Sexy Septuagenarian

"I've been turning 70 for what feels like years now," Betsey Johnson told us last month at a department store birthday party for her in L.A. The reason? Dozens of shindigs have been thrown for Johnson across the country to celebrate her turning the big 7-0 on August 10. Johnson is planning a major Fashion Week show for her milestones both personal and professional.

The presentation will showcase her Spring 2013 collection of dresses along with items from her many licenced lines, including shoes, handbags, jewelry, hair accessories, hosiery and swimwear. The party-cum-fashion show will be filmed for the upcoming reality show to debut on The Style Network this fall. Oh, but that's not all for the woman whose life, and collection, embodies a "more is more" philosophy.

The Sept . 11 event will include a retrospective of her designs from her Youthquake 1960s beginnings to the colorful, rock-and-roll-tinged present. We predict the vintage pieces, shipped to Betsey by longtime fans and collectors, will be the highlight of this momentous extravaganza. (Unless, of course, Betsey busts out a back flip on the runway.)

We asked Johnson her ability to keepin' on keepin' on from a design perspective—after all these years and the fads that came and went with them. "It's about costumes," she explained about her whimsical and sexy/rocker clothing. "I look at my granddaughter, and her friends, and they are always in one kind of dress-up clothes or another. My clothes let you be a fairy or a rock star or a princess. That's the secret!"