CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Celebrating Dee Ocleppo on her new handbag line, Deesigns, for HSN, at the lovely home she shares with husband Tommy Hilfiger. We shared childhood memories of owning Bermuda bags, the ones that inspired her collection. She looked at me and said, “Oh, you totally get it!”; with Bettina Zilkha and Allison Aston toasting John Demsey and Alina Cho at their Pisces Party; with Stephanie Winston Wolkoff celebrating our mutual friends Stefani Greenfield and Desiree Gruber at their Theodora & Callum trunk show; with Rachel Zoe in the Hamptons. She had just given birth to her son, Skyler, and we talked about the wonders of being a new mother

There are very few times when New Yorkers are solely focused on one event. Fashion Week is one of those rare moments. The calendar of runway shows and oodles of fabulous parties bring together fashion editors and design aficionados from around the world and join the city in a sense of togetherness. Going to the shows, first at Bryant Park and now at Lincoln Center, has been a central focus of my career for more than a decade. This fashion week, however, will be extraordinarily special for me, as it is the first for which Gotham will be under the tents. So it was with extra excitement that we embarked on this issue, including a breathtaking journey through Lincoln Center’s labyrinth of buildings with model Chanel Iman.

With every turn of the page, you will learn more about fashion through a variety of lenses—power, potential, philanthropy, and passion, all of which are evident in Arianna Huffington’s interview with Sandra Lee.

Inside we also see many of New York’s most powerful couples, dressed and ready for a Valentine’s Day celebration, one of which is Stephanie Winston Wolkoff and her husband, David. Stephanie and I worked together at Vogue; I edited accessories, she planned fantastic events such as The Met Costume Institute Gala. Today she is Lincoln Center’s fashion director and a fabulous friend to me. I am thankful for the wonderful relationship I have with each of our couples—Allison and Howard Lutnick, Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler, Somers and Jonathan Farkas, Tommy Hilfiger and Dee Ocleppo, Geoffrey and Margaret Zakarian, and Jamee and Peter Gregory. All are powerful individuals, but it is their partnerships that make them invincible.

New Yorkers are tough, but the ones who really understand what it means to survive here know that working together is far more powerful than going it alone.

SAMANTHA YANKS

Follow me on Twitter at @samanthayanks

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TANYASALAZAR.COM (HILFIGER); PATRICK MCMULLAN/PATRICKMCMULLAN.COM (ZILKHA)