Fashion Week and the horses in Central Park

Twice a year for  two weeks the fashion crowd  takes over New York.  Twice a year, the world's fashion luminaries descend upon New York for an eight-day, eight-night, four-runway event: Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.   This winter Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week  started on  yesterday, Wednesday 12.  

 Last year in September horse carriages in the Central Park were used  to signal the start of Fashion Week for the first time.   Fashion designer Vincent de Souza  placed his models  in the buggies.  De Souza previously called the horse-drawn carriage "the epitome of style," and said "there is no better canvas for a runway show than a carriage ride through Central Park."  

Vincent de Souza model

At the end of 2013  Mayor of New York City de Blasio said at  education press conference:  "We are going to get rid of horse carriages, period ".   Mayor wanted to replace the horses with the electric retro cars and animal rights activists supported him.  I published several posts about   the horses in Central Park and I do not support de Blasio. 

Last year Vincent de Souza showed his support for the city’s beloved horse carriage industry. “I grew up with horses. I understand what they’re saying but these horses are obviously well taken care of,” said one of his models.   

Just to month ago in December 2014  Council members Daniel Dromm and Ydanis Rodriguez introduced legislation  aimed at banning the city’s horse carriage industry, which would fulfill a campaign promise from Mayor Bill de Blasio. The animal rights activists chanted: “Hey hey, ho ho! We love Mayor de Blasio!”

 

Yesterday    fashion designer Viktor Luna  kicked off Fashion Week in the Central Park.   He placed his models on a  carriages.  The protesters,   had run after the carriages while they carried the models in a short circuit around the park — yelling and waving signs the entire time.

Luna said he grew up around horses as a kid in California, and thought the carriage horses’ riding gear dovetailed perfectly with his designs, predominantly high-end leather outerwear.  "The animals are being taken care of, I’ve done my research.", Luna said.

Victor Luna Lookbook

The Newspaper Daily News run the campaign "Save our horses!" .  Daily News said: The horse-drawn carriages of Central Park have become a high-profile target since Mayor de Blasio took office, vowing to make good on his campaign promise to ban the beloved industry.Animal rights groups insist the horses are mistreated — despite city-enforced regulations and oversight that protect the horses, which aren't allowed to work in extreme heat or cold, get regular vet check-ups, have large stalls, and get five weeks' vacation annually. The protest groups — spearheaded mainly by NYCLASS, a financial backer of de Blasio during the mayoral race — have angered many horse rescue groups, who say there are hundreds of equines in far worse situations that need to be saved.

2013 was the last year of the Central Park carriage horses.

On December 30, 2013 newly elected  the 109th and current Mayor of New York Cityde Blasio said at  education press conference:  "We are going to get rid of horse carriages, period “It’s over,” he told reporters in response to an off-topic question.  “There’s some moving parts to work out, but we are going to quickly, aggressively move to make horse carriages no longer a part of the landscape of New York City. They’re not humane, they’re not appropriate for the year 2014. It’s over.”

De Blasio  has hired legal counsel who will deal with the legislative approach. De Blasio  suggested to  replace the horse carriages with electric antique cars driven by the same carriage drivers.

"No tourist comes to New York City just to ride on a horse carriage," Allie Feldman, executive director of NYCLASS, an animal rights group, told CNN.  


Steven Malone, a horse-carriage driver since 1987, told CNN:  "You can't create tradition. You can't create kids coming with smiles on their faces to pet the horses".  Malone and his supporters  plan to fight back.

People like to  ignore real problems and worry about imaginary ones.   Why de Blasio thinks that this subject has such a high priority ?   Is this a this is a good idea at all? Is it important enough to occupy his first days in office?  I do not have the answer.

Tourists love the carriages and tourists  are good for New York.  Kids love to pet the horses.
I spent about an hour on the last day of 2013 on Grand Army Plaza   making pictures for my blog. I saw happy tourists taking carriage rides. I saw smiling kids petting the horses.  I’m not a specialist in the horses health but the animals look healthy and well  fed to me.

Horse-drawn carriage  with the  over 150 years of tradition, heritage  and  history are a symbol to the New York City along with the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, the Statue of Liberty.  The streets packed with traffic are dangerous not only for the horses but for the cyclists and bicycle taxis. Why not to change the carriage routs?  Central Park , with its 843 acres, has enough space !
2013  could be the last year in a more than 100 years of a  horse carriages  history in the Central Park.

Read about the horse carriages in Central Park in my older post.
See the short movie I did on December 31 2013