Bryant Park bids adieu to NY fashion week

Inquiring minds are wondering how this Feb. 11-18 will be commemorated as the last season that New York’s twice-yearly fashion shows will be staged at Bryant Park. Will any designers salute the storied Midtown setting in their shows? Will event organizers memorialize it on billboards, the tent’s façade, or on the coveted registration goodie bag?

Rebecca Taylor

Whatever happens- or doesn’t - TheStyleArbiter.com will be there to document, describe, and deconstruct for your reading pleasure.

More than 100 fall-winter 2010 collections will be shown. As always, Bryant Park will be the hub of the action with eight days of morning-to-night shows in the white, three-venue tent beginning with Mackage at 9 a.m. Feb. 11 and ending with Tommy Hilfiger’s presentation at 8 p.m. Feb.18. Some designers and labels plan presentations at their showroom or other off-site locations, but still under the auspices of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

There are many fashion week events planned outside that purview. One of the best-organized and increasingly popular is the 6^th annual STYLE360, a fashion showcase Feb. 13-17 at Studio 37 that this year will feature designers such as Emu Australian, Claudestine Industries by Pete Wentz, bebe Kardashian hosted by Kim Kardashian, and Project Runway alum Malan Breton. The event has attracted some major sponsors, including Sephora, Tigi, TONY&GUY, and Sony.

Tracy Reese

Meanwhile, IMG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, has lined up more than a dozen major backers in addition to the title sponsor. TRESemme, Maybelline, American Express, Chambord, Rums of Puerto Rico, and AOL are among them. Tent guests who guzzled tens of thousands of free McCafe sweet coffees the last two seasons are sure to swig record amounts of similar beverages by the sponsor replacing McDonald’s with that freebie - Starbucks.

Perks aside, fashion week is foremost about what American designers will be wanting us to wear come autumn. Along with new visions are some new faces - and old faces in new places.

Coach president and creative director Reed Krakoff, who engineered the luxury brand’s international presence and stratospheric ascent, is debuting his much-anticipated accessories line, which bears his name. I still remember the launch of the first Coach fragrance at one of his private residences in Manhattan during the February 2007 fashion week. This is a man who knows something about luxury.

Milly

Generra has been around for a while, but this season will mark the debut of the first full men’s and women’s collections spearheaded by creative directors Christina and Swaim Hutson. The lifestyle brand recently brought the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund-nominated duo onboard to inject a fresh perspective.

Custo Bareclona, known for graphic color and pattern combinations in edgy sportswear for men and women, is projectiung a more energetic and contemporary vibe with a collection themed “Hairy Metal.” It fuses the coolness of metallic bronzes, golds, and steel with the warmth of fur and dusty blues and mauves in dramatically accessorized ensembles that are architectural yet still sensual.

Vivienne Tam will present her newest collection, “Chinese Zodiac,” in celebration of 2010 as the year of the tiger. Rebecca Taylor will show a women’s sportswear line inspired by an urban New York City girl with 70’s Parisian attitude and an urban New York City girl. Tracy Reese is serving up “an eclectic mix of urban and rural style,” Milly’s Michelle Smith took her cues from chic girls of Paris’ Left Bank, and Elie Tahari pays homage to “the great women who traveled the globe in style.”

As event organizers plan to move fashion week to the Lincoln Center starting in September with the spring 2011 collections, the industry’s titans will be at Bryant Park starting Thursday for the site’s last hurrah.

Elie Tahari

“Bryant Park became the beacon of what U.S. fashion stands for - fearless, tireless, and always moving forward,” said Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

TheStyleArbiter.com will keep you updated on the trends for fall-winter 2010 with daily coverage.