New York Fashion Week is associated with upscale, glamorous places like Bryant Park and Lincoln Center. But this year, the event is turning over a new leaf by centering around what used to be one of the city's most mundane structures: the Post Office.
That's right — after years of acting as the cooler, more offbeat alternative to Lincoln Center and Bryant Park, the James A. Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue and 31st Street is now officially New York Fashion Week's central hub.
That means what while the most discerning style icons in the world are shuffling in and out the back doors on their way to fashion shows, the rest of the city will be using the front of the building to mail packages.
Here's how the massive structure across the street from Penn Station went from communication hub to fashion mecca.
Then known as the New Post Office, the James A. Farley Post Office was built from 1910 to 1913 at a cost of $5.275 million.
The architecture firm McKim, Mead & White built it as a companion to the original New York Penn Station, which was originally built in 1910 and demolished in 1963.
The Post Office was open 365 days a year until 1990, when the mail business started to dwindle. Now, most of the actual letter-mailing action is confined to the building's front entryway.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
NOW WATCH: 'Zoolander 2' has an epically funny trailer
