Pitching the Tents

Models "flirting with journalists" at Caroline Seikaly's Fall-Winter 2010 presentation.

Image: Romy Ribitzky

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is in full force, with 83 designers sending their visions of Fall-Winter 2010 down the runways. And while many choose to show their collections in the iconic tents of Manhattan’s Bryant Park—particularly this year as fashionistas prepare to move to Lincoln Center come September 2010—approximately two dozen designers have planned off-site viewings.

Think of it as Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway. And just like those shows, sometimes the gamble works, as is often the case with Donna Karan’s DKNY, Zac Posen, Ralph Lauren, and Calvin Klein. And sometimes it really doesn’t, as was the case with Caroline Seikaly’s off-site show, produced by Seventh House, at nearby Bryant Park Hotel, where room rates range from $238 per night to $555 per night.

And that’s just for the room. "A fashion presentation at Bryant Park will cost at least $50,000. If the designer requires hotter models, a premiere stylist, a hair and makeup team beyond the sponsored offerings, and additional set elements, the cost of the show will go up significantly," Mark Silver, partner of Factory Public Relations, a fashion and lifestyle publicity firm in New York, told Forbes in 2007.

With so much money at stake, it’s key that a show dazzle the crowd. Those who have tuned in the past couple of weeks to Bravo’s Kell on Earth, featuring show producer and People’s Revolution founder Kelly Cutrone, put on one event after another with perhaps lots of backstage drama but front-of-house precision. Militant timing and expert check-ins allows guests to focus on the clothes. But life is not a reality show.

While Seikaly’s dresses were pretty enough, and the models impeccably made up by Talia Shobrook for Temptu, which specializes in an airbrush system, management of the event left a lot to be desired and ends up being a case study of how not to run a fashion show.

Among Seventh House’s mistakes:

1. Check-in was messy and late. Guests were packed into the hotel’s tiny vestibule at start time while Seventh House staffers were walking back in from lunch, on their walkies, trying to ascertain a more precise start time while chitchatting with each other about later plans for the day.

2. When finally allowed upstairs, the group was greeted by a surly second team of staffers who yelled at us to “step away from the door,” while someone inside gave the models last-minute instructions to “keep things moving, flirt with the press, and sell the clothes.”

3. Bumble and Bumble’s hair team, led by Sabrina Michaels, was clearly stressed out, touching up the models’ tresses time and again—in full view of the press.

4. We expect models to look pissed-off (especially since many clearly don’t eat during Fashion Week), but this group of 18 women from some of the top modeling agencies including Elite, NY Model Management, and Code, took pouty to a whole different level, looking like they were about to bust into tears.

5. Not a single member of Seventh House’s staff introduced the designer or talked about the looks. Guest were simply given a program at the door and were sent on their way to wander alone through the 18 looks.

A large part of presenting during Fashion Week is to get press coverage in order to reach potential customers who may be interested in the clothes. But when production makes the designer inaccessible and hires bored-looking models and a seemingly inexperienced staff, it can have the opposite effect. Some of the journalists riding down the elevator after less than 10 minutes in the tiny room mumbled: “The clothes were pretty, the makeup was perfect, but what an awful presentation. She would have been better off showing at her design warehouse.”

And saving money on production costs.