Twice a year, New York City hosts Fashion Week.  The spring show is always held in September.  This year, the show will start on September 10^th and run through September 17^th.

Designers produce fashion shows to show off their latest collections. The shows always have a huge sponsor.  This year, Mercedes-Benz is the sponsor.  In the past, one of the sponsors was Olympus so for many years the event was called the Olympus Fashion Week.

Bryant Park in New York City has been the home to Fashion Week for many years.

The 8-acre park is converted to a temporary fashion arena with tents. The Fashion Week tents are huge.  They are air-conditioned and contain several venues for the designers to show their collections.  Some of the individual venues are almost 12,000 square feet.  They come complete with a runway, seating for attendees, backstage areas, lighting and sound. Some fashion designers choose to have their collections shown in showrooms or other off-site venues during the week.

The people that attend fashion shows are varied.  The audience is usually full of journalists, editors, buyers, celebrities and socialites.  The Fashion Week shows are invitation-only and each fashion designer is responsible for the guest list. Journalists must seek accreditation prior to the event. The seating of the guests at the shows is carefully thought out and the bigger the star, the better the seat.

On September 9, 2005, Clay Aiken attended Fashion Week.  Clay attended the Kenneth Cole runway show.  He was seated in the front row next to Lee Ann Womack.

According to an article from “women MSN”:

“Socialites and celebrities also are important onlookers, as their presence at a show is likely to be reported in the media. Some high-profile personalities come for the promise of free clothing and others are looking for style ideas, scouting business deals or just enjoying the show. Managing celebrity arrivals is key. A good seating chart is one relatively easy way a brand can make a style association with a famous face.”

Clay also visited the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance tent where Katie Couric was one of the hosts.

There was an interview with Clay backstage after the Kenneth Cole show.  This interesting conversation with Clay revealed a lot about why he was there and what he considered fashionable.

“I was in town, and I wear more of Kenneth Cole’s clothes than of any other designer,” said the “American Idol” heartthrob.

But his own style was, he said, “codependent. I need somebody else to put it together for me.”

Still, Aiken’s a fast study. After watching Cole’s collection of loose, unstructured outfits in muddy neutral shades of brown and gray — leavened with a bit of brighter green and purple — he quickly picked out a favorite.

“That first brown outfit, I like that,” Clay said backstage after the show, pointing. “It’s nice; it’s the kind of thing I would wear.”

He didn’t render a verdict on the women’s outfits — high-waisted, loose pants and some surprisingly frilly dresses in bright, sheer, crinkled chiffon — that paraded down the catwalk. But Cole’s more adventurous options for men — fringed and patterned bags that looked suspiciously like pocketbooks, and men’s shorts so short they’d require the use of specialty underwear — did not win the star’s approval.

“See that?” he said, pointing to one shorts outfit. “You couldn’t pay me enough money to wear those shorts.”

The source for this interview is unknown.

Here is a short video-clip of Clay being interviewed.  It is short, but any video of Clay is good.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta65L6-UOuA