baby’s 1st fashion week.

anna shot by tommy tom

i can’t maintain a blog focused on brand, image, & fashion without writing about my first real experience with new york fashion week. while i am by no means a fashion insider, i am fortunate to have lovely and stylish friends who are – and through them, found myself in the middle of, as one writer put it, “the beautiful mess that is fashion week.”

i jokingly tell my friends that i love their jobs. who wouldn’t? i found myself in the 2nd and 3rd rows of the christian siriano and davidelfin shows, respectively, sipping moet at events with the ‘impossibly hip,’ attending openings, among other fashion week delights. i enjoyed all of this, while only having to remember what time i needed to show up. i experienced none of the pressure, chores, and drudgery of actually working in fashion.

there are terms in psychology regarding motivations: they are either implicit and explicit and affect how we feel about what we do. for instance, until about the age of 20, i was destined to be a virtuosic cellist and/or pianist. groomed since the tender age of 6, i practiced, auditioned, and was otherwise chained to these instruments in order to refine my musical skills. while i loved music, practicing felt like a chore. i was explicitly motivated by outside influence, which negatively affected my desire and love to play music. today, i love attending as many concerts, recitals, and operas as i can and play in chamber music and orchestra groups for fun. fun being the operative word, because i am implicitly, or internally, motivated to pursue my hobby.

social psychology lessons aside, i found in the past year that fashion is perhaps one of the most unglamorous industries in which to work {those poor interns passing out wwd in the cold!}. Experiencing it this week on my own accord, unrelated to my job, was blissful. living in new york, this is funny because everyone wants to work in fashion. however, like anything else, it’s a business, and typically, the top 1% gets to have all the fun. i sat next to a reporter from new york magazine at the siriano show on day 2 of fashion week. already she was tired, hot, miserable, complaining. today, the last day of the shows {and the last held at bryant park}, attendees at the davidelfin show looked tired and haggard; i swear i saw more flat shoes than ever before. for me, i’ve never felt cooler striding into the bryant park tents donning my best attempt at stylish garb, or happier sauntering around parties, bubbly in hand.

in fashion, most people are tirelessly working behind the scenes so that we, the outsiders, see only the gleaming veneer of glamour. boxes must be packed, orders filled, cars ordered for celebrity guests, scenery struck down, models directed, and so on and so forth. most of my friends were very much lacking in sleep and food {side benefit: heroin chic}. keep in mind, all of this is after the clothes have been conceived, designed, and produced.

a look from marchesa fall 2010

and let’s not forget about the clothing. we get lost in the inherent theatrics surrounding all of these fashion week events, but oh goodness: it’s really about the clothes. at the temperley london show, pieces were shown on mannequins displayed among old norman parkinson photographs from the 1960s. one could touch and examine the garments, which provided the opportunity for happy little discoveries of the designer’s technical expertise. one jacket, for example, which looked like a slightly fancy tuxedo jacket in soft pink, was found to be made out of a single piece of continuous fabric. incredible. this is why fashion isn’t fundamentally glamorous: it is a labor-intensive, grueling process where only a very select few of extraordinarily talented craftsmen  rise to the top – just like in any other art.

one of my fash pack friends says that the inner workings of the fashion industry seem so unglamorous for the very reason that we expect it not to be; the juxtaposition is stark. people in fashion work very hard, fight for good pay, and deal with utterly intense, cutthroat competition. however, i’m incredibly glad they do, because what we fashion fans get in return is a whole universe of fantasy in which to play during fashion week, and continue to do so the other 51 beautiful weeks of the year.

snapshot.

i have a confession to make: this is not my first blog. in fact, it’s my third. my 1st was an attempt at somehow dealing with the fact that i lived in the midwest. i deleted it upon moving to manhattan. my 2nd was founded on good intentions, but ended up reading like unfocused flitty chick lit.

i do want to carry over my weekly snapshot of general pop culture + fashion + nyc inspiration from my 2nd blog [unabashedly borrowed from the hip & witty ladies at nogoodforme.com]. given that my passions are focused on the ever-shifting nature of cultural zeitgeist, i like to think my contribution holds some value.

so here we are – the snapshot for this week:

listening: lady gaga ‘the fame monster’ [this will get old very quickly, but allow me my candy-coated pop indulgences], mayer hawthorne ‘a strange arrangement,’ beatles ‘white album,’  mozart sinfonia concertante + bruckner 4th symphony at lincoln center

watching: 30 rock, the office [for what has agreed to be the last time. lost its magic.], garance dore video of jalouse shoot at the chelsea hotel, youtube videos of old muppets sketches, paris, je t’aime

reading: this month’s bazaar, v magazine [awesome], william gibson’s pattern recognition, the business of fashion; bling vs. fierce via times online uk; new york times dining & wine

eating: squash soup, tuna tartar, carmalized-banana-chocolate-berry-dessert-decadence at the bar in jean-georges nougatine [columbus circle]; four prix fixe menus shared among four women at apiary [east village]; excellent rustic italian at emporio [soho]

wearing: black leggings, black cowboy boots, cobalt blue sweater dress, cocktail rings, rabbit fur ascot, black burberry trench

wanting: more sleep, mom’s cooking, frye engineer boots, smartphone upgrade

the importance of being branded

due to no fault of our own, we as human beings like to put everything that crosses our senses into a category. we are labelers. we do it so often, in fact, that our minds have developed what are called “heuristics” to categorize our surroundings quickly, easily, and superficially.

savvy people and companies understand this fact so well that they develop a simple & digestible message about themselves. that way, our short attention spans are instantly sated. examples of this peculiarity are innumerable: a stylishly dressed young woman who consistently shows up at hot spots becomes a mysterious “it girl” without any sort of credentials; an insurance company uses a small amphibian to attract young people with its quirkiness; adding “geek” to a title lends credibility to electronics repairmen.

those people who consider themselves “above” image are just as prone to its implications as those who subscribe to it. first, anything anti-trend inevitably becomes trendy. second, by dressing, acting, or buying products that one believes is contrary to image, one is carving out a “category,” and thus, a brand. that being said, image is not superficial. image is the substance by which all human communication is based. we receive and transmit who we are and what we like [i like that = i'm like that] to the world through our choices in fashion, music, occupation, diet, neighborhood, education, and so on.

i’ve started this blog because i am fascinated by this phenomenon of human nature. i’m also victim to it, which makes the aim to understand myself as well. i’m fortunate enough to live in one of the most innovative cities in the world, where one simply needs to walk outside to see what’s newest.

the past year for me has been major, and it’s contributed greatly to my ability to embrace and study trends with a fervor bordering on obsession. i moved to chelsea, in manhattan, an inspiring and avant-garde neighborhood; i rely on my friends, who i consider trendsetters in style and taste; and i joined a consultancy that specializes in brand strategy, design, marketing, innovation, experience.

in the past few months, i’ve become very aware of the importance of fashion. to me, it is the embodiment of basic human needs: novelty, acceptance, attention. i hope to write often about fashion and style’s role in image/brand (personal or corporate).  i was once part of the “it’s what’s in my head, not what’s on my body that counts” camp, but [and i'll explore this in another post] it can be one of the most reflective aspects of a person. thus, fashion/style can be just as calculated and influential as a multi-million dollar corporate brand strategy.

i hope this blog proves to contribute to a broader discussion. feel free to comment away. i’m looking forward to how my blog [my voice] will change and evolve, just like all other aspects of our rich and cultured society.