Simon Doonan’s Jersey Shore Jokes Fail to Enthuse Fashion Crowd

Lazaro Hernandez, Anna Wintour, Bee Shaffer, and Jack 'the Condition' McCollough.

Every year top fashion designers, fashion editors, and fashion people gather for the Fashion Group International's Night of Stars gala. If the CFDA Awards are fashion's Oscars, these are like the Golden Globes — just as starry as the Oscars, but slightly less serious and with tables set with too much dinnerware! Simon Doonan hosted last night's NOS gala and made some of his favorite jokes about what the famous fashion people in the audience's Jersey Shore names would be.

So Mr. Doonan stood there, addressing Nicolas Ghesquiere as the “Prince of Paramus,” Jack McCollough as “the Condition,” Evelyn Lauder as “Pookie,” and Nina Garcia as “The Paris Hilton of Trenton.”

But only about half the audience seemed to get the joke, since this year’s honorees were a global bunch, including Pierre Cardin (“the Impact”) and Diego Della Valle (“the Triceps”). Alas, Mr. Doonan seemed to recognize that his speech had fallen a little flat, as when he suggested someone might need to explain the “Jersey Shore” references to Mr. Ghesquiere, pronouncing Paramus as Para-moo.

We are so glad Eric Wilson's lovely blog post on the event gave us the excuse to Photoshop Jack McCollough's head onto the Situation's body. If no one laughed at the Shore references last night — a terrible disappointment for the industry as a whole, really — now, at least, it looks like Anna, Lazaro, Bee, and Jack had a giggle.

Toying With the Stars [On the Runway/NYT]