I received a phone call from Canadian born, New York based designer Lawrence Pizzi in November 2011 regarding a fashion show for New York Fashion Week. Although the details hadn’t been ironed out, he asked if I would cover a fashion event which would include several designers. I shot Mercedes Benz of Buffalo Fashion Week last year where I met Lawrence and I loved his avant garde designs. The opportunity to shoot his designs again and to shoot at New York Fashion Week was an absolute no brainer for me. Fast forward a couple of months after numerous emails for media accreditation, details of the show, and research for hotels in NY, I was booked.
Code Purple was the name of the fashion event and it was closing out Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in New York. It is a project that incorporates designers, ING Acivewear and other key sponsors in the name of educating people about and protecting people from contracting malaria. The venue was the USS Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. What a spectacular place to host a fashion show! Crazy!! I found my spot in the pit pretty much center of the runway beside Getty Image photographer Neilson Barnard with whom I talked as we waited for the show to begin. The lighting was excellent but only if you avoided the edges of the runway which unfortunately many models didn’t do. The night was long incorporating four runway shows, three musical performances, an auction, several speeches and it also started 1.5 hours late. Anyway, it was a great event that included special guests Michael Franzese, Cynthia Bailey and the Nigerian Princess Kiesha Omilana.
A special thank you to Lawrence Pizzi. Paris??
All images of Lawrence Pizzi’s runway show can be viewed here.
All images of 5001 Flavors runway show can be viewed here.
All images of Che Elliott’s runway show can be viewed here.
All images of By Barak’s runway show can be viewed here.
All other miscellaneous runway images, special guests and performers can be viewed here.
