Fashion needs your help!  On the first night of New York Fashion Week, Fashion and Art come together for a night of glamour and cool shopping with the advent of “VOGUE FASHION’S NIGHT OUT” in New York City.  Coordinated by the U.S. and international editions of Vogue, the Big Apple joins its sister fashion capitals around the world— From London to Paris, from Moscow to Mumbai, from Beijing to Milan –in a global initiative to promote retail, restore consumer confidence, and celebrate fashion.

COSTUME NATIONAL is a proud participant of “Vogue Fashion’s Night Out.”  Come explore our exquisite new SoHo space and take in the exciting visual art of Shinique Smith, from the Yvon Lambert Gallery, who will intrigue shoppers with an art installation brought in exclusively for this very important shopping event. Costume National Creative Director, Ennio Capasa, has always supported contemporary creativity in all its expressions: from art, to cinema to design. In addition, the boutique, along with other participating retailers, will remain open late until 11 p.m., to help maximize shopping time and stimulate purchases.

In addition, shoppers can pick-up special T-shirts created by the CFDA at the Costume National boutique for this shopping event.  Your purchase of a “Fashion Night Out” tee will benefit the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center.  For more information, visit www.fashionsnightout.com.

COSTUME NATIONAL & SHINIQUE SMITH FOR THE YVON LAMBERT GALLERY, in conjunction with American Vogue, NYC & Company, the City of New York, AMEX, and the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)

Thursday, September 10, 2009 6pm -11pm

Costume National Boutique Located at 160 Mercer Street, SoHo, New York

About Shinique Smith

Shinique Smith, represented by the Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris and New York,  is an American artist who brings the anonymous aspects of life to the forefront, examining her own footing within the world. Her latest work, “Ten Times Myself,” a series of paintings and sculptures inspired from song lyrics, is a self-imposed call to be bolder and to go from one to ten without remorse. Infusing an ardent style owed to Abstract Expressionism and Japanese Calligraphy, Smith’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions internationally at venues including the National  Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the New Museum, New York; Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin; PS 1 Contemporary Arts Center, New York; and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Colorado.

On September 17th, 2009 TRIAS will emerge during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week as the next big force in the fashion industry with the debut of the Spring/Summer 2010 collection.  The much anticipated launch will debut designer Joaquin Trías’ refreshingly modern yet feminine aesthetic that will quickly take the world by storm.

Joaquin Trías was born in Spain and grew up between the towns of Marbella and Madrid.  Educated by an aristocratic family, Joaquin learned the essence and respect for elegance from an early age.  The inspiration for TRIAS comes from the sublime and discreet elegance transmitted by the designer’s two grandmothers, Cristina Sartorius and Frida Trías.  Cristina Satorius, Countess of Quiroga, exuded an untouchable and pure elegance with reserve while Frida Trías, model and muse of Balenciaga, was the person who initiated Joaquin in the fashion world through her glamour “par excellence”, seduction through distance and mystery, and knowledge of every detail of luxury without ostentation.  This feminine, generational inspiration for the line combined with Trías’s yearning for perfection, has created a brand that exuberates respect and strength towards the sophisticated woman.

Trías’ search for the clean, pure, perfect, innovative, and impeccable results in designs of natural elegance.  Each design is a true architectural masterpiece, with special effects generated through not only exceptionally worked lines but also the election of materials and finishing.  Trías is always searching for the perfect textiles to create more sensual effects with riskier finishing, empowering the exclusivity of each item.

Modern, universal, aggressive in its forms, the TRIAS style is a concept of perfect lines for an unbeatable woman.

All eyes will be on New York when fashion’s greatest designers gather to reveal the upcoming season’s sleekest styles at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, and Chambord® Black Raspberry Liqueur will be serving up its own version of style with fashionable cocktails as the Official Liqueur of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

Chambord, an all-natural liqueur produced in France’s Loire Valley will be on the scene for the fourth consecutive year in the tents at Bryant Park, adding to its reputation for fashionable cocktails.

“Chambord is the perfect accessory for every outfit and occasion. With cocktails from the seriously chic French Martini to the rocking Chambord Velvet Elvis, Chambord is an all-natural liqueur that suits every style,” said Josh Hayes, brand manager for Chambord. “Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is an excellent way to highlight Chambord’s stylishness and versatility, and we’re excited to partner with IMG Fashion once again.”

The cocktails Chambord will feature are the classic Chambord French Martini, the Velvet Elvis (a rocking combination of Chambord and Jack Daniel’s) and for the calorie conscious, the Chambord Lemonade (Vodka, Chambord and sugar free lemonade) during the showing of the Spring 2010 Collections (September 10 – 17).

Chambord® French Martini                                              Chambord® Lemonade

1½ oz vodka                                                                             1½ oz vodka

½ oz Chambord                                                                                       ½ oz Chambord

3 oz pineapple juice                                                              3 oz sugar free lemonade

Shake ingredients with ice                                                 Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a tall glass.

And strain into a martini glass.                                          Garnish with fresh berries or a lemon.

Garnish with a lemon twist.

Chambord® Velvet Elvis

2 oz Jack Daniel’s® Tennessee Whiskey

1 oz Chambord

2 oz sweet and sour

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a martini glass.  Garnish with a lemon twist.

About Chambord

Chambord Black Raspberry Liqueur, made from all-natural, raspberries, blackberries, XO cognac, Madagascar vanilla, Moroccan citrus peel and honey extract, is produced just south of Paris in the picturesque Loire Valley. Inspired by Louis XIV’s visit to Chateau de Chambord in 1685, Chambord continues to lend elegance and style to every occasion as one of the world’s most versatile liqueurs.

Well folks it is finally out, the 2010 Spring Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week schedule has been released; and what a stellar line up it is. It’s a jam packed seven day schedule that is sure to be a great a bunch of great shows! Below you can see for yourself what lies in store.

On Sunday September 13, at 6 PM at The Scandinavia House 58 Park Avenue in New York City. Karen Sabag will show her Spring 2010 evening gown collection. This season she draws her inspiration from the elegant narrow streets and walls in Barcelona. Karen  has captured the brilliance of the marble and stones in the street, using natural colors and some pastels of light pink, mint green, with accents of silver and gold “My gowns this season are sexy and fun yet elegant at the same time.” Karen said.

As in all her collections Ms. Sabag uses only the finest fabrics, many of the gowns are made of 100% Italian and French Solstice lace. They are intricately worked with crochet, embroideries, and or embellished with fine hand beading. Many of the creations are adorned with Swarovski crystal or pearls and some are delicately intertwined in metallic silver or gold threads. A signature of a Karen Sabag bridal gown is corsetry. Her hand worked corsets add a glamorous sultry component to a woman’s body by putting emphasis in the right places.

In 2007 while still an undergraduate at FIT Karen won the prestigious first prize in The Kleinfeld-FIT Bridal Contest. She was competing against 800 other entrants. She also won best in show at The Supima Fashion Competition for Emerging Designers in January. Her winning design was an exquisite wedding gown made of Albini shirting. The fabric company was so impressed that they have taken the gown to Milan to exhibit at their fabric shows.

In October she will unveil her 2010 Bridal Collection at The Intercontinental Hotel as one of the participants in The Wedding Channel Bridal Couture Show.

You can purchase her gowns at her store on Ocean Parkway Brooklyn. Her bridal gowns are also available at Kleinfeld Bridal Salon in New York City.

When it rains, it pours is as the saying goes. At almost any point in any large fashion magazine, you could find huge ads and many of them. For example in the 2007 September issue of vogue, that weighed in at an astounding 4 pounds, 9 ounces, out of the 840 pages in the magazine, 727 of them were ads. Vogue said that that number dropped by 36% to only a mere 429 pages. So why the steep decline? Well it is a culmination of a few things, but mostly just the three elephants in the room; free marketing, cheap marketing and the economic downturn. With all the money lost in the stock market and everything else, the big fashion companies that spend a ton of money on those big fancy ads we all love, have either been cutting back or cutting out.

So now, without those big extensive ads, what are these huge companies doing to compensate? They, like many others, are utilizing the full capability of social networking sites like twitter, youtube, facebook, mixx, etc. They are using the free ad space that is there by creating fan pages blogs, etc and buying up digital ad space. Almost any large website you go on you will see the banner ads down the side and across the top. “These are advertisers where luxury and perfection and style is first and foremost. The Web experience was pretty cluttered. Now that there are bigger screens on desks, hi-def, beautiful video in real time, iPhone apps that look beautiful, the aesthetics have gotten to a place they are interested in,” says Drew Schutte, senior vice president and chief revenue officer for Condé Nast Digital, which is trying to boost the number of ad packages it sells that include both print ads and digital ads. Is this the future for ads in regards to fashion, or ads in general. With the decline in print, and the incline in digital media outlets, it seems it may be so.

One of the latest fly by night fashion trends is the new armored denim jeans. You may have seen this on such celebs such as Victoria Beckham or Beyonce, and I am sure that come this fall we will see even more of them. The jeans feature metal plating on the shins, knees, and sometimes thighs. Personally, I am not a fan and predict that by next year, we will be looking back on these as one of those yearly fashion faux pas. Just remember not to wear them when trying to get on a plane, otherwise you might be spending a little bit more time at the security checkpoint then you may like to!

The Lovely Katie Holmes is making her entrance to the wonderful world of fashion with her own clothing line. While currently working on her new movie, Katie plans on releasing her clothing line later this year at Maxfield stores.Teaming up with her stylist Jeanne Yang, Katie is making a premier line of clothes for Women and Children. Well, I personally look forward to seeing what Katie has to offer the Fashion World.

Perez Hilton Gossip King, Queen, Royalty, what have you, has expanded his already huge grasp on the Internet gossip business by making a sister site to his vastly popular perezhilton.com, cocoperez.com. His new site is devoted to exclusively covering what the celebs are wearing. When asked what the fashion magazines should feel about the new kid on the block, Perez responded with, “Absolutely. Anna Wintour watch out! Actually, Anna Wintour’s days are already numbered now, so she should be cowering in fear. I don’t know if she’ll make it past the Fall. Eventually, I will have a larger audience than Vogue.” That’s some pretty big words for Perez, but I have a feeling that he will back them up and then some! We look forward Perez to what you have in store for the fashion world!

With the upcoming 2010 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week quickly approaching, we here at Runway New York, would like to look back at some previous seasons of the New York Fashion Week. We are starting off with the Fall 2004 Collections. To see the Fashion and the Trends just visit our gallery. Please check back daily, since that each day we will be uploading more shows. Hope you enjoy this blast from the past and look forward to the upcoming 2010 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week New York.