Beyoncé & The Day I Saw Chanel Iman Naked.

No more words are necessary.

Moving on to more important stuff….

It’s finally here! The most wonderful time of the year for all fashion lovers. I will be bringing you the best and worst of NYFW (in my humble opinion). For now, here are the designers whose collections I am most anticipating. 

BCBG Max Azria

Rebecca Minkoff

Charlotte Ronson

Mara Hoffman (OMG I cannot WAIT for Mara Hoffman!)

Trina Turk

Betsy Johnson

Badgley Mischka

Diesel Black Gold

Rachel Zoe

I remember my very first Fashion Week as a New Yorker. It wasn’t as glamourous as you might assume, but sweet mother of the fashion gods was it thrilling! I was a volunteer dresser for five shows, including Twinkle by Wenlan and Karen Walker… oh yea, and The Blondes. How could I forget The Blondes and their giant animal masks. That show was amazing. 

My heart was beating out of my chest as I stepped foot back stage of the first show of the day. I believe it was Karen Walker, but honestly the whole day was such an amazing blur it’s hard to piece it all together sequentially. 

Picture this: backstage is a teeny area teeming with producers, designers, stylists, models, and dressers. As a dresser you were assigned models that you needed to literally dress in several outfits that they were to walk in. Most of the models don’t really speak to you other than a quick introduction and then seconds later are standing totally naked in front of you as you put the beautiful garments on their mannequin-like figures. As soon as you have one girl out on the runway another one is waiting for you to dress them. Then, the second they are ready to strut their stuff the first model comes running back to you, stripping her clothes off, ready for the next look. It is quite literally a beautiful disaster. Once your girls have done their thing you can try to steal a glimpse of the show, if you’re lucky. It all seems to flash by in the blink of an eye: poof! It’s over. Everyone’s clapping, crying, hugging, celebrating, and you’re running off to the next show. 

My favorite was Twinkle by Wenlan. One of my favorite designers, I was so psyched to see all the samples first hand. The dressing space was HUGE, because this show was in the tents at Bryant Park (my breath was stolen the moment I walked in). My models were really sweet and the whole overall experience was inspiring. I ended the day at the ARISE Magazine show where I helped dress none other than Chanel Iman, of Victoria’s Secret fame (pictured below with Tom Ford). Except that, at the time, I had no idea who she was. Everyone was making a huge fuss over her and I had no idea why… well, except for the obvious. I just dealt with the diva-like behavior and continued to float along on my fashion cloud.

Everything about this experience was magical. I had been running on pure adrenaline the entire day and I just wanted more, more, more! To this day I still think there is no better way to see a show at New York Fashion Week than to be backstage. There is nothing else like it and the only word that seems to make sense is “magical”. If you’re ever lucky enough, please, I’m begging you, see a show backstage. You just can’t appreciate fashion without that experience. Don’t believe me? Just do it. You’ll see what I mean instantly.

xo

K