TV Guide's Fashion Team Halloween!!

In the spirit of Halloween, I have added the video from my Guest Hosting duties on TV Guide Channel's Fashion Team. It was a Halloween themed episode and as you'll see from the video, I was dressed in full 18th Century Regalia! I had the best time, as always hanging out with my buddies at TV Guide and they were nothing but kind as they helped me "keep my head above water" through the perils of Semi-Live TV!

Below are the other 3 parts of the episode.

TV Guide Channel's Fashion Team

Friday night, I was asked to co-host TV Guide Channel's Fashion Team show, alongside the beautiful Daphne Brogdon. Fashion Team is a weekly series that takes a look at celebrity fashion and lifestyle trends. On that same night, I was "double-booked" to present the Inspiration Award to Project Runway at the third annual LA Fashion Awards. I called the producers of the Awards to tell them that I might not be able to make it because of this last-minute call to host this show, but they insisted that we would "make it work". Somehow I did! (More on that experience in an upcoming posting!)
The episode I co-hosted debuts tonight on the TV Guide Channel at 7 PM and replays at midnight as well as at 4 PM Monday afternoon (check your local listings). I had so much fun doing it, since the show is about fashion (my forte) and this particular episode was the Halloween Special!! Yes, you will get to see Uncle Nicky in full costume! You will have to watch it to see what I wore. Since the show is "live taped", there is little room for missteps--and I warn you, there were some on my part, but that's the beauty of live TV! It was a joy to have been asked to do this and to work alongside Daphne (who was a dream!) and to return to the TV Guide Channel. Love them!

Where's Andrae?

Here's a great photo of Andrae and I with Galina Sobolev, the designer of Single, a wonderful contemporary line based out of Los Angeles. JLo, as well as other beauties have worn her fabulous silky printed tops and dresses, which are carried at all the high-end department stores, such as Neiman-Marcus. See below for an example of a Single dress. We were at the Los Angeles Fashion Week Single Fashion Show, sponsored by 944 Magazine.

Oh, and did I tell you Andrae is designing for them? So the next time you ask "Where's Andrae?", he's at Single with Galina!!!!!!

L.A. Fashion Awards Celebrates Project Runway

Fashion, Cars, and Making It Work!

This Friday is the Third Annual LA Fashion Awards, presented by Saturn and hosted by E! Daily 10's Debbie Matenopolous. I have attended previous years and have had a lot of fun. In fact, I presented an award last year to my friend, Jen Egan, West Coast director of Gen Art.

It is sort of like the LA version of the CFDA, but more trucker hats, tattoos, and LOTS of jersey little dresses!!! This year, Bravo's little old show, Project Runway will receive the Inspiration Award, and I'll be there to celebrate, congratulate and make fun of my loving producers that worked so tirelessly to make the show so wonderful and for making me cry on tape! (remember that final episode of mine? Trust me my niece and nephew do!)

For those fans of the show, this might be a cool event for you to go to, since there might be some "surprise guests" from the show stopping by and a Season 4 designer , local wunderkid, Rami Kashou, is nominated in the "Moss Adams Fashion Innovator Award" category, amongst others. There will be capsule collections presented on stage throughout the event so it should be like an award show and fashion show--all rolled up into one event!

Click at the image for tickets and info. I hear there are some Balcony Seats still available. See you there! You can also click on the link to go directly to TICKETMASTER.

Vintage Divas! Nick & Chloe Dao sitting in a Tree...

Check out my BRAVOTV.COM Blog about my recent experience as a moderator for a great event entitled Vintage Roadshow. I had an amazing time hobnobbing with the illustrious panel including Madonna's stylist and Academy Award-nominated costume designer, Arianne Phillips, and Elizabeth Stewart, New York Times West Coast fashion editor. There was even a visit from a surprise Guest!
Check out my best Moderator-meets-Thursten Howell III double breasted jacket with an orange silk hanky look. I was trying to look "vintage", "sassy" as well as serious!

Los Angeles Fashion Week

LA Fashion Week Spring 2008: Sweats, more Trucker Hats...and BRADLEY!!!!

You might have not known this, but after NY, after Milan, after London, after Paris....comes Los Angeles Fashion Week. For the last couple of weeks, many fashion shows, parties and events have been occurring throughout Los Angeles. Events held in different venues, such as Mercedes Benz Smashbox Fashion Week and BoxEight, showcased the good--and some bad--of what makes Los Angeles such a unique fashion capital. For a long time, we tried to compare ourselves to other style metropolis' such as the aforementioned cities, but I think we are finally getting slightly more comfortable with our "quirky" skin.

For years now, I have been saying "What is the point of showing jeans and t-shirts and sweat pants with models such as adult porn stars like Jenna Jamison on the runway?". It makes us, Angelenos look tacky and cheap, and you wonder why a lot of industry professionals, at times, did not take "Los Angeles Fashion Week" seriously. For a great article on this, which was featured in Los Angeles Magazine's August edition, click HERE.

There was still a lot of that this season, but there was also some wonderful, true Southern California designers doing their thing. I attended only a handful of these, including Single, a line of brightly printed tops and dresses. I absolutely adore its designer, Galina Sobolev and just found out that my buddy, Andrae Gonzalo is designing for them as well. So you know I had to show up to support! I actually attended with my old friend--and best girl-date, former "Miss Universe" , Brook Lee. She just had a baby 4 months ago and looked wonderful (of course she wore something from my line!)

And last Friday, I went to the debut show of Season 3's Bradley Baumkircher, held at the wonderful Besant Lodge in the Hollywood Hills below Beachwood Canyon. Model Amanda Fields(just about walked every damn show--except this one), came with me, wearing one of my Spring 2008 Duchesse backless dresses, as well as my partner David. It was a wonderfl show,I have to admit. All Bradley. Quirky yet lovely dresses, perfect for that oh-so-chic boutique on Third Street or Abbott Kinney. I met Bradley's mom, who was the nicest woman you'd ever meet, dressed very elegantly I might add. And I also ran into Season 3 designer, Vincent Libretti, who could not have been any nicer, saying something to the effect of "You are a great guy Nick, and it's so good that you come and support..."

This Friday Los Angeles Fashion Week will conclude with the LA Fashion Awards, which will honor Project Runway. I will post info on that next!

MSN Style Studio:Singing Styles plus more

ROCK OUT!

First of all, congrats to my fellow team of "Glam Squad" at MSN's Style Studio. A little bird tells me that the site is a major success:
*Over 2 million unique visitors *Generating over 3 million page views on main site *More than 3.3 million videos have been viewed
Let me just be the first to say YEAHHHH !!!!

Check out the MSN.com Style Studio site, and click TRENDS on the right side. I was asked to give my "two cents" on the rockin' and not-so-rockin' style of Nelly Furtado, Pink ( both hot), Avril Levigne, Fergie and Amy Winehouse (not so much!)
Click HERE

Let's just say some of these lovely ladies need some style help.

Frontier Magazine: Dressing for the White Party

Fashion and Style Advice

For over a year, I have been writing a bi-monthly column for Frontiers Magazine, a Southern California magazine, geared toward the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans gender) community. I write about style, fashion and the gay community. I am sort of a "Gay Eye for the Gay Guy" and try to give my advice for the style-challenged gays out there that might need a little bit of help and inject a little bit of fun into it. Noting from the emails I have received this last year from readers , I guess I have been helpful to some and it has been well-received.

Last year, I posted some of my first published articles here in my blog site and then I stopped.There are almost two dozen articles that I written since and I will be posting them weekly here, beginning with "How To Dress For The White Party". Click on the article above to read.

Web Shout Out

Last month, I was invited to an "Operation Smile" event in association with "Reality Cares". Someone sent me this link to their MySpace site, with this lovely photo of me next to what seemed like a fabulous Goodie Bag! Miss Janice Dickinson hosted this event and there were lots of "Survivor" and "Big Brother" as well as "American Idol" personalities on hand to lend their name to this great cause. Love the photo, if there was a caption, it would read :"Here is Nick from Project Runway ,with a bunch of goodies that he didn't go home with..." Maybe Janice got them! Figures, damn! Just kidding, even though you may not believe me, I did not attend the event for the Goodie bag (didn't even know they had one!), I wanted to support this great cause and I respect the founder of Reality Cares and wanted to do this for him.

Below was the original posting...

"Nick Verreos / Project Runway at Operation Smile

How fun is this!!! We got the photos back from the charity event we did, Operation Smile, and there in the stack of pics is NICK VERREOS! Those of you who watch "Project Runway" (like we do) know he's from season two fame and an absolute doll of a human being. He and Malan are two of our most beloved designers from the show…..and here's Nick pictured with one of our Furlesque tees….we're so loving this! "

Web Shout Out

One of my favorite sites, AfterElton, just wrote an article/posting on the supposed "revamping" of Tim Gunn's "Guide To Style" show on Bravo. Someone sent me the link, alerting me to the nice "shout out" from the article and blurb below...
I think it would be rather fun to show up and do my "Dress Like You Mean It" on one of the unsuspecting ladies. But, knowing this Industry, now that I have actually mentioned it and put it in print, that means that, as they say "It ain't ever going to happen".

"One thing I'd definitely like to see on Guide are appearances by past Project Runway designers -- I'm sure the chance to be dressed by Nick Verreos would be just as exciting to Guide to Style's makeover recipients (who, if they know Tim Gunn, must know Project Runway), and Runway fans would enjoy the chance to see their favorite designers in their element."

For the entire article, Click HERE

From The Mailbox

Miss Runway Diva, my friend Amanda Fields, just sent me this photo of actress Emily Osment, wearing a dress that is strikingly similar to one I did last Summer and which Amanda herself modeled at an event at Emmett McCarthy's New York City boutique, EMc2. She sent me these photos as proof as well as the text below. I love that she is looking out for me...
Big kiss Miss Amanda...and knock 'em dead at Los Angeles Fashion Week this week!!

From Amanda: "So I saw this on 20/20 tonight when they were discussing child stars. Emily Osment is 15 and on Hannah Montana. I got really excited because I thought it might have been your design! If it isn't.. somebody is getting inspired! (aka stealing your ideas!) I mean.. really! "

Chicago Fun Times

Two weeks ago, I was invited to host the final Out Magazine and Basil Hayden sponsored event of its summer series of Chicago events, as I wrote earlier on this blog. To cap off their successful run in the "Windy City", Basil Hayden, maker of fine whiskey and bourbon, also asked me if I would design an original gown inspired by it's bottle. The gown would subsequently be auctioned off to benefit The Center at Halsted.

My visit was incredible, to say the least. First, being that it was the beginning of October, I expected Chicago to be its typical cold and windy self. Not! I arrived on the weekend of the Chicago Marathon and it was a balmy 85 degrees, thank you very much! I called my girlfriend Kelly Ryan O'Brien ahead to warn her of my whirlwind three-day trip to Chicago. She was the director of Chicago's branch of GenArt and a co-judge on the castings for Season 3 of Project Runway. Now, she is the marketing and public relations director for Michigan Avenue Magazine. She was so excited that I was coming that she was actually waited at my hotel lobby to greet me! I had barely taken out my credit card to put down for "incidentals" and she whisked my trench coat-wearing butt into her car to head to a VIP party Lucky Magazine was throwing to celebrate the launch of its November issue, which featured a whole section on Chicago's best stores. Once I arrived, it soon became photo and meet-and-greet mayhem, as Kelly escorted me through the party . I spent most of the time taking photos and doing various interviews and socializing with Chicago's fashionista that once we finally decided to leave, we went to get our Goodie Bags (which I heard had lots of fun stuff--they looked HEAVY!) and there were none! So we left empty handed. Lesson here is: Be tacky and get that Goodie Bag IMMEDIATELY, the minute you walk into the event, otherwise you'll end up like me.

Afterwards, we returned to my hotel, the fabulous James Hotel and I was treated to a scrumptious dinner and champagne at the JBar. I finally got to check out my room at the hotel and I just about screamed like a little girl who just got her first Barbie! The James Hotel's Marketing Manager, Joel Morales had upgraded me to one of their fabulous Loft Suites and I was in heaven! It was huge! With it's own projection room (to watch movies), a separate master bedroom, two flat screen TV's and more Kiehls products a gay man could ever use! Thanks Joel for "hooking me up". Too bad I didn't have anyone to enjoy it with me: I came stag on this trip unfortunately!

The next day was the event at the Center at Halsted. This brand new multi million dollar building is amazing, housing several floors, including an auditorium, and a huge gym to boot. It is there as a "refuge" of sorts, to give counseling, and educational as well as moral support to Chicago's LGBT community. For this final Basil Hayden event, the clients went all out, creating a very exclusive private party ambiance with orchid- accented tables , delicious hors d'oeuvres , a live DJ, and lots of free-flowing Basil Hayden cocktails for the guests to enjoy. I have several friends in Chicago, and I was happy to see them at the event. It's nice to see familiar faces when you are away from home (Thank you Bil, Anthony and Tony!) I also mingled with lots of my Chicago gays (and their beautiful girlfriends), lots of which professed their love of Project Runway and were very anxious to see the gown I had designed to benefit the Center.

After a bit of meet-and-greetin', the 250+ guests were led to the Center's auditorium , where the auction-and unveiling-of my original gown would occur. Erin put the gown on and it was a perfect fit! I never even had a fitting! A month prior to the event, I received her measurements, created a muslin sample of the gown, and had a fitting with a form I have that was close to her size (between a 4-6). My vision for the gown was a modern "Martha Washington", paying tribute to Basil Hayden's roots which go back to the late 1700's, when George Washington was President. I used the colors of the whiskey and the labels on the bottle (gold, copper and amber) and threw in some black for a bit of elegant mystery. The gown had over 30 yards of triple layered silk chiffon and featured a Duchesse Silk boned corset with a hand-beaded gold paillete over drape (the fabric alone cost me over $700!!) An obi-style tie knotted the empire section, like the final bow on a gift. This was my "gift" to the Center at Halsted and to the guests attending this final Out event of the season in Chicago.

Unfortunately, there was a last-minute glitch: About 30 minutes before the auction was about to begin, I realized that I had left the strappy heels that I brought all the way from Los Angeles in my hotel room! And I didn't like the closed-toe pointy ones the model had. I became a mini-Diva and had someone go to the hotel to fetch them. People around me said, "Oh Nick, the ones she has will be OK, don't worry..." I said "No, she can ONLY wear my gown with the shoes I created for it!" We were lucky that the James Hotel was a 10 minute drive from the event. The shoes arrived and everyone agreed how perfect these strappy heels were as opposed to what she would have worn.
As the auction began (with a starting bid of $250), I became nervous and doubtful that anyone would even bid for my gown. I felt like that kid in elementary school who was not getting picked for the vollyball game during recess! Needless to say, in a way, I got "picked". The gown went for almost $3000 !!! I thanked the winning bidder (seen in photo above) profusely and had my own Sally Field "You like me , you really like me" moment on stage.
It was a wonderful ending to a fabulous season of Basil Hayden and Out sponsored events in the Windy City and I was honored to have been part of it. I also heard through the grapevine that the winning bidder of the gown was going to donate it to the Center to have them display it. Well, my mascara almost started to run after that! (Just a note: I really don't wear mascara, even though I know you wont believe me!)

Malin: My Ice (Runway) Queen!

I was sitting at home watching TV and a commercial for the upcoming Ben Stiller comedy The Heartbreak Kid came on. I had to instantly grab my remote and put that commercial on PAUSE! I exclaimed, "She looks really familiar" I was talking about the actress who plays Ben Stiller's lunatic wife. She looks like a model who's done my fashion shows in the past, here in Los Angeles Fashion Week, I continued.

After pausing it, I then realized, it was a model who had done my runway shows: Malin Akerman!!! Back in 2003, as we prepared to show in the first-ever Smashbox Los Angeles Fashion Week, we began doing the model castings and several agencies, including LA Models, sent us their top runway girls. I remember Malin coming in, doing the fittings and looking gorgeous in my designs. Of course, we ended up using her. Originally from Sweden, I believe, I loved her Nordic features--very "Ice Queen". She was an excellent runway walker and a dream to work with.

So it was a nice surprise to see her now starring in a major Hollywood film. I also remember seeing her two years ago in a short-lived--but wonderful--HBO show starring Lisa Kudrow called "The Comeback", where she played a ditzy Beverly Hills 90210-ish actress really well. To me, I'll always remember Malin as my Ice Runway Queen.

Basil Hayden Gown

Chicago: A Helluva Town!

Today I flew to Chicago to Host the last of the Tastemakers 2007 Series sponsored by Basil Hayden and Out Magazine. So far they have raised $15,000 for the LGBT community in Chicago.
I am thrilled and excited to not only host the final event but also auction off this One-Of-A-Kind Gown I designed in honor of the event. I was thrilled with the way it turned out (this snapshot does not do it justice) and I will definitely take photos of the Beautiful Ford Model, Erin Endicott, who will be wearing it tomorrow night at the live auction. If you can't make it, don't fret!! Click HERE and you can place your bid now. This is a Gown worth $6,000.00 and believe me, you will be the envy of every woman in town if you own it!!

Basil Hayden Tastemakers 2007

Me and a Drink

Tomorrow, I will be in Chicago to host the Series Finale of Basil Hayden's Tastemaker 2007. Basil Hayden has been distilling the finest Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey since the days of George Washington in 1796. I was asked by OUT Magazine and Basil Hayden to host this event in conjuction with the grand opening of Chicago's Halsted Center in "Boystown".

In addition, I have designed a very special one-of-a-kind gown, inspired by Basil Hayden, that will be auctioned off with proceeds benefiting the Center. I have even titled the gown "Martha Washington 2007" and will be bringing it with me on the plane from Los Angeles. I hope the flight attendants don't think I am performing in the latest Drag Queen Chicago revue! Come to think of it: Who cares! If you are in Chicago and would like to attend: Please RSVP at http://www.out.com/bhoctober for the event and at http://www.out.com/halsteds for the after party following the event. Hope to see you in the Windy City!