Fall '08 New York Fashion Week Day 6: The Big Gift Bag Arrives

The tents seems so quiet first thing in the morning with those Lord & Taylor bags filling the empty fountain with their sunny insides. The best thing about this display is that anyone overladen with gift bags can grab a big shopping bag and consolidate. Of course, some shows have a gift bag for everyone. Some have none at all, and some limit them to the first few rows in a rude emphasis of the pecking order that is already made so pronounced at fashion shows. Some even have a special deluxe gift bag for the front row only and contents diminish as they go further back. The main rule is that no matter what they contain, you always want one regardless of how useful its contents can ever be to you. After all, free stuff is good stuff.
Wednesday marked the debut of the big IMG Press gift bag, filled with freebies from sponsors and distributed only to holders of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week press passes (that would be us)
Since sponsors give this stuff away in hopes of publicity, we will list the contents for you, although we have little opinion regarding the quality of the various items. One thing we can say is that the contents are compiled with the assumption that the recipient is a woman, which, obviously,is not the case here.
This season, it's a large, navy nylon zippered tote sponsored by YKK, the zipper manufacturer including , naturally, several zippered pockets. Inside:

1 500 ml bottle of Honest Tea Organic Heavenly Honey Green Tea.
February 2008 issue of Travel & Leisure magazine.
1 50 ml Evian facial spray
1 Vibrant Rioja wine bottle re-corker and a corkscrew
1 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week blank spiral notebook
Judith Ripka $250 gift certificate (with many, many restrictions)
Invitation to Iqons magazine launch party...which happened 3 days ago.
1 yellow DHL ladies tee-shirt size M.
50 ml bottle of Imperia Vodka
1 mini decorated orb bottle of Chambord liqueur (to add to our collection from last season...and the season before)
1 YKK zipper...cell phone charm?
Bawls caffeine guarana mints
1 Peroni bottle opener
Samples of The Good Home Co. hand & body creams in Lavender and Beach Days.
3 o.b. tampons (really. tampons.)
1 6 oz. tube of Strivectin-SD Intensive Concentrate for Existing Stretch Marks.
1 30 ml Boots no. 7 Restore & Renew Beauty Serum
1 5ml Bliss "The Youth As We Know It" anti-aging concentrate.
1 MAC make-up bag containing:

No. 227 make-up brush
Liquidlast eyeliner in Brassbeat
Plushglass lip gloss in Angel Cream

And that is the gift bag that you will se weary fashion show goers schlepping around for the rest of the week. We must say, as always, some of the contents are useless to us, but they're free and they 're ours.