In the 1990s, fashion designers descended twice per year on Manhattan’s Bryant Park to preview their upcoming collections to buyers and reporters in tents.
In the years since, New York Fashion Week has grown into an extensive public spectacle, staged against backdrops across the city with designers looking far and wide for backdrops to accentuate their seasonal visions.
Although a runway show is often just a one-day affair, industry experts say the glitz and glamour of these events can bring visibility and cultural cache to a venue.
That’s been the case for the Brooklyn Navy Yard, according to Joyce Duverce, senior vice president of impact and partnerships at the yard’s development corporation.
The Navy Yard, which is 300 acres of industrial space, has hosted two fashion shows. In 2023, Bronx native Ralph Lauren turned a warehouse in the yard into a barn-style runway show, followed by a seated dinner under chandeliers (in attendance: JLo, Amanda Seyfried, Laura Dern, and Julianne Moore). In 2024, although not part of fashion week, Victoria’s Secret hosted its runway show at the Yard’s Duggal Greenhouse.
“It brings the audience,” Duverce said. “We have over 550 businesses here, but I don’t think most people know that we have the capacity to host such large events.”
Beyond any promotion, big events have also helped bring business to the yard’s tenants, including fabricators and lighting vendors, according to Duverce.
And if a space is particularly noteworthy, an event can potentially lead to long-term leasing opportunities for a venue.
“We’ve definitely had people reach out to us directly after showing in a beautiful new space or a commercial building saying, ‘Do you have the real estate agent to contact? Are they renting space in the building? Is there retail space available?’” said Robert Kalas, an executive producer at La Mode En Images, a production company.
The right fit
Not every space can draw in fashion week clients for a runway show. First, there are basic conditions to be met.
“Designers are always looking for a large space that’s column-free, that no one has ever done a fashion show in before, that’s located in Manhattan, that’s ground floor with 800 amps, three-phase power,” Kalas said.
Beyond that, there’s a drive for anything iconic to New York, anything industrial, and anything with views of the city. Some of the more offbeat fashion week venues have included the New York Public Library, the city’s Surrogate’s Court, and the NBA Player’s Association practice facility.
Events have certainly shifted from just 34th Street, but still cluster in a handful of Manhattan neighborhoods — Soho, Chelsea, the Meatpacking District, the West Village and Tribeca — with an occasional foray out to Brooklyn. That’s in part because shows are timed so closely together, leaving busy attendees with little time to travel.
Money to be made
Some venues, like the Altman Building in Chelsea or 28 Liberty in the Financial District, run a year-round events business.
For those properties, fashion week brings significant exposure, letting patrons see the venue often in a new light. But the direct monetary impact of any single event may be limited. The Altman Building, where Sandy Liang and Private Policy have debuted their new work, charges a fixed rate for events, meaning no markup for fashion clients.
“Whether it’s a celebration of life or a gala dinner, it really is the same price to host an event with us,” said Ariel Swain, director of venue sales and marketing at the Altman Building. “Any opportunity to showcase the space in a different light is an opportunity for us to have other events with the people who are in attendance.”
But a business in short-term events can provide visibility and limit risk in an unpredictable real estate landscape, said Sara Altobelli, who runs marketing for Hush Venues.
Hush manages events at 28 Liberty’s Halo space, where Carolina Herrera and Sandy Liang have both had models walk the runway, circling the venue’s 1964 Noguchi sculpture garden. Hush partners exclusively with venues and then runs all the events in a space.
“Fashion Week gets a lot of press and attention,” Altobelli said. “From a cultural aspect, it’s an incredible angle to be part of this very New York thing that is Fashion Week.”
If done right, the result can also be profitable. Karrie Goldberg, founder and CEO at The Kagency, partners directly with property owners and developers to score a calendar of shorter-term events, including runway shows. For the right venue, such a business can net up to three times the profits of a traditional retail lease, she said.
“If you look at a 10,000-square-foot space that is fully finished — as in, it could be a raw space but you have all the base amenities — you could be paying anywhere from 20 to 25 grand for the day,” she said.
Some developers, Goldberg said, are happy to run that business year-round. But others use her agency to monetize time between more traditional tenants, giving access to their space for just 90 days.
Though fashion houses occasionally reach out directly, much of the business is through public relations or production companies. The Kagency manages bookings for more than 500 venues across multiple cities and has run shows with multiple fashion clients, including Proenza Schouler at the Chelsea Factory, and Ulla Johnson at Powerhouse Arts, a former power plant in Gowanus.
Although the marketing potential from a runway show can last, the show itself is fleeting.
“The show is 15 minutes and then everything gets taken down,” Altobelli said. “It all happens in a New York minute, and then it all goes away.”
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