New York Fashion Week 2016

Dreams Do Come True

Babes, are you joining me in NYC next month? 

It's time to book those flights, hotels, RTR styles, and blowouts!

I thought I'd post a fun #TBT story for all of you today since this was one of our original posts on #TheBorrowedBlog and you may not have scrolled back that far to read this full story of MAGICAL INSANITY. :-) The gist of this rambling is we went to NYFW for the first time ever AND online contests are not always full of SHIT. Sometimes they are real and sometimes people actually win. WE ARE THOSE PEOPLE. {Insert Law & Order Theme Song Duh Duh}

If you follow our favorite designer babe, Rebecca Minkoff on social you probably recall seeing her team hype up a contest about 2-3 weeks prior to their show. It was a contest for you and friend to roll VIP at her NYFW 2016 runway show. Kimberly and I started texting each other back and forth about how we could earn as many entries as possible. We wanted to up our chances to win. We started posting, tweeting, emailing, smoke signaling... you name it, we did it. We were determined to win. SERIOUSLY DETERMINED. 

We also used the power of Oprah and told everyone we knew. Like the secret board idea. Put your dreams out into the Universe. If you talk about it, IT WILL HAPPEN. AND IT DID, Y'all! WE WON! I. SHIT. YOU. NOT. WE WON! 

New York, Here We Come

We'll spare you all the details of the last minute story of our invite, but we didn't find out until Thursday night and flew out on Friday afternoon. It was magical, exciting, and terrifying all at the same time. Terrifying because we were in an instant panic over what we were going to wear but that didn't shadow the excitement of our weekend. WHO WAITS UNTIL 12 hours before they leave to figure out ensembles for Fashion Week? These WINNERS. Hah! 

The Trip

Did we almost miss our flight? Yes. Did TSA confiscate my brand new, never been opened bottle of Living Proof Volume Spray? Yes. Were they out of Chardonnay on the flight? Yes. Did we care once we landed in NYC? HELL TO THE NO, Ladies. We were pumped. We hopped in an Uber, changed clothes, and went to the closest rooftop bar for some rosé. Very overpriced rosé. Plastic wine glasses on a roof rosé. Lots of college kids and us rosé. You get the picture. We stayed about as long as we could handle and not look end up looking ROUGH for our first ever NYFW show the next morning. 

It's Showtime 

Saturday morning was the Rebecca Minkoff show and our hotel was in Soho, only a few blocks from the show. We jumped out of bed and drank all the coffee and spent 3 hours primping to immediately walk outside and be DRENCHED in sweat. Heads Up: It's hot as balls in September in NYC. The ladies you see photos of on IG are way smarter than us...they had private cars booked to wait and sit in AC. We don't have that Kardashian money, so we walked. Also, I'm pretty sure we ate bagels or some other carbs around 2 am so we needed to burn off calories. 

The show was outside, which was awesome for pictures and bystanders but not for the faint of heart. We were about 9 seconds from dying of a heat stroke. This is one of the few times in life we wished we'd dressed for the weather and not for fashion. ;-)

We saw everyone in person that you LOVE to stalk on Insta for your #OOTD inspo and some celebs! (Chriselle Lim, Arielle of Something Navy, Color Me Courtney, Caroline Vreeland, Shea Marie, Olivia Palermo, Kate Hudson, Camila Alves, Chiara Ferragni, etc.) It was so fun, but also intimidating. (Seriously, intimidating.) Get your big girl confidence pants on when you go because it's slightly overwhelming in person. 

The show itself was awesome and inspiring. She used models mixed with bloggers and did custom graffiti art on clothing items while a live band played in the background. She capped off the show with an after party in her store with all the CHAMPS you could drink. (Which as it turns out when you almost just passed out from heat isn't much. You're actually focused on drinking water and not dying...and shopping, obviously.) 

The BEST Part of the After Party

Since we were lucky enough to win that glamorous contest, we were able to meet and chat with Rebecca herself. It was so much fun! She is gorgeous, nice, and just as well dressed as you'd imagine in person. All of her staff was amazing as well! They treated us fabulously and we are loyal RM fans for life. (I mean we already were, but this just solidified it even more so.)

The Rest of the Weekend

We spent the rest of the time shopping, popping bottles, eating, and being insulted by teens who accused me of being a "retired model". LOL Trust me, that story is way more hilarious and less self-serving if you hear it in person. We ate IG worthy ice cream, drank custom cocktails, attempted as many failed Boomerang attempts as you can fathom, took Ubers to places we've never heard of and came face to face with Pauly Shore. ;-) Haha! 

We Were Hooked

If you chat with us in person, we'll always share the fabulous, the only moderately fabulous, and the less than fabulous thoughts we had on our first trip to NYFW. It was a whirlwind of a weekend but we knew we had to come back, only with more planning involved. Cue NYFW 2017...half of the babes are making a return. (Yes, I refer to us in the third person. Get over it.)

What We Wore

Obviously, we rocked Rent the Runway the majority of the weekend. Below are some links to items we wore throughout the weekend. 

Will we see your lovely faces this year? Let us know in the comments below! 

If you are a Style Collective member, make sure to score your tickets to the Style Collective meet up. We will be there! AND if you aren't yet a member, that's cool too. You can join us at the party without being an official sister. Click here for tickets! 

XOXO, 

Stephanie

Post Update: August 10th - This article was highlighted by Independent Fashion Bloggers in the August 10th Links á la Mode feature. Check the links below to see all of the other bloggers included as well. Scroll all the way to the bottom to learn more about the sponsors and to get your coupon for ShopBop.