The panel—which included Milk’s creative director, Mazdack Rassi; Open Ceremony co-founders Carol Lim and Humberto Leon; Proenza Schouler designers Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez; New School Dean of Fashion Simon Collins; and designer Alexander Wang—looked a bit the worse for wear. Of course, it was the last day of Fashion Week.

“The whole point of these shows,” Ms. Menkes began, “has been to showcase American fashion.” She asked the Proenza Schouler designers—who had presented at Milk Studios the night before—if there was anything they would have done differently.

“All you really need is passion and a point of view,” Mr. Hernandez said, not really answering.

Talk turned quickly to the topic of technology. Ms. Menkes asked if there was an alternative to the traditional runway show.

“I’ve had to face as a journalist, the fact that bloggers—maybe they can do my job and do it better,” she said.

Mr. Lazaro argued that technology had already changed fashion by making it more democratic.

“Everyone’s gonna see it on the Internet the next day,” he said.

“You haven’t quite answered my question,” Ms. Menkes said, and moved on to Mr. Collins. His advice for designers?

“Get a job first. Make all the mistakes with someone else’s money.”

“You’re pretty keen on parties,” Ms. Menkes said, turning quickly to Mr. Wang.

The designer—looking especially casual in sweat pants, and a dirty, ripped white t-shirt, had held a party the night before in the gas station next to Milk Studios. He started talking about “finding the right people to dress.”

There was still no word on the industry’s future.

  “We’re involved in creating the image of fashion,” Mr. Rassi said of his increasingly influential studio and event space. “We know that television and the Internet will merge in the next 5 years. That’s really the future of media. It’s all merging together.”

But what about fashion?

“Can anyone be a fashion designer?” Ms. Menkes asked. “Can anyone be a journalist? Can anyone be a stylist?”

“If you put enough monkeys in a room with typewriters, one of them will eventually write Shakespeare,” Mr. Collins said.

“These bloggers are starting to get invited to shows,” Mr. McCullough said, somewhat shocked.

Ms. Menkes opened the floor for questions from the students.

“We don’t want to hear any rants,” Ms. Menkes said. “Anybody out there want to make a pitch?” One girl stood up with her look book, asking the Opening Ceremony founders to take a gander.

Then, suddenly:

“I have to go off and see Calvin Klein,” Ms. Menkes said. “Lucky me.”

But what is the future of the fashion industry? Where are the answers?

“Students have said to me ‘I want to be the new Calvin Klein’ or ‘I want to be the new Rodarte.’" she said. "I just want to say to you all, no you don’t. You want to be yourselves. Fashion needs individuality and individual imagination far more than it needs a carbon copy of any of the designers out there. So remember that. You are the most important people in the industry now.”

Ms. Mendes had come to support her dear friend, Calvin Klein women's wear designer Francisco Costa, who was receiving an award that evening from the design school along with CK CEO Tom Murry and New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn.

"He's not only a very kind soul, which is very important to me, but he's also very good at what he does. He always makes me feel like I'm wearing a piece of sculpture. Like this," said Ms. Mendes, tugging at the side of her dress to show off the unusual texture and shape. "It's so feminine but it's also such a great little piece of architecture." (Ms. Mendes will be wearing one of Mr. Costa's creations to the Met Costume Gala on Monday, May 4.)

Ms. Mendes said she never had an interest in attending design school herself. In fact, she said she dropped out of college to pursue acting. "I just don't like saying that because I don't like other kids to get encouraged by that," she said. "It just worked out for me, but stay in school, kids!"

Mr. Costa was optimistic when the Daily Transom asked him to offer some advice to design students coming out of school this spring into a fashion industry plagued by folding fashion labels and poor sales. 

"I hope they'll be better than me!" he joked.  "My advice is very basic—it's being creative in the best sense. That's the greatest part about being a designer or being in a creative field because you can really manage the situation a little more freely, in a more fun way. We have an advantage because we're working in a creative business and designers have antennas on, they're connected to how people live and what they wear. My advice is just to keep that going."

The designer was coy when asked whom else he may be dressing in addition to Ms. Mendes come Monday. "We have a couple of people," he said.

Bergdorf Goodman fashion director Linda Fargo was also not too worried for today's young talent. "I might worry if my dream is to be a huge finance guy right now, but the world always needs beauty and creativity," she told the Daily Transom.

Parsons fashion dean Simon Collins said that his graduating students may actually have an advantage graduating at a time like this.

"I find them incredibly optimistic," he said. "They are smarter than ever and they know they have to be. They've seen which companies are falling and which are staying stronger, so they're trying to understand what keeps them strong and they're trying to adapt that themselves."

Phat Farm's Russell Simmons, who arrived with his girlfriend, model Julie Henderson, also seemed to have some helpful advice.

"A level of fearlessness is the most important thing for people so bent on achieving that next thing. You have to enjoy the process," said Mr. Simmons.

The rap mogul did not attend design school, but he said that so many of his executives have that he didn't really need to. Still, the Daily Transom wondered if Mr. Simmons made any clothing when he was just starting out that he would be embarrassed to show now.

"I actually make embarrassing clothes every season," he said. "Especially in my new Argyle collection. I'm reviewing it now and we've edited some of it. I saw some stuff when the samples came back and I was embarrassed that I made it. We had these puffy vests but they're made out of a seersucker. They're very light, but I think we just used the wrong fabrics."

Nearby, all the attention seemed to be turning on an odd foursome that had arrived minutes before the actual dinner and fashion show was about to begin: the socialite Olivia Palermo, Gossip Girl actress Amanda Setton, and Marc Jacobs and his boyfriend, Lorenzo Martone. And even as it was time for everyone to take their seats, the masses of flashing bulbs and eager onlookers hoping to meet Mr. Jacobs seemed to put fashion students, faculty and guests into a giddy mood.