I wasn't sure what exactly I was going to be doing at this show. (I had only signed up two days before) This made me really nervous but excited at the same time. I had always dreamed about going to Fashion Week in New York but I never had the opportunity.
As the day approached, I started thinking in my head what I was going to wear. There were obviously some rules on appearance. We could only wear all black. No Jewelry. No "crazy" hair colors. You basically had to look stylish but without many options. This is how it is for most Fashion Week shows. In my opinion, all black always looks stylish so I wasn't complaining. I went with a black chiffon top and simple black leggings. For shoes I went with my black high top converse. (being comfortable is a must)
When the big day came I got up really early for the 7am shift. I'm used to waking up early for class but never that early. Surprisingly I was really awake that morning..it was probably the excitement. We took a short cab ride to Milk Studios on 15th street and then walked the area to find a coffee shop... there was nothing around which was very surprising. We ran back to the studios and went up to the second floor. The building was so modern with a lot of windows and brick walls. There was even a small cafe area with complimentary coffee and food. We met with the leader of our volunteer group. She was so nice and explained what we were going to do. We then had to unpack all the garments, steam them and get them ready for all of the models. The models came in and we dressed them for a test run of the show. I've never been around such gorgeous and skinny human beings. I was scared that they would be snobby and mean (I'll admit, I believed the stereotypes) but they were actually beyond nice and very smart.
After the test run, we grabbed something to eat then ran back to get all of the models dressed. We quickly buttoned, zippered and layered each piece. As soon as they got dressed and lined up, the makeup artists, hair stylists and photographers came in and started fixing their makeup and hair. It was getting really crowded in that small room. The bright flashes and loud noises didn't help. I'm sure that the models are used to it though. They were all on their phones as if this wasn't a huge deal.
Showtime came around and the models lined up again then headed out onto the runway. From the backstage we couldn't really see the runway but we could see them walk out then walk back in. They all were really confident and looked great. The show turned out awesome, everyone loved it.
We started cleaning up all of the clothing and trash and I turned around and saw Dascha Polanco from Orange is the New Black. I freaked out. Being that it's one of my favorite shows, I had to meet her and take a picture.
I had a great experience at NYFW and I hope I can volunteer and eventually work at more shows in the future. Thank you to Houghton and Milk Studios for giving me this once in a lifetime opportunity.
I will be posting more pictures and my thoughts on the looks in another post :)
