Fern Mallis — the original mastermind behind New York Fashion Week — says it’s back, baby, after a delay during the pandemic.
Or “back to abnormal” as she puts it.
“It’s Fashion Week with a vengeance. There are so many shows and activities and parties and dinners,” Mallis told a FIT’s Couture Council luncheon in honor of Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri on Wednesday. “It’s crazy! It’s almost too much actually.”
“The energy and enthusiasm is amazing,” Mallis says. “I think people are really happy to be back. It’s back to school. Everyone is here, lots of air kisses and no masks. People feel very good.”
“Everything is largely decentralized,” Mallis says, compared to the past, when almost all the shows were in one location known as the tents.
“It’s almost impossible to get from one show to another because of the traffic,” she says. “And there are so many really good things competing in the same time slot. You have to play for God and make choices.”
Mallis is currently working with Jonathan Gray of Peaceable Assembly to turn her “Fashion Icons” books, which include pieces about Bob Mackie and Victoria Beckham, into a streaming series of clips from her long-running series of 92Y interviews.
Also on the FIT Couture Council at Lincoln Center were Candace Bushnell, Gillian Miniter, Elyse Newhouse, editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar Samira Nasr, Pete Nordstrom and Francisco Costa.