Photo by Lexie Moreland for WWD.
The shows and parties of New York Fashion Week are usually reserved for a small group of people. TikTok users decided this year to change that.
It’s nothing new to sneak into a fashion show. It has been done by New Yorkers and students in the city for many years. There was something crazy about the number of people trying to attend shows.
In August there were videos on TikTok with titles like “How to get invited to NYFW” and “The secrets to getting into NYFW”. Tiffany Baira, a user of TikTok, created a video that shares a highly coveted PR contact list for the brands presenting at Fashion Week, which can be found in her bio on the official NYFW website. Baira says in the video that many of the contacts are still the same despite the fact that the list is outdated. It had 350,000 views and over 57,000 likes. I love that you never gate keep anything. Baira replied, “I always had to learn all this the hard way and want to do anything I can to help up and coming artists.” And that was just the start.
Quickly, a number of other TikToks began sharing the email list, including one that highlighted a homemade spreadsheet filled with direct contacts to publicists running shows during the week, including highly coveted ones such as Tom Ford, Coach, and Collina Strada.
The content creator who posted a video on how to request an invitation to a show and included a list of PR emails in her profile says she doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with helping each other out. Helping other women and trying to get rid of the gatekeeping concept is what I’m trying to do.
The race to make Fashion Week more accessible was not about turning a profit. People still wanted to make coin. A guide to Fashion Week was being sold for less than $100. I bought it because I was interested. There were two email templates in the file, one for requesting an invitation to a show and another for asking designers and publicists to pull clothing from their collections to wear during the week. The rest of the kit included a mixed bag of generic, incorrect, and blank PR emails, a video that was also available for free, and a PDF titled “The Ultimate Guide to New York Fashion Week” filled with open.”
I had just wasted money. It’s possible that others had too.
It seems like fashion should not be reserved for the elite. For anyone, it should be a practice and an escape. It was hell for publicists like Lindsey Solomon, who runs the public-relations firm Lindsey Media.
I can’t tell you how many requests I received this season. Solomon said it was three to four times as much as he usually gets. I appreciate that it takes a lot of diligence. The general consensus is that you find the information and bombard them, it’s not appropriate.
Solomon said he took a day off to deal with a family emergency. He received more than 1,000 emails in a single day.
He said that he felt doxxed and that he would be perfectly honest. How did you get my email, where the email is out of left field?
I had to let him know that I had seen his email in multiple videos on TikTok, and that it was available to anyone who was interested in fashion or in being seen at a fashion event. He shared the most crazy email he had received, though he couldn’t say for certain if the sender had found his contact info on the app. The email highlighted the sender’s relationship with a “highly connected” finance bro named Chad, which I will be adding to my résumé, “I am beautiful, and I understand press optics, so you can rest assured that my physical image and composition will cater to.”
When I asked about the fashion community’s thoughts on sharing publicists’ emails, Bernhardt said, “I definitely don’t think there’s anything wrong with sharing emails with your friends who are other content creators, because I definitely think a lot of times brands are looking for content It helps them with outreach, but the worst that a brand can do is decline your email.
For Gia Kuan, declining a request wasn’t necessarily an option. Kuan, who runs the firm Gia Kuan consulting, saw her inbox come to life at the after-party when she was flooded with requests for show accommodations. The invitation to the party, where Doja Cat, Charli XCX, and PinkPantheress were all slated to perform, was leaked on social media in the days leading up to it. It seemed the rumors were true when someone arrived at the event promptly around 10 p.m. and saw a crowd so large it wrapped around the block.
On the day of the event, someone told Kuan that they saw the flyer on TikTok, and he was like, “Oh my God, I have to brace for the worst.” The crowd was crazy, but in the end, it was under control.
More than 2,000 people showed up, Kuan said.
I was too tired to deal with being pushed, so I turned around and went back to my place of employment. Jared Muros stuck it out. He posted about his experience on TikTok after sneaking into the party behind a group of people who were pulled in by Kuan.
Muros was watching a lot of videos on how to get invited and how to get in. Baira made one of those videos. A model himself, Muros also walked right into Vogue World, the star studded conglomerate event for which tickets reportedly cost $3,000 If they don’t want people to sneak in, they need to increase their security. I just walked in most of the time. I don’t want to blame anyone, but it’s more on them. I know that I am going to get into these events.
The system is broken and a great party needs some element of chaos, even the PR people who are besieged by requests know that. They try to obey the fire codes and keep their clients happy.
People need to understand how much work is put into the production of a show. To have people come and expect to sit wherever they want. ” Kuan said.” I dislike gatekeeping fashion as well. I think it is something that is for everyone, but there is a time and place for that.
The Cut newsletter is sent daily.
People were helped scam their way into fashion week by TikTok.