New York Diary: Survivor:Fiji, Karolina, Whoopi, Laura Bennett, Daniel Vosovic, and Jay McCarrollWhere do I begin? How about with :
I love New York!!! It is, by far, my favorite city in the world! It almost pumps blood into my creative veins; being surrounded by all the fashion, art, architecture, the "hustle and bustle" of the original Metropolis, the shops, the models, the restaurants. The whole city thrills me like no other. It is "real", and a nice break from the "It's not what it seems" surreal world of
La La Land.
My trip to New York City was bookended by work and the
"Survivor: Fiji" Finale, in which my sister,
Rita invited myself and David to attend. In between, however, was some "play time". As soon as we arrived , I was off to work, doing some fashion segments which I will talk about later next month. I got the privilege to do some more "red carpet" interviewing at an event for
Katie Couric's Colon Cancer Foundation at the
Chelsea Piers.
The highlight of that event was meeting
Whoopi Goldberg. The Oscar-winning actress, came up to me, as I tried, nervously to introduce myself , "Hi , Whoopi, I am Nick Verreos from..." She stopped me and said, in her own unequaled way, "I know who
you are...and I loved you! You should have been in the Final Three!" Well, I almost died and became speechless (rare) and of course, thanked her profusely. She then asked me for my business card. Unfortunately, I did not have one! I just about died a second time. I also became nauseous. And then, in that one-of-a kind Whoopi voice, she murmured in my ear, "Nick, you NEED to have a business card... AT ALL TIMES!" Needless to say, I reached for some paper and wrote my information and handed it to her. Lesson learned:
Always have business cards. I don't like giving them out, I think it is cheesy and so "LA", but in this instance, it would have certainly been appropriate.
Immediately following my Red Carpet duties I rushed to the opening of my friends
(Andy and Taylor pictured to the left) new gym
STATION. Located in an absolutely fabulous building in the Meatpacking District (next to the Gansevoort Hotel), STATION offers these amazing vibrating exercise machines that are all the rage in Europe and are just now being offered here in the states. RuPaul as well as editors from
W and all the top magazines were on hand to check out the buzz on this new hot spot.
I also got the chance to attend a chic opening party for a new Soho store called
"Curve", which one of my favorite Supermodels, Czech beauty
Karolina Kurkova was hosting. The party was filled with a "Who's Who" of A-List fashion types. Stylist
Rachel Zoe (wearing an amazing dress and even more amazing
Cartier Panthere
diamond jewelry) with
Hal Rubenstein, editor of
"In Style" Magazine, designer
Rachel Roy, model
Bridget Hall, as well as a bevy of Upper East Side socialites that you always see on the "People Are Talking About" section of
"Vogue" Magazine.
I also made a pit stop at one of my favorite bath and beauty product stores,
"Lush". They were having a "Grand Opening" of their Soho store and asked me to stop by. Of course, I obliged and ended up buying my Mom a
"Happy Mother's Day" gift box of "Lush" goodies, which I am sure my niece and nephew will use, instead of her. I also posed for photos with some of the shoppers in the store.
During my week, I got a chance to visit some of the East Coast "Project Runway" designers. I met
Daniel Vosovic for a relaxing FOUR HOUR lunch where we ran into
singer Jody Watley, who was in town for a special performance, staying at the same hotel I was. I also got to visit
Laura Bennett at her spacious Manhattan Loft. I thought my Loft Studio was big, but WOW! This was my first time there, and I finally got to hang out (and play a little bit) with her kids. The
"Project Rungay" boys were also there at Laura's pad, witnessing some heavy "off-the-record" dishing that will never get printed!(sorry guys).
I even got to visit the
Poiret Exhibit at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was gorgeous and inspiring. Everyone must go, especially students of Fashion Design.
Paul Poiret is credited with being the designer who de-corseted women in the early 20th Century, with his loose chemises and then-shocking Kimono robe ensembles. His designs look so contemporary, especially now, during this season when every other dress is off the body and shapeless.
On Sunday,the day of my sister's
"Survivor: Fiji" Finale (and Mother's Day), I spent the most amazing time with my beautiful 6 year old niece,
Casia and 9 year old nephew ,
Alain and my lovely mom, of course. I took the kids to the
Times Square "Toys 'R Us" and told them they could buy anything as a "treat" from "Uncle Nick" for being such good students and getting the wonderful grades this year. We even got to ride on the Ferris Wheel that is inside the store and demolished the candy section. Later that afternoon, we headed to their hotel to prepare to go to the
"Ed Sullivan (David Letterman) Theater", where the Finale would take place. My mom wore a custom
"Nick Verreos/Nikolaki" design I had made for her. She looked radiant on this very special day. My sister, I later found out, also wore one of my cowl-draped tops from my collection.
We were at the theater for FIVE HOURS, from 6 PM until 11 PM. The time actually went quite fast. We watched the final episodes on flat screens in the theater plus the live finale. We were thrilled to see that towards the end, host
Jeff Probst (please get rid of the choker!), asked
Rita a question about being a Mother and she spoke lovingly of her kids.
We had been told, during the commercial beforehand that the camera would show the kids and to have
Casia hold up the
"Happy Mother's Day" sign they had made for
Rita. When the time came, it was all so sudden, that
Casia got nervous and forgot to hold the sign. If you saw the snippet, you might have noticed me nudging her to pick up the sign. But it was too late. Oh well, they still got their three seconds of fame and I am sure they were the Stars of their respective schools when they returned to San Antonio.
My beautiful friend,
Ali (pictured to the left), then invited us to the official
"Survivor: Fiji" After Party at "Pop Burger" in the
Meatpacking District of Manhattan, hosted by
Ethan Zohn and
Jenna Morasca, of "Survivor" fame. Jenna was stunning in a puffy-sleeved shirt dress and Ethan, well, one word: HOTTIE! I never told him this for sheer embarrassment, BUT, all I wanted to do was run my fingers through his ringlets! He was the perfect host. My sister mingled with her fellow contestants , introducing me to them, soon discovering that a lot were fans of "Project Runway".
Since this was the last night of my New York trip, I decided to go out with a "bang". After the party, we headed to
Hiro at
Maritime.
Hiro is one of my favorite hangouts on a Sunday night in New York City. It is always packed and always fun. I always wonder if anyone has to go to work the next morning by the looks of all the people there dancing as if it was a Friday night. We quickly went upstairs for a drink and out of the corner of my eye, in the "VIP" section, I spotted NY Diva
Amanda Lepore, Celebrity gossip queen
Perez Hilton, AND (wait for it!)
Kylie Minogue!!! OK, this is what I am talking about: I LOVE New York!!! If that was not enough, , I feel a tap on my shoulder, and I turn around and it is none other than
Jay McCarroll!!!! Jay was looking very incognito in his over sized black sunglasses (Note to Jay: I would love to get me a pair!). My night, and week, was therefore, complete. I headed back to my friend's Chelsea apartment for much needed rest for my next day flight back to La La Land. I hope to be back in NY very soon!!!
ESCANDALO!!!
It was a nice surprise to see the beautiful Meagan Tandy, last year's Miss California USA, wearing the gown we designed for her when she competed (and received the 3rd Runner Up Title). Also in attendance were two Rita's castmates and friends from Survivor:Fiji, Michelle Yi and Alex Angarita. It was fun to watch all those girls whom Rita trained and to see her "stamp" of excellence in their walk, posture and presentation.
I had my favorites including Miss LA who was a spunky Latina with a walk and a personality that could be seen from the nose-bleed seats at the theater. Miss Barstow and Miss Greater San Diego were gorgeous, the former being a dead ringer for Carmen Electra and Lauren Conrad of MTV's The Hills and the latter, a beautiful California blond who had "Miss USA" written all over her. These last two were the obvious favorites of the capacity audience at the Orpheum, as well.
It came as a shock then when neither of their names got called as the winner. This is went things got "pageant ugly". All one could hear were shouts of "Boo" and hisses from the entire theater when Miss Barstow was not named the winner. The sassy Miss LA, Christina Silva had been crowned the new Miss California. We happened to be seated directly behind the judges, which included last year's controversial Miss Teen USA, Katie Blair (from MTV's Pageant Place) who looked at the other judges with wonderment. There was some shuffling that had occurred right before the naming of the winners, by the judges' reps who were tabulating their scores. So there was obvious confusion, but besides this, everything seemed to be going according to a normal pageant script. I met the newly crowned Miss California USA as well as her family backstage and she was such a doll. She confided that she was a fan of Project Runway and loved the gown I designed for last year's winner and couldn't wait for me to design hers.
Cut to today. My sister calls me and tells me to go to ExtraTV.com to see the new pageant scandal: It has just been discovered that the judges scores were somehow "misread" by the accounting firm overseeing it and the winner was not the Miss LA, but in fact Miss Barstow, Raquel Beezley (the Carmen Electra/Lauren Conrad doppelganger) . At least this pageant scandal did not involve pepper spray or drug addiction. 
The lovely Christina Silva, Miss LA, was asked to give up the crown she just had for only 5 days and the crowd favorite, Miss Barstow now has been crowned the new Miss California USA. I am sure this is not the way she envisioned to be crowned the most beautiful woman in California. But, as they say, any publicity is good publicity. More eyes will be on her when she competes in next year's Miss USA and she will already be on the pageant radar.
