Katrina, a stylist at our West Dundee location had the honor of working at New York fashion week this year. We are excited that our stylists get the opportunity to take their careers to the next level in such an exciting way. Katrina couldn’t help but share her experience with all of us.
“New York Fashion week is not a walk in central park! It is high energy, high intensity, pure adrenaline, beautiful, elegant, and stunning work. It’s hard to believe all those words could run so smoothly together. You start your day off with a 6am call time at Lincoln Center. Waking up at 4am to catch a cab and a quick Starbucks leaves you with just enough time before the chaos begins. Walking in you know what you are in for this time but once everything starts moving you transform. Models start running, the look is shown to you, and off you to go create a masterpiece of your own. The space is so tight and there are people everywhere. Hair stylists, makeup artists, models, press, cameras flashing everywhere, the stylists (in the fashion world those are the people who get the models clothes together), and the designers. Then more and more people start rushing in, the talking gets louder, and there are cameras everywhere. The back stage magic is in full force leaving even the nail technician to sit on the floor to get the models nails done. You are trying to work on getting the look right with your partner and finally you think you have it. You get it checked by the hair lead (the person in charge of hair team) and you have to fix it because it isn’t perfect. Finally you perfect it and it is right on to the next model, but not before you snap a few pictures of your model of course. Now it’s time for a walk through, which is the practice for the models. They say we will have them back to you in 20 minutes. Twenty minutes becomes thirty, then thirty becomes forty minutes, and there are still 8 models left. By the time they get back to you there is 10 minutes left before show time and they still need to get dressed. The madness starts then. Four sets of hands are in one head, the makeup artist is trying to do a wing eyeliner, and the stylist is yelling for the model to come get dressed. Then it is ALL OVER. Just like that it’s over, and it’s time for the show. The best part is that now you get to watch. The most rewarding feeling comes over you because you get to see it all come together. You are proud when you watch that model strut her stuff down the runway and you think, I did that. Well of course the rest of the week follows suit because that was only the first show. After the first show it just gets better and better. An experience of a lifetime that I will repeat every season. NYFW is incredible and career changing!” – Katrina, Spa Bleu
