The Spring/Summer New York Fashion Week shows are always a bit like going back to school after summer break. You’ve been taking it easy and basking in the sun when suddenly , with a mix of excitement and anxiety , you are faced with an overwhelmingly busy schedule!

While today may have been the first official day of New York Fashion Week, the festivities really began yesterday morning when the Couture Council of the Museum at FIT hosted their annual luncheon at Cipriani to present the 2009 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion to Dries Van Noten. Everyone from Linda Fargo and Amy Astley to Phillip Lim and Isabel Toledo were there and when Dries accepted his award (from Maggie Gyllenhaal who asked the designer to design her wedding dress last year), he said that he first and foremost wanted to thank all the women who wear his clothes for making his dreams come alive , love!

On the left designers Deborah Lyons and Misha Nonoo

After the FIT event , where I was seated between Amanda Hearst (super sweet and was donning a gorgeous 2.55 Chanel bag), and Carson Kressley (hilarious , he divulged that he is about to go to Vegas to shoot an America’s Next Top Model-esque reality show) , I headed to the Nonoo Lyons presentation. Nonoo Lyons is an exquisite line of tailored jackets designed by Misha Nonoo and a friend of mine, Deborah Lyons (who is best known as the designer of the fabulous Mechante of London shoe line!). This year their collection was inspired by images of 1940s and ’50s Americana and specifically pin-ups. The collection was wonderfully playful and I was particularly enamored with the cobalt blue silk jacket pictured above.

Post Nonoo I went to a sneak-peak of the Rachel Rachel Roy pop-up boutique (111 Spring Street), where I picked-up two cute tops (see one below), and got to catch-up with some of my friends.

From left — me in the Rachel Rachel Roy fitting room trying on a fab top ($79); two friends, Cristina Civetta and Robert Lee Fowler III checking-out the racks