Fashion's Big Tent

The shows at Bryant Park have long had a hierarchy of placement--front row for major editors, celebrities, and investors, back rows for more minor players, outside for...outsiders. But as we wrote on Sunday, the system has been changing, with members of the public increasingly able to get access to the tents.

A mother and daughter at Cynthia Steffe today boasted an unusual fashion gate-crashing technique. They won their seats in a church-group fundraising lottery.

For them, a seat at Bryant Park was not about business or design or even much spectacle (During a low-key early morning show, absent many top retail brass and sans bold-face celebrities, Steffe's creative director sent out flouncy, urban girl-in-the-country club dresses). For this New York mother, attending a fashion show--any fashion show--under the tents in Bryant Park was her right as a local. The mom claimed to have worked in the city for three decades, lamenting that only now was she finally "in" at a real live fashion show.

By Catherine Curan

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