As techno music blasted, one teenager after another stopped to pose for cameras in a cordoned-off area of Gansevoort Plaza in the meatpacking district. Upon their return to a tented area, they exchanged hugs and high fives with their fellow models. After all, wasn’t New York Fashion Week not until September? And why was the audience cheering with the kind of abandon typical of parents at a graduation ceremony? As it happened, the event that took place last Wednesday evening was a graduation ceremony of sorts: This was the annual runway show for the senior class of the High School of Fashion Industries, the only trade-based public school in New York City dedicated to fashion.

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Persons: Pastis Organizations: wasn’t New York, High School of Fashion Industries Locations: Lower Manhattan, Gansevoort, meatpacking, New York City