Team YLFWe’re back home after spending a week in New York attending Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. It was an absolutely brilliant experience even though we worked our buns off (starting our day at 7.30am and ending it well past midnight). Getting back to the hotel a couple of times a day to sift through photographs and write up thoughts was tiring, but exhilarating nonetheless. It was definitely the best way to go about covering our experiences so that you could follow them almost in realtime.

The best part of Fashion Week was being there with Greg. We work well together, love each other’s company and have fun during the process. We were often the only people laughing and smiling along with the security crew — after all, a day without laughter is a wasted day.

The next best part was attending the shows. The anticipation of what’s about to come down the runway amidst the cameras, lights, blaring music and a few hundred other fashion-focused onlookers was extremely exciting. My heart raced at the start of each collection. And I couldn’t wait to interpret what I saw in the form of a blog post a few hours later. I was really in my element. Dianna of the Budget Babe took this picture of us on the runway after the last show we attended and the look on our faces says it all: tired, but happy.

Unfortunately we missed two shows on the first day because our flight was cancelled thanks to the blizzards in NYC. But we had our fill of fab fashion shows and I’ve come back loving two designers I knew very little about before the trip (Georges Chakra and Thuy Diep).

This was our first fashion week and we applied for a press pass somewhat late in the game. As a result, we didn’t get invitations for some of the bigger name shows. Next time we go we’d like to also see designers like Vera Wang, Carolena Herrera, Philip Lim, Donna Karan and Michael Kors. We hope that our coverage over the last week helps to secure these invitations.

It was also loads of fun to soak in the fashion off the runway, especially in the front few rows of each fashion show. The tents are filled with people who want to be recognized for their style and passion for fashion. People watching certainly made waiting in line for show registration a lot more entertaining. Never a dull moment.

Audience

Finally, I got a real kick out of seeing hundreds of cameras on the media riser at each show. It really brought home the magnitude of the event.

All in all our time at Fashion Week was a sublime experience and I’m already thinking about the next one. London or Hong Kong perhaps? We hope you enjoyed fashion week along with us. Normal YLF programming will resume on Monday.

In case you didn’t follow the posts last week, here is a convenient list. On the runway:

Off the runway: