Catwalk Countdown: New York Fashion Week

New York Fashion Week officially begins Thursday, February 11, 2010. Don’t be fooled by the term “fashion week,” as it is more of a “fashion month”: there’s New York, then London, followed by Milan, and (last but certainly not least) Paris Fashion Week(s). For me, this has always meant racing home from school or work to check the daily updates at style.com. Countless hours of those evenings have been dedicated to clicking, runway look by runway look, through hundreds of fashion shows, analyzing accessories, looking forward to the editorial interpretations in the fashion glossies a few months down the road.

In recent years, Fashion Week has seen exponentially increasing amounts of coverage, largely due to the explosion of the fashion blogosphere. Style-saavy girls, armed with self-timing cameras and Macbook Pros, have taken to the internet to document the contents of their closets and offer the world their views on fashion. Some of the cream of this crop have risen to industry stardom, snagging coveted invites to international fashion shows, appearing in countless fashion magazines, and even collaborating with design houses.

Jane Aldridge, creator of Sea of Shoes blog

Rumi Neely, blogging at FashionToast since 2007, has attended shows by such fashionista favorites as Alexander Wang in New York and Esteban Cortezar for Emanuel Ungaro in Paris. She also designed a capsule collection for surf-centric label RVCA, joining the ranks of model Erin Wasson, one of Rumi’s own fashion icons.

Jane Aldridge, the Texas high-schooler behind Sea of Shoes, was commissioned to design a shoe collection for trendster mecca Urban Outfitters, and was recently outfitted in Chanel couture for the annual Crillon Ball in Paris.

Tavi Gevinson, Style Rookie blogger

Youngest and perhaps most outspoken of the fashion-bloggers is Tavi Gevinson, wise beyond her 13 years. Tavi is the superbrain at work for the blog Style Rookie, and just a few weeks ago, sat front row at several shows during Paris Couture Week. She has appeared on the cover of POP magazine and had the blessed opportunities to meet some of her design heroes, like Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte, and Rei Kawakubo of Commes des Garcons.

 These creative young minds bring a fresh perspective to the table. Lacking the pressure industry-heavyweights deal with when reviewing shows, bloggers give us their heartfelt, unedited opinions, and in a few special cases, bring us backstage tales and photos you just won’t find in The New York Times or Vogue. Some of these girls are not yet old enough to secure careers in the fashion industry, and some of them are well on their way, but they can all count on their blog followers to stay tuned along the way. 

Rumi Neely, of FashionToast.com