Whats new in Fashion

New York Fashion Week doesn’t officially get underway until Thursday, but there’s one trend that already has people talking — change, and lots of it.

When industry insiders and style spectators alike descend upon the Big Apple to see what designers have in store for spring/summer 2016, they won’t be returning to the mammoth tents at Lincoln Center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where so many runway shows have been headquartered since 2010. Instead, they’ll attend events at, not one, but two locations: the Skylight Clarkson Sq. in west Soho and the Skylight at Moynihan Station across from Penn Station. Mercedes-Benz won’t be touted anymore as the week’s title sponsor, either. Meanwhile, some designers have had to forgo their longtime time slots for shows for new ones during the eight days of events.

It’s all part of the shifting landscape of this biannual global fashion affair, which owes its makeover to a number of factors. With the departure of Mercedes-Benz from the picture (the luxury automobile company announced in January its decision to pull out as title sponsor), the name “Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week” is no more. Now this lineup of events owned by WME | IMG, a global leader in fashion show production, will go by New York Fashion Week: The Shows.

Stylebook at New York Fashion Week

Starting next weekend, visit the Post-Gazette’s fashion blog Stylebook at for photos, videos, trend reports and more from New York Fashion Week.

PG style editor Sara Bauknecht also will be tracking Pittsburghers in the city participating in the week’s events. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @SaraB_PG for updates from the runway and check the Magazine section next week for additional updates.

The news of a new home for the shows broke last December, prompted by a lawsuit filed by city park advocates arguing that the 2.4-acre Damrosch Park space, where the tents had been erected, should no longer host private vendors or events. If not for the suit, Fashion Week was slated to have remained at Lincoln Center until 2020. Prior to its time there, the tents were situated twice a year for 15 years at Bryant Park in midtown.