Fashion Week is underway in New York, and the city's hotels are getting in on the action! W Hotels Worldwide kicked off the celebration (officially dubbed "Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week") with the announcement of its Fall 2012 season of Fashion Next designers. The five designers, who specialize in a range of concepts from tailored menswear to avant garde women’s, were introduced by W Hotels Global Fashion Director Jenné Lombardo during a private cocktail event at W New York–Union Square’s newest nightspot, Lilium.
Lombardo has handpicked each of the designers for the fourth season of Fashion Next, the brand’s fashion initiative that fosters and supports emerging designers during Fashion Week and beyond. While W has added two new designers this season, Haus Alkire and Suzanne Rae, designers Bibhu Mohapatra, Nomia, and Rochambeau will return for a consecutive season. W Hotels will host four of the designers’ official presentations in the Box venue at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and support Mohapatra as he stages his first-ever runway show in the Studio at Lincoln Center on February 13.
Bibhu Mohapatra will take his market appointments at the anticipated W Paris – Opéra, opening February 14. Rochambeau will collaborate with W Seattle on the creation of the hotel’s bar uniforms, which will be unveiled in the spring following the hotel’s Living Room, bar and restaurant renovations. Additionally, Rochambeau has created an exclusive, custom-made suede tote for W Hotels this season, which is sure to be on the arms of tastemakers and fashionistas throughout Fashion Week. W Hotels will work with the additional Fashion Next designers to identify opportunities for exposure and growth to each designer’s flourishing business.
This season, the four W Hotels in New York—W New York, W Union Square, W Times Square and W Downtown—have created a calendar of events for fashion-loving guests and locals alike throughout the entire month of February. Visitors and locals alike can attend a street-style exhibition featuring images from Adam Sinding of the blog Le 21ème Arrondissement in the Living Room of W Times Square, curated by Sydney Wasserman of Elle.com; fashion illustrations by students in the BFA Illustration Program at Parson The New School for Design in the Living Room of W Union Square; and fashion tips from W Global Fashion Director Jenne Lombardo for all guests checking into W Hotels in New York.