Fashion Week was always intended to be an insiders party, but Victoria’s Secret took the cliquey cool-girls’ vibe to heart with its Phi Beta Pink Sorority House, an invite-only preview for fashion editors at the former Pier 1 store on Fifth Avenue, just steps away from the Bryant Park tents.

Sara Tervo, vice president of public relations for the company’s Pink brand, worked with Relevent’s Tony Berger and Alison Brod Public Relations (the same team that handled the recent Pink Pajama Party in Hudson River Park) to design and produce the event. “What we wanted to do was showcase our Pink fall and holiday collection to the fashion press,” Tervo said. “The Pink customer is fashionable and wants to be part of the in-crowd, and these events help [position] the brand that way.”

Indeed, the young, sporty line, which debuted in 2004, is well-suited to the sorority house theme. To set the mood from the very beginning, oversize paddle-shaped invites went out addressed to “pledges.” Once at the event, guests walked into a 3,000-square-foot raw space made over as a sorority house complete with a kitchen, living room areas, and three bedrooms that displayed different personality types: rocker girl, girly girl, and sporty girl.

Victoria’s Secret provided Relevent with loads of branded clothing, bedding, and collegiate-inspired signage that helped set the scene. Rowing oars decorated one wall; a composite photo of the faux sorority’s members hung over the fireplace. Bubblegum-pink carpet covered the floors, and walls were pink and white. Bright pink arrangements of flowers, including hydrangeas and roses, dotted the space. Bedrooms contained closets stuffed with Pink clothing, of course. In the kitchen area, Match Catering provided coed-appropriate munchies like Pop Tarts, dry cereal, and candy, as well as hors d’oeuvres.

“The impetus was to bring the different lines together in a creative way,” Berger said. “The greatest challenge was taking a raw, vacant space and building it out so it fit the brand’s image in a cost-effective way.” Another challenge was providing the outside signage that the company requested; it took much wrangling to receive a 24-hour permit from the building’s owners to put the Greek letters for Phi and Beta, along with “Pink,” on the outside of the space.

In keeping with the Greek theme was an evening keg party for 250 fashion editors, V.I.P.s, and New York notables, with chips, pretzels, 10 kegs of Budweiser, and funnels (for doing beer bongs, naturally) branded with Pink’s signature dog. Luckily, there were no reports of panty raids by guys from, say, an Abercrombie & Fitch fraternity.

—Erika Rasmusson Janes

Posted 09.13.06

Photos: Jeff Thomas/Image Capture (living room, models, signage)

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