How I snuck into a New York Fashion Week show

Like all things in fashion, sneaking into NYFW is all about confidence and killer hair

We sat down with senior, Annemarie McDaniels to discuss her experience sneaking into one of the most exclusive fashion events of the year: New York Fashion Week.

Annemarie got backstage and prime seating for the Betsey Johnson presentation last month and told The Tab how it’s done.

How did you decide to sneak into Fashion Week?

I was going to visit my friend in New York City for her belated birthday on the weekend. I started looking up what cool things were happening that weekend, and Fashion Week immediately popped up. I had grown up watching Project Runway and America’s Next Top Model, so I had always wanted to go.

How did you prepare to sneak in?

Well I made the decision to go the night before. I woke up at 6am and got there as early as possible to try to get in. I had read a couple articles online about how to sneak in, so I had a general idea of how to do it.

Were you nervous?

I wasn’t sure if I was going to have the courage to lie my way through the front door, so I just start by asking the bouncer if there were any extra standing room tickets left, but he said no.

But you didn’t give up there

I went back up to the rest of the crowd outside the shows, and I was feeling defeated.  Then, a slightly older woman comes up to me asking if I was trying to get in too. She had snuck into Fashion Week the last three years and was trying to do it again. She said I could come with her if I wanted.

So who was this mysterious woman?

I’ll call her Karly. She’s a college graduate who is trying to make it as a fashion designer in Atlanta and then hopefully New York.

How did she get you in?

She first noticed that not far from us there was a group of older women dressed in all black who had huge bags filled with hair products. She leans over to me and said: “That’s the Betsey Johnson hair team. That’s our ticket in.”

So we approached the hair team from Sexy Hair, and just started talking to them. We pretended that we weren’t originally supposed to work this show, but we got switched at the last minute. We talked to them for about half an hour, then we started moving to the backstage entrance. Karly and I asked if they wanted help carrying some of the bags so that way when we walked in with them, we would look less suspicious.

Celeb sighting: Maddie Ziegler of Dance Moms and Chandelier fame

Did you then have to deal with security?

Since we were coming in with a huge team, we got in immediately. The Project Runway show was just getting out, so we’re in this incredibly narrow hallway with barely enough room to squeeze by people. Then out walks Nina Garcia and Michael Kors from Project Runway with Kelly Osbourne and Carrie Underwood!

Karly had on these amazing designer shoes, and Carrie walks by, stops, says “I love your shoes” then keeps walking. I basically fainted.

We were in the hallway for a while, but we eventually got up to the main desk backstage. I walked up to a woman checking people in, and as confidently as I can, I say my name and that I was with Sexy Hair. The woman looks through the list, can’t find my name, so I make up this lie that I’m the new intern who was only hired last week. HR had ensured me my name was on the list, but I knew this was going to be a problem. The lady told me not to worry, wrote my name down and gave me a pass to walk on through.

Project Runway celebrity judges Alyssa Milano and Kelly Osbourne

Who did you talk to?

Well the scariest part of all this was when a guy complimented me on my hair so we start talking. He asked what show I was here for, so I say I’m with the Sexy Hair team for the Betsey Johnson show. He then goes, “Really? Because I’m the creative director of Sexy Hair, and I don’t think we’ve met before.”

At that point, my heart just stopped. I once again pulled out the lie I used at the front door that I was an intern. I apologized for not recognizing his name, and said since I was still in school I hadn’t been around the office much, but that I was so excited to be helping out with Fashion Week and learning as much as I can.

He just sort of smiled and said it was great to have me on board and the more hands the better. I felt like I was going to faint, but I just smiled and kept talking to him, pretending like I didn’t almost get caught in this huge lie which could’ve gotten me thrown out or even arrested for trespassing.

Betsey Johnson’s collection

How did you escape?

Karly and I said we were going to use the bathroom, and then we exited down the runway.

Down the runway?

Yes! To exit backstage, you literally have to walk down the runway. So we were joking about it as we walked down and strutted it.

Did you get to watch the show then?

Yes, but we were there four hours early because the hair and makeup teams arrive way before the show.

A model wearing a Yigal Azrouël design during the first show Annemarie watched

Then was it time for Betsey Johnson’s show?

We went and got food first, but then we went back to to Betsey Johnson. Since we had the hair team pass, we got to enter the venue before everyone else who had tickets could.

At this point, Betsey is starting to get all the models prepped and doing a run through. It’s literally just us, Betsey Johnson, the models and a couple people on staff in the whole place. We were having an amazing moment seeing the models walk down the runway with half their hair done looking hilarious. The music started blaring, but we were close enough to hear Betsey making corrections. She got up on the runway and starting dancing, too! I was only a few feet away.

Betsey Johnson doing one last run through before her show

Where were your seats for the show?

We didn’t have seats, so we went up to the person who was managing the seating and told her we were a part of the press, but that we only had standing room tickets. She said she would help get us better seats, and so she say us in the fifth row next to one of the head editors of the Huffington Post. It was great, we were sitting there feeling like celebrities and got Betsey Johnson goodie bags.

Betsey Johnson goodies, Annemarie’s outfit for the day and her backstage passes

What was the actual show like?

Her show that season was the 50th anniversary of her as a designer, so they showed different decades of her work. It was an incredibly long show, almost an hour.

It was beautiful: the lightening was incredible, and the hair and makeup made it obvious which decade she had designed for. The models were playful, and it felt so lively and fresh. You could tell that everyone there was having a great time putting on the show.

At the end, Betsey Johnson comes out, takes a bow, says hi to the crowd, then does a cartwheel and lands in a partial split! She was having a ball.

Betsey Johnson thanking the crowd at the end of her show

And no one ever suspected you weren’t supposed to be there?

If anyone did, it was the creative director of Sexy Hair. He might have been suspicious of me, but decided to be nice and let me stay.

AnneMarie’s hair got her noticed by a TRESemmé team who photographed her as hair inspiration

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