New York Fashion Week Gets Acquainted With New Neighbors Near Lincoln Center - WSJ.com

By ERICA ORDEN

The producers of New York Fashion Week warned their soon-to-be neighbors in an Aug. 12 letter of the changes to come to their community: six weeks of limited parking, blocked streets, a flurry of trucks, trailers and equipment.

An area of Lincoln Center where Fashion Week events will take place.

While not quite an invitation to the runway shows, it was nevertheless a gesture toward rapprochement for the residents of the Lincoln Center area who are concerned about the event's impact on the neighborhood when it gets started Sept. 9.

Fashion Week, with its move from Bryant Park, is relocating from a predominantly commercial district to a more heavily residential community, one where the tenants situated closest to the tents are the residents of one of Manhattan's largest public-housing complexes. In recent weeks, politicians, community organizers, housing officials and Fashion Week organizers have been negotiating ways to extend the potential benefits of the luxury industry to its low-income neighbors, while blunting the event's burden on them.

Now, educational programming on the fashion industry is planned. Efforts are under way to make jobs and internships available to local residents. And event producers have established a command center to field community concerns and questions.

Designer Rachel Roy will be apart of a panel
discussion about fashion-industry career options.

"When you bring in a large enterprise, such as Fashion Week, you want to be sure that people in the neighborhood know what's going on—beyond just seeing the limousines," said New York City Council member Gale Brewer, who represents Manhattan's Upper West Side. "It's a challenge for [the residents]," Ms. Brewer said. "I think it's going to be hard. I'm not going to underestimate it."

Some residents of Amsterdam Houses—a nearly 10-acre public-housing complex on the western border of Lincoln Center—have welcomed the arrival of Fashion Week to their neighborhood. Many of the apartments are just a street-width away from venues including Damrosch Park, where producer IMG Fashion has already begun to erect tents to host the nearly 100 runway shows planned for the event.

"I was real excited about it," said 34-year-old Andrew Black, a lifelong tenant who runs Positive Influence, a nonprofit youth organization at the complex. "It's right in our backyard."

The event's relocation raised fears that some in the community would feel slighted by the lavish affair and its many invitation-only events. "We think it's a great thing, but we were concerned that we wouldn't be able to participate or see some of the high fashions," said Samara Ellis, who works in food services and special events at the Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center, which sponsors a community center at Amsterdam Houses.

As recently as three weeks ago, representatives from the mayor's office, Ms. Brewer's office, the parks department, IMG, the housing authority and Lincoln Center met to iron out the details of Fashion Week's introduction to its new neighbors.

"How do we integrate the community and make sure they're aware of what's going on in terms of logistics?" said the New York City Housing Authority's director of Manhattan community operations, Ukah Busgith. "We're trying to take a proactive approach."

One of the first concrete steps will take place Wednesday, when about 150 teenage NYCHA residents are scheduled to attend a panel discussion about fashion-industry career options—particularly behind-the-scenes jobs like seamstress or merchandiser. The panel will feature designers like Rachel Roy, as well as the director of fashion at Lincoln Center, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff.

The event is designed to address "how it is possible to access something that's seems so exclusive," Ms. Wolkoff said. "It's hard work, and it's not the glamorous life that everyone sees."

Ms. Brewer's office is also encouraging Fashion Week organizers to make jobs and internships available to tenants. NYCHA is expected to discuss opportunities—perhaps in security or production or even with IMG itself—with representatives from Lincoln Center and IMG before Fashion Week's February run.

"I assume there's a lot of money involved here," Ms. Brewer said, "and I believe it should be shared."