Mercedes-Benz has teamed up with fashion icon Dayle Haddon and Modelinia.com, where supermodels share their beauty, fashion and lifestyle secrets, to curate this season's display for the Bryant Park lobby at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in NYC. In line with the overall theme of travel for the week, the exhibit tracks the journey of fashion and automotive design over the past seven decades. Illustrated with iconic photographic images throughout the years, the display is brought to life with key fashion pieces provided by Southpaw, one of New York's leading vintage resources. Mercedes-Benz Presents designer Narciso Rodriguez closes the Twenty First Century with his contribution to fashion over the last decade, in particular his unforgettable dress for First Lady Michelle Obama.

Day two at New York fashion week and, already, the trends we'll be wearing next spring are starting to emerge. But the recession continues to cast a bigger cloud over Bryant Park than the pouring rain outside.

There are fewer shows-about 10 fewer than in February-because designers have moved to less expensive venues or have chosen not to show at all. Other designers pooled their funds (and models) and showed together on one runway.

"It's not as wild as I thought it was going to be," said Damon Webster, a commercial producer who was at the shows for the first time. "It's fairly tame."

Elizabeth Fisch, an intern at Vogue, said the decor of the lobby looks like it's been toned down and there is less intense promotion by sponsors.

Most surprisingly, though, some attendees insist they've seen fewer celebrities. Russell Simmons, Monet Mazur and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have all been spotted as well as an endless supply of TV reality show stars. But without a parade of A-listers, fashion week is not the media circus it's been in the past.

"There was a big line to get a glimpse of Kid Cudi last night," said Webster. Who's Kid Cudi? "Exactly!" Kid Cudi is a well-known hip-hop artist, but you get the point-not exactly a household name.

Then again celeb gawkers would have been very pleased with Fashion's Night Out (a shopping event) on Thursday night, where bumping into big names (Charlize Theron, Hate Hudson, Gwen Stefani, Victoria Beckham) was about as common as running into freaky dressers at the tents.

Southwest Airlines is celebrating its new service into and out of New York's LaGuardia Airport with the opening of the Southwest Porch, a plush al fresco lounge in Bryant Park, the stylish oasis in Midtown Manhattan. The space is furnished with porch swings, rocking chairs and Adirondack chairs and features a small bites menu in collaboration with 'wichcraft, the popular eatery founded by Tom Colicchio, owner of the Craft family of restaurants and head judge on Bravo's Top Chef. Menu highlights are inspired by the new routes from LaGuardia to key cities and feature a Southwestern Pork Sandwich and Baltimore Crab Sandwich. On tap are local beers such as a specially brewed Southwest Summer Ale from Long Island's Blue Point Brewery and a selection of summer cocktails. The Porch is now open to all New Yorkers and visitors who simply want to relax, read, converse or have a snack and a drink.

It's the end of an era, no more fashion tents in Bryant Park. IMG Fashion, the organizers of New York's famous Fashion Week have said that as of 2010 the event will be held at Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center. The new location offers more room than the tents at Bryant Park and better parking but it is located further uptown nearly a mile away and much further from where some designers have their offices. Some say that the new location may cause even more designers to hold their seasonal shows elsewhere, a move that could further splinter the event which has been less centralized in recent years.

This season begins February 13 and will host around 70 shows. Shows have been held in Bryant Park since 1993 but recent years have been seen conflict over the use of the space. In 2006, the Bryant Park Corporation announced it would no longer allow the shows to happen in the park, because they were interfering with public use of the area but later relented. The events are fashion tourism bringing in hundreds of thousands of attendees and around $466 million in visitor spending each year, according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the NY Times reports that IMG pays $1 million to $1.5 million to use the space each season.

Add Monique Lhuillier (at the finale of her Spring '09 show, at right) and Naeem Khan to the list of prominent designers opting to skip out on New York fashion week this February.

Designers like Vera Wang, Betsey Johnson and Temperley bowed out before the New Year, perhaps sparking a welcome trend for up-and-comers hoping to save the significant expense of showing at Bryant Park, an expense that can easily surpass the six-figure mark.

Lhuillier and Khan, who share a publicist, indicate that an intimate presentation as opposed to a traditional runway show is an appealing alternative for buyers and press with Energizer bunny-like schedules come early February.

Instead of a blur down the catwalk, guests will have a couple of hours during which to examine the clothes, talk to the designers and maybe even finish a whole glass of champagne.

[via WSJ]