This year’s New York Fashion Week began with the chaotic, fun, and annoying Fashion’s Night Out. Created by Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor-in-chief, the event has become a charitable fashion block party spanning Manhattan’s boutiques for two years. A preview of the Missoni for Target collection, celebrity sightings, and free gifts from designer boutiques were just some of this year’s features. Some stores opened their online doors to allow their nocturnal shoppers to buy at home. The event’s aim is to kick-off fashion week by allowing the fashion elite, connoisseurs, and general fashion lovers to come together in a fashion bubble for one night.
I attended my first FNO this year. I began by planning my itinerary on the event’s website, which virtually pinpointed events all over Manhattan. After much deliberation, I decided to head to Fifth Avenue to wander about. Each store has unique personal events, some of which are open to the public and generally stay open to 11:00 PM. I started my trek from Bryant Park, reminiscing on the Old Fashion Week shows I attended there, and walked uptown. The first thing I noticed was a line of women wearing sweater dresses with colorful zigzags on them, tapping their shiny stilettos in impatience. The line went around an entire city block, so I figured this must be some kind of celebrity sighting. My conversation with one cashmere-clad zebra went like this:
-“Excuse me! Don’t cut the line!”
-“Oh, sorry. I just wanted to see what you’re all waiting for?”
-“The Missoni for Target collection preview. Duh! I’ve been waiting for two hours. My ankles are about to break in these Louboutins.”
-“So you can buy things tonight?”
-“No, it’s a preview. I can look at everything and touch it and see the Missoni clan. Maybe I’ll be able to touch one of them.”
She continued to wait for 2 more hours with the rest of the shivering women until the doors opened and a fashion free-for-all began.
Meanwhile, I continued walking uptown cautiously picking which stores to enter. I approached a Sunglass Hut and noticed Chanel Iman, a Victoria’s Secret Angel and international supermodel. She was standing alone, totally uninterested in the buzz she was creating in the room. I guess she was charging up for the “difficult” week ahead, filled with strutting in heels and creations by the best designers in the world. If she was bored, I was, too and after sipping on a weak excuse for a mimosa I took my gift bag and left.
I enjoyed boutiques like Escada, which gave out free pocket watches that you could wear in your photo booth picture that was later screened in Times Square. Fendi had a lovely display of their newest ad campaign’s shoes and accessories. The collection was based on an art teacher, imagined by Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini, who can relax and look chic while working away on a canvas and occasionally splattering some paint on her clothes. All of Fifth Avenue seemed to open its doors for a one-night peek into luxurious fashion. Honestly, the gaggles of fashionistas would be better barricades for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with their sharp heels and menacing studded dresses. The crowds were impenetrable at stores like Versace, where Drake made an appearance. Hundreds of other boutiques celebrated their coolness and fashion consciousness by treating guests to endless champagne, DJs, and raffles all night long. The Night is one of those parties where you wake up with blisters on your feet, free stuff in your bag, and feeling like you’ve unwound one stitch in fashion’s silk screen.
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