What’s all the fuss about fashion week? Everyone is so intense, and so eager. But I’m so over it. Yes, it’s true. Fashion Week sounds like a fabulous, glamorous dream if you’re watching it on televison, but if you are “working it,” especially if you are online press and have a publication that doesn’t scream “fashion” (E.g. the name: “advicesisters”) it really isn’t fun at all.
No….let me take a little of that statement, back. It is fun, but not in the way you might think. I never forget that it is a true opportunity to see things first that are hopefully, fresh and new. I like meeting friends and going t lounges. I never go to after-parties because I am working all day and too tired to stuff myself into a crowded, hot place with thumping music after all of that, but those who do go, say they’re fun.
After many, many seasons of covering backstage and the runway, and several years of jockeying for a tiny sliver of space on the photo riser, I look forward to fashion week with anticipation, and then, with dread. It is mentally and physically exhausting.
The scene that so excited me when I was just starting out, seems so ridiculous now. The kids posing in Mickey Mouse ears and bright teal mohawks, and the older veterans wearing plaid suits and space boots, and other manner of idiotic outfit, loitering outside the tents, hoping someone, anyone, will photograph them. The “fashionistas” in impossible heels and party dresses, even on a 85+ degree humid day with the promise of rain. The photographers who rudely push you because you aren’t moving fast enough (for them). The long lines and the bad attitudes. The clipboard girls whose only power is to keep you out (of somewhere, anywhere, everywhere).
Parts of fashion week can be fun, but it feels shallow and unimportant. Does it matter outside of New York? Watching the people posing outside in silly hats and outrageous shows, and the endless wait to get into shows where the clothes aren’t all that interesting, and the crowd even less so, feels boring. The only ones for whom this really matters are the ones in the fashion business who make money (hopefully) from the presentations and shows.
Last night I got home after standing most of the day, and my feet were so swollen I literally couldn’t walk on them. When I woke up this morning, still in pain (this, with sensible padded sandals on the day before), I decided to stay home, download some photos, write this post (and maybe something about the shows I’ve already seen). I feel bad that I’m missing some presentations, but then again, I am doing this all myself without freshly scrubbed, eager, interns or a paid staff. There is just so much your girl is going to do!
Tonight, I’ll be going to a show inconveniently located all the way on the West Side (so minimally, a 40 minute train ride and a 15-20 minute walk each way), even though heavy thundershowers are expected (and there is an alert for big hail, yes hail). I feel an obligation to do it, so I will. But I am not missing being at the Lincoln Center tents today. The more times I attend fashion week, the less I feel as though it matters if I’m there or not. Do you, my valued readers, really care if I report on my impressions of shows that you can read about in any newspaper in the world or watch someone’s video stream? Do you really want to know what swag I scored at a lounge? Do you really feel that it would be entertaining (to you) if I photographed my swag, or myself in front of a step-and-repeat screen? I think a lot of the so-called new generation of bloggers do just that (much easier than actually writing or photographing something and producing editorial content. Advicesisters.net has always been more about information, than self-promotion. Maybe I should be posting more “ME!!” items on Instagram and Facebook, like these other “bloggers” do. That seems to get them lots of perks for very little work. But it is inspiring? Perhaps, while I’m holding up some item from a swag bag, or standing in front of a promotional step and repeat screen, I’d also be more popular with the companies and designers who get inestimable free promotion from willing minions of people who are grateful just to be let in the door and give them advertising without pay. But will it be of value to you?
Comments please. I am no longer afraid of being slammed for being honest. “Been there, done that!”
