Dena Fischer
Fashionista

Though New York City is the only place excluded from the elite "Fashion Centre" of the world, made up of Paris, Milan, Düsseldorf and London, it has thrived within the fashion industry.

But is New York City the fashion capital of the world? In recent years, this has been a burning question in the minds of the style-savvy.

New York City has been a huge cultural hot spot that interests people from around the world. Billions have visited and millions have made the city their home. Now the fashion industry is following in the same trend and is calling New York its new home too.

Different boroughs, such as SoHo, the Upper East Side and Greenwich have been heralded for producing some of the greatest fashion designers seen by the industry. The city is notorious for its trendsetters and fashionistas for centuries. In terms of imports, New York is the most desired marketplace to sell goods of all types. P.R. Web said New York City is the fashion capital of the world and is filled with major fashion publications, the most gorgeous models, the best public relations firms and the wealthiest social elite. Totally Cool magazine said rumor has it New York City is square one for the New York International Fashion Press Corporation, which reaches out to every inhabitant on this earth.

But does the accumulation of these traits override the power of cities such as Paris and Milan for the title of Fashion Capital of the World?

After the 10th annual, groundbreaking New York Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week for Spring 2004, which spanned from Sept. 12 to Sept. 19, the answer to that question seems a little more clear. In its evolution through time, the fashion community has kept its NYC elegant charm and added to it a coming together under one roof. The Tents in New York's Bryant Park are known as 7th on Sixth, a company originally formed in 1993 by the Council of Fashion Designers of America to organize, centralize and modernize America's runways.

A simple week in the city brings in the world's best fashion buyers, clothing designers, magazine editors, attractive models, make-up artists, licensing executives and celebrity hair stylists together to make the fashion happen. This group of people gathers for one solitary reason: to conduct business and keep the wheels of New York's commerce rolling. Millions of dollars of revenue will be generated by the work being viewed on the runways of 7th on Sixth every year.

With 66 different shows by designers such as Betsey Johnson, Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Carolina Herrera, Calvin Klein and Narcisco Rodriguez, along with numerous cutting-edge newcomers, Fashion Week 2004 generated an estimated $253 million for the city's economy.

Though an enormous chunk of New York's revenue is collected by clothing sales and tourism, along with the employment opportunities the fashion industry produces, fashion certainly isolates some people due to its elitist tendencies. People realize they are either fashionable or they are not.

More questions remain about what values the fashion industry promotes. There are the ill-famed concerns of the promotion of anorexia among models. There is the idea of the unobtainable beauty of youth. There are the accusations that clothing and textile manufacturers exploit Third World workers.

Year after year, these concerns are overcome and are attempted to be fixed.

Totally Cool magazine said it best: "Because the fashion industry's excesses make so many people angry, it's easy to forget what fashion also does: It brings people joy." That joy is often presented by women shrouded in Prada, cloaked in Versace and swathed in St. Laurent.

So overall, is New York City the fashion capital of the world? In all honesty, there is also only one simple answer. YES!

New York has withstood the emotional havoc of the Sept. 11 attacks, intense immigration, crime and even two terms of Rudy Guiliani as mayor, and now the Big Apple is emerging as the fashion capital of the world. Maybe during all these nights, fashion was what has been happening in the "City That Never Sleeps."