newyorkfashionweek

NY Fashion Week To Leave Bryant Park

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.

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Tags: bryant park, BryantPark, fashion week, FashionWeek, lincoln center, LincolnCenter, new york fashion week, NewYorkFashionWeek

Several Key Designers RSVP "No" to Fashion Week

by Tracy Chait (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Events

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]

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Tags: bryant park, BryantPark, monique lhuillier, MoniqueLhuillier, naeem khan, NaeemKhan, new york fashion week, NewYorkFashionWeek, vera wang, VeraWang

The Classicist: At The Carlyle Hotel

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: The Classicist

When Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week hits New York City this Friday, the hip downtown hotels will of course be flooded with fashionistas. The ones who value refinement and elegance over mere trendiness however will head to the Upper East Side's Carlyle Hotel, a luxurious landmark since it first opened in 1930 and one of our favorite places to stay in the world.

French Vogue editrix Carine Roitfeld recently declared that the Carlyle is her favorite hotel as well, and with the addition of a luxe new spa next month, with its "sleek palette of slate, charcoal and black complemented by finishes in nickel, chrome and glass and rich molding," others are sure to follow suit. Not that the Carlyle lacks for high-profile guests; since it opened nearly 80 years ago, the hotel has played host to an endless procession of movie stars, millionaires and high society.

The Art Deco masterpiece was the perfect setting for both stylish philanderer John F. Kennedy, who owned an apartment on the 34th floor, and legendary cabaret singer Bobby Short, who hung his top hat at the swank Café Carlyle for decades (Woody Allen has also been known to hoist a clarinet there on occasion).

Gallery: The Carlyle Hotel