In just a few days, New York City will be invaded by a stampede of stilettos and espresso shots. How is that different from any other week? This time (and the last time), they’ll be housed in white tents in Bryant Park.
The Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week event, held this year on February 11-18, attracts about 232,000 attendees from over 30 countries. Not bad.
Let’s take a look back at how it all started. It first began in 1943 as Press Week, to highlight the innovative fashions coming out of the US. Why did this happen? For political reasons during the WWII, of course. The shrewd fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert created the event to lure magazine editors away from Parisian couture for their spreads.
And it worked. Attendees scrambled to scattered locations throughout the City. Fifty years later, in 1993, it changed its name to Seventh on Sixth, and consolidated its locations to the Bryant Park location. The number of events mushroomed to over 250, and were sprinkled in various locations.
Now, we’re about to take a momentous turn in history again, as it shutters its location at Bryant Park to move to Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center in September 2010.
One trend we can expect to continue to see is practicality (gasp!) in fashion. How? For designers, this translates to the use of mannequins instead of live models (Betsey Johnson and Vera Wang did this), and iPhone apps to augment runway expensive shows and sales (Polo Ralph Lauren Rugby tried this). For customers, this means having the option to purchase multipurpose clothing that can be worn throughout various seasons - definitely a good thing.
Can’t make it this year to New York? Well, you’re in luck, because this is just the beginning. You have a second shot to jet set to the international Fashion Weeks that follow in London, Milan, and Paris. These are known together as the Big Four. But note that Brazil’s São Paulo Fashion Week, the largest in Latin America, is coming up quickly as Number Five in the major world circuit.
Oh, and if you’re into handbags and other accessories specifically, hold on until September, when the major houses unveil their designs in the Spring show.
Learn more about the NYC event at their site.
This post is tagged Fashion Week
