New York-London-Milan-Paris Fashion Weeks
I sometimes wonder as people scan through the collections from fashion weeks, if they know the insomnia and crazy life that goes with the New York-London-Milan-Paris madness cycle. For a model, the whole 4 weeks or so can be a traumatic test of stamina and sanity, tact and diplomacy and the basic ability to not trip, slip nor walk into walls.
It all starts in New York, bright in the buzz and noise that only Manhattan has, feeling tingles seeing the sidewalk signs flashing “Don’t Walk” ominously on the way to the first show. Bryant Park tents, the center for many years of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, shine bright welcoming the earnest busy buyers, the laden pole faced press and feted celebs while smart security keep some of the tryers on and the occasional crazies at bay. Soon the days of old Bryant will be over with the move to Lincon centre. Shame in many ways it will be moved, as I love the area there with open space outside to move and sit and have a drink.
The economic climate is hitting the fashion industry but this year MB Fweek struck out with the Fashion’s Night Out theme with many events sending out the message of fashion, fun and ooo yes go buy clothes sometime!!! For us it was really fun, both officially and unofficially and the traffic stopping mass model shoot, was awesome:))
Poor lovely unique London, squeezed out in the schedules and always viewed as the bottom of the rung of the 4, but this year it really tried to wave its flag and is beautifully unique still.
LFW always has a centre and this season it was not as in the past at the Natural History Museum out to the west, but in the heart of the city at Somerset House. I have mixed feelings about this too, for I loved before if there was a spare moment to go into labyrinthine Museum and lose myself with real gnarly dinosaurs, away from the fashion ones.
Somerset house though is right by the magnificent Thames and beautiful to sit out in the cafe behind or walk onto Waterloo bridge where there is just the best view of London! Trumped up as the spectacular finale of LFW, Burberry went to great lengths to make their London show (instead of Milan) spectacular and it was. I thought I knew London fairly well but out at Chelsea college is this amazing huge parade ground and the show was held there as dusk approached and had we been outside, the glare from the ever fierce Anna Wintour at some of the “celebs” she had to sit with on the front row, would have lit the night sky.
Milan was all over the place not just physically but just did not have the show buzz that it has some other years and lots of the usual faces did not show up. Some great fun when we could though, in between and after shows and some lunatic bike rides as only the Italians know how!
Paris – always the best. It is not just that my heart is in that city but it is THE week as far as most in the industry are concerned. Milan may ooze style but Paris oozes pure purring passion. There is also real space to breathe in beautiful, so beautiful, Paris.
To stand at the Louvre and look all the way along the Tuileries and out to La Defence, is just so wonderful and one feels a freedom similar to when escaping into Central Park in MADhattan. Unlike NYC and London, there is no central place really to PFW and shows are spread throughout the city but many are in gorgeous sumptuous central locations not far from “model central”, the area where many of our agencies are, north of the Tuileries gardens.
The Musée de l’Homme is up at the Trocadero and the enormous Eiffel stands across the river, but looks as if it is by ones feet with the vista of southern Paris in the background and it never fails to move me deeply. If you are ever in Paris stand there and just soak it in or even better book a table at the Cafe de l’Homme and eat and drink wine and let the beauty and love in Paris fill your heart.
Just a walk away (or zoom away if dashing between shows), around the corner is the really interesting Palais de Tokyo with its lovely cafe at the side. One day when there in full fashion frenzy, the normal street market was also on and the public stared amused as we came out and a van with a tannoy happened to be passing yelling out publicising a circus coming to town – so apt:)).
A longer walk but a lovely one if time, is down into Jardin de Tuileries to the Espace Ephémère Tuileries where more shows were held, in basically a large tent on the white dust that gets everywhere on shoes in the glorious gardens (full of 10ft face sculptures at the moment!). Along the gardens towards the Louvre, tucked down below in the depths and for some reason not known it seems to many visitors, are the rooms in the Le Carrousel du Louvre where yet more shows are held – just beware if you need a pee in the main centre down there, it costs a euro or two!
The main lurch for us this year to get to some of the shows, was all the way out to the Halle Freyssinet near Chevaleret. A stress to get to in the traffic sometimes and in no way a beautiful place, but inside the halls plenty of room for some of the big shows like Valentino.
Perhaps the most glorious of settings were in the Grand Palais and Luios Vuitton in the courtyard by the Louvre. Paris has a grandeur laced with beauty and not gravitas and inspires the happiness in the heart and song in the soul.
Daily life during fashion weeks is utter and complete madness. There are fittings, rehearsals, the actual shows, other castings, texts, calls, changes, confusions, running lates, shoots, meet and greets, post show events, other random events, agency chats, launches, parties (official and unofficial) and very little sleep. A day can sometimes start with getting up at 6am after finally sleeping at 2am. A show is: arrive, hair/makeup, photo photo, dress, photo photo, get checked, photo photo, line up, go out, mad crazy change with people helping whip clothes off and new ones on for second look, check, line up, go go go, back, all out for finale, back, get changed into the normal clothes as quick as possible, no time to take show make up off, out the door, scan past the photographers looking for my transport, on the phone trying to contact the driver, people all around, dashing to the car or bike and away, sometimes long before the audience has emptied out, straight to next show – hair/make up…etc!
There are fashion shows and there are fashion “shows”. See Chanel in the hay for example and for something different see Viktor and Rolfe and also Gareth Pugh, an Englishman abroad – love it or hate it, but this is Paris, this is excitement and this is life:)
