Monday, February 14, 2011

What happens at New York Fashion Week?

Even a simple thought, a mere contemplation of the New York Fashion Week was an intimidating affair. What to pack? What to wear? Where to go? The questions in my mind were literally endless. As I have mentioned in one of my previous LFW reviews, you either dress to shoot or to be shot. Combining the two is a challenge that only the likes of Hanneli  can pull off.

I flew into NYC late Wednesday night and come Thursday morning I was actually questioning whether going to NYFW was a good idea to begin with. To top it all off the weather in NYC was... well ... painful. And when I say painful, I mean actual physical pain of not feeling your fingers and hence not really being able to press the button on your camera!

Therefore the question of 'what to wear?!' disappeared and was replaced with 'what other sweater can I add to my already impressive layer count?'

In reality, all is not as scary as it first seems and if you follow me on Twitter, you already know that Day 1 was a blogger's day from hell - freezing cold weather, harsh light and absolute lack of fashion traffic. I rocked up at the Lincoln Centre at around midday hoping that the action would've kicked off by then. The scene was a miserable one: the only people present outside Lincoln Centre (apart from tourists) were Tommy Ton, Citizen Couture and one other unidentified dude who was there literally just hoping to get snapped for his ridiculous outfit which can be best described as 'an Eskimo on acid hanging at Studio 54'. If it wasnt so cold, I would've expected a tumble weed to make an appearance.

Tommy and Jason were freezing and waiting for at least someone fashionable to walk past. No one did. For at least an hour. By this stage I was getting miserable. By 4 pm everyone dispersed and I left with about 4 photos, 0 of which were good.

Day 2 was much better as people actually started pouring into the Lincoln Centre for the shows. The major difference between NYFW and LFW is that the latter attracts more posers whilst the former is business, business, business. Buyers, editors and sundry others fly in and out of the show ground and only a few would stop to pose for a picture and even if they do, you only have about 3 seconds to get it right.

The building itself contains 4 spaces (Theatre, Stage, Studio and Box) and hence more shows and presentations are held at the main venue. Inside a mayhem of models, photographers and PR people and the overall atmosphere is not as chilled out as at the LFW.

A very interesting point is that NYFW seems to have more presentations than London although catwalk shows obviously still dominate. The presentations seem to involve just as much effort as the catwalk shows and require a production company and the whole shebang of people to organise a 1 hour event. The cost of these events, depending on a number of factors such the size of the team and the venue location, can be anywhere between $50K to $150K.

My Days 3 and 4 where filled with other commitments so unfortunately I did not get to shoot any street style but I managed to attend a number of presentations. I will do separate posts on these, pictures and everything!

Now back in London, I am in anticipation of the LFW and hoping that the nicer weather and a more generous venue layout will make for another fruitful LFW.

1 comments:

the style crusader said...

Ah! I love this post! I'm always interested in how the various fashion weeks compare to London and I absolutely loved reading about your adventures!

Really hope to run into you at LFW! xx