It’s the first official day of New York Fashion Week! Ekkk!! While most people are well-rested and prepared for a week without sleep and constant running around, we already hit that point about a week ago, so the next seven days are going to feel extra intense. The past few nights we’ve been working well past 1am, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to let up anytime soon. It’s amazing the amount of work that comes up last minute when preparing for these shows! This includes finding out we need pipe and drape (and that it’s not supplied by the show production team), waiting on the show sponsor delivery, organizing logistics with the hair and makeup team; the list goes on and on… Our main focus over the past few days has been our model fittings; we are almost finished, and everything is looking great. We couldn’t be happier with the product this season. I am so excited to show it to everyone! There is no doubt in my mind that this has been the best collection yet. The hardest part has been deciding which model should wear what. And because it is a runway show and each model has a change, we must decide the order of the garments not only based how they look, but also how much time the model will have to change in between her looks, which makes it a lot more difficult.

Photo: Courtsey of Althea

We also had our makeup test with OCC and the head makeup artist Katie Pellegrino and Rebecca Casciano. Rebecca will be heading the makeup backstage because Katie will be in LA since she’s been nominated for an Emmy. So amazing!! Katie is so talented; we gave her a description of what we were looking for with the makeup, and she came up with the most gorgeous look that I’ve ever seen! We wanted something that captured the downtown feel while also looking chic, sexy, and a bit beachy. And like a genius she was able to combine it all together for one stunning look.

Photo: Courtsey of Althea

Tonight I’m doing an event for Fashion’s Night Out with New York Moves Magazine for a bag I designed for them. Tomorrow I’m going to be working all day with Rowenta at Lincoln Center, going to the Project Runway fashion show, and then I’ll be at Rowenta’s booth in Lincoln Center assisting fashion show goers with iron-on designs I made for t-shirts. I drew up these really fun fashion sketches, and I love that people will be wearing them around on their t-shirts!

Rowenta is also giving away tickets to the Nicole Miller show and Cynthia Rowley show (you can learn more by visiting their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/RowentaUSA). Claro is giving away two tickets to my own fashion show. You can apply by going to @myclaro on Twitter, follow them and answer their trivia questions to register! I have written about Claro before and they have really been my go-to during fashion week for getting rid of blemishes that always come hand-in-hand with fashion week stress. Read all Althea’s posts here!