Before the After Party...

One of the most frequent questions we get asked is “What’s it like to work with a designer during Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in NYC?”.  The answer is pretty blunt; exhausting. The week is long, tiring, exciting, fun, thrilling and highly educational.  What we took away from working the Betsey Johnson show in the tents was pretty priceless; how to prep for a runway show.  (That and how many cups of coffee it takes to get the shakes, almost pass out and yet remain alert and highly functional for an almost straight 24 hours. This info can also be considered priceless knowledge as well.)

First and foremost, one can never be too prepared when it comes to prepping for producing a runway fashion show.  We generally begin our process with our concept board and end things with an after party, but here is a look at what comes in between.

ONE MONTH BEFORE SHOW:

-Initial concept meeting
-Concept board construction
-Model casting
-PR Push; flyers, social media, invites, emails, etc.
-After party planned

Initial Concept Board

TWO WEEKS BEFORE SHOW:

-Initial model fitting
-DJ meeting and music selection
-Printed items such as swag bag gift certificates designed and send to PR.
-Meetings and/or trial runs with hair stylists and MUA’s

MUA concept board for BFW2011 by Mariolga Pantazopoulos; owner of Define:Beauty

 ONE WEEK BEFORE SHOW:

Thursday Morning: “911” Kits in place (these contain items such as double sided tape, static guard, safety pins, sharpies, hairspray, bobby pins, small sewing kit, steamer, iron & board, glue gun & sticks as well as several other various items)


Thursday Afternoon: Final model fittings


Friday Lunch: Initial runway order decided. Models designated to garments

Model Fitting Pics on Order Board

Friday Afternoon: Styling pieces decided.


Saturday All Day: Pick up all styling items including jewelry, shoes and accessories.


Sunday Morning: Individual model boards constructed (These show what each model is wearing as well as which number each look is in the lineup.  They are placed in front of her 2-3 designated hangers and make life much easier for a dresser.) 

DAY BEFORE SHOW (LATEEEEE NIGHT):

Monday
7:00AM- (directly after a pow-wow and 3 cups of coffee)
Clothes get steamed and hung on racks


10:30AM- Initial packing, phone calls, last minute buyer printouts, and answer the endless amounts of emails.


1:22PM- Lunch, as in a power bar or  a bag of pretzels (This is usually in the car driving around town for the 15 various last minute stops we need to make) and of course... a cup of coffee.


2:49PM- Organizing the accessories with individual model ziplocks (These contain any jewelry, socks, tights etc. that the model will be wearing and are place right behind the model board.)


8:00PM- Last minute “stuff” (and there is always about 9 hours of this…) i.e. more packing, finalizing the lineup, styling items and model boards. This process also includes several large doses of caffeine.

Behind-the-Scenes @ BFW2011. Photo by Tracy Aiguier via Exposure

DAY OF SHOW:

Tuesday
6:15AM- (3 snooze button hits and a vat of caffeine later) Showers


7:02AM- Double check all packing… Get all garments in garment bags. Triple check to make sure nothing gets left behind!


11:00AM- Early call time and arrive at the venue


11:30AM-1:15PM: Unpacking…


12:00PM- Models Arrive. A few last minute fittings. There are always last minute changes to the lineup. 


1:42PM- Meeting with DJ, production team & models for pow-wow and run through of runway show (Of course this never happens "ontime")


3:00PM- Models head to Hair & make-up. Here there is lots of eating candy and drinking coffee to keep the eyelids open from lack of sleep and then… 

Almost time... Photo by Tracy Aiguier via Exposure

7:00PM- SHOWTIME.

9:00PM- AfTeR PaRtY!(We trade our coffee for a cocktail)

1:00AM- zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...


                                                                            xo j+l