Click On Image to Enlarge

At the end of a very exciting week that included indulgent gourmet foodie events and a Rolling Stone Magazine-sponsored concert featuring cool bands like The Sheep Dogs and Cake, we rounded out the week in fitting scenester style at a party for designer Andy Hilfiger’s Andrew Charles line of ready-to wear-Rock ‘n Roll clothing, now on display/for sale at pop-up store Riff, located at 313 Bowery in the space formerly occupied by the Morrison Hotel Gallery. The designs in this moderately priced collection – which includes T-Shirts, blouses and tops, jeans, jackets and dresses – are inspired by the very fun style of legendary Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler and his daughter, model Chelsea Tyler.

Entering the store, it was time to wax full-on nostalgic for the ’70s, as the ground-floor showroom was decorated in an old school glam rock fashion that we can only assume must have been influenced by next-door neighbor John Varvatos’ upscale rock clothing boutique (which makes its home in the space vacated by CBGB).  Framing the racks of sequin-embellished tops and leopard print mini-dresses, the walls of the store were adorned with one-of-a-kind rock paraphernalia (especially loved a framed collection of Ramones’ Gold Cassette Awards, plaques, photos and CDs that most likely belonged to Marky Ramone) and a sizable number of large canvas portraits of Rockers that are part of The Smoking Series by artist Michael H. Most of these assemblage paintings are new additions to the series since we visited the exhibit this past summer. Great work, Michael!

This was definitely a see-and-be-seen event. It was fun to catch up with pals like Ken Scrudato, Scarlet Rowe, Dennis Dunaway and Vera Ramone King, but there were also lots of stars old and new in the crowd. Or course, once Steven Tyler arrived, the swarm of photographers was enough to get (literally) swept away in! Downstairs, the former CBGB’s Lounge was packed wall to wall with partiers while Andy Hilfiger’s band, Hired Killers, Inc. rocked and knocked everyone on their asses with their awesome tunes! The biggest surprise of the night came when Steven Tyler joined Hired Killers on stage for spot-on renditions of “Mama Kin” and the blues standard Aerosmith made their own on their self-titled debut, “Train Kept a Rollin.” Insane! The place was so dense with bodies that it wasn’t until we got home and checked our FaceBook news feed that we realized we’d missed seeing a ton of friends in the crowd, but it sounded like everyone had fun!

Steven Tyler with Andy Hilfiger (Photo by Anne Raso)

The RIFF pop-up store officially opens for business today, Saturday October 15, 2011 at 313 Bowery (at Bleecker), NYC, New York and closes its doors after the Holiday season ends three months from now. Drop on by while you can and get some of your gift shopping done in Glam Rock Style!