It's hard to imagine quiet, Zen-like Lynne Hanzawa O'Neill in the middle of the maelstrom that is New York Fashion Week. But that's exactly where she is right now. As a fashion show director and event producer, O'Neill, who has deep roots in Hawai'i, oversees the frenetic shows that are at the forefront of American fashion.

The responsibilities of a fashion show's director can include any and all of the following: working with the designer on the concept, casting models, putting the production team together, developing action plans, selecting venues, and hiring people to do hair, makeup, fittings, styling, music, staging, lighting, budgets and even transporting garments. And if any one of this cast of hundreds doesn't turn up, she has to jump in and do their job, too.

"I have to make sure the models get there and make sure they get their makeup, hair and nails done. My assistants have to get them in line and wearing what they're supposed to be wearing. That hasn't happened to me too many times," O'Neill said. Trying to get models onto the runway can be like herding cats.

Coordinating shows during Fashion Week is, to say the least, a high-pressure job, and O'Neill has been loving it for 18 years.

Her favorite task during a show is "calling." Calling a fashion show means sitting up in a control booth, overlooking the runway, and cueing the music, lights and models to create the magic the designer desires.

O'Neill was born in Hawai'i, grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from Culver City High School. Her parents, who were both born and raised in Hawai'i, had big families, and O'Neill spent her summers and holidays on O'ahu.

Her mother is Florence Nekomoto, one of 10 children of Sadato and Shizuko Nekomoto, who were both from Hiroshima. Nekomoto lived in McCully and went to McKinley High School.

Her father is Roy Hanzawa, one of 10 children of Kaju and Tetsu Hanzawa. His family lived on School Street, and he went to Farrington High School.

Her parents, now divorced, live in Hawai'i. Since 1990, O'Neill has called New York her home.

A ROUNDABOUT CAREER

O'Neill's career path has been a crooked one — in fact, one might call it accidental. She majored in art history at UCLA because she developed a love of art and architecture while hitchhiking around Europe the summer after her high school graduation.

She moved to San Francisco and worked in the city's fine art museums, first as a volunteer, then managing the volunteers.

She then took a job at Macy's as special events coordinator. From flower shows and tabletop events, she segued into coordinating fashion shows for Macy's. While there, from 1980 to 1985, she worked with Versace, Geoffrey Beene, Perry Ellis, Ellen Tracy, Missoni, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. "This formed the basis of my so-called career," O'Neill said, with characteristic modesty. She insists that she doesn't really have a career, she just careens from one event to another.

After a few months living in Japan with a friend who was in fashion public relations, O'Neill moved back to San Francisco and began freelancing. Her first client was Levi's, for whom she produced and directed fashion shows. Then GQ magazine called her to put together events for its fragrance launches.

In 1990, Benetton asked O'Neill to coordinate its 25th anniversary event at the New York City Zoo.

"After the event, I said to myself, 'OK, if I can get work here, I'll sublet an apartment and see if I can make it.' That was 18 years ago and I'm still here," she said — now with an apartment in Greenwich Village and a home on a lake about two hours outside the city.

The job is always evolving for O'Neill. This year, she is directing EcoChic, a green Fashion Week event created, she said, "to raise awareness of ecology and the ecosystem. Designers are being asked to design looks for celebrity models using all natural fibers. It will take place in the Museum of Natural History."

Over the years, she has worked all around the United States, in the Caribbean, Venezuela, Italy and Canada.

During her 18 years in New York, she has produced and directed "Fashion Rocks" for Condé Nast publications, working with Duran Duran, Billy Idol, David Bowie, Beyoncé, Gwen Stefani, Arcade Fire and Joss Stone. For Nike, she directed a show featuring Michael Jordan.

For Best Buy, she produced a launch party for the Rolling Stones. For Lane Bryant, she produced a show with Anna Nicole Smith, Camryn Manheim, Queen Latifah, Kiss and Aretha Franklin.

INSPIRED TV CHARACTER

Her most memorable assignment, she says, was coordinating a classic fashion-show-themed episode of "Sex and the City." In it, Carrie Bradshaw topples off her high heels to fall face-first on the runway.

O'Neill was inspiration for Lynne Cameron, the fashion-show coordinator in the episode played by Margaret Cho.

"I also was the technical consultant on that episode," O'Neill notes. "I hired the casting director to hire the models, I hired the music coordinator and I also hired Orlando Pita to do hair and (the late) Kevyn Aucoin to do makeup. Sarah Jessica Parker wanted the best people to work on that fashion show.

"It was important for (director) Michael Patrick King for it to look real. A lot of fashion people followed that show avidly, so it needed to look authentic. As technical consultant, I was on the set."

O'Neill was impressed with the authenticity of the fashion show within the TV show. She was also surprised that Sarah Jessica Parker did that sprawling fall over and over and over again — without a stunt double or any padding — until she was satisfied that it was perfect.

O'Neill says being involved with the show, which is considered a classic, "was a great gift in life. It was more of an honor having Margaret Cho play me than if I was playing myself."

The only thing that was not authentic, O'Neill said, was the language that Cho used throughout the show. "Sex and the City" writer "Darren Star said the character of Lynne Cameron was a 'potty-mouth' version of me," O'Neill said with a laugh.

Her most recent foray into TV was just a few weeks ago, on the set of the uber-cool hit show "Gossip Girl." She cannot say what her role was there, but it's a sure bet that a fashion scene — and we're guessing an O'Neill fashion show — is coming up this season. The episode O'Neill worked on will air Sept. 29.

NOT AN EASY TASK

When "Sex and the City" director King needed a producer to put together a runway show for the movie version, he called O'Neill. As the film's fashion show consultant, she called the models in the on-screen fashion show. She also coordinated the hair and makeup people and worked with Vivienne Westwood, the English designer whose clothes were featured.

"People think that calling a show is easy," O'Neill said, "But that's only if everything is running smoothly." That doesn't happen often, however. Zippers break. Hosiery runs. Heels come off stilettos. Lipstick gets on a white collar. It's a mad dash to get the garments completed, and models get sewn into their outfit as they're standing, waiting to go on stage.

O'Neill's ultimate horror story was during a show "of the designer of the moment, who shall go unnamed. The show was such a hot ticket and such a crush of people, that even Anna Wintour (the editor of American Vogue) could not get in."

The designer wanted a bucolic, antique look, so the tent was dyed with tea for an aged appearance. He was also determined to have a black sheep on stage. During rehearsals, the sheep behaved well. However, once the show started, it got on stage and would not budge.

"It backed up, with its rear end in the air, and it simply would not go," O'Neill said in disbelief.

Finally, the CEO of the company jumped up on the runway, grabbed the sheep and toppled over the side of the runway into the audience.

Through the entire altercation, O'Neill kept calling the models. The show went on as if nothing was happening two feet away.

HAWAI'I'S IN HER HEART

O'Neill owns property on O'ahu and spends about three months a year here. She would like to move here permanently.

"I always thought that I would move back to Hawa'i, but it hasn't happened yet." she said. "After all these years in New York, I'm hoping to spend more time in Hawai'i and develop some fun projects there; a creative outlet in fashion or the arts, to use my experience. ..."

O'Neill's advice to those who may want to make a career in fashion: "Just go out there and do it. Try to get a job anywhere in fashion. Meet as many people as you can. It's so much easier now because of the Internet.

Start doing it and find out what you like and what you don't like. Volunteer your time as a dresser or whatever. Call fashion show coordinators and say you'll do whatever you can.

When I started, I didn't even know there was a job called fashion show director. I just followed my heart and did what I wanted to do."