Destination New York Fashion Week

Emily Manthei

The Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2015 will take place from September 4th to 11th, in New York City, the stateside hometown of international style-makers. The event, based at Lincoln Center near the southwest end of Central Park, brings together designers from major fashion houses. Lacoste, Betsey Johnson, Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan New York, Boss, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, amongst others, will premiere new collections for the upcoming season at exclusive runway shows. Fans of Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn’s Project Runway should try to snag a seat for a first look at the top three designers of Season 13 (still in mid-season on Lifetime) at their 10 am group show on September 5th.

Hollywood is already buzzing over innovative designers, Opening Ceremony, who will be staging a play co-written by Jonah Hill and Spike Jonze (who also directed) during their runway slot. Off the runway, expect a flood of glamorous after-parties, where designers hobnob with the celebrities, journalists and scenesters who create the trends for the upcoming season.

Not into the fashion scene? Whether or not you’re an industry insider, you can still absorb the zeitgeist in and around the west side of Manhattan. Shows at the annual Broadway Week, Shakespeare and dance at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, the Generations in Jazz Festival and a John Waters retrospective at Lincoln Center will ensure you get into the spirit of the city that never sleeps – and ensure you won’t either.

DO:

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week shows are invite-only and you’ll have to register ahead of time to get invited to shows. Couture Fashion Week at the Crowne Plaza in Times Square sells tickets to shows from more avant-garde designers. Guest-of-a-Guest tips off some of the most scene-worthy private parties and invite-only events you need to find your way to this season on their weekly roundup.

Brass aficionados won’t want to miss the Generations in Jazz Festival at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. Through the month of September, listen to greats like GRAMMY-winner Roy Haynes and his Fountain of Youth Band, storied pianist Monty Alexander, and 84-year-old saxaphone legend Joe Temperley for a modest cover of $20 – $45 a night. Late-night sessions run to the wee hours Tuesday – Saturday throughout the month.

Catch up on the latest musicals with two-for-one admissions during Broadway Week, Sept. 1-14. Twenty-one shows participate in the promotion, including perennial favorites like Kinky Boots, Book of Mormon, Phantom of the Opera, and Les Miserables.

Fans of Couture Fashion Week looking for the equivalent – that is, theater that’s a little more off-the-beaten… well, Broadway – take advantage of 20at20, the Sept. 9-28 event that releases $20 tickets for off-Broadway shows 20 minutes before the performance. With a lot more shows to choose from and some serious deals, it’s the ideal event for last-minute commitment-phobes. Just visit the box office 20 minutes before the show and say “20at20” to get the deal.

If you still haven’t had your fill of Lincoln Center events, visit the Film Society at Lincoln Center for the Sept. 5-14 John Waters retrospective. Enter a world of the bizarre as you revisit classics like Hairspray, Pink Flamingos, and Serial Mom. The director will appear opening night after the screening of his debut feature, Female Trouble. Check back on Sept. 26 for the opening of the less eccentric New York Film Festival, also at Lincoln Center.

After Donna Karan New York’s Monday afternoon show at 547 W. 26th Street, hop over to a giant warehouse one block away, knowns as the McKittrick Hotel on West 27th Street. A theatre experience unlike anything else, Sleep No More instructs masked participants (a la Eyes Wide Shut) to explore more than one hundred rooms of staged, wordless film noir style scenes and elaborate Lynchian sets complete with taxidermy and interactive set dressing. Although inspired by Shakespeare’s MacBeth, the scenes are independent of one another and participants can explore as much or as little of the vast “hotel” as they desire. Recharge with a gimlet at the on-site bar and head back into the maze.

EAT:

Before you zip down to SoHo for Calvin Klein’s show at 50 Varick Street, enjoy a leisurely breakfast at Balthazar, an airy French cafe located in a repurposed leather wholesaler’s warehouse that could have been pulled from the fin de siecle. Choose from a variety of egg dishes, crepes, and sweet waffles or head straight to the popular bakery case and choose among buttery pastries. Or, back in the Upper West Side, sit down at Irving Farm Coffee Roasters for fresh, craft coffee roasted in the Hudson Valley and home-made biscuits and baked goods made on-site. The clean, spacious atmosphere will have you dreaming of a Scandinavian photo shoot with Lacoste.

Casually dine at the uber hip Craft Bar or NoMad Bar, both serving New American cuisine. Or after Vivienne Hu’s hosted show at Pier 59, perhaps you’re ready for some elegant Asian fusion at nearby Buddakan, where a blend of Japanese and Chinese dishes are served in a luxurious dining room or the palatial Tao, similarly outfitted in a killer menu of dim sum, sushi and everything in between.

Take a break from designer-spotting and go back to the birthplace of fashion: France. Mas Farmhouse, is a culinary adventure where sustainable farms in New York state provide produce for Provincial-style dishes served in Greenwich Village. For an exquisite splurge, Le Bernardin is a four-star seafood destination that has been given the highest Michelin rating of three stars every year since 2005. Dedicated to the culinary style of Gilbert Le Coze, the restaurant’s late founder and self-taught culinary visionary, Le Coze’s sister Maguy and head chef Eric Ripert deliver excellence in every bite.

DRINK:

Head to former Jordache model, Jennifer Klein’s, Dakota Bar for the Upper West Side’s main event and join the fashionistas gathered around the brass-instrument-laden chandeliers at the bar.  Many have raved about Klein’s bar, naming it the center of the UWS scene. Fine craft cocktails tempt designers and their muses at the Hudson Hotel’s Henry, a Liquor Bar, where the UK’s twice-crowned bartender of the year has hopped the Atlantic to oversee a dedicated mixology program in the heart of the Hudson’s high-energy atmosphere. Then trail over to the Flatiron District with a member of Milk & Honey and end your evening in elegant British style. Next head to the Meatpacking district and find your way into the members-only SoHo House, or cross the street to New York’s Standard, straddling the High Line, where another glamorous upper-level storm is sure to be gathering over the Hudson. After 2am follow the crowd to the Electric Room, one of fashion week’s favorite gathering places to share a drink with the “cool Britannia” mod squad. If your quest for the perfect drink, we have saved the best for last:  The Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog. In a trend the fashion industry can appreciate, what’s old is new – but better. Dead Rabbit breathes new life into 72 classic cocktails hailing from the 19th century. Yes, please!

STAY:

Budget-conscious travelers, there’s no need to get the short end on style. The Pod Hotel in east Midtown is an eclectic, colorful, Pollock-inspired micro-hotel that offers small-but-mighty “studio” rooms that sleep up to four.

Slip down to the Fashion District in Midtown to stay with the Project Runway finalists at The Refinery, a bright, industrial-chic compound that was once home to milliners and hat factories. You’ll find the more modernist take on affordable luxury at NYLO NYC, just steps from Lincoln Center. The hotel bars range from rooftop-casual outdoor style to fin de siecle bistro elegance.

To stay a little closer to Fashion Week’s home base, you’ll want to book the Hudson Hotel, a chic, energetic boutique hotel near Columbus Circle. With luxury touches and unexpected architecture around every corner, it’s the perfect escape from the ordinary. The uber-stylish Viceroy is a sleek mash-up of African woodwork, leather furnishings and Art Deco patterns, all rolled into a hip, newly-opened Midtown tower on the south side of Central Park.

On the southeast side of Central Park, you’ll create your own auspicious occasion at the hotel of which it is said, “Nothing unimportant ever happens at The Plaza”. The Beaux-Arts gem has been home to wealthy New Yorkers and jet-setting socialites since 1907 and remains a hideaway far from home for the most demanding of guests. But once you’ve schmoozed and shopped and stayed out all night through the outrage and ecstasy of Fashion Week, The Plaza’s most important asset will finally reveal itself: a soft, pillowy bed.