Super-designer Tracy Reese (shown here with Veronica Webb, Deborah Cox, and fashion industry maven Bethann Hardison), showed her glamorous, retro, resort-chic collection earlier today at Bryant Park. After the jump, check out her famous guests, some runway shots, and the scene backstage.

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It was the era of the Supermodel — you know, when they all went by their first and last names but certainly didn't need to — think Naomi, Christy, Linda — and claimed they didn't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.

New York Fashion Week shows were more glamorous (read: they weren't sponsored by Olympus or Mercedes Benz and were held in lofts, clubs, and restaurants instead of tents). And Sam Fine was behind the scenes — at Geoffrey Bean, Fernando Sanchez, Tracy Reese, Todd Oldham, Isaac Mizrahi, etc. — giving the models faces to match their designer looks or rushing from show to show with Naomi and Tyra.

It was the first half of the '90s when Sam Fine both assisted the late Kevyn Aucoin and worked the shows on his own. Those were the good ol' days… that he doesn't really want to go back to.

"It's a fun gig, but I leave it to the young at heart and the ones that really love fashion," he told Stereohyped.

And it's not like being a celebrity makeup artist, which is the the job Sam Fine graduated to when he left the fashion show world, is any less glamorous. Or that much different.

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Before Beverly, Iman, Veronica, Naomi and Tyra, there was Dorothea. Okay, so the name doesn't conjure up images of beauty and glamour the way the ones I just listed do. But those fashion icons all walked through the doors Dorothea opened.

In the 1950s, Dorothea Towles Church was the first black model to sweep the Paris couture scene. A favorite of Christian Dior, for whom she dyed her hair platinum blond to create "contrast," Church has said that in Paris, they saw her only as a beautiful woman. Of course, the Texas native did not have the same mainstream success in the United States, but magazines like Jet and Ebony would often publish articles detailing her Paris adventures.

But her growing fame did not eliminate prejudice on the part of some designers. At Schiaparelli, she once overheard someone describe her as Tahitian. While she worked for Pierre Balmain, she recalled, he would not allow her to borrow dresses for a photograph for Ebony magazine, fearing that would offend his white clientele. She took the clothes later on the pretext that she would wear them to a party, and the magazine then photographed them.

Church returned to the states in 1954 armed with trunk-loads of couture she had amassed through her work with different designers. She toured HBCUs, staging fashion shows with the never-before-seen designer clothes and throwing fundraisers for various branches of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Read more about the little-known Dorothea Church in Skin Deep: Inside the World of Black Fashion Models.

Call me cheesy (it wouldn't be the first time), but I kind of love celebrity offspring. Much to my delight, a bunch of them came out for a special screening of Surf's Up, an animated "mockumentary" about surfing penguins. Whatever happened to the fairy tales of my generation? A question for another time, perhaps. Anyway, here's Tiki Barber with his little ones. Rachel Roy, Al Roker, and Veronica Webb were also there to teach their kids how to take advantage of perks related to their parents' celebrity.

Bravo's roster of '90s super models (Heidi Klum on Project Runway and Padma Lakshmi on Top Chef) just grew, now that Veronica Webb has been tapped to cohost the network's new fashion makeover show with Tim Gunn.

As one of the world's leading supermodels, the Detroit-born diva graced the covers of 'Vogue,' 'Essence' and 'Elle' magazines and strutted the runway for Victoria's Secret and Chanel. The former Revlon spokesmodel has starred in films such as Spike Lee's 'Jungle Fever,' and 'Malcolm X,' and penned the 1998 tome 'Veronica Webb-Site: Adventures in the Big City.'

"We think Veronica will make the perfect complement to Tim – she'll add a little sass to his class," Bravo's programming chief Frances Berwick said. "She not only brings extensive fashion expertise to the series, but she will be someone for our makeover subjects to lean on, creating a fun, comfortable, yet educational experience that our viewers can learn from."

Rumor has it the reason Bravo began searching for a co-host was because Tim Gunn was a little dry and serious to carry his own show. Chances are Webb is going to be responsible for the personality portion of the show. It looks like Tyra (and Iman before her) has permanently inspired ex-models to continue to work it in their retirement.

[BV]