Fashion Week

On Wednesday, we wrote about a Real Estate Weekly report about how plans to relocate Fashion Week to the Port Authority were on hold because of issues over whether the bus terminal could accommodate additional traffic.

According to the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the Port Authority is one of many possible locations under consideration, but a deal to move the bi-weekly fashion shows to the grungy midtown bus terminal is nowhere near being finalized.

"Fashion Week is a vital asset to New York City and we are working expeditiously with IMG and the fashion industry to find a suitable new home,” said Patrick Murphy, the head of fashion/retail industry growth initiatives at the NYEDC. “The reports of an imminent or scuttled deal to move to the Port Authority Bus Terminal were erroneous.”  read more »

Last week it seemed like the prolonged standoff between the Bryant Park Corporation and the company that manages Fashion Week, IMG, might finally be resolved when the Port Authority announced that the biannual event was slated to move to the Manhattan bus terminal in 2010.

Now Fashion Week’s future is once again up in the air, and, contrary to what you might think, the problem is not the venue itself—anyone who has picked up a copy of Vogue is surely familiar with the industry’s penchant for photographing leggy, designer-clad models in gritty environments, and what’s grungier than the Port Authority?

Real Estate Weekly reports that Port Authority officials realized that the southern portion of the bus terminal does not have enough elevators and escalators to ferry the 2,000-plus peanut gallery to the rooftop parking lot where the shows would take place.  read more »

Gaggles of young, female fans braved the chill Friday afternoon and camped outside the Bryant Park Grill, where the stars of the reality-show Project Runway were celebrating the show’s wrap.

Former contestant Jack Mackenworth—who withdrew early for health reasons and is rumored to be dating fellow-reality-TV star Dale from season three of Top Chef, a trio of 22-year-old fans informed me—weighed in on the “spectacle” that New York Fashion Week has become.  read more »

Some blamed the cold, others the economy, but Bryant Park was pretty empty as lunch hour approached Friday, the last day of Fashion Week.

A few dozen paparazzi and a smattering of spectators, mostly tourists and out-of-town businessmen, huddled behind the metal gates outside the prime tent in Bryant Park. Nearby, a teenager with flaming red hair performed a mock striptease around a lamppost.  read more »

It’s was a cold morning on the last day of Fashion Week and Bryant Park was pretty desolate, but Victoria Beckham, a.k.a Posh Spice, seemed undaunted by the chill.

I was mid-way through a conversation with a paparazzo about the apparently low turn-out for the 2008 fall shows, when she sauntered out of the tent across from the Bryant Park Grill (which of all the tents, seems to be the best piece of Fashion Week real estate so to speak) in a clinging, bright orange dress, stiletto heels, and no coat, trailed by hefty entourage of bodyguards.  read more »

The Bryant Park Corporation wants the current Fashion Week to be one of the last in the midtown plaza. It’s been working with city officials to scout potential new spaces for next year’s Fashion Weeks, said Daniel Biederman, president of the Bryant Park Corporation.

The problem?  read more »

The Michael Awards—the big black-tie fashion-industry smoochfest that gives out awards and raises money for the National Children's Leukemia Foundation—won’t be held until May 7th, but at this early date! The Transom can now exclusively reveal 2007’s model of the year: Lydia Hearst.

“It’s basically the Oscars of fashion,” she said, while picking away at a lobster roll yesterday at a café in the Time Warner Center.

Okay so, had she prepared her speech?  read more »

Luxury-fashion consultant Robert Burke, the former director of men’s fashion at Bergdorf Goodman, last week had to juggle a tireless travel schedule and the sale of his Murray Hill apartment. Luckily for Mr. Burke, who is presently in Paris to attend a few couture shows, his digs’ new buyer came to him before the place even hit the market.

“This realtor called me a few months ago saying her client saw the pictures of my apartment from Elle Décor posted on a design blog,” Mr. Burke told Fashion Week Daily. "She said, 'My client really, really wants to buy your apartment.’” Despite any apparent enthusiasm, the fashionista never expected to hear from the realtor again, especially after he offered up a sizable (undisclosed) sale price. But he was mistaken, of course. The two parties closed the deal last Thursday.

After Mr. Burke returns from the city of lights, he “and his Steven Klein photographs,” will move into a hotel until his new place is renovated. No shabby affair, the apartment, located on Park Avenue South, is reportedly twice the size of his old Murray Hill home (it also comes with a rooftop terrace). “I'm going to have to get all new furniture now,” Mr. Burke told the Daily. “This new place is more modern compared to my old place, which was classic—but not wound-up classic.”  read more »

If Yves Saint-Laurent’s Fall 2008 men’s wear collection debuts on a video instead of on the catwalk, does it exist? According to Stefano Pilati, the YSL designer behind the forthcoming threads, the answer is a resounding “yes.” The Daily reports today that instead of unveiling the collection in the traditional way—elevated walkway, lots of cameras, Anna Wintour in the front row—Mr. Pilati has decided to show it off on the big screen.  read more »

Bee Shaffer can now make her bedtime. Marc Jacobs' fall fashion show will no longer occupy that oh-so-annoying-but-I-kinda-love-it 9 p.m. time slot, which normally becomes 11 p.m. before any clothes are actually seen. Now Mr. Jacobs’ collection unveiling, arguably the most “important” runway event in New York, will supposedly begin at 7 p.m. Not to fear, Upper-East-Siders—it will still be held in the New York State Armory on Lexington Ave.

Mr. Jacobs' business partner, Robert Duffy, said the switch was made “to give Marc as much time as possible to have the best show possible.” He then sort of switched back on himself, saying that the new, earlier hour would be more convenient for Mr. Jacobs’ audience. “I’d rather we be inconvenienced than everyone else.”

Apparently, the fashion label, which has never been known to pander to anyone, has been receiving complaints from people who end up missing dinner because of the late starts. “I cannot guarantee Marc won’t be late. One thing I do know is that he will try to have the best show he can, and [to do that] he will want to finish every piece and make each one as beautiful as possible. If it comes late, it comes late. This way, even if he’s two hours late, people can still go to dinner at 9 or 9:30,” Mr. Duffy said.  read more »