New York Fashion Week security guards have seen and heard it all

Blizzards, hurricanes, fashion show crashers, paparazzi packs, animal rights activists, entourages celebrities - the Citadel The security agency team is well aware of all the unexpected things that happened during New York Fashion Week.

Staged since the inaugural season of 7th on Sixth at Bryant Park in the fall of 1993, the l is organizing a party on Wednesday evening to celebrate its 30 years in fashion.

Citadel was mined after bidding and beating what was a competitive field. Although President Ty Yorio only had a small window into the world of fashion thanks to Citadel's then-limited work with Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS, Yorio said that after seeing the initial plans, he knew that the parades would become "huge". It turned out yes. Fern Mallis imagined this with Stan [Herman] and the rest is history. »

The first time, the security team at the scene was no more than 20 people, but that base grew to hundreds as fashion week grew. Initially, "Gertrude" and "Josephine," two circus-like tents were hoisted at opposite ends of Bryant Park and "it rained like hell for a week, but you knew it was going to be big," recalls- it, adding that the New York Public Library's Celeste Bartos Forum quickly established itself as a third location.

Citadel's main task was to get invited people in and people who hadn't left . Immediately, tickets to New York Fashion Week became "the hottest ticket in New York", so much so that some crashers slit the sides of tents and snuck under to get in to see the shows, a declared Yorio.

Before there are QR codes and email RSVP confirmations, attendees received physical invitations, but more often attendees showed up empty-handed. "Most people would come to the door and say, 'I'm on the list.' They very rarely carried their invitations," Yorio said.

Example: the woman who came to the entrance and told him she was Andrea Leon Talley — trying in vain to pass himself off as the essential and imposing male editor of Vogue, André Leon Talley. "I was like, 'Well, I don't think this is going to work. "I mean we've heard all kinds of stories. People on the list say, 'You don't know who I am?' or 'She's with me'. 'I'm with her'. You hear some of the the most absurd things. You have to break down their story and say, 'It doesn't work. I'm sorry,' Yorio said.

The hardest shows were the most popular and overbooked, Yorio said. “We've had to turn away standing participants more times than I care to remember. These poor people are there for an hour, and then you come out and say, “I'm sorry. There is no room left. It is complete. I made a lot of friends, but I probably made a lot of enemies at the same time."

Anti-fur protesters have appeared at least six times in shows like Randolph Duke and Oscar de la Renta, and in some cases this has led to arrests. Once, former CNN fashion commentator Elsa Klensch had the misfortune of being doused in red paint. Eventually, the CFDA gave activists a designated time to enter the lobby to explain what they were doing, Yorio said.

On the night of September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, there were some arrests in Bryant Park after that three "misguided, not-so-brilliant" people tried to steal sound cards and some of the other "million-dollar equipment" from the tents. While most New Yorkers were eager to reunite with family and friends that evening, Citadel employees volunteered to man the tents overnight in case the city needed assistance of any kind. whether it be. “When we were involved in 9/11, we didn't know what was coming next, so we held down the fort,” Yorio said.

Recalling the preparation for the Oscar de la Renta show the morning of the terrorist attacks, he said: "A lot of people don't know that. The first plane flew...