HerCampus Boston College Fashion Week was the ultimate heaven for every chic and fabulous woman of New England. The Estate (the amazing venue) was extremely hip for a Saturday night out in Boston, the music made us all want to strut our stuff on the runway like Tyra would and the entertainment provided by the sponsors, Boston College Irish step dancing club, Boston University Acapella Group and Boston University Jawa team made three hours feel like three seconds: we never wanted to leave.
The UConn team and I hopped on the ‘T’ (something new, considering a lot of us are Manhattan kind of girls) and were bound for Boylston Street. Upon our arrival, we were fortunate enough to be first in line (this meant more free Luna bars for us and the occasional peek through the main door to see what was happening). After an hour of all of us huddling under my cheetah print umbrella, the doors finally opened to a night that I will surely never forget.
The first stop: the HerCampus paparazzi wall. Because honestly who doesn’t love posing for the camera like a celeb on the red carpet? The UConn team got a couple of great photos, just as Kim Kardashian always does. After that, the amazing runway setup overwhelmed us all. Were we at Tom Ford’s spring/summer 2015 ready-to-wear collection fashion show in NYC? The HerCampus founders did a fantastic job at setting up the runway to make us feel as if we were all Anna Wintour ready to watch the latest trends and pick which ones to feature in Vogue.
The night didn’t begin with the fashion show, though. The amazing show-stopping sponsors were boohoo as official Fashion, TRESemmé as official Hair Care, bareMinerals as official Beauty and other key partners including European Wax Center, Simon Premium Outlets and Luna. They all did an amazing job at promoting their brand and making the night extra special- especially through the amazing goodies that we got in our canvas bags upon entering.
bareMinerals was my personal favorite. In our goody bags, we received a 15% off an entire purchase coupon, and best of all, one FREE foundation. Yes, I said it, a free full size powder foundation. We were all able to wait in line for what they called a “shade match.” We had the option to get a face full of makeup done or just see what foundation matched best with our skin. It didn’t end there, though. We also got a free brush as well. Score.
TRESemmé had an entire dry bar station. If you have yet to try TRESemmé’s dry shampoo, you must. As the October issue of Cosmopolitan stated in their Beauty Awards piece, this “Best Dry Shampoo” cuts your getting ready time and is oil-sopping and volume enhancing. TRESemmé was offering free hairstyles using only their dry products. I unfortunately did not get a chance to get my hair done, but everyone who did looked amazing, especially the models. In our goody bags, they also gave as a free sample of their 7-day keratin smooth system. Bye, bye wavy/frizzy annoying hair.
Finally, SIMON premium outlets had a super fun photo booth where we were able to take goofy photos with our friends and have them printed and sent directly to our phones. They provided us the option of signing up to become a VIP shopper (can you say dangerous?) and filled the goody bag with a pamphlet filled with coupons to some of the best stores out there: J. Crew, Aldo and Charlotte Russe.
The fashion show began at around 7:45 p.m. after two amazing hours of beautification, posing and free stuff. The entire fashion show was sponsored by boohoo. Scene 1 was Imperial, scene 2 was Brooklyn Princess and scene 3 was Woodlanders. All of the looks were sported by girls our age, who owned each and every ensemble. The looks were affordable, unique and fashion-forward (obvs). Boohoo provided us with a catalog of all the looks, and even included a coupon with a discount off our next purchase (an excuse to online shop? Yes please). The models strutted up and down the runway like they owned it. Bloggers had the option of sitting in VIP seats to take photos and blog LIVE about each of the looks. The UConn team took pictures on our own from outside the VIP section. The venue fortunately allowed everyone to see the show, no matter where you were standing.
The event was a huge success. The HerCampus team did an amazing job of organizing it and making it enjoyable for everyone who attended (the most enjoyable part was obviously the extremely good looking BU Acapella group who serenaded us with John Legends’ “All Of Me”). I was especially impressed with how social media savvy the event was as well. There were hashtags that were used throughout the night, and the Twitter handles of all the sponsors were posted on banners, which gave us the option to see all the photos posted from the night and tweet at the sponsors.
The College Fashion Week tour continues, and I wish I were able to attend the other three shows in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. Thank you HerCampus for an amazing time!