The Important Lesson of Fashion’s Night Out

By Gamal Hennessy

Maybe you like Fashion’s Night Out, maybe you don’t. Considering the annual event is only in its third year, I understand if you are still on the fence about it. That’s how I feel too. I want to dislike it, but it makes a point that nightlife could learn from.

This year, I decided to join in the festivities by attending the Armani party on Madison Avenue. While this excursion didn't make me fall in love with FNO, it did prove two things to me. First cougars enjoy groping young, well-dressed black men. Second, it is hard to deny that FNO, like the Fashion Week event that spawned it, gives the fashion industry attention and buzz that improves the industry’s image exponentially.

Image and Spectacle

One of the major strengths of fashion is its ability to generate spectacle and manipulate images. FNO is a perfect example of this. Described in marketing terms, the night creates positive energy among a very desirable demographic (the ladies that spend money on clothes) and encourages brand interaction (going to the store, getting excited about clothes and ultimately buying something). The night is covered by media at all levels before, during and after the parties start, creating an attention tsunami that drowns out almost everything else.

Yes, it encourages cougar groping. Yes, it encourages amateurs to get sloppy. Yes, it has the potential to an annual nightlife train wreck of the same magnitude as New Year’s Eve, Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day. But none of that really matters in the end because people eat it up. If defines the conversation people have about fashion. No one talks about the price of the clothes, possible sweatshop labor or the negative body image coming out of fashion. They just get hear about a party, get excited, go out and associate fashion with a good party.

Learning from the Masters

FNO is similar to Restaurant Week, Spa Week & the Tribeca Film Festival in terms of their public impact. Each event improves the image of and generates interest in those respective activities.

Nightlife doesn’t follow this model. In fact, nightlife operators schedule many of their major openings and events around Fashion Week to ride the long tail of media hype (see the New York Times article here). This is a missed opportunity. There is more than enough good energy in nightlife to create a spectacle and improve the image. Music, dance, mixology, social interaction, sexual expression and yes, even fashion all converge to make nightlife what it is. Why not harness that energy create the biggest spectacle of all?

Nightlife has an image problem both in the mainstream press and within the culture itself. If we take a page from FNO we can change that.

Have fun.

G