The Hearts for Haiti T shirts at the 79 New Montgomery retail store are a hot commodity - and they’re only SIX of them left!

So if you wanna support a good cause and have a snazzy T shirt to show for it, mosey on down to the 79 retail store and snag one before they’re all gone!

Ranya Mordanova in the makeup chair backstage at our show. Photo credit: Janelle Okwodu for MDC

The people at Models.com did a good blog post of some of the freshest faces in the modeling world that walked at our New York show:

There are plenty of fresh designers showing their wares in the tents this season, but the Academy of Art University show offers up something special. Six talented students ( Beathany Meuleners, Hyo Sun, Marina Solomatnikova, Naomi Sutton, Sabah Mansoor, Stephen Oo ) are given the chance to exhibit their collections, with a full show featuring the best in models. Backstage was a who’s who of beautiful faces: Tao, Alana, Edythe, the list goes on. The chosen six students showed a wide array of looks and their talent was evident in each and every piece.

To read the complete story and for a TON of pictures, visit Models.com.

Please give a warm welcome to our newest blogger Harry Go! He will be delivering witty banter on the world of culture, fashion and everything else in between. In his first piece puts the spotlight on Prada’s Fall 2010 show - and the boring “hype” it caused with its models

Last week, the Prada Fall 2010 show was held in Milan and it was streamed live on their website — but it was really bad.

Before the show started, there was a hype created by the Internet world. People were saying that this season’s models will shock the audiences and they would be Prada’s answer to CFDA’s size and age question.

What was Prada up to? Were they going to import plus-size models? Or maybe they were going to bring in some old models. And by old, I mean real old. Like Carol Alt or even Twiggy. I was hoping for lots and lots of models of color. It wouldn’t be an answer to CFDA’s size and age issue, but it would still be a shocker.

On the day of the show, people in Milan noticed that Victoria’s Secret models were flying in to Milan on the day of the big show. I hoped that this wasn’t the shocker. Unfortunately it was.

Miranda Kerr walked Balenciaga and Adriana Lima has walked in Givenchy. Plus, Alessandra Ambrósio, Karolina Kurkova, Izabel Goulart and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley all walked in Giles Fall 2010.

There was nothing exciting about this. We expected more from you Miuccia - especially with all this unnecessary hype

Alessandra, Miranda and Bianca Balti have the similar body type to Prada’s new favorite gals Lindsey Wixson or Rasa Zukauskaite . They probably have a little bit more in the breast and curve area, but it’s not too obvious. The only mild—or semi-mild—shocker was Doutzen Kroes who was visibly a little bit bigger than the rest of the cast.

Doutzen Kroes at Prada Fall 2010. Photo credit: Style.com

Based on this, it looks like the house of Prada is trying hard to remove themselves from bad stereotypes. After casting all Caucasian girls in Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 (unless the Brazilian beauty, Isabeli, counted as a model of color), Prada thought they can get away with it by playing a hip-hop song and putting two Asian models (Liu Wen and Shu Pei Qin) and an an African-American model (Lyndsey Scott) for the Spring 2010 show. Read more…

Mocha Bride magazine has finally hit the shelves and has already sold out in two Walgreens stores! I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was on the cover. This is my very first magazine cover and I’m excited that things are headed in the right direction. It’s a little strange to see my picture on the front, but I am very grateful.

Besides the magazine, modeling in the Bay Area has been pretty slow. I recently talked to my agent about reaching out to other markets during slow times. We are in the process of looking into signing with an agency in South Africa and possibly spending some time there. This would be an amazing experience. To finally stay a month or more in a country I’ve longed to visit. This would also be a great way for me to build my book with published work and come back to the States with more experience and a bit of an edge. The opportunity couldn’t be more on time!

Written by: Erin Leeper

Click here to read more of “The Model Life of Erin”

Remember that Fashion Week video that Kristy Siefkin did for us? Well, she was nice enough to share the extended six-minute version of the video! Check it out:

The folks at Fashion News Live posted not one - not two - not three - but FOUR videos about our show in New York in February. One showcases our entire runway show, another puts the spotlight on Sabah and her collection and the last two are interviews with Project Runway alum Kevin Christiana and Paper Magazine Editorial Director Mickey Boardman.

Runway coverage:

Sabah’s interview:

Kevin Christiana’s interview:

Mickey Boardman’s interview:

For more on Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week click here

Calling all fashion students! If you haven’t signed up for Beyond The Front Row fashion club, there is still time!

March is especially a good month to get involved. On March 6, the club will be hosting their National Community Service Day with two events. The first being The National Odd Shoe Exchange starting at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday March 6 in 180 New Montgomery room 713. Members will be packing up shoes and donating to women and men that have an unfortunate disability and are only able to work with one leg.

The second is a with the children’s boutique and fashion school Wee Scotty. Our members will offer their fashion illustrating and sewing advice to the adorable young ones of Wee Scotty. If you are interested, meet in front of 180 New Montgomery at 10 a.m. and we will take the shuttle to the Concourse Exhibition Center at 8th Street & Brannan.

If you can’t make any of those, stop by our meeting at 7 p.m. on March 11. The meeting will take place at Morgan Auditorium (491 Post Street).

If any of these events interest you don’t think twice! Come join BTFR because each event and project is contributing to a good cause - plus, it’s really fun!

Written by: Bridget Reed, Beyond the Front Row secretary

Yup. Our New York show is still getting press!

Tia Walker a blogger for her site The Quest For “It” made a snazzy little video featuring our designers backstage before the show:

She also gave Fashion School Daily a shout out on her website!

For more of our Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week news click here

Focus On Your Closet: Spring Cleaning Begins!
Give 2, Take 1
Start cleaning out your closets and setting aside clothes and accessories for the April 17th clothing swap and clothing drive hosted by Beyond the Front Row (fashion club) and the St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco. This event, Give 2, Take 1 (“G2T1”), will function as a fundraiser for the club, and a charitable clothing-drive for St. Vincent’s community programs.

Here’s the deal: for every 2 items donated, donors get to take (or ‘swap’) 1 item in return - hence the name “Give 2, Take 1”. All items remaining at the end of the April 17th swap will be donated to St. Vincent’s. This fun sustainable–charitable event also happens to coincide with Earth Day! Collection of donations begins the last week of March, on campus and elsewhere. Details to follow.
Please note: Clothing and accessories donations will happily be accepted, regardless of participation in the clothing swap. St. Vincent’s is in urgent need of men’s clothing - additional donations from the closets of boyfriends, husbands, brothers, and sons would be greatly appreciated!
Now accepting donations of: coat hangers and shopping bags at 180 New Montgomery, office #704.

Open House / Open Studio
Saturday March 6, 2010
180 New Montgomery - 9:00am - 5:00pm
Meet, greet, and host prospective School of Fashion students (and their parents) as they tour the MFA Studio and the 7th Floor. *Beyond the Front Row will be organizing shoe donations in room 713 from 8:30am - 11:00am; please consider including this community service project as part of your tour (see below for more information).

Community Service Day Projects from Beyond the Front Row
Saturday, March 6, 2010 (2 events)

National Odd Shoe Exchange
180 New Montgomery, Room 713, 8:30am - 11:30am
At last month’s Shoe-In fashion club members voted to donate all the shoes collected and used for the holiday “shoe-tree” project to the National Odd Shoe Exchange, www.oddshoe.org This non-profit organization supplies single shoes, as well as pairs of different-sized shoes, to those in need due to injury, disease and/or genetic disorders. BTFR club members will be sorting, organizing and preparing to ship the shoes to the National Odd Shoe Exchange during the Open House / Open Studio (room 713).

Wee Scotty
Concourse Exhibition Center at 8th Street & Brannan, 10:00am - 3:00pm
Beyond the Front Row members offer their sewing, construction and fashion illustration skills to assist some of the young Wee Scotty designers (ages 7+) and Wee Scotty proprietors with demonstrations for the community exhibition.

For more events follow the jump. Read more…

New York’s web-based news channel, NY1 recently posted a video piece of our designers and our show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. We can’t embed it, but we can show you a screen shot…

AND you can watch the whole video by clicking here.

For more on Mercedes-Benz Fashion week click here.