NYFW – All You Need to Know to Plan Your Trip!

Hey boys and gals the day I’ll be sharing my adventures in NYC has finally arrived! When some of our wildest dreams come true we can’t help but burst with excitement, and that’s exactly how I feel these days. Going to NYFW has been in my bucket list ever since I knew what that was. Long before blogging was even a thing. I said that on insta and I’ll repeat: 9.7.2017 was my day! ( 7 and 9 are my lucky numbers, what a trip!).

This post is meant to be more informative. I want to provide you with as many tips and details as I can so you can save time when planning your trip or at least see the amount of work it goes into doing this and decide whether it’s worth a shot – as for me you might have already guessed: WORTH ALL THE EFFORT!

• Start by deciding who you’ll be traveling with, if I may offer a piece of advice go with someone from the industry ( a fellow blogger, photographer, fashion enthusiast, etc), you’ll be going to lots of events and a travel buddy who’s there to explore the city might not be up to all of the craziness of shows, PR showroom visits and meetings. We decided on our group of 4 girls around May (that’s four months before FW). We started planning by creating a spreadsheet with Hotels/Shows + Events/ Individual Schedule. This was crucial to keep organized and on top of our game! The initial thought was to pitch for hotels and we put a whole lot of work into this, but let me save you some time: if you’d not Camila Coelho or Aimee from Song of Style, do yourself a favor and skip this step. This is prime time for hotels in NYC and they won’t comp a room for anyone with less than hundreds of thousands of followers. However depending on your blog size, it might be worth to ask for media rates.

• Once the schedule comes out – you can check directly from the NYFW official website – which is usually a month before the events take place, you can list them by day and time on the spreadsheet along with their PR contact. I had better luck waiting to send out request emails between 3-2 weeks before the shows. This is also a crucial step, if you send the emails too early they might not get to it, if you’re too late, they might be full already.

An interesting thing about sending requests to PR agencies is that your name gets out there and invitations to parties and other events start to pop in your mailbox like crazy! Again, when you go with friends from the industry know that we all get invited to different events and a lot of times you can add a plus one, so we all got to be a part of things we wouldn’t if it wasn’t for our partners!

• One month before it’s also a good idea to start pitching brands for collaborations, that is if you want extra outfits to bring along. This is a time that gets a ton of exposure for those who attend so brands love to be involved and be a part of your experience! As a side note, be careful with the amount of stuff you request. I know I was a bit overwhelmed and trying to fit in looks in my day that I didn’t necessarily need.
• Plan your looks before you go. That will really be a time saver and while they might change (as you’ll probably be visiting showrooms and/or shopping on your spare time) it’s worth to know what you have planned. I ended up adding a ton of new things to my looks but the importance of that is to not waste time putting looks together while there, or end up over packing (which I’m totally guilty of that!). Also be aware of airline policies on overweight limits, it can catch you off guard and it’s pretty pricy!
• Reach out to restaurants, ice cream shops, and anything else you might like to do or go. Even though this is a busy time in the city there’s always a new business that wants exposure and you can trade your influence power for dinner/treats while producing good content for both you and the shop!
• Lay out your days and start scheduling your meetings, shows and parties to make sure you don’t overlap them. Revise everything a few days before heading to Fashion Week.
• To bring or not to bring a photographer?! That’s a biggie!! My take on it is this: if you’re traveling with fellow bloggers whom you love their content I’d say it’s safe to take each others pics. Saves you money and frustrations. If you have a photographer you love and can afford to bring her, by all means do it! Another option (one I learned from other bloggers and was a super valuable tip for me) is to bring your own tripod + clicker and take your own pics girl. There will be no frustrations with this one and the only person you need to count on is your own sweet self!! Doesn’t get any better than that 🙂

Some things I learned from this first time and what I would do differently:

• Share the room with no more than 1 or 2 people (struggling to write 2, I’d say you’ll be happier with one roommate!). We chose to go the cheap route but there’s a price to pay. Picture 5 girls trying to get ready in one bathroom….not a glam picture!
• Stay in a hotel in the neighborhood/area that the shows happen. It pays off, do it if you can. This time around it was Soho/Tribeca. This location might change next year.
• Do use this time to develop a relationship with a brand/s you’ve worked with and reach out to new ones. This is super important in my humble opinion. Not only the brand loves to get to know the people they’re working with, but it also puts you on their radar for future projects. A good example of why you should take the time to do this was when I went uptown to meet with the jewelry brand I’ve been doing collabs lately – Legend Amrapali. My contact from the brand Emmy, is a personal friend. But also wanted to meet the rest of the team. So not only we got to borrow the most beautiful pieces to sport on the shows, but she also scored us seats for one of the coolest shows in the city – TIBI! We got to see the cutest collection and all of the amazing bloggers and industry folks we wouldn’t be able to if it wasn’t for this contact! Invest in them and do a good job, it’ll pay off!!!
• Make the most out of opportunities, tag brand names you were gifted and show your appreciation as you might go back and get invited to more events next time! And besides that, it opens doors for future collaborations.
• Take a taxi instead of an uber, when available of course. Taxis are much faster and seemed a lot cheaper as well.
• Find a little time to go shopping, you won’t regret! Especially because NY stores have all the new and upcoming trends and styles, you’ll be able to spot and get them before anyone else!!
• Pack snacks. I didn’t believe when our friend Nicole (who’s a veteran in the fashion week biz) told us we wouldn’t have much time to eat. It’s crazy but you’ll find yourself running around from one event to another and not have time to stop for anything. So yes, my LaraBars really did save the day a couple of times!
• Pack extra outfits, you’ll have the most amazing backdrops and city landscape which translates to great content for your blog later on!

I honestly believe 4 days was plenty of time to experience everything. If you blog for a living you might as well stay the whole time and do things slowly. If not 4 days was more than enough.

Shop my look:

Shop Nicole’s look:

Shop Kathleen’s look:

Shop Morgan’s look:

Over the next few days/weeks I’ll be sharing what I did everyday and the looks I wore to go along with. I hope this was helpful for you and that it helps you to get a jump-start. Feel free to reach me and ask questions if I forgot to mention something 🙂

Beijos,

-K