Where the Elite Meet

...Skybox tickets sold out this season...

...Dozens of stage lights popped alive and an ear-splitting techno beat pulsed through the room as the first model took the stage...

...As designer Erin Fetherston explained to me, “It is amazing the amount of work that goes into a presentation that really is only about 10 to 15 minutes...

...This is where we tap into all of the very exclusive information that’s only available and accessible to those who work in fashion...

...Or the chance front-row seat at up-and-coming designer Sergio Davila’s show...

...For the fashion industry, early September is the start of spring...

...Still, it’s the unexpected moments of a live show that get fashionistas most excited...

...Chambord and Imperia Vodka sponsored an open bar featuring stiff pink cocktails and frequented by svelte customers all day long...

...Mercedes-Benz, the primary sponsor, greeted attendees at the entrance with two shiny 2009 models...

...And although I had the official neon cardstock Herv...

...Even if sales are lagging, the fashion houses keep up appearances...

...Prior to this latest Fashion Week, stories had warned of a dour, less extravagant affair than usual because of the economy...

...All the models come into town, the designers have their collections ready, all the press is here...

...That “exclusive information”—a glimpse of trends nearly a year in advance—is the Holy Grail for the fashion-obsessed...

...the models jogging to their next runway...

...And to maintain sales, designers need to put on the best runway shows possible...

...Twenty minutes after the scheduled start time, another Fashion Week rep told the crowd of at least 100—all holding offi cial invitations!—that only 40 would be allowed inside...

...It’s an important place to begin the synthesis of trend and see the major directions of fashion...

...She opened with all these red dresses, which immediately made me think of Valentino, as he’s just retired and he’s famous for his red gowns...

...L?ger dress for a red-carpet event...

...According to a Style.com blogger, the bandage dress “is fast emerging as the outfi t to be seen in,” and if I had the life and legs of a jet-set model, I’d want one, too—which means the show was a success...

...they are escorted to the front row, where a swag bag awaits...

...I had the feeling I was not in Washington anymore...

...Given the massive crowds at Bryant Park, people are manifestly still interested in fashion—and continue to spend money if they can...

...L?ger invitation, the public relations representative told me I’d have to wait for standing room...

...Consider the American Express Skybox, a dark, luxurious suite overlooking the two largest runways where, for upwards of $150 per person, per show, American Express Gold, Platinum, and Centurion members enjoyed an unobstructed view of the runway and commentary from experts like Kate Schelter...

...To be sure, for a fashion novice, a “show-stopping” moment might be as simple as a lovely, wearable collection like Twinkle by Wenlan: retrostyle dresses and high-waist skirts in black and white with big buttons and bangles...

...These citizeninsiders don’t wait in the lines, of course...

...With my offi cial Fashion Week press badge I breezed past security, past the dozens of paparazzi and tourists hoping to spot a Desperate Housewife or Project Runway star, and past the requisite protesters: PETA in red-stained faux furs and buxom women calling for “curves on the catwalk...

...And the week of September 5-12, designers, editors, and assorted admirers took over Manhattan for MercedesBenz Fashion Week, a showcase for the New York-based designers’ Spring/Summer 2009 ready-to-wear collections...

...But Bryant Park wasn’t in a slump...

...Samantha Sault is a deputy online editor at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...

...So the appeal of Fashion Week is simple...

...For anyone with the slightest interest in fashion, a runway show, especially one’s first, is exhilarating— if your feet can stand waiting for it...

...You really do get the sense of the fashion community here, and everyone plays a part,” she explained...

...BY SAMANTHA SAULT For most of us, early September is the end of summer...

...the editors and journalists discussing the trends—black and white, pops of color mixed with sleek beige, sheer and loose fabrics, and a plethora of belts—and at the end of the day, when the tents clear out, the industry insiders moving to clubs for celebrity shows by the likes of Justin Timberlake (!), alcohol-soaked parties, and photo-ops with yet more insiders...

...So I got in line with a large, decidedly pushy crowd of women with massive, weapon-like shoes and bags, and waited...

...As the Japanese designer Akiko Ogawa said (in translation) backstage after her show, “It’s fun and entertaining...

...That really was a show-stopper for me...

...I managed to get inside the Promenade tent, the medium-sized of the three Bryant Park runways, and squeeze through a crowd of socialites— or people I am guessing are socialites—and high-strung PR reps with headsets to a spot beside a photographer where, if I craned my neck slightly, I had a perfect view of the red-lit runway...

...BlackBerry gave away new BlackBerry Pearl phones...

...It’s surprisingly easy for journalists to get inside the roped-off, heavily guarded tents, and I arrived with time to spare before my first scheduled show, Herv...

...The energy of the week is, indeed, intoxicating: The excited/fashionable crowds...

...Of course, upon entering, I quickly realized that insiders don’t actually wear the badge—even a MercedesBenz lanyard clashes with $700 Christian Louboutin platform heels—and I tucked my badge in my bag...

...They wore the signature skin-tight Herv...

...It was in the Skybox where I caught my fi rst (and only) glimpse of 58-year-old Anna (The Devil Wears Prada) Wintour, editor of Vogue, flanked by her bodyguards, literally trunning out of the tent the second the show was fi nished...

...And in February IMG will pitch their tents again, visible from blocks away, for the Fall/Winter collections—and the cycle continues...

...Every September, IMG Fashion erects enormous white tents in Bryant Park—decorated this season with brightly colored slogans like “Vote Fashion” and “Accessorize Democracy”—to house Fashion Week headquarters and many of the runway shows, while more shows and celebrity-studded parties take place throughout the city...

...And for the next 10 minutes, a chorus line of leggy waifs with perfect cheekbones paraded the runway in time to tunes like “Wild Thing...

...Carolina Herrera just rocked my world,” Kate Schelter gushed...

...L?ger bandage dresses, in yellows and pinks and metallics, then skin-baring black dominatrix-style dresses—and then bandage bathing suits that only a runway model could wear...

...Three-quarters of an hour after the scheduled starting time— and actress Michelle Trachtenberg (Gossip Girl) and tennis star Maria Sharapova had been ushered in—the lights went dark and the packed tent fell silent...

...His collection was inspired by American immigrants of the 1930s, and while it wasn’t the most beautiful to be seen, the rich fabrics up-close are stunning...

...And beautiful—like spring...

...Fashion Week is as important to those who work in fashion as getting dressed in the morning is to the rest of the population,” stylist and fashion expert Kate Schelter told me as we waited for the Peter Som show...

...While the view from the Skybox might have helped, the Peter Som show was impressive enough: an elegant collection of black and beige beaded fl oral skirts and dresses mixed with juicy pink and tangerine pieces, cinched tight with chic belts...

...Even after waiting 45 minutes for a decidedly brief presentation, the elated audience pressed on to wait in line for the next show, eager to get a glimpse of next spring’s color and design trends before the rest of the world...

...And so goes Fashion Week—unless you’re an editor at a magazine like Vogue, a buyer for a high-end department store like Neiman Marcus, or a New York socialite, or Hollywood starlet who might actually purchase that lemon yellow Herv...

...L?ger, one of designer Max Azria’s three shows during the week...

...Surrounding Bryant Park’s fountain at the center of the main tent sat over a dozen pairs of Swarovski-encrusted “ruby slippers” by designers like Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik, in honor of the 70th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz...

...Caroline Rodehau, editor of the fashion website New York Girl Style, has been covering Fashion Week for four years and said this year’s events “were as extravagant and elegant and sophisticated as previous shows...

...After New York Fashion Week, the industry packs its bags and heads to other cities, including London, Milan, and Paris, where last week the top of the top designers, from Alexander McQueen to (the late) Yves Saint Laurent, show collections...

...But I often think of it as not just a 10-to-15-minute-long show, but a live photo shoot or fi lm event, because what we do gets disseminated through the media”—and establishes an indelible image...

...So aside from the glamour, the celebrity sightings, and the fi rst look at fabrics and trends, why attend the Fashion Week circus if, as Erin Fetherston says, photos and videos of the collections are available soon afterwards...