Written and photographed by Lisa Klein. Story sponsored by Total Health Physical Therapy.
DAY 2: FASHION SHOW MARATHON – PART 1
Overheard leaving a show, between two men: “ I LOVE your jacket! Who made it?” “I did! I’m a designer!” “NO! I have a shop! Give me your card, we have to talk!”
Today I have tickets for 7 shows. I have no idea how I am going to do this. It will be exhausting, but well worth it, I am sure. I am up early to try and get to the venue as early as possible. What I’m learning is ticket-schmicket: it doesn’t matter what ticket you have as long as you can get into the show. Once in, it’s a relatively fluid situation so the sooner you can get in, the more time you have to figure out where you want to sit. What I am learning is many people who have seats do not show up (the horror!) and there are very often seats available. What I am also learning is you get better pictures if you stand but it’s much better not to be behind everyone else. The worst ticket to have is a “standing” ticket; you are last in and have the least pick of seats. The best is to have a seat, which you don’t actually need to sit in, or priority standing, which gets you in usually with the people who do have seats. It’s pretty much total chaos. This year I have several shows with seats, which is very fantastic.
Having left the hotel early to grab breakfast at the corner deli, which has everything you need in NY (which would be breakfast, pizza, and rugelach.) I look like I am just a tad out of place, as I am wearing: rope patterned Alexander McQueen leggings, black high heeled Glint booties, an off white Anthropologie top, and the Brunello Cucinelli wrap necklace, in addition to my press pass from Fashion Week. It’s a bit much at 8 in the morning on a Saturday. I even got some very interesting looks from the suburban family from NJ. I start to feel better as I head over to Lincoln Center and reunite with my tribe of fashion people.
My first show of the day is Ruffian in the Studio and I’m with the lovely Baille, one of fashiontographer.com fashion editors. We amuse ourselves before the start of the show by taking pictures of each other. It’s just the thing to do here. For some reason the seats are not full at all and we easily score seats. The show is great, fun hair, and the models are all in various pastel Converse high top sneakers. I send a Facebook message to my dear college friend Christine, who lived in those shoes, to tell her she is finally on trend. She was thrilled.
Between shows I am looking to see what everyone is wearing. In February, the dress code was long black prairie skirts with an oversized possibly fur type top and big loose hair and accessories. This year, even though we are in September, it’s short short skirts and dresses with super uber high heeled shoes, often open toe. Now, I like wearing high heels a lot but I cannot imagine how these women are going to be able to walk all day. It is beyond my comprehension. I am in my high heeled boots with my black sparkly Toms in my bag, but I have a press pass and 7 shows to go to plus backstage so I don’t really care; I am curious to see how these women are going to be walking at the end of the day.
Jill Stuart is next, showing in the Stage. At this show I am introduced to the concept of gift bags, which I love, and from here on out I am obsessed with scoring them at every show possible. I have a priority standing ticket but I’m unable to snag a seat in the first three rows so no gift bag for me. I do however have a good seat with a great view of the runway and time to look around. Apparently my celebrity karma is starting to shift because right in front of me is Kelly Bensimon from Real Housewives of NY (one of my favorite guilty pleasure TV shows) and Rose Byrne from Bridesmaids (one of my favorite movies!) It’s so exciting to actually see people I easily recognize. Later on, when taking pictures on the runway before a show, I ask a fellow media person to identify the celebrity in the middle of a sea of flashbulbs. They had no idea who it was they were photographing. Either way, I was very happy to have pictures of my Jill Stuart celebrity sightings. The show was great and the ever crafty-in-a-good-way Anastasia even snagged a gift bag for me (fabric fragrance and red lipstick.) Thanks honey!
Next is one of the highlights of the day, backstage with Anastasia at Rafael Cennamo. I love going backstage. It’s so much fun to watch the models have their hair and makeup done and if you’re lucky you can pick the brains of the hair and makeup artists for some good tips. My eyeliner had somehow traveled far below my eye but when I saw the makeup on the models I realized this was no longer a problem. We were chatting it up with the rep from Zoya nail polish, which is non-toxic (yes!) and ended up scoring nail polish gift bags. The makeup artists were also super chatty and let us take some great pictures.
Jen and I were backstage last year with this designer, he is a doll. This time Anastasia took the video while I did the interview.
Next it’s off to get in line for Mara Hoffman. I have a standing ticket for the Stage show so I want to get there early. Invigorated by my newfound capacity to see identifiable celebrities, I am thirsty for more and I am not disappointed. Although I am standing, I am directly across from Lil’ Kim who I saw being literally CARRIED in by her bodyguards. I am on the lookout for others as they tend to run in herds, but even though I was early in the standing line getting in, I have no time to scout. The show was great. Fun, vivid colors, and flowing silhouettes. She had three ukulele players on the stage, which was cute, and fun Harry Belafonte music during the snake, the official term for when the models all come out at the end of the show, taught to me by a lovely boutique owner from Palm Beach, FL. She also told me that someone had offered her $25,000 if she would take them to Fashion Week. True story. She declined, out of respect for the unspoken code of Fashion Week Integrity.
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