New York Fashion Week finished its third day on Saturday, and celebrities and models from the show’s front rows were still mourning and remembering Joan Rivers, who died on Thursday. Her funeral is Sunday.
“I watched ‘Fashion Police‘ religiously,” Nicki Minaj said from her front-row seat at Alexander Wang.
Ms. Minaj was sitting among a crush of photographers, bodyguards and cameramen at Mr. Wang’s show, along with Rihanna and Lauren Hutton.
And was Ms. Minaj ever on the receiving end of one of Ms. Rivers’s famous barbs?
“Of course,” she said. “She put some stuff on Twitter that I thought was funny. I never responded.”
And why not?
“Because she’s Joan Rivers,” she said, with a laugh.
She said that she was a guest host on “Fashion Police,” the E! television show, as well.
“I did the show, and she was so sweet when I went there, so I always knew it was all in fun,” she said. “She’s been such an iconic, funny, breath of fresh air in pop culture.”
Others took it a step further.
“You didn’t make it until Joan Rivers made fun of you on ‘Fashion Police,’ ” said the model Coco Rocha, backstage before Christian Siriano’s show. “I said to myself I finally made it when I was on. I was high-fiving my husband. I think she was making the joke: ‘Who is Coco Rocha? I don’t even know who that is!’ It was just great.”
Standing to a few feet away, Jada Pinkett Smith underscored that.
“I never watched ‘Fashion Police,’ but of course we all grew up with Joan, and I’m sure she’s had some colorful things to say about some outfits I’ve worn,” she said. “If you do some research, you’ll find some. If I know Joan, she’s got plenty.”
The 14-year-old Willow Shields, who stars in “The Hunger Games” movies, is a bit too young to know the body of Ms. Rivers’s work, but she said she watched ‘Fashion Police’ since it began airing on E!.
“I was 10 when I watched my first episode of ‘Fashion Police,’ and I laughed so hard and had so much fun watching it,” she said from the Siriano show, adding that this was her first New York Fashion Week (“The models are even taller in person, and it was really scary!”). “And on the red carpet, she was so daring and free-spirited.”
At Prabal Gurung’s show, the model Lily Aldridge remembered when Ms. Rivers came after her. It was this year when she was wearing a Rosie Assoulin dress at the amfAR Gala. And she loved every second of it.
“I was on ‘Fashion Police,’ and she made a joke about it,” she said. “I was so stoked about it! I thought, ‘Joan Rivers just made fun out of my outfit and I feel so proud.’ ”
And does she remember the joke?
“I do, but I can’t say it,” she said. “It was so inappropriate.”