A Word With Your Wardrobe: Backstage at the Simon Malls fashion show

By Deanne Nguyen     9/24/09 7:00pm

If you've ever wondered what it's like backstage at a fashion show, you're about to get a taste. Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of working behind the scenes as an intern at the Simon Fashion Now fall runway show, which kicked off the night on a majestic pop-up runway over the Galleria's ice rink and was held exclusively for the press and VIPs. In a nutshell, the event is a three-day animated window display of the clothing that will soon be available in stores, focusing on ready-to-wear luxury and mid-range sportswear and whetting appetites for their eventual retail.

For those of you familiar with the fashion industry, you are probably aware that this is slightly unusual. Designers generally show their collections out of season - fall in the spring, and vice versa - because it takes time to make arrangements with buyers and produce garments in mass quantities, all the while hoping their pieces will end up being featured in key glossy magazines across the globe. Though this may not be the case in Houston or for this show in particular, the principle remains the same: getting people excited about the new season's clothes.

Monday

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And excited we were, those of us working backstage, despite the long list of to-dos. In order to keep up, I had to follow the show's preparation protocol to the letter. First, the presentation's outfits, or "looks," are selected weeks in advance by representatives from the various participating stores and the head stylists.

Models are chosen and specifically assigned their own looks. The interns then pull the clothes from the stores, but not before accounting for all the pieces and any damage on the clothes, and drag veritable trains of garment racks to our provided hotel suite to hold the clothes. So begins the arduous sorting process.

Tuesday

Everyone takes a breather before the mayhem begins. Time for some shopping!

Wednesday

Looks for each model are grouped and placed in the order they are to appear on the runway. Shoes are marked with the model's name and the item's store, and the soles are taped to minimize scratching.

Models are then refitted and pieces that require tailoring are rushed off to be handled, lest we end up doing it ourselves. Labels and instructions for dressers - the people who change the models - are written and placed in clear pouches on each outfit to ensure maximum visibility and eliminate as much confusion as possible. Clothing tags are either snipped or hidden, especially on jewelry. Trash quickly accumulates as the garment preparations near completion. Every item is meticulously checked and double-checked, from the moment we pull the garments from the rack all the way to the runway.

Thursday

The day of the show is all about setup: rushing racks down to their spots, maintaining their order and going over the details with the black-clad dressers. Models arrive more or less on time for hair and makeup, and hairspray quickly permeates the room. Roll call is taken for the looks and damages are assessed one last time before the first looks are assembled on the models.

Though there are hours before the show is to supposed to start, when 8 p.m. rolls around, the seconds aren't long enough.

The show opened with SoReal Cru, whose youth-infused demonstration rivaled rock violinist Bobby Yang's performance at last fall's show. All this was briefly seen backstage however, as our main focus was on the execution of each look that went out on the runway. Clothes flew everywhere between outfit changes and, thankfully, the music was loud enough to cover the yells for skirts to be zipped or ties to be tightened.

The last look was a massive, black Cinderella-esque gown that required three girls to hoist onstage before stuffing the model behind the main screen. Despite the few loose tags and a model who almost tripped, the show ran as orderly as it was arranged.

Being a ringleader is just as fun as watching the circus, but it took a lot of patience and fast management - not to mention woman-hours - on my part. But it's about, and for, clothes, so of course to me it's worth a little sweat. Now if only I could just convince the designers to let me keep some of the shoes.

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