Yep, it’s official. New York Fashion Week is a swag, according to nightlife New York Mayor Eric Adams. And yes, he opened New York Fashion Week last night, the night when the whole world mourn Queen Elizabeth II.
“New York is as cool as can be right now,” Eric Adams said in his opening speech, “in Gracie Mansion with this room full of folks with swag.”
Swag – Swagger meaning: walk or behave in a very arrogant or aggressive way.
Swag is a slang which came from 1960s. Back there it meant “loot”, and it came from a term thieves used to describe stolen goods. And it is how, according to Merriam-Webster, swag became a new world for “freebies”, promotional free given goods. Where New York Mayor Eric Adams got this slang from, you might ask? Check out his biography. Former policemen, who straighten up his life after looting. Does he really?
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| New York Mayor Eric Adams, Anna Wintour, Steven Kolb, CFDA CEO - NYFW 2022 |
New York Mayor Eric Adams was co-hosting the opening party with Steven Kolb, CEO of the Council of the Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), and Anna Wintour. This is the second fashion week since Adams took office. During his first, in February, he was seen sitting in the front row at Michael Kors’s runway show, beside Wintour. He also attended the Met Gala, and Balenciaga show.
New York Times published a very sarcastic article “Mr. Mayor, Who Are You Wearing?” about this opening New York Fashion Week night and Eric Adams.
Vanity Fair went even further: “The New York Times recently published a front-page story that focused on the mechanics and finances of Adams’s regular evenings at the restaurant Osteria La Baia, which is run by two friends, the brothers Robert and Zhan Petrosyants, who pleaded guilty to felony charges in 2014 after federal prosecutors accused them of money laundering.” And this is just top of the hill.
That night went “swaggingly” well.
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| New York Mayor Eric Adams, Anna Wintour, Steven Kolb, CFDA CEO - NYFW 2022 |
Eric Adams published on his instagram several photos about this event with the description: “There’s a reason New York City is home to Fashion Week, just look around our city and check out all the incredible style! It was an honor to join CFDA and Vogue Magazine last night to help kick off New York Fashion Week 2022. Let’s head to the runway!”
He received massive wave of the comments like this one: “Are you going to get the drug addicts, criminals. and homeless off the street or just continue to prance around like a socialite???”
To add here New York officials recently declared a disaster due to polio outbreak In New York which have infected THOUSANDS in the state. It comes after officials announced the detection of the virus in wastewater in April 2022. But how this problem can be compared to fashion, and “business” dinners at Osteria La Baia, owned by felons-friends?
But let’s face it, the best way according to the Mayor Adams is to battle criminals with fashion. In the article on CFDA website, describing this evening and speech of Eric Adams, he was expressing his admiration to fashion and his personal fashion sense, “When I want to place emphasis on ending gun violence, a designer comes to me to design my tuxedo with “End Gun Violence” on the back of it drawn over the entire subway system to show we must be safe in our city.”
That’s one way to do it…. But not the way a mayor should. Even Mayor in “Jews” didn’t go that far!
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| New York Mayor Eric Adams, Anna Wintour, Steven Kolb, Michael Kors, Thom Browne - NYFW 2022 |
Eric Adams also expressed his admiration to Anna Wintour: “No person personifies the spirit and energy more than Anna, the Angel that Wears Prada. Her love for this city is remarkable. Her dedication, commitment, and how she talks about what this city will become.” Another personal friend, I presume.
Mayor Adams is also announced that “This week, we will move about and know you are a 600-million-dollar juggernaut just in this week alone. That is twice the amount we make than if we had the Superbowl here. You bring the economy to the city with 100,000 employees, 100 million dollars’ tax revenue; you bring the character, the posture, and the stance of this city; you are the exclamation point of New York. New York is back! We are live; we will bring the artistic energy and the diversity we are known for. We will make this a signature event every year that I am Mayor.”
Who gave him these numbers? These numbers were valid when designers like Ralph Lauren participated in New York Fashion Week. But I guess these numbers were not calculated by the participants at the New York Fashion Week. These are just global numbers of fashion business in USA. Who he wants to fool? This New York Fashion Week, like any other previous fashion week is a week presenting mainly emerging designers who don’t have this kind of money to invest in one show, and hire so many people. Get real!
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| Mayor Eric Adams, Anna Wintour, Tommy Hilfiger at Gracie Mansion - NYFW 2022 opening |
Steven Kolb, CFDA CEO, was also quite pleased with the new New York administration and the way Mayor is handling the fashion industry. “I love that he opened Gracie Mansion. Mayor Di Blasio did this 8 years ago, but this is different. He supported manufacturing initiatives and economic development; he saw it and elevated and collaborated on it. Mayor Adams sees that too, but he also sees the creativity. He understands the seriousness of fashion but also the magic of it,” he said.
This evening attended “swaggers”: Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, Thom Browne, Tory Burch, Vera Wang, Stan Herman, Andrew Bolton, Victor Glemaud, Karlie Kloss, Aurora James, Emily Ratajkowski, Cynthia Rowley, Rebecca Minkoff, Stacy Bendet, Lauren Santo Domingo, Derek Blasberg, Willy Chavarria, Dee Ocleppo, Bach Mai and Carly Cushnie among others.
Swag it all off, guys! Perhaps this is a time for a new clean start for these emerging designers who are so eager to show what they are capable of. After all New York is always rich on talents.
Photo Courtesy: Mayor Eric Adams / BFA
