Contact: Colleen Roche (212) 788-2958
Jennifer Chait (212) 788-8479
The Mayor was joined by Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington and Elyse Kroll, President of ENK Productions, the sponsoring company of the Collective's Menswear Trade Show and Fashion Exhibition.
"One year ago, we broke ground for the first new hotel in the Fashion District since 1970," said Mayor Giuliani. "This year it is my pleasure to open the new UnConvention Center. This space provides the Collective a unique space for exhibiting the look of today and the products of the future. And tonight, against the backdrop of the magnificent Manhattan skyline, I welcome more than 250 of the world's top designers to New York City's newest modern showcase site.
"New York City has always been a center of creative energy and vitality, and now we are the world's best place to do business," the Mayor continued. "In making the City safer and cleaner than it has been in decades, by enacting more tax reductions than in the prior 19 years combined, we have worked together to attract more business to the Fashion District."
"The international menswear community is thrilled to be at the UnConvention Center at Pier 94 during New York City's Menswear Week," said President of ENK Productions Elyse Kroll. "This extraordinary new venue has taken the Collective to a whole new level in the eyes of the global retailer."
The Collective's Menswear Trade Show and Fashion Exhibit brings together Italian, Portuguese and German trade commissions; men's fashion presidents and CEOs of fashion businesses from all around the world; men's fashion designers; and fashion, lifestyle, news, business and marketing press. The show also provides seminars and other events besides the fashion exhibition, and presents grants and scholarships to students preparing to enter the field of menswear design.
The event formally opens Pier 94's UnConvention Center at the Hudson Show Piers as New York City's second exhibition Center. The building of the UnConvention Center to accomodate mid-size trade shows is a major step forward in attracting more trade shows to New York City. According to an independent report by Arthur Anderson, the new mid-size Exhibition Center in New York City will generate $432 million in total expenditures, $28.8 million in direct City taxes and $18.4 million in State taxes.