NYFW: Why you should go as an influencer

OMG, I feel like I have been super MIA on the blog lately. I have had so much going on and we are still in the beginning of the year. If you follow along on my social, then you saw that I took on NYFW. This was only my second time attending, and my first time braving the cold NYC weather. I am all about summer and spring weather, but I was surprised that I survived the cold temps.

I wanted to do this post because I have had so many questions in regards to fashion week. I wanted to be transparent, and let you all know my thoughts and whether or not I will ever go again. So, here we go…

WHY GO?!

I think NYFW is a great way to connect with people, brands, and the perfect backdrop to capture content. I can not speak on going to shows, as I have never been to a fashion show during that time. I have had several invites, but attending fashion shows always end up competing with different meetings that I have. For me, attending a PR meeting, meeting with a brand, or connecting with a brand I’ve always admired is a little more important to me than going to a show at this stage in my career. Now don’t get me wrong, if I was invited to Zimmerman, I would be the first person in line watching the show. If I had backstage access where I could meet with the designers , and have a chance to cover the show backstage, I would do that as well.

I highly recommend going to fashion week, but go with a plan in place. Reach out to brands that you have worked with throughout the year and see if you can set up a meeting. Ask to meet up for coffee with any PR that you may have worked with. You are spending money to go to NY, so make sure you are investing in yourself and having a good ROI on your trip as a whole.

At the same time, I think we are all over people promoting the same outfits on Instagram over and over again. NYFW is a great way to see new trends, and fashion shows are the way to get that inspiration. Also, I saw some great street style looks that were inspiring as well. You know how you buy your favorite fashion magazine and crush over all the cute dramatic looks that you know you would never try; well head over to Spring St. in New York because the magazine comes to life with the street style. It is all so perfect, and the photographers are snapping away. Ahmad actually went and shot a few street style looks while we were there, and ended up shooting my blogger mom crush, Sai from @Scoutthecity. Moral of the story is, you can run into anyone on the streets of NY, and or get your picture taken by random photographers.

WILL I EVER GO BACK TO NYFW?!

Let me start off by saying, I use to dream about the day I would go to fashion week. It slowly became more of a realistic goal of mine when I started to take myself and my brand more seriously. Many of you are reaching out asking if you should go, or how do you even get to go (another blog post coming soon about that) and all I can say is you have to make it happen for yourself.

Who am I kidding, of course I am going to fashion week again. It is always already in the books for next September. Me and the girls of #IIC have decided to go later for fashion week and stay longer. We will probably be there when fashion week is over, and no one is even talking about it anymore. We have a few things up our sleeves, but YES, I will be back.

HOW DO I PLAN OUT MY TRIP?!

I use an excel sheet that I created last year and plug in all of my meetings, with the times and addresses to each location. One thing I always seem to forget, and Nikki always reminds me, is to plan out when we are going to eat. The days go so fast between going from location to location, shooting in between, and changing clothes that you forget that you have to eat. This year Ahmad and I went to the local grocery store and bought snacks and water to get us through because we knew we would be on the go.

All in all, I will be there in September and can’t wait for the hustle and bustle life again. It all seems to go by so fast, but I enjoy every second of it. I can’t wait to see what trends and looks I will be wearing, and maybe I will fool myself and get to make it to a great show in September. I vlogged my trip so you can watch it below!