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Guide To NYC Fashion Week

This article is more than 10 years old.

Whether you’re sartorially savvy or the polar opposite of a fashionista, the high drama and sheer talent at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York—both inside and outside the tents—is a sight to behold. As designers from around the world prepare to debut their fall 2013 collections at Lincoln Center between Feb. 7 and 14, our Forbes Travel Guide editors have been curating a collection of the best things to do and top-notch places to stay if you’re heading there to be part of the glitz and glamour.

Check out our blog to see which celebrity designers are leaving their high-style marks on luxury hotel suites.

What to Know

Fashion Week is a massive event that brings 100,000 people to Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park for eight days of style and spectacle. Shows are invite-only, but even if you don’t score a golden ticket, it’s worth a stop by the plaza for the ultimate only-in-New-York people watching.

This year, more than 75 designers will showcase their handiwork at official Fashion Week events; the roster includes legendary names (Ralph Lauren, Diane von Furstenberg) and emerging brands (MM6 by Maison Martin Margiela, Monika Chiang). Among the labels to watch this season are ICB by Prabal Gurung—often worn by first lady Michelle Obama—and American designers Trina Turk and Steven Alan. While the three have participated in previous Fashion Weeks, Turk and Gurung will present their first live runway shows at Lincoln Center.

What to Do

Beyond the formal shows of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, the arrival of the worldwide fashion industry in New York spawns many spin-off events. Often more intimate—and typically easier to get into—these celebrations are good bets for an up-close look at models working the runway.

Nolcha Fashion Week is the city’s other official Fashion Week. The platform, created to help launch the careers of independent designers, will present fall and winter collections at Pier 59 on Feb. 13, with other events—from a bloggers’ brunch to after parties—running from Feb. 11 to 14.

Small Boutique Fashion Week, meanwhile, presents its runway show and market on Feb. 10 at Metropolitan Pavilion. The event connects emerging designers with boutique owners, but because it’s open to the public, you can snag a ticket and enjoy the show as well.

Immediately following Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, Couture Fashion Week (Feb. 15 to 17) focuses on luxury pieces from international designers. The often over-the-top designs are displayed with gusto; the event closed last season with a collaborative mural-painting exercise. This year marks the first time that Couture Fashion Week moves from the Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Waldorf Astoria New York to its new home in the New Yorker Hotel.

One-off, niche runway shows provide more opportunities to sit in the front row. Reality TV fans should check out the first Reality of FASHION The Reality of AIDS fundraiser show, taking place Feb. 9 in The Altman Building. With models plucked from programs like Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise, this open event guarantees more than a smattering of reality-star sightings. And on Feb. 12 at downtown hot spot Tenjune, Fashion Meets Music teams up with Camp Couture NYC for a show that melds fashion and entertainment; artists slated to perform include Amanda Brown of The Voice. General admission tickets are available.

Shopping is, of course, synonymous with fashion shows, and even if your wardrobe is more prêt-à-porter than haute couture, you can still fill a bag or two with cutting-edge ensembles thanks to the pop-up shops that proliferate during Fashion Week. Head to Nordstrom-owned Treasure & Bond in Soho for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund pop-up that spotlights designs from this year’s 10 Fashion Fund finalists. The featured designers join an illustrious club of past winners like Proenza Schouler, Prabal Gurung, 3.1 Phillip Lim and Thom Browne, designer of first lady Michelle Obama's 2013 inauguration coat and dress. This Fashion Fund pop-up opens on Feb. 6.

Where to Eat

Fortuitously, a number of the chic eateries around Lincoln Center are participating in NYC Restaurant Week during Fashion Week (the two overlap on Feb. 7 and 8). On the third floor of the Time Warner Center, the Italian restaurant A Voce will offer a $25, three-course, prix-fixe lunch—along with sweeping views of Central Park and a buzzing fashion crowd inside.

The swanky Ed’s Chowder House at The Empire Hotel, just across from Lincoln Center, is also serving a Restaurant Week menu. But don’t miss the newest addition to its regular menu—the Stone Crab Mary is a seafood-topped twist on a traditional bloody Mary. Afterward, stake out a spot at The Empire Hotel’s trendy rooftop bar for a view of the Lincoln Center tents from above.

Lincoln Square Business Improvement District will pick up where Restaurant Week leaves off when its Fashion Plate Prix Fixe returns on Feb. 9. As in years past, the organization is gathering 25 neighborhood luminaries to offer special lunch or dinner menus through Feb. 16. Expected participants include Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery and Daniel Boulud’s Bar Boulud.

When it comes to a mid-morning bite, nothing says New York brunch like the Parisian-style brasserie Balthazar. Fashion designers from Zac Posen to Victoria Beckham have held after-parties at the Soho institution; celebrity chefs routinely recommend it; and Falguni and Shane Peacock—Fashion Week presenters and the go-to design duo for many a pop star—tell us they won’t miss it during Fashion Week. You can’t go wrong with the pastries.

Where to Stay

Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Trump SoHo New York is giving the fashion set a place to kick back after a crazy day at the shows—or before attending a Fashion Week soiree. Its Four-Star Spa at Trump SoHo will offer specially priced, fashion-friendly treatments such as Red Carpet Ready Facials and detox massages. Expect manicures, pedicures, and makeup and hair touch-ups to be available at special rates as well.

Across Central Park from Lincoln Center, Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Hôtel Plaza Athénée New York will treat you to a historic depiction of Fashion Week. In an homage to the event’s founding in 1943, the Upper East Side hotel’s Arabelle restaurant will showcase a 10-foot table portraying 1940s New York street style in an intricate scene by Brazilian event designer Clarissa Rezende. You’ll be equally impressed with your guest room’s style, which mixes European furnishings and rich silks with plasma TVs and Wi-Fi.

The Pierre, A Taj Hotel, New York is partnering with design school Parsons to turn Two E Bar/Lounge into a mini costume exhibit during Fashion Week. Complementing the look is a cocktail menu inspired by the student designers and their pieces. Drink up to give back; the Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star hotel will donate 50 percent of proceeds to support emerging New York designers.

If you want proximity to Lincoln Center, you’d be hard-pressed to get closer than the Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Mandarin Oriental, New York on Columbus Circle. You’ll feel like a VIP as you’re whisked to the hotel’s 35th-floor lobby; but if you want to feel like a runway model, book the New Year, New You package (available through March 31). It includes everything you need for a one-day BluePrint juice cleanse, plus a three- to four-hour Clearing Factor spa treatment and a private yoga class.