John Waters steps in for Johnny Depp at fashion awards

Cleaned up but fresh off the highway from his cross-country hitchhiking trip, John Waters was hanging with a much more refined crowd this week -- the starlets and fashionistas at the 2012 Council of Fashion Designers of America Fashion Awards.

Waters accepted a big prize at Monday's event in New York City on behalf of his friend Johnny Depp.

Depp was awarded the Fashion Icon prize. While accepting it, Waters called the actor "the star who made dirty hair fashionable." (Depp couldn't attend the event because he was filming "The Lone Ranger.")

Waters himself is regarded as something of a fashionista. This recent LA Weekly post mentions how he's helped along the creative sock trend. And he was photographed at the awards in two very fashion-forward jackets and orange shoes.

At the ceremony, they showed a collage of some of Depp's noteworthy outfits. Accordign to The Associated Press, Waters remarked, "This man can't look ugly no matter how hard he tries."

He mixes it, John Waters told Vanity Fair about Depp. I like him in Cry-Baby, when he was a rockabilly. But I like him best in pictures when he was getting in trouble."

Waters, quite busy that night, grabbed another prize on behalf of a Tokyo-based designer, Rei Kawakubo, who works for Comme des Garcons. Waters has modeled for her. The Baltimore filmmaker had some fun with her, too, jokingly describing her look and delicate fabris as "disaster at the dry-cleaner."

Stars at the event included Lauren Hutton, the Olsen twins, Padma Lakshmi, Dakota Fanning, Mandy Moore and Heather Graham.

jill.rosen@baltsun.com

@BaltInsider on Twitter