It's a wrap! Fashion Week says goodbye

It's fashion week (or week and a half) and New York is filled with designers, models and lots of fashionistas. Magazine editors, web and other media reporters wait on line to get into the tents, set up at Bryant Park for the spectacular Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Today we saw the Tommy Hilfiger collection presented, and some interesting fashion- body painting!

The major collections have all been shown, Justin Timberlake showed his collection yesterday and it was quite the scene. There are a few final presentations and shows tomorrow, and the people associated with making this all look so good are still here, with the hair stylists, seamstresses and accessories designers and merchants all around the area.

I love to be there, I love the excitement and fun of the crowd and the reporters and photographers huddled everywhere, studying everything that is going on.

You have to laugh when photographers swarm some smartly dressed guy or gal, snapping a million photos, then they go up to the person and ask "are you anyone famous". I was just as guilty, pointing my camera at someone here and there, then asking who was that? Other photographers stalk the limos, stand on tables, chairs and fences hoping to get a shot of some hot model or wealthy runway patron. Of course, it's not hard to find some famous people, it's New York!

The shows end each day with a bittersweet announcement, once the tents come down this year, they won't be back. The shows will move to Lincoln Center next year, and leave Bryant Park. It is a huge change for the industry, as the park is at the edge of the garment center, a district that produces some of our most famous clothing lines, and is home to Fashion Institute of Technology, the home of Project Runway and the source of lots of talented future designers. There are less and less fashion houses in the area these days, so many jobs have gone overseas and real estate prices force little merchants out of business or onto the internet.

So, next year we'll be hanging out in front of the Metropolitan Opera house, hopefully still enjoying the magic of viewing the collections that will be worn by movie stars, millionaires and fashionistas everywhere. Ciao!