Blake Lively, Kim Kardashian, Beyoncé and Kate Hudson were just a few of the A-list celebrities sitting front row this season.
From Kanye West’s debut of his collaboration with Adidas, to Oscar de la Renta’s first show since his death, under new creative director Peter Copping, to a quadriplegic teenager’s runway open for the Art Institute’s show, this was a fashion week that ?made headlines.
New York Fashion Week was covered by CNN, the New York Times, Forbes Magazine and the Wall Street Journal and more this season.
“I love watching New York Fashion Week because you get to see the best of the best,” said Julie-Anne Bignal, a fashion design student in the Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design at IU.
The students in the AMID department said they believe New York Fashion Week is not as far from Bloomington as one might think.
“You have to be very dedicated, and I don’t think ?people realize that it is so intense,” Bignal said.
It’s glamorous to say, “Oh, I’m a fashion major,” she added. What people don’t see is how hard the students work, pulling three all-nighters per week for a show that won’t happen until April.
The fashion design students debut their collections at their own fashion show in April in one of the biggest spring events for the Retail Studies Organization.
“One thing that I wish people understood, especially about New York Fashion Week, is that (designers) put on these huge productions and they’re beautiful and captivating ... but every little step that goes into each show is incredible,” Bignal said. “Without one of those steps, you’re missing a whole element.”
Although it seems far away, fashion inspiration reaches Bloomington’s small community in a big way.
“A lot of these designers have histories like us, are from random parts of the world. And they saw something that they loved ... Personally, that’s something that really pushes me because you have any ability in the world to do whatever you want, you just have to work hard enough to do it,” Bignal said.
