Fashion, stars, music gather in 19 countries

NEW YORK - Reuters

Shoppers pose during the Vogue Fashion’s Night Out event in Paris. The event, which has turned into global, is the brainchild of Vogue editor Anna Wintour. REUTERS photo

Designers, celebrities and shoppers in cities from New York to Milan roamed boutiques and stores in droves on Sept. 6 as part of the fourth annual “Fashion’s Night Out,” a global event to encourage spending.

The event, held on the first night of the semi-annual Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York, is the brainchild of Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour and was designed to jump-start an industry battered by the global recession in 2009.

A global event of retail

"Fashion’s Night Out," has since turned into a global night of retail revelry in 19 countries, according to organizers, as store stay open late and offer drinks, entertainment and free products to the throngs.
In New York, the night was expected to attract tens of thousands to the approximately 900 stores, said George Fertitta, head of NYC & Company, the city’s official marketing and tourism organization.

In Paris, thousands converged on the city’s the 8th district, blocking traffic for several hours on two boutique-studded avenues. The center of Milan was also packed with potential shoppers, many of them students, sipping from plastic glasses of free cocktails dispensed by nearby boutiques.

In London, about 400 stores were participating, according to a spokesperson with Conde Nast, the giant high-end magazine publisher that owns Vogue. Sydney’s night out had over 600 retailers participating, with some offering products only on sale that night, Vogue Australia said on its website.
Bloomingdale’s flagship department store in New York, featured members of the band Matchbox Twenty, hip-hop artist and designer Pharrell Williams, and actor Kellan Lutz from the “Twilight Saga” films.

At Colette, a clothing and accessories boutique in Paris, celebrity stylist David Mallet applied hair extensions for shoppers while at Chloe, nearby, customers watched a cheerleader show with editor-in-chief of Vogue’s French edition, Emmanuelle Alt.

"[The stores] compete with each other ... in terms of who’s going to be the most exciting, who’s going to the most fun, who’s going out be the most interesting," Fertitta said.