Regardless of who you are, your day-to-day activities, or gender or age; each person has a relationship with clothing in one way or another. For some, there is one week every year that acts as a binding force and progression with their relationship to fashion.

 
New York Fashion Week is a showcase of the world’s most prominent designers’ fall collections. Every single detail is immaculate and placed for a reason – from the lip color, shoe, necklace, hair and even the music -each is an element of the “look” the designer is portraying and selling.

Those who are blessed enough to have the opportunity to attend the occasion get to see the fashion shows live and get access to a variety of VIP benefits. The sponsors of Fashion Week love to shower these individuals with tastes of their newest products – products that range anywhere from the newest Pepsi drinks to miniature cupcakes by the New York local “Baked by Melissa.”Most people can only dream of attending the event in person, but luckily, we are able to watch Fashion Week unfold on YouTube, receive streaming updates via Twitter and see pictures of each look straight from the designer on Tumblr.

Fashion Week started as a trade event that stayed within the clothing and accessory industries, but now the crowd has expanded to A-listers, bloggers and the fashion obsessed. New York is familiar with mass crowds, but this is an increasing dilemma as the loiterers alone stand outside day-and-night to get a glimpse of a dress, a model, any celebrity or get any insight on what is within.

Throughout the United States, and now internationally, other cities celebrate “Fashion’s Night Out” where retailers such as Macy’s and Akira showcase their newest items and host a few pre-parties and countless after-parties.

As Fashion Week continually tops the list of trending topics on Twitter, various professionals now realize how much more personal people are about their clothing and the event.
“Shows like ‘Project Runway’ and ‘Fashion Star’ have made it so that everyone feels entitled to participate in fashion,” said editor-in-chief of Lucky Magazine Brandon Holley. “It has become national entertainment versus an industry must-do, must-attend event.”

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The E! Network tweets almost on an hourly-basis about what the stars are and aren’t, what they should and shouldn’t be wearing. They do this because people want to know what is current and fresh. Fashion Week is where the celebrities learn what is on trend and the innovations of fashion are officially brought to this world.

The designers face pressure too as the entire world looks upon their short 10-minute presentations that display the entirety of their work. The clothes will sell regardless of the mass media coverage, but the new hike in social media allows the consumer to be more than just a receipt from Nieman Marcus. It is a blessing and a curse; this sacred event that used to be exclusive to the biggest names in fashion has become a yearly global phenomenon. Although there is an increase in pressure, the designers can achieve world-wide fame in a matter of minutes when websites like style.com start to post pictures of their entire collection.

Consumers of all ages see the look, want the look and will wait patiently for it to enter stores for the next few weeks. The younger customers will be tweeting fervently and going to Forever 21 to get the closest emulation of the hottest new sweater, shorts and heels. The consumers are not the only ones with eyes wide open staring at each detail of the newest collections. Fashion Week will determine what each of us will be looking at on TV, downtown and around campus.