Fashion Week is moving! Bryant Park which has hosted the twice a year event since 1993 will no longer be home to Fashion Week by September 2010. The mayor's office just confirmed mayor in a press release:The new venue at Damrosch Park, which is managed by Lincoln Center, will provide about 87,000 square feet of space for the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week shows, compared to the roughly 70,000 square feet available at Bryant Park – a 25 percent increase. The agreement between IMG Fashion and Lincoln Center is for five years. In addition to providing more space in Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center provides ample opportunity for its iconic indoor locations to be used for special events during the shows.
Mayor Bloomberg believes that the shows have outgrown the park and some have complained that it takes over public greenspace for too long. I'm going to miss Bryant Park. While I'm glad that the show's are not moving to Chelsea Piers, Bryant Park's midtown location is right beside the garment district and easy access for design teams and magazine folk (Conde Nast is at 4 Times Square) alike to get to. According to the Associated Press Fashion week generates hundreds of millions of dollars for the city each year, so I don't think that a move should be taken lightly given the dismal economy. Also given that many companies are scaling back on invites (aka Marc Jacobs going from 2000 guests last season to 700 this season) is more space really necessary?
No comments:
Post a Comment