Reflections on Fashion Week

So now that New York Fashion Week is upon us (actually, already started), I can't help but recall my past experiences with the brilliant show of excess and art that is cloth turned into clothing. The exclusivity of the event is of course what draws half of it's stary eyed participants, but we all know that when it gets down to it, that's just surface drivel, and 99.9% of fashion week is sweat and tears of creative genius, pure and simple.

I mean, who doesn't deserve a little glamour after developing a line and producing a show? That's what it's all about, working hard for that big moment when you present your work to the world's critics. It's no different from a gallery opening, really, just here, the art moves, and it's emotional because it's something you can take with you.

Fashion transforms you. It's no secret that you don't go to work in sweatpants for a reason. Yet we still all own sweatpants and use them when the time arrives. We feel different in the clothes we wear, depending on the type of presentation we want to give, and how we want people to perceive us. It's a simple deduction, but one we often overlook and take for granted.

Perhaps that's where the real excitement of fashion week lies, not in the after parties or who turns up in front row, but all the new points of view that designers are giving us to express. Fashion at this point is so cyclical it's dizzying; designers look to express their own views, but also reflect on the views around them at the very same time. So it's at once a personal and global connention.

It's easy to get caught up in the glamour of the high rollers and faces we see on the covers of magazines we pass in supermarkets, but when it really comes down to it, and everyone's finally in their seets, everyone's focused on the runway. Cloth flies down the runways in all shapes and colors, concoctions and methods, both done before and re-worked into creations that make us wonder how human hands could accomplish such amazing things. And at the end of the day, when reporters go back to their desks, and buyers are busy with orders and (just recently) the blog posts get written, each designer sits down with a pencil and paper, down to business.

Because creativity, like New York, never sleeps.