"well, it's fashion week"

I have not deserted you my lovely readers (those who i harass on social media to read these pieces). Whilst maintaining four design projects, I am yet again part of the magic of Fashion Week, and for the first time, Paris Fashion Week. The same feel of excitement and anticipation took over the city on Monday, as the bloggers set their aim on the streets of the 8th and 1st Arrondisement, as street photographers got out of their Uber's to the first backstage area of the first show of the season.. Paris Fashion Week is here. 

To those outside of the fashion hemisphere, it is merely a normal week, despite a few long limbed creatures being seen to stalk the streets with a pair of high heels in one hand an a black book entitled "storm models" in the other. But for us - us as in, the hungry fashion students, the illustrators, the "going to be someone"'s, the bloggers and street photographers, this is the one week in which we experience that buzz of excitement and happiness of the industry we have decided to embark upon. It is the one week in London, New York, Milan and Paris, where we happily see the like-minded individuals (friends in other words) that we know understand what we're going through - they also know the big pond/small fish analogy of the fashion industry. Fashion week. 

However, this season, I have seen a change in the industry, and have seen the world we work hard for, from a different view. There are two different types of fashion industry individuals - those who work in the industry, and spend seven days a week working towards an end goal, be it a midnight deadline, an opportunity to shoot backstage, the contract to work with a renowned company, the dream of presenting a collection to Anna Wintour. And I admire this group of people, I try my best to be one of them and I am grateful for any opportunity that is given to me that will allow me to progress. 

But there always remains the question of this week, the reality of it and the second group of people. This week is the one week that street style photographers are in their prime - but so are those that will wear the unwearable to have their photo taken and to get into fashion shows without a ticket or a name. There also remains the darker side of the idea of "Fashion Week" where it is a marketing technique for other industries, such as the nightlife industry, in which if you are not "someone" or a model, you cannot get into the "Fashion Week" nights. With Paris Fashion Week being established in 1973, under the French Fashion Federation, it's hard to believe that the originators saw the idea of showing the recent designers collections to press and buyers, as an almost circus for "everyone is anyone." 

No one is exempt from Fashion Week - everyone has the opportunity to be part of it, be it as dressers, as students wishing to write about it, as illustrators, as photographers, stylists, bloggers. But we need to remember the true magic of Fashion Week - the magic of the Fashion and the celebration of it. It should be for the love of the industry that makes that young girl at 15 years old say to her mum "I want to be a fashion designer". After all, it is the prime time to experience this industry. It's Fashion Week.