What would New York be without the fashion industry, and what would the fashion industry be without shoppers? This is the question that Fashion’s Night Out answers. All the crucial elements of the fashion industry take part, including the planets of designers, models, fashion editors, and other interested celebrities, all revolving around the great shining sun of shoppers.

Inaugurated in 2009 as a way to restore buyer’s confidence, boost the economy of an industry that had been in the doldrums, celebrate fashion and to put the fun back in shopping for fashion, Fashion’s Night Out, or FNO, is returning with a vengeance this September 8th.

FNO is the opening gambit of the entire fashion season, and it is quite an event. From 6pm to 11pm shoppers will flock to their favorite fashion outlets, drinking champagn, shopping till they drop, and enjoying other fashion related exclusive events.

Check-out the official website of Fashion’s Night Out for a complete list of events and help planning your special evening.

Prabal Gurung Discovered

“When someone is that good, they don’t remain undiscovered for too long, ” was the general word being spread – expressed by Anne Slowey (Elle’s fashion news director) – at New York Fashion Week vis-à-vis Prabal Gurung’s debut collection. He may be a freshman, but that didn’t stop him making a statement at Chelsea’s Flag Art Foundation.

Gurung’s Background

Gurung has always been interested in fashion, being teased as a high school kid for his “style acumen and stacks of sketchbooks.” He worked in Australia, London and then New York, landing a position as the design director of Bill Blass (a classic American fashion house), before starting out on his own amidst a backdrop of a frail global economy.

It seems what has made Gurung stand out most has been his uniqueness in the fashion world, according to Colleen Sherin (Saks Fifth Avenue’s senior fashion director), who commented, “he wasn’t a derivative of someone else. He certainly got our attention.”

Gurung’s Famed Clients

Of course it helped Mr. Gurung that Hollywood actress Demi Moore tweeted a photo of herself in one of his cocktail dresses, urging her Twitter followers to “look out for fashion’s rising star.” And the President’s wife herself wore a “stunning red ruched number to the White House Correspondent’s dinner last May, a hot pink sheath on ‘Oprah’ in January and most recently a one-shouldered yellow gown to last month’s Governor’s Dinner.”

So if you want to stay hot in New York’s fashion world today, you might want to get yourself clad in a number from Prabal Gurung, having been described by Sherin as being “the whole package…a talented designer and lovely personality, too.” The message thus seems clear: to dress for success, go Gurung.