Megan Singleton laces up and takes a look at the world's premier marathons worth making the trip for.

As New York City's three-term Mayor, multi-billionaire Michael Bloomberg, reaches the twilight of his 12-year reign over the Big Apple, the fight to fill his shoes entered a nail-biting phase this week.

Life in lower Manhattan resembled any ordinary day as workers rushed to their jobs in the muggy heat, but time stood still at the World Trade Center site while families wept for loved ones who perished in the terror attacks 12 years ago.

The mayor who has helped orchestrate the 9/11 observances from their start will be watching for his last time in office. And saying nothing.

Military touches are shorthand in high fashion for strength and confidence. Gurung added some exclamation points, specifically citing as his muse a woman in combat. There has been much in the news - and Gurung is a newshound - about the Pentagon's decision to open more on-the-ground options to women and also technological advances in women's body armour. "They're redesigning the whole uniform for women because all this while they've been wearing men's uniform,'' he said backstage. That led Gurung to think about women's empowerment, all the way to women he read about from the Ukraine who are coming together in self-defence against human trafficking. There were smart jackets with gold hardware and some with red-and-black brocades, crisp navy suits, and leather harnesses over stretch-crepe dresses with sexy slashes on the bodice and asymmetric peplums and hemlines. There had to be a little femininity mixed in with the aggressiveness, Gurung explained, because it's femininity that gives women their best tool "to rule a man's world.''

It was that easy: Stuart woke up one day thinking about how stylish British model Stella Tennant and her friends were, so Stuart thought she would create a wardrobe just for them. She aimed to dress an aristocratic fashion risk-taker for all those parties at castles in the English countryside. "I was thinking about the beautiful dinners and the charades she and her friends play, and the great performances they see at the end of the night,'' Stuart said backstage. Her offerings include a plum-coloured halter dress covered in satin flowers, a more tailored dress in black wool with more sharply cut flowers, and a white sheer man-tailored shirt paired with black evening shorts and a full-cut long black coat.

Miller's collection was called "Menswear With a Twist: Raiding the Boyfriend's Closet.'' It was the good girl meets bad boy, packing a wardrobe of tough leather jackets, pleated skirts and several fedoras for the adventure. No apologies to mum. There were particularly short knit dresses and a skin-hugging corset dress in a print called "tatooage,'' which looked exactly as it sounds. And there were outfits more in line with what's expected from Miller, including a long dress in a wallflower print with a ruffle front and a stretch-denim dress with sexy net inserts. The black matte-jersey, floor-length dress, with a dropped leather waist and notched V neck, that closed the show was the right high note to leave on. But where Miller saw "golf pants'' on a pair of loose baggy trousers paired with a burned out velvet-and-georgette blouse, the audience might have seen glorified sweats.

Kenneth Cole has returned to New York Fashion Week after a seven-year hiatus.

Nikhil Kumar braves the city's manic streets to put the new bicycle-hire scheme to the test.

We rode in a giddy peloton, three backpackers on bikes at about 3am on a warm June morning. Paris was still, traffic was distant, and the only thing to break the peace was our faux race commentary.

Dance music stars Swedish House Mafia have officially disbanded after playing their final show at Florida's Ultra Music Festival on Sunday.

Welfare benefits will go up by just 0.61 per cent from April 1 because the Government has decided not to give beneficiaries any compensation for higher cigarette prices.

New Zealand rapper David Dallas is one of the Kiwi visitors enjoying the fare at the Dub Pie Shop in New York.

Head to Upper Manhattan for a real taste of New York, writes Charlotte McDonald-Gibson.

Take a look behind the scenes look at the Fall 2013 NY Fashion Week.

More than 2,700 dogs of 187 breed and varieties have been on display at 137th the annual canine competition. Two new breeds, the Russell terrier and the Treeing Walker coonhound, will be introduced in the contest. It has been the biggest entry in 15 years and the award pets' owners are waiting for is The Best in Show, which will be announced later today.

At first, Hilfiger's looks, staged like a movie-set library, looked like they were built on the Savile Row-styled menswear and Ivy League prep-school uniforms he has played with for almost 30 years. There were houndstooth prints in every scale imaginable - on a coat, turtleneck, tuxedo pants and even a dickie - and probably even more plaid. "Classics receive an unexpected twist,'' was Hilfiger's mantra, putting some newness on the catwalk while maintaining a relatable ease that would appeal to his broad audience. Together on the runway, the collection evoked mod for 2013. The leather argyle pattern shifts and shirtdresses could reintroduce his muses - and fashion icons - Twiggy, Mary Quant and Marianne Faithfull to a new generation.

Posen presented his smallest show in years, taking a breath from a whirlwind few months that included joining Project Runway as a judge. For a designer who thrives on flashbulbs, cameras and frenzy, the change might seem odd, but he said his intimate show at the Plaza Hotel was the best way to sharpen his focus in a collection that was thoughtful and intellectual. "My fantasies about glamour or about society, about travel, all took place here growing up in New York. When you drive by great historical backgrounds, this is where Halston did his first shows, where Oscar de la Renta used to show,'' Posen said. Part of Posen's signature are red-carpet gowns, such as the strapless, draped bustier ballgown worn by Crystal Renn and the architectural peplum gown with cutouts and sharp shoulders worn by Coco Rocha.

The tireless 71-year-old designer, best known for punky prom dresses and a lot of pink, introduced her fall collection as a theatrical exercise video for the Style Network program Betsey and Lulu, which follows the lives of Johnson and her daughter. It was a catwalk of energetic, giggly models in active wear chatting on mobile phones as they waved to attendees, then an exercise routine led by the designer that included running in place, yoga and pull-ups. Rows of pink yoga mats were strewn on the runway, each accompanied by a pair of high-top sneakers, towels and wine bottles. The collection, named BJ Kicks A, veered from the high school dance party looks that she has championed for decades, running toward a junior high school gym class with a lot of cheek. It was an explosion of neon pink and yellow, animal prints and plaids on mini dresses worn over leggings, a veritable visual feast piled over one another.

The designer’s fall collection was themed around glam rock. From pink jumpsuits to blue halter dresses, her message was clear: ‘life’s a party!’ Isabel Wilkinson reports.

Any model will tell you: It's hard to walk down a catwalk. Especially when you're an actual cat. Designer Tracy Reese's autumn-winter show had a guest model, of the feline variety. The cat was supposed to be walked on a leash, but was a bit frightened, the designer explained backstage, and had to be cradled in the model's arms for its one trip down the catwalk. Er, runway. The cat may have been timid, but Reese's designs were the opposite - full of mixed prints and bold colours, like the floral-printed neoprene frock in pink, orange and black that accompanied the cat-bearing model.

Minkoff named her colours after planets and other spacey things. A winter white was "Saturn'' and used for a leather motocross jacket. The colour caramel became "eclipse'' for a leather duffel coat. Minkoff put a twist on the colour-blocking trend that has been around now a few seasons by mixing chunks of different textures instead of contrasting hues. Minkoff's soft-line exaggerated shoulder, instead of the aggressive ones that were so popular on the runways a few years ago (and in the 1980s), also turned up elsewhere.

Designer Felipe Oliveira Baptista presented his Menswear and Womenswear collection. The focus was on colour-blocking and mixing of materials and textures in a similar sense. For example a fabric and leather-like garment might have leather-like sleeves, hips, pocket trim and lower legs.