When I think of a Fashion Show the first thing that crosses my mind is Spring Studios, and models walking straight up and down the runway. The last thing I think of is a dive bar that blasts screamo music with regular people being pulled to model streetwear, but that is exactly what happened at Urban Underground for New York Fashion Week.
When it came to coordination for this event, I had very little to do with it. All I knew going into it was that the runway show would feature streetwear brands and there would be more live performances that any other of events for Fashion Week. Needless to say, when I showed up at a grimy dive bar, I was confused. Looking around, I was not sure how we were going to be able to pull off a Fashion Show.
Soon artists began to arrive, and the event began to make more sense. There were visual artists, most of which specialized in graffiti. One of the artists even created wall art live, which became the backdrop for the event. Performers included a large part of the city's underground music scene and performed mostly rap and screamo music. All the designers were up and coming streetwear brands, and their clothing had a trendy, laid back vibe. Since streetwear continues to grow in popularity, I was taking some style notes. After all, I'm a city girl now, when it comes to style, I need to be able to wear many hats (literally and figuratively). The event, as a whole, was beginning to make sense, but there was still one very important element missing, models.
A few of Find Your ID's models from previous shows were there, and obviously stepped in. There were still more looks to fill, and I was wondering what we were going to do. It turned out the plan all along was to reward audience members with great street style by asking them to walk in the show. Our stylist made her way through the crowd and selected the rest of the models based on their personal style. I ended up having one of them come up and brag to me about how he was a model now, so at least we made someone's day, but I was still nervous about how this show would be pulled off. After all, these were regular people, not trained models.
When it came time for the show, I was stunned. Not because of it being a flop like I had worried about, but because the average joe's that were chosen were serving us top model realness. As soon as the Fashion Show wrapped, I realized that I had just been a part of a guerilla Fashion Show. I never knew these kinds of events actually happened, but had craved being a part of one ever since Jenny Humphrey crashed a prestigious charity event to debut her collection on Gossip Girl. The event was definitely different than any other New York Fashion Week event I had been a part of which is what made it exciting and unique. Hopefully, future Fashion Weeks will include more rogue runway shows like this one. In the meantime, I'll be crossing guerilla Fashion Show off my bucket list, and pinning streetwear to my fashion board on Pinterest.
XOXO,
Kristin
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