#8 "Why Fashion's Night Out Faltered"

           One of the most important and attention gathering event of the year has officially begun on the 4^th of September, 2014: the New York Fashion Week. Always marking the beginning of the fashion month, New York City hosts the first and biggest fashion week of all times. However, an event that has always been a part of the NYFW since 2009, Fashion's Night Out, has silently disappeared this year. Considering the amount of publicity and attention it has received the past few years, its quiet disappearance has been a little bit off. Fashion's Night Out is an event where stores are open until 11p.m. serving drinks, discounts, and even a few celebrity appearances. Throughout the years, the event has grown so much that it had even become a touristic event. However, this year it has vanished with no solid reason. A few experts such as Margaret Chin (New York City Council Member) and shop owners have come up with a few hypothetical reasons to why it has faded out. The first hypothetical reason behind it was that the event had brought too many people; with such a big crowd, it was hard to organize a clean cut event. The second hypothetical reason was that the shop owners, who were supposed to experience an increase in sales, did not see the difference in sales. Instead, the costs for the event outweighed the benefits. People would only come into stores to watch bands and celebrities rather than buy goods. Shoplifting was also a great problem; various stores experienced a great loss of expensive goods due to shoplifting. The disappearance of this event during fashion week did bring out curiosity and a few questioned the impact that it would have on the fashion industry. However, the deputy mayor for housing and economic development and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s liaison to the fashion industry, Alicia Glen, has told the public that it didn’t really matter if the event was canceled or not; instead it actually lifted some weight from the planning of the real event: New York Fashion Week.

           Valeriya Safronova, author of the article, writes in a very casual tone and provides abundant examples to support her article. She aids her text with various direct quotes from experts and trustworthy sources. Her language is very simple yet polished – it is very easy to understand. She focuses on the fall of the event and the unofficial reasons behind it; in a way she is pointing out the flaws of this event. However, Safronova does not explicitly have an opinion about this happening; she is rather neutral, providing information to why it has happened rather than supporting a certain side.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/fashion/why-fashions-night-out-faltered.html?rref=style/international