New York Fashion Week (NYFW) is a magical time in both February and September in which designers come to the fashion capital to showcase their best creations for the season. Fashion lovers, bloggers, and influencers alike also flock to the city to view the designer pieces and of course strut their best looks down the concrete runway. But just as quickly as I was preparing for my first spring fashion week, I was packing up my looks to head back home to the nation’s capital. While my time in New York City quickly came and went, I wanted to savor the experience by sharing with my workwear babes all the details of my experience. As a result, here’s my recap of some of my favorite moments from my favorite fashion season of the year.
Similar to Fall NYFW, I arrived in New York early Friday to check into the hotel and to see fellow workwear content creator and friend @corporatecurly for some girl chat and to see what our plans are for the weekend. Prior to the fashion festivities, we had dinner at a really nice restaurant called Electric Lemon. The view and food was absolutely amazing.
Revolve Gallery Designer Showcase and Pop-Up Shop
For the second year in a row, Revolve featured emerging designers and celebrity collections such as Aya Muse, Santa Brands, Andrea Iyamah, Kim Shui, Michael Costello, and LITA By Ciara for display. The interactive experience allowed us to walk through this amazing gallery of fashion from various designers during different periods of time. At the end of the experience attendees were able to shop the looks in the Revolve store. We also ran into a few fashion bloggers/influencers that we recognized on social media and mingled a bit.
SoHo Photoshoot
During our time in the Big Apple, Corporate Curly and I decided to capture NYFW looks with a few street style photography shots. We had a few photographers in mind but decided to go with Marta Skovro. Our experience with her was absolutely amazing and she has a quick turnaround time for photo delivery.
Fashion Bomb Daily and Shea Moisture Fashion Show
Editor-in-Chief Claire Sulmer’s Fashion Bomb Daily hosted a fashion show and event to reveal thirteen emerging and established designers. What I loved about this show is the cocktail reception after the show where we mingled for a bit. Of course celebrities and influencers were there (I saw IT girls Jayda Jayda Cheaves and Dess Dior along with hip hop fashion icon Misa Hylton) but the show atmosphere felt like a fashion event rather than just a typical fashion show. With the previous shows I experienced, you spend maybe 30 minutes or so looking at the fabulous designs coming down the runway without much interaction with other attendees (unless you’re going to an afterparty). The Fashion Bomb Daily show allowed us to meet some really dope black creatives and influencers in the fashion space, which I loved. For more highlights from this event head over to my NYFW highlight on my IG here.
Black in Fashion Council Discovery Showroom
During my last day of fashion week (I know *sigh*), I was able to attend the Black in Fashion Council Discovery Showroom. Black in Fashion is a collective of fashion industry stakeholders focused on increasing representation and the advancement of Black individuals within the fashion industry. As a result, in collaboration with IMG, they provided 10 designers an opportunity to present new collections in an intimate setting with fashion lovers, press and big industry executives.
During this event we were able to view the collections of Madame Adassa, Atelier Ndigo and Harbison Studio. Each designer shared with us there inspiration for the pieces and a little about how they go into the fashion world as a designer.
Madame Adassa, a Los Angeles Fashion Brand that specialized in luxury women’s wear, had beautiful bold pieces for the glamorous woman. Her pieces were absolutely breathtaking.
Atelier Ndigo, collection was very bright and colorful with beautiful patterns and textures. The designer Waina Chancy mentioned her inspo for the collection was inspired by the hibiscus, which I believe is the national flower of Haiti. We also view a few of her pieces during the Revolve Fashion event.
Charles Harbison presented an array of colorful pieces that easily transitioned from day to night. The designer shared with us a few looks featured on celebrities at the Venice Film Festival.
For a full review of all designers showcased at the Black in Fashion Council event, Vogue has a complete write up about the event here.
Overall, NYFW is a really great time that I hope all the fashion girlies have the chance to experience at least once. What I love most about fashion especially now is that it is more diverse than it’s ever been and more people of color get to feel seen. I read recently in an article by Ebony that for the first time in the history of New York Fashion Week, over 28 Black and Brown designers presented or showcased their collections. At every event we attended it was nothing but diverse faces and fashion senses showcasing their best finery for the camera. With each NYFW, I leave feeling super inspired to contribute to fashion in my little workwear space. Having experienced the spring fashion week season, I definitely can’t wait for fall festivities in February of next year.
Things to Consider for the Fall NYFW
I received a few questions on Instagram about what are something I would recommend for other fashion lovers to consider when attending NYFW. Based on my experience and lessons learned, below are a few recommendations I’m keeping at the top of my mind for Fall NYFW.
Think about Hotel Accommodations Early
- We definitely want to get our hotel accommodations early (the girls were back outside and the only hotels left were in Times Square). The location isn’t bad considering that traffic wasn’t too big of an issue for some of our events, but I think we’ll try for the SoHo area since that’s a really nice vibe and close to some of the shows.
Relationships are Key
- One thing I’m really proud of was the relationships I established specifically during the spring fashion week. As a result, I was able to view some really amazing pieces by black designers in private showrooms you only can receive invites for. For instance, we needed an escort to view the pieces and talk to the designers at the Blacks in Fashion Council event because it was not open to the public. Had I not reached out to build connections via Instagrams and other social media platforms. My hope for Fall NYFW is to continue building and nurturing the fashion relationships I established and attending more fashion shows and events throughout the week. Of course I will continue to take you guys on the journey with me.
Would you attend NYFW? Let me know below in the comments.
