September 17, 2006
Fashion Week Tents are Outta Bryant Park

Interesting - the Post has a sorta followup to yesterday's Daily News story about Fashion Week being tents non grata at Bryant Park next February. Though yesterday's Daily News article had Vogue editor Anna Wintour saying that Mayor Bloomberg would support fashion - and tents in Bryant Park - in spite of the park's desire to keep the ice rink up, the Post says Diane Von Furstenberg couldn't convince Bloomberg to keep the tents there. Von Furstenberg, designer and president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, made a "personal appeal" to ask Mayor B to prevent the tents' eviction, but "instead he'll work toward finding another suitable location," according to a CFDA executive that told the Post. So, the locations that may see the Spring shows next February: Javits Center, Lincoln Center, and Chelsea Piers.
Our readers were divided between wanting The Pond or Fashion Week tents: The skating rink is for everyone, but Fashion Week brings in money and prestige to the city. But the best suggestion was "Fashion on Ice." Anyway, in the words of Michael Kors - and as sung by Santino Rice - "Lighten up, it's just fashion!" And last year, the Project for Public Spaces called Bryant Park an "endangered public space" because of Fashion Week's tents.
Photograph of the tent at Bryant Park this past week by Stuart Ransom/AP




Fashion Week is important to NYC, but much less important to the city than Bryant Park itself. Taking away the center of the park, and the sense that it belongs to the public, for what amounts to months of the year is not a necessary choice for NYC.
There are many other locations that would benefit greatly from having the fashion show, including the armory on the east side, the streets, piers and night clubs of the Meat Packing District, Pier 40 and perhaps even the streets of DUMBO.
For more on the advocacy of Project for Public Spaces on this issue, see:
http://www.pps.org/info/newsletter/september2004/september2004_bryant
"Fashion Week brings in money and prestige to the city."
Prestige? All it brings is gridlock and cocaine.
Score one for the public actually being able to use public space!
Fashion on ice? You got it. Thom Browne fall 2006: http://men.style.com/fashion/collections/F2006MEN/review/TBMEN
I hate to break it to you, bubba, but cocaine was here before fashion week. And amazingly it will be here after too.