This spring, the FCBID developed a new environmental graphics system to enhance the district’s identity. Launched in June 2003 with the installation of new lightpole banners and quickly followed by updated images on our Gateway Information Pylons and Information Kiosk, the system uses the FCBID’s new brand colors, yellow and green, and displays the new “Authentic New York” tagline, emphasizing the uniqueness of this Midtown neighborhood. Coordinating sanitation uniforms and equipment followed to complete the look.

“ Authentic New York” is part of the FCBID’s efforts to broaden its marketing message to go beyond the district’s identity with fashion. Over the last year, several direct mail pieces were developed and mailed to the commercial brokerage community, emphasizing the convenience of the Fashion District’s Midtown location. This was followed-up with a “re-branding” of the neighborhood as an “Authentic New York” district that boasts quintessential New York buildings, central location, theater, dining, shopping, transportation and other amenities. The use of bold green and yellow stripes on all FCBID projects identifies the scope of BID services and the Fashion District neighborhood.

In January, the FCBID launched “Eats & Seats,” a month-long event celebrating the hot new Off-Broadway theater scene in the Fashion District and the many fine neighborhood restaurants that offer pre- and post-theater dining. Throughout the month of January, special “Eats & Seats” discounts were offered at shows playing in the Fashion District’s new theaters, as well as at participating Fashion District restaurants. To promote the event, a direct mail piece was distributed to all tenants and property owners, and the participating theaters and restaurants displayed collateral material. Eats & Seats advertisements also ran in Crain’s and Time Out New York, reminding readers that they need go no further than the Fashion District to have an “Authentic New York” dining and theater experience. In addition, the FCBID developed a special website, www.eatsandseats.com, to promote the event.

Eats & Seats is part of the FCBID’s on-going efforts to broaden its marketing message.

Eats & Seats was cited by the Department of Small Business Services as a case study of how to take advantage of cultural uses to market a neighborhood.

In May, the FCBID hosted a cocktail reception and private premiere screening of the independent film, GARMENTO. FCBID property owners and tenants were invited to attend the event at the district’s Abingdon Theater Company, located at 312 West 36th Street. GARMENTO is a comical look beneath the seams of NYC’s garment industry, creating an amusing satire of everything from the designer jeans craze of the ‘70s to real-life tales from inside the world of fashion today. Writer and director Michelle Maher drew inspiration from the three years she spent working in New York’s fashion industry in the early ‘90s, first as a junior designer and then in sales at various fashion design houses. Filmed in the Fashion District during Winter 2001, GARMENTO was an official selection for the SXSW Film Festival 2002 and the Hollywood Film Festival 2002.

In September, the Museum at FIT hosted a gala opening reception for Seventh Avenue: Fashion Walk of Fame, an exhibition featuring the lives and work of the 24 New York City designers who have been inducted into the FCBID’s Fashion Walk of Fame. The exhibit was sponsored by the FCBID and was co-curated by Valerie Steele, Director of the Museum and Chair of the FCBID’s Fashion Walk of Fame Selections Committee, and Ellen Shanley, the Museum’s Curator of Costume.

In November 2003, the FCBID published a Fashion Walk of Fame commemorative booklet. The booklet features historical information about the district and a reproduction of each of the Fashion Walk of Fame plaques. Each plaque honors a different designer and depicts an original fashion sketch and signature as well as information about the designer’s contribution to the history of fashion. The Fashion Walk of Fame booklet is available for purchase at the Information Kiosk for $2.00 (priced to defray printing costs).

Northfork Bank became the newest sponsor of the FCBID’s lightpole banner program in June 2003. One hundred colorful banners, displaying the new FCBID “Authentic New York” graphics, as well as the Northfork Bank logo, were installed on lightpoles throughout the district. The FCBID thanks Northfork Bank for its generous support, which funded the banner program for the whole year.Fashion Walk of Fame commemorative booklets are available at the Information Kiosk.

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