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We needed a boost of sustainable optimism. We needed Bob Mackie more than ever. Alas, he sat out the shows, but Nicholas Graham of Joe Boxer stepped in and provided us with a breather

S RECENT EVENTS have shown, the possibility that the United States would be going to war against Saddam Hussein became a reality. All throughout Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week in February, that fear was reflected in the clothing, in people’s attitude and manifested itself in a quiet, almost manic air of denial employed by most of the attendees. This was not only prevalent at the Bryant Park tents, but could also be found among the people on the streets of New York City and in other communities around the country. We all needed to laugh and take a moment from worrying about losing our jobs, the spiralling cost of heating oil and gasoline, paying for our children’s college education, putting food on our tables. We needed a boost of sustainable optimism.
   This season, we needed Bob Mackie more than ever before. Alas, he sat out the shows this time, but Nicholas Graham of Joe Boxer stepped in and provided us with a breather.
   Usually, the week ends with the Calvin Klein show at the Milk Studios. But for me and many others, the week ended at the Joe Boxer–Change Daily! laugh-Olympics at the tents. It was the last show to be held there on the afternoon of February 14 (they were actually tearing down some of the other show venues around us—which is loaded with a great deal of symbolism there as well but that’s another story for another time), and it was an appropriate ending to what has been an overall sombre affair.
   Nicholas Graham founded Joe Boxer in an attempt to ‘wage a war against the boring and the banal’. Over the years, he has held witty and unconventional fashion shows in a video-game arcade in Times Square, as well as a show re-creating a fantasyland for grown-ups who, like himself, understand the meaning of laughter in one’s daily life. But his biggest and by far most successful marketing stunt was chartering a plane and flying a planeload of fashion editors and buyers to a show in Reykjavik. For those fortunate enough to be invited, it was a memorable event that they still remember fondly.

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