Working New York Fashion Week was one of my first goals when I moved to NY. It’s a very important time for designers showing their upcoming collection.
I took a fashion styling course at FIT. My professor was Barbara Berman, a very important person at NYFW. She is in charge of backstage preparations and offered us the possibility of volunteering to work backstage. It was incredible! I loved it so much that I did it for three years.
The backstage of a show is complete madness. There are several racks, where the looks for each model are placed. On the rack you can also find a line sheet, it explains the detailed look. Once the runway began, my job was to help the model change into her different looks. We had a styling kit that included everything from sewing needles, to thread, head scarfs, rollers, fashion tape and basically everything you’d need for a fashion emergency.
I met many designers and models, it was the best learning experience. I remember dressing Adriana Lima and Bella Hadid at the Desigual show. Bella wasn’t really famous at the moment and it was fun to see how she’s grown into the figure she is now.
One day I was working backstage at the Jeremy Scott show, and Kelly Cutrone ,who I greatly admire, was doing the PR for it. I approached her and said I would love an internship at People’s Revolution. She appreciated my interest and gave me her email. I then went in for an interview and got an internship as a PR intern. Working with her, I got to organize fashion shows on the other side of the stage, front of the house. We dealt with everything that had to do with press, RSVPs, seating charts, and press kits.
I also worked with KCD for a while doing rehearsals for the shows. One of my favorite ones was Balmain. The Backstreet Boys were going to perform at the end of the show as a surprise, and on the day of the rehearsal they decided to do a performance rehearsal. It was basically a private show for us!
After that internship and other freelance experiences, I felt that I was very good at styling and that was what interested me the most. Shortly after, I had an interview at Diane Von Furstenberg and joined the styling team; that’s what I’ve been doing ever since!
