Though we've heard talk of designers showing extra special clothes this season to lure shoppers in These Tough Economic Times, we hadn't found any. But the Preen show this afternoon changed our minds. After a sexy asymmetrical white minidress with mesh insets, out came an oversize denim jacket with contrast white stitching. It billowed and looked almost like a cape — definitely a new way to do denim. Cocktail dresses came in black, white, and punchy Coca-Cola red. Some had mesh insets and lacing that looked suspended on the model's bodies — a lot of good engineering went into those pieces. And if laced-up tight mesh isn't your thing, Preen also showed chiffon dresses in peach and navy with tiered, perfectly flouncy ruffles.

If designers need a front-row celebrity cheerleader, call Brandy. As in Moesha and "The Boy Is Mine." We haven't seen her in a while, but she looked great in the front row of Tracy Reese this afternoon. She ditched the blonde-gone-wrong hair and wore a smile that never left her face. With eyes as big as a cartoon bunny, she was in utter awe of everything that walked down the runway. She was the exact opposite of the industry people who work extra hard to be cool cucumbers in the front row. She got so excited at one point that she dared to bounce in her seat and snap her fingers. When the music picked up, Brandy sang along and waved her hands. She even talked to models, telling one in a purple pastel floral, mid-walk, "You go, girl!"

The Fug Girls suggested that Mary-Kate Olsen was flashing a giant grin at Rock & Republic because she's, ahem, "getting laid." Our spy saw MK's versatile smile, too. While waiting backstage with Jessica Szohr, a waiter bumped into Mary-Kate and spilled an entire glass of champagne down the front of her outfit. "She was so sweet about it," said the spy. "The waiter couldn't stop apologizing, and she was just like, 'Seriously, it's okay. I'm wearing black.'" The spy did say that after the ten thousandth apology, she gave the waiter her "Go. Away. Now. Please." grin. But it was a grin, nonetheless!

View a slideshow of the Rock & Republic collection.
Watch a video of the Rock & Republic show.

Waris Ahluwalia — best known for his roles in Wes Anderson movies and his House of Waris jewelry line — looked at us quizzically at Saturday's Elise Overland presentation, as though trying to remember if he'd met us before. "I actively chose a while ago to go, I'm not going to remember anything," he explained. "Sort of a meditative thing: I thought I would keep my head clear, and thoughts would flow in and out. And then I became an actor." There are occupational hazards to this M.O., such as memorizing lines or awkward social encounters. "We were up in Hudson, on the street. This guy comes up: 'Hey.' I'm like, 'Hey, nice to meet you.' And, like, beginning of the summer we had spent a weekend at his house," said Waris. But he has adopted a credo passed onto him by Simon Doonan: "Be unoffendable." We decided to hold him to it.

We caught Foxy Brown after her performance at Alexander Wang after-party at Cortlandt Alley last night, her first show in NYC since being released from Rikers Island earlier this year. Decked out in a custom fuchsia Alexander Wang dress, Foxy treated the sweaty crowd to some of the best of Il Na Na, and Wang to some stage time. "The highlight was fucking Alexander doing the fucking booty shake what your mama gave ya! That was fly," Foxy told us. “So you're right at home at Fashion Week?” we asked the Park Slope native. "It feels so good," Foxy said. "Karl said to me, and also Marc … they all said to me that they never saw a little black girl that was so interested in couture and haute couture. I would be in our house, with the brush singing and [my mom's] fur coats. And her high-heeled slippers … my mom has an Hermès Birkin bag from back in the day that I rock now and is sicker than any bag ever. Fashion is totally embedded in me."

Backstage yesterday at the ThreeAsFour show, we caught up Sean Lennon, who wore a magisterial women's coat with gold buttons and a top hat decorated with Native American bands. His girlfriend, Charlotte Kemp Muhl, wore a coyote headdress. "I got it from, like, these weird mountain men in Wyoming," he explained. "The guy we bought it from said he hadn't seen any people since the last, like, mountain-men meeting, which was … a year before. He was like, 'I live in nature, in the woods, I don't see any people. I'm so happy to talk to you guys.' There were 100 teepees in a field." So Lennon is cool with fur? "I'm certainly not against fur if they're hunting it themselves and wearing it to clothe themselves and their children in mountainous areas. You know what I mean?" He went on: "I feel like most people that criticize fur are wearing leather shoes, so that bothers me. I love animals. I have pets. I love to have them as pets. I love to eat animals, and I love to wear them. I feel that's okay for me as a human being. Yeah, it's been that way for thousands of years."

• Mara Hoffman says it costs her $70,000 to show in the tents in Bryant Park — $28,000 for the tent alone. [ABC News]

• Next season Fashion Week will start one week later than usual, allowing only three days for London Fashion Week before Milan Fashion Week. The CFDA is saying it doesn't want to alter its New York dates, which would allow London more time. [Times UK]

• Models at the Alexander Wang show wore lip gloss over their eye shadow and got sprayed right before they walked down the runway so they looked all sweaty. How kinky. [NYDN]

• A four-inch heel fell off a model's shoe at Andy and Debb's show but she finished her walk without falling. [Reuters]

• Whitney Port was spotted in the meatpacking district shooting a reality show called The City about up-and-coming artist Jay Lyon. The two are apparently an item. [NYP]