Fashion week draws luxury brands such as Olympus, W Hotels, and Taittinger as sponsors, along with beauty brands like Pantene, MAC, and Kinerase. But house paint and peppermints are playing a role in supporting designers, too.

Jeff Mahshie, the creative director for Chaiken, was shopping at a Janovic store when he noticed a striking Benjamin Moore advertisement in which a woman had a paint can slung over her arm like a purse.

“I thought, ‘Hmm. Let’s phone them up,'” he said. That was a year and a half – three seasons – ago. It was a fortuitous call: Benjamin Moore had been looking for a way to market paint as a changeable decoration. Why not change paint in our homes in the same way we change our wardrobes, the thinking goes. An official affiliation with a designer fit into that image.

Each season, Mr. Mahshie talks with Benjamin Moore’s director of color and design, Doti Horn. “We’re always seeing the same thing at the museum, the same obscure movie,” Mr. Mahshie said. “We met, and we were immediately connected.” Mr. Mahshie compares his forecast for the coming seasons to Mr. Horn’s “color pulse.” For several shows, Benjamin Moore’s product has been used to paint the back wall of the set. Last season, they collaborated on a mobile to hang above the runway show. Mr. Horn has input on the invitations, too. And the colors of the clothes themselves are taken from Benjamin Moore paint names.

For the collection that will make its debut next week, Mr. Mahshie is using black, charcoal gray, navy blue, aubergine, and “touches of red and white.” Mr. Mahshie says the partnership has been positive for him. “Their team is amazing. They love fashion, they love color, and they get how they go together. They think of paint as interior fashion.”

Another odd – but happy – couple is York Peppermint Patties and designer Nicole Miller. York, a sponsor of Fashion Week, commissioned Ms. Miller to design a series of handbags, from canvas totes to crystal-encrusted clutches. The bags will be sold this spring at Nicole Miller boutiques, but during fashion week, a one-of-a-kind version will be auctioned live onebay.com. The auction benefits the breast cancer charity Young Survival Coalition.

The York brand also benefits, by association with a recognized designer. Fashionistas benefit, too: The peppermints are low-fat, and that’s always in style.