How to Get in to New York Fashion Week

Most suggestions about getting into Fashion Week advise one of three things: dress really well or really bizarrely and hope someone will hand you an invite; volunteer to work in the tents; or sneak in when no one is looking. Unfortunately, I've seen these strategies attempted in person and they don't work at all.

It's supposed to be a tradition to hand invites to the best dressed people standing around gaping on the front steps of the big tent. The problem is that there are about 10,000 other people doing the same thing, and all of them are dressed to get attention. This strategy is great for getting reporters from the New York Post to snap your picture; if that's your ultimate goal, then go for it, but it's not going to get you inside at Bryant Park.

Volunteering at the tents is also more or less a pipe dream; the shows are planned months in advance and unless you happen to know a designer personally, you don't stand a chance. There is an area where volunteering is worthwhile, but more about this later.

Simple gate-crashing is the worst strategy ever. The security guys at Fashion Week are pros and they're stationed at the same spots throughout the week. Try to push by them and you're likely to get banned, and if you come back another day they'll remember your face.

II. Above-Board Strategies for Getting In To New York Fashion Week

There's one show in the tents at Bryant Park that virtually anyone who is earnest about fashion can get in to. A school called Academy of Art University in San Francisco with a fashion department rents the big tent for its students to have a runway show as a senior thesis. AAU uses these fashion shows as a recruiting tool, and anyone who shows serious interest in one of their programs, including their online courses, can get an invitation from their website. Those tickets will get you past the security guards on the front steps of the tents.

This invitation will only get you into the AAU show, of course, but once you're inside the tents you can try your luck at other shows. I got into Nanette Lepore, one of the hottest tickets at Fashion Week, simply by being honest, I went up to the sign-in table, told them that I wasn't on their list but that I was a big fan of Nanette's and a reporter, and asked them sweetly if they had room for one more. Of course, it didn't hurt that the PR people had stepped away for a second and the booth was being manned by Nanette's mother!

Another above-board strategy is the volunteering mentioned earlier. Most fashion journalists and fashion bloggers get more invitations than they can personally handle. If you can write and/or take good photographs, e-mail your favorite fashion writer and ask if you can help cover any shows. You'll need to show references to do this, because if you're there using my invitation, you're trading on my credentials, but if you're reliable and can write or take good pictures, chances are you're hired (especially towards the end of the week when shoe leather is worn out and feet are aching).

III. Sneaky Strategies for Getting In To Fashion Week

Try these at your own risk:

Not all the shows at New York Fashion Week are in Bryant Park. Search for the schedule online and you'll find several up and coming designers showing at alternate venues.

The security at the alternate venues is nowhere near as stringent. These shows are in lout of the way places and it's assumed that if you've found the show, you were invited in the first place. The best part about this is that the newer designers are eager to promote themselves, so their PR people will ask you your name and e-mail address so they can send future invitations to you. This way you can get "on the list for the next Zac Posen, and when he or she moves up to the tents you'll have it made!

If you want to sneak into a show that's in Bryant Park, arrive an hour and a half before it's set to start. Hair and makeup people will be working backstage at that point and someone will be guarding the stage entrance, but she many not have received her list for backstage clearance yet. If you dress professionally, carry a camera and/or voice recorder, and are quick to answer who you are, you may well be rewarded with a backstage pass. Once you have that pass you'll be surprised how access opens up.