People behind Fashion Week

The world of fashion week is an exclusive one, inviting only the best of the best of the industry, and those who know someone inside it, to attend the runways. I believe that many of you have already learned about Fashion Week in last week's blog post. And season after season, we will ask : who actually gets invited to the fashion shows? In this article, I'll explain the important people who support the operation of Fashion Week from behind the scenes and will unveil the mystery of who attends and gets invited to fashion shows. Let’s go!

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WHO ATTENDS FASHION SHOWS ?

Fashion week might be a glamorous moment, filled with people who wear amazing outfits and go to after-parties and special events. But it’s not just about that. Fashion week is, first of all, a business event – an opportunity for brands to present to fashion professionals their work for the next season so that they can generate most of the value around the brand’s heritage and communication. Which is why people who attend it are mostly fashion professionals. Let’s see who they are.

BUYERS/ASSISTANT BUYERS

As industry shapers who get to decide what pieces of collections will be stocked in stores, and therefore, go into our wardrobes, fashion buyers’ presence at fashion week is crucial. Their mission is to discover the collections first-hand, what are their stand-out pieces, and understand the trends of the coming seasons to get a feeling of what the customers may love and want to buy next season. Therefore, fashion week is a source of inspiration for future trends. And a place to make buying decisions according to that trends, as well as the needs of the customers.

EDITORS/FASHION EDITORS 

Fashion editors, writers and columnists (whose roles can overlap depending on the specific magazine or the responsibilities) attend fashion shows to report on the runway by writing a review about the newest collections.

On another note, since fashion editors are the ones responsible for deciding what goes on the pages of the magazines – from selecting this season’s staples to put on the product pages to which articles to feature or what photo shoots to include – they need to attend fashion shows. Seeing the collection allows them to spot the pieces they could request from the brands later for the photoshoot at the magazine, but also to understand the overall trends that are shown in the different collections to report these trends to their readers.

STYLISTS/WARDROBE STYLISTS/FASHION STYLISTS

Stylists who work at magazines, aka editorial stylists, can have similar tasks during fashion week compared to the ones of the editors, meaning they need to discover what’s trendy and stylish this season, so they can choose and request brands the appropriate outfits and style models for editorials accordingly.

Another category of stylists who attend fashion week is celebrity stylists. Their clients usually wear something from luxury labels and need outfits to attend different kinds of events. So celebrity stylists go to fashion shows to spot them and get ideas of outfits for their clients.

PR/FASHION PR SPECIALIST

Many PR activities are attached to the fashion calendar. So PR professionals are the ones who organize fashion shows, and all the events associated with them, like press days, store openings, dinners and cocktails, and other social gatherings. They take care of the event from the idea to the day of the event: from making lists to sending invitations, choosing the location, organizing the sitting, welcoming guests, taking care of the social profiles during the event, and sending photos of it to the publications the following day. They are also in charge of communicating with the media and writing press releases. In sum, PR managers are big players at fashion weeks.

CELEBRITIES/VIPs

Of course, famous people attend fashion shows. Many of them are designers’ muses, faces of the brands, or just their friends. So they get an invitation, and are usually seated front-frow.

As you can see, all these industry professionals get invited to fashion week because they bring some kind of value to the brand.

As I said in the beginning, fashion week is a business event. Which is why 99% of the invitees are fashion professionals or powerful people with a strong media presence. And unless you can bring value to the brand, you won’t get invited to see the show just for the sake of seeing it, for your own pleasure.

The fashion industry is a place where many young people aspire to be, where people dress fashionably and have fun with their daily work. You want to be the first to try out a brand's products, or fly around the world in business class to see fashion shows in Paris and shop in Milan.

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This is all about the important positions that run the fashion week, without them, fashion would not have become popular around the world. Fashion is connected with them, just like the rotation of gears and cogs in mechanical design, and their job position is a cog, and they interact with each other to achieve the current fashion industry.

I hope this article can help all fashion newbies. Here is a teaser, the next article is about a list of fashion must-have.