By Nick Barron
February is a month of firsts for designer Whitney Port, the former reality star of The Hills and The City. She watched her dreams come true on Wednesday when she debuted at New York Fashion Week and sent the autumn/winter 2012 collection for her Whitney Eve line down the runway at the Lincoln Centre. It is the first time Port has appeared on the schedule at New York Fashion Week since she launched the line in 2008. Backstage, I asked her how it felt to be in the NYFW club and among such great company. “Really weird and surreal,” she said. “But really, really cool.”
Scary?
“Yeah, definitely scary!” Port confirmed with a nervous giggle and a quick flick of her frankly amazing blonde mane. But the nerves aren’t going anywhere yet, she explained. “I feel that the really scary part is now when you’ve done it and you’re waiting to hear what everybody has to say, but I’m just trying to tell myself that it doesn’t matter, that it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks!”
Whitney needn’t fret – the collection was a fun, varied and extremely wearable addition to what is becoming a rather successful brand. Inspired by an antique kaleidoscope she found in her grandmother’s attic, Port showed graphic prints, tailored trousers and the occasional oh-so-very-now peplum, as well as little touches of sequin bling for the young city girl that she clearly aims for.
Soon, she’ll have the chance to pick up a few new fans from this side of the pond as she undertakes another February first - a six-week stay in London filming her new role as a judge on Britain And Ireland’s Next Top Model alongside Elle Macpherson, Julien Macdonald and Tyson Beckford.
“I’m coming out there the last week of February,” she told me. “I’m really excited! I love London but I’ve never really got the chance to actually be out there for an extended period of time, it’s exciting.”
Exciting, yes, but has she picked a judging strategy as yet – is she good cop or bad cop?
“I think that I see myself more as the nice, easy going, accepting kind of judge,” she said. “I don’t see myself being too hard on the people. I mean, I do have a side of being brutally honest but I don’t know that I’ll be able to actually be like that.”
Perhaps she’s been taking tips on brutal honesty from her famously direct mentor, fellow The Hills/The City alumni and America’s Next Top Model judge, Kelly Cutrone. Clearly the two are still close and work well together – Cutrone’s company People’s Revolution produced Whitney’s show, so one would assume it’s an important relationship.

“Very important,” Port confirmed. “I mean, Kelly has really nurtured me and taken care of me and shown me the way and she’s helped me get to where I am right now so I have an infinite amount of thanks for her.”
With that kind of support, her talent and the not-unhelpful celebrity profile behind her, the firsts will surely keep coming for Port as opportunity continues to knock. Watch this space.
Whit blogged about these backstage photos :
"Here are some more photos from my show yesterday. Call time was at 6am and we got down to business the moment we arrived. From hair and makeup, to interviews, to steaming the clothes, to dressing the models, it was nonstop until the last model walked. We documented the entire process so you all could get an up close and personal look at what goes on behind the scenes."

This morning, Celebuzz hit the tents at Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week for the debut of the latest collection from Whitney Port’s uber-successful line, Whitney Eve. We also got to chat with The City star about her new collection – and even got her talking about former Hills beauty Kristin Cavallari‘s pregnancy news.
As Whitney herself explained to us yesterday as she prepared for Wednesday’s show, the collection was “originally inspired (at least prints-wise) by a kaleidoscope that I found at my grandmother’s apartment … I was just like, ‘Wow, these images are really awesome. Why don’t I emulate these kind of geometrics and jewel tones into my prints?’ My prints are really what I feel like stand out the most about what I do.”
“As far as the aesthetic of the collection, it’s really reflective of my style aesthetic – that kind of easy, breezy Los Angeles vibe, mixed with a little edge and sophisticated aspect of New York,” she added.
So, just how long did it take for Whitney to complete her collection? “It’s really like a six-month process,” she said. “You basically start your season as soon as your last one goes off the runway. So as soon as this one is done, I’ll be starting to work on Spring of next year.
Today marked Whitney’s first solo show, and her third overall show at New York Fashion Week. In that time, she tells us she’s grown “immensely” as a designer.
“I think at first, I was kind of looking at it like a fun art project, and now the collection looks much more cohesive,” she said. “I feel like I know how to design a whole look from head to toe. I think [my collection] is definitely more wearable and it speaks to girls like me who don’t take fashion too seriously, but they really love fashion and want to step out of the lines a little bit.”
“The thing that people don’t really understand about Whitney is that she was an intern at Women’s Wear Daily before she was ever on television,” added People’s Revolution’s Kelly Cutrone, who Celebuzz spoke to after the show. “She grew up in the manufacturing business. That’s what she’d always set out to do.”

By Ariana Finlayson
Deck the walls!
Celebs like Alessandra Ambrosio and Giuliana Rancic have been spotted around town in Whitney Port's very own Whitney Eve designs, and now Port is taking things outside the closet and straight to the walls!
The City alum turned fashion designer has tapped her Whitney Eve design assistant Lisa Stannard to create special art prints, 12 in all, inspired by the label's colorful and whimsical prints.
"A huge part of the Whitney Eve design process is creating our own exclusive print designs each season," Port, 26, said on her blog January 13. "We work long and hard to make our prints beautiful and unique. I am excited to tell you that you can now buy these unique prints for your own home too!"
The art varies from the bold, aztec colors in her Fall 2011 clothing collection to the soft, pastel florals that we'll see pop up in her Spring 2012 line.
The illustrations can be ordered as art prints in three sizes (8x11, 11x16 and 16x23) or as poster prints in two sizes (8x11 and 11x16) and range in price from $13 to $92.
And to offset the shipping cost (Stannard's business is located in the UK), fans can score 30 percent off their Whitney Eve print purchases through the end of January. So head over to lisastannardshop.com to check them out!