Not Your Average Day

Fashion Week in NY begins! My day started with a special event for only 70 students with designer Dries van Noten. He won the 2009 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion by The Couture Council of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. He agreed to accept the award on the condition that he would be allowed to speak to some students (love him for that!!). This school is amazing - the resources are unbelievable. I feel so fortunate to be included in the select few who got to witness this designer answering our questions in an intimate setting. We took a group picture with him and I feel like it was an incredible kick off to the whole school year.

Master of color, Dries van Noten

Anna Wintour, Editor in Chief of Vogue (genius) took an idea from White Night in Paris and generated support from Mayor Bloomberg to have an evening devoted to fashion which could boost the economy of the fashion industry. 700 retailers stayed open until 11 PM and celebrities and designers were on hand for an amazing night of shopping, celebrating and fashion! Fashion's Night Out became a worldwide event with several major cities participating. The fashion industry in NY is second only to finance in the number of people it employs. Helping the whole industry is a fantastic idea, and a huge undertaking. I think they pulled it off beautifully.

I went to Barneys (first time) and they had so many things going on, I never even made it to another store. Champagne and hors devours were on every floor although it was so busy I never managed to get a glass! It was overwhelming even getting inside the store because there were people filming and cameras just waiting for celebrities to enter.

Venus Williams was out shopping with her mom. She seemed unfazed by the madness.

Jonathan Adler demonstrating his pottery methods

In the cosmetics department this gentleman asked to "borrow my eyes" and then he did a mini makeover for me. It wasn't until I was done and walked away that I saw some girls taking pics with him and realized he was on the program bill - Claudio Riaz, "Brush Guru!" Had a good conversation with him about how he got into the biz. He says he is possibly the only straight married man in his line of work! He is based out of Chicago and likes being in the center of the country for easier travel.

Supermodel Iman. Sweeeet.

Do you recognize this man?

Manolo Blahnik! Shoe legend!

Gina (from my dorm floor) and I even got to make a flip book with Coco Rocha! We met her (she's super fun by the way) and danced with her for 5 seconds and then they made a little action flip book of it!

I was a little surprised that the biggest excitement seemed to be for Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. The crowd gathered to meet them and it was insane. Gina got a picture but it was just because she held her camera up over the mass of people and pointed it down to where the girls were. The security guards had to be concerned that they would be trampled! Meanwhile, I met a photographer from Hollywood and also talked to a nice woman from Rhode Island that has a daughter interested in fashion. It was fun answering her questions about FIT even though I told her I was new and didn't know everything!

We ended the night at McDonald's. I would have loved to support the fashion industry instead of the fast food industry, but trust me, the burger fit my budget better!