I've been home from New York for a little over week but it already seems like its been years. This will be my last personal recap post (until I change my mind and add another) but you will be able to get a show by show update over at I Heart Heels.
I'm going to walk you through my personal fashion show experience. I imagine it's slightly different for every attendee depending on their position in the Fashion Hierarchy (which I touched on here), but here's a play by play.
1:35- Arrive at the Lincoln Center for the 2:00 show.
Thankfully there is a subway station right the base of the multiple building complex that makes up the Lincoln Center. All the fashion shows are tucked away off the street off the main plaza, behind the circular fountain that acts a base camp for the street style photographers and meeting place for bloggers about to head to get drinks.
1:40- Depending on aforementioned photographers, arrive at the doors of the Mercedes Benz building.
Once you let the burly security men know what show you're there to see and they wave you in. You realize that this building that looks tiny from the outside is massive. A two story hair salon from Tresemme, an upper story recording studio for Joan RIvers and her Fashion Police, a tech/ recharging station filled to the brim with journalists and bloggers uploading pictures and pounding out blog posts (and hoping to get the scoop on other fashion sources), a Maybelline booth with the coolest vending machine that spits out your choice of lipstick, nail polish, or a eyeshadow, a couple beautiful Benzes just... you know chilling. It's a lot to take in.
Big surprise here: The bathrooms are horrid. They are approximately a half step above the port-a-potties at your favorite outdoor music venue. My suggestion: Hold it.
1:42- Scan your seat confirmation (that was emailed to you a couple days previous) at the cool seat scanner machine. The scanner spits out a "receipt" with a bar-code.
1:45- Walk across the venue to the entrance of your particular show (there are signs) and hand your receipt to the gatekeepers of each individual show. They scan it and direct you to either your seat (yay!) or the standing line (less yay).
1:45 - 1:48- *Wait and people watch.
1:48 - 1:56- Check Instagram.
1:56 - 2:05- Check Twitter.
2:05 - 2:06- Send "I'm pretty sure they were photographing my underwear" text to your best friend at home.
2:06 - 2:11- Check Facebook.
2:11 - 2:12- Overhear how the girl in front of you is trying to convince her major league baseball playing boyfriend that moving to an "actual city" (New York) would be preferable to their current "large town" (Boston).
2:12 - 2:13- Think, "Oh my. If Boston doesn't qualify as an actual city she would probably be miserable in Arkansas."
2:13 - 2:15- Post a shoe picture to Instagram.
2:15 - 2:18- Check Twitter again. Be frustrated that only five people have posted anything in the last ten minutes.
*Seriously, the lines were the enemy to both my patience and my iPhone's battery life, but at the end of the day were just another part of the experience.
2:18- Enter the "tent", i.e. the enclosed area that has stadium style seating on either side of the runway. Immediately go as far across the seats but as close to an aisle as the crowd would allow.
2:18 - 2:23- Wait another five minutes. Notice that the photographers are all in the "photography pit" with their individual spaces marked off with what looks like neon duct tape. "Could there really be enough room in that tiny spot to fit 50 photographers with crazy good lenses?" Probably not, but they make it happen.
2:23- Security decides to fill the rest of the seats. This is where being next to an aisle is preferable because if you're one of the first they allow down to get a seat, you get the best/closest one. This is also where being nice to "security" (i.e. volunteers in the name of fashion) could potentially get you a leg up. (Why yes, I did sweet talk my way to a second row seat: Her name was Jeannie, she had fabulous hair, and wasn't getting paid a dime to put up with snooty fashionistas. Yay for the nice girl finishing first!)
2:24 - 2:30- Wait some more. Take some pictures and post them on Instagram. Glance at the swag bag if you happened to score a seat that close to the runway.
2:30- Security goes up to each individual and tells those hanging out on the runway to head to their seats.
2:31- Watch as someone takes the protective cover off the runway and feel the buzz heighten as the lights are lowered.
2:32- The lights are completely dark and it feels like a concert stadium where the crowd holds up their lighters and cell phones to sing along with the rock star's ballad, except it is silent and everyone is just anxious for the show to begin.
2:33- Thirty-three minutes after it was scheduled to start the music starts out slowly, the lighting fades up, a model appears, and suddenly everything is full blast: the music, the movement, the clothes, the clicks, the flashes, the "oohs and ahhs". The "slow, slow, slow, BAM!" combination makes for an adrenaline rush that is unlike any thing else you've ever experienced.
During the first few models of a show I tried to take in the designers whole aesthetic: "Oh this guy is bold!" or "Wow, this is really delicate and feminine." As it progressed, I tried to focus in on details: "Lime, turquoise, and animal print." or "Pastels, metallics, and body hugging silhouettes." All these had to be mental notes because I was continually shooting, shooting, shooting. Mostly I used the Canon but I was constantly trying to remember to get a good iPhone shot, with only minor success.
Fifteen minutes later, the models would parade out together and for another 100 seconds the buzz was even more fervent, "If you're going to get that last awesome shot, now is the time to do it." The designer would come out from backstage, accept his applause, and just as quickly as that initial adrenaline rush began, it was over. The music ended, the lights came up, and the smart ones rushed to the door while the rest of us were left to deal with the bottle neck that is bound to happen when you try to fit two hundred people through two doors.
3:00- Take a breath. Your next show is scheduled to start in thirty minutes and you have to start the whole process over again.
And any leftover questions about the Fashion Week experience start NOW! Anything I didn't cover?
