Can You Squeeze In One More?

Getting a front-row seat during New York Fashion Week offers attendees the chance to be photographed by paparazzi before the show begins, to actually see the clothes on the models as they strut by, and to exchange a self-congratulatory glance with Anna Wintour (even if that glance goes unacknowledged by the Vogue editor).

But is it worth starting a brawl over? Last September, just before the designer Zac Posen was to show his spring 2013 collection at Avery Fisher Hall, a public relations executive working the show said fire marshals had ordered more than 60 seats removed from the space as a safety precaution. She quickly began moving some attendees from their front-row spots. Some grumbled about the change of location as they moved to their new, less prestigious seats — but not the executive of a French publishing house and her two companions. The three refused to give up their front-row spots, with one of them reportedly slapping the public relations executive, who insisted that they move.