In 2001, fashion week began with big budgets, colorful collections and extravagant parties. It was a much anticipated season - fashion magazines had predicted it to be the biggest yet.

But on the morning of its fifth day all of that changed.

In this episode, we go back in time to look at how the fashion industry reacted to the September 11 attacks. We wanted to know, during times of social and political disruption, is fashion a distraction or is there something helpful — perhaps necessary — about it?

From the 9/11 attacks, to war, to a worldwide pandemic, how does fashion reflect the time we live in?

To find out, we talked to designers Kenneth Cole, Liz Lange and Adam Lippes among others. Does fashion reflect society? Does it have the power to soothe and help heal crisis driven era’s?