New York Fashion Week Fall 2008 - The Adventures of Temptalia in NYC

GREETINGS EVERYONE! I just got back, and I’m recovering in California after spending a couple of days in New York City for Fashion Week extraganza.  I did manage to write a few detailed posts while away, but I thought I would do a bit of a “recap” kind of post and just walk you through what I did from beginning to end.

THE BEAUTY BLOGGERS I met had to be a definite highlight of the trip, because they are truly a group of independent, incredibly intelligent, and interesting women.  There just isn’t a boring one in the bunch; everyone is beyond successful in their lives, whether it is with an envy-inspiring career or an amazing family.  I had a chance to chat with Shannon from A Girl’s Gotta Spa, Michelle from All Lacquered Up, and Lianne from The Makeup Girl Blog because they all sat right by me. I also was able to gawk (seriously, she’s so gorgeous!) at Kristen from Beauty Addict (and talk with her a bit), and exchange beauty blabber with a whole slew of other bloggers who attended.

I attended a dinner hosted by MAC Cosmetics on Saturday evening at Indochine, and I saw some familiar faces from the night before. I got a chance to figure out that Amber from Beauty Blogging Junkie is a prettier Kate Hudson (seriously, they could be twins), talk shop and everything else under the sun with Amy Focazio (who works with print media for MAC) who is so fab and FUN, as well as with Henna from Canadian Beauty and Jen from DeLush.  I saw my girl Heather Park (who handles online media for MAC), not to mention Victor Cembellin (MAC Senior Artist).

After dinner, I caught up with Erika from Makeup Bag, Julia from All About the Pretty, and Daneen from Spoiled Pretty before heading up to chit-chat with Teri from Aging Fabulous, Christina from eBeautyDaily, Elke from The Beauty Blog Network, and Shannon.  Loved them all!

NEW YORK CITY was surprisingly better than I thought.  I say this because I really am not a city girl; I love the suburbs, and I love driving everywhere.  I only just took my first mode of public transportation two years ago in D.C. (subway there), so I really am quite spoiled.  I can definitely see why people love the city, though, because it would be tough to get bored for long in a place as busy and active as NYC.  It’s not a place I would want to live in, but there is a certain appeal it has even to those who thought they would loathe it!

FASHION WEEK was an amazing experience, and I’m glad I was able to go to it.  It is truly an event that has something for everyone with the celebrity sightings, barrage of events, dinners to go to, runway shows, and backstage opportunities–there’s no shortage of entertainment.  I’m really happy that I didn’t cram my days with shows and events, though, because it gave me a chance to see and do things throughout without being stressed or fearful I would miss my next scheduled appointment, you know?  It felt sort of low-key, and I think that was a good way to go as a first-timer.  I also really loved to watch the makeup artists in their element, prepping and priming faces, painting them, and perfecting them.  I found it all quite exciting to just watch, let alone interact with the artists by asking them questions.

Get a minute-by-minute run down of my three days in NYC, just

DAY 1

5:30am:  Left the apartment to catch a 6:55am flight to LAX (Los Angeles) and then onto JFK (New York).

8:00am:  Arrived in LAX yawning and hungry!

9:30am:  Finished boarding my flight to LAX only to have captain come on and inform us all that we are stuck waiting in the plane until 10:50am because of poor weather conditions at JFK.

11:00am:  Finally take off — yay, Temptalia is totally on her way to New York now!

7:00pm: (For reference, times are now EST!) Captain informs us we are 75 miles away from JFK, but again, terrible weather rains [literally] on my parade.  We get told to “hold” for the next two hours.

9:00pm:  Land at JFK, rush out (thanks to carrying on and no checking in bags!), grab a private car to take me into Manhattan.

9:35pm:  Arrive at hotel, whereupon I find out that the key that was left for me is missing–and everybody is attending the Project Runway show (I was supposed to see this, too, but thanks to weather delays, nope, nada!).  Luckily, I was able to contact someone about ten minutes later.

9:50pm:  Dash into room (and marvel at how fast the elevator takes me from the lobby to the 18th floor–the elevator at my school’s parking garage doesn’t even respond in the same time span), throw open the suitcase, and get dressed.  I had worn jeans to be comfortable on the flight, and I needed to get a little dressier.  I did five-minute makeup and proceeded to run–not walk–out of my room.

9:58pm:  Ask the doorman where Bryant Park Hotel is, he shows me, and thankfully it’s literally a 45 second walk from my hotel.

10:00pm:  Arrive at Koi restaurant (located in Bryant Park Hotel), just in time for a dinner sponsored by Aveda and Total Beauty.  Sat down and met a whole gaggle of my fellow beauty bloggers!  It felt kind of awkward because I think a lot more people had an inkling who I was and what blog I ran whereas I couldn’t recognize more than a few faces.

2:00am:  Head back to the hotel with a few of my beauty bloggers.  Totally drooled over a gift bag I received from Aveda, as well as a Total Beauty one.

2:15am:  Do some quick checking of e-mail to ensure I didn’t miss any crises while being airborne for the majority of the day (and thankfully, all bad news averted!).

3:00am:  Finally snuggle up into bed.

Day 2

9:00am: Wake up from having passed out at 3am and proceed to check some email, putz around the internet.

10:00am:  Take a shower, get dressed, and put on makeup for the day.

11:30am:  Head over to the tents to check out what was going on, see what people were doing.

12:20pm:  Check in for backstage access at the Mara Hoffman show and luckily get let in (somehow, my name was missing from the list, but they gave me a pass anyway).

12:30pm:  Talk with Christopher D. and Victor C., both senior MAC makeup artists, as they ready models’ faces for the runway.

12:45pm:  Step back from the artists and just watch all the hustle and bustle of backstage.

1:00pm:  Head back to the hotel to do some Fashion Week blogging!

2:20pm:  Took a taxi down to MAC’s NYC PRO store for the meet and greet with readers.  I ended up seeing about five or six readers while I was there.

5:15pm:  Left MAC PRO and started walking towards the hotel, looking for a taxi, but not finding one.  Of course, I walked the wrong way (went to Park Avenue instead of 6th), and I didn’t manage to find a taxi until I hit 30th Street (I was at 22nd).  My feet now have several blisters, because while I broke them in and can stand and wear them all day, I did not intend to walk quite so much all at once in them.  Oops!

5:30pm:  Got back to my hotel only to find that there was a bunch of police tape that said “police line do not cross” wrapped around the hotel lobby and sidewalk in front of it.  Apparently there was some sort of scuffle, and the police were investigating the whole thing (including fingerprinting).

5:45pm:  Spent some time on the internet, blogging and prepping posts/emails.

6:30pm:  Headed out to go to a dinner sponsored by MAC Cosmetics at Indochine.

7:00pm: Arrived for dinner at Indochine, which, I swear, has models as waiters/waitresses.  Seriously, every single woman was incredibly tall and skinny–and gorgeous!

11:00pm:  We were kicked out of the restaurant, and I took a cab home with a few other bloggers.

11:30pm:  I hung out with a few of my fellow beauty bloggers for a bit, talking shop, listening to Julia tell hilarious stories about the trials of having African American hair.

12:30am:  Went up to Teri, Christina, and Shannon’s room (they were two floors below mine), and then we headed to the hotel lounge and hang out some more.

2:00am:  I headed back to my room, checked some email, and worked a bit on my review.

3:00am:  Conked out!

Day 3

9:00am: Woke up, immediately started working on my Fafi review, and managed to finish it (yay!).

11:00am:  Showered (can I just say I love those elephant showerheads?  Awesome!), got ready.

12:00pm:  Headed down to Bryant Park Grill for lunch with Megan from Clinique.

1:30pm:  Went back to the hotel, changed clothes, and then went back down to go to FedEx to ship some of the things I received in goody bags.  I learned that you cannot ship bottles of wine unless you are licensed!

2:00pm:  Returned to the hotel, packed my bags, and managed to get everything done in time.

2:30pm:  Caught a taxi to LGA to start my return journey. Unfortunately, I couldn’t change my originaly flight out on Monday morning to go through any other city than Chicago because the flights were full. Weather in NY was supposed to be subpar on Monday, as well as reasonably poor (thunderstorms) in Dallas, so I decided to head home when I knew I could make it home rather than risk getting stuck in an airport all day Monday.

7:30pm: Arrived in DFW airport, milled about, scarfed down some Taco Bell express (why does bad food taste so good?).

10:00pm:  Arrived back to SJC airport, waited around for baggage, and my boyfriend to pick me up.

11:00pm:  Home at last!

* I was supposed to stay all day Sunday, including going backstage at both Tuleh and Terexov shows.  I was really disappointed I wasn’t able to make them, but at the same time, I needed to be back before 2pm on Monday for class, so it just wasn’t meant to be!