Who Attends Fashion Shows

The fashion month has officially begun! New York, London, Milan, and Paris – the big four fashion capitals – are launching the high season of breathtaking collections, catwalk reports, and street-style photos. The world of fashion week is an exclusive one. It invites only the best of the best of the industry, and those who know someone inside it, to attend the runways. And season after season, we ask ourselves: who actually gets invited to the fashion shows? In this article, we will unveil the mystery of who attends and gets invited to fashion shows, as well as the different possibilities to attend them if you are not a professional working in the industry. Let’s go! 

Who Attends Fashion Shows

Fashion week might be a glamorous moment. It’s filled with people who wear amazing outfits and go to after-parties and special events. But it’s not just about that. Fashion week is, first of all, a business event. It’s an opportunity for brands to present to fashion professionals their work for the next season so that they can generate most of the value around the brand’s heritage and communication. Which is why people who attend it are mostly fashion professionals. Let’s see who they are.

Buyers

As industry shapers who get to decide what pieces of collections will be stocked in stores, and therefore, go into our wardrobes, fashion buyers’ presence at fashion week is crucial. Their mission is to discover the collections first-hand. They’re there to see what are the stand-out pieces and understand the trends of the coming seasons. It’s important to get a feeling of what the customers may love and want to buy next season. Therefore, fashion week is a source of inspiration for future trends. And a place to make buying decisions according to that trends, as well as the needs of the customers. 

Editors

Fashion editors, writers and columnists (whose roles can overlap depending on the specific magazine or the responsibilities) attend fashion shows to report on the runway by writing a review about the newest collections. 

On another note, since fashion editors are the ones responsible for deciding what goes on the pages of the magazines. They decide from selecting this season’s staples to put on the product pages to which articles to feature or what photo shoots to include. As such, they need to attend fashion shows. Seeing the collection allows them to spot brand pieces they could request later for the photoshoot at the magazine. Also, to understand the overall trends that are shown in the different collections to report these trends to their readers. 

Stylists

Stylists who work at magazines, aka editorial stylists, can have similar tasks during fashion week compared to the ones of the editors. It means that they need to discover what’s trendy and stylish this season. It’s important for them so they can choose and request brands the appropriate outfits and style models for editorials accordingly. 

Another category of stylists who attend fashion week is celebrity stylists. Their clients usually wear something from luxury labels and need outfits to attend different kinds of events. So celebrity stylists go to fashion shows to spot them and get ideas of outfits for their clients. 

PR

Many PR activities are attached to the fashion calendar. So PR professionals are the ones who organize fashion shows, and all the events associated with them. These include press days, store openings, dinners and cocktails, and other social gatherings. They take care of the event from the idea to the day of the event. PR professionals make lists to sending invitations, choosing the location, organizing the sitting, welcoming guests, taking care of the social profiles during the event, and sending photos of it to the publications the following day. They are also in charge of communicating with the media and writing press releases. In sum, PR managers are big players at fashion weeks. 

VICs (Very Important Clients)

Another category of people who are lucky enough to attend fashion shows is VICs, aka very important clients of a given brand who spend X amount yearly on it. Being big spenders makes them big investors in the brand’s profit, but also its image. So it’s no wonder why companies invite VICs to fashion shows as a way to repay their loyalty. 

Celebrities and VIPs

Of course, famous people attend fashion shows. Many of them are designers’ muses, faces of the brands, or just their friends. So they get an invitation, and are usually seated front-frow. 

Influencers

Influencers are a new kind of invitees at fashion week. Well, they are not that new anymore. However, if we look at the history of fashion week, when traditionally only fashion industry professionals and famous people attended haute couture events and the famous fashion shows, having influencers and content creators at fashion week is a relatively new movement. 

Nowadays, social media is a powerful platform where brands build their online presence. And many collaborate with influencers or are simply aware of their status. So it comes as no surprise that the latter get invited to fashion shows. They take a lot of pictures and film fashion shows (or parts of them). And many influencers like to wear a complimentary outfit from the brand on the day of the show. So they create publicity for the brand and help to increase its awareness and popularity online. Therefore, the value they bring is huge – especially if we are talking about big influencers. 

As you can see, all these industry professionals get invited to fashion week. They bring some kind of value to the brand.

As I said in the beginning, fashion week is a business event. Which is why 99% of the invitees are fashion professionals or powerful people with a strong media presence. And unless you can bring value to the brand, you won’t get invited to see the show just for the sake of seeing it, for your own pleasure. 

The good news is, you don’t need to be Anna Wintour or Chiara Ferragni to be able to attend a fashion show. There are some exceptions, and ways to get in if your role isn’t among the ones mentioned above. Although some people say you can bet on your outfit to try to impress the bodyguards and sneak in, we are going to give you some other better-working strategies 😉

How To Attend Fashion Shows

Become a fashion week volunteer

Volunteering during fashion week is, perhaps, the most effective strategy to see a fashion show if you are a regular person not working in the industry. Or you do but you are not an editor, buyer, stylist, etc. Okay, you will not actually see the whole fashion show, but this experience will allow you to live and breathe a bit of the fashion industry from the inside. And you may actually be lucky enough to see a bit of the show if you work as a runner, for example. And you will get to see the collection by working backstage as a models’ dresser. 

Getting a job during fashion week is not just an exciting opportunity to see the behind-the-scenes of your favorite runway shows in one of the fashion capitals; it’s also a great career opportunity if you want to get into fashion and you still have no or little experience. Plus – it’s a chance to build some connections in the industry, and of course to grow your resume. Because yes you can add your fashion week volunteer experience to your resume even if it lasted one day only. 

Finding volunteering opportunities can be a bit tricky because there are limited offers online, and you have to email the brands directly to ask for them.

Plus, it can be a rather long process depending on how quickly brands will get back to you. What’s more, volunteering offers are reserved for people with no or little experience. So there is the age and experience factor to keep in mind. That being said, if you do this in advance and you are proactive, chances of getting the opportunity to volunteer are high. Because fashion month is a hectic moment for fashion brands, and they always need extra help. So they look for and are eager to receive spontaneous applications from volunteers and/or interns who will help them during fashion week. 

Read this article to learn more about how to get a job as a volunteer during fashion week.

Attend fashion shows open to the public

Although fashion weeks are rather elitist events, some brands try to make them a more inclusive experience. For instance, last year for its Spring-Summer collection 2023, Diesel invited 1,600 students from various colleges and fashion schools to attend the event for free. In total, there were 5,000 attendees — 3,000 of whom were members of the public, which is a big move. 

Another way to attend fashion shows of some brands is by purchasing tickets. I insist on the word “some” as many fashion shows are by invitation only. So sometimes even money can’t buy you an entrance to see shows of the biggest brands. However, you can find paid events open to the public online. For example, The Vogue World event last September was a runway show open to the public. And though tickets were quite expensive, everyone who wanted and could afford was able to attend it. So there is a way to attend fashion shows if you are willing to pay for the experience. 

But perhaps an easier way to see a fashion show may be to see if there are any emerging and/or small labels staging a runway. While it’s difficult to sneak in a show of a top luxury fashion brand, chances are higher of doing so at emerging and/or small labels. Some of them are open to the public because they need more visibility compared to big brands. And they usually receive fewer guests among the press, editors, buyers, influencers, and so on, which is another reason why they are more open to the public. You can find opportunities online by googling “events open to the public at NYFW”, let’s say. Or any city that hosts fashion week, or by following emerging brands on social media to stay aware of these events. 

Try to find a standing spot at the show

Some fashion brands have dedicated “standing” spots for invitees so they can watch a fashion show standing next to photographers, for example. If you are lucky enough and one of the guests who have a reserved sitting spot didn’t make it to the show, you could be offered to replace them. It’s not good for brands to have half-empty rooms. So they will come up with solutions to fill it in case some of the guests are missing, so it’s worth trying. Also, some brands may want to create a crowdy atmosphere on purpose, so they can let people from the outside in even if all the guests are there. 

You can never predict whether you will be lucky enough to sneak in. So if you are feeling motivated, you have to try to go outside each show to see if there is any standing spot available. Another tip that could help you is to look at the fashion week calendar to see if there are two big shows planned one after another. Some guests will prefer, at the last moment, to skip a show not to miss the one after. Which can leave empty chairs, which means you may be offered a chance to attend the show. 

Watch fashion shows online 

Finally, if you are unable to attend the physical event, you can always watch the best fashion shows on the brands’ website or social media. It’s not the same, but it’s free, and it will allow you to discover the collections by other means than by simply looking at the photographs in the magazines. 

Now you know all the different possibilities offered to you if you want to attend a fashion show. It can be a part of your job, but you can also create opportunities to see a fashion show even if you don’t belong to this industry and don’t know anyone. If this is your dream, we hope you will be able to experience it! Follow me on Instagram for more updates.