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Talk About Your Social Security

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Sean “Puffy” Combs cuts a pretty wide swath wherever he goes, including the tent at Passannte Park, where the music mogul-fashion designer held up the Marc Jacobs show Monday night because his security guards didn’t have seats. Jacobs (not one to go with the flow) staged his spring show away from Bryant Park in the West Village, making the usually late start even later as fashionista-filled town cars navigated the downtown streets. Sitting in the front row for Jacobs’ homage to girl bands of the 1980s were Winona Ryder, Brittany Murphy (“Girl Interrupted”) and Debbie Harry.

Combs, sans Jennifer Lopez (the two are rumored to be on the outs), arrived in time to greet Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Tally and former model and front-row favorite Milla Jovovich, and to give a few on-camera interviews to boot. But when the second whistle blew, signaling the show was about to start, Combs saw that the front-row riser where he was to be seated didn’t have room for his two burly guards. After a pair of bewildered publicists buzzed into headsets for an excruciating 10 minutes, Combs made room on a step between the risers for his bodyguards, who sat by his side.

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Civic-minded footwear king and fashion designer Kenneth Cole presented his first women’s collection at a hall in Grand Central Station here Wednesday with golden girl Karenna Gore Schiff in the front row. “Rock the Vote” volunteers manned the presentation, and pamphlets from the organization, which urges political participation among young adults, were placed on attendees’ chairs. Cole’s invitations to the show included New York state voter registration forms.

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The runway presentation began with a video by “The Daily Show’s” Jon Stewart about the importance of voting, with a message from New York senatorial candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said, “Vote! It will make you look better.”

Ronald Reagan Jr. and Billy Baldwin, who is president of the political advocacy group Creative Coalition, were also in the audience.

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Those watching evening-wear designer Pamela Dennis’ show Wednesday may have had a sense of deja vu. One of the looks, a kaleidoscopic black, gray and white see-through gown with a plunging Lopez neck was none other than the Geena Davis shocker from last week’s Emmys. Dennis, who seems pleased as punch now to be backed by Pegasus Group, said the Davis dress will not be mass produced but that other revealing dresses in the same fabric will be. Well, that’s a relief.

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New York fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert, who in 1941 started the International Best Dressed List, hosted her annual luncheon for fashion editors Sunday. Held in her Fifth Avenue apartment, the affair was like lunching at one’s grandmother’s house, with servings of chicken pot pie, corn pudding and carrot cake. The irrepressible Lambert, who wore a macrame necklace by an Oakland jeweler and her hair in a red turban, greeted guests in her living room. I asked Lambert who she considers to be the best-dressed woman of all time. Her answer? Not Grace Kelly or Jacqueline Onassis, but a personal friend, 1950s socialite Gloria Guinness. “She really knew how to put it all together,” said Lambert.

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