This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

Last week I was at the Brooklyn Navy Yard (where WWII battleships were once manufactured) to check out Beta Space, a precursor to New Lab, an advanced manufacturing hub and high-tech design + prototyping center slated to open in 2015. It'll anchor a 220,000 sq ft Green Manufacturing Center (backed by $46 million from the city and state). With MakerBot cranking out 3D printers in downtown Brooklyn and Shapeways building the Factory of the Future in Queens, it feels like a new kind of manufacturing renaissance is under way in our city. Exciting times!

Also at the Yard is Steiner Studios (the largest sound stage on the east coast). Last week at NY Ideas, NYC Film Commissioner Katherine Oliver commented on how increasingly more shows were being shot in the city, apparently including a series set in Chicago.

Don't miss Funding the Best in Global Innovation III this Thursday. Showcasing some of the best international startups, including Israel's Zimperium (voted #1 in Israel in 2013), Finland's CrowdValley (a leading crowdfunding platform) and France's Augment (the top augmented reality platform in Europe). Keynote by Divya Narendra (Co-founder & CEO, SumZero). FYI, I have 2 Free Passes to the event.

Want a free Apple TV? Duh, who doesn't? Thats what the good folks at the upcoming Vision conference are promising. And you get to learn about secure mobility, cloud solutions and collaboration. Did I mention the event is free? That's a win-win, people!

This week (May 10-21) is the inaugural NYCxDesign Week, with a ton of events that will showcase and promote design across all disciplines. Nice!

Tix for the Webutante Ball (aka the REAL #nerdprom!) are selling like hot cakes! But you, lucky GarysGuide reader, get $15 off with discount code GARY15. You're welcome.

Are you excited about the first evah Book Publishing hackathon this Saturday? I know I am! $10k in prizes AND a chance to pitch to Ari Emmanuel, CEO of William Morris and also the real life inspiration for Entourage's Ari Gold. Just don't ask him to hug it out.

Don't forget: the deadline for the NYC SeedStart Accelerator Summer 2013 program is May 13 and the deadline for the Enstitute program is May 15.

Coming up next week on May 20 is a unique, interactive evening celebrating 15 years of M.O.U.S.E. (a national ed-tech nonprofit empowering underserved youth to learn and create with technology). Being honored at the event are my buddy Bre Pettis (Co-Founder & CEO, MakerBot) and Joanne Wilson (Angel Investor and Advocate, Best Buy Children's Foundation). I'll be there. Hope you can make it too.

Also coming up ... Amusemi's Summer Tech Picnic on May 19, User Experience Awards on May 21, Mobile UX in Complex Business Models on May 23 (w/ David Fine, Director UX @ Time Inc and Tim Reis, Head of Mobile & Social Solutions @ Google) and AngelHack (a.k.a. The Largest Global Hackathon Competition) on June 1.

A historic moment recently as the spire is placed on the World Trade Center, which, now at 1,776 feet, is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. Nice! Even more awesome? We might FINALLY be getting WiFi in the subway trains. Sahhweet!

And finally, here's Commander Chris Hadfield performing David Bowie's Space Oddity on board the International Space Station.

And now lets see whats going down in the Alley this week...

AppNexus Speaker Series
With Howard Lerman (CEO, Yext) and Brian O'Kelley (CEO AppNexus)
Monday (May 13), 6 p.m. @ AppNexus, 28 W 23rd St, 4th Fl

Discussion Series: The Founders & Funders Dilemma
With Elizabeth Canon (Fashions Collective), Lilly Chan (Fareskind), Sindhya Valloppillil (Helix Men), Nikhil Kalghatgi (Softbank Capital) and Jacob Brody (Mesa+ Ventures).
Monday (May 13), 6 p.m. @ Lim College, 12 E 53rd St

General Assembly Fireside Chat
Gary Swart (oDesk) in conversation with Dan Schawbel (Millennial Branding)
Monday (May 13), 7 p.m. @ General Assembly East, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl

Facebook and Girls In Tech Present: Lessons Learned and Overcoming Our Mistakes
With Goranka Bjedov (Software Engineer, Facebook), Bethany Sumner (Engineer, Kickstarter), Nikki Stevens (Director of Engg, Refinery29), Catherine Hui (Head of Technology, Bloomberg Tradebook Equity Group) and Amanda Stent (AT&T Labs research).
Tuesday (May 14), 6:30 p.m. @ Facebook HQ, 335 Madison Ave, 17th Fl

Evolving Design Communities
With Dan Cederholm & Rich Thornett (Co-founders, Dribbble), Ignacio Oreamuno (Exec Director, Art Directors Club) and Matias Corea (Co-founder & Chief of Design, Behance).
Tuesday (May 14), 7 p.m. @ Huge BK, 45 Main St, Ste 220, Brooklyn

[NYCxDesign] Designer Founders in Tech
Featured panelists are Enrique Allen (Founding member, The Designer Fund & 500 Startups and previously at Facebook Fund & Venrock), Cameron Koczon (Founder, Fictive Kin and Organizer, BrooklynBeta) and Dayna Grayson (Investor, NEA).
Wednesday (May 15), 5 p.m. @ NEA Studio, 110 5th Ave

Fashion 2.0: Retail & Big Data
With Amy Jain (Co-founder, BaubleBar), Elyse Estrada (Manager Client Services, Foursquare), Florent Peyre (Co-Founder, Placemeter), Jared Schiffman (Founder, Perch Interactive) and moderated by Elizabeth Holmes (Wall St Journal)
Wednesday (May 15), 6 p.m. @ Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave

NJ Tech Meetup 36 with Scott Belsky
With Scott Belsky (Co-founder of Behance which was acquired by Adobe). Demos by Sproute, Howndog and DJPlayerApp.
Wednesday (May 15), 6:30 p.m. @ Howe Center, Stevens Institute of Technology, 4th Fl, Hoboken

Entrepreneurs Roundtable 58
With Peter Stern (CEO of Bit.ly and Founder of Datek Online, Zenbe)
Wednesday (May 15), 6:30 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 6th Ave, 6th Fl

Meet The Innovators: The Venture Capitalists
With Joy Marcus (DFJ Gotham), Donna Novitsky, (CEO, Yiftee), Jeanne Sullivan (Starvest Partners), Kathleen Utecht (Comcast Ventures) and Ellie Wheeler (Greycroft Partners).
Wednesday (May 15), 7 p.m. @ Apple Store SoHo, 103 Prince St

Funding the Best in Global Innovation III
With David Aronoff (Flybridge Capital), Brad Svrluga (High Peaks Venture Partners), Ann Li (NYCEDC), Eliot Durbin (BOLDStart Ventures), Jalak Jobanputra (FuturePerfect Ventures), Andrew Cleland (Comcast Ventures) and others.
Thursday (May 16), 8:30 a.m. @ Dentons, 1221 Ave of the Americas

NYC BigApps + Huge App Design Night
With Jared Coken (Fitocracy), Ian Curry (Paper App), Jon Huang (NY Times), Justin Van Slembrouck (Digg), Michal Pasternak (Huge), Ian Spalter (Foursquare) and Khoi Vinh (Mixel).
Thursday (May 16), 6:30 p.m. @ Foursquare, 108 Crosby St

NYC Uncubed Spring 2013
Friday (May 17), 1:30 p.m. @ Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 W 18th St

First Ever Book Publishing Hackathon!
Win $10,000 AND get to pitch the Ari Emmanuel, CEO of William Morris and also the real life inspiration for Entourage's Ari Gold! :)
Saturday (May 18), 9 a.m. @ AlleyNYC, 500 7th Ave, 17th Fl

NYC Tech Picnic
Enjoy the outdoors with your fellow geeks and entrepreneurs. Join us for the 2013 picnic kick off!
Sunday (May 19), 2 p.m. @ Chelsea Piers, Pier 64, 64 Chelsea Piers

More events on the horizon...
MOUSE@15: Celebrating 15 Years of Inspiring Innovators on May 20 @ The Pier 61, Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers
New York Crowdfunds 2 on May 20 @ WeWork Lounge
Vision 2013 Tri-State IT Conference & Expo (hosted by PCM) on May 21 @ Hilton Woodbridge
User Experience Awards 2013 on May 21 @ Tishman Auditorium
NYC BigApps Cleanweb: Is IT the Secret to a New Energy Future? on May 22 @ The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC
Opportunities for Mobile UX in Complex Business Models on May 23 @ Venue
dd:IMPACT Groundswell: The Next Wave of Content on May 30 @ Galapagos Art Space
AngelHack NYC - Spring 2013 on Jun 01 @ Huge Inc
F.A.T. Session 2: Sales/Use Taxation for 21st Century Commerce on Jun 11 @ Marks Paneth & Shron

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

Simon Doonan, Justin Livingston (Photo: Dustin Wayne Harris/PatrickMcMullan.com)

The invitation for the fourth annual Fashion 2.0 Awards—organized by the Style Coalition to honor “innovative fashion brands”—read “black tie suggested,” although the crowd at last Wednesday’s event at the SVA Theater seemed to interpret that with a little leeway.

Day-to-night ensembles mixed with full-fledged formal gowns. A statuesque young woman slipped by with pearls draped across her neck and a Forever 21 tag peeking out of her dress’s sheer overlay. Another towering belle confessed to a terror of earrings (something about how she can’t help but imagine them being yanked out).

Edging into a scrum in the lobby, the Transom found our way next to the evening’s keynote speaker, Barney’s New York creative ambassador at large (and former Observer columnist) Simon Doonan. The diminutive Mr. Doonan flashed in the dark lobby, wearing a metallic electric blue coat. A young woman turned and asked us to snap an iPhone photo; we took the pic and then took the opening.

“I never thought people would buy things online,” said Mr. Doonan, addressing the confluence of fashion and technology. “How wrong was I about that? So I’m not a visionary.”

And not a convert, either, it turned out. Mr. Doonan confessed that while he’s happy to buy certain items online, like sneakers or underwear—“replenishment things,” as he put it—he’s still not fully sold on the idea.

“This?” Mr. Doonan gestured to his statement coat. “This I would never have bought online. You have to try it on.”

Another woman pounced. “I love this jacket. I want to take a picture with you too. Do you mind?” she said, handing the Transom her smartphone. Mr. Doonan smiled for the camera and then headed off to his seat as the M.C. for the evening, Robert Verdi, took the stage, greeting all the various types he suspected were in attendance:

“Pimps, prostitutes, perverts, hustlers, hookers, superstars, wannabes, celebrities, incognito celebrities, insecure celebrities, celebrity handlers, unemployed people, lovers, losers, authors, entrepreneurs, wannabes, writers, dwarfs—hi, Simon!—weirdos, queers, gossipers, do-gooders, chic people, weak people, therapists—just saying!—douchebags, socialites, bloggers, tweeters, social media leaders and social climbers.”

Mr. Verdi then added that a stud had just fallen off his $2,000 shoes, and this was only the second time he’d worn them. “Can you guys all tweet the Louboutin people?” he pleaded.

As for the honors, the award for Best Pinterest went to Anthropologie, naturally. Best Twitter went to @DKNY for the fourth year running. And the award for Best Mobile App went to Gilt on the Go, which was accepted by a nattily attired mobile VP named Yonatan Feldman.

DVF took home Best Online Video for its collaboration with Google Glass (which is practically cheating), thereby earning Google co-founder Sergey Brin what must have been his first-ever shout-out in such glittering company.

Each petite trophy was presented by a pair of Style Coalition bloggers decked out in borrowed Rent the Runway attire. And coincidentally or not, Rent the Runway co-founders Jenny Fleiss and Jennifer Hyman picked up a Visionary Award.

“Thank you all so much for this incredible honor,” said Ms. Fleiss. “We’re going to let ourselves believe it has nothing to do with them all wanting to wear Rent the Runway dresses tonight. But if it was, that’s okay, too.”

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

So you all probably know about the High Line. But have you heard about the LowLine? Cofounders Dan Barasch and James Ramsey are aiming to convert an abandoned trolley terminal beneath Delancey Street into an extraordinary subterranean public park. That's right--it's an economic revitalization opportunity.

But it's more than that. It also represents cutting-edge design and a new generation of green technology and  lies at the heart of a broader global discussion about the potential of remnant urban infrastructure and the need for cities to reinvent the meaning of space--above and below ground.

So go check it out, get involved and if you're living it up in the Hamptons these days, make it out to their Cocktail Fundraiser at Water Mill on August 4, organized by Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital and others.

Don't forget to sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom, either--that is, if you haven't already done so. It's being signed by all of us folks who believe that a free and open Internet can bring about a better world!

And now let's see whats going down in the Alley this week...

BarTech: Retro Computer Show & Mixer!
Where else will you be able to play with the first "portable" (or luggable, anyway) computer, the PONG home gaming system and floppy disks that are bigger than your head!
Monday (July 23), 6 p.m. @ Alley NYC, 500 Seventh Avenue, 17th Floor

MakeIt NYC July Maker Show-And-Tell
Featured guest are Bitbanger Labs, the creators of Remee, a user-programmable lucid dreaming mask. Yes, you heard me right.
Tuesday (July 24), 7 p.m. @ Houston Street Center, 273 Bowery

Google NYC Tech Talks: The Distributed Camera: Modeling the World from Online Photos with Noah Snavely
We live in a world of ubiquitous imagery. The number of images at our fingertips is growing at a seemingly exponential rate. Taken together, these billions and billions of images can be thought of as constituting a distributed camera. Want to learn more?
Wednesday (July 25), 5:30 p.m. @ Google NYC, 111 8th Avenue

Fashion 2.0: The Future of Digital Publishing
With Simone Oliver (Fashion Editor, New York Times), Melanie Schnuriger (GM, fashion & beauty digital media, Hearst Magazines), Matt Edelman (CEO, Glossi.com) and Jake Levine (GM, Digg).
Wednesday (July 25), 6 p.m. @ Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue

DreamIt NYC Tech Olympics sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank
Competitions will include: ping-pong, foosball, soccer shootout, air races and rock paper scissors. Prizes and medals will be awarded! There will be plenty of beer, snacks, fine conversation, and very little bloodshed.
Wednesday (July 25), 6:30 p.m. @ DreamIt Ventures NYC, 330 W. 38th Street, Suite 300

SMASH Summit with 500 Startups, Fred Wilson, & More
Learn how to hack and dominate customer acquisition. Covering new “hack-tics” & strategies for Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and more.
Thursday (July 26), 9:30 a.m. @ Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1605 Broadway

Social Retail Summit Summer 2012
With Ashley Heather (cofounder & CEO, Dotbox), David Goldberg (president, StyleCaster), Fatma Yalcin (cofounder & CEO, Curisma), David Fudge (director of consumer engagement, Bonobos), Mark Curtis (founder, Enter:New Media). Moderated by Liza Kindred (Third Wave Fashion).
Thursday (July 26), 3 p.m. @ The Dumbo Spot, 160 Water Street, Brooklyn

Digital DUMBO July
A celebration of the city's innovation spaces.
Thursday (July 26), 6:30 p.m. @ Dumbo Loft, 155 Water Street, Brooklyn

Queens Tech Meetup 2
With Skillshare, OKFocus, Aereo and Brooklyn Bridge Ventures.
Thursday (July 26), 7 p.m. @ Hunter's Point Plaza, 47-40 21st Street, 10th Floor, Long Island City

Inside Startups Club, Featuring Fitocracy, Sonar, and Vimbly
Featuring speakers Richard Talens (cofounder & CTO, Fitocracy), Jared Cocken (chief product officer, Fitocracy), Brett Martin (founder & CEO, Sonar), and Sam Lundin (founder & CEO, Vimbly).
Thursday (July 26), 7 p.m. @ OMGPOP / Zynga NY Office, 166 Crosby Street, 11th Floor

More events on the horizon...
CrowdFunding Conference on Jul 30 @ NY Hilton
Inside BizDev: How Ad Agencies Can Make Big Brands Love You on Jul 30 @ General Assembly
UWS Startup Breakfast on Jul 31 @ Aroma Espresso Bar
Social Curation Summit on Jul 31 @ New Yorker Hotel
August NY FinTech Startups Meetup feat. Second Market on Aug 01 @ Day Pitney Law Offices
eCommerce Hack Day 2012 on Aug 04 @ Alley NYC
Design for Manufacturing Summit on Sep 20 @ Dumbo Spot

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

So long and thanks for all the handbags.

New York-based ToVieFor, a members-only auction site for women's luxury goods, has closed up shop after about a year of building the business followed by a spring at TechStars. The site is shuttered, the Twitter account is down, Tumblr is quiet, and co-founder Melanie Moore changed her LinkedIn profile to the past tense. "On the surface, we shut down because we ran out of money," Ms. Moore said. "However, the root cause of this was a flawed business model. We were attempting to compete solely on price in a world where brands not only do not compete on price, they have essentially formed an oligopoly and set prices (vs take prices). As a result, it was incredibly difficult to convince brands to allow us to change up their pricing structure. And in retail, having those brand partnerships is critical to survival."

At the beginning, ToVieFor had incredible momentum. The startup won the $75,000 grand prize at NYU's Stern School business plan competition, debuted at TechCrunch Disrupt and went on to make the cut into the first TechStars NY class that ended April 15. When they applied for TechStars, ToVieFor had revenue, 5,000 users and a four-person team with 15 years of collective industry experience; they were also filling out their board with fashion insiders, including an editor at Gotham magazine and a finance executive with Burberry.com, according to the New York Times, which reported that "the company’s live presentation, said one judge at Stern’s finals this year, Paul Sciabica, executive director of New York Angels, was 'investment-bank quality.'"

The audience at the TechStars demo day seemed pumped about ToVieFor. It was targeting an industry with a lot of money and Ms. Moore put on a poised presentation ("It's eBay done right"). But of the total $237,000 raised, which included $12,000 from TechStars, $20,000 from the founders and $130,000 from angel investors, Ms. Moore said, none of the funding came after demo day.

During TechStars, ToVieFor tried to adapt to be more like a typical, full-price retailer. "This satisfied the brands, and we began to establish partnerships with designers in the luxury category," she wrote in an email. "But as a result of this change, we lost our competitive edge in the marketplace. We were then going head-to-head with retailers like Net-a-Porter and Shopbop, with no real competitive advantage over these businesses."

Betabeat asked if she had any regrets. "Nope. Everything that happened, for better or worse, is a lesson I can now take with me to my next company," she said.

It sounds like there were several lessons to be learned in the company's whirlwind journey from contest winners to startup darlings. "Throughout the program, it became clear that the business ToVieFor was pursuing had a significant amount of business challenges," TechStarsNY director David Tisch said in an email. "There were questions around the game layer, how to get brands on board, and the competitive differentiation in acquiring customers. There were also some significant team challenges."

Co-founder Susanne Greenfield left the company before TechStars started. Co-founder and CTO Eric Jennings left for Singly about a month after TechStars ended, when ToVieFor was struggling to get funding. About three weeks later, Ms. Moore decided to shut the company down.

"I am incredibly proud of how mature Melanie was in the decision to shut down ToVieFor," Mr. Tisch said. "It was the right decision for where she was at. I am excited to see what she does next."

Ms. Moore isn't sure what her next step is yet, she told Betabeat in an email. But she's evaluating two opportunities at the moment and plans to speak more publicly about her experience at ToVieFor and her take on the fashion industry in the next couple months.

Ms. Moore recently wrote some of her thoughts on the fashion 2.0 space in a blog post called, "Building a Fashion Company on the Internet? Please Stop. Just Stop. And Read This," about the tendency of investors and web entrepreneurs to overemphasize "discoverability" when the real business opportunities are closer to the supply chain.

"Fashion 2.0 is really not that much different than Fashion 1.0," she wrote. "In order to win, one must focus intently on building a better product that solves a real problem--you know, just like every other successful business in the world."