Citadel Security, which provides security guard services for New York’s Fashion week, has met a number of challenges since its beginning in 1993. The firm guards the fashion glitterati from gate crashers, helps A-list guests find their seats and makes certain that real cats, like leopards, stay on the runway and don’t curl up on Britney Spears’ lap.
Citadel Security is the creation of David Yorio and his father Ty who is a retired detective from the NYPD. It’s their job to provide New York event security to exclusive fashion shows by Anna Sui, Marc Jacobs, the DVF and others. The New York Post recently interviewed them about their experiences while guarding the New York 2013 Fashion Show.
The company provides as many as 100 guards for fashion shows, including dozens and dozens of security cameras. These cameras are staffed by professionals who watch events behind locked security rooms.
The company has the faces of hundreds of people pasted on security boards for instant recognition. These are celebrities, fashion editors, spouses and partners who must be recognized and sorted out from unwelcome paparazzi, gate crashers and overzealous fans that might disrupt a fashion show. Every guard is expected to know these faces by memory.
The Challenges in Event Security
One of the challenges for Citadel Security is to stop problems before they begin, and that means tracking current events. In 2011, the fashion collection of Marc Anthony was hijacked from a train traveling between London and Paris. That alerted the company to assign guards to fashion shipments in order to prevent that from occurring in New York.
Besides engaging in security matters like checking for false credentials, identifying faces and weeding out unwelcome guests, the company must be prepared to meet the requests of their clients, including some of the more odd requests, like making arrangements for leopards on the runway.
The leopard incident came about when Diesel arranged for a live leopard to walk the runway with a model. Leopards are easily spooked by noise, Diesel warned spectators. Luckily, no one got hurt.
Contact Citadel Security Agency in New York
Citadel Security has guarded the glitterati and fashion mavens at the biannual event for more than 20 years. The New York event security operations at the Lincoln Center are sophisticated but low-key. Citadel prides itself in their professional and highly certified guards. If you want top-notch security for your New York event, contact Citadel at (212) 509-5570.