Fashion Week Questionnaire: Chris Benz

For New York Fashion Week, Interview asked our favorite designers to respond to a questionnaire. We first met Chris Benz on his stoop on Bank Street, and look how far he’s come! He presented his show last night, packed to the hilt with glamour girls in pantone knits. Before the show, we went backstage to photograph the fittings. Here’s the designer’s re-cap.

1. Who is this season’s girl?
The Fall-Winter 2009 Collection is all about escaping your cares and into the nightlife. It’s a bit later-1970s New York Uptown/Downtown, inspired by the Uptown girls who sought anonymity and refuge in the comfortable darkness.

2. Who is one person you know will be front-row?
This season we are staging a presentation, so it’s not about a front-row so much as people having a great timte together. I’m looking forward to seeing inspiring friends like Eva Amurri, Mickey Sumner, and Elettra Weidemann.

3. What’s your uniform during Fashion Week?
I wear a white T-shirt, navy cardigan, jeans, Converse All Stars, and a Yankees cap.

4. What do you have for breakfast during Fashion Week? What do you have as a cocktail?
I break down and go for deli breakfast sandwiches during Fashion Week (a delicacy, by the way). As far as cocktails go, I’m never mad at a vodka/soda.

5. What’s one show you are excited to see?
I was excited to see the Prabal Gurung show. He is one of my original New York friends.

6. How has going out in New York changed in the last year?
I’m really looking forward to a return to the kind of New York that exists in nostalgia. I feel like people are looking back to the era of big dance clubs, escapism, and having fun, much like the New York in the last economic challege, in the late 1970s.

7. How has the stoop in front of your apartment changed since last season?
Ha! The stoop is still the best seat in town! My friend Eva’s mom had custom cushions made for my birthday in September, but I haven’t had much chance to use them. Spring 2009 will be all about all-weather stoop cushions!