17 Insane and Incredible Moments From New York Fashion Week History
All the way back to 1990.
It's New York Fashion Week! And with it the drama, the theatrics, the intensity, the applause, and…the endless whining from editors who cover these fashion shows as if waiting on line for BCBG is like standing on the deck of the Titanic after its hit the iceberg.
Amateurs. This is nothing. I've been in the fashion industry for decades, and looking back, there were real things to scream and cry about. Like hot show lights crashing down and splitting an editor's head open, plaster falling from a loft space when the bass was cranked up a few decibels too high, and—heaven forbid!—getting seated next to an F-list celebrity. Here are a few of the craziest fashion week moments to date:
1990
What: Michael Kors loft space show in 1990. Tents not yet erected. Plaster from ceiling falls on fashion critics Suzy Menkes' head and Carrie Donovan's lap. Anna Wintour picks out pieces of the plaster from Menkes head in the front row.
Why: Michael Kors loves a good disco tune. When Odyssey's "Use It Up, Wear It Out" gets to the lyrics "1-2-3, shake your body down" the bass is turned up. Cue plaster!
The Result: In 1993, Fern Mallis establishes 7th on Sixth to give designers a proper venue to showcase their looks.
1993
What: Marc Jacobs' infamous/now iconic grunge show for Perry Ellis
What Happened: He got fired from the label for his revolutionary Grunge Collection. Flannels, striped dresses, plaid shirts tied around the waist, and skull caps…few people got it.
The Result: It made the cover of every major magazine and made his career.
1996
What Happened: Alexander McQueen's collection was shown all the way down on Norfolk Street at a former synagogue (now the Angel Orensanz Foundation Center for the Arts) on the Lower East Side. Kate Moss, Helena Christensen, and James King modeled the debut of his bumster pants.
The Result: The show started so late, many editors abandoned the show. He landed Bergdorf Goodman anyway.
1998
What: After years of showing in Paris, Helmut Lang decides to show in NYC…but he also decides he wants to show before the Europe shows. So essentially he wants the entire show schedule to change so that NYC designers can show first.
What Happened: This shift causes absolute mayhem and chaos. No one is ready to make the switch. At that time, New York Fashion Week was last to show. But Calvin Klein follows Helmut Lang's lead in showing early, as does Donna Karan. Helmut Lang just felt NYFW was too far back in the calendar for the house to show, but the juicy rumor out there was that Calvin and Helmut felt they were being branded copy cats from looks that showed in Europe. (Helmut was perhaps the most emulated, copied designer of this time.)
The Result: Lang won. Spring '99 saw a split season in New York; by fall, the city showed first. In 2005, he left his own house and is now missing on a milk carton (I kid! He's fine and well but no longer in the game.)
1999-2003
Who: Miguel Adrover, designer. In general.
What Happened: Unthinkable and blasphemous then, genius now, Adrover was deconstructing Burberry trench coats and styling Louis Vuitton bags worn as skirts. (No one was collaborating at that time, so designers had to find these things from other designers on their own. Rumor had it that the Vuitton bags were samples stolen from a magazine closet.) Adrover also sent an American flag down the runway (patched and worn as a dress), added live goats to one show (the goats acted like divas and refused to "walk"), and then in 2001, he showed an Middle Eastern-inspired "Utopia" collection on September 9th.
The Result: He ended up in trouble with the CIA two days later on 9/11. This pretty much ended his reign as it put his chief financier out of business. An editor recalls another incident: "I remember a Miguel Adrover show on the Lower East Side where there was one entrance/exit and people were worried about it being a fire hazard. I stood by the entrance where the photographers' podium was and Anna Wintour came in, took one look and left. The show went on, but it did spell the beginning of the end for him." Adrover is alive and well and running a coffee shop in his native Majorca.
1999
What: Bill Blass's final show, September 16th. Alexander McQueen's show on the pier…and a hurricane
What Happened: Hurricane Floyd slams into town. "Will Fern's Tents Flatten" screams WWD. [Fern Mallis, again, was the woman in charge of 7th on Sixth, which organized fashion week]. Floyd was a category 4 hurricane that caused $16.6 million in damages; we were nuts to go out and will probably never do that again. Fashion week cancels everything temporarily, then picks it all up again two days later.
The Result: Blass and McQueen's shows go on. I was at the both. Water was everywhere and at McQueen they used water on their runway. There were flying acrobats in burkas. It was fabulous and nuts. McQueen pulled his pants down at his bow to reveal Union Jack boxers. That was a first.
2000
What: PETA throws red paint on the runway at Randolph Duke's show.
What Happened: PETA misses the models but hits stylist Phillip Bloch.
The Result: Bloch is livid. Duke tells the Daily News: "PETA is entitled to their opinion, but they're just expressing it the wrong way."
2003
What: The Michael Kors Show, PETA strikes again.
What Happened: PETA tosses tofu pies at the front row which includes Anna Wintour, Andre Leon Talley, Blaine Trump, and Sarah Jessica Parker.
2005
What: Saks Fifth Avenue's then-CEO Fred Wilson, and some goats
What: Wilson storms the entrance to the tents at Bryant Park with a bunch of live goats to promote his "Wild About Cashmere" campaign at Saks.
Result: He's mocked by critics. He's no longer at Saks.
2005
What: DVF'S spring show finale, disaster strikes
What Happened: A bank of hot show lights comes crashing down on the front row, injuring four editors and sending one Cosmo editor to the hospital with a concussion and 30 stitches to her head.
The Result (Are they Ok?): Yes. Following a few massive lawsuits, all are well.
2006
What: Glamour and DKNY Jeans chartered helicopters to get celebrities in and out of Bryant Park to get stellar front attendance.
The Result: Hardly a success. It was very difficult to a) land a high caliber celebrity and b) and land the helicopter.
2007
What: Marc Jacobs' show starts two hours late.
What Happened: An insider recalls: "Marc was at 8 p.m. I just remember that the show had already been running late in previous seasons so editors were calling and emailing and texting that day to find out how many courses they were allowed to order at dinner—everyone booked reservations near the Armory (the show venue) so they could eat before they came rather than sit and wait, starving." But no one expected the show to run a full two hours late. As for the reason why? No one can agree. One source tells me that the collection was late on delivery to the show venue, but another source says they were just changing all the styling backstage at the last minute. Maybe both?
The Result: Regardless of the wait, clearly the collection was a hit. As I recall, some of us were actually generously gifted by Marc Jacobs with watches the following season and Marc has started EXACTLY on time every year since.
2009
Who: Ashley Dupre, the infamous hooker who services Client 9—NY Governor Eliot Spitzer—arrives to sit in front row of Yigal Azrouël show.
What Happened: Everyone gets their knickers in a twist over this. People's Revolution was the PR company responsible for the show, and boss Kelly Cutrone says she was doing the work as a favor to help a financially strapped Azrouël out. Still, she gets fired for the invite and meet & greet. After the show, a press release announced the news: "Following the showing of his Fall Winter 2009 Collection, Yigal Azrouël has decided to fire front-of-house PR Company, People's Revolution, for mismanagement."
The Result: Cutrone is fine and survives the firing. And has said she will probably get fired again. Yigal is fine, and Ashley is still working on her debut pop album.
2012
Who: 95-year-old Zelda Kaplan, Advanced Style icon, socialite, fashion lover, collapses front row at Joanna Mastroianni's fashion show.
What Happened: Midway though the fashion show, she collapses on Ruth Finley, another fashion staple and is sent to St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital where she is pronounced dead.
Last Words: She told The New York Times: "I'm a curious person. I want to keep learning until it's over. And when it's over, it's over.''
2013
What: Nicole Kidman is mowed down by paparazzi in front of the Carlyle Hotel after the Calvin Klein show.
What Happened: Carl Wu lost control of his bike trying to get her photo. He said it was an accident but he's notorious for causing all types of dangerous mayhem like this.
The Result (Is She OK?): Nicole Kidman was ok. And resumed her duties in NY. Wu got a ticket and someone else got a better picture.
2013
What: The slap heard around the world… and $1million lawsuit that followed.
Who: Lynn Tesoro (left), an HL Group PR exec; Marie-Jose Susskind-Jalou (right), who was president of Jalou publishing house. Also Susskind-Jalou's daughters, Jennifer Eymere and Vanessa Bellugeon, who worked at Jalouse and L'Officiel magazines.
What Happened: At the very last minute, the fire marshal at Zac Posen's runway venue demanded that 60 seats be removed, leaving PR firm HL Group scrambling to find seats for people who had been promised them. (Seated tickets go to more powerful industry people than standing ones, so some people are very sensitive at being without a seat.) Some editors were really pissed about the last minute demotion, including Marie-Jose Susskind-Jalou and daughters. But Susskind-Jalou actually slapped Tesoro in front of everyone.
The Result: Tesoro filed a $1 million dollar lawsuit accusing Susskind-Jalou of battery, daughter Eymere of libel, and all three for assault and slander. It was reportedly settled out of court for an "undisclosed amount."
2014
What: An elevator stalls at the Oscar de la Renta show.
Who: Vogue's Andre Leon Talley, WSJ's Meenal Mistry and Paula Knight, Le Figaro's Godfrey Deeny, plus Jim the elevator man.
What Happened: Imagine the final elevator scenes in the '70s disaster film The Towering Inferno. It lasted for 50 minutes, in the heat, the lights go off once. Coats are removed. Talley is wearing Ugg boots. Hot firemen jump on elevator roof and open the hatch and they climb out one by one.
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