Two Australians on schedule at New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2011

julie tran

Who knew an Australian was at the helm of iconic New York fashion label Bill Blass? Not frockwriter, that’s for sure, until we read today's Herald Sun story. Perhaps Melbourne fashion scribes are more familiar with Jeffrey Monteiro's (above) name, given that he apparently launched his eponymous collection there in 1996. Another reason for Monteiro’s lack of a profile downunder could be that he doesn’t appear to have spent that much time here. Monteiro was born in Qatar in the Middle East, raised in Australia and schooled in India, with tertiary fashion studies done in Melbourne, where he worked as a design assistant at the Ellin Ambe label before launching his own line. He moved to New York in 2000, designing for the Mayle label and from 2005, for Derek Lam, where he was design director (also working for Tod's). Monteiro relaunched his signature collection in New York for Fall 2008 and in November last year was appointed design director of Bill Blass – which had closed in 2008, following several attempts at resuscitation. Blass died of throat cancer in 2002, after selling the label several years beforehand. Monteiro is one of just two Australians showing in New York this season, alongside another Melbourne expat, Michael Angel. Angel will show on Friday 10th with the Bill Blass show taking place on Wednesday 15th September - and Kiwi Karen Walker showing on Tuesday 14th.


The season kicked off overnight with 1500 attending the Fashion’s Night Out runway show organised by Vogue, ahead of the September 10 Fashion’s Night Out events all over NYC. Sydney’s version of FNO is happening tomorrow night, check Vogue Australia's website for more details. 

Catherine McNeil, Julia Nobis and Ajak Deng were among the 150 models who walked in the FNO show, which has been billed as the biggest fashion show in New York’s history. Here is a repeat of the live webcast:

McNeil and co are among a contingent of Australian models in New York for the shows, which commence tomorrow at New York Fashion Week’s new home The Lincoln Center, in addition to numerous other venues around town.
 
Here is IMG’s official schedule of the core Mercedes Benz Fashion Week event at The Lincoln Centre. 

And here is the complete schedule, as compiled by New York Magazine. As per usual, New York Fashion Week embraces several hundred shows, most of which are not on IMG's schedule. 
 
Fourteen designers on IMG’s schedule are streaming their shows live. Check the digital schedule on the above link for that information. There may well be others streaming live as well, but given that there is no one central New York Fashion Week organising body, there is no central log of details (update 10/09: but New York Mag has has a good crack at one here). Check the individual designers' websites and Twitter/Facebook pages for more details.

Carmen Marc Valvo will broadcast his show live in Times Square at 5pm on Sunday 12th - simultaneously live to the net via his website. Marc Jacobs will stream his main line show and the Marc by Marc Jacobs show on Monday 13th at 8pm and Tuesday 14th at 4pm respectively from his website.

For anyone wanting more background information about the leviathan event that is New York Fashion Week, head to frockwriter’s NYFW primers Parts I, II and III.