Mon, September 14, 2009
New York Fashion Week, recently branded Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, is a semiannual fashion week held in New York City. It is one of four major fashion weeks in the fashion industry.[1] The Spring 2009 Fashion Week was held September 5–12, 2008. The Fall 2009 Fashion Week was held February 13–20, 2009. The upcoming Spring 2010 Pret a Porter Fashion Week will be held September 10–17, 2009.
The first New York Fashion Week, then called Press Week, was the world's first organized fashion week. Held in 1943, the event was designed to attract attention away from French fashion during World War II, when fashion industry insiders were unable to travel to Paris to see French fashion shows. Fashion publicist Eleanor Lamber organized an event she called "Press Week" to showcase American designers for fashion journalists, who had previously neglected their innovations. (Buyers were not admitted to the shows and instead had to visit designers' showrooms.) Press Week was a success, and fashion magazines like Vogue, which were normally filled with French designs, increasingly featured American fashion.
In 1993, the event was moved to its current site in Bryant Park, where it is held inside a series of large white tents in the almost-block-long park. Admission is by invitation only, to the fashion industry, fashion press, assorted celebrities, and internet based Fashion press (e.g. District L, Fashionista, FWD). Beginning in February 2009 (showing Fall 2009), many designers opted out of their usual Bryant Park tent fashion shows because of the current economy and held smaller presentations. Notable designers who made this decision include Carmen Marc Valvo, Betsey Johnson, and Vera Wang.
Due to increasing pressure from Bryant Park management, New York Fashion Week will be hosted in Damrosch Park at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts starting in 2010.
