Friday, October 4, 2013

New York Fashion Week’s New Home

New York Fashion Week looks set to move home. The shows have been based at the Lincoln Centre since 2010, but look increasingly likely to be moving to a new purpose-built site in the near future.

Hudson Yards, a new development on Manhattan's West Side, is competing to house the shows, and has the advantage of being backed by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CDFA). The multipurpose centre features an area called the Culture Shed, specifically designed for such an event.

"I am super excited about the Culture Shed," Diane Von Vurstenberg, chairman of the CFDA, told WWD. "It will be a huge cultural centre, and yes, a wonderful place for Fashion Week."

The $300 million (£195 million) Culture Shed venture has been privately funded (as opposed to the rest of Hudson Yards, which is being developed by Related Companies), and will feature four runways, exhibition spaces, studios and a vast canopy roof, to allow for both indoor and outdoor areas. Von Furstenberg is also on the board for the project, and has been leading the fundraising drive.

"Our family foundation has made a financial commitment to the Culture Shed, and I am proud to sit on its board," she said. The development has been in production since 2006, when the designer first became chairman of the CFDA and requested "a pier for Fashion Week".

New York Fashion Week
Steven Kolb, CEO of the CFDA, told WWD that the council's involvement with the Culture Shed was with the ultimate intention that it would be "a potential home for Fashion Week". He added: "Our interest is not in being producers of Fashion Week, but that the infrastructure complements the needs of the designers."

The centre is expected to be fully operational by 2017. Spokespeople for IMG, owner of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, and the Lincoln Centre, have yet to comment.

No comments:

Post a Comment