A Flash Point at Donna Karan

Looking forward to seeing Donna Karan’s fall collection? Fuhgeddaboutit.

Several dozen photographers staged a walkout at the designer’s show Friday afternoon.

The walkout occurred after many were denied admission, and the ones who did get in were jammed into a tiny work space. About 40 photogs can fit comfortably into the space Karan had allotted for 100. Only eight, including the designer’s staffers, stayed behind to shoot.

“When you invite 100 people to see a show, they expect to be accommodated,” said photographer Randy Brooke of Paper magazine. “This has happened repeatedly in this space.”

Photographers from major magazines, newspapers and wire services tried to negotiate with the designer for an hour before the show, to no avail.

“This is war,” said Buster Dean, a Houston Chronicle photographer.

Karan’s show has always been one of the most difficult to get tickets for because the designer insists on using her showroom, instead of Bryant Park, where other major designers show. Karan could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Her Seventh Avenue space has so few elevators that press and buyers often have to travel on the freight lift. (Fifteen editors missed Friday’s show after being trapped in a malfunctioning elevator, according to online magazine Fashion Wire Daily.)

Daily coverage provided by a local New York cable channel, Metro, allowed more people to see the runway shows, but there were many more people clamoring to get in than there were seats in most cases.

Editors from smaller newspapers and magazines were often not even invited to must-see shows like Helmut Lang, Calvin Klein and Karan, and those who were, were relegated to back-row seats.

Meanwhile, editors at fashion magazines with monthly circulations that are a fraction of some newspapers’ daily circulation commanded front-row seats.

How can designers like Karan possibly benefit from alienating people who travel so far to cover them?

Here’s an idea: Why don’t designers stage their runway shows on a horse track, where everyone could sit in the front row? Sure, the catwalk would be a little longer, but thoroughbreds like supermodel Gisele shouldn’t expect to be paid $7,000 an hour and not break a sweat. Plus, the change might help quash the return of savage trends like stiletto heels.

*

Fashion hounds are crazy for their pups. Yes, canines have become the ultimate fashion accessory (which is a bit ironic considering last week’s fur protests).

Fashionable dog owners are outfitting their pooches in Lamberston Truex collars, Hermes coats and other high-style duds from Zitomer Z Spot Three Dog Bakery, pet emporium and patisserie on Madison Avenue, a few doors down from the Carlyle Hotel.

Designer John Bartlett’s dog Sweetie is one seasoned fashion show attendee. The little mutt, who “writes” a monthly column for Elle magazine, was feted by the fashionable at Barneys New York the other night.

I asked Sweetie, whose origins are somewhat dubious (she was found by the side of the road in upstate New York four years ago) what she brings to the world of fashion journalism that all the other dogs don’t.

“I speak what’s on my mind. I’m an everywoman,” she said through her translator, Mark Welsh, who happens to be Bartlett’s partner. “I’m not afraid to embrace my back fat, I think all men in the world are dogs, and, like all girls, I’m not sure in summer if I should shave my midriff.”

Sweetie, from one columnist to another, your humans have too much time on their hands.

Senior fashion writer Valli Herman-Cohen contributed to this report.