Fashion Inspiration, Near and Far

Fashion Inspiration, Near and Far

On Wednesday morning, one day before the official start of New York Fashion Week, the W Hotel in Times Square hosted more fashionable guests than usual.

The hotel's EWOW Suite was the setting for an official announcement of a partnership between W Hotels Worldwide and the Council of Fashion Designers of America's Fashion Incubator, a program aimed at supporting emerging New York City-based designers. Many of the designers who are part of the Incubator were on hand as well as other supporting designers and a bevy of retail and fashion executives.


CFDA President Diane von Furstenberg checked in and out quickly. This being the W, there was a DJ duo spinning for the crowd, and the walls in the suite, which was transformed into a raw gallery-like space, were plastered with the Incubator designers' inspiration boards.

Under the partnership, consumers and W guests will be introduced to Incubator and other newish designers who will travel to W Hotels around the country for special events such as trunk shows. "For our guests and followers, they really care about what's new and next in fashion, they want to learn more," said Carlos Becil, vice president of brand management, Starwood's Luxury and Design Brands, North America. He admitted he wasn't familiar with most of the Incubator designers. "That's the beauty of the program," he said. "We're not the ones selecting the designers."

And, these being fashion designers whose inspirations for collections are typically faraway places (Morocco! Africa! Transylvania!), W will provide inspiration trips to each Incubator designer, offering a weeklong journey to any of W's 42 urban or resort destinations world-wide as they plan an upcoming collection.

"I would love to go to St. Petersburg," said Luis Fernandez, co-head of menswear label Number:Lab, an Incubator designer. "That whole Russian Olympics thing. That would be pretty inspiring."

"Hoboken," replied CFDA chief executive Steven Kolb when asked where he would like to be sent. Then "I don't know, I guess I would go to Bali." The connection between W and the CFDA? "Our name is all letters and their name is a letter. You can't get any easier than that."

Then, seriously, he praised W for recognizing that without the ability to have commerce to support a designer's business, "it's void." A vacant room, as it were.