Photo Credit: Wireimage/wargo.com

Target threw out all the stops last night at their Kaleidoscopic Fashion Spectacular: a gotta-see-it-to believe it fashion show at The Standard Hotel. Metromix was there to shoot the 155 rooms taken over with dancer-models, LED color technology and some pretty slick choreographer and a musical score by Sam Spiegel. And even though it was open to the public, the show was a red carpet affair with Weeds star Mary-Louise Parker, Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgely, The City’s Roxy Olin and Samantha Swetra, 30 Rock’s Katrina Bowden and fashion icons Nina Garcia and Prabal Gurung walking the red carpet and taking in the style on acid sights.

Photo Credit: Wireimage/wargo.com

The 20 minute-long light show extravaganza featured dancers and models grooving in the window frames of various rooms, illuminated intermittently by colored flashes synched to the original music played. The event was intended as a celebration of the mega-retailer’s fall 2010 fashion lineup, although we took the term “fashion show” pretty loosely, choosing to focus more on the “show” than the fashion. Truthfully, it was pretty hard to even notice the clothes given all the other sensational visuals.

Photo Credit: Wireimage/wargo.com

Serendipitously, Target couldn’t have chosen a better night for such an audio-visual blowout. The sunset was breathtaking  and far more than the red carpet turnout, which included many celebrities. It provided the perfect overture for the night’s performance.

Photo Credit: Wireimage/wargo.com

Readers are being reminded almost hourly by blogs, newspapers and even banners hanging from light posts that it is safe, once again, to spend.  At the same time, they may have noticed a rash of news suggesting the opposite: consumers are cutting back, paring their wardrobes, paying off their credit card debt and generally hunkering down in fear of a renewed recession.

In one typical example of mixed messages, the big reveal for the Fashion’s Night Out Sept. 10 party lineup (celebrities and events galore at hundreds of stores staying open until 11 p.m.) appeared in an issue of Women’s Wear Daily that was otherwise dedicated to a theme of fashion frugality. “Mindless excess is over,” the trend forecaster Faith Popcorn said, right there on its front page. Shop less! Shop more! Shop smarter!

Fashion designers and industry notables pose with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to promote Fashion’s Night Out at City Hall in New York. Visible, from left, are Jack McCollough, Linda Fargo, Francisco Costa, Tory Burch, Stephen Sadove, Tracy Reese, Anna Wintour, Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Carolina Herrera, Steven Kolb, Vera Wang, Zac Posen and Lazaro Hernandez. Photo Credit: Associated Press

As New York Fashion Week vastly approaches,  a dispute is brewing between IMG Fashion, which produces the biannual event and Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, a union that oversees most of the stagehand and other theatrical labor used at the  Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.  The disagreement is rooted in the nature of the union’s relationship with Lincoln Center and the specific location where IMG is scheduled to set-up the tents it will use for fashion shows.

Prior to this season, New York Fashion Week was held in Bryant Park. Fashion Week begins on Sept 9th and will begin preliminary set-up this weekend. For this reason, Local One will hold an emergency board meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss its options. The union has a contract with the performing-arts complex which gives the union jurisdiction over many events on the Lincoln Center campus, including those held in venues like Alice Tully Hall. But it does not require the use of union labor for events that take place on the plaza or surrounding areas, such as Damrosch Park, in the southwest corner of the plaza, where Fashion Week will pitch its tents but according to President James J. Claffey, Jr., the union is traditionally awarded contracts for such events, including the annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony that takes place near the center’s fountain and the seasonal dance event Midsummer Night Swing and based on that, Mr. Claffey believes IMG should be required to hire union labor for all Fashion Week events held at Lincoln Center.  “Local One is the labor provider. We have a relationship to the entire campus,” Mr. Claffey said. “It’s absolute practice.”

A spokesman for IMG, Zach Eichman, said via email the company is working to avoid an escalation of the disagreement. “The various issues that exist now we are sure will find an amicable solution by September 9,” Mr. Eichman said. “As we move into final preparations, our team is focused on providing the most cost efficient, effective, and user-friendly productions for our designer and sponsor clients and as such, will work diligently to make the move to Lincoln Center as smooth as possible.”

A spokeswoman for Lincoln Center said that because Fashion Week is a renter, rather than a resident organization, the center does not dictate the terms of the event’s labor arrangements. “Lincoln Center has enjoyed amicable and productive relationships with Local One for many years,” spokeswoman Betsy Vorce said. “Mercedes Benz Fashion Week at Lincoln Center will operate in Damrosch Park with IMG as its licensee.”

Photo Credit: IMG/Mercedes Benz Fashion Week

Both Lincoln Center and the parks department have told IMG that the union has no jurisdiction over the park property, according to a person familiar with the matter. A spokeswoman for the parks department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “Things are very sensitive now,” Mr. Claffey said. “We’re going to exercise our legal rights if they don’t come to some sort of agreement with us.” Certain events occurring under the umbrella of New York Fashion Week will take place in Lincoln Center facilities that require the use of union labor, and those events will comply with the lease terms of those facilities, according to a person familiar with the matter. The outcome of the current dispute will have an impact not only on this season’s shows but will also set a precedent for the future relationship between the two groups. IMG has a five-year contract to host Fashion Week at Lincoln Center, and it is expected to make use in coming years of an increasing number of facilities throughout the Lincoln Center campus.

Will these two organizations come to a happy medium before September 9th? Stay tuned for more…

Information was gathered by Associated Press and WSJ

Hip-hop clothing giant, Marc Ecko, recently handed over total control over his name and brand to Iconix.  They now own  51% of Marc Ecko’s intellectual property as a result of the harsh retail market and weak U.S. economy.  Ecko has now licensed back his trademark and will now have to push towards his wholesale and retail businesses.

Iconix own brands that range from upscale designer Badgley Mischka to middle-market brands like Joe Boxer and Ocean Pacific and recently signed on Madonna and Lourdes Material Girl Clothing which launches this week.

Iconix agreed to pay an average of  $100 million of  Marc Ecko debt owed to Li & Fung, a global trading company that helped manufacture Marc Ecko’s clothes. Additionally, Iconix could potentially take on a remainder of the debt onto its own balance sheet.