This Friday Jamaica joins the global “Fashion’s Night Out” (FNO) to raise awareness of fashion labels and retailers.

FNO started last year as a New York-based promotion (sponsored by Vogue and the Council of Fashion Designers of America) during New York’s Fashion Week and is this year including thousands of retailers around the world.  Stores around the world will stay open late for “the single largest shopping event of the year.”  The stores will be luring us shoppers into their stores with (hopefully huge) promotions and discounts.

According to their facebook page, FNO  is “an unprecedented global initiative created to celebrate fashion, restore consumer confidence, boost the industry’s economy, and put the fun back in shopping.

For one night last September, in New York City and twelve other cities around the world, designers, celebrities, models, and fashion editors staged exciting, one-of-a-kind events in stores open after-hours to the public. Shoppers were able to see Sarah Jessica Parker singing standards with Oscar de la Renta, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen tending bar, as well as Michael Kors, Justin Timberlake, Kate Hudson, Rihanna and Gwen Stefani (just to name a few) at various stores throughout NYC supporting the industry. Retailers saw a surge of new shoppers and increased sales, while customers relished the street-party atmosphere”.

Other countries participating in FNO 2010 include Australia, Britain, China, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, and Turkey and of course JAMAICA!

In the US, a percentage of the sales from the Fashion’s Night Out T-shirt will be donated to the New York City AIDS Fund.  I hope the organizers here are doing something similar.

For more information visit fashionsnightout.com.