An exclusive backstage photo from The Observer's Wang-insider/tipster.

American fashion design has seen an exciting new crop of talented youngsters creep onto the scene. Creatives such as Joseph Altuzarra, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler, Alexander Wang, Jason Wu and Prabal Gurung have received a great deal of attention—and rightfully so. The majority of this bunch thrive on fanfare—not always on the design of their clothes, but on their front-rows, frantic check-ins and backstage dramas.

The Proenza Schouler duo, after several seemingly shaky years, have quickly become darlings of the global fashion elite, continually present interesting and attractive collections. Now sitting more comfortably with financial investments from Theory Group’s Andrew Rosen and a glossy new David Adjaye-designed boutique (albeit too damn dark to see any of the merch), its safe to say they are no longer emerging.

Mr. Altuzarra’s nomadic, opulent materials and prints seem to satiate the critics. Since PR Consulting has never invited us to one of his magical shows, we’ll let him be.

Jason Wu’s nearly flawless technique and practical glamour—not to mention being a favorite of first lady Michelle Obama—means he’s fine and dandy.

Same for Thakoon Panichgul.

The Observer will save Prabal Gurung, whose miscellaneous but splendid collection delivered a meager dose of sensationalism, mostly by way of models, for later …

The most interesting “up-and-coming” designer to The Observer is Mr. Wang.

Alexander Wang’s street-friendly sportswear, with its less daunting price tag and edgy wearability, enabled the designer’s swift and massive surge to the top. The party vixen created clothing that catered to his entourage of downtown creatures—models, anorexic rich brats, svelte power gays, artsy drunks—with a cost-effective production (even though a lawsuit claims allegations of sweatshop conditions!). It's no Ralph Lauren or Michael Kors, but the Soho boutique is crawling with new money eager to pounce, and one insider reported that sales are robust.

“He came on the scene just at the right time,” former Barneys bigwig Julie Gilhart was quoted as saying in New York magazine in 2011. Indeed he did.

The Observer is all too guilty of getting wrapped up in the Wang mystique. His shows are electrifying—a circus of outré celebs, aggressive fashion mavens and top-notch models. It’s sensationalism—perhaps even smoke and mirrors, except there is always something to covet. This is followed by the perennial blackout nights of mayhem at his costly, booze-fueled after-parties. But hey! Mr. Wang and his baby empire can afford it.

Look 14: Jordan Dunn. (PMc)

This season, Mr. Wang and his team returned to Pier 94. Tyson Chandler, Karen Elson, Justin Theroux, Sia, ASAP Rocky and Die Antwoord all showed up Saturday, September 8 to witness Mr. Wang's presentation of patch pocket separates, outerwear pieces with cut-outs or “zebra-embroidery,” and weird textured skirts and shorts in onyx, glacier white and desert sand. There were hints of menswear tailoring on shirts, fishline craziness and skeletal knee-high sandals that had people clawing with desire. For luxurious touches, Mr. Wang and co. used stingray detailing and crocodile beading.

It would be nearly impossible to top of the pack of supermodels, led by Gisele Bündchen, who stormed the runway at last year’s conclusion. Nonetheless, a gaggle of top models marched out in all-white looks. The lights dimmed and all their couture turned glow-in-the-dark.

The crowd ate it up like hotcakes, The Observer included. Tacky and stupidly club-kid-esque? Perhaps, but it was fashion entertainment at its American best.

But is this pot of fabulousness and spectacle about to bubble over?

One person, who wasn’t enjoying the fashion feast was New York Times critic Cathy Horyn.

“Mr. Wang ended with his white dresses being lit up like neon glow sticks, but the mood couldn’t be sustained,” Ms. Horyn wrote in the Times on September 9. “But, despite the styling of Karl Templer, who knows how to sharpen a designer’s message, Mr. Wang’s fancifully sliced-up clothes seemed to hit a wall. They had focus in terms of minimalist shape and futuristic textures, but there was no moment of uplift. A glow-stick snap of radiance isn’t enough.”

A bit harsh.

Die Antwoord Spreads the creepiness at Alexander Wang's after-party. (PMc)

The Observer would argue (not that we are deemed fit to challenge the legendary Ms. Horyn) that Mr. Wang’s shticks are exactly aligned with his boisterous lifestyle and extravagantly unfocused glamazon clientele. While we all might have been distracted by the blow-’n’-glow finale, The Observer is already sorting out the finances to scoop up a few of those garments and accessories. The scattered message rang loud and clear: Rave on!

Two images from the Alexandre Herchcovitch show. (left: Jennifer Branken, right: Jessie Adler/Milk Studios)

As sartorialists make their biannual pilgrimage from New York to London to Milan to Paris, some veteran tent-dwellers still have a pebble stuck in their Louboutins from Lincoln Center.

The glossy editor’s anxiety over being edged out of the front row, it seems, has migrated over to the media riser and down to the pit. What was once the province of professional photogs, to hear them tell it, has been overrun by iPhone and iPad wielding bloggers who wouldn’t know a bounce flash from a zoom lens. And they’re hogging up the press passes for backstage beauty shots!

Shortly after they turned off the stage lights and sopped up the champagne, a handful of disgruntled photographers reached out to The Observer to kvetch. Slights ranged from being turned away from shows, to an errant iPhone interrupting their runway image, to discovering that the insolent photo-bloggers never learned the etiquette about getting your shot and moving on.

One accredited photographer, who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of being “black-listed,” is even in the process of drafting a “letter of grievance,” calling it “my sort of manifesto, to explain to them what it is to be a photographer, if they choose to separate the bacon from the pig, so to speak.” (We wonder how well the fashion crowd will relate to a pork metaphor, however.)

Those who make their money through licensed images that go out to newswires and magazines, insist that it hurts designers to have Google Images flooded with subpar photographs that, literally, show their garments in a poor light.

What’s worse, experienced photographers moan, these bloggers do it all in “front-of-house” attire, with an attitude to match. “They’re dressed to the hilt and pull a point-and-shoot out of their Louis Vuitton,” said Jennifer Polixenni Brankin, a fashion and editorial photographer who has shot twelve seasons around the globe. “They’re just really kids who want to get into Fashion Week. We tapped one of the girls and was like, ‘Where is your camera?’ and she was unbelievably rude.”

Three years ago, the fashion press began noting, through gritted, gleaming teeth, how quickly an online following earned Tavi Gevinson and BryanBoy a seat beside Anna. Now, trained photographers, already circling the lower rungs of the Fashion Week ladder, find themselves competing with a contingent of kids who’ve never heard of color correction.

“I can’t speak for the brands but I hope they would care. They spend a lot of money to put out a fabulous show and that’s a significant investment and I hope they would want the very best photography and the very best pictures coming out,” said Fern Mallis, the renowned former senior vice president of IMG Fashion, best known for running New York Fashion Week for more than a decade. “Like I say, everyone who has an iPhone or an iPad isn’t a photographer. Nor is every blogger, a writer or a critic who has the knowledge and the history to edit, digest and communicate what the collections are about...”

But brands, given the choice between online eyeballs on the cheap and a beautiful glossy magazine shot want, well, both. “I had to take camera phone photos while I was taking actual photos for some of the shows I was at just because they wanted to put them on Instagram,” Los Angeles-based photographer Mark Luebbers said of the client who sent him to New York.

“We love, we love, we love glossy magazines. But the bloggers are reaching a different demographic, and it really is helping the reach of these designers,” said Flint Beamon, an expert in “back of house” management for PR Consulting. “It’s in the best interest that everybody tries to get along. Obviously this is not the case.”

Accredited photographers insist they just want more vetting—and their rightful place back. “I will not waste my company’s time if I’m on second or third row or in a back position on a riser, then I can’t give my agency a marketable image. My image is preset at a price based on what my agency’s expenses are including my salary. So they can’t give it away. I’m in jeopardy. We’re all in jeopardy,” said the photographer drafting the memo. (Paging 2007, says everyone in media.)

In prior seasons, explained Ms. Mallis, the media riser is typically filled with “Photographers who shoot for credible places” and people who are “grandfathered in because everybody knows who they are and they've been shooting for years.” The pecking order of the riser can be every bit as hierarchical as those rows of white chairs, with photogs using tape to indicate their spot—something bloggers may not have picked up on. “They have their own system and they figure out who sits where and who does what and that's part of the mix of the photographers’s pit. The conflict and energy you get with these gruff men and women on the media riser juxtaposed against the well-heeled audience is part of the experience of a fashion show,” said one PR insider, adding, “Ultimately these photographers from the agencies, most of whom are freelancers that get paid only when their images are used-I don't want to say have less reach-but they have a different kind of relevance than they used to in the past."

PR Consulting, the firm where Mr. Beamon works, represents MADE Fashion Week, an alternate to the IMG-run affair that was launched to support young designers in 2009. In a statement to The Observer, Made explained that bloggers are essential to reach what they claim is 11 million viewers through its digital platforms, noting, “Made does not grant access to any shows for specific bloggers, but rather representatives who capture content that is then aggregated to specific sites such as Tumblr, Milkmade.com, or the MADE Fashion Week app.” Ms. Brankin had a different theory, “It seems they’re in bed with Tumblr for Fashion Week,” she said

IMG, which runs the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, offered the following statement about its vetting process, “IMG takes the process of registering and credentialing of media seriously and continually updates these processes to be in line with current technology as well as best practices. We review the credentials of hundreds of new outlets each season and attempt to only credential those that are most relevant.”

Organizers from both camps also point out that PR firms for the designers themselves get to decide whom to invite backstage. Besides, the PR insider noted, failing to credential lower tier outlets just prompts them to get around the process by getting a badge from a B or C list designer, “So all of a sudden they're running around with just the backstage credential and we don't really have any sort of influence over their movements.”

Add to that the fact that old guard may not be as well-behaved as they think. “They hang out until the very last moment, until I kick them out normally. It’s not that they get their photography and they leave. That never happens. And if it does, it’s because they have another show to go to,” said Mr. Beamon

“It's clear that bloggers are a significant presence, but I'm not sure all of them are justified in their presence and their sense of entitlement and when they belong and how important they are,” noted Ms. Mallis, who recently discussed this issue with BryanBoy on her Sirius XM radio show.

Of course, she’s been proven wrong before. BryanBoy once tweeted out a link to his 233,000 Twitter followers, “Remember how Fern Mallis said "twitter won't bring orders for a designer"? well, check this wsj article out.” That was 2009.

-ntiku@observer.com

New York fashion week has finally come to a close. Amen! For those less-fortunate editors and fashion authorities (or perhaps we are the lucky ones) that have not jetted off to London or Milan, we finally get a moment to recover.

In retrospect, we relished the young talents of Prabal Gurung and Jason Wu. The Observer will never forget the spectacle and grandeur of Alexander Wang—or the impeccable quality of Simon Spurr’s suiting. With such a busy social schedule and so many shows, it’s hard to remember all the garments we evaluated with a careful eye.

We’re still a smidgen bitter about a few mishaps with Oscar de la Renta and PR Consulting… but we forgive easily… Oscar might possibly have been the best women’s collection in town! Best of luck obtaining the financial means to swing the $15,000 price tag...

One thing we do recall in our hazy fatigue, is the undeniable fact that fur is back. Yes, yes it never really left! But honestly!

"It's so glamorous and luxe!" proclaimed Joan Rivers about fur, backstage at Dennis Basso.

Perhaps Ms. Rivers is in the right. Has there ever been so much mink, chinchilla, fox, raccoon, coyote, goat, rabbit, astrakhan, Mongolian lamb, ermine and sable shown in New York? Probably… but let’s peruse The Oberserver’s favorites— shall we?

Images: GETTY and Patrick McMullan.