Fashion in the Park, Courtesy of Vogue
By DAVID CARR, NY TIMES
Office workers who happen to be lunching in Bryant Park later this month will be able to enjoy a little haute couture with their turkey wraps, thanks to Vogue magazine.
The fashion magazine, which just published a 750-page September issue that the average runway waif can barely lift, decided that even hoi polloi need an early look at designers' spring collections. So while passers-by will not be able to enter the fashion shows going on inside the soon-to-be-erected tent in Bryant Park, they will be able to watch on Vogue-sponsored televisions set up around the perimeter.
"In Milan and Paris, Fashion Week is a big part of life in the city," said Thomas A. Florio, vice president and publisher of Vogue, which is owned by Condé Nast, part of Advance Publications. "This will remind people that fashion is a very important industry in the city."
In addition to coverage of the fashion shows, which will take place Sept. 18-23, the televised feed will include plugs for clients who have advertised in the September issue of Vogue, as well as sponsors of Fashion Week.
The annual fashion ritual is the occasion of much silliness — hotshot designers can be depended on to come up with metaphysical rationales for the garments they have created — and not a small amount of business.
But this year, Fashion Week will also serve as a reminder that business as usual is not necessarily a bad place to be. Fashion Week last September was among the events in New York that were canceled because of the attacks on the World Trade Center.
But those who stop by this year's event for a little televised glamour should not look for reaction shots from Anna Wintour, the supreme queen of all fashionistas and Vogue's editor in chief.
"The focus will be on the fashions," Mr. Florio said. "People are going to be seeing the clothes that will be part of the spring 2003 fashion season. The event is about the apparel."