To save some of the headaches, Lincoln Center, the official home of Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week, runs a tight ship but one with less flexibility. “You have in-house production and there aren’t many mishaps,” said Lalena Luba, vice president of public relations at BCBG Max Azria Group, which stages U-shape runways for the BCBG Max Azria and Hervé Léger shows. “You only have about three hours to build out the space, so you are mostly limited to a U or a straight runway,” she said. “But you know what you’re getting as opposed to off-sites.”

Ms. Steele’s client Richard Chai also shows “on-site” and uses a linear walkway. In fact, Mr. Chai opts to have one row on each side removed, because he likes to give the clothes a “sweeping effect,” Ms. Steele said. A wider runway also makes for better photos, she pointed out.

Likewise, Mr. Wilmot’s client Reem Acra, who shows at Lincoln Center, sticks to simple, straight runways with about 100 front-row seats. If that gives Mr. Wilmot fewer prime spots than a U-formation, he’s pragmatic about it. “People should just get a grip,” he said. “Everybody has to realize that if they’re in the second or third row, it’s not personal. We look at the magazines and publications, and we try to balance things out by masthead. We go by R.H.I.P., or Rank Has Its Privilege.”

THAT LINCOLN CENTER during Fashion Week is usually a well-oiled machine makes the seating clash at Mr. Posen’s spring 2013 show more confounding to fashion regulars. “I’ve worked at Avery Fisher Hall before, and there are ample exits,” Ms. Dizon said. “It’s built for audiences coming in and out. I’m not sure what happened.”

In her civil suit filed in New York State Supreme Court, and in her complaint, filed on Nov. 8, Ms. Tesoro said she was trying to find the three editors new places after the fire marshals insisted that the seating be reduced, but that the defendants “refused to listen to reason.” The complaint also alleges it was Ms. Susskind-Jalou, not Ms. Eymere, who slapped her. Additionally, the plaintiff said, “it was not a small slap, but a hard one.” Ms. Eymere’s comments to WWD also formed the basis of Ms. Tesoro’s libel and slander claims.

On Nov. 28, the defendants, through their joint lawyers Jeffrey Udell and Renée Zaytsev, filed a notice to move the case to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. A pretrial conference has been set for March 6. (Executives for CS Global, which produced the Posen show, and will do so again this week, also declined to be interviewed by phone, instead issuing answers by e-mail, including this statement: “CS Global removed no front row seats.”)

Mr. Wilmot has a theory about what may have happened at that show, coming as it did at the end of a long weekend with nearly 100 shows held back to back, and each evening ending with a party that stretched well into the morning: “Maybe it’s a combo of too much coffee and a hangover.”