What Fashion Week Is Really Like

It’s my sixth time attending New York Fashion Week, and I can confidently say a few aspects of the experience never change. Exhaustion. Adrenaline. A dizzying sense of inspiration.

This season, I was armed with a mini-mic for approaching celebrities, a notes app page primed for trend-spotting and a sense of acceptance that I will seldom look my best. I attended 18 shows and presentations. I stayed at three hotels. I got one tattoo. (Sorry, mom...)

Writing this at the end of it, my immune system has most definitely seen better days, my brain is on low-battery mode and my unread text count is egregious. Here’s a (hopefully coherent) rundown.

Celebrities are out and about

At the Veronica Beard West Village party, I sipped martinis alongside Natasha Lyonne. At the Uniqlo cocktail event, I shook Cate Blanchett’s chic little hand. I even passed Machine Gun Kelly smoking a cigarette outside of the Bowery Hotel!

New York during Fashion Week is like Disneyland for the extremely online. As I write this at a midtown breakfast spot, James Corden is ordering at the table across from me. (Miraculously not getting mad over a yolk-only omelette.) Famous people are everywhere you turn, and refreshingly, no one really cares.

In fact, I feel more star-struck chatting with Amy Odell (author of the new buzzy Gwyneth Paltrow biography) in line at Prabal Gurung than I do sitting across from Katie Holmes at Fforme.

Speaking of Gwyn, she made her return to the Fashion Week circuit this season to promote her new clothing brand…Gwyn, which I find both random—how does this differ from her already-established line G.Label?—and genius.

Take rejection on the chin

I’m no stranger to being turned down by a celebrity at fashion week. (I’ll never shut up about this Chloë Sevigny interaction.) Part of my job is approaching celebs for quippy soundbites—hence the mini-mic—and that, naturally, makes me one of the most annoying people in the room. Still, I persist…

At the Pandora Talisman launch party—where said tattoo was procured—I walk up to Too Much star Megan Stalter and ask if she can answer a question.

“Sorry, she’s not taking interviews,” the person next to her replies. Megan looks apologetic and sweet, and I feel like the worst. I decide to try to salvage the moment by complimenting her hair—she has Pandora clasps braided in—and she, in return, compliments mine. (My freshly-chopped bob is looking particularly sharp.)

I turn away, head held high, and mosey over to a table with edible pink crystals hanging from a tree.

Manage outfit expectations

I’m sort of enjoying the feeling of getting less elaborately stylish at fashion week. This season, I’m an outfit repeater extraordinaire.

I’ve reworn my thrifted culottes, Aritzia tube top and Steve Madden flats an ungodly amount, but I actually like being released from the pressure to turn a look. On the last day, as I rush out the door for the Coach show, I throw on a black COS skirt and ribbed beige Knix top, and I feel good in my breathable, plain outfit. I also can’t go anywhere without my sunglasses, which I wear indoors. (#Diva.) I promise I don’t think I’m better than anyone; it’s just that my eye bags betray me and I’m all too aware that cameras are around.

Case in point: At one unfortunate moment, I’m crouched down on the pavement outside a Brooklyn warehouse at the COS show. I am fishing feverishly through my bag for my notepad, and I realize right next to me is a goddess-like Jodie Turner-Smith posing for photographers. I wonder what those images will look like, though I’m sure I’ll see them on Getty…

Three New York Fashion Week trends

Ultra-drop waists

I’m a sucker for a reference to 1920s silhouettes, and this has been creeping its way back into the zeitgeist with a reimagined 21st-century edge. I spotted the prettiest dress-jacket I’ve ever seen at Prabal Gurung, with a silhouette that billowed at the torso and tightened just above the knees.

Gurung also presented this silhouette through trenches, turning a seasonal staple into a delightfully eccentric statement. I spotted similar drop-waist ideas at Fforme, Tibi and Altuzarra.

Unconventional button-ups

There is a demand for reimagined prep. Perhaps it’s because it brings a sense of structure in a time of turmoil. Whatever the reason, I’ve been loving seeing the way brands have adapted to the button-up state of mind.

Veronica Beard had a great blue design that fastens diagonally for a perfect hourglass silhouette, as did NYC-based brand Lafayette148. And look no further than the buzz over J. Crew—the prep brand to end all prep brands—which held a buzzy kickoff fête filled with partiers in pressed shirts.

Weird brooches

Next time you don’t know how to wear something beautiful, clip it to your lapel. Seriously!

This season, there were spoons at Melke, as well as bait tackle reimagined for clip-on adornment. Dauphinette showed bright beetles scattered across fanciful designs (including the look worn by Vivian Wilson). At Heirlome, detachable fringe pompoms were hanging from supple, well-draped gowns. A new art of adornment is upon us.