FIRST LOOK: MARK FAST

Confession: I saw Mark Fast's collection before it hit the London runway tonight.  Thanks to fate and a fair amount of stalking (I admit it; I'm the fashion version of Inspector Gadget), I discovered the Canadian designer's makeshift studio inside St. Martin's Lane Hotel.  I bribed him and his team with late-night chocolate, sneaked quickly up to his Polaroid board, and peeked.  It was great.  I was stoked.  So was Mark.

"NYLON's the very first press I ever got," he told me.  "It was five years ago, when I was still in school.  Nobody had ever written anything about me before, and then NYLON Magazine wanted to talk to me.  At the time, it was probably the most exciting thing of my life."

His latest Fall collection was pretty exciting, too, with woolen knits that looked unique, but still made his models incredibly sexy.  That's a major feat, considering some indie designers make incredible sculptures out of yarn, but forget their customers actually have to wear them beyond a Brooklyn gallery.

We were especially excited by the crochet necklines that were just see-through enough to be third date material.  (You don't want to waste these bombshell dresses on someone you're still deliberating.)  There were also leathers in muddy red and a skintight knit in rich, deep orange.  And true to Fast's vision that fashion, beauty, and sex belong to many women - not just those with a Ford portfolio - there were several women of average size (but definitely above-average hotness) on the catwalk.

The clothes were cool, smart, and cozy.  Seeing them twice was definitely the best chocolate I've ever spent.