Well, there sure is a lot going on right now, so lets get to it.

First, Happy New York Fashion Week! Yep, Fashion Week is fully underway. This year’s NYFW has gotten off to an ominous start with the blizzard of 2010 wreaking havoc on the East Coast and the heartbreaking news of the death of young talented designer Alexander (Lee) McQueen. Hopefully things will turn around and we will have a memorable and successful Fashion Week. So where to get all the scoop? You can check out the big guns of course, NY Magazine and Style.com. But we’d also like to recommend some of our favorite fellow bloggers for an insider look at Fashion Week. Unlike us they are much better photographers and will give you the full scoop on all the behind the tent action. So please visit, Fasshonaburu, Clutch22 and Dream Sequins.

Next, Happy Chinese New Year! Not only is this the biggest holiday for China and many Asian nations but it has a huge impact on the Garment Center and the fashion industry. Since so much apparel is made in China these days, our local companies from designers to production managers have been working overtime trying to get all their requests in to the factories before they close. The holiday lasts about two weeks, in which factories are shutdown and in the fashion industry that amount of time has a HUGE impact on all our schedules. If you are in NYC, Chinatown has tons of festivities going on, starting with the annual Fireworks and Dragon parade. So happy year of the Tiger everyone!

And finally, Happy Valentine’s Day! We found this fun lingerie blog, which is the blog to the fabulous boutique Faire Frou Frou. If you haven’t ever visited check out their sexy little underthings by clicking here. This Sunday February 14th is the big day, whether you consider it a day to celebrate love, or a day to try out that whip and pasties, or a day you consider a hallmark holiday, or even a day you refer to as Singles Awareness Day, we wish you all a very happy Valentines Day.

We here at 39th & Broadway are wishing all our lovely readers a very Happy New Year!! May this year be the best yet for all you fabulous fashionistas. And let’s all toast to 2010 bringing the fashion industry back (more jobs, please) to being the successful powerhouse it deserves to be!

This little blog has grown considerably in the last year and our dear readers have made our blogging experience better then we could have dreamed. So thank you, because without all of you, we never would have kept this site going for so long. We hope you will continue to participate, read, share and spread the word about 39thandbroadway.com.

New Year’s is finally upon us and NYC takes on a whole new vibe this time of year.  Those of us who work in the Garment Center can occasionally see the back (or at least, reflection of) the New Year’s Ball from our offices. Time Square which is our neighbor to the north, becomes overrun with tourists, events, photographers, NYPD, media and more this week. The iconic images of the Times Square Ball dropping on New Year’s Eve, is surreal for those of us who walk through the area on a daily basis. It’s like returning to the house you grew up in, but the new owners and all their belongings now reside there. You recognize it, it looks familiar, yet it is now a completely different entity. Well, that’s how we feel about New Year’s Eve in Times Square. Yes, strange but true.  And regardless of the traffic and garbage that comes along with this event, we wouldn’t have it any other way!

So, whether you are ringing in the new year at a gala Uptown, a bar Downtown, or fighting the tourists in Midtown, we know that our readers will be doing it in style! So have a very Happy New Year!

Wishing all of our dear readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from 39th & Broadway! The photo above is one of many Garment Center building lobbies decked out for the holidays. To see more neighborhood photos, check out last year’s holiday posts and you may just spy your office here.

We hope most of you are enjoying some well deserved time off this week and spending time with family and friends. No doubt some of you are still working trying to meet deadlines. Considering most apparel these days is unfortunately made overseas, that means many of you are facing tight deadlines during the US holiday season and trying to get samples made before the Chinese New Year. We feel for those working overtime and hopefully come February you will get a bit of a break as well!

To bring a little holiday cheer, and maybe a laugh or two we thought we’d address Christmas fashion.  Yes, this is the one time of year that grown women feel it appropriate to wear sweaters covered in animals, cartoons, or fictitious fat men. The one time of the year when people seem to have forgotten that green and red do NOT go together!  The one time of year when, “jingle bells” and, “floppy red hats” are accepted as accessories. Really?  These sad, sad, holiday faux pas are best appreciated in the following clip from MADtv. Enjoy, and happy holidays!

Over the next week or so we will be taking a little break too. But have no fear there will still be plenty of scoop for you.   Our forum is open and we hope you take advantage of an opportunity to anonymously chat, vent, question, and give advice. Just click here to check it out. Looking for more insider dish? Check out some of these recent popular posts:

Can Zoning Save the Garment Center?

Apparel Designer versus Technical Designer

Incompetent Salespeople

Gender Gap

Save the Garment Center Rally

Goodbye Recessionista Glamorizers

Nursery School Stilettos?

Do I NEED to go to Fashion School?

The Modern Face of NYC Designers

Designing Divisions

Fatty, Porker, Chubby, Heifer

A very Happy Hanukkah to all our readers celebrating the holiday. Tonight marks the first night for the festival of lights and hopefully many of you will enjoy an early Friday because of it!

Hanukkah has many spellings, as we mentioned last year, but one thing it has never had is its own scent. Until now, that is. Hanukah Cannelle is a signature holiday fragrance created by perfumer, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz.  The scent has an apple and cinnamon note, along with warm wood and soft musk, which the creator describes as “sexy and luscious”. So, of you’re looking for a unique Hanukkah gift pick up some Hanukah Cannelle today.

We here at 39^thandBroadway.com want to wish all our US readers a Happy Thanksgiving.  Hope you all will be enjoying a wonderful and delectable turkey, plus gorging away on mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie!  Because despite what Kate Moss has been saying (“nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”) many things DO taste as good, and if she had a proper American Thanksgiving perhaps it would change her mind.

For all our local readers, if you get a chance, don’t forget to check out Macys 83^rd annual Thanksgiving Day parade.  The parade begins Thanksgiving morning November 26^th on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The parade will zig-zag south, ending in front of the original Macys at 34^th street and Herald Square.  For the first time in its history the parade route has changed and will be following mostly along 7^th Ave rather than Broadway.  No worries if you’re not a local, you can still watch the famous parade live on NBC.

Not feeling in the thankful sort of mood?  Feeling rather snarky about the upcoming endless holiday season?  Perhaps even dreading the inevitable Christmas card writing?  Well we’ve got the cure for you, thanks to a talented stationary artist we found on Etsy.com.  Jen, the designer behind Flytrap is an expert in crafting inappropriate, holiday, greeting cards.  We highly suggest checking out her Etsy shop for some witty paper products.  Below is a photo of her Thanksgiving greeting card, which in case you can’t read it, it says,

“Thank you for not being as annoying as a baby on an airplane. Thank you for not being a writer who publishes incriminating stories about friends and family. Thank you for not being a mouth breather. Thank you for not avoiding my calls. Thank you for not smelling like wet dog and dirty socks. Thank you for not running away screaming every time you see me like small children sometimes do. Thank you for not spreading gossip about me that gets back to me. Thank you for not lying to me about the big stuff. Thank you for not having a pet boa constrictor or tarantula. Thank you for not asking to borrow lots of money to fund your new bacon scented after shave business. Thank you for not being famous and forgetting the little people. Thank you for not being an idiot. Thank you for not being a flesh-eating bacteria. Thank you for always listening or at least pretending to listen and grunting once in a while. Thank you for not being a crazy stalker. Thank you for not believing you’re an alien from outer space. Thank you for not having oozing sores all over your body. Thank you for not being a plant. Thank you for not ever moving to Madagascar.
INSIDE:
Happy Thanksgiving.”

So have a happy and thankful Thanksgiving to all our lovely readers, wishing you the best from 39^th & Broadway!

Happy Halloween skanks and hoes! What?  Was that rude?  Considering the costume options floating around out there, that is apparently what costume manufactures believe the women of America to be.  So, when did Halloween become an excuse for grown women (or even teenagers) to run around the streets looking like two dollar hookers?  Are US women that lacking in creativity, that all we can come up with is a “sexy” version of a traditional costume?  Sexy nurse, sexy witch, sexy cat, even sexy nun, is that really the best we can do?  Despite the lines out the door at Ricky’s, we’d like to believe that our readers, being creative fashionistas, have far better costume ideas.  We’d love to hear from you.  What are you dressing up as this Halloween?  Was it a DIY or a store bought? What has been your all time favorite costume?

Recently, we saw that one of our favorite bloggers, Jessica Schroeder from What I Wore has been posting a wonderful series of her past Halloween costumes.  You must check them out as they are wonderful examples of what the creative mind can do. From Karl Lagerfeld, to Frida Kahlo, to Little Edie Beale, Jessica has done an outstanding job.  Her costumes are also a fantastic inspiration for those of you who need last minute, affordable, ideas that can be made from clothes in your own closet.  Whatever you decide to go with we wish you a happy Halloween, from 39^th and Broadway!

Update ** We just realized that the lovely Jennine from The Coveted, has her Halloween series up, that you must check out for a ton of DYI costume ideas. Besides some great looks, she has this hilarious quote regarding the slutification of Halloween costumes, “not that there is anything wrong with being slutty (whatever that means) but looking slutty? That’s where I draw the line.”

Happy 4th of July from 39th & Broadway.com!  Hope all of our American readers are enjoying a lovely and long holiday weekend.  Here in NYC there is beautiful weather, perfect for a trip to the Hamptons or the Jones Beach fireworks.   For you, “I never leave Manhattan” fashionistas, enjoy celebrating in the city and watch the amazing Macy’s Fireworks display just don’t forget this year they are on the West-side.  Enjoy!

Yes, some of us do have photos of our fathers looking just like that. Even more frightening, is that they were considered cool cats back in their day.  Now, if your dad is still dressing like this perhaps it’s time for a fashion intervention.  Father’s Day is the perfect excuse to give your dad a fashion make-over.  If you haven’t bought a gift yet, maybe you should follow the advice from the vintage ad below and pick up a pack of Camels.  Because nothing shows familial love like the gift of cancer sticks!  Regardless of how you’re spending it, happy Father’s Day from 39^th and Broadway to all our readers and especially our own fathers!

Wishing all of our readers, a very happy Easter holiday.  Maybe this ad will inspire you to return to the bunny costume this year. Have a fabulous holiday boys and girls!

Wishing all of our readers a happy holiday.  Congrats to those of you who survived the mass exodus out of Manhattan yesterday and good luck with today’s traffic as well!  As many of you in the Garment Center work in Jewish owned companies that close for the holiday, enjoy your time off!

**FYI the content is not exactly office appropriate so watch out where you play this**

Or click Here!

Kung Hei Fat Choy!  It’s that time of year again; Chinese New Year is upon us.  So, Happy New Year to all those celebrating.  Those of you who work in the fashion business this means that  for the next week or two your lives will be a lot calmer (except Fashion Week drama of course).   Since most apparel is produced overseas these days, we are all constantly working with factories, sample rooms, and fabric mills in Asia.   However, during Chinese New Year, factories in China, Hong Kong, and Thailand to name a few, will close thus giving us all a much needed break.  Some may have domestic and European vendors to still deal with, but still the workload is drastically reduced.  This may be the only time of year that apparel industry professionals, can take a full lunch break or actually see daylight during the work week.  So to all of you that worked so hard to make the CNY deadlines, enjoy the coming days while they last!

By the way this is also a great time to visit New York’s Chinatown.  If you’ve never made it to the New Year’s Dragon Parade, it’s worth it to go at least once. The opening firecracker ceremony begins today at 11am and the big parade will be held next Sunday.  This is the year of the Ox, which brings stability, good fortune and prosperity, hmm sounds like all things we need right now!

Wishing y’all a most fabulous and fashionable New Year!  There is nothing like NYC during the holidays, and despite the cold and the tourists there is no better place to be, especially for the most glamorous and fabulous New Year’s Eve parties around.  That iconic Waterford crystal ball has been a fixture in the sky the last few weeks and will be dropping near our neighborhood as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve. For those who aren’t aware, Time Square and the Garment Center are neighbors.  For many of us the Time Square ball is visible from our office windows, and we pass right by it on our lunch breaks or during the daily commute. So dust off those Jimmy Choo dancing shoes, and break out your favorite party dress, whether it’s Cavalli or H&M, and dance the night away this New Year’s Eve. And let’s all hope next year will be a more prosperous year for the fashion and retail industries.  Happy New Year from 39th and Broadway!

We are wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a fabulous New Year.  Hopefully you will get to put down the tape measures and say goodbye to techpacking for a little bit and enjoy the break(if not hopefully Chinese New Year will give you a rest soon), because you guys deserve it!  This has been quite a year for all of us and we want to thank our viewers for all of your support and your often hilarious contributions.  We had no idea how quickly this site would grow and we are working hard (in our spare time) to expand and add more features for you.  Over the next two weeks we will be taking a little break, but have no fear there will still be plenty of scoop for you.  Because so many of you are new, we will be bringing back some older posts that you may have missed, as well as, some new juicy tidbits.  In addition, our forum is open and we hope you take advantage of an opportunity to anonymously chat, vent, question, and give advice in the forum.  So happy holidays, and enjoy these holiday pictures from inside the NYC garment center.

Whichever way you spell it, (and there are 16 ways) Hannukah is here!  While technically not that big of holiday, because of its close proximity to Christmas, it gets a lot of attention.  So, Happy Chanukah to those of you celebrating this year!   If you’re looking for a gift, or a more fabulous way to show off those lights, then Louis Vuitton has the answer for you.  The LV menorah reminds us that Christmas is not the only holiday to turn commercial, or perhaps it’s just a way to celebrate the Maccabees in style this year.  Who knows, maybe next year you’ll get a Dior dreidel!