5 Things I Wish I Knew Before My First NYFW

Hey lovely, thanks for popping in! So you’re thinking about going to your first NYFW? Or maybe you’re just curious what it’s like to go? Well, you’re in luck. Let’s run through 5 things I wish I had of known for my first New York Fashion Week. Now, I’m not going to say I know everything…because, trust, I don’t. However, I do want to share with you the biggest takeaways I learned during my first NYFW for Spring 2020. Let’s do this!

#1: Wear Your Comfiest Sneakers

Everyone always says you’ll walk A LOT. What they don’t say is A LOT is an understatement! Unless you’re willing to blow your entire trip budget on cabs/Ubers/Lyfts then you’ll want to buy a week’s pass for the subway and book it around town that way. This means wearing layers to shed (if it’s hot out) and a large tote to carry your cute shoes, a potential outfit change for shooting, and all your other necessities in (aka: camera, deodorant, mattifying powder, protein bars, etc). My feet literally felt like death for 3 days after I got back home, so don’t try to show people like you can walk the walk on the streets…other than for photoshoots. Trust me…you can’t and DON’T want to. The streets are also super dirty and uneven, which makes it near impossible to walk on in any sort of heel. Long story short, bring the sneaks! 

#2: Bring a Large, Light Weight Tote

This is something I didn’t pack and immediately regretted. If you’re planning on doing a lot of outfit/shoe changes, you’ll want to pack a disposable or light weight tote. Luckily, my travel buddy, Kelsie had an extra disposable one, but the handle broke after a couple of days due to being weighed down so much (whoops!) so I had to purchase one at Nordstrom Rack, which worked beautifully! Considering it takes a solid 20-30 minutes to get almost anywhere in Manhattan, you may not always have time to run back to your hotel or AirBnB in between each outfit change, event, meeting, etc. Sooooo, having an oversized tote will come in major handy! Linking some of my recommended ones below. 

#3: Don’t Overpack Your Schedule

As I was planning my schedule for NYFW, I was shooting to have 2-3 meetings/events/shows per day. However, I quickly realized even THAT was overpacking my schedule for my first trip. I’d goal yourself at having 1-3 calendar items per day. Any more than that, you won’t have any time to do the things you also want to do, like photoshoots, sight see, or you know…EAT?!

Make sure you give yourself enough buffer time between the things you have scheduled too. You’re navigating a new city that’s significantly more busy and packed than most and you want to leave yourself a little time to breathe and figure things out. I definitely recommend taking the subway, but it can be difficult to figure out. The trains all run north to south, so if you need to go East to West or visa versa, then that will mean hopping on and off multiple trains. We started to finally get the hang of it by our last day or so, but it can definitely help travel time and lower travel costs! Use Google Maps!!! It will be your saving grace to figure out the fastest way to get where you want to go. 

#4: Shows Are Great, But Not Your #1

While I definitely wanted to get a real NYFW show, it wasn’t my biggest to do while there. If you’re a blogger/influencer and you’re going to NYFW in hopes of building your business, shows are probably not going to be your saving grace. I personally focus a lot of hair and fashion content, so I made sure to let all brands I had previous contact with know that I’d be in town. This way if they were going to be in town too or had offices in NYC, we could set up a quick face to face to help further build our business relationship. I ended up having 3 meetings like this and found each one of those face to faces absolutely invaluable! (See BTS video at the bottom of this post) It will help put you top of mind when they’re planning their next campaign, because you took the time to meet vs just chasing shows.

I would also recommend searching out private brand events. This is something while planning out our calendars, we didn’t know was much of a thing! Many brands will host small events/cocktail hours/etc to showcase their newest season’s line! We went to one of these and soon realized they’re a VERY big thing during NYFW and a fantastic way to network with other bloggers and the marketing contacts from said brand.

#5: GPS Radar App

The GPS Radar App/Site is where the majority of the tickets to shows are held. By having this, you’ll already show up on brand’s “radar” to potentially be invited to shows. What we didn’t know, is that you NEED to use your business e-mail when you are applying, aka “@frizzandfrillzz.com” NOT “@gmail.com”. Both Kelsie and I made this mistake and immediately were denied, so we had to appeal with our business email addresses from our blogs and that took up the week of NYFW before we were finally accepted into the platform. Earlier is better here and stay on top of it. At least once you’re in the first time, you’re in for all additional seasons to come. 

PS- Here’s a fun video I made, so you can experience first hand what my Fashion Week looked like each day! Hope you enjoy and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss out on any of my next adventures!