Stephanie Winston Wolkoff on Shopping eBay (Ninja Turtles?!) and Fashion Week at Lincoln Center

By Nandini D'Souza
September 15, 2010

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff is the event planner supreme. As Lincoln Center’s new Fashion Director, she’s responsible for introducing New York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week to the venerable cultural Mecca, Fashion Week's new home after 17 years at Bryant Park. Wolkoff is not only responsible for integrating the whole glitzy shebang, including 80-plus runway shows, into the new venue, but also orchestrating, with Oz-like precision, A Vogue fashion show for non-industry fans' daily special presentations; the shuttling of thousands of models, editors, and photographers and making sure not a single thing goes wrong. But if anyone can do it, Wolkoff can. For years, she served as Vogue’s event planner, handling such mega-parties as The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala. Right before Fashion Week kicked off, she found a few spare moments to speak to The Inside Source.

The Inside Source: The first Fashion Week at Lincoln Center... What are you most excited about unveiling to the fashion crowd?

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff: Like an old world matchmaker, I’m so excited to introduce the fashion crowd to its new home. The aspect I’m most excited, truly, to reveal is the intangible—the new ambience that surrounds the event with the influx of new talent, energy, technology, and of course, new fashion. Contributing to the aura around the event are an endless array of innovations implemented by IMG and our team at Lincoln Center. We’ve utilized unanticipated venues, such as promenades and galleries across Campus. IMG has updated its own offerings with the inception of The Box, a presentation space, and The Courtyard, a formal tree-lined gallery-like space, at the heart of Damrosch Park.

TIS: Editors are now able to check themselves in with barcodes. What are some other new additions.

SWW: Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is growing up a little with its move to Lincoln Center this fall. The whimsy and the artistry are still the driving forces in the production of every event taking place here, but IMG and we, at Lincoln Center, have taken this time to hone in on what we love about the event, and what aspects of it could use updating. As such, IMG’s developed a cadre of new technology and even new architecture to suit this season of “firsts.” Fashion GPS, IMG’s updated registration and credentialing system, was designed to simplify—for both designer and attendee—the horrifying process of seating and RSVPing. With this initiative underway, a mouse-click allows invitees to confirm their attendance, and barcodes to be scanned at the event make order out of the usual check-in chaos. Whether this expediting process will make designer shows begin on time? That, no one knows. Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week still holds a few delightful secrets, even from me!

Fashion Week Lincoln Center

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Lincoln Center (Photo by Katy Winn/Getty Images for IMG)

TIS: What was the biggest challenge in bringing Fashion Week to Lincoln Center?

SWW: Beyond the physical, logistical landmines that had to be negotiated, I think the most formidable challenge was in navigating the mental relocation that has had to take place in the hearts and minds of the fashion community. Thankfully, I’ve been working with the shrewdest minds in the Lincoln Center neighborhood and in the global industry of fashion—the Lincoln Center Business Improvement District (BID) and IMG Worldwide, respectively. Together we’ve created tools to make everyone attending Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in any capacity, whether at the shows or at our numerous consumer events, feel at home. That means a veritable library of maps and transportation guides, as well as directories of local businesses and restaurants. The success of Mercedes-Benz will be one shared by so many different offices across the city.

TIS: How many shows do you plan to attend and which ones are you most looking forward to?

SWW: My agenda is overflowing with a range of designers and a spectrum of events and exhibitions. But I could never choose a favorite. After so many months, and countless late nights spent guaranteeing the success of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, it feels like a treachery too great to choose. The practiced line from parents to children holds true: Darlings, I have room in my heart for all of you.

TIS: Beyond Fashion Week, what are some future plans for fashion at Lincoln Center?

SWW: Fashion is an on-going initiative on the Lincoln Center campus; its presence here is one that won’t hibernate between the biannual Mercedes-Benz Fashion Weeks. So although Fashion’s formal role at Lincoln Center is being inaugurated this September, the calendar year holds a full program of fashion-related events that I’m so excited to reveal—in due time of course!

Linoln Center at Night

(Photo Credit: Mark Bussell)

TIS: You're known for being able to navigate enormous gala-planning, but you're also a style maven. Who are your favorite designers and who are your style icons?

SWW: I seek out certain silhouettes above specific designers. Of course, I respond to some designers’ artistic perspective more than others, but I’m an adventurous dresser. And lately, I find myself wearing ensembles designed by names that run the gamut from established heavyweights to emerging talents. Great style, for me, is embodied by people who dress for their lifestyle. Names like Jackie Kennedy and Sofia Loren come to mind as women who built wardrobes to suit their needs and who looked consistently effortless doing so.

TIS: One way planning FW at Lincoln Center is easier than planning the Met gala, and one way it's harder?

SWW: Easier because there’s no real precedent to meet or surpass, only one to set. Harder because…in a word, biannual.

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff's Favorite eBay Searches:

Collectible Books

Vintage Figurines

"Toys whose packages don’t advertise 'batteries not included.' I seek out my kids’ favorite old-school figurines on eBay. Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, and dollhouse miniatures are all recent purchases."

Saarinen Tulip Chairs

"Office furniture that dispels the 'bland office' stereotype. Two Saarinen tulip chairs were hard-won on eBay as I decorated my space here at Lincoln Center almost a year ago."

Miriam Haskell

"Fabulously ornate costume jewelry, especially Miriam Haskell’s show-stopping pieces."

Sports Memorabilia

"Sports memorabilia for my boys. Their fascination with autographed jerseys, pictures, footballs, fly balls, foul balls, and the like knows no bounds."