So many people have told me how lucky I am to be at the shows. I thought so too! I am at Fashionweek! From the outside the glamour, beauty, and excitement of Fashionweek seems so alluring.
Ohh the models, the editors, the clothing, the parties they exclaim! What could be better? Now I knew fashion was a tough business when I decided to make it my career. Yet I wasn’t entirely disabused of the notion that fashion still had a little bit of mystery left in it when I first arrived at the tents.
Now, as I sent hunched in an uncomfortable chair, surrounded by hundreds of other angry, hungry, and put-off editors, I feel like it is a nastier version of a trade convention. But of course it is a trade show, just one for the garment industry. The problem is that the general public doesn’t view it that way. So instead of being able to calmly view the collections, make informed decisions about potential trends, and generally catch up with work colleagues you are herded in and out of shows like cattle, treated poorly by confused PR women in black, and even occasionally yelled at by someone exclaiming “do you know who I am?”
Dressing for the day feels a little scary. Who will judge me you think? Getting into the shows is scary? Who will bar my way you ask? Reporting for the shows is scary? Who will be angered by my review? And yet here I am doing it anyway despite some rather forbidding odds. There is no place to plug in my laptop in the tents, the wifi is dodgy, and no one can figure out exactly what this “blogging” this is and why it has value.
I am doing my best to give an unbiased and honest view of my experience at the shows but in truth my dear readers I am finding it harder than I imagined. They say never let them see you sweat but my value here is my authenticity and I want to show you my experience.
Yesterday was my first real day of Fashionweek. I had never attended a real live fashion show at Fashionweek until yesterday morning. I should be in a haze of excitement and glory. I have made it. I am wearing amazing clothing from BCBG and A.B.S thanks to their generous desire to see the fashion world a little better dressed and of course get some publicity. But instead I am tired, the bags under my eyes are showing, and I wish that Olympus Fashionweek at least attempted to treat the editors and buyers, especially the smaller ones with some degree of respect.
But there is still a little mystery it is just tucked into odd corners. Last night I saw Suzy Menkes and her famous hair coming out of Baby Phat and I realized when I could barely stammer out a “I’m your greatest fan” response just how much I love and respect some of the people in this business. So I am not all cynic yet. Tell me what you want to hear and I will post it. I have the access and the ability to give voice to the experience so I want to hear what those of you who don’t have access really want to know. I will tell it like it is!
But hey I have a press pass!
You saw Suzy!
I would love to hear about Anna Wintour observations…
You’re not a cynic, but couldn’t you wise up just a bit? It’s a business, and millions of dollars ride on the opinions of a few. And those few don’t always have the aesthetics of a collection in mind.
Rachel darling I am wised up a bit I am simply allowing readers to be disabused of a few notions they may have about fashionweek. Because many people feel this way about it. And frankly I am not that bothered by it merey amused. So please moderate the comments honesy, we don’t want a repeat of last time
your honesty is admirable and appreciated. keep it coming.
take a peek at iamprettynyc – she’s a kindred spirt.
http://www.iamprettynyc.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=358&blogId=1
I see Julie as very “wised.” I didn’t know you chose fashion as your career? I was imagining you in something different. As a fan, I’m glad to see you value it enough to put your mind into it.
Me, I will stay on this very end. I am not sure if I can update my blog properly and post the way I want to on your Fashion Week schedule.
I still dream of going to a few shows, even one, each season. But as I am still in school, my schedule conflicts too much, anyway, to do more. (As my blog is my job, I can still get an excuse to miss a couple of classes and attend oh, say, Marc Jacobs.
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[...] A year ago I wrote a post called “Where is the Glamour” in which I gave my fresh, first time at Fashion Week perspective on how the whole experience, well, just sort of sucked. Ahhh, how things change in a year and in ways I never anticipated. I still feel like the soft nervous outsider hurt by the mean glances of privileged fashion assistants with rich showroom owning mothers and yet I am immersed in a world of such beauty and decadence it is hard to take it all in. [...]