Kimora Lee comes full circle

Robert Kahn | NEWSDAY STAFF WRITER

One-time 'NSync boy-bander J.C. Chasez was backstage at the Lacoste show Saturday night, milling about with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Mary-Louise Parker. He's got on the classic black alligator shirt, conservatively tucked into jeans. You'd never suspect he used to prance about a stage with Justin Timberlake.

I remember wearing these as a kid, but they disappeared for a while," says Chasez, 29, and about to release his second solo album on the Jive label.

"Everybody turned to jackets and ripped things and rhinestones, and I was as guilty as anybody." He's not repping the company; he just had some of the stuff in his closet and thought coming to the show would be a kick.

Kimora Lee and Russell Simmons, fresh from being handed the keys to the City of Newark, were backstage late Friday before her Baby Phat looks, tending to a celeb crowd that included Carrie Underwood, Fran Drescher, Fat Joe and Janice Combs

Kimora looks fresh in a black and white silk shirt. Last season, she showed at Radio City, allowing her a guest list of 3,500. This time, it's the tent, capacity about 1,200. Shouldn't she have aspired to something like the Rainbow Room?

"That was the biggest show ever, but now we're back in Bryant Park because it's the root of fashion," she says, eyeing the overcrowded space. "This is where you start before you venture out and do all those creative things. It's a full circle."

Walking assertively and flashing a victory sign with her fingers, Lindsay Lohan stepped out Friday in the big space to kick off the Red Dress Collection, the Heart Truth organization's annual awareness-raising runway show about women and heart disease.

Also on the catwalk, wearing designs from Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and two dozen others: Patti Hansen, Elaine Stritch, Michelle Phillips, Audra MacDonald and Sheryl Crow, on the same day her split from Lance Armstrong was announced.

Backstage, Bebe Neuwirth was getting ready to slip into Narciso Rodriguez, which she will wear to the strains of "All That Jazz." Says she just celebrated birthday number "39L," which is several beyond "39A." She gifted herself with a black leather shirt from the Jean Shop on W. 14th St. and a party for her girlfriends catered by Murray's Bagels.

"A New Year's Eve birthday can be the biggest drag in the entire world," she says. "If your birthday is July 6, they're still singing 'Happy Birthday' to you at 2 a.m. This is the only day of the year where your birthday ends at midnight and everybody is scrupulous about counting down to the end of it."

Freelance writer Sharon Bridbord contributed to this column.