I live for fashion. Most nights I fall asleep thinking about what outfit to wear the next day or what new pieces are necessary additions to my wardrobe. I read more literature from the style section than I do from my textbooks, and my closets (yes, I meant it to be plural) reveal a great deal about my shopping habits.
That’s why, when I was chosen to volunteer at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York this year, I was head over stilettos. I had no idea what I would be doing, but I didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was that I would be in my element. I would be in the same building, maybe even the same room, as the designers and the clothes that I spend my life dreaming about. I was going to fashionista heaven.
Though I would have gladly spent the entire 9 days of shows at Lincoln Center, I was only allowed to work four shifts, so I settled with Friday, February 11-Monday February 14. Here are the tales of four of the best days of my life!
Friday, February 11, 2011
My first shift was from noon until five in the biggest Fashion Week venue, the Theatre. The tasks we had to complete were very basic and not very exciting in themselves, but the environment made everything seem that much more exciting.
Since Friday was a five-hour shift, we were only working one show. My beginner’s luck matched me up with the Rebecca Minkoff show—one of my favorite designers.
Since the Theatre is the biggest of the Lincoln Center venues, there were close to 1,000 seats. Our first task was to measure the distance between all of the rows to make sure that all of the seats were perfectly straight. We then had to put tape on the back of all of the chairs in preparation of the place cards we would have to stick on. We had to straighten all of the covers on the chairs and make sure everything looked pristine.
We worked with Minkoff’s public relations team to get everything ready for the show. We stuck the place cards on the back of each chair and distributed the run-of-show program to each seat, as well as a water bottle to the guests in the first three rows. All the while, the runway was being painted and the band that was playing for the show—The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger—was rehearsing its set. The lights were being tested and the sound was being adjusted until the very last minute before doors were opened.
Before the doors opened to the public, the media was allowed in. Dozens of photographers all crammed themselves into a pulpit that was not much bigger than a dorm room. We volunteers took our assigned positions around the venue and prepared for the onslaught of the guests.
I was assigned to usher guests that were in sections C and D of the venue (section D being mainly friends and family of the designer). After getting all of the people into their seats (including Miss J from America’s Next Top Model), I cleared the aisles and went to the top of the stairs to block the guests in the standing section from moving down.
As the plastic that had been covering the runway was pulled back, I took a second to look around the venue and spotted some very familiar faces. Michelle Trachtenburg, Jessica Szohr, and Yika Sumpter of Gossip Girl were sitting in the front row, not far from Lauren “Lo” Bosworth and Stephanie Pratt from The Hills, and music star Eve.
Finally, about half an hour after the official start time of 3:00pm, the lights went out and the crowd went silent. As the lights began to slowly brighten and the music rang across the venue, the show began.
Though the show was not much different in person than it would be if I had seen it on video, there is something about seeing it in person that is almost magical. It was almost like I could feel the fabric with my eyes, and the aura in the room brought a kind of intensity to it all. Though the show was almost fifteen minutes, I was so engulfed in the atmosphere that it seemed like it only lasted a couple of minutes.
(I won’t go into the details of the collection—even though it was amazing—because you can find the pictures all over the internet.)
The second after Minkoff made her runway appearance at the end of the show, the crowd bolted. I have never seen so many people get up and push towards an exit at exactly the same time. There was no grace period between the end of the show and the exit, it all happened simultaneously.
Since it only took a couple of minutes for the venue to clear out, our volunteer group took to cleaning the room and preparing it for the next show. We picked up all of the run-of-show programs that had been left behind, and we pulled off all of the place cards on the chairs. After everything was once again spotless, we re-taped all of the chairs in preparation for the next show, and called it a night.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
On Saturday, I was lucky enough to again be placed in the Theatre. The two shows that I was working were Vivienne Tam at 3:00pm and G-Star Raw at 7:00pm.
To prevent the boredom of reading the same thing over and over, I’ll reiterate quickly. We had to tape the chairs, attach the place cards, place the folders with the run of show, and take our places to usher the guests in.
I was moved from section D, where I had been on Friday, to the top of the runway where I was supposed to prevent bottlenecking. This was a great place to stand, because I got to see all of the guests as they filtered in. If there’s a great place for people watching (and outfit watching), it is at a fashion show. The clothes that people were wearing were amazing. There were dresses and tops and shoes that I would have died for—but that would be silly, because then I wouldn’t get to live long enough to be able to afford clothes like that on my own.
Anyway, I saw the likes of Nigel Barker, world-famous-model Petra Nemkova, and the Courtin-Clarins sisters of the Clarins makeup empire. Oh, and Deborah Cox (I had no idea who she was at the time, though her assistant made it very clear that she was an extraordinarily important person). One thing I learned from this experience is there are a lot of people who feel very entitled and truly believe they should be treated differently simply for being amazing.
I again got to watch an amazing show and again repeated the after-show tasks of cleaning up and then setting up again. This time, we had to remove two rows of chairs and stack all of them backstage. When the seemingly endless stacking was finished, we restocked all of the water and Starbuck’s coolers backstage, and returned out front for the last show of the evening.
G-Star Raw had guests including Mena Suvari, Jared Leto (who was wearing a poncho that caused him to be voted worst-dressed in Life&Style this week), Tyson Beckford, and Alan Cumming from the all-time favorite Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion.
G-Star put on yet another jaw-dropping show, and as a brand that is out of my normal comfort zone, they won me over.
After the last show of the night, we cleaned, set up for the next morning, and went backstage to set up extra hair and makeup tables for the Diane von Furstenberg show that was in the Theatre on Sunday. Around 9:30pm, we called it a night and I dragged my exhausted body home to sleep for the next twelve hours.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Though I was unable to work the Diane von Furstenberg show on Sunday, I was lucky enough to be working at the Tory Burch and Cynthia Steffe shows in the Studio (the second-smallest of the four venues).
Tory Burch had a thirty-minute presentation rather than a typical runway show, so there was little preparation because there were no chairs in the venue. We went around and cleaned the hair and makeup areas and waited for the show to begin.
Because the Studio is much smaller and I was positioned against a wall, I unfortunately did not get to see very much of the presentation. However, I was not without excitement, because I was standing in the section that Tory and her family were occupying, so I not only got to say hello to the designer herself, but I was at the hub of all of the action.
Kanye West attended the show, and he came over to say hello to Tory and her family and get some photo ops while the presentation was happening. As soon as people realized it was Kanye, there was a lot of bumping and jarring from photographers, and it turned into a bit of a mob scene. During the commotion, I noticed that Kelly Rutherford of Gossip Girl was also right in front of me watching the show, as well as Ken Downing—the fashion director of Neiman Marcus.
After the show had quieted down a little bit after Kanye’s exit, I got what was probably the best surprise of my time at fashion week—I got to stand just feet away from Anna Wintour. Now, I’m not really one to get very impressed by celebrities (when Kanye was standing next to me, I was more annoyed at the bumping and crowding than anything else), but Anna Wintour is not your typical celebrity. She is the God of Fashion. She decides what stays and what goes. She is the end-all and be-all of style, and she was standing right in front of me! Definitely the high point of my day.
After the presentation, there was a mad rush to set up for the next show since all of the chairs had to be brought back into the venue. We had to secure all of the seats together to keep the rows straight, and again measure all of the chairs to ensure perfection.
Because there was such a small time period to complete all of our tasks, we were rushing to get out gift bags and place cards, and ended up not being able to get all of the place cards out in time, which didn’t cause as much confusion as one would expect.
The Cynthia Steffe show brought celebrities that I was not very familiar with, like Eric West, Jeannie Ortega, and Reshma Shetty. However, I did recognize Alex McCord and Simon Van Kempen from The Real Housewives of New York.
The show commenced and I got to see beautiful look after more-beautiful look go down the runway to the thumping beat (the bass in these venues is like nothing you have ever heard before!). After the show, we cleaned the venue, cleaned the hair and makeup areas backstage, and once again called it a night.
Monday, February 14, 2011
It’s a good thing I didn’t have a valentine this year, because I don’t think there’s any boy that would have been able to compete with Fashion Week. I’ll know he’s “the one” when he can compete with my love of clothes.
On my final day of work, I was placed in the Stage, the second biggest venue, for the Carlos Miele show. I was unfamiliar with this designer before Monday, but he makes absolutely beautiful pieces, and I will definitely be following him from now on.
I had all of the same tasks today as the other days—clean, straighten, place cards, usher, clean hair and makeup—as well as having to replace the gaff tape along the stairs (white tape that is places on the edge of each step so that they can be seen in the dark). This was definitely a time-consuming job, and it made me think about all of the jobs that people have to do that no one even thinks about. Until I was the one measuring out the tape to be perfectly straight, I had never considered the time and energy that went into making the stairs safe.
Though I didn’t recognize any of the celebrities at this show, aside from Ken Downing who I saw at most of them, the show was still fantastic. It was a fabulous finish to my four days at fashion week, and I wish I had been able to stay for longer.
I will never forget the time that I was able to spend at Lincoln Center this February, and I truly hope that I’ll get another opportunity like this in my future. There are no words that can adequately describe my experience (though I know I gave you quite a few), but in the true sense of the word, it was awesome. I was in awe of the people, the clothes, the music, the atmosphere, and everything else around me. It truly was the chance of a lifetime!