Some blamed the cold, others the economy, but Bryant Park was pretty empty as lunch hour approached Friday, the last day of Fashion Week.
A few dozen paparazzi and a smattering of spectators, mostly tourists and out-of-town businessmen, huddled behind the metal gates outside the prime tent in Bryant Park. Nearby, a teenager with flaming red hair performed a mock striptease around a lamppost.
“When the weather’s cold the park’s always like this,” said a Bryant Park security guard who had been working Fashion Week since Tuesday. “Nobody wants to sit in the cold. You should have seen it on the warm day. It was crowded. I have some errands to do now."
Anyone who visited Bryant Park over the Christmas holiday, when the weather was freezing and the park packed with revelers, would surely beg to differ. But in all fairness most of those people were tourists and as even the most casual media consumer knows, Americans are not traveling much these days.
Willy, a garbage collector, says traffic has been light “pretty much the whole week." Even when Bryant Park was packed for last spring’s shows, Fashion Week is a welcome break for Willy, because the tents take up most of the ground he has to cover during his shift.
“I got this whole interior to do myself up to the terrace,” he said gesturing to the not-so-vast expanse that is Bryant Park as he loaded garbage bags into a cart by the Wichcraft stand on 42nd and Sixth. “It’s good for me when the tents are here, makes my job easier. Plus they got their own clean-up crew too.
“I don’t think they are a large contributor to our cigarette problem either,” he said of whether chain-smoking fashionistas discard their butts haphazardly, “but I ain’t counting when I clean them up.”
On the other side of the imposing white tents, a six-man production team munched pastries on 40th between Fifth and Sixth. They all have been working Fashion Week for at least six years so are blasé about the spectacle.
“After the first year they are all the same,” said a dread-locked, middle-aged man. “But there are not as many people this year.”
Why the less-than-stellar turnout?
“The weather,” quipped one.
“No it’s the economy, people don’t have much money now,” another shouted.
The most serious crew member cut in, saying attendance has not changed, but more designers are doing off-site shows. The biggest show in Bryant Park today is Carmen Marc Valvo, he offered; meanwhile Ralph Lauren and Sean Jean are both off-site. “I’d say more than half are doing shows off-site this year. It’s more expensive, but they like it better because all of the attention is on you.”
The crew was equally unattached to Bryant Park as a venue.
“It’s convenient here and we know the logistics, but as long as the money follows, I don’t care where it happens,” said a younger member.
“Yeah, its all about the paycheck,” another said.
