>> Soon after Maybelline announced it would be be taking over from five-year Bryant Park cosmetics sponsor MAC, MAC — presumedly, as New York Times' Eric Wilson put it, tired of having to share "a rather circuslike stage with other sponsors who were competing for attention, sometimes including makers of doughnuts, cameras, toilets and Big Macs" — announced that it would be producing the tentatively-titled MAC and Milk Fashion Week with Milk Studios at the same time as the traditional New York Fashion Week.

The event can be seen as either a complement or a competitor to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, but on the record, anyway, there seem to be no hard feelings.  Milk Studios founder Mazdack Rassi says of the initiative: "This week is not an alternative show space, it's a way of cultivating designers and helping them come up with new ways of selling their clothes."  And Zach Eichman, a VP of IMG Fashion, which produces the shows at Bryant Park, told the New York Times last week the company welcomed the MAC and Milk event and that bus service between shows would be available when possible. “We can’t do every show in the tents. We hope they will be successful.”

Alexander Wang will be there, so will Preen »

>> Mayor Bloomberg has confirmed the reports from yesterday — after IMG's contract with the Bryant Park Corporation runs out in February 2010, Fashion Week will move to Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park beginning in September 2010.

The new venue will provide about 87,000 square feet of space for the shows, compared to the roughly 70,000 square feet available at Bryant Park, as well as more green spaces where "guests will be able to linger and enjoy any number of dining facilities at various price points," and access to Lincoln Center's "iconic indoor locations to be used for special events during the shows."

But Anna Wintour may not approve »

>> So long, Bryant Park.  After fifteen years of tents, Bryant Park will no longer be host to New York Fashion Week; starting in 2010, the event is supposed to move to Lincoln Center, according to two designers who typically show in the tents.  Fashion week organizers IMG and the CFDA are expected to make the official announcement Tuesday.

It is not clear whether IMG, which pays $1 million to $1.5 million to use the space in Bryant Park each season, will recreate the tents at Lincoln Center, or if nearby building will be used for additional space — a feasibility study done in 2006 suggested placing tents on opposite sides of the New York State Theater, meaning guests would have to walk the equivalent of a city block between them.

A new location for Fashion Week has been an issue particularly since 2006, when Bryant Park Corporation announced it would no longer allow shows in the park, since they were interfering with the Winter skating rink and late Summer public use of the lawn.  Anna Wintour asked Mayor Bloomberg to intercede, allowing Bryant Park to remain the central location through February 2010, after which a new location would be needed.
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>> After over a month of rumors, Smashbox Studios finally confirmed that it was ending its five year partnership with IMG after Spring 2009 LA Fashion Week closes Oct. 16.

Dean and Davis Factor, co-owners of Smashbox, the current LAFW venue, wanted to relocate the event closer to Hollywood, "take it to the next level," but "New York is [IMG's] big focus and it’s difficult with everything they have going on all over the world. It would be hard for them to do LA on the level they do New York. My brother and I can."

So where does that leave LA Fashion Week?  As part of its agreement with the Factors, IMG is not able to produce a Fashion Week, so it's all up to the brothers, who say they remain committed to the event.  Ideally, they're looking at Hollywood rather than the current Culver City location: "Hollywood embraces the city of Los Angeles, there’s so much creative stuff to take advantage of here, the red carpet, costume design, stylists, everything from the surf industry to Maxfield’s."

But it may not be in the same runway show form: "We’re going a completely different route."  Will all the new changes be effective in harnessing a spot as the fifth major Fashion Week?  The Factors have their work cut out for them.
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>> In the past few years, our attention has been on New York Fashion Week and where it will move after the Bryant Park lease runs out in 2010, but new revelations about the future of Los Angeles Fashion Week bring it temporarily to the forefront. 

Sources told Los Angeles magazine that the five-year LA Fashion Week partnership between IMG, who also runs NY Fashion Week, and Smashbox Studios in Culver City, where LA Fashion Week is held, will end after the Spring 2009 presentations in October.  When asked for comment, an IMG spokesperson merely said: "The focus of IMG and Smashbox continues to be the October shows and we won’t comment further on what is currently only rumor and speculation." 

If IMG does pull out, ownership of LA Fashion Week would be up for grabs — Smashbox Studio owners Dean and Davis Factor could go it alone or look for a new partnership.  Several options have been suggested, not in the least of which involves moving the shows to Hollywood.  But as Racked LA puts it, "The truth is the application of the NY Fashion Week structure on LA has never quite worked. Let's hope this is an opportunity for improvement and finding a platform that works for the city's designers."
*image: source