Girls Trip to New York - Day Two - Fashion Week

The main focus for our trip (and for our desire to win the trip in the auction) was for the Fashion Week tickets.  Tickets to Fashion Week are HARD to come by -- as in, you really can't get them unless you know someone.  So an opportunity to go to Fashion Week was something that we didn't want to pass up.  The auction item was to include tickets within the first six rows of two shows in one day -- one well known design, one up and coming designer.  We were to contact a company and their representative would be in charge of getting us our tickets.

Being the two highly-type A people that Mom and I are we wanted the tickets nailed down ASAP.  We wanted to know which show we were going to see so that we could plan our outfits around that and so that we would be sure that we could get in.  However, Fashion Week is made up of designers which (this is just a generalized assumption here) aren't the most type-A personalities in the world.  So the final schedule for Fashion Week wasn't released August 5th.  Once that schedule came out we were asked to rank the shows that we wanted to go see on the days that we were available.  We had already scheduled air and hotel arrangements so our dates were fixed, we were going to shows on Tuesday or Wednesday.  So that you can get a feel for what was going on those two days this was our list of shows that we would have liked to have seen on Tuesday and Wednesday only:

Vera Wang - 9/14

Badgley Mischka - 9/14

Tory Burch - 9/15

Milly - 9/15

Tibi - 9/14

Luca Luca - 9/14

Elie Tahari - 9/14

Michael Kors - 9/15

Nanette Lepore - 9/15

Max Azria - 9/14

I mean it's not like there were no designers those days or that we had chosen any lesser known designers! We wanted to go to the best!  After a nerve-wracking few weeks we were contacted by our contact on August 23rd letting us know that we had some options.  Apparently the auction item was for a certain dollar amount for ticket prices as opposed to two of any shows.  We could go to two shows where we knew one designer and hadn't heard of the other or we could go to the Badgley Mischka show by itself since tickets for that show alone would reach the price limit.  We decided to go to Badgley Mischka only since the lesser known designers had more offbeat clothes that we weren't sure that we would really be interested in and the shows wouldn't be back to back which would leave us kind of stuck in the Lincoln Center area for a few hours in between shows.  Once that decision was made and confirmed we were able to relax and get ready for our day!

Mom in the taxi on the way to Lincoln Center

So Tuesday morning we woke up bright and early to a beautiful, perfectly clear day.  The rain had gone away and left fantastic temps (low 70's) with not a cloud in the sky.  We had been instructed to arrive at Lincoln Center no later than 9:30 AM for the 10 AM show and since we didn't want to be late and were unfamiliar with taxi times we left the hotel around 8:30ish.  We made it to Lincoln Center around 9 and walked around for a few minutes.  At 9:15 we texted our contact, Julia Allison (who I didn't realize was so famous until I googled her to find a link for this post!) that we were at the fountain ready to be picked up.  At 9:30 when we hadn't heard back and we were getting more nervous (remember, we didn't have our tickets -- this person was escorting us in -- and I am very type A) I called and left her a message and then called our previous contact who had given us Julia's information.  We finally heard from Julia around 9:45 with her saying that she would get us around 10:10. 

WHAT?!?!? We had been told the show started at 10! 

Julia reassured us that the show wouldn't start until 10:20 or 10:25 and told us to head inside and meet her at the DHL booth.  We wondered how we were going to get past the big security guards but we just walked up and I kind of waved my iPhone since I knew that Fashion Week had gone to electronic tickets this year and they let us through.  When we walked in I was kind of taken aback.  I thought that since they had moved to Lincoln Center that the tents were gone, but it turns out they just put the tents at Lincoln Center instead.  We were immediately in this huge tent with all of these booths giving away (I'm assuming since I was too chicken to check them out) free stuff. 

Taken from the fountain this is where we went in to Fashion Week

And this is the main tent area where you checked in and got your seat assignment and could get SWAG.  The media had a station in the center where they could send in reports.

So Mom and I waited at the DHL booth and then Julia's assistant came and found us.  She explained that Julia would be escorting us in to the show as VIP's.  She also explained that the doors to the shows open at the time on the schedule (in our case 10 am) and that the shows don't actually start until about half past.  Good information to know that we could have used beforehand! I guess the next time we go to Fashion Week (haha!) we can use it!

Then Julia came up and I guess I still wasn't expecting a newsperson.  I was expecting some behind the scenes agent who worked for the company that was setting this up I guess but Julia walked up in a blue dress and a mic and looked perfectly done up and I instantly felt even more frumpy than I had felt previously! But she was really nice and told us all about FW while leading us back to the show.  We bypassed all of the lines and had to stop and let some photographers get shots of her on our way in -- it was pretty neat! 

Once we walked in to the theater (which is where this particular show was held) I was again amazed at the tents.  There was just this whole building made out of tents and the theater was huge!  Julia told us that the theater is the biggest area for a show and that Badgley Mischka was one of the biggest shows.  She confirmed what we knew, that it was a classy show with stars attending that tended to be classier than some.  She showed us to our seats and we were floored that we were on the fourth row right in the middle!  Once we sat Julia left us and we just took it all in!

The program listing all of the designs names and colors and order was in our seats along with giving recognition to those that worked on the different parts of the show.

From our seats.  The people standing are standing on the runway.

At the end of the runway the photographers were set up.  Julia told us that it is brutal to be a photographer at FW and sometimes they leave shows with their arms all scratched up by other photographers trying to take their spots.  When we left we noticed these tiny (like 1 foot by 1 foot) squares taped off on the floor with companies names on them which is I guess each company's assigned spot.  It was crazy!

To give you a small perspective of the theater.  There are people standing behind all the seats.  There were three (or four?) sections on each side that were pretty much full.  The photographers were on the far left (from our seats and this picture) and backstage was on the far right (from this picture).  There was also an area set up in the corner with chairs also.  You can see Denise Richards (red dress), Kristin Cavallari (black jacket two to the left of Denise), and Gabrielle Union (to the left of Kristin) all on the front row in this picture.

Kelly Rowland was on our side of the theater in the section closest to backstage

Denise Richards was directly across from us only on the front row.  It was crazy watching the press photograph and film the stars.  They kept making them stand up for more pictures and posing them together. 

You can see the stars directly across from us better.  From L to R: Gabrielle Union, Kristin Cavallari, maybe Denise's assistant?, Denise Richards

In our seats and waiting for the show to start!

Once it was time to begin (it was almost 10:30, Julia was right!) guards came and pulled plastic back off of the runway.  Then the music started and a huge screen started projecting images of flowers behind the runway.  And then the show.....

Most of these pictures are from the finale.  Since we didn't go through the line I never saw if there were signs saying that photography wasn't allowed but I realized almost as soon as the show started that there were tons of people take pictures during the show.  So I got some pictures during the finale.  Mom and I were blown away during the show by how SKINNY the models were.  Seriously, they all needed to eat about five cheeseburgers after the show!  And their walk seemed so painful.  They were leaned back at their waist and stepping hard on their five and six in platform shoes.  It looked painful just to walk up and down the runway.  There were no smiles either. 

As soon as the show started I realized how glad I was that we had gotten to go to this show.  It was one of the biggest so that was neat but also, the clothes were beautiful.  Things that if I had a place to wear them and the money to buy them I would like to own.  Beautiful dresses that were flowy and in fun colors (this is the Spring 2011 collection, remember) and with such beautiful details.  I love the flowers that are attached to dresses (you know, pieces of fabric) -- there were lots of those in the clothes.  Everything was beautiful also the fact that every model had hair that was flat at the top but a few inches down became frizzed was an interesting choice.  The show was quick -- it was over in 15-20 minutes and once it was over everyone left quickly but it was so much fun and such a great experience! 

In case you want more info about the Badgley Mischka show that we attended you can watch a summary of the show here, you can see the Getty Images of the show here,  you can see images of the stars on the front row here,  and you can see photos of the models and a lot of the designs here.

I also apologize for the quality of some of these pictures.  Some were made with my iPhone.