Lessons from New York Fashion Week

NEW YORK — I am not a student of fashion, nor am I a designer who owns her own label. I am a fashion blogger, or at least I’d like to think I am, and I take pictures for a living. On some days, I work as a photographer for local publications. On others, I take pictures of my personal style and post pictures of my travels on my blog, Tricia Will Go Places, which I, more than anything else, treat as a diary to document what’s happening in my life. I cringe at being called an Internet celebrity, and I don’t think I can ever get used to going out and often being asked for my picture or autograph by high school and college girls who have made checking my blog out part of their everyday routine. I believe that my style isn’t groundbreaking at all, and for that reason, it’s always overwhelming to be called an influential fashion blogger.

Swinging season: ’60s retro is back at the Marc by Marc Jacobs show.

It used to be so easy to say, “It’s only blogging, and the Internet isn’t real life.” But apparently, blogging can get you to so many places nowadays. Let me give you an example: Receiving an email from Tumblr, the blogging platform where my blog is hosted, and being told that they were sponsoring me and 23 other bloggers for New York Fashion Week sent chills down my spine and left me wordless. Who wouldn’t, especially when you find out that you’re the only Asia-based blogger that they are flying in? I was more than grateful for the opportunity, and those seven days spent riding dozens of cabs to the Lincoln Center and Milk Studios and ogling at the beauty called high fashion were absolutely fun while they lasted. I had to pinch myself a couple of times and ask myself this question over and over again during the duration of my stay in The Big Apple: “Who am I again and why am I here?” It was definitely a life-changing experience. Here are a few priceless lessons I was able to get from New York Fashion Week Fall 2011:

Kloss in session: Model Karlie Kloss closes the Donna Karan show in an asymmetrical metallic dress.

Clothes can make the man

“People who wear impressive clothes have better lives. Impressive clothes can be from H&M, the flea market, or you can make them yourself. Impressive is subjective,” said Barneys creative director Simon Doonan, at a dinner he hosted for us. Hearing something like this from someone important who works in a store that sells everything couture and designer-made was mind-blowing in so many ways. I expected him to explicitly promote the things being sold at Barneys, but I was taken aback by the truth of his words. It was one of those enchanting moments wherein you realize that there is always more to society’s standards of what “fashionable” is, as it really differs for each and every person. Fitting that Simon Doonan ended it all with this wonderful line: “Fashion is transformative.” So go out there and inspire other people with whatever you are wearing, or better yet, walk out of your house in your stilettos and feel good about yourself, regardless of labels and judgments. Move in your lazy, oversized sweater and own it, or move other people with how amazingly you can pull it off.

The big, bold blogosphere

KIn an orderly fashion: Models at the Erin Fetherston presentation line up before the show starts.

 Quality fashion bloggers abroad have so much influence over brands and ordinary people because they make fashion friendlier and more accessible. This is something I learned from the IFB (Independent Fashion Bloggers) conference, which I thought was absolute genius — we should definitely have something like that here. It made me think that the Philippines is a little left behind when it comes to giving value to fashion bloggers, compared to the States and parts of Europe. I say this because their celebrity bloggers have become real celebrities now because of their influence and quality content, so much so that mainstream international brands (i.e. Gap and Forever 21) get them to become faces of major ad campaigns, revolutionizing that whole concept of “beautiful” not requiring everyone to be a six-foot-tall size-zero blonde model with blue eyes. Street style bloggers have also garnered attention for seeing past standards of beauty and featuring real people who carry themselves and their clothes well. Some have also taken pride in listing “blogger” as their full-time occupation.

Life is a bowl of cherries: Vogue Nippon editor in chief Anna Dello Russo sports her signature giant cherry hat and owns it effortlessly.

Fame takes effort

World-famous designers are famous for a reason, and it shows in all of their collections. They put an insane amount of effort into producing everything from the designs to the materials, and this is what gives them the right to set worldwide standards. Highlight of the Tumblr experience — meeting Oscar de la Renta in the flesh, seeing his fabric swatches and sketches a week before his show, and seeing it all materialize magically on the runway. One word: surreal.