Photo: Lexie Moreland/WWD via Getty Images
New York Fashion Week shows and parties are usually reserved for a relatively small number of people – select members of the media, a few buyers, influencers and a handful of invested celebrities. This year, TikTok users decided to change that.
Sneaking into fashion shows is nothing new. New Yorkers and students in the city have done this for centuries as a rite of passage. But there was something particularly chaotic about the sheer volume of people trying to get into the show this season.
In August, videos started circulating on TikTok with titles like “How to get invited to NYFW” and “Secrets to get into NYFW.” TikTok user Tiffany Baira created a video sharing what she calls the “holy grail” — a highly coveted list of PR contacts for brands presenting at Fashion Week — which can be found at the link in her bio on Instagram (or is available to the public through the official NYFW website). In the video, Baira notes that the list is outdated, but promises that many of the contacts are still the same. It garnered nearly 350,000 views and nearly 55,000 likes. One comment under TikTok read, “I love that you never save anything. You always share your knowledge,” to which Baira replied, “Tbh I’ve always had to learn all this the hard way and I want to do whatever I can to help upcoming artists.” And that was just the beginning.
Immediately, a number of other TikTokers began sharing the email list, including one highlighting a homemade spreadsheet filled with direct contact with publicists running shows during the week, including highly coveted ones like Tom Ford, Coach and Collina Strada.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with helping each other,” says Sydney Bernhardt, a 23-year-old content creator who posted a video on how to ask for a show invite and included a PR email list on link in her profile. “And more, trying to get rid of the concept of gatekeeping, and more, helping other women.”
The race to democratize Fashion Week was on – but not at the cost of profit. People were still determined to make coins. A guide to Fashion Week was selling for $99. I’m nosy, so I bought it. The Dropbox file contained two email templates: one to request an invitation to a show and another to ask designers and publicists to pull outfits from their collections to wear during the week. The rest of the kit included another list of PR emails, which were a mixed bag of generic, inaccurate and empty; a video that was also available, for free, on the influencer’s YouTube; and a PDF titled “The Ultimate Guide to New York Fashion Week” filled with open-ended suggestions like staying at a hostel and taking the train while in town.
I had just lost $99. Others likely have as well.
It almost goes without saying that fashion should not be reserved for the elite. It should be an experience, even an escape, for anyone. But for publicists like Lindsey Solomon, who runs public relations firm Lindsey Media and is responsible for brands like Collina Strada, Sandy Liang and Susan Alexandra, it was hell.
“I can’t tell you how many emails I’ve gotten this season for requests. It’s three to four times what I usually get,” Solomon told me between shows. “I appreciate the due diligence it takes. But the general consensus is that you find the information and you just bombard them, and it’s just not appropriate.”
Solomon said he took 24 hours offline over the Labor Day weekend to deal with a family emergency. Upon his return, he had received more than 1,000 emails in just one day.
“I’ll be completely honest, I feel gutted,” he said. “Where email is so out of left field, so random, it’s like, How did you get my email?“
I had to be the one to let him know that I had seen his email on numerous TikTok videos available to anyone the algorithm could judge even remotely interested in either fashion or viewing at a fashion event. He, in turn, shared the most unrelated email he had received, though he couldn’t prove for sure that the sender had found his contact information on the app. The email highlighted the sender’s relationship with a “highly connected” financial bro named Chad and included this iconic sentence, which I will add to my resume: “I’m beautiful and I understand the optics of the press, so I can you can be sure that my physical image and composition will expertly take care of the atmosphere.”
“I definitely don’t think there’s anything wrong with sharing emails with your friends who are other content creators, because I definitely think a lot of times brands are looking for content creators,” Bernhardt said when I asked about the thoughts of the fashion community. for the division. publicist emails. “And that not only helps them with reach, but the worst a brand can do is just say no, like, politely decline your email.”
However, for some publicists, like Gia Kuan, turning down a request wasn’t necessarily an option. Kuan, who runs the firm Gia Kuan Consulting and was also inundated with requests for accommodations at the show, saw her overflowing entryway box essentially come to life at the Marc Jacobs Heaven after-party. In the days leading up to it, there was a persistent piece of postshow gossip that the invitation to the party, where Doja Cat, Charli XCX and PinkPantheress were all scheduled to perform, had leaked on social media. Speaking as someone who arrived at the event right around 10pm and happened upon a crowd so large it wrapped around the block, it seemed the rumors were true.
“On the day of the event, someone told me they saw the flyer on TikTok and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I have to prepare for the worst,'” Kuan said. “And we had a big crazy crowd, it was crazy — but in the end, it was under control.”
Quan said over 2,000 people showed up, far more than expected.
I personally was too tired to deal with the pushback, as is often the case when large numbers of people are trying to get through any kind of door, so I turned around and went home. Braver souls, like Jared Muros, made it out. He ended up sneaking into the party after a group of people were drawn to Kuan’s team, and he posted about his experience on TikTok.
“I was watching a lot of videos on YouTube and TikTok about how to cool down and how to get inside,” Muros said of his preparations for Fashion Week. One of those videos was Baira’s. A model herself, Muros also entered Vogue World, the conglomerate’s star-studded event, for which tickets reportedly cost $3,000. “If they don’t want people sneaking in, they need to up their game or their security,” added Muros. “Most things, I just jumped right in. I don’t want to blame anybody, but it’s more on them. I know, no matter what, I’m going to get into these events.”
Even the gatekeepers in PR who are currently besieged by demands know that the system is broken and that a big party needs an element of chaos. However, they are trying to comply with fire codes and keep their customers happy.
“I think people need to understand how much work goes into producing a tight, well-curated show. And for people to come and expect that they can just walk in and sit wherever they want?” Quan said. “I also don’t like the fashion of goalkeepers. I think it’s something that’s for everybody, but there’s a time and a place for that.”
