What comes down the runway throughout New York Fashion Week is just a part of the story. Where and the way designers determine to current their collections are an enormous a part of a label’s seasonal advertising and marketing and branding technique. Serving up a shock efficiency (as Michael Kors did final season when Barry Manilow sang the runway to an in depth) or presenting your assortment in a by no means-been-performed-earlier than venue (like Christian Siriano did — additionally final season — when he confirmed his assortment on the Top of the Rock, as within the 65th ground of Rockefeller Center) has grow to be extra necessary within the Instagram-or-it-didn’t-occur period. Here are a number of of the novel locales, buzziest moments and notable reveals that helped make this a most memorable New York Fashion Week.

Janelle Monáe rocks Ralph’s Club

To current his eveningwear-heavy see-now, purchase-now assortment on Sept. 7, Ralph Lauren reworked the previous Bank of New York Building at 48 Wall St. into an Art Deco-style “Ralph’s Club” and spared no element, from the branded awning over the entrance door to the black-and-white RL matchbooks sitting on the bar. However, it was the spirited after-dinner, after-present musical efficiency that made an indelible impression.

Janelle Monáe, who was clad in a tuxedo-impressed ensemble that paired a skirt with a sleeveless, backless tux shirt, began out mellow sufficient, singing from the stage backed a 12-piece band. But inside a couple of minutes she’d bolted into the viewers, the place she energetically leaped onto tables (together with the one occupied by Cate Blanchett and Henry Golding), splashed Champagne and tossed potato chips within the air after which crawled throughout the ground again to the stage, the place she kicked her footwear into the gang and wiggled her toes within the air — singing the whole time.

Tommy X Zendaya “Live at the Apollo!”

Tommy Hilfiger and Zendaya stroll the runway on the fall and winter 2019 Tommy X Zendaya see-now, purchase-now runway present exterior the Apollo Theater in Harlem on Sept. eight.

(Angela Weiss / AFP/Getty Images)

Tommy Hilfiger selected Harlem’s Apollo Theater (properly, technically the area behind the historic venue) because the place to current the label’s newest collaborative see-now, purchase-now assortment on Sept. eight with Zendaya, which included a convertible Cadillac (New York state vainness plate: THZ APOLLO) stuffed with musicians and singers crooning from a fake brownstone stoop. No matter that items from the ‘70s-flavored collection — tailored blazers, wide-legged trousers and wrap skirts heavy on reptile prints, polka dots and hound’s-tooth checks — had already been unveiled on-line a dozen days earlier than, this snapshot of a retro avenue that by no means was was the sizzle that would promote the steak — and beam it out on livestream throughout the globe.

Pyer Moss pays homage to Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Creative director Kerby Jean-Raymond selected one other legendary live performance corridor — Kings Theater within the Flatbush, Brooklyn, neighborhood the place he grew up — because the place to point out his most up-to-date assortment on Sept. eight. However, it wasn’t the venue that made this present one of many highlights of New York Fashion Week calendar however slightly the inspiration — early rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a black lady who regardless of influencing the likes of Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis has nearly zero identify recognition right this moment.

Pyer Moss at Kings Theatre in Flatbush

With a choir offering the soundtrack, Pyer Moss founder and designer Kerby Jean-Raymond offered a runway assortment that paid homage to rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

(Kevin Hagen / AP Photo)

To that finish, music was a recurring motif on the garments. Think guitar-formed leather-based purses, piping tracing the sinuous define of pianos throughout silk tops and fits, and scenes from Tharpe’s life created by artist Richard Phillips. Making the present all of the extra memorable was the music that accompanied it — songs from “Proud Mary” to Cardi B’s “Money” joyously belted out by the Pyer Moss Tabernacle Drip Choir Drenched within the Blood. By the time the ultimate footfalls had light from the runway, it was clear that who Tharpe was — and the necessary contributions she made to American popular culture — wouldn’t quickly be forgotten.

Tom Ford goes underground

Tom Ford at the finale of his spring and summer 2020 runway show

Tom Ford switched issues up this season by presenting his spring and summer season 2020 assortment on Sept. 9 on the platform of a shuttered subway cease in Nolita.

(Frank Franklin II / Associated Press)

A designer deciding to stage a runway present in a gritty city locale is hardly novel. However, when it’s Tom Ford whose collections are routinely workout routines in additional-is-extra glamour luxe, and that the venue is the platform of a mothballed subway station in Nolita, it makes for a standout second. The designer credited a 1965 picture of Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick posing in a manhole because the inspirational place to begin for a decidedly dialed-down spring and summer season 2020 assortment — in addition to the subterranean venue. The juxtaposition of glamour and grit would have made for a memorable present alone, however watching celebrities similar to Russell Westbrook, Miley Cyrus and Ansel Elgort descend into the dimly lighted area on Sept. 9 to attend for the Tom Ford fashion practice to drag out of the station made it one of many week’s highlights.