The preparations for New York Fashion Week in September 2001 were abruptly overshadowed by the unfolding catastrophe of September 11, as recounted by two former fashion editors.
Laura Craik, then Fashion Editor for London's Evening Standard, was preparing to cover the spring/summer 2002 collections. On the morning of September 11, she and a photographer were heading to a Liz Lange maternity wear show at Bryant Park when a plane flew low over West Broadway. Initially believing it to be a bomb, Craik later learned it was a terrorist attack.
"I heard a dull bang that sounded like a bomb," Craik recalled of the moment the first World Trade Center tower collapsed. As the city descended into chaos, she walked back to her hotel, witnessing ash-covered survivors and the pervasive stench of dust and debris. "Making my way downtown, like everyone that day, I saw things I never hope to see again," she stated, describing a father and daughter covered in ash.
New York Fashion Week organizers quickly shifted resources to aid relief efforts. Tents that had been designated for fashion shows were repurposed as field hospitals and later as family centers for DNA matching. The venue for the Marc Jacobs show at Chelsea Pier 54 became a temporary morgue. Despite the devastation, New York Fashion Week resumed on September 17, with scaled-back presentations aimed at supporting the city's economy.
Jo Elvin, then Editor-in-Chief of British Glamour magazine, was at The Soho Grand Hotel preparing for a meeting when vibrations from the first plane impact shook her room. Unaware of the unfolding events, she later emerged from her hotel elevator to find the lobby filled with people fleeing a "violent tsunami of dust." The second tower collapsed while she was in the elevator.
Elvin and her team found themselves unable to contact loved ones in London. They took refuge in a bar across the street, watching CNN coverage amidst abandoned cars and openly crying pedestrians. Actress Selma Blair, also caught in the chaos, joined them. Elvin recalled Blair's distress after being turned away from a blood donation center, a moment that underscored the grim realization that survivors were unlikely.
Elvin also described a growing panic about potential biological weapons, especially after a news report mentioned air testing for anthrax. The following morning, she saw a firefighter covered head-to-toe in ash, appearing like a "ghost." Stuck in the city due to grounded flights, Elvin spent days walking through a silent city, passing numerous posters of missing loved ones.
Returning to London six days later, Elvin described her emotional response as a "deep grief." She noted that while not physically harmed, the experience triggered a "primal response of shock and fear that my body got stuck in," a sentiment she later addressed with a hypnotherapist. This trauma led to lasting anxieties, such as an aversion to seeing men with backpacks on public transport and a need to always wear shoes that allow for quick escape. She concluded that while the fear has lessened, the emotional response was valid, and she continues to be cautious, stating, "I never wear shoes I can't run in."