When said out loud, "Fashion Week" has a double meaning — and for anyone who's ever been a part of all the action, feeling weak is not only par for the course, it's often the reason we love fashion to begin with. So, in honor of the moments of chaos, beauty, and excitement that made us feel weak, we present My Fashion Week-ness: a compilation of accounts from some of the industry's biggest players. They're spilling their most memorable stories from Fashion Weeks gone by, and the ones that keep them coming back for more.
Models live some of the most — and least — glamorous lives in the world. When they're not crawling through a mud pit for hours at a time, they're flying on a jet plane; and when they're not standing on two four-inch-tall pins under spotlights, they're relaxing on someone's yacht in the Caribbean. Edie Campbell knows this duality all too well: She was named Model of the Year by the British Fashion Awards in 2013 and was the face behind the paint at the opening of Louis Vuitton's spring show in 2014. And her insane account behind the look pictured above will make your head spin. She recalls it here: "I think that the most memorable and absurd story is still when I opened Marc Jacobs’ final show for Louis Vuitton wearing nothing but body paint and a very large headpiece. The show was at 10 a.m. and I arrived — having not slept — at 3 a.m. to begin the painting process. It took seven hours with 15 pairs of hands working on me. They’d flown an artist in from Miami to paint the words ‘Louis Vuitton’ across my body in the Stephen Sprouse font, but he could not handle the pressure and kept spelling it wrong and losing the plot. Eventually, I think he might have just done a runner. "I was exhausted. I had to be held up by four of Pat McGrath’s assistants so that I could sleep whilst standing and they continued to paint me. It was quite a process. And then eventually, I had to walk out naked in front of thousands of people and have my photograph taken, in the full knowledge that the images would be beamed across the world within seconds. I mean...It's never a boring job."
Models live some of the most — and least — glamorous lives in the world. When they're not crawling through a mud pit for hours at a time, they're flying on a jet plane; and when they're not standing on two four-inch-tall pins under spotlights, they're relaxing on someone's yacht in the Caribbean. Edie Campbell knows this duality all too well: She was named Model of the Year by the British Fashion Awards in 2013 and was the face behind the paint at the opening of Louis Vuitton's spring show in 2014. And her insane account behind the look pictured above will make your head spin. She recalls it here: "I think that the most memorable and absurd story is still when I opened Marc Jacobs’ final show for Louis Vuitton wearing nothing but body paint and a very large headpiece. The show was at 10 a.m. and I arrived — having not slept — at 3 a.m. to begin the painting process. It took seven hours with 15 pairs of hands working on me. They’d flown an artist in from Miami to paint the words ‘Louis Vuitton’ across my body in the Stephen Sprouse font, but he could not handle the pressure and kept spelling it wrong and losing the plot. Eventually, I think he might have just done a runner. "I was exhausted. I had to be held up by four of Pat McGrath’s assistants so that I could sleep whilst standing and they continued to paint me. It was quite a process. And then eventually, I had to walk out naked in front of thousands of people and have my photograph taken, in the full knowledge that the images would be beamed across the world within seconds. I mean...It's never a boring job."
For all things Fashion Week around the world — including street style snaps, designer news, and the trends you'd actually wear — head over to Refinery29's Fashion Month hub.