Fashion's Night Out, the global fashion event dreamed up by Anna Wintour, has devolved into a drunken mess.
Image by Spencer Platt / Getty Images
In 2009, Anna Wintour had the idea throw a mass shopping event where, at the start of New York Fashion Week, stores in New York City would stay open late and adopt a party atmosphere. The hope was to get customers into struggling stores in the middle of the recession and, perhaps to a lesser degree, make the public feel welcome in the exclusive world of fashion. Four years in, FNO now takes place in 19 countries, but may draw the biggest crowds in New York, where it's becoming an increasingly frightening drunken mob scene, with much of the chaos fueled by hysteric attempts to view celebrities appearing at various stores.
In Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood on Thursday night, just after the stores closed their doors at 11 p.m., several hundred people — many of them young, and likely feeling the effects of all the free champagne — crowded into the streets. Cars could not pass, so people started jumping on top of them and dancing. An Audi had its windshield busted in, according to Gothamist. At first, it seemed like a riot, or a planned flash mob when I happened to pass by. About ten separate onlookers couldn't explain what was going on. When the cops finally showed up, a policewoman told me that it was caused by crowds who had been enjoying Fashion's Night Out converging in the streets. (Contacted for comment on Friday, the NYPD did not offer further information about the situation.)
All within a few square blocks, the following lead up to the near-riot in the streets: Azealia Banks performed at the MAC store; Pharrell signed autographs at Billionaire Boys Club; Rachel Zoe and model Karlie Kloss made appearances; and dozens of other popular DJs, stylists, and well-known models were out and about luring revelers into stores. And that was just one neighborhood — in the city's other top shopping areas, like the Meatpacking District and Midtown — you could wait in line to meet Victoria Beckham, model Kate Upton, Glee's Darren Kriss, basketball player Dwyane Wade, and a slew of Kardashians.
Adding to the madness — and appeal — is the ease with which free drinks are obtained at most stores. When I walked into Scoop on 14th Street, which was hosting a massive block party, I was promptly offered a vodka drink without being asked for ID to verify my age (and I look like I could be a teenager). Free drinks and underage drinking are very common in New York, but when they're institutionalized en masse, it can really get out of hand.
Via: instagram.com
A video of the situation on Broadway and Bleecker in SoHo, where the Audi's windshield was crushed, shot by an onlooker and uploaded to YouTube.
Source: youtube.com
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