Sep
2019
Make it fashion: Recap of NYFW SS20 Days 1 & 2
It’s always been a dream of mine to go to a real fashion show.
I feel like high school fashion shows are a regular thing that everyone does, and although it’s just a measly fundraiser, I always took it so seriously. I’ve always been one to splurge on labels and brands and try to be fashion forward, so even when I was in Grade 12 and had our grad fashion show, I still went over the top with it.
When I was in college and university, I remember thinking that it would be a dream of mine to go to Toronto Fashion Week, never even considering that any of the major fashion weeks would be in the cards to me. Until this year.
When I found out that my boyfriend was doing his fellowship in New York City for a year I instantly thought of all the fun things I could see and do while I was here, and one of those fun things was New York Fashion Week (NYFW).
NYFW happens every September and February and the collections are typically for the next season. So the September week is for spring/summer of the following year and February is for fall/winter of that year. When I was booking my trips out here to visit I definitely put September on my list since the beginning of the month marked NYFW SS20, and now friends, it’s finally here.
I’ll be doing a full post on how I planned my week and all the effort that went into getting invites (hint: start pitching early!), but before then I wanted to provide some recaps on what I saw and did.
NYFW officially starts on Friday, September 6 and goes to the following Friday, September 12, however, there were a ton of events happening starting at the beginning of the week. My official NYFW (I can’t believe I get to say that!) started on Tuesday when I headed to the DryBar in the Upper East Side first thing to get a blowout. I have never been to DryBar before but always wanted to go and it was so nice to sit there and have my hair washed and styled.
From there, I made my way to the All Things Mochi presentation at The Standard East Village. All Things Mochi was founded in 2013 and is a colourful collection that draws its inspiration from the cultures and communities where each individual collection is born. The presentation, which was held in a loft at The Standard East Village, showcased their Philippines Collection and was full of tropical, colourful prints and designs that took reference from the many beautiful islands of the Philippines.
This line is definitely my kind of style and the clothes were very resort-worthy. As soon as the elevator doors opened up, you were transported into a tropical paradise thanks to the drummers and the motifs throughout the showroom. The models stood on risers complete with tall grass, and as you walked outside, you were given beautiful 360-degree views of the Manhattan skyline with a bar that served up tropical-inspired drinks.
From there, I headed to Spring Studios, which is where most of the shows take place and made my way to Gallery II for the RIZHOU show, which was part of TMall China Cool runway shows, which showcased heritage and emerging Chinese designers at NYFW.
I had been invited to all four shows (PEACEBIRD, THREEGUN, SONGTA and i-am-chen, and RIZHUO), but I only had time to take in the last one, RIZHUO, which was at 6 p.m. The collection at RIZHUO is designed by Luijan Zhang and was contemporary women’s wear that portrayed the brand’s peaceful attitude towards life. There was a lot of loose, structured shapes and minimal colours; lots of black and beige. Truthfully, I found the whole collection to be very samurai and loved the simplicity of the styles.
On Thursday, I started my day in the afternoon with the L’AGENCE presentation. L’AGENCE is a California-based label which merges laid-back Cali influence with the timelessness of Parisian fashion. Their pieces are very effortless and timeless and definitely items that you can have in your wardrobe for many years.
The collection was so beautiful and had tons of floral and leopard details and menswear-inspired styles; there were so many everyday pieces that I would love to incorporate into my wardrobe that can easily be dressed up or down.
From there I made my way to the Tula party, which celebrated their new Rose Glow & Get It Cooling & Brightening Eye Balm (preorder it here and use code SHAYNA for 20% off!). I love the original Glow & Get It balm so I was so excited to see they released a new version, which has the same ingredients but also has rose hip oil, which is a plant-based retinol alternative, as well as rose water, which hydrates, softens and tones skin.
The party was so fun and they gifted us the eye balm and a cute bag which they customized for us at the party.
After the party I headed to the Afffair runway show at Spring Studios. Afffair is designed by Azerbaijani fashion designer Rufat Ismayil. The pieces were very statement making, but feminine. There was lots of mesh detailing with sparkles, as well as confetti-like textures layered with sparkles and mesh and feathers. The collection was so beautiful and every piece that the models wore was jaw dropping.
Other blogger friends had mentioned to me that fashion week was chaotic and it definitely has been since it seems like the events and shows are all other the place. I will say that the days have been flying by and I’m definitely trying to just take everything in and fully experience it.
Today is a busy one and I have a few shows tomorrow and fun events as well. Make sure you follow along on my Instagram to see all the fun stuff I get up to.
Have you been to a fashion week before?
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