In honor of Paris Fashion Week going on right now, although I'm not there yet.
I will be there in like two weeks, but right now I'm still at home pre-recording podcast episodes.
But in honor of Paris Fashion Week going on and me being there when this episode comes out today, I decided I would share with you all, in unnecessary detail, my fashion week routine.
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Now back to the episode.
And I've shared little bits and pieces of my fashion week routine on the internet before, but I've never sat down and gotten into the nitty gritty of it all.
Dissected. my fashion week routine.
I've given you like the spark notes of it in YouTube videos, maybe even on my Instagram a little bit, but I've never dug into it.
And I know what you might be thinking, Emma, what's to it?
Like what?
You go to a fitting and then you put on your cute little outfit and then you go to the fashion show.
Like what else is there to it?
Well, in recent years, my fashion week routine has gotten far more complicated because I've started going to more fashion shows while I'm there.
I used to go to fashion week years ago and just go to one show.
I would go all the way to Paris, go to one show, and then that was the end of it.
And that's because I had a specific relationship, an intimate relationship with a particular brand.
And...
They invited me to Fashion Week to attend just their show and then go home.
And that was sort of the Fashion Week routine.
And so there was still a routine to it, but it was pretty simple because I was just going to one show.
So I could focus on one look one day of transportation to and from the venue, one day of doing interviews or doing photo shoots.
And then that was the end of it.
But now that I'm more into fashion and I'm more excited about seeing the runway shows, I've decided to structure my fashion week a little bit differently and more complicatedly, if that's a word.
It's The last Fashion Week I went to, I think I went to like six, seven shows.
I went to a lot of shows.
And the more shows you go to, the more chaotic and intense it becomes.
But I don't say chaotic and intense in a bad way.
This is self-inflicted chaos and intensity.
I love it.
I love the rush.
Fashion week is like manufactured chaos.
It is a complete mess, which you'll find out as I dissect my fashion week routine.
It's a mess.
It's chaos.
It's stressful.
It's exhausting.
But it's all self-inflicted.
No one's telling me to do this.
I want to do it.
It's something I care about, that I'm excited about.
I love everything about it and I love the chaos as well.
Honestly, I think the chaos is one of my favorite parts about it, and perhaps that's why every year that I attend, it gets a little bit more chaotic for me.
I think I make that decision because that's what makes it so fun and exhilarating and exciting and so vastly different from the routine that I have at home.
I have such a chill routine at home It's unbelievably chill.
I'm at home working, going to hot yoga, cooking, eating 90% of the time.
I have such a chill, consistent routine at home that there's something really exciting about this sort of contained chaos of fashion week.
And it's interesting because I kind of look at Fashion Week and my attendance there as sort of like a hobby more than anything.
It's almost like a vacation where I'm participating in a hobby.
It's not, in my opinion, in my eyes, really work.
Some would argue maybe it's work, but I don't really feel like it is.
I don't go to Fashion Week because there's some sort of opportunity financially there.
I go to Fashion Week because I love fashion and I love getting dressed up and I love watching the newest designs come down the runway in person.
I love being there and experiencing the art of the runway show.
Like, I just love that.
It's something I just adore so much.
That's why I want to be there.
It has nothing to do... Like, I don't even...
I don't know if I'm.
I don't get paid to be at a show like that, doesn't?
That's not how it works.
You know I'm there.
I'm there because I want to be there and because they let me come to the show to watch.
You know, it's like it is sort of like a fun vacation in a way, and so that's how I look at it, right?
So anywho, without further ado, let's get into my fashion week routine.
It all starts a few months before when my team and I start discussing okay, what brands do we want to try to go to the shows for this season?
Now, this is before we even know what the schedule is for Fashion Week.
The Fashion Week schedule tends to come out pretty late, like a month and a half before Fashion Week happens, which is a little bit stressful because I'm somebody who likes to plan honestly, ideally for me, years in advance.
If it was up to me, I'd plan everything years in advance.
I'd make dinner reservations for two years down the line.
I love being prepared.
But the Fashion Week schedule doesn't come out until like a month and a half before it happens, sometimes even a month before it happens.
And so a lot of the discussions prior to Fashion Week are kind of Like oh you know, this brand just got a new creative director.
Maybe we should try to see if Emma could go to this one, because they're going to have an interesting new vibe at this fashion week.
Could be fun to be there for the debut.
Or Emma's been wearing this brand a lot.
We should have Emma go to this show.
And I'm talking about myself in third person, because I sometimes do talk about myself in third person in these types of situations, because I feel like I'm talking about my future self.
So there's a lot of strategizing, but with no real action items, because we don't really know what brands are actually going to have shows.
Because sometimes I might be like, oh, I'm so obsessed with Margella right now.
I really want to go to the Margella show.
And then the schedule comes out and they're not doing a show this season.
You know what I'm saying?
You never know what's going to happen.
There are certain brands that, without fail, show every single season for the most part.
But there are some that take seasons off or whatever.
So once the schedule comes out, it's go time.
It's time to start securing... invites to the shows.
I'd say half of the invites come from the brand.
They're like, we know Emma loves Fashion Week.
She loves going to Fashion Week.
Does she want to come?
Then half of the invites come from my team and I being like, hey, hey, hey, Emma wants to come.
Do you have a little space for for Emma to come.
She's a big fan of the brand and she'd love to wear an outfit of your clothes and watch, please.
So it's half and half.
And sometimes I get invited to a show and I'm like, you know what?
I'm not really into this brand.
And It's not really a good fit.
I'm going to pass.
Sometimes it's a mutually loving sort of relationship between a brand that I love and wear and a brand that loves me and wants me to come.
And so that's always the most seamless.
Sometimes we reach out to a brand and say, hey, Emma really wants to come.
And they're like, OK, great.
She can come.
And then sometimes they're like, no, we don't like her vibe.
Her vibe is cringe.
No, they don't say that, but they might be thinking it and that's okay.
Like I never get offended if a brand is like, eh, nah, she's not her vibe this season.
Whatever.
I can just look online after and see what was on the runway.
It's fun to be there, but if a brand doesn't want me there because they think I'm cringed and stupid and low IQ and not enough likes on Instagram, then that's totally fine.
And yeah.
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So it's a lot of back and forth between brands and kind of planning out like okay, there's certain brands that I want to go see the show for because I really am a big fan of the brand.
And then there's other brands that perhaps have a new creative director.
And so that's why I want to attend the show to see the debut of what the new brand identity is, which is a little bit more risky.
Like.
I might not like the show or I might not, you know like, but it's it's more of like a interesting thing to be present for.
So those are the two intentions I go into choosing what fashion shows I attend.
Yeah.
And then eventually we assemble a schedule and then it's time to book travel.
The thing about fashion week is that it's not really just one week.
It's like fashion weeks, okay?
There's New York fashion week.
And then directly after that, I think it's, is it London?
Then it's London fashion week.
Then it's Milan fashion week.
Then it's Paris fashion week.
And then it's over.
That's like how it's sort of scheduled out.
I usually go to Milan and then Paris.
And sometimes I don't even go to Milan.
Sometimes I just go to Paris.
Because if I did the whole Fashion Week run New York to London, to Milan, to Paris, I think I can't do that.
It's too much.
It's too long.
I'd be gone for like a month, you know, traveling for like a month.
So I tend to stick to just Milan and Paris or sometimes just Paris.
And this particular season, I'm going to Milan and Paris.
So there's a bit more traveling going on.
When it's to Paris and back, it's so simple.
You know, it's like a one, it's LAX to Paris.
I'm in Paris and then Paris back to L.A. at the end of it.
It's like so simple.
Flying to Milan is a bit more complicated.
The travel tends to look a little something like this if I'm doing Milan as well.
So I try to book a flight that will get me to Europe at a reasonable cost. the earlier hour.
I don't like landing in the evening because I try to sleep as much as possible on the plane.
And if I land in the evening, then my sleep schedule is so fucked up.
Then I'm supposed to go to bed, but I'm not that tired.
And then also, like, there's something about landing in the evening, like you lose a full day.
You know, I don't know.
I just don't like it.
So I like to choose a flight that has me landing in the afternoon earlier in the day.
And there are no direct flights from Los Angeles to Milan.
So it's a layover, usually in Paris.
No problemo.
I try to choose a flight with a short layover, which is risky, because if there's any sort of delay I'm kind of fucked.
But when it comes to traveling, I like to choose the most efficient travel day possible.
So I'd rather be running booking it through the airport with tears running down my face, afraid that I'm going to miss my flight but then make it, than be sitting around in the airport for like three hours.
Yeah.
Also, worst case scenario, I miss my flight.
There's usually like 10 more flights from Paris to Milan, especially in the middle of the day.
There's so many flights from Paris to Milan.
So it's like, fine.
Anyway, so that's usually the timing that I schedule.
I also tend to book my departing flight from LA to Europe at least 48 hours before my first event that I'm attending, because I want to allow time for flight cancellations.
I want to allow time to recharge when I get there a little bit, to kind of get my body back into homeostasis, because a 10 hour if I'm going to Milan like 13 hour total travel day, really takes a toll on the body, makes me feel sluggish, I'm uncomfortable, I'm like my body's just off after a flight that long.
So I like to give my body time to recover before my first event.
So I tend to book my flight a few days before.
And then when it comes to booking hotels, I try to book hotels that are not too busy.
There For the most part.
I try to avoid those hotels because they tend to be very busy, very intense, very packed.
The elevators will be slower because there's a lot of people going up and down the elevators.
If I wanna go down to the restaurant to get a meal really quick before I leave, good luck, because there's gonna be so many people there.
So I tend to try to choose a hotel that's centrally located but not popular among Fashion Week attendees.
I say centrally located because being centrally located is important, because during Fashion Week the shows are scattered all throughout the city.
And if you're centrally located there's a decent chance you're going to be somewhat close to all of them.
Whereas if you're kind of like out to the side, if that makes sense of the city, like if you're kind of on the outskirts a little bit, you're going to end up sitting in a lot more traffic than you would want to.
You know, if you're centrally located, you're kind of equidistant to almost everything in a way.
It doesn't always work out that way, but I found that it works out the best, because that's the other thing about Fashion Week.
There's so much traffic because of Fashion Week, because there's so many people going to these shows all at once, all coming from somewhat of the same area.
There's so much traffic.
It's just better to be centrally located so that you're the shortest distance to where things might possibly be as possible.
Because also the other thing is, a lot of times when you're scheduling all this stuff, you don't know where the shows are going to be necessarily.
They don't announce that immediately.
So it's kind of like this juggling act.
The preparation for Fashion Week is this juggling act of like...
I don't know where the show's going to be.
I don't even know what time it's going to be.
But I need to start booking my hotel because hotels are starting to get booked up.
But then also I don't want to book the hotel that everyone else is staying at, because then it'll be busy.
So like, let me try to find one that's centrally located that is less popular.
Like, it's just like, it's a lot.
But again, I love the chaos.
There's something fun about the chaos.
It's a logistical nightmare.
But that in itself is kind of fun for me.
Yeah.
Because it distracts me from other things that are more anxiety inducing in my life, that are more serious.
It's almost like the anxiety of planning fashion week distracts me from more serious anxieties, more painful anxieties, interestingly enough.
So that's how I choose my flights.
That's how I choose my hotels.
That's usually booked like ideally a month before, but sometimes a few weeks before.
Like right now I leave for fashion week in two weeks.
I'm just now solidifying my travel schedule.
And it's stressing me out, but that's, again, part of the fun.
Then like the week before Fashion Week, it's time to start preparing the mind, body, and soul.
Now, to be honest, I really don't do that much.
A lot of times the week before Fashion Week, I have to get extra work done.
Like, for example, I will record extra podcasts because while I'm there I won't be able to record a podcast.
I might cram a few more business meetings into the week before, because I won't have time to do it while I'm there.
So I'm just kind of getting extra stuff done beforehand so that I'm not stressed while I'm there.
I also have a few key appointments. for my physical being that are necessary.
Actually, the only really necessary appointment before Fashion Week at this point in my life is my hair.
I just need to make sure my hair is done.
Get a little bleach and tone.
Get a little trim on the pixie.
Although if my hair is like long and brown and natural, I don't need to get my hair done beforehand.
I might also bleach my eyebrows.
I like to bleach my eyebrows for Fashion Week sometimes, because when your eyebrows are bleached you have more room for makeup.
And Fashion Week is not just about the clothes for me.
It's also about doing fun makeup looks.
So I might bleach my eyebrows before I leave.
Yeah.
I might get my nails done.
But again, I don't know.
I'm kind of in a natural nail era right now, weirdly, which I've not had in a really long time.
So for this particular fashion week, I might skip the nail appointment and just have natural nails.
Go to the nail salon while I'm there and do it.
But I don't know.
I'm kind of in my natural nail era.
But I will say in the past, the nail appointment pre-Fashion Week has been very important.
The priority has been picking out a manicure that'll match everything, which usually means like nude beige.
I think I've done red, maroon before.
Just something pretty neutral so that no matter what I wear, it'll work, which is kind of hard.
You can't do anything that fun and wild if you want it to match everything.
But yeah, this season, I don't think I'm going to do nails.
I don't know.
We'll see, though.
If you see me with long claws, I'm not a hypocrite.
I just changed my mind.
I don't really do that much, though, before Fashion Week.
I don't get a facial...
The appointments are pretty limited.
Like compared to doing a red carpet.
I would say my fashion week prep appointments are pretty limited.
Like when I'm doing a red carpet, I will get a facial.
I will get a full body massage.
I will, I don't know, like change my entire hairstyle even sometimes.
I don't know.
I've done shit like that before.
The thing about red carpet events is that I don't know there's something about them that's much more intense than Because they're much more visible.
Like, more people, I think, pay attention.
And so there's something about that that weighs a bit heavier, I would say, than Fashion Week.
So I'm much more inclined to, like, over-prepare for red carpet. than I am Fashion Week.
The other thing is too, with Fashion Week, I go to like six events, eight events, you know?
I have a bunch of different tries to have a really, really awesome look.
Like if one look ends up not looking that good in photos or something or whatever and it gets posted on the internet and people are like Emma looks like shit.
Whatever.
I'm going to another event the next day and I can redeem myself.
That's how I look at it.
That's how I feel about it.
Whereas a red carpet, it's like you just want to nail it.
It is almost like a sport.
You want to walk down the carpet and you want everything to be a full vibe and vision and you want it to look like that on the carpet.
You want it to translate on the carpet.
And it's almost like you get one shot, whereas Fashion Week you get like six seven, eight shots.
So I don't know.
I'm not I like I'm pretty chill about the prep before I leave.
About two days before I leave, it's time to pack.
Now, I only pack a carry-on when I travel.
That is the largest luggage I will bring is a carry-on.
I bring a carry-on, a backpack, and then if I can get away with it, a small little purse.
That's... what I bring.
So that's all the space I have.
And the thing is, if I'm going on a long trip, I'd say Fashion Week is a pretty long trip.
It's approximately two weeks that I'm gone if I do Milan and Paris.
If clothes get dirty, I just do laundry.
I'll do laundry at the hotel.
Worst case scenario, I could go to a local laundromat.
I'm in a big city.
If I need to do laundry, I can figure it out.
You know what I mean?
But I've never been to a hotel that didn't do laundry.
For Fashion Week anyway.
So it's never been an issue.
So that's what I do.
So I plan to re-wear stuff and I plan to do laundry.
And that's okay.
The first thing I think about when I'm packing is the weather.
Fashion Week can come almost any time of year.
There's Fashion Weeks in the winter, spring, summer, and fall, right?
There's so many Fashion Weeks.
There's almost a Fashion Week going on all the time.
You know, you have Couture Week, which is more artistic sort of fashion.
That happens in June and I believe in like February, January?
Is it in January?
I don't remember.
And then you have Women's Ready to Wear, which happens in September, October and February, March.
I can't remember.
Anyway, and then you have Men's Week and I don't even remember when that is.
And then you have cruise shows, which is like...
It's like summery.
There's so many fashion weeks and fashion shows happening at all times.
The particular one going on right now is Women's Ready to Wear, which is more clothing that actually you could wear in your day-to-day life.
Whereas like couture week is more like very dramatic gowns and sculptural pieces and stuff like that.
And I love going to couture week, but I also love going to ready to wear week because it's stuff that I actually like could wear in my day to day life.
You know, it's much easier to take inspiration from that.
It's really fun to analyze because it's more indicative of what the trends are in the zeitgeist currently or what trends are coming to the zeitgeist.
You know it's much more pop culture, whereas Couture Week is much more artistic and kind of abstract.
And like I, enjoy that as well, but it's just a different sort of experience from a viewer perspective.
But anyway, I went off on a tangent.
What I was trying to say was weather is my first concern when I'm packing clothes.
What's the weather?
For this particular fashion week right now, you know, it's pretty warm.
It's comfortable.
So I can wear like shorts or a skirt, but I can also wear pants.
I'll bring some light sweaters, but I don't need to bring any coats.
So I'm thinking about the different silhouettes that I'm going to be bringing.
And then from there, I try to figure out what my vibe is for the fashion week.
Like, what's my vibe?
And And the reason why I try to figure out my vibe, which is very abstract.
It's like Emma.
What does that even mean?
Your vibe?
Like what?
I try to figure out my overall vibe, because that allows me to pick out pieces that will all match together.
Does that make sense?
Like because I only pack a carry-on.
I'm not picking out individual outfits that all have their own individual vibe.
But rather I'm trying to select a collection of pieces from my closet that all share a similar vibe, so that I can mix and match them throughout the duration of the two weeks that I'm there.
And I have as many options as possible, right?
And so I might choose like ooh, I kind of want to wear like all black on this particular Fashion Week trip.
Like I'm just gonna wear all black because...
When I go to the shows, I'll be borrowing bright, colorful, crazy, wild outfits.
So when I'm not at a show, I just want to wear all black.
That might be a vibe that I choose.
Or I might be like, ooh, I really want to... have like a retro vibe.
Like I really want to wear, you know, a lot of my vintage eclectic pieces and wear them, match them all together in a way that's weird or funky, you know, or I might decide oh, I want to really lean into Paris, you know, on this particular piece trip.
So maybe I'll wear you know I'll wear stereotypical, like French Paris fashion, like you know a really sharp pair of jeans and a cute little flat and like a striped shirt or and like artsy kind of French chic sort of vibe, like whatever.
I'll pick out some sort of vibe that makes sense in my head.
It doesn't matter if it makes sense in yours, just makes sense in mine.
And then I'll pick out a that match that vibe.
And then that's what I pack.
I will say though, I do tend to prioritize aesthetics more than usual when packing for Fashion Week, because it's almost like dressing for the occasion, you know.
During Fashion Week, everyone walking around is so chic and so fashionable.
Everybody looks so, so cool and whatever because there's just this air of fashion.
It's like, it's so exciting and it's so fun that... you want to be a part of it.
You want to wear your most chic outfit, you know?
Because when I'm vacationing casually, my number one priority is honestly comfort.
I mean, style is still important to me too.
But vacation for me is about comfort because I like adventuring and walking around and all this.
But For Fashion Week, I still want to adventure and walk around, but I also want to fit the theme.
It's almost like going to Disneyland.
Okay, let's say you and your family are doing a trip to Disneyland.
You're going to pack all of your Disney memorabilia because you want to dress for the theme.
At Disneyland, it's exciting because everybody's wearing...
Mickey Mouse ears and everybody's wearing the Mickey Mouse shirt and you just want to be a part of it, you know.
So it's like the same thing for fashion week.
So I might pack like a really you know weird like uh, like a weird hat or something, or like I might pack my like most dramatic sunglasses, because it's like dressing for the theme of the occasion.
And also too, like I'll pack a heel.
Like I normally am not going to pack a heel if I'm just going on vacation, right?
Because I don't need a heel.
I'm happy to be casual on vacation.
But for Fashion Week it's like I want to go to dinner and wear a fucking heel and click clack around.
You know, I'm not going to pack a heel that's too painful to walk in for a decent distance.
But like, I'm going to pack a heel.
So...
That's sort of my packing routine.
And then it's time to travel, okay?
Can you believe we've been talking for this long and we're not even in Europe yet?
Everything about the travel day to Europe is pretty much the same as any other travel day.
And I've made a full episode about my travel routine before, so I won't get too far into it.
But I will say that traveling to Europe is definitely a bit more intense than my usual travel.
Because for the most part, I travel within... the United States, I would say.
Like for the most part, you know, I go to New York a lot.
Sometimes I'll go somewhere random, you know, like a random, like sometimes I'm in Boise Idaho, for some reason.
But for the most part, I just go to, I go to New York a lot.
But the Europe flight is particularly long, especially for somebody like me who has airplane anxiety.
It is a 10 and a half hour flight approximately to Paris and then another hour and a half to to Milan.
And then from Milan back to Paris, it's an hour and a half again, approximately.
It's a long day.
And so I prepare a little bit differently than I do for say like a flight to New York.
A flight to New York, I don't really have to prepare that much because it's not that long.
It's four and a half, five hours there, six hours approximately back.
But But because it's so long, I can't rely on sleeping.
For shorter flights, I rely on sleeping.
Or it just being so short that, like I don't know, I can just watch a few YouTube videos or like get a little bit of work done.
And next thing I know, I'm there.
I have to be prepared to be on that plane for a long time and keep myself cool calm, collected and distracted.
So a lot of times I like to sleep deprive myself before the flight to Europe, because I want to sleep for as long as possible.
I want to kill as much time as I possibly can.
So I might only sleep three or four hours the night before.
I've pulled all-nighters before Europe flights.
The older I get, the harder it is for me to pull an all-nighter before a flight.
But I will try to sleep deprive myself.
I will also... prepare a project for myself to work on before I leave.
Now I don't always work on said project, but I'll make some sort of goal for myself, like either edit a YouTube video or write three podcast outlines or work on some sort of particular creative deck for some project that's coming up, or you predetermined before i even get on the flight what i'm gonna work on.
If i'm awake and i need to work on something, i will also download as i always do a bunch of youtube videos.
For some reason, it doesn't calm me down to like watch the tv on the plane like i.
Movies and tv shows don't bring me as much calm as youtube does.
There's something about watching random fucking videos on youtube and i'm talking about random.
I watch anything on youtube.
I'll watch anything, Like I just love the way the algorithm will just give me the most random fucking shit.
I want that.
I want random shit.
That's what distracts me the most.
And so I will just download a bunch of shit.
Also the smart download feature. is so helpful on YouTube.
If you turn on smart downloads, it'll just start.
It'll like download a new set of random, algorithmically chosen videos from your Explore page every 30 days, I think.
So then you always kind of have a collection of random downloaded videos.
So I have that turned on and then I hand select some videos to download.
So I have a bunch of content to watch.
And so I'll have all of that prepared.
But other than that, there's nothing really else to do.
And so the travel days... pretty much normal from there.
Get on the plane, have a panic attack while the plane's taking off.
Calm down once it's at cruising altitude.
You know sleep work, watch YouTube.
Next thing.
I know it's not really next thing, I know, but eventually we land, we're in Europe and then potentially have a connecting flight, whatever.
Then I'm in Europe.
We're here.
We're Even if I slept on the plane, I'm usually pretty exhausted, but I usually tend to land in the afternoon.
So I push myself to stay awake for the entire rest of the day, until the evening time when I fall asleep, because that gets me on schedule as quickly as possible.
But usually upon landing, I already have fittings.
That's when the fittings start.
And the fittings don't really end immediately. until Fashion Week ends.
I'm doing fittings up until the last show because I never do fittings in Los Angeles.
The fittings are always once I'm in Europe.
It's just like the brands are really busy.
I'm busy going to shows and going to other fittings.
So it's like... basically just fitting in fittings as soon as possible.
But usually it's like you know, a day might be like a fashion week day for me might be going to a show in the morning and then going to a fitting later in the day or, you know, vice versa, whatever.
Or one day I might have a day off and I'll do three fittings that day.
It just really depends on everybody's schedule.
But the fittings start as soon as I arrive usually.
And The way that the fittings work is usually beforehand.
The brands will send a selection of clothing outfits, options to my stylist, Jared and I, And Jared will take a look, sort through, choose his favorites, send everything to me.
I choose my favorites.
We see where there's overlap.
And then we select which ones we wanna try on at the fitting.
And then we show up to the fitting and we try it on and we see what we like.
And there's usually a tailor there, because oftentimes the clothing doesn't immediately fit, you know.
So we have to sort of figure out if the pieces can be tailored.
And sometimes we might try something on and we absolutely love it.
But maybe it's the pants are too long.
And let's say that they're leather pants and maybe they can't tailor the leather pants.
So sometimes we have to let go of the leather pants and try something else.
We might try a bunch of stuff on at the fitting that we picked out beforehand and decide none of this is working.
And we might have to go back to the drawing board in the moment.
The brands might have to go in the back and start pulling other stuff and figuring out what else we could try.
And it's a lot of trial and error.
And a lot of what we do too, is take photos of the outfits as we're trying them on, because there's something interesting about a photo of something versus looking in the mirror, right?
When you look at a photo, you're looking at it 2D and you can almost analyze it more realistically for what it is.
So we're taking a lot of photos.
We're analyzing a lot of photos.
And we're ultimately trying to find something that feels like the perfect marriage between me as a person and my personal style and the brand.
And it doesn't take 15 minutes.
Let's just say that.
Fittings can span from...
45 minutes if we're really just flowing and it just works and it clicks to sometimes even like two hours, depending on how quickly we figure it out.
And then, immediately after a fitting, Jared and I, my stylist and Bestie Jared and I will figure out.
Once we have the outfit picked out, we'll pull up the photo of the outfit and we'll discuss hair and makeup and we'll start going on Pinterest or wherever on the internet and we'll start to find reference images that vaguely resemble the vibe of the makeup and hair that we want to do for the particular look.
And a lot of times what we do, before we even pull up reference images, is that we like discuss from our imagination what we're thinking.
Like for a particular outfit.
We might say you know what like honestly, something kind of natural and light might look the best on this.
Like something you know light makeup, airy makeup, like not super smoked out eye, super bright, contoured face, you know, maybe something a bit more natural, something a bit lighter.
Or depending on the outfit, we might be like, oh, you know what?
This outfit's kind of simple.
It's kind of chill.
And we want to play it up a little bit.
Maybe we do like a big smoky eye and we do like a bright colored lip.
Or we might have an outfit where we're like, oh, this is super like... dark and grungy.
We want to fully stay in that world and do something dark and grungy for the makeup, whatever.
So we'll discuss it.
And then we'll try to find images online that match the sort of vibe that we discussed.
And then from there we send it to my hair and makeup artists, who then further give their opinions based on their expertise.
Because I think what's so fun about Fashion Week for me is that I get to work with all these people that are so good at what they do, and My stylist Jared, is so good at clothes.
My hairstylists that I work with are so good at the art of hair.
My makeup artists are so good at the art of makeup.
And so all together, we bring our expertise together and come up with something that feels special.
And so I try not to be too much of a control freak, which is hard for me because I am naturally a control freak.
I try to...
Not like come to every conclusion on my own.
I try to leave it open so that everybody can insert their opinions and their ideas.
And together we can come up with something that feels like ultimately, a combination of me and the brand that I'm wearing in the show that I'm attending and my stylist, but also my hairstylist and my makeup artist.
I want everybody to feel like their art is present everywhere. on me.
That's always the goal.
And so then from there, once we have the outfit and we figured out the look, it's time to go to a show.
Again, there's usually a lot of shows.
I try not to do more than two per day, to be honest, because I really like to put maximum effort into each look and make each one feel super unique to the brand and to the show that I'm attending.
And so if I were to attend like five shows in a day, I wouldn't have enough time to do a brand new makeup look, brand new hairstyle for every single show.
And that's so important to me because that's a part of what makes it so fun for me.
And so I try to only do two shows a day maximum.
And I like to give a good chunk of time in between, which sometimes means I have to say goodbye to a show that I really want to go to because it's too close in timing to another one that I want to go to.
And that's sometimes a bummer, but it's fine.
That's a choice that I make.
So on show day we usually start doing hair and four or five hours before the show time because we're doing complicated hair and makeup looks that are really built up and complicated.
Sometimes we're doing wigs, which takes a bit longer to put on my head.
Sometimes we're doing extensions, which takes a bit longer to do than just like fluffing my hair up.
For makeup.
Sometimes there's been times where we've done like We did one time, like little glue on piercings onto my face.
There was another time that we did like this super washed out gothic look, which was like a bit more experimental.
And so like that took a bit more time to perfect, you know, like we're experimenting a bit more.
So I liked it a lot as much time as possible for the hair and makeup.
And then we also need to allot a decent amount of time for getting dressed, sometimes up to 30 minutes, which is a lot of time to get dressed, to put on clothing, if you think about it.
But it's because sometimes I'm wearing a corset and we need to lace up the corset and that takes 10 minutes in itself.
Sometimes the brand that I'm wearing didn't have my shoe size, so we need to pack the front of the shoe with tissue paper so that my foot isn't sliding around.
Sometimes we need to tape clothing down to my skin so that it doesn't move.
It may be if it's kind of like a finicky piece.
It's just a bit more complicated than like getting dressed to like go to dinner with friends, you know.
With that.
It's like okay, I put on my outfit and then I like lint roll because I have cat hair all over me and then I go.
Like that's it.
But you know, these outfits tend to be more theatrical and more complicated, more costume-esque, depending on the show.
I mean, sometimes they're normal.
Like I've been seen wearing just like a little blazer and like a little skirt, you know, or like a simple little skirt-jacket combo.
But every year that I go to Fashion Week I try to up the ante and wear like more and more interesting stuff.
And, you know, that's not always... what makes sense for me, for the brand, for whatever.
But there's a decent portion of the time where I'm wearing something very complicated.
And so I like to allot a decent amount of time for that.
And then also I have to allot a decent amount of time for traveling from my hotel to the venue.
Because as I mentioned earlier, there's a lot of Fashion Week traffic.
So I want to make sure that I'm not late.
Although Fashion Week is notoriously fashionably late.
I feel like that's where the term came from.
Because the shows will be scheduled to start at like, let's say 5 p.m.
And the show won't even start till, like I don't know, sometimes 6 pm, maybe even later sometimes, depending on traffic, depending on how quickly they get everyone in their seats and take all the photos and all that stuff.
So I'm going off on a lot of tangents today.
Okay, I'm sorry.
But I think it's sort of representative of how Fashion Week feels.
It's so all over the place. that it's like, it's chaotic.
There's a lot of tangents.
There's a lot of, it's chaos.
Anyway, so I get to the show and then the first thing I do is photo call.
There's usually some sort of photo call where the brand you know wants to take photos of the people in attendance.
So I'll go take my cute little pic and then sometimes I'll do little And interviews, random interviews.
Different media outlets are there and are like hey, want to talk.
And I'm like, yes.
So I'll do those little interviews before the show starts.
And then it gets quiet and the show happens.
And while I'm sitting there and I'm watching the show, there are two things I'm thinking about.
Number one, I hope my phone's on silent.
And then I'm like...
Putting my phone like triple checking every three seconds to make sure that my phone is on silent.
And then I'm thinking about how cool it is.
The music comes in.
It's like usually something kind of intense and like whatever.
And then the looks start coming out and I'm looking at all the outfits and in my head I'm like, you know thinking about which ones I like and which ones I maybe don't like or which ones I don't get or whatever and I'm kind of critiquing the show in my head but I'm also like in the world of it almost like I'm watching a movie or something it's very immersive and exciting and fun and then you know five to ten minutes later actually five minutes is pretty short ten minutes later maybe 15 minutes later the show's over everyone gets up finds their car it's very challenging and And then goes back to their hotel and that's the end of it.
And I mean some of my favorite Fashion Week memories are Jared and I in the car after watching the show being like ooh, we're like talking about it, critiquing it, discussing it.
Very fun, very fun.
And then that's pretty much it for what the fashion shows are.
I mean, like, you know, again, the schedule for any given day is sort of unpredictable.
Shows are at all different times spanning from early in the morning to late in the evening.
Fittings also can be at any given time.
So it's just sort of like bouncing between fittings and in shows, and then also in the evenings, sometimes after parties.
But I will say I'm not a big after party person.
The fittings and the shows and running around and doing all of that is pretty exhausting.
And that on top of jet lag is even more exhausting.
So by the time like 11 p.m. rolls around, I'm usually ready for bed.
And so I'll sometimes pop into an after party in the evening, but I'll be honest, I'm usually too tired.
Like I'll go sometimes. to hang out and talk to people and socialize because that is fun.
And the fashion shows themselves are maybe less social because it's very focused on what's happening.
So it can be fun to socialize.
But a lot of times I'm too tired.
But sometimes I'll have an after party look.
So sometimes that'll get picked out at the fitting too.
But that depends on if the brand is like hey, we want to give you another outfit for the after party.
Like, That's something we want to do.
You know, that's usually how that comes up and how that happens.
But a lot of times we don't do that because it's like oh, Emma's really gets really tired and like needs to go to bed.
But that's the nature of going to like a bunch of shows.
If you go to one show and then go to one after party, and then that's the end of your fashion week, which that's how I used to do it.
It's like no problem.
You know, it's a long day, but it's just one day when you're doing it every day.
The after party stuff like that. but I do still make it to some of them.
But I'm not like constantly at fittings and constantly at shows, right?
There's time in between.
And the time in between is spent usually sleeping, trying to get some sort of exercise in.
I try to still take care of myself in the same way I do at home while I'm there, even though it's a bit tough.
Sometimes it's too busy to do so, but I know that exercise calms the mind, makes me feel good physically.
It just makes me feel good.
So I try to keep up my workout routine, although it's usually in a hotel gym.
So it's going to be very different from what I do when I'm in Los Angeles.
Because when I'm here in Los Angeles, I have a very specific routine.
I go to a lot of hot yoga.
And it's much easier to just go to the hotel gym when you're traveling.
So I tend to do that and just kind of figure out my own thing.
I'm like, I guess I'm my own personal trainer today.
What am I going to do?
Which is kind of fun.
But also, I have no clue what I'm really doing.
I usually tend to eat food at the hotel.
A lot of room service just because it's easy to like order room service while I'm getting my hair and makeup done.
Order room service the second.
I wake up and like I'm still exhausted and I'm like, but I'm just trying to get the most out of laying in bed.
So I'll order room service or going down to the restaurant in the hotel.
Um, that's really enjoyable.
I'll do that too.
Sometimes.
I often go to the grocery stores, like local grocery stores in the area, and I'll pick up snacks and foods that I can eat quickly in between stuff.
Um, I love doing that.
I will also just randomly pick up food from like a random place, but that's usually my.
My food routine is like room service in grocery store stuff.
Um, Because it's just quick and easy and efficient.
And yeah.
Although sometimes if I have like a night off I'll be like fuck it, let's book a dinner reservation.
And I'll go out to dinner with whoever I'm there with, whether it's my stylist Jared, or if my dad's there with me on the trip, then you know, maybe an occasional dinner reservation somewhere fun.
But yeah.
A lot of times that just doesn't fit into the schedule or it's like I can't even get a reservation anywhere because it's fashion week and everything's so booked up.
It's like I don't even know where to go.
And then when I really have time off, I'm walking around.
I'm getting coffee.
I'm window shopping.
Maybe I'm actually shopping and buying stuff, but only if it's a really good find, okay?
But like, I love window shopping.
I actually particularly like going to the department stores in Europe.
There's these, they're so different there than they are here.
They're so much better.
Like walking around a mall in Europe is so fun.
So big, well curated.
I don't know.
It's fun.
I'll go vintage shopping.
Definitely a lot of shopping and walking.
I love walking.
Anytime I have enough energy and I have time off during fashion week, I'm walking.
I'm just walking, walking, walking, walking.
I mean, I do that anytime I'm visiting a big city.
If I have time off, I'm walking.
New York, I'm walking.
Paris, I'm walking.
Milan, I'm walking.
I'm walking, walking, walking, walking.
Because I want to see the sights.
I want to be outside.
I want to experience it.
I want to stop for a coffee and people watch.
As often as I can.
I want to do that because that is one of my favorite things to do when I'm visiting a place that I don't live.
It's actually one of my favorite things to do in general.
I love doing that in LA too.
I do that on the weekends in Los Angeles all the time, although it's not a very walkable city, but anywho.
And that's it.
That's fashion week.
Then, after the hustle and the bustle of it all, I pack my bags, I get back on the plane and I have a panic attack when the plane takes off.
Then I relax when it's at cruising altitude and then I have a panic attack again when it's landing.
And then I'm back in Los Angeles and it's back to normal life for me.
It's definitely like a vacation for me in a way, even though it's intense, even though it's wild.
It is to me like a vacation in a lot of ways.
There are elements of it that are very vacation, like getting to order room service, getting dolled up.
It feels like a special occasion.
It feels like vacation.
And I really cherish the experience.
I love it so much.
And I never thought I would.
Like, it's so interesting because...
When I got invited to my first fashion show when I was like 18, I think.
I don't even remember.
Maybe I was 19.
I don't remember.
But it felt so different from anything I've ever experienced.
And I also... I had my doubts about it.
I was like, I feel like it's a little bit... maybe a little bit pretentious.
There's sort of a stereotype around fashion people that fashion people are mean.
The community is mean and toxic.
And the whole concept of having a fashion show is sort of just superfluous.
I don't even know how to say that word.
But I have really come to appreciate the art of the fashion show.
I've come to find many wonderful, nice people in the fashion world and community.
I'm aware of the fact that there is a pretentiousness to it at times.
I understand that it is a bit superfluous, if you will.
But it has become a part of sort of my love for fashion.
And it's become like an extension of my sort of hobby of fashion, if you will.
And I never thought that that would happen.
But here I am enjoying Fashion Week and getting to be there is very special to me.
And I'm very honored every time, you know, I get invited and I'm welcomed at the show.
And I'm honored that they like my style enough to have me there.
And so I'm very grateful.
And I just really love it.
I just love it.
I don't know.
But it is chaos.
It is chaos.
But again, that's the fun of it.
I like...
I've brought my dad to a few fashion weeks and every time he's like all of you fucking fashion people who are into this shit, love the chaos.
You make it even more chaotic than it needs to be.
Like, it doesn't need to be this chaotic, but you all make it this chaotic.
Like the last minute fittings, the last minute alterations to perfect the look, the like super complicated makeup looks.
You know, the venues that the fashion shows are held at being like really hard to access, or like a long drive away, or there's like a lot of traffic in the area, or like the streets are really narrow, leading like, you know, in the area where the venue is, or it's always chaos, you know, and it is sort of like set up that way.
And it's almost like everybody involved in it likes it that way for some reason.
I think that might be true.
But it's fun.
And when you're listening to this, I will be there and I will be having fun and I'll be tired, but I will be having fun.
And that's it.
That's my fashion week routine.
Very all over the place.
If you kept up with this and you stuck with me for this whole thing.
Thank you, because that was explaining.
It's a jumbled mess, but you're still here, and I appreciate that.
If you like this episode, new episodes of Anything Goes every Thursday and Sunday, so tune in and come hang out whenever.
We talk about a bunch of stuff, not just fashion, but also a lot of other stuff.
So if you hate fashion and you think it's stupid and you think Fashion Week is dumb and you think I'm dumb and you hate me well, give me another chance.
Because I talk about other stuff too that maybe you'll like more.
And maybe you won't like that stuff.
And then you can ultimately just like never listen to my podcast again.
Anything Goes is available anywhere you stream podcasts.
Although if you want to watch me talk, video episodes are available on Spotify and YouTube.
Anything Goes is on social media at Anything Goes.
I'm on the internet in certain places at Emma Chamberlain, and my coffee company is in the world and on the internet at Chamberlain Coffee.
I love you all.
I appreciate you all.
It's always a pleasure to get to chat with you all, and your support and love allows me to attend things like Fashion Week, and I'm eternally grateful for that, because it's something that I enjoy so deeply and it's such a.
It's a hobby for me that I actually get to participate in in a way.
That's so meaningful and exciting for me because of your support and your love and the time that you spend with me.
And I'm very, very grateful for that.
So I appreciate you all.
I love you all.
And I will talk to you very soon, literally in a few days.
So don't miss me too much.
And I won't miss you too much because we'll be talking in a few days.
Okay, love you all.
Talk to you soon and bye.
