Fashion Moves South

Fashion Moves South


ew York Fashion Week may have moved uptown from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center two years ago, but this season's shows demonstrated that designers are increasingly picking up their stilettos and heading south.

Hundreds of events consolidated this year in the Meatpacking District and along the High Line, far from the operation's center on the Upper West Side. Designers balked at higher labor costs and management fees, while looking for a hipper scene.

The number of events at Lincoln Center dropped to 67 this month from 87 in September 2010, according to an analysis of the independent FashionCalendar.com, which tracks the shows. A representative for IMG Fashion, the show's producer, said the number has held roughly steady at 88, but that a large number of events didn't make it into the fashion calendar for unknown reasons.


Moreover, turnover is high as many brands sought out venues that were more intimate and less corporate-feeling. Just 33 of the 87 designers who held their events at Lincoln Center in 2010 did so this fall, according to FashionCalendar.com.

Some of those defectors were among New York's most influential labels, including Tommy Hilfiger, Derek Lam, Prabal Gurung and Narciso Rodriguez.

"The reason we moved to a smaller venue was to have a more intimate show where the guests would be closer to the work," said Mr. Rodriguez, who held his show this season on West 37th Street.

During Fashion Week, from Sept. 6 through last Thursday, designers showed their spring 2013 collections at venues across the city, from the James A. Farley Post Office on West 33rd Street, to the Dia Art Foundation on West 22nd Street, to the Jane Hotel in the West Village. "The shows feel more spread out," said Michael Fink, dean of School of Fashion at the Savannah College of Art and Design, a longtime observer of Fashion Week.

IMG said the important point wasn't where the events are but how many there are. "The goal of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week has always been to help centralize the exhausting schedule of shows and events in a way that is efficient and convenient for buyers and the press," the company said. "Of course designers will sometimes choose to show at locations that work for one-off events or limited numbers, but that's beside the point."

An analysis of FashionCalendar.com showed that there were roughly 80 fewer for New York's fall Fashion Week, compared with September 2010.

Messrs. Hilfiger, Gurung and Lam didn't respond to requests for comment.

Some fashion observers saw utility in having shows at Lincoln Center. "If you're an editor going to multiple shows you'll hang around the tents and check it all out. It's convenient," said Alex Lebenthal, an investment adviser and author who attended several Fashion Week shows.

Designers and fashion executives have privately grumbled about IMG's management fees for its venues and Lincoln Center's union labor requirements.The large plaza at Lincoln Center allowed companies to dot the landscape with booths advertising products that seem to have little direct connection to fashion, such as energy drinks and Mercedes-Benz. That, coupled with the requirement that attendees wear passes on lanyards, gave the scene the air of a trade show—not exactly the image luxury brands selling $2,000 dresses wanted to portray.

Alternative venues have cropped up to attract designers' business. Mazdack Rassi started offering his photography venue, Milk Studios, for free to designers in 2008 in an attempt to give opportunities to emerging designers during the height of the financial crisis. Demand was so great, he helped form a company, MADE, to produce the fashion shows at Milk and the Standard Hotel on Washington Street.

MADE produced 50 shows this month, up from 41 during Fashion Week in February—its busiest ever season. "It's grown into an amazing sort of fashion collective," he said.

Sponsors have followed designers down south. Maren Hartman, lead U.S. trend analyst for WGSN, a global fashion consulting firm, started splitting her time between the tents at Lincoln Center and Milk Studios because, she said, her firm was missing out. This season, WGSN sponsored both venues: IMG's tents and MADE at Milk Studios.

"We wanted to be part of all of New York fashion week," Ms. Hartman said.

Jennifer Blumin, president at the Skylight Group, which renovates industrial spaces for high-end events and photo shoots, said clients are drawn to an ambiance of New York's history they don't find in spaces such as Lincoln Center.

"It gives a little bit of a sense of timelessness," she said. "When you're showing next spring's collection six months before, there's still a connection to times past, and the history of New York. That's something that the tents at Lincoln Center will never be able to do."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised both parts of his city, noting that Lincoln Center is a "fantastic home for Fashion Week." He also said: "Downtown has always been synonymous with cool, so it's no surprise that people are looking to those neighborhoods."