As you all know, I attended Richard Chai’s show last week at the start of NYFW. The show itself was surreal—very minimalist set design: white runway, clean entryway for the models, and a cheery color palette. The rush of people (see panoramic pic below), the literal wall of press photographers, the celebrities, the commercialism…really took away from the experience overall, but more on that later in this post. The garments themselves had very soft geometric lines, nautical color palette, and gently voluminous silhouettes.Though I’m partial towards the leather jackets that accompanied the garments, it was a refreshing collection to see.

What you may not know is that I am now a marketing intern for fashion brand Andrew Marc. The leather jackets that were worn by the models at Richard’s show were part of the Andrew Marc x Richard Chai collection. This beaut is my all-time favorite piece from the show, pic taken backstage:

Beautifully crafted clothes aside, there was one aspect to the day that bothered me: the large group of people—with cameras in hand—gathered outside of Lincoln Center just waiting to see who exited the building next. Who are they wearing? Are they worthy of a Street Style credit? Who do they work for? Are they someone famous? Hell, I got asked by eight different people to take a picture of my hair, my shoes, my face, and only one full-body pic. Random strangers have shots of me that may or may not be posted somewhere online, but more importantly: Who cares about what this intern is wearing?? New York Times writer, Eric Wilson, writes: “This scene is increasingly what people come for at Fashion Week, and its impact on the business is the subject of some debate.” It pains me to know that at the start of my career in fashion, the industry has already begun to think like this. The over-sensationalism of Fashion Week (or month depending on your job) has become the norm. But if people inside the industry are thinking that it’s fluffed up, what are all of you non-industry-folks thinking? Is the end of Fashion Week looming in the near future?

I tend to think of runway shows as live art exhibitions. To own a designer’s garment is the privilege to adorn your body with their masterpiece. — My own thoughts

Photos via my Instagram/iPhone