September Fashion Week |NYC

My first [official] NYFW week was this September 2013. I won the opportunity through a grad school writing competition. The prompt: how is social media impacting fashion?

The experience was life-changing. The shows I attended were not sidecar attractions but productions scheduled on the NYFW roster. Though, that was not the life-changing part of this experience. The intensity behind the attendees wanting to show off their curated ensembles; while not caring about the actual fashion show was disappointing yet interesting.

For years I imagined my first official NYFW to be some highbrow merge of Mahogany and The Devil Wears Prada. It was nothing like that. Instead, it was constantly walking with stampedes of people conversing about growing their social media followers, people looking for bloggers to pose for, or influencers (longstanding & emerging) appearing annoyed they “had“ to attend. 

Even when the lights went down, a few front-row girls filmed shows with their phone, never looking up at the runway because they were too busy talking the entire show to the person next to them. 

I remember thinking, what is all this about? 

After the last show, it hit me that social media has made fashion less seductive. The mystery is gone because social media has made fashion accessible to everyone; we are all it girls.