Fashion editors who were in New York covering fashion in September 2001 describe how venues associated with New York Fashion Week are repurposed in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. They say tents set up for fashion shows and related facilities are turned into field hospitals, while another fashion-show venue is used as a makeshift morgue.
The accounts place the events during an eight-day trip to see spring/summer 2002 collections, including shows by designers such as Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors. In the reporting provided, the focus is on eyewitness testimony and the rapid change in use of entertainment and event spaces as emergency and recovery needs increase. The outlet’s emphasis centers on the personal perspective of the editors and the contrast between fashion-industry preparations and the subsequent medical and mortuary functions.
While only one outlet’s text is available here, the narrative aligns on the core timeline: fashion coverage is underway when 9/11 occurs, and within that unfolding catastrophe, multiple Fashion Week-related sites are reassigned to support triage and handling of fatalities.
