On Point And En Pointe For Fall

The weekend before the kickoff of New York fashion week, up-and-coming jewelry designer Bliss Lau threw a small dinner to toast her Fall ‘11 collection of feudally inspired chain and leather body jewelry—or “sensual armor,” as she calls it. (She often takes design inspiration from the arms and armor wing of the Met.) “I like the idea of covering the body,” Lau says of her long, draped pieces. “It’s the suggestion of clothing.”

Sunday night, that suggestion was being made by a troupe of six ballerinas, each modeling a piece, who dipped before guests to a somber Philip Glass soundtrack. Lau’s fellow jewelry designer, Bijules’ Jules Kim—herself wearing a Bliss Lau “Kill Joy” vest—looked on approvingly. “Every season, designers want new ways to display their goods,” Kim said, “and it doesn’t necessarily have to be on models standing against a wall. Dancers are emotive.”

The emotions they stirred were a bit different from those felt at sports bars all over town, as the Packers bested the Steelers, but Lau’s guests didn’t seem to mind. “Thank God we live in New York,” opined Michelle Harper, in a Rudi Gernreich top and vintage white mink vest. “You can Super Bowl Sunday all you want and eat like a million chicken wings—or you can have oysters with caviar and ballerinas prancing about you.”