There are Broadway events, and then there are Broadway rituals. The Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction belongs firmly in the second category. On Sunday, September 27, the Theatre District once again turns itself inside out as casts, crews, producers, fans and collectors take over West 44th and West 45th Streets, Shubert Alley and Times Square for one of the industry’s most beloved annual traditions. This year carries an extra bit of history: the event celebrates its 40th anniversary.

What began four decades ago with two tables set up by members of A Chorus Line outside their stage door has grown into a full-scale Broadway bazaar, with more than 60 tables selling memorabilia, costumes, props, signed Playbills and the kind of wonderfully strange theatrical ephemera that becomes irresistible the moment someone tells you it was actually used backstage.

This year’s event runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., with the silent auction in Shubert Alley and the live Grand Auction beginning at 5 p.m. in the Times Square pedestrian plaza between 45th and 46th Streets. For those who do not want to wait until September 27, online pre-bidding is already open on more than 150 auction lots and continues through 2 p.m. on Friday, September 25, with additional items being added along the way.

These are not your average charity-auction offerings.

Among the experiences currently available is the opportunity to make a one-night-only walk-on appearance in & Juliet. Fans can bid for meet-and-greets with Rachel Zegler after Evita, Tom Felton after Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, or cast members from The Lost Boys and The Rocky Horror Show. Other experiences include shadowing a stage manager at Paranormal Activity or The Lion King, conducting a portion of the exit music at Wicked, sitting in the orchestra pit at Hamilton or The Lion King, and even dancing with Jeremy Jordan in Just in Time.

For the collector who wants something tangible, there are stage-used props, set pieces and costumes, including Jonathan Groff’s signed fedora and bow tie from Just in Time, Patrick Ball’s signed Birkenstocks from Becky Shaw, oversized chess pieces from Chess and pieces associated with Moulin Rouge!. Earlier announced lots have included signed props from George Clooney and Leslie Odom Jr., along with stage-worn heels signed by Audra McDonald.

The tables themselves are half the fun. Productions scheduled to participate this year include & Juliet, Aladdin, Hadestown, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Just in Time, The Lion King, Little Shop of Horrors, The Lost Boys, Maybe Happy Ending, Oh, Mary!, Operation Mincemeat, The Outsiders, Schmigadoon!, Six, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) and Wicked.

There will also be a Curtain Call table devoted to productions that have recently closed, including Death Becomes Her, Dog Day Afternoon and Titaníque. Theatre organizations including the Broadway League, the Dramatists Guild, Playbill, the Metropolitan Opera, the Shubert Organization and the Entertainment Community Fund will also have a presence.

The fan-favorite Autograph Table and Photo Booth will return as well, with participating stars to be announced closer to the event. Located on the deck of Junior’s in Shubert Alley, it has become one of the day’s most popular stops, giving fans the chance to meet Broadway performers while raising money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Beneath all the fun is the reason the day matters.

Last year’s Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction raised a record $1,633,803. Across its previous 39 editions, the event has raised more than $21 million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, supporting services including medication, meals, counseling, housing assistance and other critical resources for people living with HIV/AIDS and other serious illnesses.

There is something wonderfully appropriate about Broadway raising money this way. Theatre is filled with things that would look meaningless almost anywhere else: an old prop, a worn shoe, a page of sheet music, a costume piece, a signed scrap of scenery. Put it into the hands of someone who saw the show, loved the performer or remembers exactly where they were when they first heard the song, and suddenly it becomes treasure.

That is what the Broadway Flea Market has understood for 40 years.

On September 27, the Theatre District becomes one enormous backstage closet, reunion, marketplace and fundraiser.

Somewhere in Shubert Alley, the thing you never knew you desperately needed is almost certainly waiting for you.

Karen Floyd that’s who! The unstoppable founder of ELYSIAN magazine once again brought her tour de force to New York City.

Karen Floyd, a most generous soul

She and her team kicked off New York Fashion Week with the unique CATWALK FURBABY, an animal friendly fashion show, held on Tuesday, September 8th, 2026, at Sony Hall inside The Paramount Hotel in Times Square.

The evening brought together top designers, models, and rescue dogs for a greater good. Each designer was sponsored by a different animal rescue organization, in the hopes of bringing awareness and adoption to each and every animal.

Top designers like Bless by Bless teamed up with  BARC -CT  to walk the walk with the adoptable fur baby Emy.   Who doesn’t love bedazzled dogs and beautiful clothes?

The room was buzzing with socialites, fashion forward outfits and a gallery of photographers, popping off pictures to capture every moment. Influencers, content creators and a full press bench were full of anticipation for the event.

With the music pumping, the venue had immersive lighting set up that drew the crowd in.  The evening began with an imaginative and inspiration video of the Elysian Impact Fund.

The host Charlii Sebunya,  was so charmingly decked out in an animal print suit, pumped up the crowd. He called out some special people: Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin ,Carmel Fauci, Carol Alt, Jean Shafiroff.  Each person sharing their love and support to this cause, T2C offers up thunderous rounds of applause for all!

Lily in Anne Fontaine, photo @rebeccaleevyanne

Next onto the main event… the dogs!  They  strutted down with their models and designer duds, each pup with a personality all their own. Even though all the fashions were amazing, it was the dogs that stole the show.

Liberty, the beagle, from Bid Dog Ranch Rescue decked out in Anne Fountaine pearl and lace could not have been more precious.

Eliza, the powder puff from from Operation Kindess Humane Society Texas came out blazing in Marc Bower number.

The room was gobsmacked over Chanel the maltese,  from Wings of Rescue, in  D-Marsh Couture… stunning! Even a tiny kitten took a turn on the runway, drawing smiles and delighted “ahhhs” from the fashionmaxxing Crowd.

Emy in Bless by Bless

No bones about it, we were all winners in the company of such dedicated, creative and like-minded people. True to the spirit of Elysian, Karen Floyd and her team delivered an evening filled with joy and purpose.

The night was capped off with awards ceremony.

Here are the winners, congratulations and see you next year!

Event Honoree: The legendary New York Fashion Week founder Fern Mallis was celebrated as this year’s honoree.

Judges Award: NYC Second Chance Rescue, New York (see cover photo)
Designer: Victor De Souza
Models: Rachel Donohue and Paige Erekat
FurBaby: Hercules, the adorable mix

Eliza the powder puff Marc Bouwer

Publisher’s Award: Operation Kindness Humane Society, Texas
Designer: Marc Bouwer
Models: Sabrina Perleshi and Sophie Sumner
FurBaby: Eliza, the powderpuff

People’s Choice: Big Dog Ranch Rescue, Florida
Designer: Anne Fontaine
Model: Gia Firoozi
FurBaby: Liberty, the Beagle

Follow along on social media:
I: @readelysian F: @readelysian X/T: @readelysian
I: @Lawlormedia F: @Lawlormedia X/T: @Lawlormedia

Broadway and Off-Broadway are heading into fall with major stars, surprising crossovers, record-breaking runs and a few farewells. Julia Roberts is returning to Broadway after two decades, & Juliet has set its closing date, Billy Porter is about to sing about paying bills, Hamilton is heading to MetLife Stadium and Oh, Mary! is making the leap to HBO.

Julia Roberts, Paul Rudd and Sarah Paulson to Star in Small Mouth Sounds. Bess Wohl’s acclaimed Small Mouth Sounds will finally make its Broadway debut with the kind of cast that could sell tickets without saying a word—which is particularly appropriate for a play largely built around silence. Julia Roberts, Paul Rudd, Sarah Paulson, Martin Freeman, Greta Lee and Isaac Powell will star as six strangers attending a silent spiritual retreat, where their attempts at enlightenment inevitably collide with everything they brought with them. Joe Mantello directs, with previews beginning February 18, 2027, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre ahead of a March 18 opening. The production marks Roberts’ first Broadway appearance in more than 20 years and reunites her with Rudd and Mantello, with whom she worked on Three Days of Rain in 2006. It will also mark Freeman’s Broadway debut. Wohl, meanwhile, arrives with considerably more heat following Liberation, which won both the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play.

After More Than Four Years, & Juliet Will Say Goodbye to Broadway. The Max Martin-powered musical will play its final performance at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on January 3, 2027, ending a Broadway run that began previews in October 2022 and officially opened November 17 of that year. By closing night, & Juliet will have played 1,723 regular performances and 20 previews, placing it among the 50 longest-running Broadway musicals of all time. The David West Read musical, which imagines Juliet deciding that perhaps dying over Romeo isn’t the best life choice after all, has grossed more than $175 million on Broadway, welcomed more than 1.5 million audience members and recouped its investment in 2024. The production earned nine Tony nominations and has become an international franchise, proving that Shakespeare, Max Martin and an astonishing quantity of confetti made a surprisingly durable Broadway marriage.

Billy Porter, Billy Zane and Jessica Vosk Are Going to Broadway to Pay the Bills—Literally. In one of the stranger Broadway announcements of the season, Tony winner Billy Porter, Billy Zane and Jessica Vosk will headline Bill Pay The Musical, a one-night-only musical comedy at the Broadhurst Theatre on September 25. The fully staged production is being produced by financial technology company Ramp to promote its bill-payment platform, reviving the wonderfully peculiar mid-century tradition of the “industrial musical,” when corporations commissioned elaborate shows about everything from automobiles to appliances. Kevin Zak wrote the book, Jason Michael Snow provides music and lyrics, Keaton Wooden directs and Antoinette DiPietropolo choreographs, with Rema Webb among the additional cast. What sounds like an elaborate Broadway joke is apparently quite real—and with Porter, Vosk and Zane involved, paying invoices may never again seem quite so theatrical.

Taylor Mac and Matt Ray Bring Songs From Bark of Millions to the Delacorte. Taylor Mac and composer Matt Ray are bringing a special concert version of their epic rock-opera Bark of Millions to the revitalized Delacorte Theater September 18–20 as part of Joe’s Pub in the Park. The work, originally conceived as an enormous musical meditation on queer history and culture, becomes a two-hour Central Park concert featuring songs inspired by queer figures across generations. Mac provides lyrics and direction, Ray supplies music and musical direction, and performers include André De Shields, Heather Christian, Machine Dazzle, Mama Alto and members of the original company. The Public is offering both reserved donation seating and free day-of-performance tickets, making this three-night engagement an unusually expansive way to welcome audiences back to the Delacorte.

Broadway Meets the NFL as Hamilton Takes Over Halftime. Former Hamilton cast members will perform at halftime during the New York Giants’ season opener against the Dallas Cowboys today, September 13, at MetLife Stadium. Tony nominee Nicholas Christopher returns as Aaron Burr, joined by Mandy Gonzalez, Morgan Anita Wood and Candace Quarrels as the Schuyler sisters for a medley arranged by Hamilton musical mastermind Alex Lacamoire and Don P. Roberts. The Broadway performers will be joined by marching bands from Morgan State University and Penn State as well as percussionist Jaheim Lee. The game will also commemorate the 25th anniversary of September 11, honoring first responders, service members and 9/11 families, with members of the NYPD and FDNY performing the national anthem. It is an unusually New York collision of Broadway, football and remembrance—and certainly a halftime show unlike anything the Giants have staged before.

Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! Is Heading to HBO. Those who never managed to get into Oh, Mary! will finally have another way to see the theatrical phenomenon. A live capture of Cole Escola’s Tony-winning comedy will premiere on HBO and stream on HBO Max in 2027. Rather than filming the Broadway production, the performance was captured in July during the show’s West End engagement at London’s Trafalgar Theatre, with Escola once again playing their gloriously unhinged version of Mary Todd Lincoln. The filmed cast also includes Giles Terera, Bianca Leigh, Tony Macht and Michael Urie. What began as an Off-Broadway oddity became one of the most unlikely Broadway sensations in years; an HBO release now gives Escola’s wildly revisionist First Lady an audience far beyond Broadway and the West End.

Gina Torres

Gina Torres Is Joining Buena Vista Social Club. Suits star Gina Torres will return to Broadway this fall, stepping into the role of Omara Portuondo in the Tony-winning Buena Vista Social Club. Torres will appear at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre from October 13 through November 29 while Natalie Venetia Belcon takes a planned leave of absence to play Claudia in New York City Center’s gala presentation of In the Heights. Although Torres is best known to television audiences for Suits, Pearson and 9-1-1: Lone Star, Broadway isn’t foreign territory: her earlier credits include Face Valueand The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public. Her casting gives the already musically formidable Buena Vista Social Clubanother distinctive presence for its fall run.

Off-Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors Makes History. Feed it long enough and apparently Little Shop of Horrors will just keep growing. The hit revival at the Westside Theatre has surpassed the 2,210-performance run of the musical’s original 1982 Off-Broadway production, making the current staging the longest-running production of Little Shop in the show’s history. The revival began previews in September 2019 and opened the following month, survived the pandemic shutdown and resumed performances in September 2021. Its longevity has been helped by an ever-changing roster of performers stepping into Seymour and Audrey, turning the intimate revival into something of an Off-Broadway institution. More than four decades after Alan Menken and Howard Ashman unleashed Audrey II on New York, audiences apparently still haven’t learned the fundamental lesson: never feed the plant.

There are fashion shows that exist to sell a season, and then there are fashion shows that feel like the closing of a chapter. Malan Breton’s Spring/Summer 2027 collection, Le Jardin des Mille Demains—Garden of a Thousand Tomorrows—was both. Presented Sunday night at Sony Hall as the final show of Runway 7’s six-day New York Fashion Week program, the collection marked Breton’s farewell to the city before beginning his next chapter in Rome. After three decades in New York, he did not leave quietly. He left beautifully.

Getting to that beauty, however, required patience. The show was scheduled for 9 p.m., already a rather ambitious hour for the final presentation of a long Fashion Week day, but the runway did not actually begin until approximately an hour later. Before the clothes came commercials, followed by a beautifully conceived tap-dancing film that at least began to establish the theatrical world Breton wanted us to enter. Fashion Week and punctuality have never been particularly intimate friends, but by 10 p.m., even glamour needs to deliver.

Breton did.

What followed was one of those collections that reminds you of the difference between clothing and clothes that have actually been designed. Breton understands structure. He understands tailoring. Most importantly, he understands how construction can create movement rather than restrict it. His suits were beautifully cut and exquisitely controlled, but never stiff. Jackets followed the body, trousers lengthened it, and fringe repeatedly interrupted all that precision with motion. The result was discipline meeting sensuality.

I have been seeing a great deal of the tailored suit this Fashion Week, particularly the beautifully fitted jacket paired with the skinny cigarette pant, a silhouette I have already admitted I would happily steal directly from several runways. Breton offered another possibility. Alongside the narrower trouser came the flare, and it worked. The wider leg gave his tailoring a different kind of drama, creating movement below the severe architecture of the jacket. Rather than fighting the proportions, the flare elongated them. It was elegant, sophisticated and extraordinarily wearable.

Then there was the fringe. In lesser hands, fringe can become decoration looking for an excuse to move. Breton used it as part of the architecture of the clothes. It responded to the body, extending the movement of a garment beyond its seams and giving the runway a sense of continual flow. That may be the word that best describes the collection: flow. Even when the construction was rigorous, nothing looked labored.

This is where Breton excels. He has long built his vocabulary around bespoke tailoring, couture craftsmanship and theatrical presentation, and Runway 7 itself described this finale in terms of Savile Row tailoring, refined craftsmanship and international luxury.

Yet none of those descriptions quite captures what happened when the clothes were actually moving in front of you. They were polished without becoming precious, theatrical without becoming costume and luxurious without screaming about their luxury.

There were pieces I wanted. Not pieces I admired academically. Not pieces that made me think about construction while dutifully taking notes. Pieces I really, really wanted to wear. That is ultimately one of the highest compliments I can give a designer. Fashion can be conceptually brilliant, historically referential and impeccably constructed, but somewhere along the way somebody should still want to put the damn thing on.

The title Garden of a Thousand Tomorrows takes on considerably more meaning when you know Breton is leaving New York. His own story here began with almost nothing; Breton has said he arrived in the city with $60 and built a career that ultimately stretched across fashion, film, television, music and performance. Now Rome awaits. Suddenly the collection’s balance between structure and movement felt almost autobiographical: the tailoring represented everything mastered, while the movement suggested someone who isn’t finished going somewhere.

Because this was Fashion Week and apparently subtle exits were not on the evening’s agenda, the runway finale gave way to a performance by Crystal Waters. It was exactly the kind of celebrity flourish a closing-night show needs: after the long wait, the film, the tailoring, the fringe and the final walk, Waters turned the conclusion into a celebration. Breton wasn’t simply finishing a collection; Runway 7 was finishing its entire September season.

Baayork Lee, Linda Wood

The runway wasn’t the only place Breton’s clothes were being seen. In the front row, Broadway legend Baayork Lee, Linda Wood and philanthropist Jean Shafiroff arrived dressed in Malan Breton, creating their own elegant tableau before the collection ever began. It was a particularly fitting show of support on a night marking such an important transition for the designer: three distinctive New York women wearing Breton as they watched him present his final New York collection before his move to Rome.

Jean Shafiroff

The night may have started an hour late with commercials, but the clothes made a convincing argument for staying.

Malan Breton gave New York tailoring with swagger, movement with discipline and glamour that never lost sight of craftsmanship. Garden of a Thousand Tomorrows was a beautiful collection on its own. Knowing that it also represented a goodbye made it unexpectedly poignant.

New York gave Malan Breton three decades.

On Sunday night, he gave us one last beautiful walk down the runway before heading toward his next thousand tomorrows.

There are fashion shows that present clothes, and then there are fashion shows that create a world. At noon Friday, Victor de Souza did the latter, unveiling his Spring/Summer 2027 collection during New York Fashion Week at Arlo Midtown.

The Argentinian-born, New York-based designer has long occupied his own distinctive corner of fashion, working between haute couture and ready-to-wear with the kind of meticulous craftsmanship that has become increasingly rare. His philosophy, which he calls “Conscious Couture,” places emphasis on beauty, integrity, sustainability and longevity, with hand-detailed pieces and patterns designed and graded by de Souza himself.

Victor de Souza

But philosophy only matters on a runway if the clothes deliver. These did.

Watching the collection emerge felt as though we had stepped through a portal into an ancient French or English court—somewhere hovering between medieval romanticism and the mythical world of King Arthur—only to discover that everyone in the castle had been dressed by a thoroughly modern New York couturier.

There was something wonderfully androgynous about it. Masculine and feminine codes slipped into one another rather than competing for attention. The clothes weren’t interested in announcing who was permitted to wear what. Instead, de Souza concentrated on silhouette, texture, ornamentation and fantasy and the details were exquisite.

Feathers appeared alongside fur-like textures and jewels. Fabrics and surfaces could appear distressed and almost ravaged, yet the garments themselves were extraordinarily finished. That contradiction gave the collection much of its strength: nothing looked overly precious, despite the obvious amount of labor involved in creating it.

The palette reinforced that sense of modern royalty. Black, white and navy provided the foundation, punctuated by deep jewel tones that seemed particularly suited to de Souza’s courtly vision. Rather than becoming costume, however, the clothes retained enough contemporary attitude to keep them firmly on a New York runway.

That distinction matters. Historical references can easily overwhelm a collection until the woman or man wearing the garment disappears beneath the concept. De Souza understands that fantasy works best when it remains fashion.

Even the shoes were part of the story. Rather than sending models down the runway in footwear that merely completed the styling, de Souza carried his vocabulary all the way to the ground. Shoes were embellished with feathers, jewels and paint, extending the workmanship of the garments into the smallest details. The effect was one of totality. Nothing felt as though it had been grabbed at the last moment simply because the model needed something on their feet.

That degree of finish is central to de Souza’s work. His brand describes its approach as one rooted in traditional couture craftsmanship, using high-quality materials, hand detailing and thoughtful production intended to minimize waste while creating pieces meant to endure.

Interestingly, the announced inspiration for Spring/Summer 2027 was New York itself: its romance and grit, glamour and street culture, beauty and visual chaos. Yet what appeared on the runway suggested something more imaginative than a literal portrait of the city. Perhaps that is precisely the point.

New York has always been a place where people arrive carrying pieces of other countries, other centuries and other versions of themselves, then remake all of it into something that could exist nowhere else. De Souza took the opulence of another age, disturbed it, distressed it, stripped away some of its gender rules and reconstructed it through the eyes of a New York designer.

The result was theatrical without becoming theatre, ornate without becoming fussy and historical without feeling trapped in history.

Most importantly, it was simply beautiful to watch.

During a Fashion Week increasingly filled with events determined to become spectacles, Victor de Souza reminded us that spectacle can still come from the clothes themselves.

And when the last model leaves the runway, that is what fashion is supposed to make us remember.