Ashley Olsen was the lone Olsen twin at last night’s CFDA Awards. While Ashley rocked the red carpet, MK was in Montreal filming Beastly. The glam event was held in New York City and celebrated the best in American fashion. Lots of celebrities were in attendance, including Blake Lively, Kirsten Dunst, Ashley Olsen, Lydia Hearst, Hilary Rhoda, Claire Danes, Rachel Zoe, Coco Rocha and Molly Sims.

Ashley looked superb in a surprising orange dress. The vintage-inspired gown is from Ashley’s own collection, the Row. It’s a bold choice for Ashley, but is very much reminiscent of the Row aesthetic. It has a similar dramatic back to the long white gown Ashley wore to the MET gala last month.

Rodarte, consisting of design duo Kate and Lauren Mulleavy, took home womenswear designer of the year. The sisters topped Narciso Rodriguez and Marc Jacobs for the honors. Scott Sternberg of Band of Outsiders won menswear designer of the year and Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton took home the international award.

Olsen favorite Proenza Schouler won accessory designer of the year and Alexander Wang took home the Swarovski award for womenswear.

Images: Splash News Online | FlyNet

Here’s the official video for the Spring/Summer 2009 collection from Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s high-end line, The Row. The video features Lauren Hutton, who starred in the collection’s look book, walking on the beach and talking about the strength and courage in women. It’s a simple and elegant video, very much like the collection itself.

The Row’s official website has also finally arrived! I’m really excited that MK and Ashley have decided to make this line more accessible. It was really kept under wraps for the first few seasons. There’s not much to the website right now, just the video and a list of stores. Hopefully it will become more as the line grows.

The Boston Globe ran a short interview with Ashley Olsen yesterday. They chatted about her first fashion week (she was seventeen), a Full House reunion (don’t bet on it!), her fashion lines and new book, Influence.

I love this quote about how being an “Olsen twin” has affected her career, both positively and negatively. She seems to have such a mature and refreshing perspective on fame and how celebrity functions.

It opened a lot of doors in the beginning, because people are curious, so that helped. But automatically people will write what they want to write. It was hard at first. When we started the Row I said, ‘I don’t want anyone to know I’m behind it,’ but you can’t lie to the people you’re selling to.

The interview itself isn’t very long, but it’s interesting. Read it for yourself here.

The Examiner listed their top five celebrity fashion lines of 2008. Sister acts cleaned up this year with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s couture line The Row taking third spot and their contemporary sportswear line Elizabeth and James taking fifth. Sienna and Savannah Miller’s sister line Twenty8Twelve also made the list, coming in at #2.

The Examiner applauded MK and Ashley’s sleek and sophisticated look that’s becoming the Row’s signature and the youthful, hip vibe from Elizabeth & James.

Rounding out the top five were Kate Moss for TopShop (#4) and Chloe Sevigny for Opening Ceremony (#1).

Kudos to MK and Ashley for making such a splash in the fashion world this year. I’m confident the girls have a long and successful future ahead of them in fashion.

According to WWD, the fashion industry is buzzing about the possible addition of a menswear collection to the growing repetoire of Ashley Olsen designed lines. The collection, which will be part of Ashley’s and Mary-Kate’s high-end line The Row, is expected to be ready for next fall.

Image used with permission from Newscom

WWD says that Ashley is already conceptualizing and mapping the collection out.

I love The Row and MK and Ash’s contemporary line, Elizabeth & James. Both lines play on the ideas of masculine and feminine. I can only wonder what their menswear has in store!

It’s official–Ashley Olsen is a designing superstar. While Vogue has always given Ashley and sister Mary-Kate props for their distinctive personal sense, the praise given to their high-end fashion line The Row (although Vogue says Ashley is the sole designer!) is pretty fantastic. Even the mag itself admits they are amazed they are including the relatively new line in a piece about Karl Lagerfield and Azzedine Alaia.

You can check out the article for yourself here.

I also love the accompanying photo shoot. It features Ashley in a tailored skirt-suit wearing aviators, which you can check out here.

Image details: The Row - Launch Dinner served by picapp.com

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are still in Hong Kong promoting their fashion lines.

A few days ago, they hosted a trunk show for their higher end line, the Row.

According to WWD, about 75 customers came to the Lane Crawford show and bought loads of stuff!

“As soon as the girls came in, everyone was getting really into it — they were asking them how they should style their outfits,” said a spokeswoman for the Olsens.

“Mary-Kate and Ashley also stayed at the store after the event to restyle the mannequins wearing The Row, and they did a training session with the sales staff at Lane Crawford.”

It’s greatto hear that the girls are working hard to make sure their line is a success.

Jean Brown, a high-end store in Australia, is now carrying Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s high-end fashion line The Row.

The Jean Brown website offers very little info, but if you’re interested, just call the store or pop by the boutique if you live in Brisbane.

Thanks to Away from Blue for the tip!

Below is a video of The Row portfolio of the latest looks!

Some people think that the young girl might be Mary-Kate and Ashley’s younger sister Taylor. Do you?

WWD caught up with Ashley Olsen in Dallas.

“It’s been great,” Ashley said to them about working on the Row. “It’s been a lot of work, but fun.”

Ashley told them that the Row is the reason she is on hiatus from her liberal arts degree from NYU.

The Fall 2008 collection has 100 looks in total, a big step-up from the original 18 looks.

“What it always comes down to is simple, clean lines and beautiful fabrics,” Ashley said. “The whole collection is based on fit and quality.”

To read the entire article, click here.

Thanks to jj for the tip!

Image via WWD