High Fashion Jumps the Runway

Expose NY - A New Way to do Fashion Week by Mary Reyes


Any fashionista worth her Bottega knows that during Fashion Week in NY the only place to be is the tents at Bryant Park. There of course are "off Broadway" runway shows going on, but for the most part if you're a designer and want to be seen by the hoards of press and buyers you have to be part of the official NYFW madness. Or at least until now....

Last week I got a press release for what, on the surface, seemed like yet another new fashion trade show. Rows and rows of brands practically begging you with their hungry eyes to look at their collections, feel their garments, meet their publicist, eat their candy. Truth is, you will most likely find one in a hundred brands that actually stands out. However, when looking at this press release, something caught my eye; this show was made specifically with me in mind. The VIP's of this event aren't the Barney's and Bloomie's buyers (though they are apparently being invited), but rather it's the people that decide what brands actually get seen by the masses. 

Expose New York claims to not be a trade show or a gifting suite, but rather a "brand showcase directed at the top fashion editors, stylists, writers (me) and select buyers." Its creator, Matt Meyerson, a former executive at a large entertainment PR firm, took the idea of a trade show and cut it down into a more palatable and exclusive sort of fashion fete. There will only be about a dozen brands showing their Spring '09 Collections, but with hot names like Levi Okunov, Oliver Goldsmith, Yeojin Bae, Jerome Rousseau, and House of Bastion (anyone see a movie called "Sex and The City?" Remember the flower ring at the auction? That's House of Bastion).  For fashion writers, like myself,  who have to be at forefront of "what's next" we get to be first to view their collections, sip cocktails and rub elbows with the most influential people in the fashion media (read: more freelance please.) 

Meyerson will only tell me that Expose takes place a day before Fashion Week actually starts (smart tactic) and will be in an undisclosed private loft and is invitation only. Normally I dread trudging through trade show after trade show but it sounds like Meyerson's show may just be "the new black", at least as fashion shows go.

Do your best to wrangle an invite, but if you can't, I'll fill you in next month.

 

Fashion writer Mary Reyes wouldn't trade her job for anything, well, except maybe a car and driver to shuttle her home after all the cocktail sipping and elbow rubbing. 

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