Ever since I immersed myself into the fashion industry fourteen years ago, I had many things I wanted to accomplish as a bright eyed freshman studying fashion merchandising. Many of those hopes and dreams have come true and many I’m still working on, but one I’m super happy to have accomplished recently is attending my very first New York Fashion Week! I may have not sat at some big designer shows or got invited to all the fancy parties, but I did get to experience many emerging designers and hang out with some really cool people at really great places. On today’s blog, I’m sharing everything NYFW related. I received many questions like, how does one “go” to fashion week? What did you do? Was it everything you expected? I thought it would be easier to put it all in one place for the ultimate NYFW recap!
Attending Fashion Week?
When I decided to go to NYFW, I was asked by a few of my fellow Cleveland Bloggers to attend with them. I jumped at the chance, because I did not want to tackle my first fashion week alone. It was nice to have the help and comradery of my fellow bloggers as I embarked on my NYFW journey. As soon as I purchased my plane ticket the planning had already begun. I’m a mom, blogger, and hold a full time job, the sooner I started planning the better. The first resource I used was the online community I’m a part of called Style Collective. This is an amazing online community of fellow bloggers both established and just starting out. They offer so many resources to help bloggers navigate many aspects of the industry, including Fashion Week. (This is a paid membership community but for the emerging blogger it’s super helpful and totally worth it.)
If your not a blogger and just a lover of fashion who wants to attend fashion week I’m here as your resource to share all the secrets! First, you can become a member of GPS Radar. This is where you can easily find and request invites to various fashion shows and events during NYFW. It is another exclusive online community that I actually had to use my full time job credentials as a Senior Merchandiser for Gap Inc. in order to gain access.
If you find yourself unable to become a part of GPS Radar, there are other websites you can use like Modem Online, where you can find contacts to designers and showrooms where you can pitch and request invites. I also applied at NolchShows.com. This online site allows you to join “the list” for invites to various shows. Between the four resources I used I got invited to seven shows! This was plenty for my first fashion week.
Runway Shows!
As I stated before, the shows I received invites to were emerging designers that are not well known. I have to admit I enjoyed them more because these are the designers that hungry therefore they are at their most creative and taking risks in order to get attention for their unique designs. My very first show I attended at NYFW was an Australian luxury brand called EDGII. It was one of my favorites because their design philosophy is “to encourage girls to believe and express their inner self. The EDGII girl is confident, brave, and independent and should be celebrated” Motivational, creative, and some of the better runway looks I saw all weekend!
The next group of shows I have to mention is the series put on by the Oxford Fashion Studio. This is a group that “helps put independent designers on the map and they help nurture raw and authentic design talent.” This series was a three part series that filled my Saturday night. It was essentially a one hour runway show featuring 10-12 up and coming designers. This was truly a treat that allowed me access to the next big designers. There were some really great designers being showcased but the ones I really enjoyed where, All Reclaimed by P, Haily Manochi, and Haan Haan. These are definitely women to watch out for! Call me a fashion nerd, but just being at these shows and seeing the production and the designs collide in the one of the biggest fashion capitals just made me excited!
Let’s Party!
Besides shows, fashion week is also a time when many brands host events. I’ve heard the events are the greatest return on investment when attending fashion week because you actually get to meet and network with brands and other influential people. The only downside about events, are many of them are invite only. Many of the bloggers I went with received invites to various brand parties because they have worked with said brand. I was fortunate to be invited to two parties. The first was a brunch hosted by The SisKiss. The SisKiss is a Cleveland based brand and the owner Megan is a friend of mine. She held a Brunch during fashion week as a thank you to all the influencers who helped her grow her amazing accessory company. I was super excited to be included and it was nice meeting other bloggers outside of Cleveland, especially one of my favs, Brittnay from @loverlygray. The second was an event at Ann Taylor hosted by the owner of the online community I’m a part of, The Style Collective!
If you have not upped your networking game for fashion week and didn’t get invited to any events, no worries, there are many events I attended that were open to the public. It just takes some digging. Some open events we attended were, The Shop Bop Pop Up Event and the Gorjana Jewelry event. These were fun shopping event equipped with cocktails, sweet treats, and shopping of course! Many of these open events I heard about from my fellow bloggers but some I found through @NYCnplugged. They share exclusive NYC events daily on their insta stories and how to get invited. I must admit I discovered this online resource late in the game but they are in my notes for next season!
Photoshoots!
Are you surprised? I’m a blogger, I’m nothing without the content (aka photos) to support my posts. I’m also not just any blogger, I’m a FASHION blogger so of course I had to capture my killer style in unique places all around the city! A special thanks to Kailey Marie Photography, for traveling around with eight fashion bloggers for an entire weekend to capture those #ootd’s! We were extremely lucky to have had Kailey, a local Cleveland photographer, join us on our trip. She is the photog behind my friend and blogger Meach from My Versatile Style, who was one of the other bloggers I went to NYFW with. Everyday we had various locations to shoot. On Friday we shot in Time Square all in matching Sisterhood tees from local Cleveland maker, Emily Roggenburk. Saturday we woke up at 4am for a 6am shoot at sunrise on the Brooklyn Bridge, then we headed to the iconic neighborhood of Dumbo, Brooklyn (think of it as the Tremount of NYC). We ended our morning at Cookie Do NYC. Another blogger I traveled with was Samantha, from The Samantha Show. Her husband's cousin is the CEO of Cookie Do and allowed us to take some great shots and sample some sweet treats at her shop in NYC. On Sunday we wrapped up the group photoshoots on the Top of the Rock in Rockefeller Center. Monday was all about me, with my hour photoshoot with Kailey to capture all the looks I wore to shows, events, and some I needed for future blogs.The last time I smiled that much for pictures was on my wedding day, but it was great to have Kailey with us. It made it super easy to capture the moments we needed for the gram and our respective blogs. If a photographer isn’t in your budget, grab a friend or a fellow fashion show go-er to help capture your look. I can’t tell you how many times I was asked to take a photo while waiting in line for a show!
Logistics!
I like to refer to this as the “boring details,” but I had a lot of people ask, because every penny counts when attending fashion week and between travel expenses and hotel stays the bill adds up. The flight I booked early, 6 months or so out so it wasn’t too bad. We flew Delta and they were great! I booked my hotel through a Groupon and shared a room with three other girls. We ended up essentially paying for one night each at the Groupon discounted rate which wasn’t too bad. We stayed at the Lexington Hotel which was beautiful! They also gave us a complimentary drink tickets to their bar, which was a bonus! The room on the other hand was a decent size but once you add 4 fashion bloggers and all their clothes, it soon became very cramped. As for getting around the city, I’m super ashamed but while in NYC I Ubered everywhere. My past self as a broke college student living in NYC is judging me, but I had so much going on it was easy and convenient, plus I shared the ride with at least one other person every time which helped with the bill. If your interested in taking the subway, its way cheaper and you can easily find your way around with Google Maps!
My Fashion Week weekend was definitely a whirlwind. It left me exhausted, inspired, and ready to do all again next season! Attending NYFW was a big reminder that anything is possible as long as you have the motivation and attitude to go for what you want. I hope you all enjoyed my recap and I hope it helps if your looking to attend fashion week yourself. Remember to leave me a comment below if you have any more questions or tips on NYFW. As always, thanks for reading!
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