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In fashion, other people treat Fashion Week like it’s the Olympics. There is drama, there is action, there is. . . tiredness. And while our displays of athleticism – for example, riding a fast bicycle to a parade across the city in a pair of stilettos – are quite on par. Unlike those that have recently taken place in Paris, are our war stories and our penchant for dramatizing them is what makes them comparable entertainment. Here, we asked 8 PRs to percentage their craziest stories—well, at least the ones that can be officially told.
AW16 opening ceremony.
The collection was based on the paintings of Syd Mead, the concept artist who created the crazy sci-fi utopian cityscapes for Blade Runner and Alien. For the set, Desi Santiago designed amazing giant inflatable spaceships based on her paintings. There were probably about fifty, the size of boats, on the ground, in the air. Air had to be pumped constantly to keep them ripe, and just as we were about to open the doors, the generator exploded and everything completely deflated. I’m talking about flat tarps on the floor and fluffy balloons hanging from the ceiling.
We had 700 other people waiting: Charli XCX, Jaden Smith, every single top editor you can think of. Fortunately, the display area was a giant garage door, so no one knew what was going on. It was Valentine’s night, so the guests, bored with waiting, went to their dates. For each and every one that stayed, thank goodness we had a beer sponsor… I became a beer and started putting them in the hands of each and every one. We had a party, so each and every one even forgot that they were waiting. Bravo for Tiger beer.
I can’t forget our incredible production team checking everything to fix the electrical, but nothing. We let them know that we can’t wait any longer and to say one last Hail Mary to replace the fuse. Either that would solve it or the user who did it would be electrocuted. The environment went from being a relatively minor twist of fate to something potentially very dangerous.
They turned the transfer and just as the door was lifted to let everyone in, the set began to come alive. They were all gagged because they thought it was part of the program. At that moment more than an hour had passed, it was a stampede of drunks and the plane of the seats went out the window. I don’t forget to put the substandard Twin Shadow in a third-row seat because that was all that was left. But it was like a big component. Jacky Tang asked Teengirl Fantasy to make the music, I think the group is still on Soundcloud. There was a really indescribable and unpredictable electrical energy that I only felt at fashion shows in New York. However, the next day we had to apologize to many other people. And if you look at the images carefully enough, there are one or two spaceships holding on to survive, haha.
John Galliano Fall-Winter 2001.
John Galliano Fall-Winter 2001.
When I started my career at John Galliano applying for his namesake house, we were a small team. A few nights before the exhibition (it must have been in the ’90s, or maybe 2000), John’s right-hand man walked into the press office and asked who knew how to sew. I did it because my sister taught me and then she told me: “Great, I’ll be right back. ” »
He came back with some [things] to sew her a dress and I ended up running over him while he was finishing the seats. I think the look I worked on was a 29 or 34… I don’t remember. It was a wonderful moment and it felt like a circle of family at the time, so I never thought it was a strange request!
Tom Ford and Stella Tennant.
New York has a way of marking time not only through years, but also through moments and milestones. I arrived in the city in 2005 and spent the first five years freelancing for various public relations agencies discovered in New York, Paris and Milan. I found myself performing at some truly iconic occasions: Marc Jacobs’ performances and decadent after-parties in New York, Alexander McQueen’s appearances in Paris and Milan, a Gucci occasion at the UN where I shared a cigarette with one of my Hollywood crushes, Calvin Klein’s 40th anniversary party at the High Line before its official opening and a Prada event at the Rem Koolhaas store in Soho where I accompanied – absolutely stunned – David Bowie through the crowd. At the time, I was too young and too enthusiastic to master the gravity of those moments. They were just jobs, stimulating but ephemeral.
However, one occasion remains etched in my memory, transcending the others: Tom Ford’s spring/summer 2011 exhibition. It was 2010 and I had just presented REP, my agency. This would be my last independent work and would be a great fitting finale. I knew that running on a Tom Ford screen was big, but the true magnitude I didn’t realize until I got to the Upper East Side store early in the day. They asked us to hand over our phones, which is unconventional, but not unusual for privacy reasons. The production team showed us around the room, then I saw the exhibit board and had to look twice. Instead of models, Ford brought together “the most inspiring women in the world” to create its collection, adding Lauren Hutton, Daphne Guinness, Julianne Moore, Rita Wilson, Beyoncé, Karen Elson, Stella Tennant, Daria Werbowy, Amber VallettaArray. Carolina. Murphy, Marisa Berenson, Farida Khelfa, Lou Doillon, Rachel Feinstein, Emmanuelle Seigner and more.
The atmosphere that day was strangely calm and happy. Watching these everyday women interact, laugh and celebrate Mr. Ford was a spectacle in itself. His personal involvement and meticulous attention to detail have been informative and inspiring. Mr. Ford had invited only one hundred visitors and a single photographer, Terry Richardson, to the hallowed area of the exhibition. That day is etched in my memory: a testament to the magic that happens when fashion transcends mere promotion and becomes a birthday party of art and life.
Marc Jacobs SS08.
Marc Jacobs and Robert Duffy [co-founder and president of Marc Jacobs until 2015] were very inclusive of their audiences at Jacobs’ exhibits, and it was a wonderful experience to see other people from other places. The origins of life are combined. But it also meant that there were 400 to 2000 more people at the presentations, which is crazy. It’s not about saying no to other people, but about allowing the world around the logo to combine for those monumental events. The truth is what everyone can do now. At that time, it was with those aluminum bleachers that you would place in a sports hall or on a soccer field. Every season, I’m afraid they would collapse with so many other people in them!
Then came this epic display that started at 11 p. m. I never will. It was stressful and I can’t forget it being discussed in Women’s Wear Daily magazine. Bridget Foley wrote it and she was setting the stage and telling them that everyone was waiting and asking questions about what was going on, and I was there. I was afraid that they would fire me, because I was in the magazine [laughs]. But after this season, he arrived on time, he is famous. It speaks of the power of a parade.
Marc Jacobs SS02.
On the eve of September 11, there was another epic display of Marc on the dock. Also the launch of the perfume. That day there was a massive storm, to the point that water flowed through the tent from the roof. We felt like the store was going to collapse, but just before the doors opened, the rain stopped and everyone arrived.
At the end of the show, the most sensitive part of the dance floor opened to the pier and the perfume party began. At the time, he was one of the first to do something like that. Everyone got up from their seats and then walked out, and it was magical. The rain had almost stopped, the air was lovely, and everything was muddy, but I don’t forget that no one cared. No one knew how the world would change the next morning. We, infrequently, our amazing art and exhibits are juxtaposed with those ancient events.
Off white AW18.
My craziest moment on the runway would have to be the Off-White insurrection show [the crowd rioted outside the brand’s Fall/Winter 2018 show, seeking to get in]. Virgil had released a sneaker that week and there was a pop-up not far away. We had just designed some t-shirts for one of the immigrant groups there [in Paris], and there was a lot of excitement around the exhibition and V was in the process of finalizing his contract with Louis Vuitton. It was the most chaotic entrance, kids were running towards the door and I had to push my way through for other people to get in, fighting with security. I thought I was definitely going to take care of this!
Still, it was one of the most challenging and exhilarating shows. Most of the publications were there, and I think we had everyone from Odell Beckham Jr and Sabrina Carpenter to Justine Skye and others in the front row, and I had to walk through the crowd to attract others.
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It was the first Windows screen we did, I think in 2020, and I was also on the screen. I am one of the Barbies dressed in blue that Katy Perry wore later [to perform on Saturday Night Live in 2021]. Just like in Shanghai with Labelhood, we did two exhibitions. I didn’t have a big team at the time, so I greeted a few other people and asked everyone to come upstairs to see the first one, then I had to run downstairs to get dressed, which required about 10 more people. to enter. Training
I’m on a rotating podium and it was intended to be a doll, so there’s not much movement. The first screening ended, then the second came. I have to go back, put on the same old clothes and start again. again.
Then the visualization of the moment starts and I’m in the middle of the level on this podium and everything is a mess. People haven’t figured out their place, others are sitting in random places and I can’t help it. All the time just Look how this happens, I don’t paint and I go crazy. I don’t forget to give visual cues to my team about why a magazine editor was sitting somewhere randomly, or why kids were in the wrong seats in the front row. It’s funny to look back, but that’s when I made the decision not to go through any other exhibits again. I also do public relations forever.
However, that time in Shanghai was a lot of fun, because it was very DIY: there was a lot of room for that energy. I don’t forget that for Mark Gong’s first show, he built this huge set with his giant call. letters that models can simply walk on. When he arrived that morning, he found out that they had acted wrongly. It was “Gong Mark. ” He was crying and screaming. We had to calm him down, but in retrospect it’s funny.
Beyoncé.
We tend to have a lot of intruders, and I find those stories quite funny because of the amount of effort they put into it. There’s one user in particular who’s been blacklisted but manages to resurface and it’s crazy because they build a whole new identity every time.
This had already happened to this user several times, especially at a Heaven Through Marc Jacobs party, but then I saw it again at one of our concerts. What I found literally funny, because their trick to get in was to say they worked in the media, was that they had posted one of those giant old-school passes that wrap around the neck with a cord. I don’t think anyone [in fashion] wears them anymore, however, they themselves posted a literally large media badge with a blurry Nylon Mag logo. They kept saying they had been sent to cover the show, but we knew this user didn’t exist. Then they made a big fuss because Fiona [Luo] knew my team, and then Fiona came in and said, “I have no idea who this user is. “
The accident case peaked around 2021 or 2022, just after the pandemic, when TikTok was starting to take off, because one user made the effort to collect all the PR emails from the New Fashion Week. York on a sheet of paper and have published it. We were almost deceived and gained a lot of spam emails. Most of these other people don’t show up on screens, but it’s a job to sit there sifting through tons of random emails.
Beyoncé in Luar was also interesting, as we were informed about her presence, but you never know literally, as with any big celebrity, until you get there. He arrived early and everything was very organized. What we weren’t sure was who he would come with; I didn’t know if it would be Blue Ivy, or her mother, or who exactly, so we reserved spots for the whole family, just in case. We also had to have an express plan for what the front would look like and how it would come out later, but everything literally went well. What was more fun was that I started getting text messages from people, usually editors, asking me if it was true that she was going to be there and telling me they were on their way.
Magliano AW24 men’s clothing.
I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I’ve been running my own business for seven years. When you asked me about this story, I started thinking about one of my creators, Luca Magliano, Luchino!Which sounds like “little Luca” in Italian. In addition to his amazing creations and numerous titles, especially in Italy, where he is a vital voice, he is also a very funny person, but one that can also be quite unexpected. For this reason, until the last concert in June, it was very attractive to make plans or be waiting for what was going to happen immediately after the concert.
Earlier this year, in January, he was invited to do an exhibition at Pitti Uomo, which was a wonderful moment and actually took the logo to the next level. We were all quite nervous, but also very excited! But, again, because You Never Know with Luchino, we had to have, let’s say, a discussion about how vital it was for him to be there afterwards. You see, as he can sometimes worry, he had acquired this strange habit of hiding after exhibitions! So when you, the press, came looking for him, we had to look for him too. Something like a tragic comedy: they create my team running behind the scenes looking for it to locate it in the most unexpected places. It’s worth saying, “Luca will be here in a minute!” And saying that he was with his family, or something, you know. . . Family is everything!
He knew where to hide at all times, because the team knows well what is behind the scenes. Once, in spite of everything, I found him sitting in the bathroom, smoking a pack of cigarettes. It happened in Pitti and it was the most dramatic because it lasted about 40 minutes. I never will. But I’m grateful for everyone’s patience and love, and of course! It’s so captivating and has a very human aspect to it, so other people forgive it, embrace it, and celebrate it. But then, at that last concert in Milan, he was there afterwards, in a position for everyone. He gave up, but I think it’s very funny that we had to walk behind him like cat and mouse.
Read Kylie Jenner’s full interview from September
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