Fashion's Night Out: Beth Ditto Vamps, Sean Lennon Multitasks, Neon Indian Commands The Room

Debbie and I arrived at Fashion's Night Out like lambs to the slaughter. Never having attended before, we had no idea what kinds of mewling, puking throngs would fill the streets with tangles of flesh, like some kind of underfed Boschian nightmare. But amid it all, there were some enticing musical performances on the offering, so we went. Oh, how we went.

Debbie Allen

Hoping to kick things off right, we headed to the MAC store in Soho to see Beth Ditto perform some of her cheeky pop. Like most FNO venues, the place was packed to the brim with black-clad youths eager for free champagne, but Beth attracted some Ditto-specific fans as well. After the president of MAC introduced her (calling her old band "Gossip" and her "Beth Dee-toe"), she took the stage in a clingy, rainbow-colored dress and crimped black bob. "If you shoplifted, I hope you got a lot," she said in her sweet Southern drawl. Then: "I wanna see a grind or two!" People ground as much as space allowed.

Beth's solo material takes more than a little inspiration from early-'90s Madonna, so it was fitting that after two originals she and her two already-voguing male backup dancers did a spirited cover of "Vogue." "My name is Beth Kardashian," she joked afterwards. "I don't understand why the chubbier Kardashian doesn't make a plus-size line. Queen Latifah did it." She then did a clubbier rendition of Dolly Parton's "Jolene," yelled "fashion is a bitch!" and left a trail of grins and glitter in her wake.