The End of NYC Fashion Week in Bryant Park : Lincoln Center to host starting in 2010

[jakeee]

we wont know exactly who's showing outside the tents until the official schedule comes out in august^

 

[jakeee]

nyc fashion week is still at the tents

http://www.mbfashionweek.com/newyork/spring2008/venuebrochure/

 

[JJohnson]

nyc fashion week is still at the tents

http://www.mbfashionweek.com/newyork/spring2008/venuebrochure/

great thanks for the info!

 

[Xone]

thank you jakeee....great news....

 

[DansLAir]

Well, they're right...if you live in NYC, fashion weeks and all of the other circus-type events put a strain on us locals. Seriously. Particularly the fashion weeks. I'd recommend they try Jacob Javitz Center, where it doesn't interfere with the everyday lives/commutes of us NY'ers. We already have to deal with the constant influx of tourists...it can really get out of hand here and it's frustrating when we can't conduct our lives as usual because our city is constantly hosting (accommodating) some circus-like event.

They even use the military armories here to host fashion shows (which if I find disgraceful, as a vet, but whatev).

I'm happy that they bring money to Manhattan and all, but how about just moving all of this to Jacob Javitz Center? It's still in Manhattan, at a central location, it's the same place that hosts all of the tradeshows, it's huge, and most importantly, it doesn't interrupt the lives of everyday NY'ers.

 

[ilaughead]

^But it doesn't look very glamorous, and that's a big factor...

 

[crow_watcher]

Well, they're right...if you live in NYC, fashion weeks and all of the other circus-type events put a strain on us locals. Seriously. Particularly the fashion weeks. I'd recommend they try Jacob Javitz Center, where it doesn't interfere with the everyday lives/commutes of us NY'ers. We already have to deal with the constant influx of tourists...it can really get out of hand here and it's frustrating when we can't conduct our lives as usual because our city is constantly hosting (accommodating) some circus-like event.

They even use the military armories here to host fashion shows (which if I find disgraceful, as a vet, but whatev).

I'm happy that they bring money to Manhattan and all, but how about just moving all of this to Jacob Javitz Center? It's still in Manhattan, at a central location, it's the same place that hosts all of the tradeshows, it's huge, and most importantly, it doesn't interrupt the lives of everyday NY'ers.

I'm a born and raised New Yorker and I understand your concerns. However a small inconvenience is a small price to pay for the revenue the City generates from Fashion Week. Remember- it's not fashion month. Personally, I enjoy the fact that designers use Bryant Park to showcase their fashions. It's a great opportunity to walk by and witness the "buzz" in the area. Yes, a larger venue would be nice but I don't think the Javits Center is the answer.

 

[DansLAir]

The odd thing is that Jacob Javits Center and Chelsea Piers hosts all of the fashion tradeshows. Store buyers descend on both Javits and the Piers to buy merchandise for their boutiques/department stores. All of the designers show their work there...It's not far from the fashion district, either which is an added convenience for them. So why shouldn't the shows be held there too? Why not have everything in one place?

I guess I don't know why they're not seen as suitable for the actual fashion shows (especially Chelsea Piers since many of the fashion photoshoots in NYC are held there) and it's quite post, and a dirty park that takes several weeks of preparation to be transformed into something acceptable for a fashion show is seen as more appropriate. I don't mind that they actually have it in NYC...I'm just saying, let's have it somewhere more appropriate and less invasive.

 

[crow_watcher]

^^ Obviously the great minds running New York and fashion week would have deemed the Javits Center an acceptable venue....and they haven't. I'll assume there's more to this story then we all know. Perhaps its politics and money.

 

[fullfrontal]

Well, they're right...if you live in NYC, fashion weeks and all of the other circus-type events put a strain on us locals. Seriously. Particularly the fashion weeks. I'd recommend they try Jacob Javitz Center, where it doesn't interfere with the everyday lives/commutes of us NY'ers. We already have to deal with the constant influx of tourists...it can really get out of hand here and it's frustrating when we can't conduct our lives as usual because our city is constantly hosting (accommodating) some circus-like event.

They even use the military armories here to host fashion shows (which if I find disgraceful, as a vet, but whatev).

I'm happy that they bring money to Manhattan and all, but how about just moving all of this to Jacob Javitz Center? It's still in Manhattan, at a central location, it's the same place that hosts all of the tradeshows, it's huge, and most importantly, it doesn't interrupt the lives of everyday NY'ers.

I don't think it fashion week inconveniences that many NY'ers except those who like to eat in the park and who work on Sixth Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets. The only time there is a lot of hoopla is for the celebrity and partylike shows i.e. Baby Phat and Heatherette both of which are at night when most of the people in that area are home already. If one doesn't want to be bothered walk on another block.

I like the Bryant Park location (better years ago than these days) for the simple fact you can still sit in the park for lunch and see Gemma Ward or some other girl trying to find the backstage entrance and there's hope for those who want to sneak into a show. If it's at Javits, I can't sneak out of work for an hour and go to a show undetected.

 

[BerlinRocks]

it was a nightmare before the tents...
wow---i can't believe that the city wouldn't support the shows...

in Paris taxi drivers hate stylists... anyway...
in Paris everything used to happen in the Carrousel du Louvre and now everything is a bit everywhere (wel if you have the money...) and I don't think people complain about this... it's good... you "travel" and sometimes it better to be in a good place....excpet when you have to run from Paris to the suburbs... but i don't care i'm not a fashion shows attender...
but maybe in NYC the problem will be the overloaded calendar...

 

[ETROsexualJ]

The odd thing is that Jacob Javits Center and Chelsea Piers hosts all of the fashion tradeshows. Store buyers descend on both Javits and the Piers to buy merchandise for their boutiques/department stores. All of the designers show their work there...It's not far from the fashion district, either which is an added convenience for them. So why shouldn't the shows be held there too? Why not have everything in one place?

But, the thing with the tradeshows is that people attend them typically in one big time block for a few hours. They don't go to and fro several times a day over the course of a few days.

 

[kimair]

Fashion Week to remain in Bryant Park through 2010

from wwd...

The tents can call Bryant Park their home for two more years.

IMG Fashion, which owns Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, signed a contract on Friday to keep the event in Bryant Park through February 2010. The deal was negotiated over the past six months with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and the Bryant Park Corp. According to Fern Mallis, IMG Fashion's senior vice president, this is the longest contract IMG has signed with Bryant Park. It usually had year-to-year deals.

"It gives us all a little bit of breathing time to continue to look at other alternatives and spaces, and to do it with the knowledge and understanding that we don't have to keep going back to the drawing board each season to rehash this out," Mallis said. "This enables us to do it in an orderly and efficient manner."

In the 16 years the event has taken place at Bryant Park, it has grown significantly, and the Bryant Park Corp. has made no secret it wants the event to move from the park. It took the intervention of Bloomberg last October to keep the tents in Bryant Park.

This season, IMG Fashion had to shrink its footprint and give up one site to reduce the impact on the park. Mallis added that the new contract allows to potentially increase the footprint again and to add another venue if necessary. She added she will continue looking for solutions beyond the two-year extension. "I know there has been speculation about the Port Authority roof, which we looked at a couple of times," she said. "There are some issues we are not sure can be overcome, which has to do with the building itself, the weight loads for the roof...and the access to the roof. There are currently three small passenger elevators that take six people."

Whether the deal with the park could be extended beyond two years remains unclear. Mallis said she preferred not to project too far in the future.

"If we are in earnest looking for spaces and something materializes that won't be built by 2010, we hope that the city and the park will continue to work with us in good faith," she said. "But right now, we don't want to worry what's going to happen in 2010. A lot of things can change in two years in this city and this industry. It's an eternity in fashion terms."

 

[liberty33r1b]

 

[kezme44]

great news

 

[kimair]

The Daily News reports that whoever wins the back-and-forth bid for the 10th Avenue rail yards is obligated to host New York Fashion Week after its run its course at Bryant Park after the S/S 2011 shows (a far-away date that the CFDA and Mayor Bloomberg have fought to keep despite the city's campaign to keep Fashion Week from congesting all of Midtown.)

Right now, the bid for the rail yards is still up between a few major city players, including Condé Nast, but whoever comes out in the end (the lucky winner gets to put up $20 million upfront, then an eventual $1.5 billion when all is said and done,) should be announced by the end of this month, if not sooner.


As much as we can't imagine Fashion Week not centering around Bryant Park, the move would make all those Chelsea/Bumble & Bumble shows a lot easier to get to.

fashionista.com

and the piece from the daily news...

Supermodels strutting on the 10th Ave. rail yards? It's going to happen, according to a long-range plan to relocate Fashion Week.

On Monday, Council of Fashion Designers of America President Diane von Furstenberg announced that Mayor Bloomberg will be honored at the group's annual awards this year with the Board of Directors Special Tribute.

An insider says the recognition is in part for Bloomberg's long-range pledge to von Furstenberg that whoever wins the bid to develop the rail yards will have to ensure that the complex can host Fashion Week.

"He was also instrumental in keeping Fashion Week at Bryant Park until 2010, when it looked like they were going to get kicked out sooner," says the source. "Fashion is the No. 2 industry in New York, after finance."

A spokeswoman for the city's Economic Development Corporation told us: "Fashion Week could conceivably go [to the rail yards]. No decision has been made at this time as to how that space will be used."

 

[smartarse]

^ oh yes indeed. they are developing the area on the West Side hwy. including a new subway hub.but i really prefer the Bryant Park Locale with the library as the backdrop ... the park.... the nearby conveniences...

 

[kimair]

A New Home for New York Fashion Week
by Eric Wilson

After holding runway shows under a big tent in Bryant Park for 15 years, organizers of New York’s Fashion Week are expected to announce on Tuesday that they will move the event to Lincoln Center, beginning in 2010.

The twice-annual event, which is estimated to draw more than 100,000 visiting store buyers and fashion editors, has been under increasing pressure to find a new home after complaints from the park management that the invitation-only shows had grown too large and were restricting public access to the park.

Two designers who typically show in the park said they had been told that the new location would be Lincoln Center, but Zach Eichman, a spokesman for IMG, which produces the shows, declined to comment.

Although the fashion shows, now operating as Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week to reflect a corporate sponsorship, were welcomed in Bryant Park in 1993, there were frequent clashes with the management company that controls its maintenance and security.
The dispute intensified in 2006, when the Bryant Park Corporation announced it would no longer allow the shows to happen in the park, because they were interfering with plans to operate a skating rink in the winter and public use of the main lawn in the late summer. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was then asked by designers, as well as Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, to intercede on their behalf, leading to an arrangement for Fashion Week to remain there, at least temporarily.

About 63 designers are expected to present their fall 2009 collections in the park starting on Feb. 13, although hundreds of other shows are scheduled at galleries and event spaces around Manhattan. The event generates $466 million in visitor spending each year, according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

Finding a new home has not been easy for the designers, many of whose businesses are nearby on Seventh Avenue. Fern Mallis, the senior vice president of IMG Fashion, has looked at locations including a space on top of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. A one-season attempt to have the shows at the Chelsea Piers in 1997 was a logistical disaster, as many guests found themselves struggling to get there, or otherwise get out.

It is not clear whether IMG hopes to recreate the tents on the plaza at Lincoln Center or use nearby buildings for additional space, but a feasibility study done in 2006 suggested staging tents on opposite sides of the New York State Theater with a corridor winding between them, meaning guests might have to walk the equivalent of a city block between each show.

Daniel A. Biederman, the head of the Bryant Park Corporation, criticized the event in 2006 for causing ongoing disruptions, but ultimately relented. Phone calls to Mr. Biederman were not immediately returned on Monday. IMG pays $1 million to $1.5 million to use the space each season, according to an IMG executive who spoke on condition of anonymity because the company does not typically release any figures.

nytimes / february 2, 2009

 

[LostInNJ]

I can see this becoming one big headache come September. Scheduling conflicts like never before...

 

[malaychic]

yes. i wonder about that too. everything will be very new to everyone.getting use to it will definitely be 'fabulously' challenging.