Fashion folk treat Fashion Week like the Olympic Games. There’s drama, there’s action, there’s…exhaustion. And while our displays of athleticism—say, speed biking to a runway show across town in a pair of stilettos—don’t quite measure up to those that recently took place Paris, it’s our war stories, and our penchant for dramatizing them, that make for comparable entertainment.
This year’s Vogue Forces of Fashion conference, taking place on October 16, will pay homage to the runway show. In anticipation, we at the office have started sharing some of our favorite Fashion Week stories, from our favorite shows to how we used to sneak into them pre-Vogue. To get everyone else in the mood, we decided to ask those around us for their best stories, too, starting with publicists, the invisible force behind some of fashion’s most iconic moments. Here, we asked eight PRs to share their craziest and most unhinged stories—well, at least those that can be told on the record.
Daniel Rasmussen, Lede Company
The collection was based on the work of Syd Mead, the conceptual artist who created the insane sci-fi utopia cityscapes for Blade Runner and Alien. For the set, Desi Santiago designed amazing giant inflatable spaceships based on his paintings. There were probably 50 of them, as big as boats, on the ground, in the air, that was the whole thing. They had to be constantly pumped with air to stay ripe, and just as we were about to open doors, the generator blew out and the whole set just completely deflated. I’m talking flat tarps on the ground, limp balloons hanging from the ceiling.
We had 700 people waiting—Charli XCX, Jaden Smith, every big editor you could think of. Thankfully, the show space was behind a giant garage door so no one knew what was happening. It was Valentine’s Day night, so half the guests got pissed waiting and left for their dates. For everyone who stayed, thank god we had a beer sponsor… I turned into a beer maiden and started shoving them into everyone’s hands. We made it a party so everyone forgot they were even waiting. Shout out to Tiger Beer.
I remember our amazing production team trying everything to fix the electricity, but nada. We made the call that we couldn’t wait any longer, and they decided to try one last hail mary to change the fuse out. It would either solve it, or the person doing it would get electrocuted. The vibe went from dealing with a relatively unserious mishap to something potentially really dangerous.
They hit the switch and right as the door lifted to let everyone in, the set started inflating live. Everyone was gagged because they thought it was part of the show. At that point it had been over an hour, it was a drunk stampede and the seating chart went out the window. I remember throwing poor Twin Shadow in a third row seat because it was all that was left. But it just felt like one big party. Jacky Tang got Teengirl Fantasy to do the music, I think the mix is still on Soundcloud. Everything OC back then was just gold—it had that really indescribable electric, unpredictable energy that I’ve only ever felt at fashion shows in New York. We had to apologize to a lot of people the next day, though. And if you look close enough at the pictures, there’s a spaceship or two that are hanging on for their lives, haha.
Olivier Bourgis, Ritual Projects
When I started my career at John Galliano working for his eponymous house, we were a small team. A couple of nights before the show—this must have been in the late ’90s, or maybe 2000—John’s right-hand person entered the press office and asked who could sew. I did, because my sister had taught me, and so he was like “perfect, I’ll be right back.”
He came back with some [things] to sew on a dress, and I ended up working on it while finalizing the seating. I think the look I worked on was 29 or 34… I can’t remember. It was a great time and it was really like a family back then, so I never thought it was a strange request!
Florent Belda, Founder, REP Agency
New York has a way of marking time not just by years but by moments and milestones. I arrived in the city in 2005, and I spent the first five years freelancing for various established PR firms, in New York, Paris and Milan. I found myself [working] some truly iconic events—Marc Jacobs shows and his decadent after-parties in New York, Alexander McQueen shows in Paris and Milan, a Gucci event at the UN where I shared a cigarette with one of my Hollywood crushes, Calvin Klein s 40th anniversary party on the High Line before it officially opened, and a Prada event at the Soho Rem Koolhaas store where I escorted—fully starstruck—David Bowie through the crowd. At the time, I was too young and too enthusiastic to grasp the gravity of these moments. They were just jobs, exhilarating but ephemeral.
Yet, one event stands out in my memory, transcending the rest: the Tom Ford spring 2011 show. It was 2010, and I had just launched REP, my agency. This would be my last freelance gig, and it was a fitting grand finale. I knew working a Tom Ford show was significant, but the true scope of it didn’t hit me until I arrived at the Upper East Side store early that day. We were asked to surrender our phones, unconventional but not unheard of for privacy reasons. The production team walked us through the venue, and then I saw the show board, and I had to do a double-take. Instead of models, Mr. Ford had assembled “the most inspirational women in the world” to showcase his collection, which included Lauren Hutton, Daphne Guinness, Julianne Moore, Rita Wilson, Beyoncé, Karen Elson, Stella Tennant, Daria Werbowy, Amber Valletta, Carolyn Murphy, Marisa Berenson, Farida Khelfa, Lou Doillon, Rachel Feinstein, Emmanuelle Seigner, and more.
The atmosphere that day was surprisingly relaxed and joyous. Watching these extraordinary women interact, laugh, and celebrate Mr. Ford was a spectacle unto itself. His personal involvement and meticulous attention to detail were both instructional and inspirational. Mr. Ford had invited only 100 guests and a single photographer, Terry Richardson, into the sacred space of the show. That day is etched in my memory, a testament to the magic that unfolds when fashion transcends mere promotion and becomes a celebration of artistry and life.
Rachna Shah, Global CEO, KCD
My journey at KCD started in 1997. Marc Jacobs shows in New York, throughout the years, really became the epitome of the most exciting shows, but also the most “everything can happen” of them. Marc and Robert Duffy [co-founder and president at Marc Jacobs until 2015] were so inclusive with their audience, and it was such a wonderful experience to see people from so many different walks of life come together. But that also meant that the shows were between 400 and 2,000 people, which was crazy. It wasn’t about saying no to people, it was about allowing the world around the brand to come together for these monumental events. It’s just not the reality of what everyone can do now. Back then, it was with these aluminum bleachers you would have in a gym or football field. Every season I was worried they would collapse with so many people standing on them!
Then came that one epic show that started at 11PM. I’ll never forget it. It was stressful, and I remember I was mentioned in the Women’s Wear Daily review. Bridget Foley wrote it and she was setting the scene and talking about how everyone was waiting and asking questions about what was happening, and there I was. I was worried I would get fired because I was in the review [laughs]. But after that season he switched to going super on time, famously. Talk about the power of one runway show.
The night before 9/11 was another epic Marc show on the pier. It was also the launch of the fragrance. There was a huge rainstorm leading up to it on the day of, to the point that there was water coming through the tent from the ceiling. We felt like the tent was going to collapse, but right before the doors opened, the rain stopped and everyone arrived.
At the end of the show, the head of the runway opened onto the pier and the fragrance party started. At the time he was one of the first people to do something like that. Everyone got up from their seats and then walked out and it was magical. The rain had stopped, the air was beautiful, and everything was muddy but I just remember that no one cared. No one knew how the world would change the next morning. We forget that sometimes our creative, amazing shows juxtapose themselves against these historic events.
Kevin Mcintosh Jr., Founder, KMJR. World
My craziest show moment would have to be the Off-White riot show [crowds rioted outside of the brand’s fall 2018 show, trying to get in]. Virgil had launched a sneaker that week and there was a pop-up for that not too far away. We had just designed some of the jerseys for one of the immigrant teams there [Paris], and there was so much excitement around the show and V was in the midst of locking in his Louis Vuitton deal. It was the most chaotic entrance, the kids were bum-rushing the door, and I had to sneak out to get people in, fighting with security. I remember thinking I was definitely going to get the boot for this!
Still, it was one of the most challenging and exhilarating shows. Most of the publications were there and I think we had everyone from Odell Beckham Jr and Sabrina Carpenter to Justine Skye and others in the front row, and I remember having to push through the crowd to get these folks in.
Bohan Qiu, Founder, BOH Project
Instagram content
Windowsen, 2021 couture.
This was the first Windowsen show we did, I think in 2020, and I was also walking the show. I was one of the Barbies wearing the blue dress that Katy Perry wore afterwards [to perform on Saturday Night Live in 2021]. As it happens in Shanghai with Labelhood, we did two shows. I didn’t have a big team at the time, so I was there welcoming people and having everyone go upstairs to watch the first one, and then had to run downstairs to put myself into the dress, which took like 10 people to get into.
I’m standing on a podium that spins, and I was supposed to be a doll, so not a lot of movement. The first showing finished and then came the second. I have to go back, change into my normal clothes, and do it all over again.
Then the second show starts and I’m in the middle of the stage on this podium and everything is a mess. People didn’t find their seats, some others are sitting in random places, and I can’t do anything about it. The whole time I’m just watching this happen, not working, and going crazy. I remember making eye signs to my team about why the editor in chief of a magazine is sitting somewhere random, or why kids are in the wrong seats in the front row. It’s hilarious looking back, but that’s when I decided to never walk another show I’m also doing PR for ever again.
Still, during that time in Shanghai it was so fun because it was very DIY, there was just so much room for that energy. I remember for the first Mark Gong show he had built this massive set with his name in giant letters for the models to walk on top of. When he arrived that morning he realized they had done it wrong. It was “Gong Mark.” He was crying and screaming. We had to calm him down, but it’s funny looking back.
Gia Kuan, Founder, Gia Kuan Consulting
We tend to get a lot of crashers, and I find those stories to be kind of funny because of the amount of effort they go through. There’s one particular person that has been blacklisted, but somehow always manages to resurface and it’s crazy because they make up a whole new identity every time.
It had been a couple of times already with this person, including a Heaven by Marc Jacobs party, but then I saw them again at one of our shows. What I thought was really funny, because their whole thing with getting in was saying that they work in media, was that they had printed one of those old school giant passes that go around your neck on a lanyard. I don’t think anyone [in fashion] uses them anymore, but they printed themselves a really big media badge with a blurry logo of Nylon magazine. They kept saying they were sent to cover the show, but we knew this person didn’t actually exist. Then they threw a big hoo ha about knowing Fiona [Luo] from my team, and then Fiona showed up and was like, “I have no idea who this person is.”
The crasher thing peaked around 2021 or 2022, right after the pandemic as TikTok was starting to take off, because one person went through the effort of putting all of the PR emails for New York Fashion Week together into a sheet and posted it. We were practically doxxed and got hundreds of spam emails coming through. The majority of those people don’t really show up to shows, but it’s work to sit there sifting through hundreds of random emails.
Beyoncé at Luar was also interesting because we were told about her attendance, but you never actually know, like with any big celebrity, until they get there. She was early, and it was all very organized. What we weren’t sure about was who she would come with—I didn’t know if it would be Blue Ivy, or her mother, or who exactly, so we saved seats for the whole family just in case. We also had to have a tight plan for what the entrance would look like and how she would exit afterwards, but it was all very smooth. What was actually funnier was that I started to get text messages from people, mostly editors, asking if it was true that she was going to be there, and telling me they were on their way.
Mumi Haiati, Founder, Reference Studios
I’ve been doing this for 20 years now, and have been running my own company for seven. When you asked me about this story, I started thinking about one of my designers, Luca Magliano, Luchino! Which is like “little Luca” in Italian. On top of his amazing designs and many headlines, especially in Italy where he is an important voice, he is also a really fun person, but can also be quite unpredictable. Because of that, up until the last show in June, it was always really interesting to make any plans or foresee what was going to happen right after the show.
Earlier this year in January, he was invited to do a show at Pitti Uomo, which was a big moment and really took the brand to the next level. We were all pretty nervous, but also very excited! But, again, because you never know with Luchino, we had to have a, let s say a talk, about how important it was for him to be there after. You see, because he could get anxious sometimes, he had developed this funny habit to hide after the shows! So when you guys, the press, would come looking for him, we had to also go looking for him. Something like a tragic comedy—imagine my team running around backstage looking for him to find him in the most unexpected places. I would always have to be like, “Luca will be here in one minute!” and say he was with his family, or something else, you know...family is everything!
He always knew where to hide, because the team knows the backstage well. One time I finally found him sitting on the toilet, smoking a pack of cigarettes. This happened again at Pitti, and it was the most dramatic one because it took around 40 minutes! I will never forget it. But I m grateful for the patience and the love that everyone has for him, and how could they not! He’s so charming and there is this very human side to him, so people do forgive him and just embrace and celebrate him. But then, this past show in Milan, he was there after ready for everyone. He’s overcome this, but I think it’s very funny we had to go look for him like cat and mouse.
