The moment has been remembered seemingly endless times, but it never feels like it can be remembered often enough – and quite rightly so. Those of us who were in New York City on September 11th, 2001, will recall an eerily calm morning. After a spell of stifling humidity and rain the prior day – the deluge had stopped just in time for the Marc Jacobs party on a Chelsea pier with a glorious view of the Twin Towers – that Tuesday morning was gloriously crisp and clear as only those early fall days in the city can be. Fall had arrived.
The September 11th attacks and New York Fashion Week will always be inextricably linked. During the Liz Lange show in the Bryant Park tents and before Oscar de la Renta, the first plane hit the tower. I was a young reporter at WWD then, and a colleague of mine and I were sent out to get reactions at the tents. As we made our way up Fifth Avenue from 34th to 40th Street, people on the avenue suddenly started to scream. We turned around and looked down Fifth as the first tower was coming down.
The impact on the city, the country, the world was severe, and the New York fashion industry was hit from all angles.
Fashion week was cancelled. Out-of-town editors and buyers were stranded in New York as all air traffic was stopped. Emerging designers – who had put all their savings into the show – faced dire prospects. What now?
In the weeks that followed, larger fashion houses such as Donna Karan and Ralph Lauren presented their collections in smaller, more intimate formats.
Anna Wintour took action, and, in Carolina Herrera’s showroom, Vogue and Style.com staged a group show for 11 promising talents. It was called An American View, and designers included Rebecca Taylor, Peter Som, and Behnaz Sarafpour.
The need to help young designers inspired the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, which changed the landscape of American fashion.
Twenty years later, the CFDA continues to honor the memory of the victims of the September 11th attacks by blocking out the 9AM time slot on the Official NYFW Schedule. We will always pause, reflect and remember on this day.
