How to Get in to New York Fashion Week

I. How NOT To Get In To New York Fashion Week

Most suggestions about getting into Fashion Week advise one of three things: dress really well or really bizarrely and hope someone will hand you an invite; volunteer to work in the tents; or sneak in when no one is looking. Unfortunately, I've seen these strategies attempted in person and they don't work at all.

It's supposed to be a tradition to hand invites to the best dressed people standing around gaping on the front steps of the big tent. The problem is that there are about 10,000 other people doing the same thing, and all of them are dressed to get attention. This strategy is great for getting reporters from the New York Post to snap your picture; if that's your ultimate goal, then go for it, but it's not going to get you inside at Bryant Park.

Volunteering at the tents is also more or less a pipe dream; the shows are planned months in advance and unless you happen to know a designer personally, you don't stand a chance. There is an area where volunteering is worthwhile, but more about this later.

Simple gate-crashing is the worst strategy ever. The security guys at Fashion Week are pros and they're stationed at the same spots throughout the week. Try to push by them and you're likely to get banned, and if you come back another day they'll remember your face.

II. Above-Board Strategies for Getting In To New York Fashion Week

There's one show in the tents at Bryant Park that virtually anyone who is earnest about fashion can get in to. A school called Academy of Art University in San Francisco with a fashion department rents the big tent for its students to have a runway show as a senior thesis. AAU uses these fashion shows as a recruiting tool, and anyone who shows serious interest in one of their programs, including their online courses, can get an invitation from their website. Those tickets will get you past the security guards on the front steps of the tents.