A Ticket to Fashion Week

Fashion Weeks are historically an airtight invitation only event for editors and major buyers. The brand's goal for the week is to show their raw talent to secure their placement in exquisite stores and boutiques, coverage in major media and editorials or front covers of major fashion magazines. If you lived outside the fashion world, only snapshots of this decadent week were available to you long after the runway lights are turned off. This 2012 Fall Fashion weeks gave fashion admirers an exhilarating and groundbreaking exclusive reach to the worlds most exclusive fashion brands. We got a ticket inside.

During New York, London and Milan fashion weeks, liverunway.com streamed runways as the models stomped into fall. Oscar de la Renta set up a live stream on his website as did Marc Jacobs, Vera Wang, Badgley Mishka, Prada in Milan and Alexander McQueen in London. Twitter hashtags were established to promote conversation about the runway, Facebook pages were set up to stream the live runway and fashion websites had smoke as they worked at lightning pace to have stills from the collection moments after the show ended.

This New York, London and Paris Fall Fashion Week I experienced every moment from my apartment. I oohed at Very Wang because I could see how her draping moved as the model waved through the catwalk. Something I'd never been exposed to in the past and it's something you can't imagine when just looking at a photo. Marc Jacobs runway began kinda kooky before he tranced you through an ethereal journey of Alice in Wonderland, Dr Seuss books, Jamiroquai (yes) and Willy Wonker, and you truly understood the immense talent of Marc Jacobs in the art of fashion. To experience this magic is truly a dream.

I believe fashion bloggers began to creek open the doors for the rest of us. Bloggers such as Tavi Gevinson and Susie Bubble now sit front row next to fashion editors and then share their experiences on their social media to us all.  In fact, Susie Bubble is getting ready for Versace right now. This social media conversation has also introduced us to the designers as they work. I follow numerous designers on Twitter as they tweet through their creative process and lives during fashion week. Fashion houses have extended the power of social media to their team: Nina Garcia, OscarPRGirl and DKNY PR GIRL share their world on Tumblr, Pinterest and Twitter accounts. They reply to tweets in real time with a real voice and share their world without losing the essence of the exclusive brand. It's smart social media in a smart industry.

The move for fashion powerhouses to openly introduce themselves to the community of global fashion lovers online is an essential use of resources to keep a pioneering industry on the forefront of media. It's opened an exclusive world to gain admiration from consumers without losing the essence of the brand. We all love and adore fashion brands perhaps more now that we can experience what an Oscar de la Renta runway means. We understand the craftsmanship that goes into each individual piece and have a new respect for the fitting and movement of gowns. We can also see the team behind the brand and our love for the fashion world and our favorite brand blossoms.

Thank you, designers for opening your world. Looking forward to Paris, Mr. Lagerfeld.

Sincerely,

Katie Lee

Oscar at work: thanks to OscarPRGirl Twitter

Backstage at Oscar de la Renta

Oscar de la Renta Runway New York Fashion Week Fall 2012