006/2007 collections of the fashion world’s hottest designers.

"It’s like getting into the Vatican with these shows," joked Lydia Biskup, the internship and placement coordinator for Marist’s fashion program. This is the first year that the program has had a real presence at Fashion Week, Biskup said.

Maguda dished about the celebrities in the front row at preppy favorite Lacoste: "Freddie Prinze Jr. was there kind of early with his bodyguard and a blonde girl who I didn’t recognize; she wasn’t Sarah Michelle Gellar. There was JC Chasez from ’N Sync and Mary-Louise Parker from that Showtime show, ’Weeds.’ "

Fashion Week officials forbid volunteers from bringing cameras or cell phones into the venues. They also are told to refrain from asking for autographs from any designers, models or celebrities.

But for Maguda, who will work the Michael Kors show Wednesday, the celebrity sightings are not why she volunteered.

"You get to see everything behind the scenes," she said. "Just to be able to see everything that goes into the production of a show - it’s just a wonderful opportunity."

Volunteers check in at a trailer on Sixth Avenue near 40th Street, where they are assigned to a captain and a venue, and given credentials.

Duties include placement of chairs and fashion show gift bags, greeting and ushering guests, post-show breakdown and cleaning up hair and makeup areas backstage.

Raise awareness

Sarah Comer, a sophomore fashion design major from Manchester, N.H., volunteered at Friday’s Red Dress Collection, a partnership between The Heart Truth and such top designers as Betsey Johnson, Luca Luca, Narciso Rodriguez and Tracy Reese to raise awareness about women’s heart disease.

The show was scheduled to begin at 3 p.m., but started closer to 4, Comer said. "Lindsay Lohan was late," she said. Lohan opened the show wearing Calvin Klein.

Lohan, Nelly Furtado, Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas and Sheryl Crow were among the celebrity women in music who traded the rock stage for the catwalk.

"I really liked the draped Donna Karan dress that Deborah Harry modeled," Comer said. Blondie’s frontwoman showed off plunging Vs in both the front and back.

Comer and four other Marist students spent the night in a Manhattan hotel so they could work Saturday’s shows as well.

Comer was assigned to work Atil Kutoglu and Sass & Bide, after which she got to chat with Jay McCarroll from "Project Runway."

For Lindsay Marotto, volunteering at Fashion Week has given her more career confidence.

"What was really motivating was that people who were working there were pretty young," said Marotto, a junior fashion merchandising major from South Windsor, Conn. "It seems like you can move up and get good jobs out of college."

Marotto was assigned to the Diane von Furstenberg and Badgley Mischka shows.

Von Furstenberg, who is bringing back the power suit this fall, was inspired by the 1988 movie "Working Girl," Marotto said.

"She had a lot of strong patterns," Marotto said. "It was really sleek with a lot of silk."

Celebrities in attendance

Celebrities such as Susan Sarandon, Nicky Hilton, Diane Sawyer and Vogue’s Anna Wintour watched as models paraded down the runway in cropped jackets and skirts that hit just below the knee, Marotto said.

"I liked the collection a lot," she said. "I thought it was a very realistic show compared to some of the others."

Eveningwear designers Badgley Mischka featured form-fitting silhouettes, a lot of pleats and bows under the bustline, Marotto said.

The show’s finale was a black satin jacket with a skull and crossbones outlined in sequins.

"That was a big hit," Marotto said. "When we went backstage after the show, that was what everyone was talking about."

The best part about participating in Fashion Week is working with like-minded people, she said.

"It was just so nice to be in a place where everyone loves fashion," Marotto said. "We were all saying it was pretty ironic that it was Super Bowl Sunday. We were watching Badgley Mischka the way some football fans were watching the Steelers."