Fashion influencer and stylist Coco Schiffer has lifted the lid on everything you don’t see about fashion month, from the eye-watering costs to the mysterious seating chart process.
Schiffer, who is based in New York, shared some BTS tea about the fashion biz on Instagram today, fresh off the end of this year’s fashion month in Paris this week.
If you’re not across it, fashion month is a bi-annual event where the world’s top designers strut their collections at the ‘Big Four’ fashion weeks, namely in New York, London, Milan and Paris.
In other words, it’s the industry’s glitziest and most watched season, where trends are set and where front rows — fashion’s ultimate status symbol — are dotted by your fave celebs in sometimes rogue combinations.
All that sounds glamorous and elusive, but Schiffer — who attended New York and Paris Fashion Week this year — let us behind the curtain with a list of things attendees “don’t tell you” about fashion week.
Perhaps the juiciest intel was about seating arrangements, with Schiffer revealing that what row guests are placed on can sometimes be “based on follower count”.
“Sometimes people are paid to attend. Sometimes there are only one to two influencer seats allocated per country,” she added. “None of it matters as much as you think.”
Along that same line, Schiffer spilled that seat allocation is just one example of the “politics” that dominate fashion month.
“There are politics to absolutely everything: seating charts, who is dressed by the brand, who had a fitting, and who confirmed first verses last,” she added.
For those daydreaming of one day snagging a front row set (a girl can dream!), Schiffer divulged some unspoken etiquette rules for attendees, including “introducing yourself to the person next to you” to maximise networking and always being on time, because even a few minutes of tardiness “and you’ll likely miss the show”.
“Also, take your sunglasses off during the show. Sorry,” Schiffer quipped. What would the famously bespectacled Anna Wintour have to say about that?
Another big no-no is attending too many shows, Schiffer said. “Going to more shows doesn’t make you look better. Sometimes it makes you look worse,” she said. Take note.
Perhaps the least surprising revelation Schiffer shared, and the one that might dash your dreams, is the costs that come with attending each fashion event.
“Fashion month is extremely expensive. Flights, glam, hotels, photographers, assistants, cars between shows. It adds up very quickly,” she said.
So I guess we just have to save our coin and ditch the sunnies and we’re all set for next year’s fashion month! Miranda Priestly is shaking.
Lead images: Instagram and Getty Images
