“Fashion is New York, and New York is fashion.”

With these words, Mayor Eric Adams perfectly summed up the city and all the style and inspiration it has to offer on a daily basis.

Mayor Adams spoke at Gracie Mansion, his residence, where CFDA and Spotify celebrated the start of New York Fashion Week with him and CFDA Chairman Thom Browne on Thursday evening. During his remarks, the New York City mayor spoke to the power of fashion – through both celebratory as well as difficult times – and the way in which it inspires everything we do, especially in a city like  New York with its abundance of cultural intersectionality.

Addressing the designers in the room, including Vera Wang, Kenneth Cole, Stan Herman, Gabriela Hearst, Maria Cornejo, Stacey Bendet, and Edvin Thompson – the deejay  for the occasion – Adams said, “If you were to touch a glass, you would leave your DNA on the glass. Each time someone place a design on someone, they have your DNA. They have your dreams, your aspirations, your thoughts, and your energy. You will be surprised how much you impact the lives of people.”

The crowd also included Anna Wintour, Doechhi, Jordan Roth, Jackson Wiederhoeft, Talia Ryder, Batsheva Hay, Alina Cho, Gigi Burris, Lukas Gage and Chris Appleton, Jeffrey Banks, Roopal Patel, Muge Erdirik Dogan, Kathryn Newton, Henry Zankov, Jacques Agbobly, Junny Hibbert, Sam Lobban, Conley Averett, Linda Fargo, Jonathan Cohen, Dustee Jenkins, Alejandra Alonso Rojas, Bibhu Mohapatra, and Rebecca Hessel Cohen.

Browne, in his remarks, remembered his very first collection 20 years ago. As he picked it up his samples in Long Island City, he was laughed at by schoolyard kids on his way to the subway for showroom fittings.

“Even though how hard it was and how hot it was, I loved it so much,” Browne recalled. “It was a collection that nobody really liked, nobody really fit in, and nobody could afford. It wasn’t the best way to start a business but for me, it was the best way to start the collection and to almost start my story. Don’t care about what anybody else is doing. Just tell your story your own way.”

Pointing out how fashion touches every single person every day, he added that, as Chairman of the CFDA, he wanted a billboard in Times Square celebrating NYFW, which came true this season courtesy of Spotify.

“The City,” Browne noted, “gets to interact with New York Fashion Week and see the creativity we bring to New York and how we also inspire the world.”

From the Crossroads of the World out to the entire world, all in a New York minute. What’s better than that?