Kelly Cutrone: Fashion Week's Behind the Scenes Superstar

Feb. 15, 2010 — -- There are the oh-so-thin models, the open bar fiestas, the fabulously frenzied designers, and of course, the really expensive clothes.

But this New York Fashion Week, going on now, try to catch a glimpse of the woman running the show behind the scenes: Kelly Cutrone.

Maybe you recognize her from MTV's "The Hills" and "The City," in which she served as Lauren Conrad and Whitney Port's hard driving boss. Perhaps you've heard of her new Bravo series, "Kell on Earth," or her just-published book, "If You Have to Cry, Go Outside."

Why should you care about Cutrone and her myriad endeavors? Well, if you wear clothes, parent a child, or are a member of the female sex, she's got things to say that might interest you. Let us break it down thusly:

"Kell on Earth," which airs Monday nights on Bravo, chronicles Cutrone at work, ruling the fashion PR firm she founded, People's Revolution. Her company all but runs this town during New York Fashion Week, orchestrating runway shows for clients who include "Sex and the City" designer Patricia Field and jeans giant Sass & Bide. On Sept. 11, 2002, People's Revolution broke the record for the most shows produced on a single day during New York Fashion Week because Cutrone was the only person willing to put on shows on the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. For her, fashion isn't frivolous -- it may not be God's work, but it has a purpose.

"There are a bunch of different ways to look at the fashion industy. Is it shallow to work in fashion? Yes, it can be. But does fashion transform a woman who might feel like nothing and unimportant to glamorous and gorgeous? Yes, it does," Cutrone told ABCNews.com in a recent interview. "Does it employ a huge sector of America? Yes, it does."

That doesn't mean it can't be fun.

"We see women who go out and want to look like Jennifer Aniston and they're wearing an ill-fitting red dress and ugly gold shoes and they've got flat hair and they can't walk," she said. "People should just express themselves and not worry about trends -- try to use fashion like a compass, an indicator, examples of things that you can be. It's not to be taken so seriously. It's just clothes."

Her goal with "Kell on Earth" is to show the public what actually happens in the fashion world -- the fun, the clothes, the fights, the craziness. (In the first episode of "Kell on Earth," one People's Revolution staffer offers another prescription drugs to deal with a particularly hectic day.)

"There's been a lot of debate over whether the fashion industry has ever really been on TV," Cutrone said. "I think 'The Rachel Zoe Proejct' is very accurate; the rest of them, I think, the game shows, the contestant driven series -- none of these people go on to show in Paris. But we're really allowing people to go right inside this industry that forever used to be on top of a hill where no one could see into it. When we go in to go to work [on a fashion show], there's a full bar, free food -- it's like the seven deadly sins."