Jil Saunder
Whether stocked full of champagne and little sandwhiches with the crust cut off, or stuck down in some extra room with grocery store cookies, being back stage is one of the most exciting parts of fashion week.
It’s where all of the reality happens, where models rehearse and get yelled at by coaches, fall down, and smoke, a lot.
It’s where 5 or 6 different hairdressers fix a model’s hair in 10 minutes because she’s just run in from another show.
It’s the unglamorous that leads to that 5 minutes of fabulous fashion that everyone wants to be a part of.
Looking back at London and Milan, there are millions of ways that it has been redone. I will choose to trace this sort of trend in Fringe back to Rodarte S.S 2010, where they designed this underwater creature theme, with fabric hanging down from the waist of skirts as though it was kelp-simulating fringe. This was not your cute little fringed moccasin, it has become this fierce dark creature that has been through the wringer- so to speak.
Stepping off the plane in Milano after 5 days in London brought about feeling of comfort. Not only was the weather warm, but the air itself actually felt like that of California.
It is lovely to have the option of wearing a hula skirt bought from a Halloween store in Silver Lake as a dress and some complimentary accessories, instead of lugging around a heavy jacket all day only to find out that it was going to be too hot for a jacket, and the next day, to not bring a jacket and freeze to death! Milano speaks of luxury from the sleek silhouettes of the people to the fresh flowers adorning the runways. The parties and dinners are on their own level. And although Milano has exquisite taste, I proved that it doesn’t take money to create style because at least 5 well dressed individuals complimented my $6.00 Halloween store hula skirt purchase, one girl even said she saw something like it in Chanel!
