Intelligencer

Schmatte Week Vs. Rosh Hashanah

Will New York, unlike Paris, respect a Jewish holy day?

By Emma Rosenblum
Published Dec 18, 2006

(Photo: Patrick McMullan)

Why is that week different from all others? Members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America recently received a memo discussing options for rescheduling next fall’s Fashion Week, which coincides with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Designers currently slated to show on the holy day, September 13, include Calvin Klein (Jew!), Zac Posen (Jew!), and Vera Wang (married to a Jew!). The memo presents three alternatives: no change, moving it forward two days, or delaying it until October. It seems likely, insiders say, that the CFDA’s going to go with option two and bump up Fashion Week to September 5 through 12, ending before sunset. “It’s a courtesy to the industry, which has a large number of Jewish people involved, not to present shows on the holiest days of the calendar, as the French did last season, showing over Yom Kippur,” says Suzy Menkes (Jew!), fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune. The CFDA is planning to review all responses to the memo before making any definite changes. CFDA president (and Jew!) Diane Von Furstenberg “doesn’t have strong feelings either way and wants the decision to be a collective agreement between designers.”