From Runways to Dancefloors: The 'So Long, Bryant Park' Party

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After Tommy Hilfiger, the final Fashion Week show in the Bryant Park tents, ended and emptied out, Fern Mallis and the IMG team did a quick turnaround to transform the spaces into party central for the "So Long, Bryant Park" closing party.

We had seen cases of Moet & Chandon champagne coming into the tents throughout the day, but when we returned again at night for the party, we discovered that those cases had contained thousands of mini-bottles of the stuff, each now with a spout for easy imbibing.

The mingling began around the fountain at 10pm, and soon hundreds of people arrived and headed back to the middle-size runway venue, the Promenade tent, which had its stiff white chairs replaced with low black lounge couches. A long bar sat in front of the backstage entrance. The excellent lighting and sound systems were well used, and the DJ was actually more than decent! As a result, the Promenade Tent became a full-fledged dance club around midnight, which continued until 2am for those who didn't have to immediately jet off to London Fashion Week.

And while the denizens of the front rows were nowhere to be seen at this party?they were busy chatting with the same old people downtown at the Calvin Klein and L'Wren Scott after-parties, and posting boring pictures of fireplaces to Twitter?there was plenty of cheek-kissing and grinning.

It seems that this party was for the ones who really worked this Fashion Week, the PR people who stayed up at night doing seating plans, the backstage dressers who zipped models into their dresses, the ushers who stood up to front row seat-stealers, and all of the press that spent the week jostling for position everywhere and desperately seeking the holy trifecta: An outlet, WiFi, and a chair. Now everyone could put the stress behind them and relive the glory moments in the space where they occurred: On the runway.
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· All Fashion Week Fall 2010 coverage [Racked National]