For $45, you can have the very same “scallop lace” crop top Conrad wore herself to the show.When “The Hills” returns to MTV in 2019, star Lauren Conrad won’t be part of the reality show’s reboot. Her “relatability” remains a selling point now, as well her runway show streamed live on the Internet, and her entire collection was shoppable online at (at very reasonable price points) as soon as the show ended. She’s written novels (the first of which was a New York Times best-seller), has multiple fashion lines, started a beauty-related Web site, and has 4.4 million Instagram followers to her name. Now, Conrad, like many a former reality star, has endeavored to become a lifestyle brand in of herself.

Whereas the Kardashians’ lives of excess are intrinsic to the appeal of their show, Conrad’s “normal” life-boring brunches, drunken fights, miscommunications over meaningless items, fallings-out with good friends-was one many saw themselves in. She was the friend who would tell it to you like it was, with a lack of phoniness or condescension. For most of us, our introduction to Conrad was via reality shows Laguna Beach and The Hills, where Conrad stood out as a straight shooter. Yes, we were all, in one way or another, LC GUESTS Wednesday night, at the Skylight Modern, for the 29-year-old Conrad’s first runway show, the unofficial start to this year’s Fashion Week. As we were all shepherded, shortly before seven P.M., into the room where the actual runway show would take place, as if into a leisurely Chelsea brunch, I heard one woman behind me turn to her friend and say, taking stock of the room we were leaving, “I hope my wedding is this pretty- I mean. I watched as Ashley Tisdale took a selfie with her husband on a plush couch. I wasn’t getting cell-phone service, so I searched for a Wi-Fi network, only to find one (“LC GUEST” ) had been created specifically for the occasion ( of course, I thought). The décor was sort of Anthropologie-store-meets-airport-terminal (off-white drapes, off-white flowers, faux branches).

Everyone was dressed in black (whether literally or in spirit), a glass of Veuve Clicquot rosé champagne in one hand and a phone held limply in the other. The hundred or so people milling about at the cocktail party preceding Lauren Conrad’s New York Fashion Week debut all looked as though they could be extras on an episode of The Hills (that Laguna Beach supporting players Lo Bosworth and Dieter Schmitz were floating around the room only amplified this effect).

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