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Katie Holmes, Brooklyn Decker, Jessica Chastain Kick Off Fashion Week

By Lisa Marsh | September 6, 2012 9:21am

NEW YORK CITY — While some believe fashion is a sport, talk turned to real sports on the eve of the official start to Fashion Week.

“My first love is sports, because I grew up in North Carolina and that’s the main form of entertainment,” explained model-turned-actress Brooklyn Decker.

Fresh from watching her husband Andy Roddick play the final match of his tennis career at the U.S. Open, she walked the red carpet at the debut party for the next round of Target Shops designers at the Highline Ballroom in the Meatpacking District.

Decker admitted to running track and playing soccer herself, but her true calling was cheerleading.

“I cheered, which is a sport in the South,” she said. “We competed and were state champs. I feel a little ridiculous saying it.”

Actresses Hailee Steinfeld and Jessica Chastain also attended the event, with Chastain champing at the bit to start filling her bags.

“I’m a huge shopper. It’s very rare for me to go into a store and not buy something," she said. "And I do look for sales. I’m not crazy.”

Uptown, the ninth-annual Style Awards were being held in the tents at Lincoln Center, with many A-list celebrities presenting honors to top designers, and vice-versa.

New designer Katie Holmes presented Carolina Herrera with the “Designer of the Year” award, while Elettra Wiedeman presented Prabal Gurung with “Breakthrough Designer of the Year” award.

“Most Stylist Athlete” Henrik Lundqvist, the New York Rangers' sure-handed goalie, admitted he was shocked to receive the award.

“I dress a certain way, and I’ve been dressing the same way for six years,” the Swedish player, wearing a Calvin Klein suit and knit bowtie, explained.

And his favorite piece of clothing?

“I have a reindeer leather jacket from Sweden," he said. "It’s blue and it looks like regular leather. I wear it often.”

Designer Rebecca Minkoff was busy enjoying the attention her side project of making tongue-in-cheek videos is bringing. Her most recent, with model Hilary Rhoda and “The Man Repeller” Leandra Medine, is titled “Fashion Week Boot Camp” and features the trio's Fashion Week preparations.

“People can get so serious about Fashion Week and we wanted to have fun with it,” Minkoff said. The ladies' last spoof, a version of “Call Me Maybe,” has more than 164,000 views on YouTube.

Back on the topic of athletics, the show’s executive producer Stephanie Winston Wolkoff admitted she was also a sporting girl, having played Division 1 basketball when she was in college.

“It was at Fordham," she said, "but only for two years.”

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Earlier in the day, design icon Oscar de la Renta was honored by the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Couture Council at its annual luncheon at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. Sarah Jessica Parker, Vogue’s Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg and every socialite within a 100-mile radius turned out to show their support. Even Mayor Michael Bloomberg was tapped to present de la Renta with his award.