A Look Backstage

One of the best parts about fashion month, aside from all the collections, is all the backstage videos we get to see. I personally think the chaos backstage with all the models, dressers, hairdressers, makeup artists and photographers is so interesting. It's amazing to me that from all that insanity emerges a tight, calm, controlled presentation of clothes down the runway. Anyway, we haven't even hit Paris yet, but backstage videos are starting to emerge.

In this one from Derek Lam, you can see Freja from roughly 0:45 to 0:55 talking to Magdalena and Eniko, being quite expressive with her gestures. Nice to see the girls have remained on friendly terms after shooting this editorial together. It was rather intimate so I imagine they got to know each other quite well.

As the shows eventually come to a close next week, at least we'll have more backstage videos like this to look forward to.

More New York Candids

Thanks to Megan, the blogger and owner of dariaw.onsugar.com, we have a few more candid shots of Freja in New York after the Derek Lam show. Megan had quite the New York fashion week experience. Not only was she lucky enough to meet the person she blogs about, she was also lucky enough to catch Freja coming out of the Bryant Park tents. Check out her shots (click through for HQs):

You can read about her experience here and see who else she photographed at the tents. Megan told me she didn't get to talk to Freja - she just admired her from afar. I don't know how you were able to contain yourself and maintain your distance. If I were in your shoes, I would have been all up in Freja's face. :)

Anyway Megan can attest, and it should come as no surprise, that Freja is just as perfectly gorgeous in real life as all her pictures would have you believe. And apparently she has a small paparazzi following. ;) Like I've said before, Freja fans are everywhere and from all walks of life.

Thanks for sharing your pictures Megan! And as a fellow Daria fan, I have to say that I'm so glad you got to meet her! Maybe one day I'll be lucky enough to meet the person I blog about....

Image Credits: dariaw.onsugar.com

Dressing

Only marginally related to Freja, but I thought this was so interesting that I wanted to post about it. A blogger over at Vogue wrote about her experience backstage at Derek Lam, a show that Freja walked.

Sunday morning I get to the tents in Bryant Park at 10:00 a.m. sharp to go backstage at Derek Lam. When I get through the crush in hair and makeup, I reach the dressing area, where I encounter an army of dressers in black. They all work for Barbara Berman a professional dresser who’s doing 55 shows this season (she doesn’t say no to anyone unless there’s a scheduling conflict)—from Oscar de la Renta to Jason Wu to Joseph Altuzarra (she loves helping out the young ones). People travel from all over the world to work for Berman. Today there are fashion students, image consultants, stylists, and others, all looking for experience in the industry, and, says Barbara, “some New York cachet to bring back to their clients.”

Berman, who’s done fourteen New York fashion seasons, takes her job very seriously. All of her dressers have to sign confidentiality agreements: “No Twitters. No Facebook” (in this age of technology, someone with a camera could post photos of the clothes before they even get out on the runway). Plus, none of them are allowed to talk to the press—which I learned firsthand when I tried to ask them questions for this story. Some of Berman’s pros know different languages, and if she knows a model speaks, say, Portuguese, she’ll give her a dresser who does, too.

So it’s no surprise that all goes smoothly on the dressing end. “It’s my job to help the designer have a cool, calm backstage environment,” says Berman. Just as the lights are dimming in the tent, I dash out to watch the show and see Derek’s (and, in a way, Barbara’s) latest work.

Most of the time we're so preoccupied with models and designers that we forget about (or simply don't know about) all the other vital people who toil away behind the scenes. A person like Barbara is so integral to fashion week because without her the shows literally cannot go on. How do you think a model manages to change into 2 or 3 outfits within the span of 12 minutes when I know that it takes me at least 30 minutes to put on one outfit in the morning?

In all seriousness, I hope the spotlight is projected more often onto people like Barbara. I bet she's just full of interesting stories and privy to more gossip than anyone sitting front row. I have so much admiration for people like her who do their job year after year with little to no recognition. That type of dedication and passion deserves as much, if not more, respect than that which we bestow upon fashion's visible personalities.

Here are some old pictures of Freja dressing/being dressed for your time:

Image Credits: fashion_shows, hintmag, celebritycity

Look Into Her Eyes

Are you tired of looking at runway pictures yet? Maybe these polaroids will help break up the monotony. Anyway, happy Monday. Marc Jacobs tonight! Good chance Freja will be there. She hasn't missed a Marc show...ever.

Image Credits: wireimage