Every year, the women of New York leave the past behind and look forward to the future. This is known as Fashion Week – Sex And The City
It’s that time of year, y’all. The fashions are fashioning, the girls are gworling, and the events are popping. To say attendance at New York Fashion Week has been on my bucket list and on my business to-do list for years would be an understatement. I wrote it down—yet again—during my end of year goal session at Red Rooster last year. And this year, sweet baby Jesus and I made it happen.
I am attending a total of 3 shows this year. Two of the brands are Black-owned and I could not be more excited. I met up with Sweetie Mensah in advance to shoot all my NYFW looks and I love how they each turned out. To me, fashion week is a time to be even more extra, avant-garde, even more self-expressive. With this year’s looks, I do believe I have done just that.
There are so many benefits to attending fashion week especially if you have a brand to represent. You can network with other creators, PR firms, and brand reps. You can position yourself as the person to turn to for what’s new and cutting edge. You can receive more inspiration for your next creative project. Fashion week is not all fun and parties. It’s work too. It’s opportunity.
So how does one secure invites to fashion week? I would say it all comes down to Timing, Contacts, and Follow Up. Let’s get into it:
Timing | Some say a month in advance is the most opportune time to reach out for fashion week invites. Others say a month is too far in advance and that most brands are not ready to solidify guest lists by then. Folks from the latter school of thought suggest reaching out two weeks prior to the show. I have tried both ways. This year, I contacted brands two weeks prior to fashion week and it worked way better than last year’s method of a month in advance. I crafted a pitch template and went to town with emailing. Having had more success with emailing 2 weeks in advance, I do recommend it. If you are looking for sponsored hotel lodging, emailing a month in advance would probably yield better results in that realm.
Contacts | I’ve heard there is a list of fashion week contacts on the official webpage. I never found that list, so I discovered contacts on my own. I looked at the fashion week schedule (available at www.nyfw.com ) and determined my brands of interest. I then searched PR contacts for each brand and looked for email addresses. Sometimes the email addresses are right on brand webpages or even social media pages. Sometimes it takes a bit more digging. LinkedIn is a great resource for finding brand contacts. In my experience, an email address for a specific person as opposed to a general PR email is more likely to garner a response. In my pitch email, I included a link to my blog, my brand objective, why I wanted to attend their show, links to my social media, and a link to my media kit. The links are very important. It’s a good idea to provide URLs as opposed to attachments as so many are afraid of phishing scams and will not open emails with attachments from strangers. If you want your email to be read, leave those attachments out.
Follow Up | Y’all, these brands are busy especially this time of year. You must: Follow. Up. Reach out one week after the initial email and the week of the show. Copy and paste the same pitch and let them know you’re just following up. There is no shame in getting your email seen and making your request known. You may also want to reach out to brands on social media if you do not hear back from them. I definitely tried this tactic. *But here’s some real tea: I shot and posted a look from the brand first and tagged them in the photos. When they reposted my photos, I took the opportunity to slide in the DMs to ask for a show invite. Even when their PR contact said they could not accommodate my request, that quickly changed because I showed genuine interest in and support of the brand. *That’s free game! Use it!
I hope this helps, y’all! If you aspire to go to fashion week like me, definitely consider implementing these tips. This is my first fashion week and I’m so excited to take it all in. I’m very proud of reaching yet another milestone for my brand. Be sure to follow along on my Instagram stories as I’ll be sharing some of the fashion week shows there. And remember to do something to go after your dreams this week!
You can shop all of my fashion week looks here:
xx,
Photos by Sweetie Mensah
Preset by Tina Smith
