Leave it to Wes Gordon to share some heartfelt fashion words about New York and how the city made his fashion dreams come true – with all the glories and challenges.

“It’s surreal to me to be standing here speaking with the mayor at the start of New York Fashion Week,” the creative director of Carolina Herrera told guests  at Gracie Mansion, where New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Anna Wintour, and Steven Kolb hosted a cocktail reception to kick off New York Fashion Week on Thursday.

“I grew in Atlanta sketching women and dresses on the margins of my math homework and tyrannically telling my mom and sister what to wear each day,” Gordon added. “Being a fashion designer was always my dream career and New York was always my dream home. New York is a magical place and to everyone it means something difference. To me it meant Seventh Avenue, Barneys, Bergdorf’s, Vogue, Saks, Bryant Park…a cinematic version of my fashion outsider dreams.”

The crowd – which included a wide swath of America’s top design talent – listened intently. Among them were Michael Kors and Lance LePere, Tory Burch, Aurora James, Tommy Hilfiger, Diane von Furstenberg, Cynthia Rowley, Jeffrey Banks, Yeohlee Teng, Victor Glemaud, Hillary Taymour, Batsheva Hay, Stan Herman, Jonathan Cohen, Maria Cornejo, Edvin Thompson, Willy Chavarria, Claudia Li, Thom Browne and Andrew Bolton, Sally LaPointe, Beckett Fogg, Jacques Abgobly, Jonathan Simkhai, and Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta.

“We all know that this is an industry full of challenges, but it is thanks to programs like the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, and the work of the CFDA that the young designer is reminded that they are not in it alone,” Gordon added. “We are a family. I am so proud to be an American designer. Our city, New York, is home to an extraordinary community of designers, pattern makers, seamstresses, journalists, photographers, retailers, and artisans.”

Mayor Adams, too, had some memorable – and endearing – lines.

“New York is as cool as could be right now in Gracie Mansion in this room full of folks with swagger,” he told the very chic crowd, which also included Shalom Harlow, Karlie Kloss, Emily Ratajkowski, Lauren Santo Domingo, Renzo Rossi, Muge Erderik Dogan, Roopal Patel, Sam Lobban, and Linda Fargo, as well as CFDA Connects members Angela Watts of Ragtrade Atlanta, Lubna Najrm of Columbus Fashion Council, Marcia Masulla of Nashville Fashion Week, and Teisha Barber Kansas City Fashion Week.

“You grace Gracie Mansion with your presence,” he added.

Mayor Adams spoke to the power of fashion from inspiring confidence – say, the perfect cut of a tie before an important job interview, for example – to its ability to make important statements, such as the tux he wore to May’s Met Gala featuring the words “End Gun Violence” on the back of the coat.

The industry, he noted, is a $600 million force in the city’s economy, employing 100,000 people, responsible for $100 million in tax revenues.

“You are,” he said addressing the guests, “the exclamation point of New York. They say if you look good, you feel good, so we know we feel good tonight because you all look so good.”

It was a feel-good celebration, indeed.