New York Fashion Week, branded by Mercedes-Benz, is known to those lucky enough to get invited as their most important event of the year. Held in February and September of each year in New York City, it is a time where fashion comes to life, literally. Designers take a sigh of relief as they watch months of hard work pay off during their eight-minute fashion show. When one thinks of NYC Fashion Week, a lot may come to mind. Flashbacks of old Sex and the City episodes may be recalled, since the four stylish friends revolve their lives around fashion, and specifically, around Fashion Week. In an interview with Access Hollywood, Carrie Bradshaw exclaims, “Watching the runway show was the best,” as the four girls got to attend NYC Fashion Week during the filming of their movie. Clothes, chaos, accessories, models, cameras and lights are just a few of the memorable aspects of each runway show. Aside from the obvious, there is a lot of detail that goes into Fashion Week.
My favorite vital detail of Fashion Week is the seating chart. The amount of time and strategic planning it takes to create the perfect seating chart for each fashion show is definitely underrated. While everyone knows that the front row seats are reserved for celebrities and VIP guests, the strategy that goes into it is often unknown. According to Vanity Fair, the hierarchy of where editors sit comes down to two factors: how involved and supportive that person has been to the brand and the publication’s circulation. Vanity Fair further explains, “The bigger the circulation, the better your seat.”
While watching old episodes of Kelly Cutrone’s “Kell on Earth,” I got a close look to see how stressful the seating chart can be, along with the whole fashion show process in general. Kelly’s goal for her show was to portray what the fashion industry is really like; as in it not being a glamorous job 24/7. As Kelly Cutrone is one of the biggest names in fashion PR, along with the founder and CEO of the legendary People’s Revolution, she is constantly producing fashion shows for some of the biggest designers in the world, including Vivienne Westwood, Valentino, Jeremy Scott and Longchamp. While prepping and planning for her clients’ shows, Kelly and her PR team are also in charge of creating the seating chart. This aspect caused the most stress and chaos during the episodes because if one person is seated out of place, the whole show can be ruined. However, People’s Revolution is a pro at fashion show production. In 2002, People’s Revolution broke the record for the most shows produced on a single day during NYC Fashion Week. Kelly always says that if you are not seated in the first three rows at a fashion show, then you are not important and therefore should not attend the show. The first three rows indicate the top-notch names in fashion.
This year, Fashion Week will be from September 5 to September 12 with shows running as early as 8:30 a.m., to as late as 9 p.m. While there are about 40 fashion weeks held in different cities around the world every year, the Big Four are in New York, London, Milan and Paris. Among the Big Four, New York Fashion Week is the oldest, having been started in 1943 by fashion publicist Elenor Lamber who wanted to give American designers a chance to show their looks. The newest of the Big Four is London. While Fashion Weeks are known as glamorous entertainment and media events, they started out as trade-only events that were open to buyers and manufacturers. Fashion Week has come a long way and continues to become bigger and bigger each year. While the audience just gets to enjoy the finished product, the shows take months of preparation and planning in order to reach success.
