New York Fashion Week may be drawing to a close, yet there was something major missing from the lavish seven-day affair: Fashion's Night Out.
The brainchild of Vogue's Anna Wintour, the city's Fashion's Night Out was a pageant of parties, celebrities, designer discounts and New Yorkers dressed to the nines that accompanied Fashion Week ever since its launch in 2009.
But the extravaganza came to a screeching halt in 2013 without an official explanation.
Unofficially, however, Fashion's Night Out was a massive headache for the organizers and small businesses that were not prepared for the throng of people who came for the free booze and music instead of the fashion, The New York Times reported.
"It was just so out of control," New York City Council Member Margaret Chin told the newspaper. "It wasn't that people were coming in to shop. There were mobs there."
Vogue and the Council of Fashion Designers of America originally sponsored Fashion's Night Out as a way to boost retail profits that took a dive during the recession. But small business owners say instead of paying customers all they got was rowdy, alcohol-chugging people.
"It was unsafe crowd conditions that we needed to handle on our own without the support of Condé Nast, which was promoting the whole event," Ilse Werther, owner of the city's Wink boutique, told the newspaper.
Other owners said they suffered thefts from people who capitalized on the chaotic scene.
Phillip Brennan, creative director of SoHo's If Boutique, told NY Times someone stole two $2,000 leather items during Fashion's Night Out 2010.
"It was a big loss for us," Brennan said. "We found out that people we're going from one place to another to see if they could steal."
Though Fashion's Night Out rages on in other cities like London and Milan, New York City officials don't seem too keen on revamping an event that was never really a success.
Chin said she tried to help the CFDA reorganize the night but never heard back from them, the newspaper reported.
As Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen put it, "It's simply not integral to our agenda."
